sin CHAP. 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 own bears his own sin THat question which is commonly disputed concerning original sin is intricate dark and difficult upon presupposition that all men were born of Adam Upon my supposition if God give me leave I will make it so plain and open that we shall never have any difficulty There are some that throw hatred upon God according to the first supposition in saying that his Law was too rigid and cruel in that he imputed that which was done by Adam without the knowledge of men before they had a being to all mankind and in that the punishments for that sin were so heavy that the whole nature of man was over-run with punishments and plagues For by no humane Laws was there ever any successors appointed of others crimes Let Children says Plato not suffer for the wickedness of their Parents It seem'd a cruel and pernicious president to the Senate of Rome to destroy Cassius's children when Cassius the Offender himself was destroyed people who did endeavour to settle such ways of punishment seemed to do things worthy the hatred of men and the anger of the Gods But this seems to exceed all kind of cruelty that after a miserable and tormenting life men should be cast into a burning lake and give their enlivened liver again to be gnawn by worms and there in weeping and gnashing of teeth to die and never die for ever and beyond eternity To which inconveniences that from my supposition I may briefly and clearly answer and stop every mouth speaking irreverently of God It is before sufficiently shown that the imputation of Adams sin added nothing to the nature of man given to corruption which is meerly mystical and is only conceived in spirit therefore as to nature that imputation added no new businesse We must here consider what damage men receiv'd in this according to mystery We must first resolve that the Apostle Paul where he says in the 10 to the Romans That Christ is the end of the Law Meant that Christ was the end of all mysteries both which were commanded by the Law and contained in the books of the Prophets In which signification the Law is very frequent and is taken for the whole Bible Let it be so saith the Lord to St. John refusing to baptize him for thus it becoms us to fulfill all-truth Truth in that place is the mysterie For Christ fulfilled all mysteries which he perfected and accomplished the ends of them Besides mystery is called truth because all mysteries ordain'd by God lead to truth Nor is mysterie an empty name and a bare title or fiction without its reallity and species Yea it accomplishes the chiefest thing of all in that it begets truth salvation and immortality to men which shall be cleared in its own place Christ was the chief end of that mysterie by which the sin of Adam was imputed to men that to them the justice of Christ which is the death of Christ might be imputed You must also take notice that Christ is Jesus who is the Saviour to whom the destroyer is oppos'd and that is Antichrist the destroyer of men Jesus came to save men not to destroy them But as Christ was ordained the end to the salvation of man their were mediums appointed to bring them to that end for the accomplishment of the forementioned salvation The imputation then of the sin of Adam which brought us to that end was the cause of our salvation not our destruction Therefore that dispensation of the divine Law was first of meeknesse and bounty not of wrath and crueltie by which men not knowing and being not yet born had the guilt of Adam imputed to them For the sin of Adam was imputed to them without their knowledge that the justice of Christ might be likewise imputed to them without their knowledge which is the salvation of the Lord Sin begat Justification by the same miracle as darknesse is said to have produced light and death raised up life They are much deceiv'd who think that eternal death ensued that condemnation of death which was decreed upon the sin of Adam For I think it is sufficiently clear'd out of the Apostle Paul to the Romans whom to this purpose I cited in the former chapter that the condemnation was not eternal but bounded with some limits That it was born with Adam and ended with Moses Death reign'd from Adam to Moses says the Apostle For that death followed the fate of sin and of the father of it who begat it The sin of Adam began to reign from the transgression of the Law which I therefore call a legal sin Legal sin liv'd as long as the Law liv'd and when the Law was extinct that was likewise extinguished That legal death reign'd as long as the Law reign'd and behoved to die also when the Law died Eternity also is indefinite Legal death had its certain limits Adam and Moses beyond which it could not remain Therefore that death could not confer an eternity upon men which it self had not What then shall we sin because we are not under the Law and because there is now no condemnation remaining by the Law which may hinder our design of sinning Far be it says the Apostle And that this objection may be quite satisfied I think I shall doe very well to discover the whole mystery in order and what I have spoken apart to set down together and represent it altogether to the view Reason and holy Writ witnesses that all things are corruptible and mortal which are composed of mortal and corruptible matter And that men being made of matter mortal and corruptible by virtue of their mortal and corruptible creation could not ascend up to an incorruptible and immortal God to become themselves immortal and incorruptible God is incorruptible but men from their flesh which is their matter reap corruption Galat. 6. God is immortal The flesh savours of death Rom. 8. God is good it self Goodnesse dwels not in the flesh of man but evil is continually with it Rom. 7. Men that are in the flesh cannot please God For the flesh is enmity to God Is not subject to the Law of God nor can be And a thousand such things we read in the Scripture By which it appears the vitiousnesse of the flesh matter and creation of man ought to be redrest and that men ought to be transformed to new creatures that of evil they might become good of corruptible incorruptible of mortal immortal and possesse the Kingdom of God Which flesh and blood which is corruption cannot possesse Cor. 1. Chapter 15. Men that were to be transform'd and new created behov'd to die as we have shown you before And God decreed that they should all die in his Christ who in forming a humane body and dying for them by proxie might alter
the forms of men and change them into new creatures Which could not be done but by mysterie by the vertue of which they might be thought dead in Christ whose bloud had sprinkled them and as the Dyers of red colours such garments as they intend of a crimson or scarlet dye they first work them rub them and stain them with woad that they may prepare a convenient reception for red colour that fastens to the woad which is the ground of it So it behov'd men by the imputation of Adami sin first of all as it were with woad or the first ground be wrought drench'd that they might more fully suck up the bloud of Christ and after the second colouring be of a more perfect dye Therefore the imputation of Adams sin was a preparative for the susception of justice which flow'd from the bloud of Christ by which preparation all men thirsting might more earnestly seize upon his justification and receive it inwardly And as scarlet dye added to the wool drenched in takes away the stain of the woad and extinguishes the woad it self so likewise the blood of Christ cast upon the ground of Adams imputation took away the imputation of sin and utterly extinguish'd the sin it self so that by the death of Christ there is no imputation of that sin Sin was before the Law but it was not imputed when there was no Law Ro. 5 For the strength of sin is the Law Cor. 1. Chap. 15. The Law adds strength and force to sin and so has doubled sin and of sin simply so call'd made a sin imputable by Law Christ took away that imputation by Law and the Law it self The Revelation tells us of a Beast with many heads whose one head was wounded as it were to death the rest of his heads remaining but his wounds unto death was cured Sin was the two-headed beast whose one head was before the Law the other after the Law Christ dying cut off that head of sin which was after the Law and that wound unto death was not cured for that head was quite cut off and pluck'd from its neck After the death of Christ there is another head which was before the Law That sin is extinguished in the death of Christ which was imputed to Adam and in him to all men by violation of the Law which sin I call legal Since the death of Christ that sin remains which was not imputed whilst the Law was not which naturally before the Law was inherent to all which I now call natural Christ then restor'd men to that condition wherein Adam had found them into the condion of sin not imputed by the Law and men became after the destruction of that Law the very same thing before the Law was given to Adam for another mans sin is not imputed to any since the death of Christ but every one bears his own sin It is not now said as under the Gospel The faithers have eaten a sowr grape and the childrens teeth are set on edge Jer. 31. Every one dies not for the sin of Adam but every one for his own sin Every one gives an account of himself to God Rom. 14. Of himself not of Adam of his sowr sin in his own behalf not of the strong sin of Adam which diligently observe Every one carries his own burthen Galat. 