which is not our Fault? Surely it is quite impoffible, and directly repugnant to the Nature of Things. For Nature cannot be morally corrupted, but by the Will, the depraved Choice of a moral Agent. Neither can any corrupt my Nature, or make me wicked, but I myself.

BUT fome have attempted to explain this intricate Affair. God, fay they, created every Man's Soul, feparate from his Body, in a State of spotlefs Purity, and then infufeth it into the Body, and uniteth them together, by virtue of which Union the Soul becometh polluted. But whence had these Men this Knowledge? Who feeth not that here they talk of Things beyond the Reach of all human Understanding.

THIS Scheme was contrived to falve the Abfurdity of God's being the Author of the Pollution of our Nature. But it will not do. For granting that God created the Soul fpotlefs, as no doubt he muft; who infufeth it into the Body? God. And if it is polluted by being infufed into the Body, who is the Author and Caufe of its Pollution? God. For he infufeth it into the Body.And if God createth the Soul, who createth the Body? Is it not the fame God and Father of us all, for ever to be loved, honoured and adored, who in much Goodness and Wisdom

createth

createth both our Souls and Bodies? Moft certainly. But he createth our Souls fpotless; how comes it then to pass that he createth our Bodies polluted; (for upon this Scheme it must be fuppofed that the Body is antecedently polluted; otherwife how could it pollute the Soul as foon as it enters into it?) Must not every Thing God createth be pure and fpotlefs as it comes out of his Hands? Whence then is it that our Bodies are polluted? That, fay they, is from Adam. Some defiling Quality or other is derived from Adam, which operates at the fame time God is creating, mingleth with his Work by his Permiffion, and polluteth the Thing he is forming. As if fome Power or other ftood by while he was planting the Vine, and fprinkled it with an infectious Liquor to poifon and corrupt its Juice, God being either not willing, or not able to hinder it. But this, I am perfuaded, is quite too grofs to be admitted.

-Once

more. How can the Body, especially in a State separate from the Soul, be at all polluted in a moral Senfe? The Body, it is evident, is unactive Matter, which in itself neither is nor can be the Subject of moral Good and Evil, any more than a Log of Wood, or a Mafs of Clay.

IN fhort, it is abfurd to fay, the Body is polluted feparate from the Soul. It is abfurd to fay an infectious Quality, or any thing

elfe,

elfe, is derived from Adam to every human Body, independent of the Will and Operation of God: And to fay, it is by his Will and Operation, is plainly to make him the Author of the Pollution.

OBJECT. IV. But it hath been often obJerved, that the Vices of Parents do infect the Blood of their Children, and communicate to them bodily Distempers, yea, and the Vices themselves; what Abfurdity then is it to admit, we derive a vicious Taint from Adam?

ANSW. Even vicious Parents do not always, in any Senfe, communicate Vice to their Children. For the Children of vicious Parents often prove virtuous, and of virtuous Parents vicious. Ezek. xviii. 5. If a man be juft, and do that which is lawful and right,Ver. 10. If this juft Man beget a fon that is a robber, and hedder of blood.-Ver. 14. Now lo, if this Robbǝr and Shedder of Blood, beget a fon that feeth all his father's fins, which be bath done, and confidereth, and doth not fuch like, &c.

BUT by Propagation it is not poffible Parents fhould communicate Vice; which is always the faulty Choice of a Perfon's own Will, otherwise it is not Vice. Indeed, the Blood and Spirits of the Child may be of the fame Temperature with thofe of the Parent: And

fa

fo a Man may poffibly have Paffions and Appetites of the fame Degree or Quality with thofe of his Progenitors. But this can truly be affigned to no other Caufe befides the Will of God, who wifely appoints to every Man his Conftitution, and all his other Trials, as he thinks fit.

BODILY Distempers too may be occafioned by the Vices of Parents. But this also is from the Will of God, favourably, as I take it, conftituting our Circumftances fo, as to leffen the Quantity of Sin, or however of Mischief, in the World. No Changes can happen in our Conftitution without either the Appointment, or immediate Operation of God. And this Change, I think, is manifeftly for the better. For when vicious Parents ruin their Conftitutions and Eftates by Luxury and Debauchery, a Stop is not only put to the Outrage of their own Iniquity, but alfo their diseased and lefs wealthy Pofterity, who may be inclined to follow their bad Examples, are difabled from running into the fame Degree of Excess and Violence. Whereas if Wickednefs fhould continue from Generation to Generation in the fame profperous, healthy State as among the long-liv'd, vigorous Antediluvians, the fame univerfal Corruption might prevail and quite ruin the World. Therefore, fo far as I can fee, this is to be regarded as a gracious

gracious Expedient to disable the Wicked, and to retrench the Exorbitancy of Vice.

OBJECT. V. Children begin very foon to fin; and bow can this be accounted for but upon the Scheme of Original Sin, namely, that it is iufufed into their Ñature?

BUT who fhall tell us how foon Children begin to fin? 'Tis plain, for fome time after their Entrance upon Life they are no moral Agents, having no Ufe, that we can perceive, of their rational Powers, and therefore, for that time, are quite uncapable of Sin. And 'tis by flow degrees they come to the Use of Understanding, the animal Paffions being for fome Years the governing Part of their Conftitution; and therefore though they may be froward, and apt to displease us, yet how far this is Sin in them, we are not capable of judging. But it may fuffice to fay, that it is the Will of God, that Children should have Appetites and Paffions to regulate and restrain; that he hath given Parents Inftructions and Commands to difcipline and inform their Minds that if Parents first learned true Wifdom for themselves, and then endeavoured to bring up their Children in the Way of Virtue, there would be lefs Wickedness in the World, and the Untractableness of Children lefs vifible, The wife Creator puts nothing into our Hands finished, as to its Use

and