Cor. 15. 56. which Austin expounds in this sense as that by sinne death is caused as that is called Poculum mortis a cup of death which causeth death or as some say The Tree of life is called so because it was the cause of life If then original sinne be a sinne it must have a sting and this sting is everlasting death So that if we attend to what the Scripture speaketh concerning us even in the womb and the cradle that we are in a state of sinne we must conclude because it is a sinne therefore it deserveth damnation Hence you heard the Apostle Rom. 5. expresly saith Judgement came by one to condemnation and Rom. 3. That the whole world is guilty before God Secondly The Scripture doth not only speak of this birth-pollution as a sinne but as an hainous sinne in its effects whereby it doth admis of many terrible aggravations as you have heard It is the Law in our members it 's the flesh tho body of sin the sin that doth so easily beset us the sin that warreth against the mind and the Spirit of God that captivateth even a godly man in some measure which maketh Paul groan under it and cry out of his miserable condition thereby so that it is not meerly a sinne but a sinne to be aggravated in many respects and therefore necessarily causing damnation unlesse God in his mercy prevent Let Bellarmine and others extenuate it making it lesse then the least sinne that is of which more afterwards let them talk of venial sinnes that do not in their own nature deserve hell yet because all sinne is a transgression of Gods Law the curse of God belongeth thereunto therefore it hath an infinite guilt in respect of the Majesty of God against whom it is committed and they who judge sinne little must also judge the Majesty of God to be little also What shall one respect of involuntariness which is in original sinne make it lesse then others when 〈…〉 so many other respects some whereof do more immediately relate to the nature of sinne then voluntariness can do farre exceed other sinnes Thirdly Original sinne must needs deserve damnation because it needeth the bloud of Christ to purge away the guilt of it as well as actual sins Christ is a Saviours to Infants as well as to grown men and if he be a Saviour to them then they are sinners if he save them then they are lost As for that old evasion of the Pelagian Infants need Christ not to save them from sinne but to bring them to the Kingdom of Heaven it 's most absurd and ridiculous for the whole purpose of the Gospel is to shew That Christ came into the world to bring sinners to Heaven through his bloud his death was expiatory and by way of atonement therefore it did suppose sinne hence he is sad to be the Lamb of God that taketh away the sinne of the world John 1. 29. which is both original and actual Fourthly That eternal damnation belongeth to the sinne we are born in appeareth by those remedies of grace and Ordinances of salvation which were appointed by God both in the Old and New Testament for the taking away of this natural guilt Circumcision in the Old Testament did declare that by nature the heart was uncircumcised and that every one was destitute of any inherent righteousnesse hence circumcision is called The seal of the righteousnesse which is by faith Rom. 4. 11. To this Baptism doth answer in the New Testament the external never whereof with the formal Rite of Administration doth abundantly convince us of our spiritual uncleanness as also the need we have of the bloud of Christ and also of his Spirit for our cleansing Now because the known Adversary to this truth affirmly That he knoweth of no Church that in her Rituals doth confesse and bewail original sinne As also that we might see the Judgement of our first Reformers in England about Baptism as relating to original sinne It is good to observe what is set down in the Publique Administration of Baptism as by the Common-Prayer-Book was formerly to be used there the Minister useth this Introductory Forasmuch as all men be conceived and born in sinne adding from hence That none can enter into the kingdom of Heaven unlesse he be born again It is the sinne he is born in not pure Naturals as the Doctor saith that inferreth a necessity of regeneration Again In the Prayer for children to be baptized there is this passage That they coming to thy holy Baptism may receive remission of sins Now what sinnes can children have but their original It is spoken in the plural number because more than one child is supposed to be baptized Again in the same Prayer we meet with this Petition That they being delivered from thy wrath What can more ashame the Doctors opinion then this That which he accounteth so horrid is here plainly asserted That children are born under Gods wrath therefore prayer is made that they may be delivered from it Lastly In another Prayer after the Confession of Faith we have this Petition That the old Adam in these children may be so buried that the new man may be raised up in them Why doth he not seoff at this expression saying as he doth upon another occasion That they change the good old man with these things that he never thought of No doubt but he will force these passages by some violent Interpretation as he doth the 9th Article but certainly it would be more ingenuity in him to flie to his principles of liberty of prophesying rather then to wrest these publick professions of original sinne It is true the Ancients and so the Papists put too much upon Baptism For Austin thought every child dying without Baptism yea and without the participation of the Lords Supper was certainly damned But of this extream more afterwards It is enough for us That Christs Institution of such a Sacrament and that for Infants doth evidently proclaim our sinfulnesse by nature and therein our desert of eternal wrath Fifthly To original sinne there must needs belong eternal wrath because of the nature of it and inseperable effects flowing from it The nature of it is the spiritual death of the soul by this a man is alienated from all life of grace and therefore till the grace of God appear it 's true of all by nature as followeth in the Chapter where this Text is vers 12. Without Christ alient from the Commonwealth of Israel strangers from the Covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world Thus Davenant upon that Text Dead in sinne Col. 2. 13. saith All the sons of Adam are accounted dead first because they lie in a state of spiritual death having lost the Image of God and partly because they are under the guilt of eternal death being obnoxious to the wrath of God for by nature we are the children of wram If then original sinne put
Fourth Part. TReating of the Effects of Original Sinne. CHAP. I. Of that Propensity that is in every one by Nature to sinne Job 15. 16. How much more abominable and filthy is man which drinketh iniquity like water SECT I. The Text explained and vindicated from Socinian Exceptions SECT II. How much is implied in this Metaphor Man drinketh iniquity like water SECT III. Some Demonstrations to prove that there is such an impetuous Inclination in man to sinne SECT IV. The true Causes of this Proneness and the false ones assigned by the Adversaries examined CHAP. II. The second immediate Effect of Original Sinne is the Causality which it hath in respect of all other sins Jam. 1. 14. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed SECT I. The Text explained setting forth the generation of Sinne. SECT II. That Original Sinne is the Cause of all Actual Evil cleared by several Propositions which may serve for Antidotes against many Errours ¶ 2. Of the Motions of the heart to sinne not consented unto as an immediate Effect of Original Sinne. ¶ 3. How many wayes the Soul may become guilty of sinne in respect of the Thoughts and motions of the heart CHAP. III. Of the Combate between the Flesh and the Spirit as the Effect of Original Sinne so that the Godliest man cannot do any holy Duty perfectly in this life Gal. 5. 17. For the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and these are contrary one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would SECT I. The Text explained and vindicated from corrupt Interpretations SECT II. Several Propositions clearing the truth about the Combate between the Flesh and Spirit in a Godly man SECT III. A Consideration of that part of the seventh Chapter to the Romans which treats of the Conflict within a man Shewing against Amyraldus and others that it must be a regenerate person only of whom those things are spoken ¶ 4. The several wayes whereby Original Sinne doth hinder the Godly in their Religious Progress whereby they are sinfull and imperfect ¶ 5. Objections against the Reliques of Sin in a regenerate man answered ¶ 8. The several Conflicts that may be in a man ¶ 10. How the Combate in a Godly man between the Flesh and Spirit may be discerned from other Conflicts ¶ 10. Of the Regenerates freedome from the Dominion of sinne and whether it be by the Suppression of it or by the Abolishing part of it CHAP. IV. Of Death coming upon all men as another Effect of Original Sinne. 1 Cor. 15. 22. For as in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive SECT II. Death an Effect of Original Sinne explained in divers Propositions ¶ 2. How many wayes a thing may be said to be Immortal and in which of them man is so ¶ 4. Distinctions about Mortality and that in several respects Adam may be said to be created Mortal and Immortal ¶ 7. The several Grounds assigned by Schoolmen of Adam's Immortality rejected and some Causes held forth by the Orthodox SECT III. Arguments to prove That through Adam's sinne we are made sinners and so Mortal SECT IV. Arguments brought to prove That Adam was made Mortal answered SECT V. Whether Adam's sinne was onely an occasion of Gods punishing all mankind resolved against D. J. Taylor SECT VI. Whether Death may be attributed to mans constitution considered in his meer Naturals against D. J. Taylor and the Socinians CHAP. V. Eternal Damnation another Effect of Original Sinne. Ephes 2. 3. And were by nature the children of wrath as well as others SECT I. What is meant by Wrath in this Text. SECT II. What is meant by Nature SECT III. That by nature through the original sinne we are born in all are heirs of Gods wrath all are obnoxious to eternal damnation SECT IV. What is comprehended in this Expression Children of wrath SECT V. Some Propositions in order to the proving That the wrath of God is due to all mankind because of Original Sinne. SECT VI. Arguments to prove it SECT VII Some Conclusions deduceable from the Doctrine of the damnableness of Original Sinne. SECT VIII A Consideration of their Opinion that hold an Universal Removal of the Guilt of Original Sinne from all mankind by Christs Death Answering their Arguments among which that from the Antithesis or Opposition which the Apostle maketh Rom. 5. between the first Adam and the second Adam SECT IX Of the state of Infants that die in their Infancy before they are capable of any Actual Transgressions and that die before Baptisme A TREATISE OF Original Sinne. PART I. CHAP. I. The first Text to prove Original Sinne improved and vindicated SECT I. EPHES. 2. 3. And were by nature the children of wrath as well as others THE true Doctrine of Original Corruption is of so great concernment that Austin thought De Peccato Orig. contra Pelag. Celest 2. cap. 24. the Summe of Religion to consist in knowing of this as the effect of the first Adam and also of Christ the second Adam with all his glorious benefits Though therefore Coelestius of old thought it to be but Recquaestionis not fides Ibidem cap. 4. And others of late have wholly rejected it as Austin's figment yet certainly the true way of Humiliation for sinne or Justification by Christ cannot be firmly established unless the true Doctrine of this be laid as a Foundation-stone in the building Now because original sinne is used ambiguously by Divines sometimes for Adam's first sinne imputed unto us for Omnes homines fuerunt ille unus homo he was the common Person representing all mankind as is in time to be shewed And this for distinction sake is called Originale originans or Originale imputatum And sometimes it 's taken passively for the effect of that first sinne of Adam viz. The total and universal pollution of all mankind inherently through sinne which is called Originale originatum or inherens I shall treat of it in this later acception as being of great practical improvement many wayes SECT II. ANd because in Theological Debates two Questions are necessary The An sit and the Quid sit Whether there be such a thing and What it is and in both these the truth of God meeteth with many adversaries I shall first insist on the Quod sit That there is such a natural and cursed pollution upon every one that is born in an ordinary way The first Text I shall fasten this Truth upon is this I have mentioned which deservedly both by Ancient and Modern Writers is thought to have a pregnant and evident demonstration That there is such a natural contagion upon all To understand this the better take notice of the Coherence briefly The Apostles scope is to incite the Ephesians to Thankfulness by the consideration of that great love and infinit mercy vouchsafed to them by God and because the Sunne is most
its nature If you look upon a Cain a Judas though his outside be so detestable yet his inwards are much more abominable so that a mans heart is like Peters great sheet which he saw in a vision Acts 11. 6. which was full of four-footed beasts and wild beasts and creeping things all unclean such a receptacle is mans soul of all impiety A man cannot tell what is in the sea what monsters are in the bottom of it by looking upon the superficies of the water which covers it so neither canst thou tell all that horrid deformity and wretchedness which is in thy heart by beholding thine outward impieties Oh then that you would turn your eyes inward as it were an introversion is necessary Then you will say O Lord before I knew the Nature of original sinne I was not perswaded of my vileness of my foulness Oh now I see that I am beyond all expression sinfull now I see every day I am more and more abominable O Lord formerly I thought all my sinne was in some words in some actions or in some vile thoughts but now I see this was the least part of all that evil that was in me Now I am amazed astonished to see what a sea of corruption is within me now I can never go to the bottom now I find something like hell within me sparks of lust that are unquenchable Fourthly Where there is not a true knowledge of this native corruption there our Humiliation and Repentance can never be deep enough for it 's not enough to be humbled for our actual sinnes unless also we go to the cause and root of all When a godly man would repent of his lusts of his unbelief or any other actual transgression he stayeth not in the confession of and bewailing those particular sins but he goeth to the polluted fountain to the bitter spring from whence those bitter streams flow and commonly this is a difference between an Ahabs Humiliation and a Davids Ahab humbleth himself only for his actual impieties and that because of judgments threatned and impending over him but David even when he heareth God had forgiven his iniquity yet hath great humiliation for his sinnes and Psal 51. thinketh it not enough to bewail his adultery and murder but to confess That in iniquity he was conceived his actual sinnes carried him to the original Thus Paul also Rom. 7 when he miserably complaineth of that impotency in him to do good that he could never do any good as perfectly fully purely and cheerfully as he ought to do presently he goeth to the cause of all this deordination the Law of sinne within him that original sinne which was like a Law within him commanding him to think to desire to do sinfully and obeyed it in all though against his will insomuch that he saith He was carnal and sold under sinne This the Apostle doth complain of as the heaviest burden of all So that an unregenerate man may by the light of nature bewail and complain of his actual impieties he may cry out Oh wretched man that I am for being such a beast such a devil so exorbitant and excessive but whether he can do this for the body of sinne within him as Paul did that may justly be questioned And therefore you see then the troubles and workings of conscience in some men to miscarry greatly They seem to be in pain and travails of soul but all cometh to nothing Oh how many in times of danger and under fear of death do sadly cry out of such sins they have committed Oh the promises and resolutions they make if ever God give them recovery again But all this passeth away even as mans life it self like a vapour like a tale that is told And one cause of the rottenness and defect of this humiliation is because it did not go to the bottom of the soare there was the inward and deep corruption of original sin that such never took any notice of and so in all his sorrow did omit that which is the most aggravating cause of all grief and trembling O Lord I have not only done this wicked thing but I had an heart an inclination of soul to carry me to it and therefore actual sinnes though ten thousands of them they pass away the guilt only remaining but this original pravity continueth in the pollution of it Fifthly Ignorance of original sinne makes us also mistake in the crucifying and mortifying of sinne No man can truly and spiritually leave a sinne unless he doth conquer it and subdue it in some measure in the original and root of it and this is a sure difference between a regenerate and unregenerate man about leaving or forsaking of sinne They both may give over their wonted actual impieties They both may have escaped the pollution of the world and that through the knowledge of the Gospel 2 Pet. 2. 20. but the one leaveth only the acts of sinne the other mortifieth it gradually though not totally in the cause and inclination of the soul Thus Paul Rom. 7. though he complain of those actual stirrings and impetuous motions of sinne yet withall he can truly say I delight in the Law of God in the inner man Now no hypocrite or unregenerate man can say so Though he be outwardly washed yet he hath a swinish nature still his inward parts are as loathsom as noisom as ever before Though there be a fair skinne drawn over the wound yet in the bottom there is as much corruption and putrefaction as ever before Samson's hair is only cut it 's not plucked up by the root so that it 's not enough to have given over thy former profaneness Thou thankest God thou art not the man once thou wert Oh but consider whether sinne in the root of it as well as in the branches of it doth wither and die daily A disease is not cured till the cause of it be in some measure at least removed As long as originall sinne is not in some degree mortified thy old sins or some other will break out as violently as ever here is the fountain and root of all within thee Sixthly He that is ignorant of the nature and extent of this natural defilement he must needs grosly mistake about the nature of conversion and be wholly ignorant of what regeneration is As you see in Nicodemus John 3. 6. though a master in Israel yet grosly mistaking about a new-birth and what was the reason of it That appeareth by our Saviours argument to prove the necessity of it Whatsoever is born of the flesh is flesh implying by this That if Nicodemus had known that by natural generation he was nothing but flesh that is sinne and evil his soul his mind his conscience all was flesh in this sense as well as his body then he would quickly have discerned the necessity of being born again then he would not have continued a day an hour a moment in such a dangerous condition And what
