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yet both itself, and all the motions thereof, are truly and properly sin.12

12 Rom. vii. 5. 7, 8, 25. Gal. v. 17.

EXPOSITION.

This section teaches us, that corruption of nature remains in those that are regenerated, and is commensurate with this life. This condemns the tenet of Christian perfection; and it is supported by the plainest declarations of Scripture. "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." 1 John i. 8. Paul himself says, "Sin dwelleth in me," and affirms, that "when he would do good, evil is present with him." Rom. vii. 17-21. It has, indeed, been disputed, whether Paul, in that chapter, describes his own feelings, or personates another. We have no doubt that Paul speaks of himself as regenerated, and describes his own state, and consequently the state of every regenerated person; but we do not rest the doctrine upon this single passage, for the conflict there described is represented in other places in language which, by common consent, can only be applied to true Christians. We shall only refer to Gal. v. 17: "The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do things that ye would."

This section also affirms that, even in the regenerated, this corruption, and all the motions thereof, are truly and properly sin. The guilt of it is, no doubt, removed by the blood of Christ, and the power of it subdued by his Spirit and grace; but, in itself, it retains the character of sin. This is affirmed in opposition to a tenet of the Church of Rome. That universal propensity to sin, which we call the corruption of nature, Roman Catholic writers denominate concupiscence; and this, they maintain, is no part of original sin, and is not in itself sinful. As they believe that original sin is taken away by baptism, and nevertheless find that this corrupt disposition remains in the regenerated, they conclude that it is no part of original sin, but that it is the natural state in which Adam was made at first; only, that in us it is without the restraint of supernatural assistance which was given to him, and which, in consequence of his transgression, was withdrawn from him and his posterity. In answer to this,

it is argued that lust or concupiscence is, in several places of the New Testament, spoken of as sin; particularly in Rom, vii. 7, Paul declares that " he had not known sin but by the law;" he then gives an instance of this-" he had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet." Here he expressly asserts that lust is sin.*

SECTION VI.-Every sin, both original and actual, being a transgression of the righteous law of God, and contrary thereunto,13 doth in its own nature, bring guilt upon the sinner," whereby he is bound over to the wrath of God,15 and curse of the law,16 and so made subject to death,17 with all miseries spiritual,18 temporal,19 and eternal.20

13 1 John iii. 4.

14 Rom. ii 15; iii. 9, 19.

* Eph. ii. 3.

16 Gal. iii. 10.

17 Rom. vi. 23.
19 Rom. viii. 20.
20 Matt. xxv. 41.

18 Eph. iv. 18. Lam. iii. 39. 2 Thess. i. 9.

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EXPOSITION.

This section relates to the desert of sin. Being a transgression of the law of God, it must, in its own nature, bring guilt upon the sinner, or render him liable to punishment. It exposes him to the wrath of God, for "the children of disobedience" are also “children of wrath,” i. e., they deserve and are obnoxious to the wrath of God. It subjects him to the curse of the law, by which we may understand the condemnatory sentence of the broken law, which binds over the guilty sinner to all the direful effects of the wrath of God. It likewise subjects him to death, or the dissolution of the mysterious union between the soul and the body. Pelagians and Socinians hold that death is not the punishment of sin; that Adam was mortal from the beginning; and for this reason, those who are born of him must also be mortal. Others, again, both in former and later times, have held that temporal death was the only penalty threatened to Adam, and that this is the only death which results from his sin. Both these opinions are so plainly contradictory to the express declarations of the word of God, that they are unworthy of serious refutation. In addition to this, our Confession states, that sin exposes the sinner to numerous miseries, both

* Burnet on the Thirty-Nine Articles, Art. 9. Hill's Lectures on Divinity, vol. ii. p. 16.

in this life, and in that which is to come. Among the spiritual or inward miseries to which it renders the sinner liable in this world, the compilers of our Confession elsewhere mention "blindness of mind, a reprobate sense, strong delusions, hardness of heart, horror of conscience, and vile affections;" and among the temporal or outward miseries, they mention "the curse of God upon the creatures for our sakes, and all other evils that befal us in our bodies, names, relations, and employments." And the miseries to which sin exposes in the world to come, they sum up in "everlasting separation from the comfortable presence of God, and most grievous torments in soul and body, without intermission, in hell-fire for ever."+

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When we reflect on the loss which Adam sustained by his fall, and on the guilty and corrupted state in which we are thereby involved, and on the manifold miseries to which we are liable, both here and hereafter, let us be deeply impressed with a sense of the dreadful malignity and demerit of sin, the source of all our wo. Let us not dare to repine against God, or to impeach his goodness or equity, for permitting sin to enter into the world, and making us responsible for the transgression of the first Adam; but rather let us admire the divine wisdom and grace displayed in provi ding the second Adam, by whose obedience we may be made righteous, as by the disobedience of the first we were made sinners. Let us cordially receive the Lord Jesus Christ, that, being found in him, we may not only be acquitted from the guilt of the first man's transgression, but may be brought, through "the abundance of grace, and of the gift of righteousness, to reign in life by one," even by Jesus Christ, our Lord.

