certainly Therefore we must understand the Serpent to have crept in two senses before sin and after sin that he crept before sin naturally by the nature of his creation that he crept after sin according to the decree of God and by that condemnation which was onely in spirit So may we understand Adam to have dyed two manner of ways Naturally that he dyed naturally according to the first intention of his making before the Law Legally and after a spiritual manner after the Law by that decree and Law of condemnation which is spiritually conceiv'd Therefore we shall think that there is a twofold death in all men as we conceive to be in Adam Natural which happens naturally to all men by their own imbred nature which is corruptible and mortal A Legal one which smote all men that minute mystically when it was decreed against Adam A natural death by which men dyed naturally before the Law a Legal death which passed spiritually upon them after the Law by transgression of the Law A natural death which followed mans natural sin a Legal death caused by the legal sin of men from the sin of Adam A mystical cause of a mystical effect which onely by way of spirit and mystery is conceivable And truly as the Law of creeping ordain'd against Serpents in the Law of Adam did adde nothing to the reptile nature of Serpents but a condemnation meerly spiritual so the Law of death added nothing to the mortal nature of men except that condemnation of death which in thought and mystery is only conceiv'd Remember says David Psal 89. what is my substance And a little after What man is he that liveth and shall not see death which the Kingly Prophet understood of natural death the causes of which he ascrib'd to the substance and matter of men not to the sin of Adam adde to this what St. Paul hath written Rom. 8. Flesh savours of death and in the 6 Chap. of the same Epistle The wages of sin is death In which he meant natural sin and natural death because natural death is incorporate with natural sin being the sauce of which the flesh rellishes which is the nature and matter of sin Moreover by this distinction of natural and legal sin and natural and legal death easily appears the interpretation of that place of Numbers Chap. 27. where the daughters of Zelopheâ—ad speak unto Moses Our Father dyed in the desert and was not in that sedition which was stirred up against the Lord by Core but died in hâ—s sin They say that their father was dead not in that Judgement wherein Core was swallowed up who rebelled against the Lord but by the sin and fault of his nature which is the seed of sin and corruption and by that fate of nature by which death is the last period of all things subject to corruption They doe not say that he was swallowed up in that just Judgement wherein the lowest earth opened to swallow up those Conspirators but that he dyed a single death in the desert by that same natural Law by which all men owe themselves to death and by which simple natural death abides natural sin CHAP. IV. Men were in the beginning created according to the Image of God and very good Of the Image of God in the first creation Of the Image of God in the second creation Men were created upright in the beginning but of vâ—tious matter which could easily return to its own disposition IT seems not to agree with that which is set down in the 1 of Genesis That I said the Creation of man was evill and corrupt For there it 's said that God did create man according to his own Image and that all things which God created were very good whence Interpreters conclude and rightly that man being created according to Gods own Image was created perfect and upright And if all that God created was very good that man then who was the most excellent of the Creatures was exceeding good To this that I may answer I would first have it granted that the impression of Gods Image in the first creation is different from that in the second creation God expressed in the first Creation that first Image and copie of his wonderful art by which he made the World and all that therein is and by excellent wisdom compos'd and ponder'd them In his renewing which is the second creation God express'd the Image of his own nature wherein he communicated his love and bounty to the Wor'd God in his first creation shewed the out-side of his work but in the second he opened the bowels of his love The first creation expressed the Image of God which we may call the exterior the second creation presents us with the internal Image of God There was nothing besides which God did not communicate in the Image of that plat-form and of his admirable art which he exppress'd in all things which he created But he did not make all things partake of that Image of his nature loâ—e and bounty which be most worthily shewin men when he did regenerate or when he went about to regenerate them Furthermore whatsoever material or corporeal things ar created by the law of their own nature they ar created corruptible and mortal but whatsoever out of things corruptible and material are created a new by the Law of that second creation become incorruptible and immortal To say nothing of other material and corporeal things it is certain that men in the beginning were created according to the Image of God that Image of their Creator which we may call the Image of creation yea they were created according to such an Image of creation which above all other Images of creation is the most excellent amongst all the frames of the creatures which more expresly and more highly represented the Creator But we must confess that men were created at first according to the exteriour Image of God which is called nighest to God at a greater distance in comparison to the Image of the second creation It is true that men were created in the beginning perfect right and excellently good in as farr as men by force and vertue of their creation could be created perfect right and excellently good But no man ought to be ignorant that men were created from the beginning of corruptible matter which might easily be turn'd from perfect to imperfect from right to wrong from good to evil which the men which were first created did evidence by a strong and approved example since the nature of their composition and their own negligence carried them being upright made so far aside Therefore so often as I think of this That men being created according to the Image of God the Creator and according to the Image of the first plat-form perfect right and very good by a fault in them ingrafted by nature did degenerare from righteousness to wickedness from good to evil So often I fancy a Watch newly
