TESE POWERS AND CONTESTS OE FLESH'AND SPIïtIT. .333 these iniquities. And if this be called a different degree of original sin, I will not stand' now to contest the word, nor can I utterly deny the matter. But still it is abundantly evident also concerning every one ofus, who are sóns or daughters of Adam, how sin- ful or how holy soever our immediate parents were, that we bring vicious propensities enough with our flesh and blood into this world, that if we encourage and indulge them, and walk after the flesh, we shall soon be found sufficiently wicked here, and grow meet for a just con- demnation hereafter ; and this will be the case of the best constitution, unless a mighty change pass upon nature, by the power of renewing and sanctifying grace. All " that is born of the flesh is flesh, or sinful ; and except a man be born of water and the spirit, that is, regenerated by the Spirit of God, which is'typified by baptismal water, he cannot enter into the kingdom' of God ;" John iii. 3, 5, 6. Question V. Whether the same sin always carries equal guilt with it in different persons, who have the same advantage or the same degree of knowledge r Answer. It seems to be supposed in the question, that different means or different measures ofknowledge make the sinner more or less guilty in the sight of God ; and indeed our Saviour himself has determined that point beyond all dispute ; Mat. xi. '21, 22. Chorazin and Bethsaida having seen the miracles of Ch' -ist, and heard his doctrine, were much more culpable than Tyre and Sidon, whose great ignorance would render their 'case more tolerable 'in the day ofjudgment. But to answer this question, let it be considered that there are other things besides knowledge that make sins more or less heinous. The same crime committed under a small and single temptation, is much more culpable than when the temptations are many and strong; whether they be within us or without us. Now if a person of a sharp and fretful constitution, or whose natural juices of the flesh are, soured by long sickness and pain, should fall into frequent passions of sinful anger, notwithstand- ing all his laboùr and watchfulness against it, he is not quite so criminal in the sight of God as another, who has na such peevish and fretful springs of passion in his nature, neither by original constitution, nor by any
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