6. And every one obtains what he does in his own body Cor. 2. chap. 5. God under the Gospel judges the secrets of men Rom. 2. The secrets of men that is their proper faults their belov'd vices every ones own sin and no mans else imputed to them Since the death of Christ God imputes not sins done against the Law but ascribes to all men their natural sins which are not in the Law but in the flesh and which reap corruption according to the nature of corrupt flesh which savour of death in whom goodnesse dwells not but on the contrary evil cleaves to them and who not in regard of the Law but in regard of their corrupt and mortal nature can not possess the immortal and incorruptible kingdom of God The old Adam is crucified with Christ and our old legal man but our old natural man lives in us which is really ours and is not dead in the death of Christ but shall by the vertue of his resurrection sometimes be extinguished whâ—n God shall cloath us with full sanctification which shall be our full and perfect restoring and resurrection At which time our last enemy Death shall be destroy'd I saâ— natural death the reward of natural sin which so long as natural sin is in force is alwayes in men which also when the natural sin is extinguished tinguished must also be extinguished But in the mean time let it be our business continually to be in exercise of godliness and endeavouring of our sanctification that the old sin which adheres to our flesh may be extinguish'd and the justification of Christ may be reveal'd in us from faith to faith as it is written in the first of the Romans that is from sanctification to sanctification For sanctification is our true and solid faith in the concrete here meant by the Apostle not that idle and empty faith which some do urge in the abstract Let us not therefore sin because we are no more confin'd by the Law of Adam or by any punishment of death decreed since the Law of Adam after Christs death but because really and according to the nature of the business we barricado our way to eternal life and to the sight and glory of God if we indulge matter and our flesh and extinguish not sin bred in us No thought of cruelty then as to the Law of God nothing dissonant or inconvenient shall arise in our thoughts by the imputation of that legal sin of Adam which ensued upon that transgression if all this business according to my supposition be taken as a mystical institution that it might prepare a fit ground for the reception of the justice of Christ which is the sanctification and salvation of men and their chief happiness for according to this mystery any thing which might have seem'd in God cruel against mankind seems rather to have been design'd for the salvation of man CHAP. VII Why Adam who sinn'd in the nature of a head was not 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 EXaminers use to be more severe in the punishing of the actor than in the punishing of the complices and partakers which all Lawes teach us both natural civil and Law of Nations Nor needs this any proof for it is already so often prov'd that it would be clouded to cite all proofs Only that Law held not in Adam who although he sinn'd as the
men alike evil and alike bad and had put all men in the same kind and condition for sin and death if the sins and diseases of men had taken their originals from that one and one kind of sin It is objected to this that Adam when he transgressed the Law did sin naturally for he naturally desired the forbidden fruit and naturally did eat of it Therefore the sin of Adam was natural not legal only And therefore not only by mystical and spiritual imputation but by Nature also and traduction from Adam it passed upon all men I answer that Adam did not therefore sin because he naturally desired the fruit and naturally did eat it but because he desired it against Gods command and eat it contrary to his Law The Apostle calls the sin of Adam disobedience moral not natural or as there was a formality not a materiality in that sin I say a formality morality and mystery which alone was imputed to Adam and to all men and for which he gained death to himself and to all men The nature and materiality of that sin was properly no sin For of it self and naturally it was no sin to covet and eat that fruit which was fair to the eye and good to eat as Moses witnesses of it The force of that sin consisted only in the transgression and disobedience of Adam which was the formality and morality of that sin Besides that sin was two manner of ways imputed to Adam Either in that by his corrupt mind and will he transgressed the Law of God or in so much as corporally or by eating he broke it In so far as Adam by his corrupted mind and will broke the Law which was the formality and the spirituality of his sin he deserv'd that condemnation ordained by the Law of God so dyed the death a moral and a spiritual death which Christ really and in his body suffered for Adam In so far as Adam in his body transgressed he was in his body thrust out of Paradise lest perhaps says Genesis he should put out his hand and take the tred of life and live for ever Both these happened to Adam by this transgression death and thrusting out of Paradise but both significatively parabolically and by similitude All men dyed by the sin of Adam by the same spiritual and mystical death by which Adam dyed All men were thrown out of Paradise not actually and corporally as Adam was but significatively and mystically The nature of Man corrupt and subject to death debarr'd men of the Paradise of God which is eternal life The Law given to Adam did double barricado the way to this Paradise and added strength to that sin as says the second Epistle to the Corinthians which that sin brought to passe making it exceeding sinfull as the Epistle to the Rom. speaks And man had two stops to eternal life the default of his nature and the rigour of Gods Law which was drawn and offered the sharp edge to all that should offer to enter into Paradise The nature of men given to corruption was the first and material stop their own impediment which hindered mans entrance into immortality The Law violated by Adam was the second and the spiritual hindrance not an innate but an impediment by another which shut up Paradise and which not naturally nor by traduction from Adam but which by imputation spirit and meer fiction of divine mysteries was objected to all men that upon the same account they might lose eternal life Christ dying for us took away the second spiritual hindrance which by Adams sin was against us The first natural and material stop yet remains and shall be removed by Christ also when he shall arise again and sanctifie us All that are dead and are mortal are thrown out of Paradise and shut out of eternal life by the sin of Adam mystically and parabolically that by the resurrection of the same Christ they might enter into the same Paradise and enjoy eternal life not mystically nor Parabolically but truly and really all I mean that should be chosen to it CHAP. VIII All men have sinned according to the similitude of Adams sin Infants have sinned according to the same similitude THe Apostle writes that Adam was a type of Christ Christ was then a prototype of Adam but by way of similitude of Adam with Christ his prototype And in regard as Christ who was to restore what Adam had lost was not the last of all men to comprehend men that were only past in his grace and justification no more needed Adam to be the first of all men to involve all men that were after him only in the imputation of his sin And as the death of Christ the prototype was imputed to all men both who liv'd in Christs time and who were from all time before him and those that have been since Christ and shall be born to the end of all time by the same type and similitude of the Prototype the sin of Adam was imputed to all men those who liv'd in the dayes of Adam and who were born before Adam and shall be born to eternity and the one sin of Adam caus'd all men both since and before to be condemned And that was it which the Apostle spoke very palpably in the same chapter 15. Rom. where he says That death reign'd from Adam unto Moses upon those also that had not sinned according to the similitude of the transgression of Adam Upon those who had not sinn'd which words are no doubt to be understood of those men that were born before Adam Men that were born before Adam did sin The men that were born after him sinn'd Men that were sinners according to the similitude of the transgression of Adam born before Adam Men that were born after Adam sinn'd acording to his similitude Which to open up in order we must observe that never no man sinned actually as Adam sinned but that it was actually imputed to all for no man as I said before did actually eat the fruit of the tree of good and evil which according to the common opinion no mortal men ever saw nor could see for the tree was remov'd from the sight of all men so soon as Adam was thrust out of Paradise But if no man could actually sin as Adam did and yet all sinn'd as Adam did it remains that all sinn'd according to the similitude of that sin by the imputation of it Certainly all Orthodox Divines agree upon what I said before That to impute to any one anothers sin is to esteem him as the committer of it In which it is requisit that one of the persons have not committed it otherwise not another mans sin but his own shall be imputed to him And it is certain that the adventitious sin of Adam was imputed to all men We must therefore think that all men were esteem'd in the same condition as if they had perform'd that sin not actually for then no mans sin
