the life which all shall receive by the power of Christ at the last day is essentially a re-union of soule and body and therefore their separation is a thing we incurred by the sinne of Adam the same Apostle also Rom. 5. describeth an universall reigne of death over all by reason of the first transgression even diseases also in the Scripture are attributed unto sinne as their meritorious cause Iohn 5. 14. 1 Cor. 11. 30. Revel 2. 22. and in respect of all these the mercy of God doth not so interpose it selfe but that all the sonnes of men are in some sort partakers of them Thirdly the finall desert of originall sinne as our article speaketh is damnation the wrath of God to be poured on us in eternall torments of body and soule To this end also many praevious judgements of God are subservient as the privation of originall righteousnesse which he tooke and withheld upon Adams throwing it away spirituall desertion permission of sinne with all other destroying depravations of our nature as farre as they are meerely paenall some of which are immediate consequents of Adams singular actuall transgression as privation of originall righteousnesse others as damnation it selfe the proper effects of that derived sinne and pollution that is in us there is none damned but for their owne sinne when Divines affirme that by Adams sinne we are guilty of damnation they doe not meane that any are actually damned for his particular fact but that by his sinne and our sinning in him by Gods most just ordination we have contracted that exceeding pravitie and sinfulnesse of nature which deserveth the curse of God and eternall damnation it must be an inherent uncleanesse that actually excludes out of the kingdome of heaven Revel 21. 27. which uncleannesse the Apostle shewes to be in infants not sanctified by an interest in the Covenant in briefe we are baptized unto the remission of sinne that we may be saved Act. 2. 38. that then which is taken away by Baptisme is that which hinders our salvation which is not the first sinne of Adam imputed but our owne inherent lust and pollution we cannot be washed and cleansed and purged from an imputed sinne which is done by the layer of regeneration from that which lies upon us onely by an externall denomination we have no need of cleansing we may be said to be freed from it or justified but not purged the soule then that is guilty of sinne shall die and that for its owne guilt if God should condemne us for originall sinne onely it were not by reason of the imputation of Adams fault but of the iniquitie of that portion of nature in which we are proprietaries Now here to shut up all observe that in this inquiry of the desert of originall sinne the Question is not What shall be the certaine lot of those that depart this life under the guilt of this sin only but what this haereditary and and native corruption doth desrve in all those in whom it is for as Saint Paul saith we iudge not them that are without especially infants 1 Cor. 5. 13. but for the demerit of it in the justice of God our Saviour expresly affirmeth that unlesse a man be borne againe he cannot enter into the kingdome of heaven Iohn 3. and let them that can distinguish betweene a not going to heaven and a going to hell a third receptacle of soules in the Scripture we finde not Saint Paul also tels us that by nature we are children of wrath Ephes 2. 3. even originally and actually we are guilty of and obnoxious unto that wrath which is accompanied with fiery indignation that shall consume the adversaries againe we are assured that no uncleane thing shall enter into heaven Revel 21. with which hell-deserving uncleanesse children are polluted and therefore unlesse it be purged with the bloud of Christ they have no interest in everlasting happinesse by this meanes sinne is come upon all to condemnation and yet doe we not peremptorily censure to hell all infants departing this world without the layer of regeneration the ordinary means of waveing the punishment due to this pollution that is the Question de facto which we before rejected yea and two wayes there are whereby God saveth such infants snatching them like brands out of the fire First by interesting them into the Covenant if their immediate or remote parents have beene beleevers he is a God of them and of their seed extending his mercy unto a thousand generations of them that feare him Secondly by his grace of election which is most free and not tied to any conditions by which I make no doubt but God taketh many unto him in Christ whose parents never knew or had beene despisers of the Gospel and this is the doctrine of our Church agreeable to the Scripture affirming the desert of originall sinne to be Gods wrath and damnation to both which how opposite is the Arminian doctrine may thus appeare S. S. By the offence of one man iudgement came upon all to condemnation Rom. 5. 18. By one mans disobedience many were made sinners vers 19. Behold I was shapen in iniquitie and in sinne did my mother conceive me Psalme 51. 5. else were your chidren unclean but now they are holy 1 Cor. 7. 14. Who can bring a clean thing out of an uncleane not one Iob 14. 4. Except a man be borne againe he cannot see the kingdome of God Iohn 3. 3. That which is born of the flesh is flesh Iohn 3. 6. We were by nature the children of wrath even as others Ephes 2. 