Comparison I am only to take notice of the Protasis or Proposition which is That by one mans disobedience many were made sinners So that in the words we are to consider the Subject or rather the cause of mankinds sinfulness and that is described in the Nature of it and the Author The Nature of it is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Apostle called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which words do denote the hainousness of it Rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft and Adams sinne is called disobedience yea some learned Divines shew That the proper specifical nature of this sinne was disobedience there were also many sins ingredient thereunto this the Apostle doth to aggravate the hainousness of it Insomuch that Peltan the Jesuite doth wickedly accuse the Protestants for aggravating the guilt of it so much Apud illos saith he omnia sunt quasi tragica infernalia De pecc orig They have nothing but tragical expressions and proclaim hell and damnation because of this pollution For this is the Apostles scope in this place to heighten the consideration of it that so Christ may be the more magnified Even as an Historian who would make a parallel between two great Generals yet intending to preferre one before another doth in the first place amplifie the gallantry the warlike power the military stratagems of the one that so he may the more advance that other General whom he intends to preferre above him Thus doth the Apostle here he makes original sinne to be exceeding sinfull that so the grace of Christ may be exceeding rich and precious grace Adams sinne then which is imputed and made ours as you heard is disobedience SEC II. SEcondly You have the Author of this disobedience and that is said to be by one man Though Eve was the first in transgression yet Adam is named as the chief and therefore Adam is sometimes used collectively both for man and woman as when God said Let us make man after our Image Here then we have Paul informing us of that which all Philosophy was ignorant of viz. The imputation of Adams sinne to us and our natural pollution flowing from it Yea Paul guided by the Spirit of God finds out that mystery which none of us ever could discover by reading the History of Mans Fall related by Moses For there indeed we could see the cause of death how that came upon all mankind but that Adams sin was ours That we all sinned in him that hereupon we were all involved in sin and misery for this we are to bless God for Paul who hath so largely discovered it SECT III. IN the next place We have the Effect of this disobedience with the Extent of it The Extent is to many that is to all born naturally of Adam For many is not here opposed to all but to one the original from that one many even all are made sinners Therefore it 's a dangerous Exposition of Theodoret as Sixtus Senensis relateth which affirmeth Not all but some only to be infected with Adam 's sinne exempting Abel Noah and others from this pollution For 1 Cor. 15. the Apostle saith In Adam all die and in this Chapter at vers 12. All have sinned in Adam But the Effect that is more dreadfull and worthy of all meditation We are made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is more then when all were said to sin in him for this doth denote the habitual depravation of all the parts of the soul as also a readiness to commit all actual sins Therefore the word is sometimes applied to signifie great and hainous sinners as Mary Magdalen is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sinner So then you see that by Adams disobedience all are made sinners CHAP. VI. Whether we are Sinners by Natural Propagation or by Imitation THere remaineth one great Doubt Whether we are so by Natural Propagation because born of him or by occasion only and imitation because he sinned We are not say some made sinners as soon as we are born but when by free-will we come to consent to sinne and choose it Thus Pelagians of old and Socinians of late with many others Erasmus though he saith he holds Original sinne yet useth all his strength to enervate the Orthodox Interpretation SECT I. That Adam's Disobedience makes us Sinners by Propagation BUt there are cogent Reasons to understand it thus That Adam 's Disobedience makes us sinners by natural Propagation As First Because the Apostle still chargeth our guilt and sinfulness upon Adam only upon that one man and upon that one offence whereas if it were by example and imitation only it might be upon our parents and others and upon their transgressions So that the Apostle might have said By many men and many disobediences we are made sinners but still he chargeth it on one man and one offence Secondly If Imitation be taken strictly then a man must know and have in his eye that which he doth imitate but how many thousands are there that runne into all excess of wickedness and never heard of Adam much less could not propound his sin for a patern to follow So that even in the Pelagian sense to be sinners by Imitation cannot be properly used in this Controversie Thirdly If the Apostle understood sin only by Imitation or occasion not Propagation then as Austin of old well urged it might be more properly fastned upon the Devil as the Original for it was not by Adam but the Devil that sin came into the world in this sense and so death by sinne Hence the Devil is said to be a man-slayer from the beginning Joh. 8. 44. or a murderer and that both of souls and bodies In somuch that the Devil was the occasion of all the wickedness and death the consequent thereof And hence our Saviour speaking of wicked men Joh 8. saith They are of their Father the Devil and what they see him do that they do So that the Devil is made to be the original of sinne by imitation to wicked men and not Adam Fourthly Adams sinne must be made ours by natural Propagation not Imitation Because death is made the necessary consequent of it all that 〈◊〉 have sinned Adam 's sinne But now death is propagated naturally Hence Infant die which yet according to the best Divines have not actual sinne why 〈◊〉 it that they die yea they are not only subject to death but to exquisite torments and pains yea Infants have been grievously possessed with the Devils and tormented by them Now this could not be if they were not guilty of sia If therefore death be by natural Propagation then sinne the cause of it must also be in that manner Fifthly This comparison made between the first Adam communicating sin and the second communicating Righteousness doth fully evince this For we are made righteous by Christ not only as if he were a patern and example of Righteousness unto us but by
how the Pelagians made use of it he answereth That this is to be understood of actual sinne not original sinne Every actual sinne must be voluntary it 's not necessary original sinne should be personally and formally so Again he limits that Rule to such sins as are meerly sins not punishments also but original sin is both a sin and punishment Lastly He grants this to be true amongst the Laws of men and therefore cals it politica sententia And no wonder if Philosophers required a formal will in every sin else not to make it imputable because they were wholly ignorant of this Truth But in the last place our Divines do deny that voluntariness is requisite to every actual sinne for there are sinnes of ignorance for which Sacrifices were to be offered And David prayeth to be cleansed from secret sins which he did not know and if so they must be involuntary yea Paul expresly cals that a sin Rom. 7. which yet was against his will although it may be granted that even in these there is some kind of voluntarines For a thing may be voluntary either in its cause or in it self or absolutely involuntary but comparatively voluntary as when we do things for fear or there may be a mixture of voluntarines and involuntarines which Paul seemeth to acknowledge in himself yet still the proper notion of a sinne lieth in the contrariety of it to the Law of God Therefore John defineth sinne by that whether it be voluntary or not he doth not take notice of This is acknowledged by some Scholastical Writers especially Holkot De imputabilitate peccati answereth this Objection fully to our purpose where he positively affirmeth That sinne is not therefore imputable unto us because it was in the power of the will but as righteousness is therefore praise-worthy because it is righteousness so unrighteousness is therefore culpable and damnable because it is unrighteousness that is if I may interpret him because it 's against a Law Hence he proceedeth to shew That a thing is not righteous or vnrighteous meerly because it was in the power of the will for the will of a child would have been made righteous by God sine proprie motu without any proper motion of the childs will And then why may it not as well be sinfull without any such voluntary motion in an Infant So that he concludeth It 's as proper to original sinne to be naturally contracteâ— or derived from another without any proper act of the will as it is to an actual sinne to have the will one way or other consenting to it Even as in the state of integrity original righteousness in Infants would have been propagated but actuall Righteousness voluntarily performed And these things may satisfie this first Objection yet hereafter we shall speak more to this SECT II. THe second Objection is in effect to this sense What is a punishment cannot be a sinne But the deprivation of Gods Image in man upon Adam's disobedience is a punishment And therefore it cannot be a sinne Original sinne if not totally yet principally consists in the losse of that original Righteousnesse and rectitude which God made man in Seeing therefore the privation of this came upon man by way of punishment when Adam transgressed We cannot conceive it say they to be a sinne also for a punishment and a sinne are wholly contradictory a sinne must be voluntary a punishment involuntary a sinne is an action and a punishment is a passion a sinne is an evil and God cannot be the author of it a punishment is good and an act of Justice so that God cannot be said to permit that but to inflict it This Argument at the first view hath likewise some colour but upon the examination of it it will quickly vanish I shall not answer in a large dispute about that famous Question Whether the same thing may be a sin and a punishment Or whether God doth punish one sin with another but shall speak as much briefly as is convenient for this Objection And First You must know that Arminius began to dislike this Doctrine of original sinne Respons ad Artic. 31. which was mentioned in their publique Catechism upon this very reason because it was a punishment and he gave this Reason to the Minister then conferring with him Because if God did punish Adam's sinne with this sinne then he must punish this with another and that other with another and so there must be a processus in infinitum But his followers the Remonstrants in their Apology for their Confession contra Censuram seem to disclaim this opinion That our original corruption is either malum culpae or poenae properly so called Because where there is an evil of punishment it must be for some sinne But Infants have committed no voluntary sinne and therefore could not deserve such a punishment So that they profess themselves to be of Zuinglius his mind whether he retracted it or not afterwards they are not certain viz. That it is a morbus a vitium a languor an imbecillity of nature but neither the evil of sinne or punishment Some Papists as Pighius Catharinus Mayro and some Scotists hold That native pollution to be no sinne because it 's a punishment and that for Adam's sinne imputed to all concluding on this That it cannot be a sinne because it 's a punishment The Socinians they say The necessity of dying with other punishments is the punishment of Adam's sinne and therefore that repugnancy and contrariety which is between the flesh and the Spirit is from our very Creation The sensitive appetite rebels against the rational from the very first Creation of man and would have been whether Adam had sinned or no yea it was from this vehement opposition of the appetite to reason that he did sin I shall consider the strength of their Objection as it lieth in this The same thing cannot be a sin and a punishment too The Remonstrants affirm this and Papists likewise but with some explication And 1. It is confessed That there are some punishments of sinne which are not sinne as when God for Adam's disobedience hath made man obnoxious to miseries to sickness and death These are not sinnes It comes from sinne to have pain and to die but they are not sinnes and the Reason is Because these are malum naturale not morale they are a natural evil not a moral In the second place Austin saith and he saith it truly from Scripture That original inherent sinne which he calleth concupiscence is both a sinne a punishment of sinne and a cause of sin Even as blindness of mind or hardness of heart is both a sinne a punishment and a cause of further sinne Lib. 5. contra Juhan cap. 3. That it is a sinne appeareth by the many Texts already brought And Austin's Reason in that place is very cogent Quia inest illi inobedientia contra dominatum mentis There is in it a disobedience against the dominion of
posse mori is known by all It is not then an absolute but a conditional immortality we speak of ¶ 3. Propos 3. ALthough we say that God made man immortal yet we grant that his body being made of the dust of the earth and compounded of contrary element it had therefore a remote power of death It was mortal in a remote sense only God making him in such an eminent manner and for so glorious an end there was no proxim and immediate disposition to death God indeed gave Adam his name whereas Adam imposed a name upon all other creatures but not himself and that from the originals he was made of to teach him humility even in that excellent estate yet he was not in an immediate disposition to death When Adam had transgressed Gods Law though he did not actually die upon it yet then he was put into a mortal state having the prepared causes of death within him but it was not so while he stood in the state of integrity then it was an immortal state now it is a mortal one I say state because even now though Adam hath brought sinne and death upon us yet in respect of the soul a man may be said to be immortal but then there was immortality in respect of soul and body the state he was created in did require it So that although death be the King of terrors yet indeed original sinne which is the cause of it should be more terrible unto us Now man by sinne is fallen the beasts could they speak would say Man is become like one of us yea worse for he carrieth about with him a sinfull soul and a mortal body ¶ 4. Distinctions about Mortality and that in several respects Adam may be said to be created mortal and immortal THe fourth Proposition is That from the former premisses it may be deducted that in several respects Adam may be said to be created mortal and immortal yet if we would speak absolutely to the question when demanding how Adam was created we must return Immortall Some indeed because mans mortalilty and immortality depended wholy upon his will as he did will to sinne or not to sinne so they have said he was neither made mortal or immortal but capable of either but that is not to speak consonantly to that excellency of state which Adam was created in for as Adam was created righteous not indifferent as the Socinians say neither good or bad but capacious of either qualification so he was also made immortal not in a neutral or middle state between mortal and immortal so that he had inchoate immortality upon his creation but not consummate or confirmed without respect to perseverance in his obedience for the state of integrity was as it were the beginning of that future state of glory Again Adam might be called mortal in respect of the orginals of his body being taken out of the dust of the earth but that was only in a remote power so God did so adorne him with excellent qualifications in soul and body that the remote power could never be brought into a proxime and immediate disposition much less into an actual death for a thin◠may be said to be mortal 1. In respect of the matter and thus indeed Adams body in a remote sence was corruptible 2. In respect of the forme Thus Philosophers say sublunary things are corruptible because the matter of them hath respect to divers formes whereas they call the heavens incorruptible because the matter is sufficiently actuated by one forme and hath no inclination to another and thus Adam might truly be said to be immortal for it was very congruous that a body should be united to the soul that was sutable to it for that being the form of a man and having an inclination or appetite to the body if man had been made mortal at first the natural appetite would in a great measure have been frustrated it being for a little season only united to the body and perpetually ever afterwards seperated from it Surely as an Artificer doth not use to put a precious Diamond or Pearl into a leaden Ring so neither would God at first joyn such a corruptible body to so glorious and an immortal soul 3. A thing may be said to be mortal in respect of efficiency and thus it is plain Adam was not made mortal for he might through the grace of God assisting have procured immortality to himself that threatening to Adam In the day he should eat of that forbidden fruit he should die the death Gen. 2 17. doth plainly demonstrate that had he not transgressed Gods command he should never have died 4. A thing may be said to be mortal in respect of its end Thus all the beasts of the field whatsoever Puccius thought are mortal because their end was for man to serve him so that it is a wild position to affirm as he doth that there shall be a resurrection of beasts as well as of men for they were made both in respect of matter form and end altogether mortal whereas Adam was made after the Image of God to have communion and fellowship with God and that for ever which could not be without immortality ¶ 5. Prop. 5. THe true causes of death are only revealed in Gods Word All Philosophers and Physitians they searched no further then into the proxim immediate causes of death which are either external or internal they looked no further and knew of no other thing but now by the Word of God we Christians come to know that there are three principal causes of death so that had not they been those intermedious and proxime causes of death had never been The first cause is only by occasion and temptation and that was the Devil he tempted our first parents and thereby was an occasion to let death into the world for this cause the Devil is called Joh. 8. 44. a murderer from the beginning it doth not so much relate to Cain as to Adams transgression yet the Scripture Rom. 5. doth not attribute death to the Devil but to one mans disobedience because Adams will was not forced by Satan he had power to have resisted his temptations only the Devil was the tempting cause The second and most proper cause of death was Adams disobedience so that death is a punishment of that sinne not a natural consequent of mans constitution The History of Adam as related by Moses doth evidently confirme this that there was no footstep of death till he transgressed Gods Law and upon that it was most just that he who had deprived himself of Gods Image which is the life of the soul should also be deprived of his soul which is the life of the body that as when he rebelled against God he presently felt an internal rebellion by lusts within and an external disobedience of all creatures whom he did rule over before by a pacifical dominion so also it was just that he who had deprived himself