there be a natural similitude of all mens sins with the sins of Adam yet the Apostle meant not that material and natural similitude here wherein we may also communicate with the beasts according to whose similitude all men sin naturally and materially by reason of their commmon nature and matter St. Paul meaned only that mystical and spiritual similitude which only man is capable of Men I say who have also a spiritual and mystical communion with Christ to which communion to say that beasts could come were wickedness CHAP. 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 BUt how could say they the sin of Adam be imputed backward And how could death reign back upon them that were already dead Nor ought it seem a wonder to any that the sin of Adam was imputed backward considering what I have often inculcated That the faith of Abraham according to the consent of all Divines was imputed to the Predecessors of Abraham though dead and that Christ was imputed to all both before himself and Abraham though dead and buried But yet it will seem prodigious that death reign'd back from the imputation of the sin of Adam considering that no death could happen to men but that which descended upon men by the seed of Adam which as they say became mortal and begat death since Adam sinn'd For grant this and it is impossible to imagine that death pass'd upon all men by the seed and sin of Adam because it is impossible to be done and impossible to be conceiv'd that Adam did beget his predecessors But if we consider that death which passed from Adam upon all men to be mystical and spiritual which not materially nor naturally but mystically and spiritually returned upon all men that will be very clear For as we conceive that death invaded Adam and all after him that very hour when he sinn'd Why should we not think that death seiz'd also all before and all after And if there be any thing of impossibility to be spoken of the men that were before Why should there not be the same impossibility in those that come after Yea in this mysterie their should be a greater regard had to those who were before than those that came after Because those which are dead and are not are in some condition thought to be because they were certainly but those who are to come never were and it may be never will have any being The Apostle tels us plain That the kingdom of death did vanish after the destruction of the Mosaical Law or since Christ which is the same Let no man doubt notwithstanding that death reign'd upon all men who were begotten since Christ to our times and upon those that shall be begotten after us to the end of all time The question is Since which time did death reign over those that were born since Christ and shall be born after him Certainly not since the death of Christ as is said For Christ dying destroyed the kingdome of Death Since that time then when the kingdome of death was in force From Adam and since that time wherein Adam and all men in Adam deserv'd to die for their transgression who by Cassiodorus are elegantly said To have deserv'd death before they tasted of life Death then reign'd from Adam upon men that were to be and were not yet born which if it could any otherwise than mystically and meerly intellectually let every body imagine And what hinders us to have the same thoughts of men that are past as we have of those men that were to come And we grant that death reigned mystically upon one and that it did reign likewise mystically upon the other Likewise by way of mystery Parabolically and in all supposition of Law there will be more reason why death should reign over those that are past than those that are not born if we call to mind the ways of Judges in Criminals with whom it is no new thing to inflict a punishment upon the dead who command the dead bodies of guilty persons to be present at judgement that according to the punishment of the Law they may suffer a civil death which by a natural one they have prevented But what Law is so cruel as to ordain any such thing concerning men that never were What Law condemns men not born to die Let us therefore think that a mystical and spiritual death reign'd upon all the predecessors of Adam Just as the Civil Law presupposes those that have dyed a natutural death may be also condemned to a civil death But any one may answer Those guilty persons dyed a deserved civil death by the sentence of the Judges for breach of the civil Law But those men who dyed before Adam and never did violate any Law because never none was given to them how could they deserve any such thing at Gods hands and what such barbarous Law allow'd the Custome to involve dead men in guilt kill them over again and add a legal death to their natural death by a Law which they never transgress'd Let us never have any such thought that there is any such injustice in God or any cruelty in his Law God forbid that any such thing should come into our minds that God should ever decree any thing that should tend to their destruction which we confuted before Whatsoever God decreed concerning men it is decreed for their salvation and if there was any thing then which seem'd to them disadvantagious God would in his own time turn it to the best Therefore God provided for those men which were before Adam that they should die by the transgression of Adam that they might again rise from the dead according to the spirit of sanctification which is in Christ They were sav'd because they perished And it had been thought a disadvantage to the mystery unlesse those who were in possibility to rise again had perished And both could be well enough performed upon them to die in Adam and rise in Christ by the mutual and reciprocal imputations of Adam and Christ mystically and spiritually understood if we conceive the condemnation of death turn'd back upon them in the same manner as we understand the absolution from condemnation by the satisfaction and death of Christ mystically and spiritually returned also Yea they do object How can ever the predecessors of Adam be sanctified and a rise up to eternal life in Christ if life eternal which is the salvation of man is granted to none but such as know God the Father and believed in Christ his Son whom the Father sent But how could they either know God the Father or believe in Christ his Son who never heard any thing neither of Father nor Son for knowlege and faith are by hearing That I may answer this according to time and place you must know that all Adams
Chanel and easily commanded themselves to be corrupted Little they cared for any right way of living right or wrong good or bad they saw nothing but what pleased their own fancies and gave themselves the Liberty of all manner of sin Men fell through their own wickedness and that I may speak with Jeremiah Chapter 28. They gave free reigns to their own disposition as horses furiously rushing to the battel Men returned for this reason to their own inclination because in the first Creation it being only corrected and amended and the vitiousness of it not quite weeded out in the framing of man and the nature of him it was alwayes in possibility not being quite taken away to return into it self But whatsoever was good in man by the correcting of his faultiness or any perfection which he had by his Creation was quite lost in men being enslaved to their own wills but what was evil in their clay and composition still remained The uprightness of men perished and their sin defaced them being so well created And the fault which was left in their creation and not quite rooted out in the first creation of man was a leven in their hearts more powerfull than their Creation by which they were altogether swelled and depraved Besides those things are stronger which move us inwardly than those things which work upon us outwardly The perfection of the Creation of Men flowed from God and happened to man externally as a thing different nay quite contrary to the flesh and matter of men On the contrary the faultiness of the clay and composition cleaved to them more inwardly as a thing proper and natural to Men. Therefore men returned to their nature because they did according to their own disposition which was shown them from within As also because the faultiness of their inward nature did more strongly move them than the perfection of their creation outwardly conferred upon them yea because the flesh and matter of man was reprobate Earth the Mother of good seed and the Mother of ill weeds The step-mother of all Vertues which God in his creation had sown in the hearts of men and the mother of all Vices which naturally spring in them as in their native soyl and which like watred Herbs grow most plentifully The cursed step-mother hates her Sons-in-Law but like a very loving mother embraces and fosters her Children Hence it happened that nature and the flesh of man refused that tryed and choyce seed of perfection with which they were created and that by the same nature it returned again into it self when it found liberty And that in this regard it was far easier to do evil than good From thence the heart of man was over-run with the briers and thorns of all maner of Vices proceeding from their clay and composition This returning of man from the perfection of their creation to the wickedness of their nature and flesh is that natural sin which we mean whether we may call it natural because it is naturally inherent to us or as St. Paul sayes Because it dwells in us Because there is a Law in the members of men leading men captive to the Law of sin which is in their members Where note the Law of natural sin fixed in the members of men or the natural Law of sin inherent in the flesh and nature of men In which sense it is to be understood 7 Chap. to the Romans Or whether that may be called a natural sin because it was a declination from that nature Law of perfection in which men were created in the beginning For which cause and most properly it