But, though the event itself is indisputable, the cause of it, as well as the nature of that cause, are subjects of sharp controversy, with those, who, when unable to stand against the evidence of facts, transfer their contentious disposition to the revelation of God; and so wrest the scriptures to their destruction. All admit, that death is the inevitable lot of human nature, because the truth addresses our very senses. But some, with strange inconsistency, insinuate, and not only insinuate, but even attempt to give it the form of an argument, that, though all must submit to death, yet the event is not to be considered as the effect of the first transgression; or, at least, that death is no penal evil, or the consequence of any entail of original guilt: since, as they argue, it would be inconsistent with the divine justice to punish a whole race for the sin of an individual; and that, since so many good men die, death ought rather to be accounted a blessing, than a penalty. All this is reason as full of fallacy, as it is of danger, and is overturned to the very foundation, by the express authority of the word of God. St. Paul asserts, that “by _one_ man, _sin_ entered into the world, and _death_ by sin; and so death hath _passed upon all men_, for that all have sinned.” Rom. v. 12. Death was announced as the threatened penalty to Adam before his transgression, and it was inflicted after it, agreeably to the decree of God. Why should it be penal to him and not to his descendants? The text says, that death is the wages of _sin_. The cause is evil, and so must the effect produced by it. This is penal because that is criminal; unless it can be proved that there is no moral evil in the violation of the divine law, and no natural evil in an event, that tears in sunder, and reduces to dust and ashes, that frame which bears the impress of divine workmanship, and was originally the seat of health, honor, and immortality. If ever death turns out a blessing, it is over-ruled to that end by the grace and providence of God. The cause and nature of it are not, however, altered. And in every instance, it is the wages of sin, and the desert of sinners unexceptionably and universally; even of those “who did not sin after the similitude of Adam’s transgression;” that is, by actual sin. For though all infants are undoubtedly saved, who die in infancy, yet their death evinces previous transgression, though not actually, yet originally and inherently. It is a scripture maxim, that “the body is dead because of sin.” The inherency and imputation of that great moral evil makes the body obnoxious to death. And the seeds of both have an existence together in the nature of every son of Adam; which, in due time, spring up in that vicious soil, and bring forth actual transgression, and actual death.