CHAPTER VII.

OF GOD'S COVENANT WITH MAN.

SECTION I. The distance between God and the creature is so great, that although reasonable crea* The Larger Catechism, Quest. 28. + Ibid., Quest. 29.

tures do owe obedience unto him as their Creator, yet they could never have any fruition of him as their blessedness and reward, but by some voluntary condescension on God's part, which he hath been pleased to express by way of covenant.1

SECTION II.-The first covenant made with man was a covenant of works,2 wherein life was promised to Adam, and in him to his posterity,3 upon condition of perfect and personal obedience.*

1 Isa. xl. 13-17. Job ix. 32, 33. 1 Sam. ii. 25. Ps. cxiii. 5. 6: c. 2, 3. Jub xxii. 2, 3; xxxv. 7, 8. Luke xvii. 10. Acts xvii. 24, 25.

2 Gal. iii. 12.

3 Rom. x. 5; v. 12-20.
4 Gen. ii. 17. Gal. iii. 10.

EXPOSITION,

Man is naturally and necessarily under a law to God. This results from the necessary and unalterable relation subsisting between God and man, as the one is the Creator, and the other his creature. God might, therefore, if he had pleased, have demanded all possible obedience of man, without making any promise securing his establishment in a state of innocence and enjoyment, and his advancement to a state of still higher felicity, as the reward of his obedience. And though man had gone through a long course of obedience, without a single failure, he could not have laid his Creator under any obligation to him, or been entitled to any recompense. But God graciously condescended to deal with man by way of covenant, and thus gave him an opportunity to secure his happiness by acquiring a right to it; a right founded upon stipulation, or upon the promise. "Man," says the celebrated Witsius, upon his accepting the covenant, and performing the condition, does acquire some right to demand of God the promise; for God has, by his promises, made himself a debtor to man; or, to speak in a manner more becoming God, he was pleased to make his performing his promises a debt due to himself, to his goodness, justice, and veracity. And to man, in covenant, and continuing steadfast to it, he granted the right of expecting and requiring that God should satisfy the demands of his goodness, justice, and truth, by the performance of the promises."*

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*Witsius on the Economy of the Covenants, book i., ch. 1. sect. 14.

A covenant is generally defined to be an agreement between two parties, on certain terms. In every covenant there must be two parties, and consequently two parts: a conditionary and a promissory; the one to be performed by the one party, and the other to be fulfilled by the other party. If either of the parties be fallible, a penalty is often added; but this is not essential to a covenant.

There are two important truths to which our attention is here directed. First, That God entered into a covenant with Adam, promising him life upon condition of his perfect and personal obedience. Secondly, That this covenant was made with Adam, not only for himself, but for all his natu ral posterity.

I. That God entered into a covenant with Adam in his state of innocence, appears from Gen. ii. 16, 17: "The Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." Here, indeed, there is no express mention of a covenant; but we find all the essential requisites of a proper covenant. In this transaction there are two parties; the Lord God on the one hand, and man on the other. There is a condition expressly stated, in the positive precept respecting the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which God was pleased to make the test of man's obedience. There is a penalty subjoined: "In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." There is also a promise, not distinctly expressed, but implied in the threatening; for, if death was to be the consequence of disobedience, it clearly follows that life was to be the reward of obedience. That a promise of life was annexed to man's obedience, may also be inferred from the description which Moses gives of the righteousness of the law: "The man that doeth these things shall live by them," Rom. x. 5; from our Lord's answer to the young man who inquired what he should do to inherit eternal life: "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments," Matt. xix. 17; and from the declaration of the apostle, that "the commandment was ordained to life." Rom. vii. 10. We are, therefore, warranted to call the transaction between God and Adam a covenant. We may even allege, for the use of this term, the language of Scripture. In Hos. vi. 7 (margin), we read, "They, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant." This necessarily

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