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A77834 Mans inbred malady, or The doctrine of original sin maintained, as also the necessity of infants baptism. / By George Burches B.D. late Rector of Wood-Church in Cheshire. Burches, George, d. 1658. 1655 (1655) Wing B5613; Thomason E1708_2; ESTC R10375 36,789 142

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that he that runs may read a full satisfaction in it Use 3d. Reprove such as think it folly to be troubled with the sins of litle ones with their lying and swearing cursing and the like not considering that the very Originall sin of the Infant the sin of his nature before it doth thus break forth makes him odious to God and deserveth damnation much more wil these same cursed fruits do it See an example in this 2 King 2.23 where those forty that mocked the Prophet were devoured by Bears where youth was no excuse for the hainousnesse of their offence but were severely punished by the hand of God Vse 4. Let this then humble us in considering the sharp and severe judgments that oft light upon little ones yea and take them to heart and to be much affected with them as with most evident demonstrations of Gods wrath against sin even against the sin of our nature Our Saviour sighed Mark 7.34 to behold the judgement of God upon the deaf man as a sign of Gods anger upon him for sin how much more doth it become us to do so in this case The Lord in his judgements upon us that are of years may have other ends and respects but in those upon Infants he can have no other but onely to make known upon them his wrath against sin Oh that we could seriously in this case thus expostulate with our own souls If God be so angry with the sin of the infant alas what measure of wrath is due to me that besides the sin of my nature wherewith I am every whit as much defiled as it can be have so many actuall sins to answer for and have sinned in a far more odious manner then this infant hath done If this be done to the greene tree saith our Saviour Luk. 23.31 What shall be done to the drie surely this is enough if well considered to melt the hardest heart into tears throughly to bewaile the Originall corruption especially when they consider the next point following namely Doct. 2d That the sin which we are from our very infancie stained withall is conveyed by our Parents unto us T is Leprosie began in Adam and you ran over all successions of mankind Hence the Prophet acknowledgeth I was conceived in sin not meaning any particular sin of his Parents in the act of generation for he was begotten and born in lawful marriage but his hereditary sin whererof he was guilty in his mothers womb For though many causes may be assigned of actuall sins committed by men or women as either of themselves James 1.14 the world 1 John 2.16 or the devil Eph. 2.2 yet of original sin that is in Infants no other cause can be assigned no root no fountain but this that they received it from their parents Hence is that of Aug. per duos homines transisse peccatum Both saith Ambrose parentes ut generis sic et erroris This is agreable to the law of nature Partus sequitur ventrem If a free man get a child by a bond-woman the child shal be bond by the mother not free by the Father As sin entered into Paradise so it entered into the world for it is the same sin in us that was in them in them actually in us originally and the same sin must have the same beginning but it came into Paradise by them both therefore so into the world And therefore Gen. 5.3 it is said that Adam after his fall begat a son in his likenesse after his image sinful and corrupt as himselfe was and the Evangelist making an opposition between the causes from whence corruption and grace cometh saith John 1.13 The one cometh from bleod and from the wil of the flesh and from the wil of man but the other commeth from God alone Hence there was never any that had parents a Father to beget him and a Mother to conceive him that was free from this original sin and corruption of nature no not such as had the godliest Parents that ever lived as the the children of Noah Abraham Isaac David did stand in need of circumcision Gen. 21.4 which signifies the cutting away of the filthy fore-skin of their hearts this original corruption as the Prophet expounds it Jer. 4.4 wherefore Job 14.4 when he would give a reason why man every man young and old is not only subject to so many troubles in this life but also so filthy and sinful alledgeth no more but this Man that is born of a woman he is born of a woman and therefore must needs be so So again Iob 15.14 and 25.4 and though the Mother only be named by Iob and David yet is this corruption derived to the child not from the Mother only but from the father as much as from the mother The sin came by two and the Apostle saies it entered by one for they two made but one Two shal be one flesh By one it entered yet both sinned R. 1. Because all parents have been poysoned with sin wher●by their natures being infected doth convey this poyson unto their children As the brood of Vipers Toads and Spiders must needs resemble them and have poyson in them Hence is that of our Saviour Mat. 7.18 a corrupt Tree cannot bring forth good fruit for if the tree be not found the fruit will prove tainted and therefore saith Iob Iob 14.4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean Not one This reason our Saviour gieth why all that is in man by nature is flesh that is corrupt and sinfull because he that is born of the flesh that is of corrupt parents Iohn 3.6 is flesh that is sinful which is Job's meaning when he saith who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean that is no man can beget a child that is clean from sin himselfe being unclean For such as the fountain is such is the stream such as the ground is such is the corn such as the fuel is such is the fire such as the mine is such is the metal such as the parents are so are their children Obj. If the root be holy the branches are holy therefore the children of the Saints are holy and have not this sin conveyed to them by their parents Ans Parents beget children as men not as they are holy men Sanctus generat non regenerat filius carnis by generation they derive unto them their nature they cannot derive grace which is above nature we give them that which our earthy parents give us not what our Heavenly Father infuseth into us There is a wide difference betwixt infusion and propagation neither doth holinesse in this place signifie a freedome from sin or integritie or uprightnesse of nature Sanctitas est duplex fidei faederis sancti sunt non virtute nativitatis secundum carnem sed virtute Testamenti gratiae et promissionis dei Bulling but the prerogative and priviledge of Abrahams posteritie whereby God covenanting with him had appointed alwaies to