A THEOLOGICAL SYSTEME Upon that PRESVPPOSITION That MEN were before ADAM The first PART LONDON Printed in the Year 1655. THE PROEME IT is a natural suspition that the beginning of the world is not to be receiv'd according to that common beginning which is pitched in Adam inherent in all men who have but an ordinary knowledge in things For that beginning seems enquirable at a â—ar greater distance and from ages past very long before both by the most ancient accounts of the Chaldaeans as also by the most ancient Records of the Aegyptians Aethiopians and Scythians and by parts of the frame of the world newly discovered as also from those unknown Countries to which the Hollandeâ—s have sayled of late the men of which as is probable did not descend from Adam I had this suspition also being a Child when I heard or read the History of Genesis Where Cain goes forth where he kiâ—ls his brother when they were in the fields doing it warily like a thief least it should be discovered by any Where he flies where he fears punishment for the death of his Brother Lastly where he marries a a wife far from his Ancestors and builds a City Yet although I had this doubt in my mind yet durst I not speak any thing of it which did not rellish of that received opinion concerning Adam created first of all men till I met with the 12 13 14 verses of the 5 ch of the Epist of St. Paul to the Rom. which I have in hand and consider of now twenty years or thereabouts And as he who goes upon Ice goes warily where he cracks it being not well frozen or tender but where he finds it frozen and well hardned waâ—ks boldly So I dreaded first least this doubtfull dispute might either cuâ— my soles or throw me headlong into some deep Heresie if I should insist upon it But so soon as I knew by these verses of the Apostle that sin was in the world before it was imputed and when I knew and that certainly that sin began from Adam to be imputed I took heart and found all this dispute so solid that I pasâ—'d through it with lesse fear I found men who beyond that imputation of sin which had its original from Adam had indeed sinned but their sin was not imputed to them according to the similitude of Adam to whom first of all sin was imputed and so imputed that it was â—eputed a crime to him and to all men and turned to death But as the nature is of things that are firm in themselves the firmnesse of this Tenent appeared to me to be such that the more questions of Divinity I did turn it to and those the greater and most difficult so much the purer greater and solid Christian Religion shined forth to me Such as to Heaven So great as there she seems A tryal of which I put forth in that Essay which for that purpose I did compose for the clearing of those verses of the Apostle Nor considering the bulk of the work could I then make an end Now I intend still by way of Essay to open the body of Divinity it self by which the Doctrine of the Gospel upon presupposition of men before Adam may be laid open more at large and that it may appear that this Tenet is no ways disadvantagious to our faith which is in Christ nay that it unrevelled it from a great many niceties with which it 's entangled and does almost in every place make it clearer to our eyes and minds Which I promise without boasting Whether I do it and bring it to passe let the courteous Reader judge I doe not doubt but a great many persons who shall see the title and the intention of this book not reading the work it self with tongue and hand will streight fall upon this work as a new thing and streight draw their pens to fall upon that which they have not understood To all whom I now answer That whatsoe'r they write I shall not answer them But if there be any more calm and wise as I hope there will be a great many such who shall refrain themselves And if there be any thing in my writings which after diligent perusal shall offend them and shall admonish me in a civil and Christian way I shall yeeld my self wholly to them and affording them all respect shall endeavour to satisfie them But this especially and most exactly I promise If any man in a known case shall shew me my error that is to say that I contradict the History of Genesis in the least or any other place of the holy and Orthodox scripture which are contained in both the Testaments or step aside from them a nails breadth or from any head of Christian faith First I shall thank him for his teaching of me then I shall not be ashamed to set down my name nay I shall think it my greatest credit to fill it with capital letter in confessing my fault which I detest if any such I have committed For although I am my own greatest friend yet truth's more dear to me which I only professe My name I do not now mention for modesties sake not as conscious of any evil action For I fear lest I should abuse so noble a subject by the slendernesse of my Treatise and lest all which I shall study or frame upon such high matter should be far inferiour But let them account which know me what and how great have been my tossings up and down these thirty years and what chances have drawn me in that time forward and backward So that more by meditation than reading and serious study as was needfull I have at last finisht this ill compos'd and undigested work Therefore I intreat my Reader he will be pleased to take this beginning howsoever in good part The Contents of the Chapters in the first Book CHAP. I. THe verses of the Apostle Original sin in them is chiefly handled The Law there meant is the Law of Adam not the Law of Moses Of sin natural and legal imputed and not imputed As also of Death natural and legal Humane Laws were appointed for the governing of right reason They are bounded by men The Laws of God are above men Pag. 1 II. The natural sins of men are the very defaults of humane nature the causes of which are not to be ascribed to the sins of Adam Legal sin imputed to men by the sin of Adam is additional Conceiv'd spiritually and not propagated naturally 7 III. The natural death of meâ—arises from the nature of man which is mortal nor is caus'd by the condemnation of death decreed against Adam Which is the legal death And is meant spiritually not naturally 12 IV. Men were in the beginning created according to the Image of God and very good Of the Image of God in the first creation Of the Image of God in the second creation Men were created upright in the beginning but of vitious matter
