believe, or to reject it.

The gospel, I conceive, in its most extensive sense, comprehends the
whole revealed will of God, recorded in the holy scriptures of the Old
and New Testament [Tim. iii. 16.].

This sacred book, which we call the Bible, describes the original state
of man, as a state of perfect purity and innocence. He was made in the
image of God. He was made upright [Gen. i. 26, 27.; Eccles. vii. 29.].
His understanding, will, his affections and conscience, his
body and soul, were free from defilement, guilt, or guile, and
while he continued so, he was not liable to pain, misery, or death.

But man did not continue in this state. Our first parents disobeyed
their Maker. By sinning against God they lost their original
righteousness, and became earthly, sensual, devilish. Such are all his
posterity: for who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Man is
now the very reverse of what he was when first created. His
understanding [2 Cor. iv. 5; Ephes. iv. 18.; Titus i. 15.; rom. viii.7.]
is darkened, yea darkness itself; his will, his carnal mind,
is enmity against God; his conscience is defiled; his affections, no
longer fixed upon God his Creator and Benefactor, are engrossed by the
vain and perishing things of this world; by sin his body is become
mortal. Subject to pain, disease, and death [Rom. v. 12.]; and his soul is
exposed to the displeasure of God, and to the curse annexed to the
transgressions of his holy law. All this misery is implied in that awful
threatening, In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely
die[Gen. ii. 17.].

And is not this threatening, at least in part, already put into