3. By one man sinne entered into the world and death by sinne and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned to wit in him Rom. 5. 12. For I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing Rom. 7. 18. In the day you eate thereof you shall surely die Gen. 2. 17. For as in Adam all die so 1 Cor. 15. 22. By nature children of wrath Ephes 2. 3. And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth Revel 21. 27. Lib. Arbit Adam sinned in his owne proper person onely and there is no reason why God should impute that sinne unto infants Borraeus It is absurd that by one mans disobedience many should be made actually disobedient Corvinus Infants are simply in that estate in which Adam was before his fall Venator Neither is it considerable whether they be the children of beleevers or of heathens for all infants have the same innocencie Rem Apol. That which we have by birth can be no evill of sinne because to be borne is plainely involuntarie Idem Originall sinne is neither a sinne properly so called which should make the posteritie of Adam guilty of Gods wrath nor yet a punishment of any sinne on them Rem Apol. It is against equitie that one should be accounted guilty of a sinne that is not his owne that he should be iudged nocent who
their abettors have troubled the Church about the death of Christ may be reduced to heads First concerning the object of his merit or whom he died for Secondly concerning the efficacie and end of his death or what he deserved procured merited and obtained for them for whom he died in resolution of the first they affirme that he died for all and every one of the second that he died for no one man at all in that sense Christians have hitherto beleeved that he laid downe his life and submitted himselfe to beare the burden of his Fathers wrath for their sakes It seemes to me a strange extenuation of the merit of Christ to teach that no good at all by his death doth redound to divers of them for whom he died what participation in the benefit of his suffering had Pharaoh or Judas doe they not at this houre and shall they not to eternitie feele the waite and burden of their owne sinnes had they either grace in this world or glory in the other that they should be said to have an interest in the death of our Saviour Christians have hitherto beleeved that for whom Christ died for their sinnes he made satisfaction that they themselves should not externally suffer for them is God unist to punish twice for the same fault his owne Sonne once and againe the poore sinners for whom he suffered I cannot conceive an intention in God that Christ should satisfie his justice for the sinne of them that were in hell some thousands of yeeres before and yet be still resolved to continue then punishment on them to all eternitie no doubtlesse Christ giveth life to everyone for whom he gave his life hee looseth not one of them whom he purchased with his blood The first part of this Controversie may be handled under these two questions First whether God giving his Sonne and Christ making his soule a ransome for sinne intended thereby to redeeme all and every one from their sins that all and every one alike from the beginning of the world to the last day should all equally be partakers of the fruits of his death and passion which purpose of theirs is in the most frustrate Secondly whether God had not a certaine infallible intention of gathering unto himselfe a chosen people of collecting a Church of first borne of saving his little flocke of bringing some certainly to happinesse by the death of his onely Sonne which in the event he doth accomplish The second part also may be reduced to these two heads first whether Christ did not make full satisfaction for all their sinnes for whom he died and merited glory or everlasting happinesse to be bestowed on them upon the performance of those conditions God should require Secondly which is the proper Controversie I shall chiefly insist upon whether Christ did not procure for his own people a power to become the Sonnes of God merit and deserve at the hands of God for them grace faith righteousnesse and sanctification whereby they may be enabled infallibly to performe the conditions of the new Covenant upon the which they shall be admitted to glory To the first Question of the first part of the Controversie the Arminians answer affirmatively to wit that Christ died for all alike the benefit of his Passion belongs equally to all the posteritie of Adam and to the second negatively that God had no such intention of bringing many chosen sonnes unto salvation by the death of Christ but determined of grace and glory no more precisely to one then to another to Iohn then Iudas Abraham then Pharaoh both which as the learned Moulin observed seeme to be invented to make Christianitie ridiculous and expose our Religion to the derision of all knowing men for who can possibly conceive that one by the appointment of God should die for another and yet that other by the same justice be allotted unto death himselfe when ones death onely was due that Christ hath made a full satisfaction for their sinnes who shall everlastingly feele the waight of them themselves that he should merit and obtaine reconciliation with God for them who live and die his enemies grace and glory for them who are gracelesse in this life and damned in that which is to come that he should get remission of sinnes for them whose sinnes were never pardoned in briefe if this sentence be true either Christ by his death did not reconcile us unto God make satisfaction to his justice for our iniquities redeeme us from our sinnes purchase a kingdome an everlasting inheritance for us which I hope no Christian will say or else all the former absurdities must necessarily follow which no rationall man will ever admit Neither may we be charged as straitners of the merit of Christ for we advance the true value and worth thereof as hereafter will appeare farre beyond all that the Arminians ascribe unto it we confesse that that blood of God Acts 20. 