SIN. 



occalions ; and our lirft parents, after their tranfgrefliGn, 

 receired fuch deep traces in the brain, by the impreffion of 

 fenfible objefts, that it was very poffible they might com- 

 municate them to their children. 



Now, as it is necellary, according to the order eftabhfhed 

 by nature, that the thoughts of the foul be conformable to 

 the traces in the brain ; it may be faid, that as foon as we 

 are formed in the womb, we are infefted with the corruption 

 of our parents : fur having traces in the brain like thofe of 

 the perfons who gave us being, it is neceffary v/e have the 

 fame thoughts, and the fame inclinations, with regard to 

 fenfible objefts. Thus, of courfe, we mult be born with 

 concupifcence and original fin. With concupifcence, if 

 that be nothing but the natural effort the traces of the 

 brain make on the mind to attach it to fenfible things ; and 

 with original fin, if that be nothing but the prevalency 

 of concupifcence ; nothing, in reality, but thefe effects con- 

 Cdered as viftorious, and as mafters of the mind and heart 

 of the child. 



Imputed original fill denotes that guilt or obligation to 

 puniftiment, to which all the pollerity of Adam are fubjeft, 

 by the imputation of his tranfgreflion. This is called the 

 guilt of Adam's firll fia, in which the finfulnefs of that 

 Itate into which man fell is faid partly to confift ; and it is 

 denominated or/f/«a/ fin, in order to dillinguifh it from aflual 

 fin, or perional guilt. This doftvine of imputed guilt has 

 been explained and vindicated by fuppofing a covenant made 

 with Adam, (called by divines the " covenant of works," 

 fee Covenant,) as a public perfon, not for hiinlclf only, 

 but for his polterity, in confequcnce of which he became 

 the federal head, furety, or reprefentative of all mankind ; 

 and they defcending from him by ordinary generation, finned 

 in him, and fell with him, in his firft tranfgreflion. It has 

 been debated, how far the imputation of Adam's fin reaches : 

 fome have maintained, that it extends to final condemnation, 

 and eternal milery : others have fuggelted, that the fin of 

 Adam has fubjefted his pofterity to an utter extinftion of 

 being ; fo that all, who die in their infancy, fall into a ilate 

 of annihilation, excepting thofe who are the feed of God's 

 people, who, by virtue of the blellings of the covenant made 

 with Abraham, and the promife to the feed of the righte- 

 ous, (hall, through the grace and power of Chrift, obtain 

 a part in a happy refurreftion, in which other infants fhall 

 have no fhare. 



It feems bed to acknowledge, fays Dr. Doddridge, that 

 we know nothing certain concerning tlie ilate of infants, 

 and therefore can adert nothing pofitively ; but that they 

 are in the hands of a merciful God, who, as he cannot con- 

 fiftently with juftice and truth give them a fenfe of guilt 

 for an aftion they never committed, fo probably will not 

 hold their fouls in being merely tc make them fenfible of 

 pain for the guilt of a remote anceltor, their exiftence in a 

 Itate of everlafting infenfibility (which was Dr. Ridgley'i 

 fcheme) feems hardly intelligible ; we muft. therefore, either 

 fall in with the above-mentioned hypothefis, or fuppofe 

 them all to have a part in the relurrettion to glory, which 

 feems to put them all on a level, without a due dilfinftion 

 in favour of the feed of behevers ; or elfe muft fuppofe they 

 go through fome new Hate of trial, concerning which the 

 Scripture is wholly filent. 