of years that the Aegyptian Kings are said to have reign'd The Kings of the Aegyptians Gods Heroes and men 164 VII Of the Aegyptian Kings who were men Plato in Timaeus concerning the warriâ—rs of the Atlantick Ilands is cited The sons of this age wiser than the sons of light Of the prodigious account of the Chinensians according to Scaliger 171 VIII The most antient creation of the world is prov'd from the progress of Astronomy Theology and Magick of the Gentiles In this Chapter the fabrick of the sphere is handled 177 IX Of the antiquity of Astronomy 182 X. Of the antiquity of Astrologie 185 XI Of the antiquity of the Divinity and Magick of the Gentiles 192 The Contents of the fourth Book CHAP. I. ADam though fram'd perfect could not that hour he was made understand the Sphere Astronomy and Astrology But in progress of time might gain the knowledge of them Of holy Writ Many things copied not original 200 II. God made himself obscurely known to men God in a cloud Of the Bible copied out There were writers before Moses Genesis could not mention all He wrote not the history of the first men but the first Iews The Ark was not the first of ships The Vine planted by Noe was not the first Vine How Melchizedech is to be understood without father mother or original 210 III. Men err as often as they understand any thing more generally which ought to be more particularly taken The darkness at the death of our Saviour was over the whole Land of the Iews not over all the world The Starr which appear'd to the Wise men was a stream of light in the air not a Star in heaven 219 IV. In the miracle of Ezechiahs sicknesse the Sunne went not back in heaven but in the Dyal of Achaz 222 V. How the Sun stood still in Gabaon in the miracle of Joshua That long day should not extend it self beyond the Country of Gabaon 229 VI. Where the miracle is of the Iews garments not worn out in the Wilderness and the not wearing of their shooes 235 VII That the Flood of Noah was not upon the whole earth but only upon the Land of the Iews Not to destroy all men but only the Iews 239 VIII The same which was proved in the former Chapter by the Dove sent out by Noah and by the natural descent of waters 244 IX This same is proved by the history of the sons and posterity of Noah By Eusebius in his Chronicle There were particular deluges Aegypt never drowned Strabo of the Turdetanian Spaniards Scaliger and Servius concerning the Trojans are cited Solinus of the Indians Sanchoniato Jombal 248 X. Of Eternity before Eternity Of Eternity from Eternity 258 XI Of eternity beyond eternity Of eternity to eternity The Kingdom of Messias how eternal 261 XII Eternity uses to be understood in Scripture by the duration of the Sun Moon Of an age Of eternal times St. Paul expounded Eternity indefinite 265 XIII Of the ages of creatures described by Hesiod and Ausonius Why the Histories of the first men were not known Out of Plato By the change of the Epoche The Aboriginal Nations of the world are not known 271 XIV They are deceived who deduce the Originals of men from the Grand-children of Noah Grotius concerning the original of the Nations in America confuted 276 The Contents of the Chapters in the fifth Book CHAP. I. MEn behov'd to die to become immortal Men die in Christ They behov'd first to sin and be condemn'd in Adam Men dye in Christ spiritually mystically Of the fictions mysteries of the Law Of divine mysteries which were either fictions or parables or mystical similitudes We die spiritually according to the similitude of Christ We sinned spiritually according to the similitude of the sin of Adam 282 II. Of Original sin It is inherent It is imputed What it is to impute That is imputed which is joyned in a kind of communion with that to which it is imputed Of communions and conjunctions of things Physical Political and Mystical Christ the end of all mysteries Adam ought to be referred to Christ not Christ to Adam Adam ought to be imputed to men as Christ is imputed to them spiritually and mystically 287 III. Of the two chief in the two mystical imputations Adam and Christ Abraham in the middle betwixt them We passe from the sin of Adam to the Iustice of Christ by the faith of Abraham Punishments inflicted by mystical imputations are mystically and spiritually to be understood No man no not Adam himself dy'd for Adams sin Only Christ dyed for that sin All men are understood dead in Christ spiritually mystically 294 IV. The imputation of another mans sin is not conceivable but by some supposition in Law Adams sin was imputed to all men in a spiritual manner not by natural propagation Divines confuse nature and guilt which ought to be understood apart in original sin Nature is before guilt Guilt did not corrupt nature yea on the contrary corrupt nature caus'd guilt Which is prov'd by the example of Adam when he sinn'd 303 V. Those who think that the imputation of Adams sin was ingendred by traduction from Adam do gather it from thence in that they believe that Adam was the Father of all men The Apostle hath distinguish'd and not joyn'd sin naturally inherent and that which is imputed He hath distinguished and not joyn'd natural death with that which is inflicted by the Law Death which was by the sin of Adam began with Adam and ended with Moses and Christ Natural sin and natural death were before Adam and shall be after Moses and Christ to the end of all time 308 VI. How the sin of Adam was cause of mens salvation not condemnation Since the death of Christ no mans sin is imputed to another but every one bears his own sin 316 VII Why Adam who sinn'd in the nature of a head not was likewise punish'd in the nature of the head The sin of Adam was disobedience Natural and Legal sin was the two-fold barricado against men to shut them out of Paradise Christ dying broke the barr of the Law Christ rising again and sanctifying us shall also break the natural sin 327 VII All men have sinned according to the similitude of Adams sin Infants have sinned according to the same similitude 335 IX How the imputation of the sin of Adam was imputed backward and upon the predecessors of Adam by a mystery provided for their salvation How the predecessors of Adam could be sav'd 342 A SYSTEME OF DIVINITY Part I. Book I. CHAP. I. The verses of the Apostle Original sin in them is chiefly handled The Law there meant is the Law of Adam not the Law of Moses Of sin natural and legal imputed and not imputed As also of Death natural and legal Humane Laws were appointed for the governing of right reason They are bounded by men The Laws of God are above men I Will present
