have consented to such a constitution, as being well adapted to the general good. (So men are wont to do when their estates lie at stake, or their lives; if they think that an attorney is likely to manage the case for them better than they can for themselves, they will choose him, and venture the case with him, rather than with themselves.) So that the only question is, whether God had, in so unexceptionable a case, full power and rightful authority to constitute Adam a public head, to stand as a moral representative for all his race, and act in their behalf, so that they should stand or fall with him. Or, in other words, (for it all comes to the same thing,) whether, in any case whatsoever, God has full power and rightful authority to appoint one to stand and act in the room of another, so as to lay a foundation for the conduct of the one to be so imputed to the other, as that both shall stand and fall together. And so it is as much of a question, whether God had power and authority to constitute the second Adam a public head as the first. If God had not full power and rightful authority to appoint the first Adam to be our public head and moral representative, to stand and act in our behalf, so as to lay a foundation for his conduct to be so imputed to us, as that we should stand and fall with him, then he had not full power and rightful authority to appoint the second Adam to be a public head, and moral representative, to stand and act in the room of a guilty world, so as to lay a foundation for his righteousness to be so imputed to them that believe in him, as that they should be justified and saved through it. For, if God has not power to constitute one to stand and act in the room of another, in any case whatsoever; and if, on this footing, we say he had not power to appoint the first Adam, it is plain that, on the same footing, he had no power to appoint the second. I suppose it will be readily granted, that if God has power, in any case whatsoever, to constitute one to stand and act in the room of another, in the manner aforesaid, then he had in these two instances of Adam and Christ, which are doubtless, on all accounts, in themselves, most unexceptionable. But if God, in no case whatsoever, has power to appoint one thus to stand and act in the room of another, then both these constitutions are effectually undermined, and rendered

null and void. We can neither be guilty of Adam's first sin, so as justly to be exposed to condemnation and ruin therefor; nor can the righteousness of Christ be so imputed to us, as to entitle us to justification and life. One man's disobedience cannot constitute many to be sinners, nor the obedience of one constitute many to be righteous. We can neither be ruined by the first Adam, nor redeemed by the second. Under the Jewish dispensation, it was ordained, (Lev. xvi.) that Aaron should lay both his hands upon the head of the live-goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. And, (says God,) the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities, unto a. land not inhabited. We used to think this scape-goat was designed by God to typify Christ. And the scripture has taught us, in express language, that the iniquities of us all were laid on him; that he bore our sins; that he was made a curse for us; that by his obedience many are made righteous. Isai. liii. 6. Pet. ii. 24. Gal. iii. 13. Rom. v. 19. But if God has not authority to constitute one to stand and act in the room of another, this must all be void and of none effect. And thus, while men are disputing against the original constitution with Adam, they, unawares, undermine this second constitution, which is the foundation of all our hopes. Eager to avoid Adam's first sin, whereby comes condemnation, they render of none effect Christ's righteousness, whereby comes justification. And if Christ did not stand and act as a public person; if our sins were not laid upon him; if he did not bare them on the tree; if he was not made a curse for us, and if we are not to be pardoned through his atonement, and justified through his righteousness, then the gospel is all a fable, and the whole scheme of our salvation, therein revealed, is wholly overthrown. What remains, therefore, but deism and infidelity? But inasmuch as we have full evidence to the truth of the Christian revelation, and may be assured that it is from God, we may, therefore, be confirmed in it that Jesus Christ has been, by God, the great Governor of the world, appointed a public person, to stand and act; to obey and suffer in our room, that, through his obedience

and sufferings, we might have pardon and eternal life. And, from this fact, we may be assured, that God has full power and rightful authority to constitute one to stand and act in the room of another: and, if he has such authority, nothing hinders but that he might constitute Adam to be our public head, as has been said.