Such is the doftrine of original fin, both inherent and im- 

 puted, as fome divines, eminent as Tcholars and theologians, 

 have Itated it. In proof of the degeneracy or depravity of 

 human nature, they have appealed to obfervation and ex- 

 perience, and they have referred to a variety of texts of 

 fcripture, in which, according to their ideas of them, it is 

 either implied er expreffed. To thofe who objefi, that the 



phenomenon of univerfal corruption in adult perfons may 

 be accounted for by imitation, and to want of early inftruc- 

 tion, reltraint, and difciphne, they reply, that the fcrip- 

 tures feem to trace it to a higher fource, and that children 

 often manifeft propenfities towards thofe vices of which 

 they have feen no examples ; to which it is added, that 

 there are many examples of eminent virtue in the world, and 

 yet they are not fo frequently, or fo eafily imitated, as thofe 

 of a vicious nature, which plainly (hews a bias on the mind 

 towards vice. Hence they fay, Pagans themfelves, who 

 have been molt diftinguifhed by \heir iludy of human nature, 

 have acknowledged, in itrong terms, an inward depravation 

 and corruption adding a difproportionate force to evil ex- 

 amples, and rendering the mind averfe to good. Thofe 

 who maintain, that the fin of Adam is imputed to all who 

 defcended from him in the way of ordinary generation, 

 allege, in proof of this opinion, that we are all born with fuch 

 conllitutions as will produce fome evil inclinations, which 

 we probably (hould not have had in our original ftate ; 

 which evil inclinations are reprefented in fcripture as derived 

 from our parents, and therefore may be ultimately traced 

 up to the firlt finful parents from whom we deicended ; 

 — that infants are plainly liable to difeafes and death, though 

 they have not committed any perfonal tranfgreflion, which, 

 while they cannot know the law, it feems imp')flible they 

 (hould be capable of, (Rom. v. 12 — 14.) ; — that the feeds 

 of difeafes and death were undoubtedly derived to children 

 from their immediate parents, and from them may be traced 

 up to the firll difeafed and mortal parent, i. e. Adam ; — 

 that the fcripture teaches us to confider Adam as having 

 brought a fentcnce of death upon his whole race, and ex- 

 prefsly fays, that many were conjlitutedfumers, i. e. on ac- 

 count of it are treated as fuch, (i Cor. xv. 22. Rom. v. 

 12 — 19) ; — that the fin of Adam brought upon himfelf de- 

 praved inchnations, an impaired conltitutioii, and at length 

 death : — and there is no reafon to behcve, that if man had 

 continued in a ftate of innocence, his offspring would have 

 been thus corrupt, and thus calamitous from their birth. 

 Hence, it has been inferred, that the covenant was made 

 with Adam, not only for himfelf, but in fome meafure for 

 his pofterity ; fo that he was to be confidered as the great 

 head and reprefentative of all that were to defceud from 

 him. 



On the other hand, many divines, no lefs eminent as 

 fcholars and theologians, than thofe whofe fentiments we 

 have already itated, have difputed the vahdity of the argu- 

 ments alleged in proof of the doftrine of original (in ; 

 and whilft fome of them have difowned the doctrine in toto, 

 as irrational and unfcriptural, others have allowed that part 

 of it which comprehends the depravity of the human 

 fpecies, but have rejected the imputation of Adam's fin to 

 his pofterity. Accordingly Limborch, rejecting and refut- 

 ing the imputation of Adam's fin, acknowledges, that men 

 are now born lefs pure than Adam was created, and with a 

 certain inclination to fin ; but this inclination cannot pro- 

 perly be called fin, or a habit of fin propagated to them from 

 Adam ; but merely an inclination to efteem and purfue 

 what is agreeable to the fle(h, arifing from the bodily con- 

 ilitution tranfmitted to them by their parents. Inclinations 

 and appetites of this kind, being moit agreeable to the 

 fle(h, are contrary to the divine will, as God by prohibit- 

 ing them tries the readinefs of our obedience, and of courfe 

 thefe inchnations are inchnations to fin. But, if it be a/ked, 

 fays this author, whether there be in human nature a cer- 

 tain original corruption or habit of fin propagated from 

 Adam to his pofterity, which may truly and properly be 

 called fin, by which the underftanding, and will, and all the 



affedtions 