complaint of the Elect in the Scripture as it were accusing God that he shews all his power to heap prosperity upon the wicked that all things goe well with them that things which they wish for come to pass beyond their hopes and that no disasters blast their pleasures and their joyes Likewise the most excellent Poet falls out with his gods because his Mistress having sworn by them being perjur'd kept the same face which she had before that she being perjur'd had as long hair as before that she had the same Roses in her cheeks the same neat foot the same fair and clear eyes after she had injur'd the gods as she had before she swore Nay after she had tyed her self by so many execrations she became fairer and fairer And certainly the supposition of the Roman Law granted a great many who were prisoners with the Enemy dead in a civil sense who were notwithstanding in good health Therefore it is apparent that neither suppositions of Law nor intentions of mysterie could any jot indammage nature nor that the imputation of Adams sin which is altogether mystical and spiritual was the cause of Plagues Fevers and other diseases which Nature causes in men but that they happen by reason of vitious matter and the frame of their creation which is subject to corruption CHAP. III. The natural death of men arises from the nature of man which is mortal nor is caus'd by the condemnation of death decreed against Adam which is the legal death and is meant spiritually not naturally ANd it is the fashion of all Inconveniences that one draws another there are not those wanting who affirm That if Adam had not sinn'd men should never have dyed as if immortality which is aeternal life and which onely a new Creation could beget as only having the power of immortality in it could have been bestowed upon men by the force and vertue of the first Creation which by its nature is subject to corruption and death and that men should not have dyed who as the Schools say are naturally corruptible and were created mortal Nay say they God said to Adam Eat not of the tree of good and evil for on that day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death Therefore gather they If death was given as a punnishment to Adam on that day wherein he transgressed the Law of God Adam should have never dyed if he had never sinn'd But that consequence is utterly denied for although they die which kill therefore they which do not kill are not immortal Those that are guilty and not guilty of blood come to a certain end by death This is the difference 'twixt both their deaths that those that are upright 〈◊〉 of good life die simply naturally those that dye by order of Law are said to dye a two-fold death naturally and legally a natural death and that which is can'd legal and civil by the condemnation of the Law Truly whether a man by the sentence of the Judge be strangled or be beheaded or dye upon the rack he is first to be thought dead a natural death as being dead by natural causes as stopping or cutting the passages of his breath Again because to this nature a condemnation by Law is added he is said for the way of his death to have dyed a second and a civil death The same is to be thought to have happened to Adam being condemned by the Law of God which happen'd to other men condemned by the Laws of men Adam should have dyed a natural death and by a cause meerly natural since he was made up of matter corruptible and mortal Adam dyed likewise a legal death by the condemnation of the Law at which time he broke the Law of God The natural death of Adam followed the natural sin of Adam and the infirmity of his corruption springing from the corruptible matter whereof he was made Legal sin made the legal death of Adam There was a mystical cause of that mystical effect which only could be conceiv'd by spirit and reason This shall be evidently prov'd by Adam himself God had said to Adam Whatsoever day then eatest thou shalt die the death Therefore Adam is thought to have died the very same day the very same minute wherein he transgressed the Law of God And yet Adam died neither naturally nor bodily that minute or that day For we know that he liv'd Nine hundred years after he sinned Therefore we shall understand that Adam dyed when he transgressed the Law of God a legal and a spiritual death which only could be conceiv'd in thought Adam dyed a legal spiritual death when he transgressed the Law of God Adam died a natural and a corporeal death when he had liv'd Nine hundred and thirty years and in that set hour where the natural bounds of his life was fixed But we shall more easily understand that Adam dyed the death and that a spiritual death was added to his natural if we review other condemnations decreed by God both against Adam and against Eve and against the Serpent after and for the transgression of Adam This punishment was decreed for Adam after his sin In labour shalt thou eat of the earth all the dayes of thy life But God had plac'd Adam before he sinned in Paradise that he might cultivate it Therefore that he might labour and manure the ground in Paradise before he sinn'd and that by his labour he might eat of it as he did labour and manure it and by his labour did eat of it after his sinne Observe here labour both before and after sin Labours before sin according to the nature of agriculture natural labours after sin by a mystical condemnation which only could be conceived in thought Such is that which the Lord said to Eve I will multiply thy sorrows and thou shalt bring forth with pain and shalt be in the power of thy husband and he shall be Lord over thee The Lord multiplyed the sorrows of the woman when according to the condemnation he added spiritual and mystical griefs to those which were natural by which a woman is naturally torn when she brings forth God multiplyed the subjection of the woman under the power of her husband when he added the condemnation by Law to that natural Law by which the nobler sex hath dominion over the inferiour But chiefly its worth taking notice of what God decreed against the Serpent and what punishment he appointed for him for tempting Eve with eating of the forbidden fruit Because thou hast done this saith the Lord to the Serpent thou shalt goe upon thy belly and shalt eat dust all the dayes of thy life but this was naturally in the Serpent at his creation to creep and crawl that the Serpent should goe upon his belly and eat the dust for God before sin nay the fifth day of the Creation created all manner of creeping things of which sort was the Serpent and chief of them