of spiritual life should also be divested of his natural life Hence it is that the Apostle informeth us of that which all the natural wise men of the world were ignorant of Rom 5. 12. That by one mans sinne death entred into the world where the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is observed to have its peculiar Emphasis pertransiit sicut lues even as the rot doth destroy an whole flock of sheep and therefore at the 14th Verse the Apostle useth another emphatical expression Death reigned and that upon those who had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression Seeing then by Adams transgression death cometh thus to reign over all mankind and there would be no justice to have 〈◊〉 inflicted where there is no sinne it followeth necessarily that every child becometh inherently sinful because internally mortal and corruptible Thirdly The third and last cause is the anger of God justly inflicting this punishment of death upon us death may be considered in respect of the meritorious cause and so it is not of God but of sinne Secondly in respect of the decreâ—ing and punishing cause and this death is from God as an evil justly inflicted upon man for his sinnes God inflicts the sentence of death upon us but sinne deserveth it not that death can properly be caused by God for that is a privation but by removing life God in taking away life is thereby said to cause death Even as when the Sunne is removed from our Hemispere then darkness doth necessarily follow These then are the causes of death but oh how little are they attended untoâ— men attributing death to many other causes besides this ¶ 6. Prop. 6. VVHen we say that death cometh by original sinne in that we comprehend all deseases pains and miseries which are as so many inchoate deaths yea all labour and weariness for so God threatned Adam Gen. 2 17. Cursed is the ground for thy sake in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the dayes of thy life In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground for out of it wast thou taken In this sentence there is matter enough to humble us there is not a thistle in thy corn not a weed in thy garden but it may put thee in mind of original sinne yea there is not the least pain or ach of thy body but this may witness it to thee so that Austin saith truly we do circumferre testimonium c. We carry about with us daily full evidence to confirme this Doctrine of original sinne for such evils and calamities as do necessarily follow our specifical nature accompanying us as men they cannot be attributed unto any other cause but original sin which consideration viz. of mankind being universally plunged into miseries and not knowing the cause thereof made the Platonists and some Heretiques conclude that the soules of men had sinned formerly and by way of punishment were therefore adjudged to these mortal and wretched bodyes Though death be only mentioned because that is most terrible and all other miseries tend thereunto yet they are necessarily included Some ask the Question Why God did not threaten hell rather then death but no doubt eternal death is understood in this commination for temporal and eternal death are the wages of sinne only death is mentioned as being most terrible to sense men being more affected with that then with hell which is believed by faith The Scripture then mentioning death only how absurd and preposterous are the Socinians who in that threatning will comprehend any thing but death death they say cometh from the necessity of that matter we are constituted of but sickness labour and such miseries as also eternal death these are the proper fruit of sinne Thus men delivered up to errour are hurried from one dangeous precipice to another But let Christians in all deseases miseries and death it self look higher then the Philosopher or the Physitian Let them acquaint themselves with original sinne and thereupon humble themselves under Gods hand ¶ 7. The several Grounds assigned by Schoolmen of Adam's immortality rejected and some Causes held forth by the Orthodox Propos 7. ALthough it be agreed upon by all except Socinians and their adherents that Adam was made immortal at least by grace and the favour of his Creator yet there is difference among the Popish Writers upon what to fasten the ground of his immortality What was the cause of it therein they disagree Some place it in a certain vigor and excellency that was then in the soul whereby it was able to preserve the body from death Molina liketh not this De opere sex dierum Disput 28. and therefore he doth affirm that the body of Adam was made immortal and impassible by an habitual gift bestowed upon it which he saith was a corporeal quality extended through the whole body Because saith he this immortality was not a transient thing but an enduring gift sutable to that state and God is used to give permanent gifts not immediately but by some inherent principle Even as the glorified bodies are made immortal by some intrinsecal quality accommodated to that state yea and the bodies of the damned also though they are immortal yet they are not impassible because they are tormented in the flames of hell fire But Suarez Lib. 3. de hominis Creatione cap. 14. doth upon good grounds reject any such supposed corporeal quality as being without any foundation from the Scripture and introducing a miraculous way without necessity For who can think that Adam had such an intrinsecal quality in his body that fire would not burn him that if he went upon the waters his body would not sink Others they attribute his immortality to the tree of life that was say they both alimentum medicamentum as it was both nourishment so it preserved life and as it was medicinal so it did repair that partial abating of natural strength in concoction which would otherwise in time have come upon man But this opinion taketh that for granted which yet is greatly controverted viz. that it was called the tree of life as if there had been some active physical power in the fruit thereof to continue a mans life either for a long time as some think or for ever as others whether indeed once eating of it or constant eating was necessary as opportunity did require is also debated by curious Authors for some make it to be called a tree of life onely Symbolically as being a signe of eternall life which Adam should have enjoyed had he continued in obedience And truly though it should be granted that there was such a virtue in the tree yet when Adam had sinned it would no wayes have helped him or preserved him from death because the wages of sinne is death and therefore would not have produced that in him which it is supposed that it might have had in Adam's obedience yet God would cast him out
from Paradise lest he should eat of that tree For it was just that he who had incurred the sentence of death by his transgression should be deprived of all the signs of life and symbols of Gods favour Furthermore this tree of life was not it self immortal Would that alwayes have continued Was not that subject to alterations as well as other trees How then can mans immortality be attributed to that Seeing then there is so much uncertainty amongst Schoolmen upon what to place Adam's immortality the Orthodox do consonantly to Scripture put it upon these things concurring as causes to preserve him from death The first is That excellent constitution and harmony of his body whereby there could not be any humour peccant or excessive So that from within there would not have sprung any disease And although in Adam's eating and drinking being nourished thereby there would necessarily have been some alteration in him by deperdition and restauration which is in all nourishment yet that would have been in part onely not so as to make any total change upon his body 2. The second cause was That original righteousnesse which God made him in For seeing sinne only is the meritorious cause of death while Adam was thus holy and absolutely free from all sinne death had no way to enter in upon the body 3. There was the providence of God in a special manner preserving of him so that death could not come by any extrinsecal cause upon him No doubt but Adam's body was vulnerable a sword if thrust into his heart would have taken away his life but such was the peculiar providence of God to him in that condition that no evil or hurtfull thing could befall him Lastly and above all Gods appointment and divine ordination was the main and chief cause of his immortality For if the Scripture say Deut. 8. 3. in the general That man liveth not by bread alone but by every word that cometh from the mouth of the Lord then this was also true in Adam And if we read of Elias that he went fourty dayes in the strength of a little bread that he did eat Is it any wonder that the appointment of God should work such immunity from death in Adam Whereas then there are three things about death considerable the potentia or power the actus or death it self and the necessity Adam was free from all these unlesse by power we mean a remote power for if he had not had this power of dying then he could not have fallen into the necessity of death Thus you see the excellent constitution of his body original righteousness a divine providence and Gods order and decree therein did sufficiently preserve Adam not only from actual death or the necessity of death or death as a punishment but also from any disposition or habitual principle within him of death and it may be from this state of immortality Adam was created The Poets by 〈◊〉 obscure tradition had their figments of some meats and drinks which made men immortal as their Nectar called so say some because when drunk did make them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 young again or as others from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as that which did not suffer them to die There was also their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as much as sine mortalitate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is mortalis They had also their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 luctus because it did expell all sorrow and grief But to be sure when we compare our mortal sinfull and wretched estate we are in with this glorious estate of Adams What cause have we to humble our selves to see the sad change that is now come upon us By this we may see how odious that first transgression was unto God that for the guilt thereof hath made this world to be a valley of tears to be like a great Hospital of diseased and miserable men SECT III. Arguments to prove that through Adam's sinne we are made sinners and so mortal ¶ 1. LEt us proceed to prove our Doctrine That through Adam sinning we are made sinners and so mortal which necessarily supposeth that Adam was made immortal and that death had nothing to do with mankind till sinne came into the world The first Argument is From that glorious condition Adam was made in and also the excellent end he was created for All which would have been horribly obscured if death or mortality had then been present The fears and thoughts of death are a bitter herb in the sweetest dish that is when of any comfort we have we may say as the young Prophets to their master there is mors in ella death in the pot death in this or that mercy thou enjoyest this doth greatly abate our delight Therefore we read of one of the Kings of France a Lewis that forbad all those who attended him ever to make any mention of death in his ears that prophane man thought such a speech would damp his delights Seeing then Gods purpose was to make a man such an excellent and blessed creature can we think he was made mortal and that it might have been said to him This night thy soul shall be taken away and then whose shall this Paradise and all these goodly enjoyments be It is the Scriptures designe to aggravate the goodness of God towards man and to shew the excellency and honour God put upon him Whereas the Socinians directly oppose this purpose of Gods Spirit and would make man as miserable as may be Hence they say he was created like a meer innocent that he had not much more knowledge than an Infant that he had no original righteousness that he was made mortal Yea Socinus Resp. ad Puc cap 14 pag. 106. cavils at the explication of that place Genes 2. 8. which is owned by all Interpreters about the garden in Eden which God placed Adam in he would not have any such place of pleasure or delight understood thereby But although the word may be retained as a proper name Eden for so our English Translators do yet because it cometh of a word that signifieth to delight Gen. 18. 12. The Church of God hath alwayes intepreted it of a place of delight yea that Heaven is called Paradise allusively thereunto and therefore it 's horrible impudency in Socinus to say that place was not called Eden when God planted it at first but in following ages it received that appellation Thus whereas the Psalmist doth admire the goodness of God for the honour put upon man at the Creation This Heretique laboureth to debase and diminish it as much as may be ¶ 2. ANd if Adam had been made so righteous and glorious yet subject to death he would have been like that building Paul supposeth 1 Cor. 3. Whose foundation was of gold and precious stones but the superstructure hay and stubble Or like Nebuchadnezzar's Image which was partly of gold with other additaments and partly of clay all
2. 4. Luke 2. 25. The Scripture useth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for quatentus as Rom. 11. 13. And indeed this is most consonant to the Apostles scope for why should Adam's sinne be brought in rather than other parents Were it not that we were considered in him under a common respect as one with him It is true Erasmus saith he doth not remember that ever he read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a Dative case but Heb. 9. 17. may confute him And among prophane Authors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither can 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 26. 50. be said by most men to signifie in as much For as De Dieu observeth the postpositive is for the demonstrative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Art thou come for this as the other Evangelists Dost thou betray the sonne of man with a kisse Although if we should render it causaâ—ly as the adversaries contend it would no wayes prejudice the truth we plead for seeing that the sinne here charged upon all mankind is because of Adam And therefore if we will make any rational coherence in the Apostles discourse it must be after this manner As by one man sinne entered into the world and death by sinne and so death passed upon all men as much as all have sinned that is all sinned in that one man for what sense it is to say That by one man sinne and death entred upon all because all sinned in themselves This would be a contradiction to lay the death of mankind upon Adam's sinne and upon all mens actual sinnes likewise Yea it is wholly repugnant to the Apostles scope who is comparing Adam and Christ not simply as two originals and beginnings but as two causes of death and life Indeed I would not much contend with any that would render the word causally and so make the verse an whole entire proposition in it self without any defective expression at all so that we understand all mens sinning to be interpreted of that which they are guilty of in Adam It is not worth time to take notice of the wild Divinity imposed upon this Discourse of Pauls by the late Writer Vnum Necessar pag. 365 who would have Death come upon mankind occasionally onely by Adam's sinne and that but till Moses his time and after Moses to come upon a new account by the Law promulged through his ministry The mentioning of this is confutation enough for here in this Text the Apostle doth make all mankind to die because of Adam And why may not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here be the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text. Another Text witnessing this truth is Rom. 6. 23. The wages of sinne is death Here death is not taken only for eternal death as the Socinians say because the opposite unto it is made eternal life but for both kinds of death eternal and temporal temporal death being the in-let of eternal and so contrary to eternal life Neither is that cavil of their worth any thing who would make the wages of sinne to be the Subject and not the Predicate because the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put to it but that is no sure Rule Sometimes the Article is put to the Predicate for some emphasis sake and not the Subject as I Cor. 9. 1. Are not ye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my work in the Lord Are ye not that eminent and conspicuous singular work of mine in the Lord We see then what it is that sinne deserveth even temporal and eternal death it cometh not from mans primitive constitution but Adam's transgression Therefore it is that we deserve many thousand deaths if it were possible for original sinne deserveth death every actual sinne deserveth death yea and hell also Oh how miserable is man who thus deserveth to die and to be damned over and over again Therefore the Apostle useth the plural number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie the manifold evils that are in this death The word properly signifieth that meat which was allowed souldiers for their service in warre We see then how fearfull we all are to be of sinne What wages wilt thou have for every pleasant every profitable sinne even death temporal and eternal The last Text I shall mention is that which Austin so much urgeth in this point Rom. 8. 10. The body is dead because of sinne which is chiefly to be understood of our mortal body now he saith it's dead because of the sentence of death passed it so that there is no way to escape it It is sinne then that maketh the body in a state of death that deserveth the whole harmony and good temperament of the body should be dissolved and therby follow a dissolution of the whole man For though sinne deserve death yet there must be thereby some ataxy or disorder made in the body of a man otherwise death would not follow So that though sinne be the meritorious cause yet several diseases the effect of sinne do actually cause death Not that sinne maketh a substantial change in a man but an accidental only Thus you see the Scripture constantly attributing death yea and our mortality and corruptibility to sinne onely and not to our natural constitution Therefore those are strange positions we meet with Vnum Necessar cap. 6. Sect. 1. pag. 371 372. That death came in not by any new sentence or change of nature for man was created mortal and that if Adam had not sinned he should have been immortal by grace that is by the use of the tree of life That to die is a punishment to some to others not It was a punishment to all that sinned before Moses and since upon the first it fell as a consequent of Gods anger upon Adam upon the later it fell as a consequent of that anger which was threatned in Moses Law but to those who sinned not at all as Infants and Ideots it was meerly a condition of their nature and no more a punishment then to be a child is But seeing he professeth himself to be of the same judgement with his incomparable Grotius let him consider how these positions agree with him who doth against Socinus industriously and solidly prove Defens fid de satisfac cap. 1. pag. 19 20 21. that death hath alwayes some respect of a punishment instancing in the Texts I have mentioned using such words Quidclarius Quis vel verba legens non videat hanc sententiam and Corinthians the words of my Text and an ad anussim respondereisti ad Romanos Yea he concludeth That it were easie to prove that it was the perpetual judgment of the ancient Jews and Christians that death of whatsoever kind it be viz. whether with violence or without violence was the punishment of sinne adding that the Christian Emperors did deservedly condemn beside other things this opinion of Pelagians that they held mortem non ex insidiis fluxisse peccati sed exegisse eam legem
