unknown good? and now ye cannot find it, ye would return back again. But some will say, there is an universal promise of grace; as for that we shall discourse of afterwards: but however, if there be an universal promise of grace, there is an universal sin, or there needs not an universal promise of grace; so if there be a universal promise of grace, the point must be granted; but the former is true, also the latter, Jer. iii. 15, Tit. i. 2.

Sixthly.

to seal pardon to his very foes; while they, with unrelenting cruelty, denied him (whose hand scooped out the bed of the ocean) a drop of water to allay his thirst, but gave him vinegar mixed with gall! he lifted up his languid eyes to Heaven, and every distorted feature demanded, whether his sufferings were not sufficiently poignant to obtain release for his enemies, while they, in the maddening triumph of momentary victory, exulted in his distress: he seems to have forgot his pain and ignominy in his concern for their welfare and at the very moment when the soul was going to take its flight from a body rendered untenable by its sufferings, it could not leave its former companion in misery, until it trembled out a prayer, in all the unfelt (to us) and indescribable ardor of a dying moment: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

Sixthly. If there was no law universal given from Adam to Moses, then the sin of Adam was imputed to all his posterity; for if the sin of Adam was not imputed, nor any law given, then all they that died in that time, went neither to Heaven nor Hell, for there could be no obedience nor disobedience without a law.

Seventhly. If there was no law there could be no transgression.

Eighthly. If there was no universal law given, there could be no guilt.

Ninthly.

Never was the testimony of an enemy more in point, never was the assertion of a foe felt in all the keenness of its misery, and sustained with such unshaken fortitude, by the sufferer, as at that period; when the enemy, with the devouring eloquence of the infernal pit, belched out this involuntary truth, "He saved others, himself he cannot save." True! he stood condemned for the sins of his people, and his death, however awful the circumstances attendant upon it, was not the result of any coercive power, but the voluntary act of him who came into the world to lay down his life for his sheep. His covenant engagement for his people, gave force irresistible to the sentence, and stamped saving dignity upon the charge, the eternal designation of Heaven, and the preparatory acts of God. Such as the formation of 1 2 a body,

Ninthly. There could be no death.

From all these premises I propound these questions or queries.

First. How Death came upon the old world? there was no law to break upon the city of Sodom and Gomorrah; there was no law, so consequently no sin.

Secondly. How Death came into the world? Thirdly. How infants die in the womb, or before they have acted sin ?

Fourthly.

a body, and the subjection of that body to every law which applied itself to man, form the most conspicuous proofs of Jehovah's love, while at the same instance he inflexibly maintains the dignity of his government unsullied, and the rights of his throne unalienated; he extends mercy to the guiltiest. Did God pronounce an awful sentence of death upon man in case of sin? Yes; in dying, thou shalt surely die, which death comprehends the absence of all good, and the existence of every evil; the sentence can never be repealed, it must either fall upon the sinner, or the surety in all its weight. The Saviour stands forth, and thus he graciously speaks; "Here am I, send me; I'll stand in their law-place. No advantages whatever could have arisen to us, from any other state-constitution of Christ, for the law required obedience in the nature that

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sinned.

Fourthly. How they shall be judged at the last day?

From all these unanswerable questions, I answer, that the sin of Adam was imputed to all his posterity. The doctrine is this; That as soon as Adam had eaten the forbidden fruit, all his posterity was judicially condemned: Rom. v. 18, Therefore, as by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. If the question be, how all could be condemned ?

the

sinned. Justice could sheathe its sword with saving consequence in no heart, but that which attempted to injure its rights. Such an High Priest therefore became us, who was holy, (set apart from eternity to his priestly office,) and in consequence of that designation, harmless, (in the adaptation of means, the best possible means to accomplish the design of his mission, or reveal its nature to his children, without committing any outrage upon the rights of another,) undefiled, free from sin, yet blackened with the imputed guilt of all his people. Awake thou sword, that awful sword that had lain silent in its scabbard. It was now to awake in all the tempest of its indignation; it passed over millions; they saw it not, for it was sheathed; but it passed over them, that the whole length of its blade might be buried in the shepherd's heart. Christ having restored the

I 3

the answer is plain, v. 19, For as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. The sentence was already past on him, and all his posterity. Rom. v. 12, Death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. For in whom, as our margin will allow, and though Death was not executed to the utmost, yet Death seizes upon them in their respective times and places. Let us consider the contents of this Death:First, Spiritual; Secondly, Corporal; Thirdly, Eternal.

the honors of that law in the nature that transgressed it, and having died under its curse, he becomes (and that justly) the author of eternal salvation to all that obey him. All the attributes of God are glorified, his truth substantiated, and. his mercy magnified: the release therefore of a christian is neither the effect of an unworthy compromise, nor a disgraceful flight, it is the regular result of eternal determinations, the legal consequences of their effect, the just reward of a suffering Saviour. "As for thee also, whose covenant is by blood, I have sent forth thy prisoners. out of the pit, wherein there is no water." Thy prisoners-perfectly correspondent with the argument that Jesus uses, in order to ascertain the right of the guilty to divine protection: "Thine they were, but thou gavest them me."

The de

sign of the gift was this redemption; the conse

1

quences