TIDE ETERNAL DURATION 0P [b1SC. Mir. course, in order to debate,this point here, would be tog tedious. Theéquity of this ,wise and awful constitution of God has been lately vindicated in a large treatise on the " Ruin and Recovery of Mankind," especially in the second edi- tion ofhat book. But it is enough for my present ar- gument to say, that Godhimself will make the equity of this constitution to appear with much more evidence and conviction in the last great day, when millions of actual criminals shall stand before the judgment-seat, who owe the first spring of their sin and ruin to our common parent, %and yet will fall under the righteous condemna- tion of the judge. Ans. 2. When God decreed to give thee a being, O sin- ner, and designed thee in his eternal ideas to be a man, placed among a thousand blessings of nature and provi- dence, it was then a favour of thy Creator ; for thou wert designed alsó in this original divine idea to have full suf- ficiency of power to become wise and happy. It was also a favour from thy Creator that hé took all these thy sufficienciesof power, and put them into the hand of one man, even the Father of thy race, because he was as Wise, and holy, and as well able as any man of his pos- terity could be, to preserve his station in the favour of God, and to secure thy happiness together with his own ; and he had much stronger obligations to obey his Maker, and more powerful motives to secure thy happiness than thou thyself, 'or any single man could possibly have, be- cause he was intrusted with the felicityof so many mil- lions ofhis own dear offspring as well as his own. Now though Adam, thy first father, being thus furnished with sufficiencies of power, and with the strongest obligations to preserve himself and thee, has actually sinned and ruined himself and his offspring; this is indeed an unhappy truth ; but the great God is not to blame, who has not only acted wisely but kindly towards his crea- tures in this constitution, because, so far as we can judge, it was much more probable that Adam would have maintained his innocence and his happiness, together with that of his offspring. Again, When the race ofman was ruined, and God saw that every man would come into the world under unhappy çircu mstances of guilt apd; corruption of nature, he pro-
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