demonstrate how it stands between Adam and as The first is Psal 106. 32 33. They angred him also at the waters of strife so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes Because they provoked his Spirit so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips Here was saith he plainly a traouction of evil from the Nation to Moses their relative for their sakes he was punished but yet forasmuch as Moses himself had sinned But surely we may here say Behold a new thing under the Sunne This was scarce ever heard of before in the Church of God so that it 〈◊〉 too much honour to it to confute it yet something must be said lest words prevail and similitudes when reasons cannot Not to meddle with any large explication of that passage in the Psalm If we consult with Bellarmize and Genebrard this place will no wayes serve his turn For Bellarmine inlocum would have the 33. verse not to contain any sinne of Moses as it he spake unadvisedly with his lips but referreth that to Gods Decree or Purpose pronounced by his mouth which was to destroy the Nations as it followeth in the next verse which they did not do affirming the Hebrew word cannot be applied to an unadvised speaking or as it is rendred by some ambiguous and doubtfull Neither is it in the Text that God punished Moses for their sakes but as our Translators It went ill with Moses for their sakes And this translation Genebrard taketh notice of as following the Hebrew adding that some expound it not of any punishment God inflicted upon Moses but of that vexation trouble and grief which he had because of their murmurings and rebellings against him And it this be so then here is not so much room for his opinion as to set the sole of its feet But let it be granted That Moses was occasionally punished by the Israelites rebellion for his own sinne For who can deny but that God doth sometimes take an occasion from some mens sinnes to punish others for their own sinnes as the Hebrews have a saying especially when related to one another That in every punishment they undergo there is an ounce of that Calf which Aaron made as if God did from that take an occasion to punish the Israelites for their other transgressions yet this is no parallel to our case in hand for here the Israelites were an occasion to make Moses sinne for which God was so angry with him that he was not suffered to enter into the Land of Canan But we are now speaking of men who are punished by death that yet never were occasioned to sinne by Adam in the Adversaries sense For the people of Israel were present with Moses and by their froward carriages did provoke him to that sinfull passion but Adam hath been dead some thousands of years since Who can say It is Adam that stirreth me up it is Adam that will not let me alone but compelleth me to sinne Yea how can Heathens and Pagans be said to sinne occasionally by Adam when they happily never heard that there was such a man in the world Besides Infants they are subject to death What actual sinne doth Adam produce the occasion of to them If then Adam were now alive and Infants could be tempted to actual sinnes as Meses was by the Israelites then there had been more probability of his instance But it may be his second example will be more commensurated to our purpose and that is from 1 King 14 16. where it 's said God would give Israel up because of the sinnes of Jeroboam who did sinne and made Israel to sinne Thus saith he alluding to the words of the Apostle By one man Jeroboam sinne went out into all Israel and the curse captivity or death by sinne and so death went upon all men of Israel inasmuch as all men of Israel have sinned But this is wholly to give up the cause to Pelagians whose glosse yet of imitation he utterly rejecteth though much more that which affirmeth we are made properly and formally sinners by him Answer to a Letter pag. 54. For how did Jereboam make all Israel sinne was not by his example and in the fame sinne of Idolatry as he did Now do we follow Adam in eating of the for bidden fruit and so offend God in the same sinne as he did So that this was wholly by imitation and therefore one generation did transmit this sinne to anotherly example till at last there was no more mention of it But did Adam thus offend and then Cain and others follow him in the like sinne He cannot then wash his hands from the Pelagian Doctrine of original sinne from Adam only by imitation if he adhere to this inftance Again Jeroboam is said to make Israel sinne for some time only while his memory and example had some influence and it was the sinne of the Israelites only for many separated themselves from him and went into the kingdom of Judah that so they might not be polluted with that worship as appeareth 1 Chron. 11. 14. 16. whereas Adam's sinne bringeth death upon all mankind and this will endure to the end of the world for the Apostle saith in the Text In Adam all die Besides This Author gresly contradicts himself for at one time he saith God was sâ— angry for Adam's sinne that he indeed punished men with death yet but till Moses his time and then death came upon a new accout At other times he makes it a punishment of all men because of Adam's sinne And indeed the Text we are upon doth evidently enforce this Furthermore Death is said to reign over all markind to passe on all and are not Infants part of the world It is true he saith Children and Ideots that cannot commit actual sinnes death is no punishment to them they die in their nature but if there had been no sinne how could there have been ideots and children that die in their Infancy Certainly that must be an immature death Now although it be said That death is a conlequent of nature yet immature death must needs be a punishment of sinne for so this Auther answereth that Text Death is the wages of sinne The Apostle saith he primarily and â—terally means the solemnâ—â—es and causes and infelicines and 〈◊〉 of temporal death and not meerly the dissolution which is direct no evil but an in let to a better state Answ to a Letter pag. 87 〈…〉 this discourse of the occasionality of death by Adam 's sinne is 〈…〉 meer non-us and fancy of his own will appear by the opposite to Adam 〈◊〉 comparision with Christ What was Christ onely the occasion of our righteousness and life Did God from Christs obedience take the occasion only 〈…〉 us for our own obedience who seeth not the absurdity of this Though therefore he doth superâ—â—â—usly overlook Calvin Knox and the Scoich Presbyterics in this point yet I suppose he will bearken with more reverence to what the late Annotatour saith
of Infants dying in their original sinne without Baptisme Lib. 6. de Amissione grat naming five several opinions some whereof are more rigid others more favourable That our opinions cannot at all alter or change the state of Infants so deceased The rigid opinion doth not hurt them neither doth a favourable opinion do them any good but the Word of God that will stand our favourable and pitifull opinions will not make the natural estate of any man the better yea when such Doctrines are found to be contrary to the Word of God they may do a great deal of hurt plunging of them into dangerous consequences that may flow therefrom Therefore to such Disputants we may well reply that which Acosta the Jesuite Lib. 5. de procur Indorum salute cap. 3. saith to some of his own Religion that held even Heathens might be saved without the knowledge of Christ and that the contrary Doctrine was inhumane and severe Non hic agitur saith he durumne hoc severum sit an benignum liberale sed utrum verum necne Secondly As we are not to attend to humane affections in this point so neither to humane and natural reasonings Why God should impute Adam's sinne to us and we all be accounted as sinners in him and from him the cursed root we the cursed branches do spring ariseth from the just proccedings of God though happily the causes the thereof be unknowen to us When therefore the Scripture of God doth plainly affirm such a sinful and cursed estate let not philosophical Arguments obstruct our faith lest if we do so in other mysteries of Religion as well as in this at last we fall into plain Atheisme Let us be content with our own measure of understanding not invading the secrets of God lest we herein betray notoriously our original sinne while we labour to deny it For Luther speaking against these Curislae and Quaeristae as he calleth them In Gen. whereby men will demand a reason of Gods proceedings and affect to be like God in knowledge as Adam did hath this expression Fieri Deorum est originale peccatum original sinne is the affection of a Deity Thirdly We are alwayes in this controversy to distinguish between the merit of condemnation and the actual condemnation it self It is unquestionably true that all by nature do deserve this eternal damnation but then concerning the actual damnation thereby there are different opinions Some have delivered positively that none is ever damned for original sinne only as some Papists and the Remonstrants yea there are many say that this actual condemnation by original sinne is universally taken off all mankind by Christ so that as by the first Adam all were put into a state of Gods anger so by the second Adam all are put into a state of actual reconciliation by Christ till by their actual sins they do refuse Christ and so procure to themselves damnatation not upon any account of Adam's sinne but their own voluntary transgresson Concerning Infants also dying in their infancy great Disputes there are Some concluding all that die so though of Unbelievers and Pagans that they are saved original sinne not damning any others they conclude otherwise but then they are divided into several opinions amongst themselves of which in time more is to be said For we are not as yet come to that point concerning the actual condemnation of any by original sinne meerly but the merit and defect of it what every man doth deserve by it as soon as he is born though every sinne deserveth 〈◊〉 yet this obligation to eternal punishment may be taken off yea and that while the sinne abideth as original sinne doth in some measure in a godly man There are indeed some who make the reatus poenae the guilt of punishment to be the forme of a sinne and if this were true then they could not be 〈◊〉 Others make it a proprium to sinne but this cannot be understood of actual guilt but potential guilt Every sinne and so original doth deserve that those who are infected therewith should perish in hell torments eternally but yet the actual obligation hereunto may be removed by the grace of God the sinne still remaining in some degree as the fire had a power to burn the three Worthies though the actual working thereof was hindered SECT VI. Arguments to prove that by Nature we are all as so many damned men That Damnation belongs to the Sinne we are borne in THis being premised let us now consider those Arguments which may firmly establish us in this truth That by nature we are all as so many damned men that of our selves we can expect no other and that though we were free from actual transgression It is the grace of God only that delivereth us All mankind is like that wretched Infant Ezek. 16. spoken of by the Prophet wallowing in bloud filthy and loathsome necessarily perishing unlesse the grace of God speak unto us to live we all lie like Ezekiel's any bones of whom we may say Can these live Can these be saved Not one unlesse God give life And First All deserve eternal damnation by original contagion Because it is a state of sinne and spiritual uncleannesse we are born in And therefore if once it be granted to be a sinne the wages thereof must be hell and damnation Insomuch that some Popish Writers are very absurd who disputing against Pelagians That our birth-sinne is properly and univocally sinne yet afterwards question Whether children dying therein do go to hell or no Some assign them a Paradise wherein they have a natural happiness as Catharinus Opusc de statu pucrorum c. Others as Bellarmine that they have poena damni but not sensus as if there were half an hell or that one might be shut out from the beatifical fruition of God and yet not be tormented with sensible pain This is certain if it be truly and directly a sinne as the Scripture so often calleth it then without the grace of God there is no possibility of escaping hell thereby why then should damnation because of it be thought so horrid when it is acknowledged to be a sinne Job you heard saith Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean Job 14. 4. here we are all unclean Now what doth the Scripture pronounce of such Revel 21. 29. There shall not in any wise enter into the heavenly Jerusalem any thing that is unclean or that defileth No unclean thing can enter into the kingdom of heaven and if they do not enter in there they must enter into the kingdom of hell There is no middle place Qui inducis medium recede de medio as Austin The Scripture also calleth it sinne Psal 51. 5. Behold in sinne did my mother conceive me and what is the wages of sinne but death Rom 6. 23. not only bodily death but that eternal death which is opposite to everlasting life and the Apostle saith The sting of death is sinne 1
Kingdom of Heaven who yet they said received no poluâ—◠〈◊〉 hurt by Adam but how much more shall the grace of God abound through Christ to many The how much more lieth not in the number but in the nature of these gracious effect which come by Christ though to some onely for that the Apostle doth not intend an excess of Chriss grace in respect of the number it is plain because that had been impossible there could have been but an equality at most If it should be granted That Christ hath reconciled all those that Adam lost this would be an equality only we could not say Christ redeemed more than Adam destroyed for that could not have been therefore it is plain that the superabundance attributed by the Apostle to Christ in respect of Justification is to be understood intensively not extensively in respect of the nature of those blessed effects we receive by him and so indeed there is a great transcendency in Christ in respect of Adam For 1. By Christ we have vivification and quickning to grace and glory whereas by Adam we have sinne and condemnation Now it is farre easier to occasion the damnation of many then to procure the salvation of one To justifie and save one man is more than to destroy all mankind As we see amongst men it 's easier to destroy a thing then to build it up one man may kill many men but yet the same man cannot bring any one of those to life again If therefore Christ had saved but one of all mankind he was infinitely to be exalted above Adam by whose disobedience mankind was plunged into a perishing estate So that if we do compare Death with Life Heaven with Hell Damnation with Salvation and that the one cometh from a deficient cause the other from an efficient we must necessarily conclude that Christ hath infinitely the preheminence above Adam 2. There are some that distinguish between the sufficiency and worth that is in Christs mediation and the actual application of it Now say they the second Adam was infinately more able to save then Adam to destroy and that if we respect the number of men for Christ is able to save a thousand of worlds besides this if there were so many and therefore if we speak of Christ in respect of his sufficiency Adam in a destructing way is no more comparable to Christ in a saving way then a drop to the ocean or a sinite to an infinite For the obedience of Christ is the obedience of God and man Now though this answer may in a good explained sense be received yet I shall not so much avouch it partly because the distinction is made use of to a farre other end then the Orthodox do intend and then partly because the Apostle doth not here attend in his comparison so much to what is sufficient in Christ as to what is actual not so much to what he is able to do as what he will do It 's efficacy not sufficiency the Apostle aimeth at therefore we stick to the former answer though in many other respects the excellency of the second Adam to the first night be declared which are not here to be repeated only that one the Apostle instanceth in is not to be passed over which is that it is but one offence to condemnation whereas the grace of Christ extendeth to the abolishing of many offences that one sinne is enough to damn but the grace of Christ appeareth not only to the abolition of that but also all offences that do actually flow from it Thus every godly soul may comfortably improve this truth that there is more in Christ to save then is in all sinne whether original or actual to damn Christ is more able to justifie then Adam is to condemn Therefore some Schoolmen deny that Adam's sinne did demerit the death and damnation of all mankind it deserved his own damnation and his own death only All other mens deaths and other mens damnation have for their meritorious cause their original sin inherent in them Adam did not meritoriously deserve these but when fallen then his posterity descending from him did naturally fall into such a corrupted estate as he himself was plunged into and the reason they give of this is because no meer man can either mâ—rerâ—â— or demereri for the whole nature of mankind if Adam had stood all his posterity would have been holy and happy but we cannot say Adam would have merited this for all mankind for that is a peculiar thing to Christ only which is incommunicable to a meer man to merit for the whole race of mankind And although there is a great difference between merit and demerit a man may put himself into a demerit of eternal glory but not into a merit yet in this they are alike This reasoning of some Schoolmen admitted which seemeth very plausible then it necessarily followeth that Christs power to save is superlative more than Adams to destroy Lastly That Christ in his efficacy of grace doth exceed Adam in his condemning guilt appeareth In that at last he will utterly remove original sin from all that are his members and so totally vanquish it that it shall not remain in the least spot thereof Although Christ came into the world to take away all sin yet some Schoolmen conclude that principally it was to deliver us from original sin Because saith Suarez De Incar Christi this is the cause and the root of all actual iniquities It is not enough for Christ to purge us from our actual impieties but he also intends to heal our natures Now because original sin infecteth the nature chiefly as it is in persons so also doth Christ principally intend the sanctification of our natures And although this be not presently and immediatly done yet it wil at last be done in that good time he hath appointed for that end Those indeed that limit the efficacy of Christs grace to original sin only as if actual sins were to be removed by our voluntary penances and satisfaction they make Christ but a same Saviour and a semi mediator But yet it may well be affirmed because this original corruption is the pollution of the nature and is the cause of all actual defilements therfore the bloud of Christ doth in the most principal place cleanse from this And therefore this should exceedingly comfort the godly who groan under the reliques of this defilement upon them that Christ will never leave them till he hath restored them perfectly to their primitive integrity for this end he came into the world so that he would be but an impefect Saviour if he should not at last cure thee of this nature-defilement for this lieth upon him to do that he bring al things to their former yea a better perfection that so all may admire the goodness wisdom and mercy of God in Christ and that all cavillers may stop their mouths who usually demand Why did God suffer Adam to fall
