The truly blessed man, or, The way to be happy here, and forever being…

1. We are all Sinners. This is the natural state in which all men are at first: the fall hath brought it upon the whole race. We are Sinners by Imputation; the great Transgression which our first Parents perpetrated, when they stood as public Persons, is become ours, and we stand condemned for it. Rom. 5. 12. The defilement of nature is upon us all, that Original, in dwelling Sin, which hath depraved all our faculties and powers, and filled them with the habits of perverseness. Psal. 58. 4. & 51. 5. And we have committed innumerable Actual Sins Gen. 8. 21. So that there is a woeful deal of matter for pardon in every one of us; for it is Sin that makes us to need forgiveness.

1. We are all Sinners. This is the natural state in which all men are at first: the fall hath brought it upon the whole race. We are Sinners by Imputation; the great Transgression which our first Parents perpetrated, when they stood as publick Persons, is become ours, and we stand condemned for it. Rom. 5. 12. The defilement of nature is upon us all, that Original, in dwelling Sin, which hath depraved all our faculties and powers, and filled them with the habits of perversness. Psal. 58. 4. & 51. 5. And we have committed innumerable Actual Sins Gen. 8. 21. So that there is a woful deal of matter for pardon in every one of us; for it is Sin that makes us to need forgiveness.

2. We are hereby under Guilt. Guilt is an inseparable companion of sin, according to the tenor of the Law-Covenant; so that as long as we are under that, we stand guilty. The Law dooms every sinner to die for every the least transgression of it, and Guilt is the Obligation lying on him to suffer the same. Guilt is a Prison in which the sinner is shut up for punishment, and he cannot break out of it; its bars and bolts are too strong: and we are told that all the world are guilty before God. Rom 3. 19. i. e. so long as they abide under the Law.