these Cherubims give way, and unto as many as enter by Him, who calls himself the door. So that though we do not ascribe any of Adam's guilt to men, until they make it theirs by the like acts of disobedience,* yet we cannot suppose that Men, who are come of Adam naturally, can have any good thing in their nature, as belonging to it; which he from whom they derive their nature, had not himself to communicate unto them.

If then we may affirm, that Adam did not retain in his nature (as belonging thereunto) any will or light capable to give him knowledge in spiritual things, then neither can his posterity: For whatsoever real good any man doth, it proceedeth not from his nature, as he is Man, or the son of Adam; but from the seed of God in him, as a new visitation of life, in order to bring him out of the natural condition: So that, though it be in him, yet it is not of him; and this the Lord himself witnessed, Gen. vi. 5, where it is said, he saw that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually:" Which words as they are very positive, so are they very comprehensive. Observe the emphasis of them; first, there is every imagination of the thoughts of his heart; so that this admits of no exception of any imagination of the thoughts of his heart. Secondly, Is only evil continually it is neither in some

* What can be more positive than the words of Ezekiel xviii. 20, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father," and if not of his immediate father, far less shall he bear the iniquity of Adam. In Psal. li. 5, the iniquity and sin here spoken of is more attributable to the parent than to the child. It is said, indeed, " in sin did my mother conceive me"not, my mother did conceive me a sinner.

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part evil continually, nor yet only evil at some times; but both only evil, and always and continually evil; which certainly excludes any good, as a proper effect of man's heart, naturally: For that which is evil only, and that always, cannot of its own nature produce any good thing. The Lord expressed this again a little after, Chap. viii. 21. "The imagination of Man's heart is evil from his youth" thus inferring how natural it is unto him; and it also appears clearly from the saying of the Prophet Jeremiah, Chap. xvii. 9. "The heart is deecitful above all things and desperately wicked." For who can with any colour of reason imagine, that that which is so, hath any power of itself, or is any way fit to lead a man to righteousness, whereunto it is of its own nature directly opposite? This is as contrary to reason, as it is impossible in nature, that a stone, of its own nature and and proper motion, should fly upwards: For as a stone of its own nature inclineth and is prone to move downwards towards the centre, so the heart of man is naturally prone and inclined to evil.

But the Apostle Paul describeth the condition of men in the fall at large, taking it out of the Psalmist. "There is none righteous, no not one; there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are altogether become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre, with their tongues they have used deceit, the poison of asps is under their lips: whose mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed A 2

blood; destruction and misery are in their ways: and the way of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.*" "What more positive can be spoken? He seemeth to be particularly careful to avoid that any good should be ascribed to the natural Man; he shews how he is polluted in all his ways; he shews how he is void of righteousness of understanding, of the knowledge of God; how he is out of the way, and in short unprofitable; than which nothing can be more fully said to confirm our judgment: for if this be the condition of the natural man, or of man as he stands in the Fall, he is unfit to make one right step to heaven.

If it be said, that this is not spoken of the condition of man in general, but only of some particulars, or at the least that it comprehends not all.

The text sheweth the clear contrary in the foregoing verses, where the Apostle takes in himself, as he stood in his natural condition. "What then? Are we better than they? No, in no wise; for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin, as it is written :" and so he goes on; by which it is manifest that he speaks of mankind in general.

If they object that which the same apostle saith in the foregoing chapter, ver. 14, to wit, "That the Gentiles do by nature the things contained in the law,"

*When divine Grace is stifled in the heart of man, what animal in all Creation is nearly so savage, so barbarous and so cruel as he, not only to the brute Creation, but even to his own species? What engines of torment and of torture he has invented where with to distress his fellow creatures, and even this often under the pretence of Religion!

and so consequently do by nature that which is good and acceptable in the sight of God.

I answer, this nature must not, neither can be understood of man's own nature, which is corrupt and fallen; but of the spiritual nature, which proceedeth from the seed of God in man, as it receiveth a new visitation of God's love, and is quickened by it: which clearly appears by the following words, where he saith, "These not having a law, (i. e. outwardly,) are a law unto themselves; which shews the work of the law written in their hearts." These acts of their's, then, are an effect of the law written in their hearts; but the Scripture declareth, that the writing of the law in the heart is a part, yea, and a great part too, of the new covenant dispensation, and so no consequence or part of man's nature.

Secondly, if this nature here spoken of could be understood of man's own nature, which he hath as he is a man, then would the apostle unavoidably contradict himself; since he elsewhere positively declares, that "the natural man discerneth not the things of God, nor can." Now I hope the law of God is among the things of God, especially as it is written in the heart. The apostle, in the 7th chapter of the same Epistle, saith, ver. 12, that "the law is holy, just, and good"; and ver. 14, "the law is spiritual, but he is carnal." Now in what respect is he carnal, but as he stands in the Fall unregenerate? Now what inconsistency would here be, to say, that he is carnal, and yet not so of his own nature, seeing it is from his own

nature that he is so denominated? We see the apostle contra-distinguisheth the law as spiritual, from man's nature as carnal and sinful. Wherefore, as Christ saith, "there can no grapes be expected from thorns, nor figs of thistles ;" so neither can the fulfilling of the law, which is spiritual, holy, and just, be expected from that nature which is corrupt, fallen, and unregenerate. Whence we conclude, with good reason, that the nature here spoken of, by which the Gentiles are said to have done the things contained in the law, is not the common nature of men, but that spiritual nature which ariseth from the works of the righteous and spiritual law that is written in the heart.

FROM W. PENN.

HAPPY had it been for Adam and his posterity, had he obeyed God's commands; but transgression, by disobedience, getting entrance, he soon died to that innocent state in which God created him. In which fallen state all nations have been, and are, (let their professions seem never so great, and their sacrifices never so many,) that live in the disobedient nature, and so strangers to that immortality and life eternal, the first Adam became dead to, by his transgression, and which the second Adam raises to the knowledge and possession of, by the power of his quickening spirit. Thus it was, that the sacrifice of Cain was rejected of God, because offered in the fallen, unrighteous, and accursed nature.