comes to passe that the imputation of the sin of Adam is thought the cause of the imputation of the death of Christ though indeed by reason of the imputation of the death of Christ the sin of Adam was imputed Yea because really and properly God by the sin of Adam made way to the Covenant of grace which is by Jesus Christ Therefore the first born reason of those imputations was in the death of Christ the condition of which the secondary imputation of Adam sin must needs ensue and as Christ was not imputed by Nature but by the meer mystery of God so was Adam imputed to men not by nature but by the meer dispensation of the divine mystery CHAP. III. Of the two chief in the two mystical imputations Adam and Christ Abraham in the middle betwixt them We passe from the sin of Adam to the Iustice of Christ by the faith of Abraham Punishments inflicted by mystical imputations are mystically and spiritually to be understood No man no not Adam himself dy'd for Adams sin Only Christ dyed for that sin All men are understood dead in Christ spiritually and mystically CHrist and Adam were types one of another or rather antitypes and by dissimilitude like one another like because Adam Christ are both imputed after the same manner by dissimilitude because Christ was imputed for justice Adam was imputed for sin but justice and sin are quite different Adam and Christ were in these mystical imputations chief the middle betwixt them was Abraham The guilt of Adam was imputed to all men that the expiation of that guilt might likewise be imputed to them I say that it might be imputed to them by faith in God which is in Christ such as Abraham first had and it was imputed to him for Justice But it is not writ for Abrahams own sake that his faith was imputed to him for justice but likewise for us saith the Apostle that is for all men to whom it shall be imputed believing in him that rais'd Jesus Christ from the dead who was betrayed for the sins of men and rose again for the justification of them In the Rom. chap. 4. Abraham was the original and fountain of that justification in that sense as he is call'd the Father of all believers in the same place of the Romans All that mystery then of regeneration of men which is mens redemption sanctification and salvation consists in these thtee mystical imputations The imputation of the sin of Adam The imputation of the expiation of it by the death of Christ And the imputation of the faith of Abraham which was the mean or mid path by which we should passe from the sin of Adam to that justification and sanctification which by the death of Christ and his resurrection is engendred in men There was then a continued imputation from the sin of Adam to the death of Christ by the faith of Abraham And the whole mystery of mans redemption was accomplished in the persons of three Jews Adam Abraham and Christ accordnig as salvation comes to all the Nations by the Jews according to the promise confirm'd to Abraham That in him all nations should be blessed and in his seed Adam was the Father of Abraham according to the flesh and according to the imputation of sin he was likewise the Father of Christ according to the flesh without the defiling of the flesh Abraham was the Father of Christ according to the blood without the blemish of the blood he was likewise the Father of Adam according to the imputation of faith Christ was the Father of Adam and Abraham according to the redemption and expiation of that sin which flow'd from Adam and was imputed to Abraham In that these three heads of those mystical imputations agree That those three Jews were the Fathers of all Nations not according to the flesh but each of them according to his own mystical imputation But the Gentiles are indeed the Sons both of Adam and Abraham not naturally but according to their engrafting and mystical adoption according to which Adam and Abraham being Jews were imputed to the Gentiles that Christ being a Jew might be imputed to them also Mystical imputations share in all kind of natural and politique imputation A natural conjunction of bodies is common both to the mystical and Physical imputation which by traduction in propagation is ingendred in mystical imputations and a mystical imputation is imagin'd in the similitude of creation and formation According to that mystical communion and conjunction Adam and Abraham are call'd our Fathers and we are said to be begotten in Christ For these three men were common Representatives of all men supposing the whole species But as Adam Abraham and Christ were all men even so were all men one in Adam Abraham and Christ by unity of similitude and participation of the nature as amongst Philosophers all men participating of the same species are reputed one man also amongst Divines the whole species of men is believed to be deposited in those three Adam Abraham and Christ In Adam according to sin in Abraham according to faith in Christ according to redemption Mystical imputations agree with imputations politique in that Adam Abraham and Christ were the chief presidents cautioners and sureties for all mankind That whatsoever Adam should do as to the Law Christ in the business of Redemption Abraham in matter of Faith should stand firm Certainly Adam of whom we chiefly here speak was according to divine Law in an universal esteem as a Prince in behalf of his people Embassadors for a Kingdom or Commonwealth or a President for the Universities And Adam was so ordain'd being the Prince of all mankind that so soon as he should transgresse the Law of God he should not onely be guilty himself but make all men guilty likewise for as the Divines say the act of Adam was not personal but representative that is it was not the act of one person but of a person represented others as sustaining the person of all mankind God had oblig'd all men in that Covenant which he made with Adam as with a security a Procurer or Protector of them that what he should sin in they should also all be guilty Adam had a charge from God not from men according to which he might trannsact mens businesse without their knowledge Adam broke the Covenant of God and according to that punishment of imputation which God upon that breach destin'd for all men all men are likewise thought to have broke it Adam was a common Representative of all men Men sinn'd in general by a unition to that representative as the School-men say and as Christ our Justice was the form of the mystical imputation according to the same manner of imputation was Adam our sin It is known that punishments by Natural and Political imputations have not only seized upon mens persons but have by the sins of men had likewise an influence both upon things living and