might be called a sin That there remains yet some foot-steps of this perfection in the hearts of men yea that men are struck with a natural and tacit conscience of it is manifest because all those who are formed of a better and more perfect mould are naturally more averse from all sin who seem by the sent to hunt and track that perfection to which they perceive themselves created and from which they are fallen by the study of vertue In which sense the Apostle is chiefly to be understood in such places as he sayes Men naturally accuse themselves and are to themselves a Law CHAP. VI. God restor'd men created upright and turn'd backward to the wickedness of their own nature into a better estate by a second creation and lifts them up from men to be Gods Of that which is produc'd and of that which is made Of mutable and immutable Of mortal and immortal Of the Spirit which is in God and of the Spirit of the world BUt God neither despis'd nor relinquish'd men fallen off from their creation and bestain'd with their sins Nor did he so farre suffer them to be restored into the former state of full perfection as they had been perfect men in the beginning but decreed to new create them and advance their perfection above the perfection of men Men were faln headlong from the splendor of their perfection to their filthiness which is also the loathsomness of Beasts God commanded men by a second creation to pass as I may so say from men to Gods to be carried from corruption to incorruption from death to eternal life And which was the chief blessing of God to man he commanded them of wicked evil and bemyred creatures to be exalted to the perfection of his holiness and glory to which they should as with a fiery Chariot be carried by the Spirit of Regeneration Nay if we rightly weigh the councel and decree of God we shall find it his second intention to create men mortal and corruptible but his first to create them incorruptible and immortal Creation was a thing divine Regeneration was a thing more excellent and divine according to that distance of proportion by which incorruptible is preferrible to corruptible and immortal preferrible to mortal But that I may rehearse from the beginning all the business as it concerns Christian doctrine we must know that two things occur in the creation and framing things worthy observation which are not demonstrated by their causes but are aym'd at in the Scriptures and appear by their effects One which immediately flow'd from God another created by God but mediatly One produc'd another made One spiritual another animal material carnal and corporeal One permanent stable eternal another mutable subject to vanity One incorruptible which purifies another corruptible which pollutes One which favours of life another which savours of death One which is able to endure that celestial Lightning with which God thunders and which shines in his sight like gold in the fire another which God consumes with his splendor and which melting at his rayes departs into froth smoak and ashes One thing which God loves another which he disdains One which he chuses another which he rejects One which St. Paul Cor. 1. chap. 2. calls The Spirit which is of God another which the same Apostle calls in that
Israel is placed in the third place betwixt the Egyptians the Assyrians as also that he is a blessing in the midst of the earth that Holy earth which God is said here to have blessed Therfore we may here see the Egyptian and Assyrian placed on this side and that side according to the number of the Sons of Israel and placed neer the banks of the Tribes of the Jews That the Sons of Adam or the Jews were separated from the Egyptians and the Assyrians betwixt whom being placed they are parted from them by the Rivers Nilus and Euphraies is briefly set down in that Geographick Table which is inserted in the third Chapter of this Book Therefore the Sons of Adam are set apart in the Song of Moses The Nations divided by interposition of the Jews are the Egyptians and Assyrians Gentileâ— The Jews are called the sons of Adam upon the same account as Adam is called the father of the Jews Isaiah 43. God reproâ—ing Israel in that Chapter for their sin objects this to him Thy father sinned first Which the Prophet meant of the father of the Jews and not of the Gentiles for he spake onely to Israel and for that reason he said Thy father O Israel who was not likewise the father of the Gentiles that first father of the Jews is without doubt Adam because there was no sinner before him nor none after him can be understood But let us hear Hosea the Interpreter of Isaiah in the sixth Chapter of his Prophesie where God layes the same reproach against the Jews They sayes he have transgressed my Covenant as Adam did Adam then as he was the Father of the Jews so was he the Prototype of the Jews sin according to whose example the Jews were sinners begotten a sinful by father transgressed the Covenant of God and as Adam is the first Father of the Jews so the Jews are all the sons of Adam as likewise Adam was the son of God and derived from God Wo be to the Nations that riseth up against my kinred Judah sung when he had overcome the Nations Wo be to the Gentiles who rise up against the Jews On the contrary The Gentiles were called strangers who did not derive themselves from God and Adam to which strangers and Gentiles it was not lawful for the Jews to approach Act. 10. It is abominable to a Jew to be joynedor draw nigh to a stranger that is to a Gentile besides they were called by the Jews strangers unknown because they were aliens not onely from the Nation but family of the Jews nor were not onely received as brothers into the Holy Cities Ephes 7. The sons of strangers shall build the walls Isaiah 60. and in the 61 Chap. And strangers shall stand up and feed their cattel and the sons of strangers shall be labourers and dressers of vines Which ought to be understood of the servants of the Iews or their hirelings to which adde six hundred such which you may every where finde in holy Writers But not onely by kinred and exposition of kinred did God distinguish the Iews from the Gentiles but would have them different in the species it self He chused it for his inheritance the kinred of Iacob whom he loved Psalm 47. Where observe that the kin of the Iews is distinguished from the kin of the Gentiles whom God did neither love nor chuse for his inheritance Certainly the Philosophers make the brures a distinct species from men and with the holy Writers the species of the Iews is distinct from that of the Gentiles whom you shall every where read confusely mentioned with beasts and esteemed beasts in regard of the Iews who by excellency are called men or by a more excellent title are called the men of God You shall finde the species of the Iews peculiarly made and formed by God in Adam you shall finde the species of the Gentiles promiscuously created with the rest of the creatures in the same day of Creation which is diligently to be observed that a day did not distinguish them whom the nature of their Creation did not distinguish The Iews were properly and apart from all other things created the frame and work of the second Creation in Adam the Gentiles properly were the promiscuous buds of the first Creation together with all things else created and the off-spring of that earth which likewise brought forth other creatures Therefore did David call upon all Nations in these words Hear all you Natious hearken all you inhabitants of the earth and ye sons of men David spoke palpable to the Gentiles sons of men the Inhabitants of all the earth whom he likewise calls born upon the earth to distinguish them from the Jews who were not born upon the earth or born from the earth as the Gentiles who were not created in the beginning of things but form'd out of the clay in Adam Furthermore the Psalmist comparing here the Gentiles to foolish beasts sayes They were made like to them who like beasts were allotted to death to eternal death from which they should not return to life their graves are their houses for ever sayes the Psalm as also in the same place they shall not see light for ever likewise David distinguishes the Jews from them in the same Psalm in which he exhorts them not to fear those beasts born upon the earth who should sometime be governed by the Jews The just shall have power over them in the morning the just are the Jews of whom we spoke before that power of the Jews upon the Nations as also that morning shall be expounded in their own places This Psalm has given us a reason why the Iews ought not to fear these earth-born Gentiles of the first Creation in the words following immediately Their help shall grow old in the grave from their glory but God shall redeem my soul from hell David mixes his soul with the souls of the Iews none of the Gentiles sayes he shall redeem his soul God shall redeem the souls of the Iews when he shall receive the Iews or at such time as he shall receive the ejected Iews the Gentiles shall rise to eternal death or which is the same they shall die eternally by the fate of their Creation the Iews shall rise again to eternal life or which is the same they shall live eternally by the prerogative of their regeneration Therefore let the Jews who shall receive eternal life little regard the Gentiles destind to eternal death So farre were the Gentiles different in relation and kindred from the Jews as those divers species of creatures in unknown Countries are from those which we know so likewise were there more Nations unknown to the Jews than were known that is to say in those Countries which the Jews knew not Nor were these Nations only unknown to the Jews but likewise to their Fathers I say to their Fathers who were deriv'd from Adam Which God having a regard to threatens the Jews