28. of the Lambe without spot or blemish 1. Pet. 1. 19. was so exceedingly precious of that infinite worth and value that it might have saved a thousand beleeving worlds Iohn 3. 16. Rom. 3. 22. his death was of sufficient dignitie to have beene made a ransome for all the sinnes of every one in the world and on this internall sufficiencie of his death and passion is grounded the universalitie of Evangelicall promises which have no such restriction in their own nature as that they should not be made to all and every one though the promulgation and knowledge of them is tied onely to the good pleasure of Gods speciall providence Matth. 16. 17. as also that Oeconomie and dispensation of the new Covenant whereby the partition wall being broken downe there remaines no more difference betweene Iew and Gentile the utmost borders of the Earth being given in for Christs inheritance so that in some sense Christ may be said to die for all and the whole world first in as much as the worth and value of his death was very sufficient to have beene made a price for all their sinnes secondly in as much as this word All is taken for some of all sorts not for every one of every sort as it is frequently used in the holy Scripture so Christ being lifted up drew all unto him Iohn 12. 32. that is beleevers out of all sorts of men the Apostles cured all diseases or some of all sorts they did not cure every particular disease but there was no kinde of disease that was exempted from their power of healing so that where it is said that Christ died for all it is meant either first all the faithfull or secondly some of all sorts thirdly not onely Iewes but Gentiles For Secondly the proper counsell and intention of God in sending his Sonne into the world to die was that thereby he might confirme and ratifie the new Covenant to his elect and purchase for them all the good things which are contained in the tenure of that
Grevinchovius Notwithstanding then the death of Christ for us we might have beene held to the old rule Doe this and live but if this be true I cannot perceive how it may be said that Chrid died to redeeme us from our sins to save our soules and bring us unto glory neither perhaps doe they thinke this to be any great inconvenience for the same Authour affirmeth that Christ cannot be said properly to die to save any one And a little after he more fully declares himselfe That after Christ had obtained all that he did obtaine by his death the right remained wholly in God to apply it or not to apply it as it should seeme good unto him the application of grace and glory to any man was not the end for which Christ obtained them but to get a right and power unto God of bestowing those things on what sort of men he would which argues no redemption of us from our sinnes but a vindication of God from such a condition wherein he had not power to forgive them not an obtaining of salvation for us but of a libertie unto God of saving us on some condition or other But now after God hath got this power by the death of Christ and out of his gracious good pleasure assigned faith to be the meanes for us to attaine those blessings he hath procured himselfe a libertie to bestow Did Christ obtaine this faith for us of him if it be a thing not in our own power No Faith is not obtained by the death of Christ saith Corvinus so that there is no good thing no spirituall blessing into which any man in the world hath any interest by the death of Christ which is not so great an absurditie but that they are most ready to grant it Arnoldus confesseth that he beleeves that the death of Christ might have enioyed its end or his merit it s full force although never any had beleeved and againe the death and satisfaction of Christ being accomplished it might come to passe that none fulfilling the condition of the new Covenant none should be saved so also saith Grevinchovius Oh Christ that any pretending to professe thy holy Name should thus slight the precious worke of thy death and passion surely never any before who counted it their glory to be called Christians did ever thus extenuate their friends the Socinians onely excepted the dignitie of his merit and satisfaction take but a short view of what benefit they allow to redound to us by the effusion of his precious blood and you may see what a pestilent heresie these men have laboured to bring into the Church neither faith nor salvation grace nor glory hath he purchased for us not any spirituall blessing that by our interest in his death we can claime to be ours it is not such a reconciliation with God as that he thereupon should be contented againe to be called our God it is not justification nor righteousnesse nor