The harmony of the divine attributes in the contrivance and accomplishment of man's redemption…

And of this we have convincing Experience in the common Evils which afflict Mankind, before the commission of any actual Sin. The Cries of Infants who are only eloquent to grief, but dumb to all things else, discover that Miseries attend them. The Tears which are born with their Eyes, signify they are come into a state of Sorrow. How many Troops of Deadly Diseases are ready to seize on them, immediately after their Entrance into the World? So that 'tis apparent God deals with Man as an enemy, and therefore guilty of some great crime from his Birth.¹ The Ignorance of this made the Heathens accuse Nature, and blaspheme God under that mask, as less kind and indulgent to Man than to the Creatures below him. They are not under so hard a Law of coming into the world. They are presently instructed to Swim, to Fly, to Run for their preservation. They are clothed by Nature, and their Habits grow in proportion with their Bodies, some with Feathers, some with Wool, others with Scales which are both Habit and Armour: But Man who is alone sensible of shame, is born naked, and though of a more delicate temper, is more exposed to injuries by distempered Seasons, and utterly unable to repel, or avoid the evils that encompass him. Now the account the Scripture gives of Original Sin silences all these complaints. Man is a Transgressor from the Womb, and how can he expect a favourable Reception into the Empire of an offended God? Briefly, Sometimes Death enters into the retirements of Nature, and changes the ⟨p. 40⟩Womb into a Grave, which proves that as soon as we partake of the human Nature, we are guilty of the Sin that is common to it; For the wages of Sin is Death. ²Adam in his innocent state had the Privileges of Immortality, but by him Sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, ³as a just Sentence upon the guilty, for that all men have sinned.

And of this we have convincing Experience in the common Evils which afflict Mankind, before the commission of any actual Sin. The Cries of Infants who are only eloquent to grief, but dumb to all things els, discover that Miseries attend them. The Tears which are born with their Eyes, signifie they are come into a state of Sorrow. How many Troops of Deadly Diseases are ready to seize on them, immediatly after their Entrance into the World? So that 'tis apparent God deals with Man as an enemy, and therefore guilty of some great crime from his Birth.