here not of that death which is naturally riveted to mans corruption but of that only which follow'd the nature of Adams sin and which by mystical imputation passed from the death of Christ upon all men And Christs death was call'd a transient death as the sin of Adam was call'd a transient sin Death says the Apostle passed upon all men that he might intimate that he had nothing here to do with that death which by their natural corruption is naturally inherent to them and happens to them naturally but onely of that which in the expiation of Adams sin by the death of Christ passes upon all men But that you may yet have a clearer light shine into your eyes take good notice to what in the same place presently follows Death reign'd from Adam tâ—ll Moses Death reign'd from Adam and that Law which Adam brake until Moses and that Law which was in force from Moses till Christ Christ dying extinguish'd all Law both that of Adam and Moses his Law Blotting out says the Apostle Col. 2. the seal of the decree which was against us for it was contrary to us and taking it away nayl'd it to his crosse That bond or decree which was against us was the condemnation of death decreed by the Law and obligation against all men in the sin of Adam For judgement from one became condemnation as it is written Rom 5. For that condemnation hung over all mens heads and reign'd over them from Adam til Moses and that time layd a tie of Law upon all men Nor did death properly as I said before reign upon all men because no man properly dyed for the sin of Adam but properly the condemnation of death which reigned over them was that which by the death of Christ was blotted out taken away and nailed to the Crosse God appointed then Adam and Moses the known limits and times for Adams sin or to that death or condemnation of death which was decreed by that sin But the same God appointed no limits no times either to sin naturally inherent or to death which by natural default is inherent to all persons Sin naturally inherent was before the Law and Adam since the creation and beginning of things which is without beginning Natural sin reign'd after Moses and after legal death of Adam and Moses 〈◊〉 the same death reign'd and shall reign to the end of ages which cannot be numbred The same natural death St. Paul meant first to the Corinth chap 15. The last enemy that shall be destroyed says he is death Which death cannot be understood of death deserv'd by the sin of Adam For when Moses was dead that was destroyed Death reign'd upon Adam till Moses they must then be understood of a natural death the destruction of which God has deferr'd till the end of things The last enemy which shall be destroyed is death For natural and inherent death is not yet destroyed which follows the nature of its natural and inherent sin These two shall we force indivisibly till the end of time natural sin and natural death nor shall they be destroyed but when the world is destroyed Therefore the Apostle did not joyn these two which he handled apart and which the order of things set at a distance that is sin Imputed and sin Naturally inherent death reigning by the imputation of sin and death naturally following sin naturally inherent The one treatise was spiritual and mystical the other material and natural The Apostle â—ivides that spiritual and mystical subject from the material and natural to shew that there was no need of the traduction of Adam material and natural towards the imputation which was mystical and spiritual which he more openly declares Rom. 5. where he compares the obedience of Christ with the disobedience of Adam and the imputation which did abound from the sin of one Adam to the condemnation of death with the imputation of grace which is given from above of which is given to the satisfaction of life in the offering up of one Jesus Christ which are nothing material or natural but rellish altogether of spirit and mystery And that the compafison of Adam and Christ may be absolute Adam ought to be imputed to men after the same manner spiritually and mystically as Christ is imputed The best Divines confesse that Paul spoke properly in the 5 chapter to the Romans of the guilt and imputation of Adams sin and considered sin not as the fountain of humame corruption but as it involves Adam and in him all men in the same guilt For the Apostle did not write that men were corrupted in Adum but sinn'd in him That they sinn'd in Adam by imputation not since Adam by imputation That they sinn'd â—irtually in Adam not by vertue of seed but by vertue of imputation And Adam is ordained in that place the head of all men not naturally but mystically And one excellent Divine speaks very fitly to this place By natural reason says he It cannot be that all men who were not yet born sinn'd in Adam Unlesse Adam in his moral existence be supposed the Prince of all men For which cause the Apostle says in the same chapter not of those sins by which Adam was corrupted naturally and by which all men are naturally corrupted but of one offence one sin one disobedience which deserv'd a guilt to Adam and in him to all men and which not actually but by imputation pass'd upon all men By which means says Cardinal Bellarmin That disobedience might be communicated to all men And the famous Gamach of Sorbon We grant says he That the actual sin of Adam as actual was not in men but by imputatign The Law or the transgression of the Law caus'd the imputation of that sin Nature begat the real inherence of habitual sin which is wickednesse of Nature Nature and Law are quite different in the scheme of things God the Creator of all things produced nature The same God the restorer or second creator made the Law And as nature could not contract a guilt from anothers fault as the violation of the Law might doe so neither guilt by the violation of the Law and by anothers fault could corrupt Nature A moral cause such as was the disobedience of Adam could not produce a natural corruption Therefore much lesse could the imputation of that disobedience produce that corruption Thaâ— imputation which is an effect meerly spiritual oâ— that moral cause and a cause mystical arising from a moral Therefore the Apostle coupled not these things thus dis-joyned and which can no way agree one with another Nature and Law Sin by Nature and Guilt by Law in this Treatise which he here intended concerning that sin which in the transgression of Adam was imputed to all men Nay no where in St. Paul or in any other sacred author can be read or gather'd that the natural traduction of Adam did any way conduce not to say was necessary to the imputation of Adams
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
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
unto you again these same Verses of the Apostle 5 to the Romans because they are boundaries of this Systeme 12. As by one man sin entred into the world and by sin death even it so passed upon all men because all men had sinned 13. For until the Law sin was in the world but sin was not imputed when there was no Law 14. But death reigned from Adam till Moses likewise upon those who had not sinned according to the similitude of the transgression of Adam who is a type of the future First we must observe that this is a singular place where he intends to speak of that sin commonly called original which passed from Adam upon all men nor is there any other observed in the whole Bible through the whole Old and New Testament where clearly and openly this sin of Adam is handled Hence it is proved that Adam is meant by that man of whom the Apostle speaks by whom sin entred into the world and by sin death by whom also death passed upon all men as in him all men had sinned But for the same reason that the Apostle spoke of that sin of Adam which brought guilt upon all men it follows that he likewise meant that Law in this place the transgression of which caused the sin of Adam as likewise that Law be understood to be the Law of Adam which is to be thought to be given to all men just so as all men in Adam are thought to have transgressed it Therefore we will banish hence the Mosaical Law which had nothing to doe with Original sin because it was not given to Adam nor to all men in Adam and therefore the transgression of it could not be imputed to Adam nor to all men in Adam And certainly the Mosaical Law was only given and publisht to the Jews and not to other men the transgression of which ought only to have been imputed to the Jews and not to the rest of the Nations which were not of the kinred and family of Jews who were not held nor tyed by any bond or Covenant He gave his words to Jacob and his testimonies to Israel He did not so to all Nations nor did he manifest his judgements to them as sung the Prophet in the 148 Psalm and many such are read in holy Authors which for brevities sake I omit If the Apostle meant here the Law of Adam not the Law of Moses sin was in the world until the Law of Adam by the same Apostle and therefore before the Law of Adam and it must be that these men come to my presupposition which sinned before the Law of Adam or before Adam which is the same Besides it is clearer than clear fire That the Apostle in this place sets down two sorts of sins in time and quality different Different in time where he mentions sin after the Law and sin before the Law Different in quality where he meant That sin before the Law was not imputed sin following the Law was imputed For sayes Paul Sin until the Law was in the world but sin was not imputed or is not imputed as some translate it when there was no Law But if sin was in the world until the Law it