SOZ RUIN AND RECOVERY, &C. becomes a part of the man as much as the breath of life, which is an extraneous 'substance borrowed from the air, or as the blood of the child; which is hourly made out of the foodof the mother. II. In this view of things, the soul of the infant is not to be considered or judged of as a single separate being, but as always in union with the infant's flesh and blood, and as making up a Compound creature of the human species, propagated titan the parents as effectually to all intents and purposes, as though the soul itself proceeded directly from generation as well as the body. If Adam had maintained his innocency, the universal and original law of propagation, would have been just the same as now it is ; and the soul had been brought into existence and union in the same manner, and would have kept its original and , native bias and inclination to holiness; for the animal body would then have promoted it rather than led it astray as now it does. And according to the first covenant, the soul of the child might have also hoped, or perhaps by prayer and dependence, have humbly claimed sanctifying influences, to preserve it from temp- tation and to keep it innocent. IV: IIDt since the soul, in the first moment of if being, be- longs to a human body deprived from the first man who sinned, and that according to the rules or haws of creation and provi- dence, it becomes hereby a son or a daughter of fallen man, and according to the law of creation it is naturally involved in the same circumstances of ruin with its parent: As the buds and branches that grow out of a rotten tree fallen to the ground, par- take of the corruption and ruin, and speedy death of the stock; or as a feeble and diseased young brute animal partakes of the infirmities and diseases of its sire or clam ? or as a child of a traitor it born a beggar, though his father wereonce a lord ; or as the son of a lewd and diseased person derives perhaps both a lewd and diseased constitution-from his parent. V. Then being one of the race of sinful man, the young creature cones into the world under the common estrangement of thewhole race from God by sin, according to the original law of creation, and the covenant made with its forefather, whereby the descendants or offspring come under the same circumstances with the parent, whether good or bad : And thus the child has no just claim to pr. serving or securing grace, and amidst all the. temptations of the flesh has no right to any good influences or divine aids, but is left merely to.. the faculties of its intelligent nature. it is. esteemed. in the sight of God, as apart of the race that is fallen froth their allegiance and from his protection, have lost his image and his favour, and have no hope but in and by the methods of recovering grace revealed in the gospel. And by the same supposition of the formation and union of.the human
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