SECTION II.

The relation of deceased Infants to Adam, does not forbid our hopes.

Infants involved in the consequences of the fall;-hence, depraved and guilty. Depravity, a loss of the divine image, but not a disposition positively evil;-the occasion of actual transgressions, if life continue-but does not in itself subject to divine abhorrence. Guilt, or subjection to sufferings;-future punishment not inferable from present sufferings;-no evidence that God rejects one personally innocent;-sense of guilt, &c. necessary in future punishments,— which infants cannot have ;-perhaps punishment not an arbitrary infliction. On the whole, original sin not conclusive against the position.

some way be

SINCE death is the wages of sin, and infants are personally innocent, they must in implicated in the sin of another. And we are informed on infallible authority, that by virtue of the relation subsisting between the first man and his posterity, those "who have not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression," become involved in the consequences of his apostacy; and hence are subject to death. In vain has human ingenuity endeavoured to undermine this doctrine of divine revelation, or to substitute any hypothesis which could more satisfactorily account for the sufferings and mortality of beings personally innocent. The fact appears unquestionable, and

presents a very affecting, as well as to many, a very alarming view of the case under contemplation.

Though all who, on questions of divine truth, take the Scriptures for their infallible guide, receive in general this important doctrine, yet they entertain diversities of opinion, neither few nor of small moment, concerning the extent to which the consequences of Adam's first transgression are entailed on his posterity, and even concerning the precise import of "death" as the punishment incurred, according to the divine denunciation. It is not intended here to examine those opinions. And it is in general assumed, that what is commonly, though inadequately, termed original sin, includes both the moral and the natural consequences of our first parents' fall, that is, depravity and guilt. Yet this natural depravity and guilt, provided our views of them be regulated by certain previous considerations of undoubted verity, by no means impel us to the frightful conclusion, that any perish for ever, merely in consequence of their relation to Adam.

As has been formerly observed, it is no part of the present design to expound or advocate the truth of those doctrines, whence discouragements have arisen to anxious enquirers into the subject before us. But on the doctrine of human depravity, some illustrative remarks appear important, since the most formidable difficulties in our course, arise

1

from what are conceived to be misapprehensions respecting the nature of that moral degradation in which mankind are born.

It is held that the posterity of fallen Adam inherit a depraved nature, are spiritually dead, "being alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their hearts.*" While the body is depraved, by a destitution of original beauty, vigour, and aptitude for immortality, it is more important to observe, that the soul, that part of man which constitutes him a moral and accountable agent, is depraved by a destitution of the divine image, or that sovereign endowment by which our great progenitor possessed, from the first moment of consciousness till his fall, an intuitive perception of right, and an instinctive bias towards holiness.

Some persons, however, seduced perhaps by false or at best inadequate analogies, have entertained a notion, that natural and hereditary depravity, is a quality positively vicious, a tendency or disposition of the soul towards moral evil. Hence, the subject has been involved in endless perplexity; questions have arisen which admit of no satisfactory solution, and many individuals have been driven to scepticism in the very face of divine testimony. That human depravity will produce

* Eph. iv. 18.

с

personal transgression, wherever life continues till moral agency commences, appears to be unquestionable; but to conceive of original sin as including a positive propensity to moral evil, seems unwarranted by the Scriptures, unsupported by fact, and even a contradiction in terms; for a propensity to moral evil is obviously a personal transgression, which, according to such an hypothesis, is conceived of as committed by a being personally innocent, and even as yet incapable of moral agency. To all who reflect with awful reverence on the holiness of the divine character and operations, it must appear a revolting supposition, that the Father of spirits immediately produces accountable beings, with moral obliquity, or a positive tendency to sin.

Such, at least, is not the doctrine of human depravity, as maintained by very judicious divines. "God," says one,* "only creates the naked essence of our souls, our natural faculties, a power to think and will, and to love and hate; and this evil bent of our hearts is not of his making, but is the spontaneous propensity of our own wills. For we being born devoid of the divine image, ignorant of God, and insensible of his infinite glory, do of our own accord turn to ourselves, and the things of time and sense, and to any thing that suits a graceless

* Bellamy, True Religion delineated, p. 166, Edit. 1812.

heart, and there all our affections centre; from whence we natively become averse to God, and to all that which is spiritually good, and inclined to all sin. So that the positive corruption of our nature is not any thing created by God, but arises merely from a privative cause.'

In order," says another,* "to account for a sinful corruption of nature, yea, a total native depravity of the heart of man, there is not the least need of supposing any evil quality, infused, implanted, or wrought into the nature of man, by any positive cause or influence whatsoever, either from God or the creature; or of supposing, that man is conceived and born with a fountain of evil in his heart, such as is any thing properly positive." -As Adam's nature became corrupt, without God's implanting or infusing of any evil thing into it; so does the nature of his posterity. God dealing

with Adam as the head of his posterity, (as has been shewn,) and treating them as one, he deals with his posterity as having all sinned in him. And therefore as God withdrew spiritual communion, and his vital gracious influence from the common head, so he withholds the same from all the members, as they come into existence; whereby they come into the world mere flesh, and entirely under the government of natural and inferior principles; and so become wholly corrupt as Adam did."

* Edwards, Original Sin, Part IV. chap. 2.