was also before the Law And that sin which did violate the Law was without doubt after the Law You see here sins designed before and after the Iav different in time Again if sin be not imputed when the Law is not who will say that that sin was imputed which was before the Law or which was committed before the Law But if on the other part that was the transgression of the Law which caused imputation we shall call that sin imputable which broke the Law and so was after the Law You see here sins distinct in quality Sin that was not imputed before the Law we may call Natural since it depended upon no prohibition of the Law but had its original from the meer ill disposition of humane nature Sin which was imputed after the Law because it had its original from the meer transgression of the Law let us call it Legal And let us again call that death which upon my supposition ensued Natural sin Natural death and that Legal death which punished Legal sin Which that it may appear more clearly we must first know That humane nature is considered two manner of wayes right and perverse Right which had the image of innocence and perfection in so farr as man could be created right and perfect Perverse which turned away from the righteousness of that perfection which I call natural We must know secondly That the Law was appointed not to make men perfect but to reduce men to their perfection which were depraved and corrupted Not to make perfect but to teach and prescribe perfection And those whom shame of transgression could not deter from misdemeanour fear of punishment might keep them within the rules of honesty The Perfection of men is directed by Law and right reason Right reason is natural and born with us The Law is a stranger and prescribed to us But that was born before this was written and was constituted not by opinion but by nature The Law teaches us that which we have forgotten by the corruption of our Nature and Right reason for we should not know what were sin if the Law had not taught us And hence it is that the Law simply so called is styled a School-master by the Apostle and all other Laws are called Instructions Commands Precepts in both Authors sacred and prophane Men sinned only with a natural sin before the Law and till the Law as oft as they fell from that perfection to which by the nature of their creation they were born and as oft as they erred from that right reason which guided them to their perfection All men sinned two manner of ways after the Law and after the Law was given to them For first they sinned against that perfection of their nature They sinned secondly against the prescript and ordination of the Law which called them back into the right way And this is that which I call legal sin and which St. Paul Rom. 7. thinks to be the highest sin against the Law that is to be a sin against the Law a degree higher than the sin against nature And whatsoever sin there is be it natural or legal hath its own natural or legal punishment attending it And death is the inseparable wages of every sin whether you ascribe it to Nature or to the Law Natural death which is begotten by natural corruption never fails sooner or later to overtake depraved nature which is before it Legal death sits behind the Law-breaker as an avenger And Legal sin is as it were grafted into natural sin and legal death added to the natural Legal death added to the natural causes a civil death which in imagination and spirit is conceivable Humane lawes have provided that men should not stray without the limits of right
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
needs return through a great many signs of the Zodiack and return pass'd moneths yea seasons of the year which were past in the minute of one hour which were an horrid confusion and absurdity But how much are they gone backward not to say from truth or from any probable conjecture who think that the whole heavens went back that the shadow of the Dyal might goe back That were to disturb all nature to make a difference in the tenour and order of all things to confuse the rising and setting of stars to destroy all Ephemerides and Astronomical tables and to make a confusion in all Astronomy But who ever heard of any such confusion who ever heard of this back supersant for the memory of things which past in the days of Ezechiah is yet extant among the Gentiles But why should there be a greater miracle in the sicknesse of Ezechiah than in the death of the Lord. There was darknesse only about Jerusalem in the death of the Lord and should the Sun shine longer to the world in the sicknesse of Ezechiah Christ died Ezechiah was only sick Christ in his death was perfecting the redemption of the World Ezechiahs sicknesse only concern'd himself and his people How ill such compariâ—ons shew let the miracle be placed in the Dyal not in heaven and all things will be very agreeable with that Dyal for the life of man is very well compared to a shadow yea to the shadow of a Dyal The last period of a mans life and of his Dyal is called the last hour Again the life of the King is well compared to a Kingly Dyal The shadow went back which was descending in the Dyal which Achaz had made The life of Ezechâ—ah who was dying whom Achaz had begotten went backward likewise nor could Ezechias have any more convenient sign of his recovery than this miracle which therefore was given as a particular sign to Ezechias Chron. 2. chap. 32. Ezechias was sick unto death and God gave him a sign he gave it to him not to all And this sign was seen in the land of Iudah not in all lands which is to be observed is proved by the same place of the Chron. That their was Ambassadors sent from Babilon who came to enquire of the sign which had happened not in the heaven which take notice of but upon the earth meaning the land of Iudah Nor had the Babilonians needed to have enquired of the Iews concerning the miracle if it had happened in Babilon or if the Sun had gone back in the Firmament for they themselves had seen it Therefore this miracle must be reduced to the Dyal of Achaz yea the holy Scripture expresly meaned so and directly sets it down in both places of Esay and of the Kings if the words of both places be well weigh'd as is fit The words in Kings are these The Lord brought back the shadow by the lines by which it had gone down in the Dyal of Achaz Observe here that the miracle is expresly signified in the Dyal of Achaz The words of Isay are And the Sun returned ten lines by the degrees it had gone downe In these places the bringing back of the shadow and the Sun are the same because the shadow could not return unlesse the Sun returned nor the Sun return but the shadow must return And that is it which Esay says in the words immediatly before Behold I will make the shadow of the lines return by which it is gone down in the dyal of Achaz in the Sun or with the Sun which is the same The Sun is not there taken for the Sun it self but for the light which it throws upon any superfice whereon it shines which it throws upon all dyals and such a one as you may believe it cast upon the dyal of Achaz Moreover those lines of which the Kings and Isaiah here speak were drawn out upon the dyal of Achaz according to the shadow of the Gnomon which according to art is plac'd in the middle of the dyal There were twelve chief ones of these marked upon the dyal to shew so many degrees or hours of the dyal whilst the shadow of the Gnomon in the mean time over-running the whole superfice of the dyal cast out a great many other lines by which it design'd the smallest minute of every one of these degrees and hours But these lines are hâ—re promiscuously call'd the shadow and the Sun because they are really set down and composed in all dyals by the Sun and shadow without prejudice to the principles of Geometry who define their lines pure not compounded longitudes Nor can I call those precisely shadows or precisely the Sun but rather the extremities or individual distinctions of the Sun and shadow for in them the last part of the Sun is the first of the shadow but the last of the shadow is not the first of the Sun But what Mathematician ever imagined such lines in the heaven if the words of the Kings and Esay are taken here for the Sun it self and the light it cast upon the dyal of Achaz Take notice that Esay here calls that indifferently the shadow and the Sun which the Kings simply in that place calls the shadow never the Sun Wilt thou have the shadow to ascend ten lines or go down ten lines And Ezechiah said It is easie for the shadow to grow ten lines let it not be so but let it go back ten lines And Isaiah call'd upon the the Lord and he brought back the shadow ten lines by which it had gone down in the dyal of Achaz It seems all this miracle was within the compasse of the dyal of Achaz For Ezechiah said It was easie to make the shadow to come forward Not that it was indeed so easie for a shadow to come forward ten degrees in a minute which could not be done but in ten hours but because it seem'd more easie for a shadow to goe forward than to turn backward he requir'd that which seem'd harder and a greater miracle that it might run back ten lines Certainly the force of this miracle was altogether in the dyal of Achaz according to the intention of sick Ezechiah and according to his Prayer For Isa had ask'd him Wilt thou that it go forward or turn backward Let it turn backward says Ezechiah and the shadow of the dyal was brought back According to the intention of Ezechiah and the Prayers of Isaiah there was herâ— nothing to do with the turning back of the Sun in heaven but the turning back of the shadow upon the dyal and the miracle according to the will of the King and prayers of the Prophet was perform'd really not in the heaven but in the dyal Nor had it been a miracle that the shadow was turn'd back in the dyal if the Sun had turn'd back in heaven for the shadow follows the motion of the Sun in the dyal not bâ— miracle but by nature And it is certain too that