Besides, if we consider the nature of the thing itself, it is plain that God had power to constitute Adam our public head; for God, as moral governor of the world, and sovereign Lord of all things, has power to make any constitution whatsoever, which does, in its own nature, agree to the eternal fitness of things, or, in other words, which is agreeable to his own perfections. But all will grant, that constitution is agreeable to his own perfections, which, in its own nature, is suited to the glory of God and good of the creatures. Now this constitution with Adam was, in its own nature, suited to the general good of mankind, because the welfare of mankind was, in the nature of the thing, safer and better secured upon such a footing, than if every single child of Adam had been left in a state of pure nature, without any constitution at all, or than if they had every one been put to act singly for himself; as has been before proved. And it was well suited to the glory of God, because in that constitution, considered in its own nature, God eminently appeared to be what he was. For in it he appeared as the MOST HIGH GOD; the SUPREME LORD, and SOVEREIGN GOVERNOR of the whole world; for in it he acted as sovereign Lord of his creatures, as being, by nature, God, and as having an absolute right to and authority over the works of his hands. And when God acts so, as by his conduct to show what he is, then are his doings suited to his own glory; for nothing is more to his glory, than to appear to be what he is. And inasmuch as the constitution itself was well suited to the general good of mankind, God did, in making of it, act a kind and tender part towards the human race, to the honour and glory of his goodness. And while eternal life was promised to perfect obedience, and eternal death threatened to disobedience, God's infinite love to virtue, and infinite hatred of vice, were manifested, to the glory of his holiness and justice. Since, then, that constitution was

thus, in its own nature, suited to our good and God's glory, there is no doubt but the sovereign Lord and Governor of all things had full power and rightful authority so to appoint: for, in so doing, he would act agreeably to his own perfections, and the eternal fitness of things.

BUT TO CONCLUDE. We may be abundantly satisfied, not only from the nature of the thing, but also from what God has in fact done, that that constitution was holy, just, and good, and that he had full power, and rightful authority to do as he did, because otherwise he would never have done so; he would never have made such a constitution. It is plain and evident, from facts, that Adam was considered and dealt with under the capacity of a public head, and that death natural, spiritual, and eternal, were included in the threatening; for all his posterity are evidently dealt with just as if that had been the case. They are born spiritually dead, as has been proved in the former discourse. They are evidently liable to natural death, as soon as they are born. And if they die and go into eternity with their native temper, they must necessarily be miserable in being what they are, unlike to God, and incapable of the enjoyment of him, and contrary to him. And God must necessarily look upon them with everlasting abhorrence; for he cannot but abhor creatures whose tempers are contrary to him: so that here is eternal death; and all in consequence of Adam's first sin.

Now then, if indeed we are, in fact, dealt with just as we should have been, had Adam been our public head, there can surely need no further evidence to prove that this was the case; for the judge of all the earth cannot but do right : and, therefore, he would not deal with us as being guilty of Adam's first sin, were not Adam our representative. But had Adam been our representative, and his first sin imputed to us, yet then we should have been dealt with no otherwise than now we are; i. e. on supposition of the interposition of a mediator, as is now the case for that we are now born into the world subject to natural death, none can deny, and this by virtue of Adam's first sin; and if we are really spiritually dead too, and so exposed to eternal death, it is just what might have been expected, had Adam stood for us; and so there is no more to be said. And if God

be such a Being, as I suppose he is, and the law such, and the nature of true holiness such, then, as has been shown in the first discourse, there is no doubt we are, natively, spiritually dead. So that the force of this argument depends upon the truth of those first principles, which I think have been sufficiently proved. Right apprehensions of the moral law will, at once, convince us of our inherent natural corruption, and make us feel that we are fallen creatures.

REMARK. Perhaps this is the consideration which most commonly first leads poor sinners to see that they do actually lie under the guilt of Adam's first sin; and that their ruin thence took its rise, viz. their finding, by experience, when the spirit of God brings home the law, and awakens conscience, that they are, by nature, dead in trespasses and sins; for now no conclusion can be more natural than that they are, by nature, children of wrath. And this will naturally lead them to inquire, Whence this has come to pass? and they will presently find the scripture express and plain in it, that by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners; and by the offence of one, judgment eame upon all to condemnation: and their own experience will give them the most natural comment upon the words, while they feel themselves to be, by nature, dead in sin, and exposed to eternal ruin. But now, "How could I justly have all this come upon me for Adam's first sin?" will naturally be the next thought. And an awakened conscience will perhaps first of all, reply, "How it is just and right I cannot tell, but I am certain so it is, that I am, by nature, dead in sin, and, by nature, a child of wrath; this I see and feel. And the scripture says, that, by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners ; and that, for the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. And God's ways must be righteous, for the Judge of all the earth always does right. And if I do finally perish, I have nothing to say; for I have gone in Adam's steps: I have been voluntary in my rebellion against God all my life, and am at heart an enemy to him still, and that voluntarily so." And this may in a measure, silence such a poor sinner for the present. But if ever he comes to be reconciled to the divine nature, and then impartially to look into the original constitution, he may then see that it was, in its own nature, holy,