head yet he was not punish'd as the head for his sin For if all sin and wickedness all feavers and plagues and eternal death it self as it is believ'd enterd into the world and pass'd upon all men Why was not Adam readiest to sin amongst all men being the head and cause of all sins by reason of his transgression Why was not he seized himself with troops and companies of all manner of plagues and fevers And why was not that author of eternal death himself given to eternal death Yea why did Adam if we will except his single transgression become famous for no other sin Yea why did he enjoy his health so well Why enjoyd he a long life nine hundred and thirty years Why has none of the Divines sent him to Hell that amongst the torments of the wicked and the damned he might be punisht with eternal death But if on the contrary no man was ever partaker or conscious with Adam of Adams sin yea if all men were purer from that sin then Children are free from sin as being not born when Adam dam sinn'd What was the reason thar men should become more wicked by that sin than Adam himself For it is certain that a great many men have been thought more famous for the sin of Adam then Adam himself were sore handled their life short and sickly and at last thrown down to hell there to die an eternal death This darkness from my supposition I will make as clear as day if we consider the sin of Adam either against the Law which was a legal sin or by default of his Nature subject to corruption which is a natural sin If we consider Adam sining by a legal sin or against the Law which is the same thing we shall conceive him not only as to himself but also in regard of all men and to all mankind whom he did represent by force and virtue of which representation he deserved the imputation of that sin to himself and all Mankind For as an Ambassadour who yeilds up a people to a conquering Prince in the name of his Country does not only bind in his rendition himself but all the people of the City whom the Ambassadour represents So Adam in regard that he did represent all mankind did not only bind himself but all mankind to the decree which went out against his sin and made them and himself partakers of the same sin And as in the businesse of rendition which the Ambassadour does in the behalf of his Country all are equally obliged to the Laws of it as well the Ambassadour as all men of the Country Just so in the businesse of Adams sin all mankind did equally fall into the imputation And as this rendition according to the School men is neither lesse nor more in one than another nor of all those that are yeilded none is more engaged to it than another Iust so the imputation of the sin of Adam admits not of a more or a lesse nor can the sin of Adam be thought to be imputed more or lesse to any man that ever was or is or shall be And Lucans expression might be very fit in this case It stains and equals all Yea Adam and all men that ever were made or shall be have suffered alike for that sin for all have equally endured the condemnation of death decreed against that sin and all those men were thought to be dead alike according to that legal spiritual and mystical death which ensued upon that legal spiritual and mystical sin If we consider Adam sinning in the default of his Nature given to corruption which is natural sin then we shall conceive him in regard of himself not in regard of all men And in that regard the more that Adam sinn'd to himself in that natural sin he gain'd himself more natural evil and punishment and so had fall'n into more grievous diseases And indeed because natural sin is receptive of more or lesse according to mans nature more or lesse corrupt as likewise all natural punishments admit of more or lesse and all natural evils which ensue upon that natural sin And as Adam beyond all other men was of a lesse corrupt nature by the prerogative of his creation which he had from God himself so sinn'd he lesse than other men in natural sin And was lesse punished for his natural sin and suffered fewer evils than other men suffered yea fewer than they for the self same sin now suffer Let us examine this businesse on the right ballance of reason that it may appear beyond all controversie that the sins of all men and all those evils and plagues which punish men and their eternal death which hinders them from eternal life to have flow'd from the fault of their own nature inherent to them and not from the sin of Adam Whence I pray that thirst of blood by which one man is a wild beast to another one man kills another is it not from black choler with which mans liver swells whence all those incestuous marriages contrary to Law whence unlawfull venerie and those wild lusts by which men run upon beasts rashly not from perverse and corrupt lust which is the itch of perverse and corrupt nature whence rapine and theft whence war and strife amongst you says St. James in his 4 Chapter of his Epistle are they not from your lusts And hence we chiefly gather that such vices are altogether tyed and addicted to the substance of men since the same substance is to men and beast and men and beast have the same vices Hence it is they call murtherers cruel persons Tigers Bears Lions Lustfull persons Goats Backbiters Dogs Thieves Kites and Eagles tallons Belly-gods hogs c. Because we believe that the sin of Adam was imputed to beasts and engendred such vices also in them Whence is it likewise that men have their health so that they are girt with the spleen as with a girdle whence have they the Kings evil whence bleer'd eyes their guts ake the roots of their hearts are perished whence have they these continual uncertain or Periodical Fevers whence so many sorts of the Gout and either the stone or gravel in the Kidneys which occasions a strangurie and other several sorts of diseases by which mens bodies are tormented are they not from the ill dispositions of mens bodies which are higher or lesse grievous in humane bodies as the badnesse of their affections is either lightned or remitted But certainly varieties of sins or health which make men either ill or diseased do plainly shew that all this vitiousness springs from our nature and from the substance of men which as it is diversly affected to divers by either lesse or more it is corrupted and troubled Neither could the legal sin of Adam ever bring any such thing to passe For it is but one and not vicious and passed not upon men either more intense or more remiss but made all men alike guilty and had made all