thing or object The object of righteousnesse being the Law it doth follow that the object of sin is the Law also but what Law Both the Law of nature which God had prescribed unto every thing in nature to be observed by them as being unto God most honorable and to themselves most proper and behoofefull Those rules and limitations those orders and prescriptions which the wisdome of God had proposed and imprinted upon all creatures either of the preservation of their being or the destruction of their sexes or the propagation of their kinds or the moderation of their power and manner of working or the manifestation of his own Almighty power wisdome and glory the same are termed Lawes So He made a Law for the rain said Job Job 2.8 And he gave a decree unto the Sea that the waves should not passe his commandment And by this Law it is that heavie bodies move downwards but light bodies ascend upward that the motion of the Heavens are circular and that every thing observes that manner of motion and working which is peculiar and proper unto his kind Now creatures having their several degrees of perfection and Law being as it were the several rules and spurrs thereof it will follow The persecter any creature is the more general and of larger excellency are those Laws by which the same is guided So we see that Minerals are of a perfecter constitution and being then simple bodies as Air or Water or Earth or Plants are perfecter then Stones and Beasts are more perfect then Plants and that Man is more perfect then all So that every one of these in their severall kinds have more or lesse notion motion belonging unto them and accordingly are subject to more or lesse Laws Now men being as it were a compendium or Epitome or abbreviature of all the creatures of God and participating of all the perfections hath so many actions and operations proper unto him as makes him subject to all the lawes not only to the part of natures law that concerns only his reasonable Soul and will and is therefore called the morall Law but likewise unto all the subordinate parts that may any waies concern his inferior parts and faculties so that not only the Soul the understanding but the senses and humors yea the very whole proportion and constitution of the body and every particular therein had their severall prescriptions and motions peculiar unto themselves which both for ability and power and end and all other circumstances they ought to have observed exactly and could not transgresse without sin So that first hearing of the subject of sin namely the law of nature That Law which Almighty God had prescribed universally unto all things in nature to be observed let us proceed unto the farther search thereof And therefore in the second place we say that the form of righteousnesse is the observation of this Law and hence we insert tanquam formale peccati that the transgression of the law is as it were the form of sin For so 1 John 3.8 defineth that sin is the transgression of the Law that it is an aberration and excursion out of the bonds and prescripts of Gods Law 1. John 3.4 3ly The materiall causes of Righteousnesse were the actions and operations faculties and parts of man and therefore we must propose them also tanquam materiale peccati as the matter and subject of sin For look how the parts and faculties both of Soul and body were ordered and framed and beautified and exercised in Righteousnesse So likewise the same parts and faculties both of Soul and body are confused distempered deformed and perverted by iniquity and sin For the efficient cause of righteousnesse being liberum arbitrium hominis the free will of man it must needs follow that the efficient cause of sin must needs be the same or else could not be said to be our sin for that which makes a work to be our work is because it proceeds from our own will for sin in the formes and abstracted nature thereof namely as it is the transgression of the Law may be and is in beasts and other creatures yet cannot be said to be the sin of the creature because it proceeds not from will in the creature for the creature is subject to vanity saith the Apostle Rom. 8.20 Neither is it sufficient to make a work ours unlesse it proceed freely from us without any necessity compelling us unto for then the act would be attributed as much yea principally to the necessity and we should be but as instruments thereof That therefore is the efficient of sin unto man which doth appropriate sin unto man and that doth appropriate sin unto him which is the principal facultie by which he worketh namely Liberum Arbitrium his free will Lastly the finall cause or effect of righteousnesse was joy and peace and comfort and contentation and perfection and all the happinesse which the soul and body of man was capable of So è contrario for rectum est Index sui obliqui we most still measure that which is crooked by that which is streight the final cause and effect of sin is sorrow affliction crosses and destruction and all the miseries in this life and in the life to come For as malum culpae was the privation of bonum morale so malum poenae is the privation of bonum delectabile As sin was the privation of righteousnesse so effect of sin is the privation of happinesse which is the fruit of righteousnesse For all the miseries and pains that hath or shal ever befal man are no positive thing but a meer privation of that goodnesse which was created in him As for example If sharp needles shall be thrust under the nails it is nothing but the violent disorder and disturbance of the frame of nature in those parts If our hands or feet should be dipt in boyling lead it were but the violent distemper of heat in these members and so of other torments which are all privations Neither did the eye see nor hath ear heard nor did ever possibly enter into the heart of man the joyes that are prepared for the righteous All things in the world are too low to expresse them So on the contrary it will follow that neither eye nor ear or heart hath either seen or can imagine those pains that are prepared for sinners all things in this world are too short to resemble them For as the choice and pretious stones mentioned Rev. 2. are there used to represent the new Jerusalem and the beauty and joyes thereof which are far more excellent and of an higher and transcendent qualitie So under reformation of better judgment I suppose that the fire which the spirit of God in the Scripture makes choice of to expresse the torments of Hel is not material fire but being the most violent and consuming element is used only as the fittest thing to represent those unconceivable pains For I conceive those