against God when that fervour which was within them the corruption of their imperfect nature forc'd them headlong from the perfection of their creation to the imperfection of their matter For no guilt could be imputed by God no lawfull condemnation pronounced no death justly inflicted upon men meerly for that backsliding by which men who were of their own disposing turn'd from the uprightnesse of their creation into the wickednesse of their own creation According then to that mysterie that God would have all men to die in one God-man according to that same mysterie he resolv'd that all should sin and by one man be condemn'd a man I say simply so and not a God God would have all men die in Christ and sinne in Adam The vertue of the most high according to the great power of God over-shadowed a Virgin untouched and of her Christ was born in whom all men should die a pure sacrifice of a pure Virgin and of the stock of the Jews That so by the Jews and by the seed of the Jews Jesus Christ all men might receive salvation God fram'd Adam the Father of the Jews of common and impure earth corruptible to whom he gave his Law which if he did violate all men should be guilty in him and condemned by that Law That so likewise condemnation might come upon all men by Adam the father of the Jews But there was no need that men should by traduction be born of Christ that in him they migâ—â— die nor needed all men to be born of the descent of Adam that in him all men might die All that mysterie of salvation and condemnation of men in Christ and Adam made up the body of the mystery that is the spiritual and divine way above nature and which is ingendred in all men by intellect and mysterie and not by nature Whosoever understands the ways of Supposition in Law shall easily conceive the force of that mysterie by vertue of which men suffered losse of degree were chang'd or restor'd unto their estates and by which things only agreed upon were ratified and by formality of which they did obtain in antient time and yet obtain the lordship of most things All these things might have compass'd their effects and shown their natural force by bare Covenant or consent without any supposition But the Lawgivers did imagine ingrafting in these things which were naturally acted the legalities of their art to have added a better understanding to them As choice plants grow better when they are planred in Crab-tree stocks and such as grow wild God resolving to restore man that had fallen from his creation would not perfect the work in that direct and natural order as many things are done amongst men but by crooked windings of mystery by applications and spiritual graftings he thought best to perform the whole work Such mysteries seem to me very well to be titled Holy draughts Parables or Similitudes as the Apostle call'd them in that place of the eleventh Chapter to the Hebrews where Isaac is presuppos'd as a figure of Christ to have laid down his life under the knife and according to that Parabolical death resembling the death of Christ he is presupposed to rise according to the similitude of the resurrection of Christ Where Abraham I say is presupposed to have sacrificed his son Isaac and to have received him again in Parable or similitude of resurrection which the Apostle purposely and very subtilly observed The Apostle Paul hath taught us that men die in the death of Christ according to parable and similitude of his death 6 Chap. to the Rom. In which place he directly tels us that by Baptism there is ingendred in us not only a similitude of his death but that there is engrafted in them by that same Sacrament a similitude of his resurection For if we be engrafted in him in his death so shall we be also in his resurrection And the Apostle taught us that all men sinn'd were guiltie and were condemn'd in Adam who sinned according to the similitude of his transgression According to the similitude of the transgression of Adam For that is to be understood a similitude and a Parable no propagation of nature as all men died in Christ Which that we may the better understand we must more at large handle the sin of Adam which is commonly called Original sin CHAP. II. Of Original sin It is inherent It is imputed What it is to impute That is imputed which is joyn'd 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 referr'd to Christ not Christ to Adam Adam ought to be imputed to men as Christ is imputed to them spiritually and mystically WHat I shall speak first concerning Original sin is asserted by all Orthodox Divines That sin is consider'd two manner of ways either as sin or as a guilt as a sin so it is inherent as it is a guilt it is adventitious and pass'd from Adam upon them all The one is proper to all men the other a stranger and call'd the sin of Adam The first is the formality the second is the materiality of the sin The material sin is proper and inherent an hereditary disease or blemish in which all men are conceiv'd and born according to that of the Psalmist In sin hath my Mother conceiv'd me A formal sin which is anothers and is become a guilt which was the disobedience of Adam imputed to all men according to that of the Apostle By the disobedience of one many became sinners The materiality of sin which is the proper fault and infection inherent in all by propagation of the matter and nature of men subject to corruption The formality of sin which is a stranger and transient had its beginning from imputation by the transgression of the Law which Adam did violate To impute to any one the sin of another is to esteem him in the same condition as if he had committed the fault himself Otherwise it is not anothers fault but his own which is imputed to him Beside the fault of one uses to be imputed to another which has some communion or conjunction with him as having some manner of corporal societie and similitude with him For as smoke coming near the fire takes fire by reason of the similitude and aptitude is has to flame so things that have a communion and conjunction betwixt them are apt or susceptive one of anothers imputations Communions and conjunctions of things fit for imputation by reason of their similitude are three-fold Physical Political and Mystical The fault of their Fathers is imputed to the Children by reason of that common and natural similitude by which sons begotten of their fathers are naturally joyn'd to them The sons are said to have sinn'd in the loyns of their Fathers as Levi is said to be taken for tithe in the loyns
Law which was not imputed because sin is not imputed where there is no Law And there was first an inbred corruption in Adam before that imputation which was caus'd by the transgression of that Law Therefore the imputation of sin was the Mother of his inbred corruption which begat the imputation of sin Sin naturally inherent ought to be first before sin which was imputed as nature was before imputation or mystery As also sin naturally inherent was not imputed according to Law there being no Law nor was there any legal guilt by that sin for guilt and imputation are the same things Nor could it be said that under the Law legal imputation and imbred corruption were indivisibly joyn'd and made up but one guilt of two Under the Law legal imputation of Adams sin and imbred corruption joyn'd But therefore were not so indivisibly closely joyn'd that they made the least confusion of guilts for there was never any guilt of anothers sin by imbred corruption The legal imputation of Adams guilt flow'd from the transgression of the Law by Adam which passed upon all men from imbred corruption flow'd sin naturally inherent not anothers sin but every mans own sin proper and particular to himself which is not imputed by the Law and by the adventitious sin of Adam but the very nature of the sin inherent from ones imbred corruption is naturally ascribed to all men that they may undergo death which is according to nature nor attain to immortality which is above nature CHAP. 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 ONe opinion as it is usual is begotten by another They who think that men took their Original first from Adam because it is no opinion but a reality that the first imputation of all sin sprung from Adam believe likewise that innate corruption and the imputation of sin were so indivisibly joyn'd in one man that that imputation could no other ways passe upon all men but by way of propagation the original of which they bring from Adam who first sinn'd and the act of which sin say they was in all men by imputation and the quality of the sin really inherent since that act which was not to interpret the matter but entangle it not to unrevel it but tie faster Furthermore this opinion as I said thence took its beginning because Adam is thought the Original of all men And that opinion again hence is imagin'd because they think that Moses spoke of Adam as the first Father of all men because there is no other man named in Moses Books before Adam as if there never had been nothing in nature nor in the world which Moses had not mention'd But Moses tels us no where that which St. Paul first declar'd That sin enter'd into the world by the sin of Adam and that death by that sin pass'd upon all men although Moses said no such thing yet he no where denyed it And no where hath he said that which St. Paul expresly declares That sin was in the world until the Law or before the Law which is the same thing I say that first and