condition whereof was perfect obedience. This was the first covenant.
for sin. "All die in Adam," (1 Cor. 15:22) says the apostle, but it is only the soul that sins that shall die, (Ezek. 18:4) therefore all sinned in Adam.
[2.] All fell under the loss of God's image, and the corruption of nature with him. How comes it that all men must say with David, "Behold I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me?" (Ps. 2:5). Take away the imputation of Adam's sin, and there is no foundation for the corruption of nature. It must be some sin that God punishes with the deprivation of original righteousness, which can be no other than the first sin of Adam.
[3.] All the punishments inflicted on Adam and Eve, for that sin, as specified in Genesis 3 are common to mankind, their posterity; and therefore the sin must be so too.
III. I come now to show how the first sin of Adam comes to be imputed to us. The great reason of this is, because we are all included in Adam's covenant. The covenant was made with him, not only for himself, but for all his posterity. Consider here,
1. It was the covenant of works that was made with Adam, the condition whereof was perfect obedience. This was the first covenant. As for the covenant of grace, it was made with the second Adam.
2. It was made with him for himself. That was the way he himself was to attain perfect happiness; his own stock was in that ship.
3. It was made not only for himself, but for all his posterity descending from him by ordinary generation. So that he was not here as a mere private person, but as a public person, the moral head and representative of all mankind. Hence the scripture holds forth Adam and Christ, as if there had never been any but these two men in the