dead let him keep with him his aspersion and preserve it in his grave Let this be enough that the fame of the man which now goes up and down the world with the creditable report of divers and high endowments of learning deceive not more with the allurements of his Eloquence and by his trappings of probable conjecture Grotius argues thus The Norwegians landed in Greenland They went forward from Greenland to America Therefore the Norwegians were the authors of the Nations in America Let us grant that Grotius took the right way of proving this and that all were true he built upon this ground Certainly if America must needs be peopled by the Greenlanders which were likewise Norwegians He must prove first according to his own ground and first of all that the Norwegians who first lighted upon it found it empty and only the winds blowing upon the leaves in those Countries whence he might gather this conclusion that the Norwegians first planted Greenland who afterwards straying about the world strewed Colonies over all America and so the Americans and the Greenlanders should be indeed the posterity of the Norwegians I say he ought first to have proved that the Greenlanders were the off-spring of the Norwegians before he should guesse that the Americans were sprung from the Greenlanders and of the same stock of Norway It is most certain that the Norwegians wâ—â—h first landed upon Greenland in the Easlern parts of it rough and wild which the Norwegians called Ostreburg going to find out the western parts better habitable which they call Westreburg found it full of all manner of herds cattle as also full of the men of that Climate whom they call'd Schlegringians who beat off the Norwegians falling upon their quarters with a great slaughter A true and faithfull narrative of which is in the Greenland Chronicle written in Danish which is in the hands of the most famous Gauminus skillfull in all languages which I also knew in Denmark The Norwegians were there strangers not the founders of the Greenlanders much lesse of the Americans These are fancies of Grotius made for ostentation of his learning In that he says there are many words among the Indians agreeing with the German language as also that the customs of the Americans in many things is like the Germans as milk is like milk which he by several examples instances that he may proâ—e that the Americans had those customs from the Norwegians who first had them from the Germans Let us passe by that chain by which Grotius would ingraft the Germans in the Norwegians the Norwegians in the Greenlanders the Greenlanders in the Americans and so one Nation into another It is a true story and very well known in all Copenhagen the chief City of Denmark which I also in the same City received from Danes that there lived in Copenhagen Greenlanders Barbarians taken by the Danes about thirty years agoe yea two of them for the space of two years were kept as Danes who notwithstanding could not by no means learn the Danish and he had no similitude of speech or behaviour like the Norwegians This I have set down more at large in my relation of Greenland in French But if the Greenlanders had no affinity in their customs with the Norwegians either in speech or custome the Norwegians must needs sail some other way to America to communicate their customs to them than from Greenland But what would Grotius say if he were now alive and should read that the Schlegringi were there and inhabited Greenland before the Norwegians came what manner of men would he say they were Would he say they were from eternity or sprung from Greenland it self or cast out by the Ocean upon land or founded by another than Adam if any such thing be believed says he Religion is in danger The danger that he saw was that by this means he perceived the original sin of Adam was by this doctrine quite overthrown because it is the common consent of all Divines that only by traduction it could passe upon all men This then I must prove and this is only my task to make it appear that we needed not Adam for our Father nor traduction of Adam to make us partakers of his sin as we needed not that Christ should be our Father and his traduction should make us partakers of that grace is by Christ and all the following book shall be of this which shall begin with the end of this The Fifth Book of this SYSTEME OF DIVINITY CHAP. I. Men behov'd to die to become immortal Men dye in Christ They behov'd first to sin and be condemn'd in Adam Men dye in Christ spiritually and mystically Of the fictions and mysteries of the Law Of divine mysteries which were either fictions or parables or mystical similitudes We die spiritually according to the similitude of Christ We sinned spiritually according to the similitude of the sin of Adam I Must recapitulate what I said in the beginning of this Systeme That men who were to be renew'd by a second creation were to receive a new form which could not without blotting out of the first form and extinguishing of the first creation be performed All corrupt and mortal men behov'd to be so ordered as decrepit and feeble Pelias whom Medeae slew and cut him to pieces to change him from old to young Corrupt and mortal men behov'd to die to recompence corruption with incorruption and death with immortality But such a destruction by which God must needs break all men as it were in a mortar seem'd cruel to God God had thought it better to heal those whom he would not bruise And by mystery brought that to pass which by harshnesse he deem'd inconvenient to himself He resolv'd that men should die for the death of one man who should be an expiation forthem Nor yet by the death of one man who was simply a man but of man-God I say of that God and Spirit who is begot of God incorrupt and immortal And who should become mortal like to corrupt flesh that by this similitude he might make men incorrupt and immortal God decreed that men should die in the death of that man-God who is Christ But the decree of mens death which should be to them as a condemnation must needs passe before the death of man according to a divine and spiritual mysterie to men unknown And the cause of their condemnation which is guilt by reason of sin must needs passe before their condemnation Men then must become guilty by their own sin before they were condemned of sin and be condemned to die for the punishment of sin And that guilt is called by the Apostle the condemnation of sin in the flesh that is of natural sin which had no imputation no guilt no condemnation before the Law For sin in the flesh is the same with carnal material and natural sin God is just and deals with men according to Law Men had not sinn'd