it the mother of many errors 6 The cause of all miseries 7 Worse than actual 8 Ignorance thereof the cause why men understand not the work of conversion 9 Inseparably adheres to the best 11 A natural evil and how with the several names it hath had 13 The difilement of our specifical being 14 The inward principle of all sinfull motions ib. Flacius his opinion concerning it ib. Is alwayes putting it self forth 16 Neerer to us than actual or habitual sin 18 What it is 19 20 Why compared to death 21 Objections answered 22 Pelagians and Socinians opinion of it 28 Propagated ib. Is an internal and natural depravation of the whole man 32 Adams sin imputed to us is not all our Original sin ib. Of that opinion that Original sinne is vitium but not peccatum 33 Truly and properly a sin 34 Against the Law 35 How voluntary 39 Arminius and the Remonstrants disagree about Original sin 40 Arminius Remorstrants Zuinglius Papists Scotists and Socinians opinions of it 40 A sin a punishment and a cause of sin 41 Original inherent sin and Adams imputed sin are two distinct sins 43 Against the Law and how 44 45 Acknowledged in Old Testament times 48 Remonstrants confess it may be proved by two or three places of Scripture ib. Compared to a leprosie 51 Makes us leathsom to God as soon as born 52 Why called uncleanness ib. Should make us vile in our own eyes ib. Put a man by nature into worse condition than beasts 53 Makes us like the Devils ib. Pollutes our duties and makes us unfit and unworthy to draw nigh to God in duties 54 Makes us to be in the most immediate contrariety to God that can be ib. The denial of it charged upon Calvinists by the Lutherans 56 Acknowledged by the Rabbins and Fathers 62 Meditation thereon wherein advantagious 64 Not one universal thing of general influence but a particular thing in particular men 65 To be bewailed even by those that are regenerate ib. A two-fold Original sin 66 The different opinions of men about humiliation for it 67 In what sense it is to be repented of 68 Papists against sorrow for it 69 Several opinions concerning the pardon of it 67 68 69 Wherein repentance and the pardon of Original and actual sin do differ 70 It is an universal defilement 71 And an universal guilt ib. And the fountain and root of all actual sin ib. And the greatest sin 72 Inseparable from our natures while we live 73 Of the Scripture names of it 79 Not the essence or substance of the soul ib. Why called the old man 80 Improperly called a Law 83 Why called a Law 84 Instructs a man in all evil ib. Inclineth and provoketh to all evil ib. Compelleth to all evil 85 Why called the inherent or in-dwelling sin 90 How it dwels in the regenerate ib. Active and ever stirring 94 Is of an insinuating and contaminating nature 95 Depriveth both of power and will to do good 97 98 Inclines the heart to the creature 98 Resisteth all profers of grace 99 Weakens the principles of grace 100 Why called a treasure 102 An inexhausted stock 103 The cause of all pleasure in sin 104 Called a body and why 105 107 Shews it self outwardly in all our actions 107 Cannot be mortified without pain ib. A reality yet not a substance 108 Not a single sin but a lump of all evil ib. Inclineth only to carnal earthly and bodily things 109 Seth born in Original sinne 110 111 Deprives of more than external happiness and immortality against Socinians 117 Many Papists deny the positive part of it 136 Hath infected all men 137 Positive as well as privative 144 And the reasons thereof 145 Produceth positive sinfull actions 146 Sticks closer then vicious habits ib. Not a pestilential quality in the body 149 Is properly concupiscence or lust 157 And in what sense 159 And why so called 162 It is ignorant also ib. Defined 164 The whole man and the whole of man the subject thereof ib. Propagated and communicated to all Adams posterity 165 Truly known only by Scripture-light 167 How farre Heathens were ignorant thereof 168 The propagation thereof by the souls creation 199 Hath fill'd us with errour 211 And with curiosity 212 And vanity 213 And folly 214 Polluting the conscience how and wherein 221 Polluteth the memory 249 Polluteth the will 268 The affections 325 The imagination 348 The body of a man 392 And every one of mankind 387 Not the children of the most godly or the Virgin Mary excepted but only Christ 387. to 401 Original sin imputed the aggravations of it 405 Inherent the aggravation of it 407 It defiles all the parts of the soul is the root and cause of all actual sin is incurable taketh away all spiritual sense and feeling is habitual radicated in the soul 407. to 410 Objections against the hainousnesse of this sin Every one hath his proper Original sin 412 Vents it self betimes 415 Is alike in all 419 The immediate effects of Original sinne are mans propensity to sin 437. to 455 Is the cause of all other sine 455 Evil motions not consented unto and lusts consented unto 464 The combat between the flesh and spirit 474 Death 505 Eternal damnation 526 P Pray A Natural man cannot Pray 314 Pride Pride the cause of most heresies 218 Propagation Propagation of sin 397 Punishment The same thing may be a Punishment and a sin 41 R Redeemer THe necessity of a Redeemer demonstrates our thraldom to sin 319 Reformation A carnal mans Reformation is but the avoiding of one sin by another 318 Regenerate A sure difference between a Regenerate and unregenerate man 9 Regeneration Three sorts of mistaken Regeneration 10 Reliques Reliques of sin 474 Remember Whence is it that we Remember things when we would not 266 Righteousness Original Righteousness not given to Adam as a curb to the inferiour faculties 25 The difficulty of Rom. 5. 26 Original Righteousness the privation of it a sin 130 We were deprived of it by Adam 131 Vniversally lost 135 The losse of it the cause of all temporal losses ib. The privation of it doth necessarily inferre the presence of all sin in a subject susceptible 202 S Sacraments ONe end of the Sacraments 255 Sanctification Sanctification two fold 391 Satan All by nature in bondage to Satan 370 Scripture Scripture discovers us to our selves better then light of nature or Philosophy 161 168 The end of its being written 253 Self-knowing Self knowing a great duty and the hinderance of it 8 Sensless We are altogether Sensless as to any spiritual concernment 176 Sin A man naturally can do nothing but sin 15 16 The reason why all men do not commit all Sins though inclinable thereto 17 Men lie under a necessity of sinning yet this necessity is consistent with voluntarinesse 18 Sin delightfull to men 21 How Sin is natural to us 24 Christ only born without Sin and how 37. 390 Sin is what
Free-will and so the praise shall be given partly to our selves and partly to God But above all he that doth either deny or diminish the guilt and contagion of this sinne can never exalt Christ in all his Offices as he ought to do He that denieth the disease must needs derogate from the Physician The whole need not the Physician saith our Saviour Matth. 9. 12. And therefore it 's of great consequence to be fully perswaded about the depth breadth and length of this sinne that thereby we may be able to comprehend the dimensions of Christs love to us Not that Christ came only to take away the guilt of original sin as some Papists affirm but because this is the womb wherein all other sins are conceived This is the wound of the whole nature actual sins only infect the person of a man We may then easily see the necessity of being truly informed about this Subject for this is like miscarriage in the first concoction which cannot be amended by that which followeth And therefore this consideration should quicken you up in a diligent attention to the whole Doctrine which shall be delivered about it SECT III. IN the next place we are to shew you of what practical advantage it is for all to be fully informed about this native contagion and leprosie we bring with us into the world And First He that doth truly believe in this point will quickly silence all those impatient if not blasphemous complaints that are uttered by many against nature because as they say it is such an hard step-mother to mankind Non tam editi quum ejecti said the Heathen I call them blasphemous complaints because what is spoken against Nature redounds upon God the Author of Nature Hence in the Scripture what Nature doth God is said to do Now then if we consider what impatient expostulations the Heathens have made why man of all creatures should be by Nature most miserable No true answer could ever be given to satisfie but this because man comes sinfull into the world The young ones of beasts and birds are not so miserable as our Infants because not corrupted with evil in their Natures as they are So that if we see our very Infants which yet as the Scripture saith cannot discern between the right hand and left and have not done actual good or evil subject to grievous diseases and death it self Wonder not at this for they have in themselves through their native sinfulness a desert not only of this pain but eternal torments in hell Hence it is that the Scripture instructs us in that which all Philosophy could never inform us viz. the cause and original of all those diseases and pains yea of death it self which reigneth over all mankind Insomuch that thereby we see though there were not one actual sinne in the world though all men had no more sinne upon them then what they had in the womb and in the cradle yet there was demerit enough of that vengeance of God which upon mans transgression was threatned in the Word Gen. 6. 5. The main cause why God brought that universal deluge upon the whole world was not so much their actual wickedness as such but because it came from a polluted fountain which would never be wholly cleansed Their hearts were so many shops wherein were constantly formed all manner of impieties yea by this we see not only the miseries upon man but all the bondage an vanity that is upon the whole world That there are any barrenness any famines that the ground brings forth thorns and thistles that the woman brings forth with so much labour and forrow all these things come by original sinne God did not at first create things in such disorder and confusion If therefore thou wouldst quiet thy heart under all tumults and vexing thoughts to see the manifold mischiefs and miseries mankind is subject unto This Grave jugum super filios Adam as Austin often out of Ecclesiasticus this heavy yoke upon the sons of Adam have recourse to a serious meditation about original sin Secondly The true knowledge of this natural defilement will also satisfie us in those doubtfull Questions which some have greatly tormented themselves with viz. How sinne comes to be in the world And whence it is Austin in his seventh Book of his Confessions and fifth Chapter doth there bewail before God the great agonies and troubles of mind he was in about the beginning of sinne whence it did arise For seeing every thing that God made was exceeding good this exceedingly puzzled him to know how evil should be Yea this knot was so hard to unty in some mens judgments that it made many of the Marcionites heresie who because they saw men commit evil as soon as they were born and yet withall being convinced That God was good and could not be the beginning of evil They therefore maintained two principles of all things the one good of all good things The other evil of evil things Thus men have wonderfully plunged themselves into boggs and quagmires of danger and destruction because not acquainted with this main Truth of Original sin Thirdly For want of knowledge herein that main duty so much commended both by Scripture and the Heathens viz. To know our selves can never be put in practice The Heathen said è Coelo descendit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And as for the Scripture How often is it required That we should search and try our hearts That we should examine our selves and commune with our own hearts and be still Psal 4. Now these duties can never be effectually done without a firm belief of that desperate pollution which is in our heart And till we acknowledge with Jerem. 17. The heart is deceitfull above all things and desperately wicked Who can know it Yea we see David Psal 19. 13. though a godly man and much enlightned thereby being enabled to make deep search into his soul and having the Sun beams could discern those atoms and motes of sinne which man in the dark could not do yet he crieth out Who can understand his errors Cleanse me from secret sins that is such sins that lie latent and lurking in my heart that never yet I could find out If then this duty be so great of knowing our selves that some make all Religion to be in these two things The knowledge of our selves and of God then how necessary is it that we should be thorowly acquainted with this heart and nature-sinfulness for without this we can never know how vile and loathsom we are Our actual impieties though never so gross and numerous do not demonstrate our loathsomness so much as this bitter and sour leven within These are the stream that is the fountain These are the effects that is the cause Therefore the greatest strength of our wickedness lieth in a defiled Nature as you see in a Serpent or Toad that venom it sends forth at any time is nothing to the venom in
depriving us of all spiritual sense and feeling So that by it we are put into this sad perpiexity for none need or are bound more to bewail this sinne than an unregenerate man and yet he cannot send forth the least sigh and groan because of it So that hereby we have contracted such an unavoidable exigency upon us that we cannot turn our selves any way mourn and cry we must for this pollution yet mourn and cry we cannot because this is one inseparable effect of it to take away all tendernesse and mourning Hence the stony heart mentioned by Ezekiel Chap. 11. 18. is in a great measure original sinne Till therefore we are regenerated as we see in David Job and Paul we cannot truly mourn under it Lastly This is a work to do as long as we live Because it 's inseparable from our natures while we live in this world God indeed could in our life time wholly free us from it as well as at death but he lets these reliques continue that our tryumph at the Day of Judgement may be the greater Vivum captivum reservantur ad tryumphum Captives are preserved alive for the greater trymph And the rather God doth this that so even his very Pauls his most eminent and choicest servants may have matter of debasement within themselves and more earnestly groan for a day of Redemption A TREATISE OF Original Sin The Second Part. SHEWING VVhat ORIGINAL SINNE is AND How it is Communicated By Anthony Burgess ANCHORA SPEI LONDON Printed in the Year 1658. A TREATISE OF Original Sinne. PART II. CHAP. I. Of the Name Old-man given to Original Sinne SECT I. ROM 6. 6. Knowing this that our Old-man is crucified with Christ c. IN the beginning of the Chapter the Apostle informeth us That no Gospel priviledges or Evangelical grace amplified to the highest may encourage to sinne for the Apostle maketh an Objection himself from the Doctrine he delivered If grace abound where sinne doth abound then why may not we sinne more that grace may abound more Thus there have alwayes been some who have turned bread into stones and fish into serpents making the grace of God to exclude our duty and a tender care against sinne But the Apostle as if blasphemy were in this Objection tryeth out God forbid You see with what indignation and detestation we should look upon all those Doctrines which under pretence of advancing Grace do cry down Duties and an holy life making it a legal and a servile thing Now the Apostle bringeth an Argument against indulgence in sinne notwithstanding Gods grace Because we are dead to it and then how can we live to it Would it not be a monstrous and an afrighting sight to see dead men come out of their graves to live and walk amongst us Thus also it ought to be no less wonderfull yea terrible to see a Christian give himself to any evil way And that we are dead to sinne he proveth by our Baptism concerning which he speaks admirable and sublime matter So that if we consider what great things are here spoken of it we may wonder to see how cold and rare our meditations are about it for he makes it to be that Sacrament in the right use whereof we put on Christ yea that thereby we are ingraffed and implanted into him Hence ver 5. he useth that word of being planted into him a metaphor from the Husbandman who by planting his Science into another stock doth thereby make it partake of the life or death of the Tree if the Tree liveth that liveth if the Tree dieth that dieth so it is with us and Christ By the phrase then is intended no more than our communion with and interest in Christ and that both in his death and his resurrection For you must know that the Scripture doth not only make Christs death and resurrection to be the cause of the death of our sins and of our spiritual resurrection to holiness but also makes them types and resemblances of such things in us That as Christ died in his passible body so we should die to sinne and as Christ after his death did rise again to glory and immortality thus we should rise out of sinne to walk in newness of life and both these are signified in Baptism 1. Our Communion with Christ in the efficacy of his death and resurrection 2. The Representation of this that what was corporally done to Christ should be spiritually fulfilled in us and therefore some think that the Apostle doth allude to that primitive Rite and Custom which was in baptizing when the baptized party was first put under the water for a little season which represented Christs burial and our death to sinne 2. There was the emersion or rising again out of the waters which signified Christs Resurrection and also our rising again to holiness and godliness This is the Summe of the Apostles discourse concerning Baptism in its sacramental signification which he amplifieth further in my Text and that as a reason why we should not live to sinne who were baptized into Christ viz. Because our Old man is crucified with Christ Both because Christ in being crucified did subdue thereby the dominion of sinne and also we are to do to the body of sinne within us what was done to Christs body to crucifie it and thereby to destroy it There is nothing more to be enquired into in the Text but what is meant by our Oldman They limit it too much that understand it only of the habit or acquired custom of sinne which we live in before Regeneration as Grotius seemeth to understand But we are to take it as both Popish and Protestant Commentators do interpret it for that vicious and corrupt nature which we all derive from Adam putting it self forth into several lusts and ungodly actions wherby there is an habituated inveterated custom at last in sin so that although we may understand lusts and actual impieties with long custom therin under the phrase of the Old man yet principally and chiefly we are to interpret it of that polluted nature we have from Adam and this will easily appear to be so if you consider the other two places where this expression is used Ephes 4. 22. That ye put off the Old man c. and that ye put on the New man Col. 3. 9 10. Ye have put off the Old man with his deeds and have put on the New man Where 1. You see the Old man is distinguished from the effects and deeds of it which are actual sins And then 2. Old man and New man are made two immediate opposites now the New man is plainly expressed by the Apostle what it is viz. not so much actual holiness as the Image of God repaired in us so that as the New man is the Image of God and that holy nature repaired in us so the Old man is the contrary to this viz. a deprivation of that Image of God and and an universal