first-born Law as the best Divines call it and which is here to be understood as being the first of all Laws which God gave to Adam and from which proceeded the imputation of sin Nor did Moses deny that which Paul affirmed Therefore it is better to assert it since the Apostle affirms Moses does not deny it that there were men before Adam As it was never the intention of the Apostle to derive the original of all men from Adam so also the Apostle never intended so to joyn sin naturally inherent with sin imputed and certainly it is as clear as Noon-day That the Apostle never made any mixtures of these sins Rom. 5 where he manifestly writes concerning the sin which in Adam was imputed By one man sayes he sin entred into the world That by one man St. Paul afterwards explains not by traduction from one man and natural propagation but by his disobedience which is moral and spiritual By the disobedience says he of one man many became sinners He did not then joyn that which is moral and spiritual with that which is material and naturally propagated But that man by whom sin entred into the world is without doubt Adam whose sin was the sin of the whole world The sin I say which by the transgression of the Law was imputed to the whole world The Apostle adds in pursute of his argument Till the Law sin was in the world that is till that man Adam sin was in the world At the same time as sin enter'd into the world through the Law by Adams sin there was another 〈◊〉 in the world as the Apostle witnesses 〈…〉 and Adam which is the same thing Not the sin which was imputed by transgression of the Law but sin which was naturally inherent and was not imput dâ—whilst there was no Law Nor did the Apostle joyn â—n which was before the Law with that which was after the Law and had its original from the Law which in this Chapter he only hâ—ndles By one man sin extord â—nto the world and by sin death the Apostle adds in that place Where observe the death which the Apostle here meanâ— is not intended the natural death which was deeply rooted in the bowels of meir by innate corruption and by the depraving of his â—â—â—ation but the spiritual and mystical death is here to be understood which follow'd the spiritual and mystical imputation of Adams sin Which that you may the more clearly know remember what I said before That no man ever dyed for the sin of Adam but one Christ alone in whom according to mystical imputation all men are thought dead as all men are thought to have sinn'd in Adam They are I say thought dead in Christ by similitude parable and fiction mystically as Isaac was supposed kill'd by his father as before out of the eleventh Chapter to the Hebrews That death then of which here the Apostle speaks was mystical fictitious and Parabolical which ensued upon Adams mystical fictitious Parabolical sin Which death no man ever actually suffer'd in Christ as no man actually or really ever sinn'd in Adam The Apostle spoke in this place not of that sin which was naturally inherent to all men but only of that which by mystical imputation pass'd upon all men from the sin of Adam The Apostle spoke likewise
should be imputed to any one but his own It remains then that all men have committed the sin of Adam according to similitude if not actually And indeed because there is nothing in the world which is not either the thing actually or the similitude of it which is the image of reality Nor could there be any lawfull imputation from the sin of another but by that supposition by which he who is put in place of the sinner is thought to be transform'd into his image and similitude and to have sinn'd that by similitude which the other sinn'd actually so that for the similitude such punishments may be laid upon the personater of the guilty person as were ordained for himself This the Apostle maintains to have happen'd to all men and to have sinn'd as Adam sinn'd and to have suffer'd the same death which Adam suffer'd for his sin By one man sayes he sin entred into the world and by sin death I say he would have all men turn'd into the image and similitude of the transgression of Adam that they might all be thought to have sinn'd according to the similitude of the transgression of Adam and the like death reign'd over them which reign'd over him for the similitude of his transgression And the Apostle that none might be freed from the death of this punishment adds That death reign'd from Adam upon those also who had not sinn'd according to the similitude of the transgression of Adam For it was known before that the sin of Adam had passed upon all men which had been born since the framing of Adam and should be born afterwards and that death reign'd from him upon his posterity But that he might comprehend all men in the sin of Adam whose roots reached as far from Adam to the foregoing ages as their branches reached from Adam to the future ages and the times after Adam It was the meaning of the Apostle that the sin of Adam was indifferently imputed to all men before and since and that death reign'd from him upon those that were past and those that were to come A wonderful but no singular mystery For the faith of Abraham was imputed by the same mystery to all the faithful both born before Abraham from all eternity and who were born after Abraham and shall be born to all eternity in which sense Abraham is called the father of the Faithfull of those that are past and are also to come To these add what I have said of the imputation of the death of Christ That the death of Christ was not only imputed to all men born after Christ but past back upon all those likewise born before Christ And as it was fit it should be so likewise the manner of the mystical imputation perswades us that it was so spiritually I mean and by way of conception according to which mystical imputation takes hold of men For as Lightning breaking out of a cloud enlightens with one flash things above it and things below it So the imputation that broke out of the sin of Adam darted one and the same lightning upon all men those that were born after Adam and those that were born before him And the same manner of mysterie which may teach us that the death of Adam pass'd upon all men that were not born many ages after Adam will teach us that death could reign backward upon those that were born before him never so long For the manner of imputation is alike for the time past and for the time to come Nor is there any new miracle to be sought for that sin should be imputed to men created before Adam if it be believ'd to be imputed to men created after Adam Let us as far as we conceive view all men from the beginning to the end And at last you will confess that no other could sin but according to the similitude of the transgression of Adam but only those that were begotten and born before Adam For it is certain that all men after Adam and their sons and who shall also be by them begotten did sinn according to the similitude of the transgression of Adam What kind of men must those be I beseech ye who did not sin according to the similitude of the transgression of Adam Certainly it must be those who were born before Adam because the Apostle sayes manifestly they sinn'd before the Law Rom. 5. And to whom before the Law and Adam their sin was not imputed because sin is not imputed when the Law is not And therefore they neither sinn'd nor could sin according to the similitude of the transgression of Adam To make the difference betwixt them and all the posterity of Adam who sinn'd after the Law because after Adam to whom the sin of Adam was imputed because sin began to be imputed from the Law and from Adam and who could sin only according to this real similitude of the transgression of Adam of which we here speak and which no doubt the Apostle meant Let famous men pardon me that have expounded St. Paul upon this place if I tell them that those things which they speake concerning children here are inconsistent whom they would have here to be the persons meant who sinn'd not according to the similitude of the transgression of Adam because they sinn'd not actually as Adam did Yea if they had sinn'd actually they had not sinn'd according to similitude because act is the reality of a thing no similitude And in that very regard because infants sinned not actually they must needs sin according to similitude But the mixture of those natural sins of Adam deceiv'd those most famous men which were inherent to him together with that legall sin which passed upon all men For they imagin'd that children sinn'd not according to the similitude of the transgression of Adam because they sinn'd not actually as Adam sinn'd As for example Because they kill'd not actually as Adam kill'd or might have kill'd because they committed not adultery actually as Adam did or might have done because they stole not actually as Adam stole or might have stollen and so of the rest of Adams natural sins But here there was no intention concerning the similitude of all his natural sins but only of the similitude of his disobedience Into which disobedience no man nor no child could ever fall actually The Apostle said not Who had not sinn'd according to the similitude of Adams sins Nay that only Who had not sinned according to the similitude of Adams transgaession For here he intended nothing concerning all the sins of Adam and those natural sins of Adam which only concern'd himself but of that one transgression that passed upon all men All I say both of age and under age as all men are indifferently comprehended in the species and in regard that old and young and men of all ages sinned in spirit and mysterie not naturally and materially according to the similitude of the transgression of Adam For although