of his Father Abraham Heb. 7. As also the Hebrews are said all to be taken by God in the hand of Abraham their Father Isay 41. There are both divine and humane Lawes for imputations ordain'd according to natural communion and similitude The divine by which God is said to visit the sins of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation And according to that here the fathers are said to eat the sowr grapes and the childrens teeth to be set an edge The humane law by which there is punishment decreed against the Children of the Traytors by the guilt of their Parents There are examples both divine and humane of imputation of the Fathers fault to the Children That amongst divine examples is eminent of the seven sons of Saul whom according to the command of God David gave the Gabaonites as an expiation because their Father before had broke his promise with the Gabaonites and cruelly slain many of them It s read of Alexander that after he had taken Tyre as if he had been the defender of the publique tranquility he crucified all the Tyrians who outlived the siedge who were born of those slaves their Ancestors who long before had destroyed the free people of Tyre together with their Masters cruelly by a conspiracy made against them God imputed to the Jews the numbring of the people which David had caus'd and consumed seventy thousand of them with the plague for their Kings offence For that communion and conjunction politique whereby the whole Kingdom is thought one and one entire body like a living creature whose head is their King And as a murther performed by the hand is not only imputed to the hand but the whole man So in a body politique that which the head doth as being head is imputed to the whole body It is the work of Iove says Hesiod to punish Cities promiscuously for the transgression of the Magistrate So because the Priest of Apollo was violated by Agamemnon the whole Army of the Greeks was almost destroyed by Pestilence And whatsoever the Prince did amisse the Greeks smarted for 't Nor only the act of the head of a City but also of another member makes the whole body liable to guilty So as it is read of Achan Who having taken of the accursed thing brought all Israel under a curse Josue 7. And which is also read of the Levites Concubine 19 Judges whom the Inhabitants of Gabea of the tribe of Benjamin swiv'd to death And whose wickednesse was so rigidly imputed to all the Tribe that all the Tribe for that wickednesse was almost destroyed and routed out Nor were the Heathens ignorant of such imputations As Hesiod says Many times says he the whole Country is destroyed And Horace Neglected Jove doth sometimes add In punishment the good to bad Those imputations which by politique Communion are contracted from the offences of others others of them are of the law of Nations others according to Civil law According to the Law of Nations the fault of Sedecias by perjury was imputed to the whole Nation for which cause being overcome and falling into the Enemies hands they were all carryed Captives to Babilon By the same Law of Nations whatsoever the Ambassadour transacts is imputed to the Commonwealth or the Nation as also 't is imputed to the pledges whatsoever is done by them who give the pledges By Civil law it is imputed to the whole people whatsoever the chief procurer does for the people and to the chief in Government whatsoever they doe in behalf of the people To the Colonie or Colledge whatsoever their Trustees shall do in their behalf To Pupils and Minors is imputed whatsoever shall be judged against them according to the consent of the Tutors or Overseers There are likewise mystical bodies which by their mystical Communion and similitude do engage imputations Such is that mystical body by which all men as it were by a mystical conglutination are joyned with him by reason of that similitude they have with Christ For God did not put on the shape of an Angel but the shape of a Man that he might become in all things like to men except Sin that he might be a fellow sufferer with men and be an expiation for them By that mystical Communion and society by which his death is imputed to all men Such is that mystical Communion and society by which the faith of Abraham is imputed to all the faithful And all the faithfull are call'd the Sons of Abraham not the Sons of Nature but the sons of Adoption and mystical similitude which did unite all things According to that same Communion and mystical society the sin of Adam was imputed to other men For although Adam was made by Gods hands by a peculiar and choice way of framing beyond other men yet God had fram'd him as in other places I took notice of the same clay of the same common earth and of the same matter subject to corruption in which all other men were created And in all things was Adam made like other men with sin also Yea even as fin was a natural imperfection to all inherent and proper to Adam himself and so to all men And likewise as all men by reason of that society of sinning were apt or suceptive of that guilt which came by the transgression of Adam It is commonly believ'd that the death of Christ was imputed to men because the sin of Adam was imputed to them They are deceived that think so Yea upon the contrary the sin of Adam was purposely imputed to men that the death of Christ might be imputed to them likewise For Christ ought not to be referr'd to Adam but Adam ought to be referr'd to Christ For all things tend towards their end for which they are made Christ was the end of all mysteries therefore were all mysteries meerly for Christ and not Christ for the mysteries Adam was a type of Christ But Christ was a prototype of Adam A type is referr'd to a prototype and not a prototype to its type Nor for any other cause was the sin of Adam imputed to men than that the death of Christ which appeals for all mens sins and regenerates them might be also imputed to them Therefore in Gods decree the imputation was first design'd in the death of Christ Secondly in the sin of Adam as you shall read it in the Revelations That Christ was a Lamb slain from the ordaining of the world Yea and that the mystery of shedding his blood was known and decreed before the ordaining of the world 1 Pet. chap. 1. Which you shall never find of Adam because Adam ought to be referr'd to Christ as the principle decree of God and his own first type But these things which were first in the decree and council of God were not also in order of the performance made first Hence also it happens that the sin of Adam went before the death of Christ And hence it