the very first yeeld themselves up to the Devil but they did repell the Devils temptations awbile neither was it the inordinate desire of the forbidden fruit that was his first sinne but pride and unbelief not believing the threatnings of God and affecting to be like God and such sinnes do quickly and easily penetrate into the best and noblest subjects as you see in the Angels themselves those sublime and admirable spiritual substances yet how quickly did such kind of sinnes enter into them and defile them all over So that we are to look to those spiritual secret sinnes which did induce Adam to eat of the forbidden fruit Lastly It 's objected by them and the same Argument also is improved by Bellarmine That man consisting of a soul a spiritual substance and of a body which is a sensible corporeal substance when these two are united in one person it 's impossible but the spiritual part should incline one way and the sensitive another The rational part that desireth a spiritual good and the sensitive part that which is sensible and these are contrary But the answer is that though these inclinations are divers yet they are not contrary but where sin hath made an Ataxy As God at first ordained the will which is appetitus rationalis to follow the understanding so he did also our affections to follow both of them so that there was an essential subordination of the affectionate part to the rational even as we see the members of the body do readily move at the command of the soul or as in perfect mixt bodies though there be contrary qualities yet by the temperament of that body their contrariety is removed and certainly the Angels sinned who yet had not any sensitive appetite to rebell against the rational therefore it was not from this necessarily that Adam did sinne Thus in Christ there was no repugnancy between grace and nature for when he said Father if it be possible let this Cup passe away This was not an absolute desire of his humane nature but a conditional one and still with submission therefore he addeth Neverthelesse thy will be done and the Saints in Heaven when they shall have re-assumed their bodies will not find any contrariety between the rational and sensitive appetite And thus you see that Adam was created in this holy estate Lastly This holiness and righteousness in a well explained sense was not supernatural but natural The Remonstrants they make this dispute about original righteousnesse inepta absurda absurd and foolish Therefore they deny any infused or concreated habits also and say The rectitude of the faculties was enough But the Orthodox say Adam could not be created without such habits or principles of holinesse within him because he was created for the enjoyment of God and therefore they call it natural not as flowing from the principles of nature but as a moral condition necessary to qualifie him for his end and therefore it was given to whole mankind in Adam and would have been naturally propagated and whereas the Remonstrants ask To what purpose or use is such original righteousnesse For if it did not necessarily and immutably determine Adams will to good than this original righteousnesse did need another and so in infinitum or if it did then How came it about that Adam did sinne To this subtilty it is answered That this original righteousnesse was not to determine the will of Adam necessarily but to incline and sortifie Adams will the more strongly and easily to do what was good So that although it did not absolutely take away Adams mutability and liberty yet it did heighten and raise up the faculties of his soul to what was good yet this was not a superadded grace to Adam as actual confirmation in holines would have been but a natural and due qualification preparing him for communion with God So that the discourse about man in his pure naturals without this original righteousnesse is an house that hath not so much as a sandy foundation it being without any foundation at all God having put his Image into man as Phydias did his into Minerva's shield that none could take that out but he must also destroy that shield Thus the Devil could not prevail with Adam to sinne but by the losse of Gods Image CHAP. XII A further Consideration of the Image of God which Man was created in Shewing what particular Graces Adam's Soul was adorn'd with SECT I. WE are discovering the Nature of that Image God created us in at first that so we may see how great our losse is The last particular was The naturality and supernaturality of it in divers respects And this is the more to be observed because while the Orthodox oppose the Socinians who affirm Nothing but a natural and simple innocency in Adam without any infused or concreated habits of holinesse or any thing supernatural in him You would think they joyn with the Papists who dogmatize That all the holinesse Adam had was supernatural Again while the same Orthodox oppose Papists because of this opinion one would think they joyned with the Socinians who say Adam had nothing in him but what was natural whereas the truth consists between these and therefore original righteousnesse was supernatural to Adam if you respect the principle from whence it did flow it was immediately from God not from principles of nature and this opposeth the Socinian yet if you do consider Adam the subject of this righteousnesse and the end for which he was created so it was a perfection due to him and in that respect called natural otherwise had not God invested mans nature with this and concreated this perfection with him the noblest of visible creatures had been dealt worst with SECT II. YEt in the second place Though this Image of God was natural to Adam yet we must not say that he had nothing supernatural that there was nothing by way of superadded grace to him Even as in Adam although we deny that he was created in pure naturals yet we say that Adam in some respect may be said in Paradise to live an animal life as well as he was created immortal Adam was made free from death he had not any proxim or immediate cause of death yet he was not made immortal as the glorified Saints in Heaven shall be for their bodies are made then spiritual not animal as the Apostle distinguisheth whereas Adam's body was in this sense animal that it did need meat and drink as also it was for generation to procreate and propagate a posterity which argued the animality of Adams body but not the mortality of it as the Socinians say unless we mean such an immortality as our bodies shall have in Heaven Thus though Adam was created immortal upon supposition of his obedience yet that doth not exclude wholly an animal life or natural as the Apostle expresly saith 1 Cor. 15 46. That was not first which is spiritual but that
glorifie and honour God all his whole work and life is now to dishonour him and reproach his holy Name Herein then lieth the misery of this losse of the Image of God that we are fallen from our end we are of our selves salt that hath lost its favourinesse we are fit for nothing but eternal torments SECT III. The Harmony and Subordination in Mans Nature dissolved by the loss of Gods Image IN the second place This losse is to be aggravated because of the Nature of it which is the deordination and dissolution of all that Harmony and Subordination which was in mans nature That admirable and composed order which was in the whole man is now wholly broken so that the mind and will is against God and the affections and passions against them A three-fold Subordination there was in man The first of the intellectual and rational part unto God The mind clearly knowing him and the will readily submitting unto him The second was A regular Subordination of all the passions and affections unto the mind so that there did not from the sensible part arise any thing that was unbeseeming and contrary to the rational Hence it was that the Scripture taketh notice of Adam and Eve in their privitive Condition that though naked yet they were not ashamed There being a full purity and simplicity in their natures whereby nothing could arise to disturb all those superiour operations At sin expresseth it well Even saith he as Paradise the place wherein Adam was created had neither heat or cold but an excellent temperament excluding the hurtfull excess of either so also the soul of Adam was without any excessive passion or inordinate motion but all things did sweetly and amicably concur in obedience to the mind The third and last Subordination was of the body both to the rationall and sensitive principles There was a preparednesse in the body of Adam as there was in Christ whereby he did readily do the Will of God and sound the body not obstructing or weighing of it down Now let us consider this three-fold cord which did bind Adam's whole man unto that which is good which was easily broken and then as when the flood-gates are open the streams of water violently rush forth hurrying all away Thus it is with mankind This order being dissolved the whole heart of man is as unruly as the Sea and whereas that hath its natural bounds Hitherto it shall go and no further The heart of man is boundlesse and hath no stops of it self only the infinite God of Heaven he ruleth and ordereth it as he pleaseth Consider the first breach and mourn under that Is it nothing to have the mind of man which hath as many thoughts almost as there are sands upon the Sea shore and yet not to have one of these rise in the soul with subordination to God What a sad bondage is this that our thoughts are no more under our command than the flying birds in the air Do not either sinfull thoughts or if good come in so unseasonably upon thee that they carry away thy soul prisoner Oh this losse of the obedience of the mind to Gods Law in all the thoughts thereof ought to be no mean matter of debasement Not to find one good thought of all those Iliades Chiliades and Myriades of thoughts which thou hast but to have rebellion in them against God What sad impression should it make on thee In the will also those motion and incompleat velleities yea acts of consent in the will which arise in the soul as so many swarms of flies in the air Are not these also so many armies of lusts against God whereas in the state of integrity there would not have risen the least distemper The second breach Is not that also as terrible and powerfull For are not all our affections and passions like so many dogs to Action like so many Locusts and Caterpillers in Egypt like so many flies and hornets till by grace they are crucified What man is there in whom if God should let any one passion or affection have dominion over him that it would not immediately destroy him So that the power of original corruption is more manifested in the affections and passions than any subject else Lastly The disorder which is in the body in respect of its instrumental serviceablenesse unto God can never be enough lamented Do not pains and diseases in the body much indispose in holy things Do not dulnesse drousinesse and wearinesse hinder a man so that when he would religiously serve the Lord this body will not let him Now all this evil and misery is come upon us because we have lost the Image of God As God in nature doth not suffer any vocuum or redundans so neither did he in respect of the frame of the soul at the first There was nothing defective and nothing excessive SECT IV. The Properties of this Losse THirdly This losse by original corruption of Gods Image is exceeding great in the properties of it For 1. It is a spiritual losse principally and chiefly The loss of Gods favour of all holiness is wholly spiritual and did tend to make a man spiritually happy So that if you should compare all the temporal losses that ever have been in the world with this first and spiritual one it would be but as the mole-hill to an high mountain If then our eyes were opened if we were able rightly to judge or losses for this we should mourn more than for any evil that ever befell us or others 〈◊〉 messengers that came with such sad tidings one upon another is nothing to this message that we bring thee But who will believe this report 2. As it is a spiritual loss so it is an universal loss The whole world is in a lost state by losing this Image of God Every creature hath lost in this universal losse The earth hath lost its fruitfulness yea the whole Creation groaneth and is in bondage subject to vanity because of this Thus all the creatures they lose by it yea every thing in man loseth The mind its light the will its holiness the affections their order and the body its soundness and immortality If all the creatures were turned into tongues they would proclaim the loss of their primitive glory and beauty because of this sinne 3. It 's not only universal But it 's the cause of all the temporal losses that we have For death in which is comprehended all kind of evil came in upon the loss of this Image So that if we are sensible of any temporal loss How much more of this spiritual one which is the cause and root of all Therefore is the body pained therefore it dieth because this Image of God is lost therefore do we loose parents and children therefore is the whole world a valley of tears because of this losse If then any private losse be so bitter unto thee how much more ought this to be which putteth a
remember what our hearts are set upon what our affections are earnest for whereas our memory should precede and go before them for the intellective memory is the same with the mind and understanding of a man for although to remember be not properly an act of knowledge yet this intellective memory we make the same with the mind of a man as it extends to things that are past The memory then is to make way for the heart and the affections to be directive to them whereas now for the most part it is made a slave to the corrupt heart for if the understanding in it all 's hegemonical and primary actions hath lost its power how much more is this true in the memory For the most part therefore the badness of the heart makes a bad memory and a good heart a good memory men complain they cannot remember when indeed they will not remember their hearts are so possessed and inslaved to earthly things that they remember nothing but what tendeth thereunto This is the ground of that saying Omnia quae curant senes meminerunt Old men remember all things their hearts are let upon all things they do earnestly regard They can remember their bonds the place where their money lieth because their hearts are fixed upon these things but no holy or good things can lodge in their memories The rule is Frigus est mater obiivionis Coldness is the mother of oblivion as is partly seen in old men and thus it is even in old and young their hearts are cold earthly lumpish even like stones about holy things and therefore it is no wonder if they remember them no better so that we may generally conclude That the cause of all they blockishness and forgetfullness about divine things is thy sinfull and corrupt heart if that were better thy memory would be better We have a notable place Jer. 2. 32. Can a maid forget her ornaments or a bride her attire yet my people have forgotten me daies without number Can a bride forget her attire and ornament it is impossible because her delight and affections are upon it but saith God My people have forgotten me daies without number Why so because I am not that to them which ornaments are to a bride saith God if they delight in me rejoyce in me if they did account me their glory then they would never forget me By this you see that therefore we forget God and his wayes because our hearts are not in love with him Can he that is powerfully conquered by love of a friend forget his friend Doth he not alwaies remember him Is not a friend alter ego Is not the lovers soul more where it loveth then where it animateth Thus it would be also with us in reference unto God therefore we have bad memories because bad hearts It is true some natural causes may either deprive us wholly of or greatly enervate the memory Thus Messalla that famous Orator judged to be more elaborate then Tully two yeares before his death forgot all things even his own name Hermogenes also that famous Rhetorician who wrote those Rhetorical institutions which are read with admiration of all and this he did when he was but eighteen years old and some six yeares after grew meerly stupid and sensless without any evident cause of whom it was said that he was Inter pueros senex inter senes puer Thucidides as Vostius reporteth Orat. institut lib. 6. speaketh of such an horrible pestilence that those who did recover of it grew so forgetfull that they did not know their friends neither remembred what kind of life or profession they once followed So that natural causes may much weaken the memory but if we speak in a moral sense then nothing doth so much corrupt the memory about holy things as a sinfull and polluted heart Fifthly The pollution of the memory is seen In that it is not now subject in the exercise of it to our will and power We cannot remember when we would and when it doth most concern us whereas in the state of integrity Adam had such an universal Dominion over all the powers of his soul that they acted at what time and in what measure he pleased Thus his affections were subject to him in respect of their rise progress and degree and so for his memory he had all things in his mind as he would Some indeed question Whether Adam did then Intelligere per Phantasmata But that seemeth inseparable from the nature of man while upon the earth and living an animal life though without sinne No doubt his soul being the form of the whole man did act dependently upon the instrumentality of the body though such was the admirable constitution of his body that nothing could make the operations thereof irregular Adam then had nothing which could either Physically or Morally hinder the memory but all was under his voluntary command whereas such an impotency is upon us that if we would give a world we cannot remember the things we would Hence we are force to compel our selves by one thing after another to bring to our minds what is forgotten for in remembring there is some dependance of one thing upon another as rings if tied together are more easily taken hold of then when they lie singly and loosly And this Austin lib. 10. confes maketh to be the Etimology of the word Cogito Cogito à cogo as Agito ab ago Factito à facio as if to cogitate were to force and compell things into our minds Let us then mourn and humble our selves under this great pollution of nature that those things which are of such infinite consequence which are as much as our salvation and eternal happiness are worth yet we do not we cannot remember Hence in the sixth place The memory being not under our command it falleth out that things come into our minds When we would not have them yea when it is a sinne to receive them How often in holy duties in religious performances do we remember things which happily we could not do when the fit season and opportunity was for them Do not many worldly businesses come into our minds when we are in heavenly approaches to God that as Job 1. when the sonnes of God came and appeared before God then Satan came also and stood with them Thus when thou art busie to remember all those Scripture-arguments which should humble thee in Gods presence which should exalt and life up thy soul to God How many heterogeneous and distracting thoughts do croud in also so that this worldly business and that earthly imploiment cometh into thy remembrance Insomuch that the people of God though their memories are sanctified and so cleansed in much measure from original filth in the dominion of it yet do much groan under this importante and unseasonable remembring of things for hereby our duties have not that united force and power as they should have neither is God so
for fifteen hundred yeares It is Bellarmine that saith so but our Divines had detected this falshood long before Jansenius Howsoever Austin may use the word yet the Scripture expresseth that which we call the will by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A second word to express liberty is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 liberty yet this is not so much applied to the liberty of the will as to the liberty of a man as here in the Text the sonne shall make you free your persons not your wils but because there is an universal bondage in all the powers of the soul to sinne blindness in the mind contumacy in the will for Quid est libertas sine gratiâ nisi contumacia What is liberty in the will without grace but contumacy against God and a wilfull delight in evil wayes Inordinacy in the affections therefore the person is said to be made free not but that the will is principally included in this only the will is not all that is made free 2 Cor 3. 17 where the spirit of the Lord is thereby is liberty It 's from the Spirit of God we obtain liberty from sinne and also from servile slavish feares The Jesuites would have this liberty nothing to the purpose in the controversie de libero arbirio for say they this is a spiritual mistical liberty libertas à peccate and they are treating of libertas naturae which they make to consist in an indifferency to good or evil but by their favour this is a proper liberty and it is this that the Pelagians did most controvert about and still the proper dispute between the orthodox and their adversaries is in this particular Whether there be any liberty or freedome in a mans will without grace to shake off the deminion of sinne so that they keep most properly to the state of the question who are diligent in the opening of the nature of this liberty Another word which the Scripture useth to express this free-will by is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 5. 2 Phil. 1. 4 and this is very proper and full when we do a thing not by constraint or by a natural necessity then we do it freely therein we shew our liberty so that liberty doth oppose coaction and natural necessity It is impossible the will should in its immediate elicite acts be compelled for then it should be voluntas and noluntas at the same time then velle would be nolle which is an high contradiction Therefore liberty doth necessarly oppose constraint but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth also oppose a natural necessity I say a natural necessity for there are other necessities that liberty doth consist with yea and the more necessary the more free as in time is to be shewed Thus though the stone hath an inclination to descend downwards yet because the stones motion is from a natural necessary principle therefore it is not free Beasts likewise though they exceed the inanimate creatures yet they do not agere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 voluntarily They do act spontaneously but not voluntary because a natural principle of sence doth determine them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indeed Heb. 10. 26 is translated wilfully If we sinne wilfully after we have known the truth but there it signifieth an high degree of the obstinacy of the will and a confirmation in evil against great light and knowledge but commonly it signifieth doing a thing so as not to be constrained to it Platonical Philosophers call free-will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too proud a word to be given to a creature and therefore the ancient Greek Fathers being many of them Platonists did greatly obscure the glory of grace by receiving Platonical words of which this is one Indeed they gave to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is too much for a creature which hath a necessity of subordination to God and dependency on him The Stoicks they express free-will by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which is in our own power The Aristotelians express it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the Scripture expression likewise Though the Scripture and Aristotelians differ as much as light and darkness about the nature of liberty As the Ancients by following Platonical Philosophy so the Neotericks especially the Jesuites by following Aristotle have greatly prejudiced the Doctrine of free-grace setting up free-will in the room thereof There is one expression more and the Scripture hath it but once which is the most emphatical in describing of this liberty and that is 1 Cor. 7. 37. Having power over a mans own will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for liberty lieth in some kinds of some dominion to have our own will hence in liberty we may conceive something Negative and something Positive Negative and that is not to be compelled not to be constrained not to be inslaved Positive and that is to have some power and dominion over the actions of our will as the Apostle instanceth in him who had decreed to keep his virgin from marriage This man is said to have power over his own will By these Scripture words we may come to understand in a great measure what liberty and freedome of will is ¶ 5. Some Observations concerning the Promoters of the Doctrine of Free-Will how Unpleasing the contrary Doctrine is to flesh and blood with some advice about it SEcondly take notice That it is the great purpose and design of some to go contrary to the plain intent of the Scripture For many in all ages of the Church have with all their learning and parts endeavoured to set up this Idol of Free-will whereas the great drift of the Scripture is to advance and set up the free grace and free gift of God The Apostles they write to debase man and to exalt the grace of God Erronious persons they dispute and write to exalt the will of man and to take off from the grace of God What a loud trumpet is Paul in his Epistles to sound forth the praises of free grace not only free grace in justification but free grace also in sanctification It 's the grace of God that doth not only pardon the guilt of sinne but conquer the power of it Consider then whether it be better to set up Dagon or the Ark the free-will of man or the free gift and grace of God Truly it is a very uncomfortable task to be disputing against that grace which yet we must wholly rely upon when we come to die It is one thing what men write while they are in health what cobweb-distinctions they please themselves with in their voluminous writings and another thing when they are in the agonies of death and are to appear at the tribunal of a righteous God It was that which that famous Champion for the grace of God Bradwardine comforted himself with when he undertook the cause of God against Pelagians That he could pray for the grace of God to help him
regarded neither is that Exposition to be endured of that late Writer with whom we have so often to do As if the Apostle meant That death relatively to Adams sinne had no effect further then to Moses and there it ceased for this doth palpably contradict the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. 22. where by Adam all are said to die Therefore by those who sinne not after the similitude of Adams transgression Some understand it thus viz. not so capitally and atrociously as he did for he sinned against an express Law but the Apostle speaketh of such who sinned without such a declared Law as Hos 6. 7. They like men have transgressed in the original like Adam Many Expositors make it the proper name of Adam hereby the Prophet aggravating their sin That as Adam in Paradise did voluntarily transgress Gods Law So the Jews in the good Land God had given them did treacherously against him But Mercer rejecteth this because in the Hebrew it is not Câ—hadam with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 emphatical as it is commonly applied to Adam There is such an expression in Job which some understand of Adam Job 31. 33. where it is translated If I covered my transgressions as Adam or as in the margin After the manner of men This interpretation may be admitted as part but 2. we are to understand it more largely of all those who sinne without a Law revealed for the Apostle had said That sinne is not imputed viz. to a mans conscience where there is no Law men are apt to be secure in sinne when there is no Law expresly threatning them Now saith the Apostle let none think so For as death so sinne was in the world before Moses his time though there was not such severe precepts against it and therefore those who had not such an express command as Adam had yet death and sinne was imputed to them So that by this is understood That all those who live out of the Church all Heathens and Pagans who have not the revealed will of God to walk by even those who never heard of Adam and so could not imitate him in sinning are in this clause comprehended Lastly By this also is declared That all Infants though they cannot actually sinne yet because of original sinne death reigneth over them likewise Though Calvin think the former sort chiefly aimed at yet he confesseth Infants are herein included Thus we have finished this Text the Doctrine whereof should make the world a valley of tears in respect of godly humiliation as it is indeed in respect of miseries As the shadow followeth the body so should holy sorrow the truth of this point Believe it and tremble for it is every ones case she out of thy self to that Saviour who delivereth from original sinne as well as actual This is most properly the sinne of the world CHAP. IX The Qualities or Adjuncts of Original Sinne. SECT I. The Text explained GEN. 8. 21. And the Lord said in his heart I will not again curse the ground any more for mans sake for the imagination of mans heart is evil from his youth I Have formerly treated on that parallel Text to this Gen. 6. 5. but wholly to another purpose Though therefore this be of great affinity with the former yet I shall deliver altogether new matter from it From the two-fold Subject of original sinne of Inhesion and Predication I proceed to the consideration of the Qualities and Adjuncts of it and begin with this Text which containeth a gracious promise from God never to bring such an universal deluge or any other general judgement upon the world for mans sake any more This promise is made a consequent of Gods Reconciliation with Noah upon whose Sacrifice it is said God smelled a sweet savour speaking after the manner of men not that God did regard the material Sacrifice for the smell of that must needs be distastfull and unsavoury but because Noah did it with a pure and holy heart and withall chiefly because this Sacrifice of Noah was typical of Christs sacrificing himself in time by whom alone God becometh propitious For Christs offering up of himself is said to be Ephes 5. 2. A Sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour which was chiefly in the Eucharistical Sacrifices not that Christs death is compared to them only as the Socinians would have it but principally and chiefly to the Expiatory Sacrifices as appeareth in the Epistle to the Hebrews only in Christs death there was that which was in Eucharistical Offerings a sweet savour unto God whereby he became propitious unto mankind God being thus graciously pleased we have this promise of God declared in the Text wherein is considerable First The Cause of it and that is Gods Deceree The Lord said in his heart that is an expression after the manner of men For you must not conceive of God as changing his mind or altering his purposes upon better considerations or as if he took up a contrary resolution to that when he intended to destroy the world but this is wholly spoken to our capacity By this is meant no more then Gods purpose and secret Decree which yet he manifested to the comfort of Noah and therefore we have Moses recording of it Secondly There is the object matter of this promise and that is two-fold I will not curse the ground neither will I smite any more every living thing as I have done God cursed the ground at first upon Adam's fall but this is meant of the Deluge as appeareth by the other particular for by that general floud it is conceived the ground was made worse then before The meaning then is That God will not bring any more universal judgement not but that particular Towns or Nations may be consumed by water or other punishments but there shall not be such a general one by water any more no nor any general punishment For what comfort would it have been to Noah if that the world should be preserved only from drowing if it might have been destroyed any other way Therefore when at the Day of Judgement the whole world shall either be destroyed or renewed by fire that will not be so much by way of punishment to the inhabitants as to change its use and to prepare for the great alteration that God is then to make Thirdly There is the aggravation of this mercy God will do this Though the imagination of mans heart be evil This clause is to be considered first as a Reason then Absolutely in it self If as a reason then here is the difficulty taken notice of how it can be made the ground why God will not destroy the world seeing formerly Chap. 6. 5. it is there made the only reason why he would destroy it can it be the motive for two contrary effects Some therefore do not make it a reason at all but part only of the description of Gods promise he will not destroy the earth again for this sinfull disposition but
sinne finished because therein the evil of sinne doth most palpably demonstrate it self It is true Calvin doth by sinne finished or perfected mean not so much the acting of any grosse sinne as the customary continuance and perseverance in it and no doubt this sense is not to be excluded but the Text may very well be interpreted of any sinne though but once committed though it be not frequently iterated And thus we have this full and excellent Text largely explained From which we observe That original sinne is that lust within a man from whence all actual sinnes do flow That is as there is not a man or woman but he doth come from Adam Hence the Canonists have a saying That if Adam were alive he could not have a wise among all the women in the world because of their discent from him So it is true of every vain thought every idle word every ungodly action they all come from this original lust within a man and therefore the Devil with all his fiery darts could do us no hurt did not our lusts betray us Nemo se palpet de suo Satanas est said Austin Let no man flatter himself he is a Devil to himself from his own lust he is a tempter to himself This truth is of special use to humble us this will make us debase our selves crying out O Lord I even I alone am to be blamed it is from my own vile self that all this corruption doth thus overflow This our Saviour confirmed when he said Matth. 15. 19. One of the heart proceed evil thoughts murders adulteries c. So that whosoever would be kept free and unspotted from sinne he must watch over his heart more diligently there is the nest there is the spawn of all those noisome sins that may be seen in thy life SECT II. That Original Sinne is the cause of all Actual Evil cleared by several Propositions which are Antidotes against many Errors ¶ 1. VVE proceed to clear this Truth in several Propositions which also will be as antidotes for the most part against so many respective errors in this Point And First By lust here in the Text we are not to understand that particular libidinous disposition in men whereby they are carried out in a wanton or unclean manner as we in our English phrase do for the most part limit it For the Apostle doth comprehend farre more Rom. 7. in that command Thou shalt not lust or covet neither is this lust to be restrained only to the sensitive and carnal part of a man as if lust were not chiefly in the reason and the will of a man according to Scripture-language Lust doth comprehend the deordination of the sublime and rational part in a man Therefore those Papists who do limit lust only to the sensual part are wholly ignorant of the extension of original sinne and the diffusion of it self through the chiefest parts of a man Hence it is justly to be censured that the late Annotator on this Text doth in his paraphrase joyn with the most erroneous of the Popish party for by lust he understands our treacherous sensual appetite which being impatient of sufferings suggests some sensitive carnal baits and so by them enticeth him And in the verse following he agin paraphraseth When consent is joyned to the invitation of the sensual part against the contrary dictates of his reason and the Spirit then that and not the affliction or temptation begetteth sinne Thus he But we may meet with a more sound and orthodox explication I say not in Whitaker and other Protestant Authors who conflict with the Papists in this point but even in Estius the Papist who doth ingenuously acknowledge That because the Apostle is here speaking of the original of all sinne spiritual sinnes as well as carnal it cannot be limited to the sensitive appetite Do not the sins of the mind arise from our lusts within us Do not the Devils sinne from the lust within them and yet they have no sensitive appetite And when the Apostle Gal. 5. 17. speaketh of that remarkable lusting which is between the flesh and the Spirit he cannot mean the sensual inferiour part of a man only for the works of this flesh are some of them said to be Idolatry Heresies which must needs proceed from the rational part of a man It is therefore too evident that this lust which doth so greatly entice us is not only in the inferiour part of the soul but most predominantly in the superiour and hence the understanding hath its peculiar enmity to the holy truths of God and the will its proper obstinacy to the good duties which God hath commanded Therefore we read of that expression Col. 2. 18. Puft up with a fleshly mind So that heresie is a lust of the mind envy a lust of the mind for the Devil is full of envy though Philosophers referre envy to one of their mixed and compounded passions unbelief ambition vain-glory these are lusts of the rational part Think not then that thy affections only do lust against the Spirit of God but thy reason thy will also doth and these have the greatest evil in them they are the greatest enemies to the wayes and truths of Christ As the Publicans sinnes were from the lust of the flesh so the Pharises sinnes were from the lusts of the mind And thus the more superstitious erroneous and devout any are in false wayes of Religion the more dangerous are their lusts because the more spiritual and immaterial This kind of lusting followeth us in our prayers in our preachings in all spiritual performances So that whereas carnal and bodily lusts are easily discerned and are accounted very loathsome in the eyes of the world These spiritual lusts are very difficulty discovered and may then most reign over a man when he thinketh himself most free from them Propos 2. When we say original sinne is the cause of all the actual evil that is committed this is not to be understood as if it did proximly and immediately produce every actual impiety onely this is the mediate cause and the root of all It is true the learned Whitaker will not allow it to be called the remote cause of death and other miseries which Infants are obnoxious unto As the root cannot be said to be the remote cause of fruit because it doth nourish it though under ground and at a distance from it Or as he instanceth a fountain is a cause of that stream which is carried in a long course distant from the spring De peccat orig l. 2. c. 9. But we need not strive about words No doubt when men through custom have contracted habits of sin upon them habits are the immediate and proxim causes of the wicked actions such persons do commit but original sinne is the mediate yet because original sinne is the causa causae it may be called the causa causati it being the cause of the customs and habits of sins it may
unto was That Adam was made mortal and would have died if he had not sinned death being a necessary consequence as they say from a mans corporal constitution The Papists especially the Schoolmen of old and the Jesuites of late to whom Jansenius doth vehemently oppose in this point 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek expression is say That Adam was indeed by nature mortal but by grace and superadded favour he was immortal So that both Papists and Protestants agree in this That Adam was made immortal in his Creation Only the difference is Whether as original righteousness so immortality may be said to be natural or supernatural to Adam We say it 's natural they say it 's supernatural and yet Bellarmine De gratiâ primi Hom. lib. cap. 5. in his explication of himself in this point cometh very near us or at least speaketh contradictions to himself For he saith if natural be taken for that which was put into man from his nativity if natural be taken for that which was to be propagated to Adam's posterity if natural be taken for that which is convenient to perfect and prepare a man for his end then they say original righteousness and so by consequence immortality would have been natural to Adam's posterity but if we take natural for that which doth internally constitute nature or necessarily flow from the principles of nature then they say immortality was supernatural even as original righteousnesse But the Protestants when they call original righteousnesse natural they doe not meane effectivè as if it were not the gift of God bestowed upon us as if it did flow from the principles of nature but subjectivè that is original righteousnesse and immortality were not supernatural to Adam as they are now to us being we are corrupted but connatural or a due perfection to man supposing God created him for such an end as to enjoy himself So that it is due not so much to the nature of man as to Gods Order and Decree concerning man Thus as in birds supposing God would have them to flie it was necessary they should have wings though they come from a natural principle so in man supposing God made him for communion with and enjoyment of himself it was necessary that he should be indewed with holiness Though flowing not from nature but concreated by God with man Thus that which is the gift of God and cometh only from him may be in respect of the subject a due perfection It was thus with Adam in respect of his soul that was created immediately by God it did not flow from any natural causes yet supposing God would make him a rational creature then this became a due perfection to him Adam then was immortal by nature in a well-explained sense as he had a reasonable soul by nature But however it be Protestants and many Papists agree in the thing that he was made immortal only they differ in the manner How Now the Socinian differeth from all for he dogmatizeth That Adam was made mortal that death was natural and denieth any original righteousnesse or immortality that was bestowed upon Adam any way It is true sometimes he saith That though Adam was made mortal yet God might have preserved him from actual death by some way or other only that he was made immortal that he denieth So that what the Papists dream about their imaginary pure naturals saying God might have created man so Socinians affirm defacto it was so The late Writer Dr. T. is also positive for Adam's mortality by nature That Adam was made mortal by nature saith he is infinitely certain and proved by his eating and drinking c. Further Explicat pag. 453. instancing in those Arguments the Socinians use to bring All which Assertions do directly and evidently oppose the word of God ¶ 2. How many wayes a thing may be said to be Immortal and in which of them man is so SEcondly When we say God made Adam immortal and that upon his transgression both himself and his posterity are subjected to a necessity of death We must rightly understand in what sense he is said to be so For 1. A thing may be said to be immortal absolutely and essentially having no principles of death within nor cannot be destroyed by any cause without Thus 1 Tim. 6. 16. God is said only to have immortality This is that comfortable attribute which the people of God make use of under all changes and vicissitudes God is alwayes the same Though father die though mother die yet God doth not as one in the Ecclesiastical Story said when word was brought him that his father was dead Desine saith he blasphemias loqui pater enim meus immortalis est Cease to speak blasphemy for my father is immortal 2. That may be said to be immortal which is so by some singular dispensation of God either in respect of mercy or of justice and thus it is with the glorified bodies of the Saints and the damned bodies of wicked men for the Saints their vile bodies shall be made like Christs glorious body they are raised to incorruptibility and glory and as for the bodies of damned persons though they be raised to reproach and dishonour yet by Gods justice they are preserved immortal so that the fire cannot consume them to ashes neither shall length of time ever destroy them For if God could make the Israelites cloaths and shoes to last so many years without being consumed no wonder if he do a greater matter upon the bodies of men 3. That may be said to be immortal which by the will of the Creator is so constituted that being separated from all matter it hath no principles of dissolution from within And thus the Angels are immortal they have no principle of corruption within yet they are annihilable by the power of God should God withdraw his preservation of them they would cease to be but from within they have no cause of dissolution The Devils also in this sense are immortal and that is the reason though many wicked and bloudy persecutors of Gods Church have died yet the Devil being immortal hath stirred up new ones which made a good man say to one who did greatly rejoyce at the death of a cruel persecutor At diabolus non moritur but the Devil doth not die Lastly A thing may be said to be immortal Conditionally supposing such and such conditions he performed and in this sense only we say God made Adam immortal for 〈◊〉 had a power to sinne and so a power to die he had a power to stand and to a power to be freed from death So that we do not say Adam had such an immortality as the glorified bodies have that cannot die but conditionally onely As he had in him power to sinne so he had a power to deprive himself of all happinesse and immortality which fell out also to our utter undoing Autin's expression of Posse non mori and Non
immutabilis constituti And indeed if death were not the effect of sinne but consequent of mans nature it would be no evil whereas the Scripture accounteth it of that nature as Deut. 30. 15. See I have set before thee this day life and good and death and evil SECT IV. Arguments brought to prove that Adam was made mortal answered THe next work to be done is to consider those Arguments which they bring to prove that Adam was made mortal and so had a proxim principle of death in him which would have taken effect if God did not provide some way against it and that which is used by all Adversaries to this truth is Because Adam was created in such a condition that be must necessarily eat and drink yea and was also to propagate children all which actions do contradict immortality For he that eateth and drinketh must by degrees have a decay in nature and our Saviour seemeth to prove immortality from this argument Luk. 20. 35 36. because in heaven they shall not marry so that to procreate children is not consistent with such a blessed estate But these Objections are easily answered if we remember the distinction at first given in this point that there is an immortality absolute and immutable or conditional and changeable upon supposition Now it 's true neither eating or marrying can consist with unchangeable mortality with immortality of glory But it may very well consist with conditional immortality that is in tendency to that which is absolute Eating and drinking in the state of integrity was a means subserving to keep up the state of immortality so farre was it from repugning of it This therefore is the root of his errour that men apprehend no other immortality but what is compleat that unless Adam had been made in the same estate that the glorified Saints are put into he could not be said to be immortal Secondly They say Adam is said to be earthly and of the earth to have a natural body and so opposite to that immortal body we shall have in heaven 1 Cor. 15. 47. But first when the Apostle giveth those names to our bodies of vile corruptible and to be in dishonour this is to be understood of our bodies after the fall they are made so through sinne It would be derogatory to God to say they were made such at first It is true the first man is said to be earthy but that expression denoteth only the original of his body whence it was first made not the state he was created in as appeareth by the opposite the second man is said to be the Lord from Heaven It is one thing then to speak of Adam's body in respect of its original and another to speak of the whole person in respect of his condition Thirdly They say All the internal causes of death were in Adam while standing as well as fallen and therefore he was mortal as well as we To this we answer there were indeed the causes of death in him materially but not formally for the bodily humours were not peccant either in quality or quantity the natural heat would not have consumed the radical moisture so that in that estate there would never have been formally existent the proxim causes of death besides the adequate and principal causes of death are the Devils suggestions and mans transgression as you heard Fourthly They ask If man were not made mortal why should immortality be promised as a reward if he had it already Why should it be promised him upon his obedience The answer is easie Adam 's immortality was inchoate onely the consummation of it was promised as a reward to his obedience Lastly They object If death be the punishment of sinne then Christ hath freed believers from this death which is against experience But 1. The Socinians grant That a necessity of death is the fruit of sinne yet Christ hath not freed us from the necessity of it no more than the naturality of it 2. We must distinguish between an actual abolition of death and the right to do it Christ hath purchased for us a right to immortality yet the actual investing of us into it is to be done in its time Death will be swallowed up in victory and for the present the nature of death is changed as to a godly man it 's no more a curse to him the sting of death is taken away as when a Serpent or Wasp have lost their sting they can do no more hurt Thus to the godly it cannot do any hurt It is like Elijah's fiery chariot to carry them to Heaven It 's like passing through the red Sea into the Land of Canaan thus as the cloud was full of darkness to the Aegyptian but light to the Israelite so is death full of terrour and of curses to an ungodly man but pleasant and lovely to a godly man it is his gain to die To live in this world is his losse and disadvantage SECT V. Q. Whether Adam's sinne was only an occasion of Gods punishing all mankind resolved against D. J. T. I Shall conclude this Text with answering a two-fold Question The full discussing whereof may inform us about the most secret and mysterious truths that are in this point And First It may be demanded That suppose it be granted that by Adam we die may not this be understood any more than occasionally God was so displeased with Adam for his transgression that thereupon he insticts the curse threatned to him upon his posterity Even as we read often in Scripture that God for Magistrates sins or for parents sins doth take an occasion to punish a people or children for their own sinnes Thus it may be thought that God by occasion from Adam's transgression did impose on us for our sinnes the same curse that was denounced to Adam not that we were sinners in him not that we come into the world with any inherent sinne but because of our actual impieties God punisheth us with Adam's curse In this manner the late adversary to original sinne doth explicate himself An Answer to a Letter pag. 30 31 32. as if this were all the evil by Adam that for his sake our sinnes inherit the curse Insomuch saith he that it is not so properly to be called original sinne as an original curse upon our sinne That we may not be deceived in his meaning though it is very difficult to reconcile himself with himself For at another time he saith The dissolution of the soul and holy should have been if Adam had not sinned for the world would have been too little to have entertained the â—yriads of men which would have been born An Answer to a Letter p. 86 87 Now how Adam's sinne should bring in the sentence of death as he saith in another place Vnum Necessar cap. 6. sect 1. pag. 367. and yet he have died though he had not sinned is impossible to reconcile He giveth us two similitudes or parallel expressions which may
in this matter Annotat in cap. 5. of the Romans for in his paraphrase on the 12 Verse he makes death and mortality to come upon all men by Adam's disobedience because all that were born after were sinners that is born after the likeness and image of Adam And again on Verse 14 death came on the world because all men are Adam 's posterity and begotten after the image and similitude of a sinful parent By this we see the cause of death is put upon that image and likeness we are now born in to our sinful parent which is nothing els but our original corruption Let not this consideration of our sinful soules and mortal bodies pass away before it hath wrought some affectionate influence upon our soules Cogita temcrtuum brevi moriturum Every pain every â—ch is a memento to esse hominem That is an effectual expression of Job cap. 17. 14. I said to corruption thou art my father and to the worm thou art my mother and sister You see your alliance and kindred though never so great it is your brother-worm your sister-worm Job giveth the wormes this title because his body was shortly to be consumed by them and thereby a most intimate conjunction with them would follow Post Genesim sequitur Exodui was an elegant allusion of one of the Ancients yea the life that we do live is so full of miseries that Solomon accounteth it better not to have been born and the Heathen said Quem Deus amat moritur juvenis which should humble us under the cause of this sinne SECT VI. Q. Whether Death may not be attributed to mans constitution considered in his meer naturalls I Proceed to the second and last Question which is May not death be attributed to mans constitution considered in his meer naturals Is there not a middle state to be conceived between a state of grace and sinne viz. a state of pure naturals by which death would have come upon mankind though there had been no sinne at all This indeed is the sigment of some Popish Writers who make Adam upon his transgression to be deprived of his supernaturals and so cast into his naturals although generally with the Papists this state of pure naturals is but in the imagination only they dispute of such things as possible but de facto they say man was created in holiness and after his fall he was plunged into original sinne Now the Socinians they do peremptorily dispute for this condition of meer naturals de facto that Adam was created a meer man without either sinne or holiness but in a middle neutral way being capable of either as his free will should determine him This state of meer nature is likewise a very pleasing Doctrine to the late Writer so oftern mentioned it helpeth him in many difficulties Death passed upon all men that is the generality of mankind all that lived in their sinne The others that died before died in their nature not in their sinne neither Adam's nor their own save only that Adam brought it upon them or rather lest it to them himself being disrobed of all that which could hinder it Thus he Answer to a Letter pag. 49. This is consonant to those who say as Bellarmine and others that man fallen and man standing differ as a cloathed and and naked man Adam was cloathed with grace and other supernatural endowments but when sinning he was divested of all these and so left naked in his meer natural Thus they hold this state of meer naturals to be a state of negation not privation God taking from man not that which was a connatural perfection to him but what was meerly gratuitous The late Writer useth this comperison of Moses his face shining and then afterwards the withdrawing of this lustre Now as Moses his face had the natural perfection of a face though the glorious superadditaments were removed thus it is with man though fallen he hath his meer naturals still and so is not in a death of sinne or necessity of transgressing the Law of God but though without the aid of supernaturals he cannot obtain the kingome of heaven yet by these pure naturals he is free in his birth from any sinful pollution saith the known Adversary to this truth Thus he that calleth original sinne a meer non ens he layeth the foundation of his Discourse upon a meer non entity Now if you ask what cometh to man by these meer naturals he will answer death Yea that which is remarkable is the long Catalogue of many sad imperfections containing three or four Pages that is brought in by him Vnum Necessar cap. 6. Sect. 7. a great part whereof he saith is our natural impotency and the other brought in by our own folly As for that which is our natural impotency man being thereby in body and soul so imperfect it is he saith as if a man should describe the condition of a Mole or a Bat concerning whose imperfections no other cause is to be enquired of but the Will of God who giveth his gifts as he pleaseth and is unjust to no man by giving or not giving any certain proportion of good things To the same purpose he speaketh also in another place further explicat pag. 475. Adam's sinne left us in pure naturals disrobed of such aides extraordinary as Adam had But certainly there are few Readers who shall consider what is by him made to be the natural impotency of man in soul and body but must conclude he is most injurious to the goodness wisdomè and justice of God in making man of such miserable pure naturals yea that it is a position worse then Manicheisme for the Manichees seeing such evils upon mankind attributed them to some evil principle but this man layeth all upon the good and most holy God It is Gods will alone not mans inherent corruption that exposeth him to so many unspeakable imperfections It is well observed by Jansenius who hath one Book only de statu purae nature opposing the Jesuites and old Schoolmen in their sigment upon a state of meer naturals that this opinion was brought into the Church of God out of Aristotle and that it is the principles of his Philosophy which have thus obscured the true Doctrine of original sinne I shall breifly lay down some Arguments against any such supposed condition of meer nature from whence they say we have ignorance in the mind rebellion against the Spirit and also death it self but without sinne And Arg. 1. The first is grounded upon a rule in reason That every subject capable of two immediate contraries must necessarily have one or the other A man must either be sick or well either alive or dead there is no middle estate between them thus it is with man he must either be holy or sinful he must either be in a state of grace or a state of iniquity The Scripture giveth not the least hint of any such pure naturals Indeed a man may in