actuall redemption from our sinnes it did not make satisfaction for our iniquities and deliver us from the curse onely it was a meanes of obtaining such a possibility of salvation as that God without wronging of his iustice might save us if he would one way or other so that when Christ had done all that he could there was not one man in the world immediately the better for it notwithstanding the utmost of his endeavour every one might have beene damned with Iudas to the pit of hell for he died as well for Simon Magus and Iudas as he did for Peter and Paul say the Arminians Now if no more good redound to us by the death of Christ then to Simon Magus we are not much obliged to him for our salvation Nay he may be rather said to have redeemed God then us for he procured for him immediately a power to redeeme us if he would for us onely by vertue of that power a possibilitie to be redeemed which leaves nothing of the nature of merit annexed to his death for that deserveth that something be done not onely that it may be done the workman deserveth that his wages be given him and not that it may be given him And then what becomes of all the comfort and consolation that is proposed to us in the death of Christ but it is time to see how this stubble is burned and consumed by the word of God and that established which they thought to overthrow First It is cleare that Christ died to procure for us an actuall reconciliation with God and not only a power for us to be reconciled unto him for when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his sonne Rom. 5. 10. we enjoy an actuall reconciliation unto God by his death he is content to be called our God when we are enemies without the intervening of any condition on our part required though the sweetnesse comfort and knowledge of this reconciliation doe not compasse our soules before we beleeve in him Againe we have remission of sinnes by his blood and justification from them not a sole vindication into such an estate wherein if it please God and our selves our sinnes are pardonable for we are justified through the redemption that is in Iesus Christ whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousnesse for the remission of sinnes Rom. 3. 24 25. Yea he obtained for us by his death righteousnesse and holinesse He gave himselfe for his Church that he might sanctifie and cleanse it Ephes 5. 26. That he might present it unto himselfe a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle that we should be holy and without blemish vers 27. Where first we have whom Christ died or gave himselfe for even his Church secondly what he obtained for it holinesse and righteousnesse a freedome from the spots and blemishes of sinne that is the grace of justification and sanctitie he made him to be sinne for us who knew no sinne that we might become the righteousnesse of God in him 2 Cor. 5. 21. And lastly he died to purchase for us an everlasting inheritance Heb. 9. 15. So that both grace and glory are bestowed on them for whom he died as the immediate fruits of his death and passion Secondly see what the Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expresly assigneth as the proper end and immediate effect according to the purpose of God and his owne intention of the effusion of the blood of Iesus Christ and you shall finde that he intended by it to take away the sinnes of many to make his soule an offering for sinne that he might see his seed that the counsell of God might prosper in his hand Isaiah 53. to be a ransome for many Matth. 20. 28. to beare the sins of many Heb. 9. 28. he bare our sins in his own body on the tree that we should live unto righteousnesse 1 Pet. 2. 24. that we might become
the righteousnesse of God in him 2 Cor. 5. 21. thereby reconciling us unto God vers 19. he died to reconcile us unto God in the body of his flesh through death that we might be holy and unblameable Colos 1. 21 22. to purge our sins Heb. 1. 3. to obtaine an everlasting redemption for us Heb. 9. 12. so that if Christ by his death obtained what he did intend he hath purchased for us not only a possibilitie of salvation but holinesse righteousnesse reconciliation with God justification freedome from the guilt and condemning power of sin everlasting redemption eternall life and glory in heaven Thirdly I appeale unto the consciences of all Christians First whether they doe not suppose the very foundation of all their consolation to be stricken at when they shall finde those places of Scripture that affirme Christ to have died to take away our sins to reconcile us unto God to put away or abolish our transgressions to wash and regenerate us perfectly to save us and purchase for us an everlasting redemption whereby he is become unto us righteousnesse and redemption and sanctification the Lord our righteousnesse and we become the righteousnesse of God in him to be so wrested as if he should be said only to have done something which these things might happily follow Secondly whither they thinke it not a ready way to impaire their love and to weaken their faith in Christ when they shall be taught that Christ hath done no more for them then for those that are damned in hell that be their assurance never so great that Christ died for them yet there is enough to be laid to their charge to condemne them that though God is said to have reconciled them unto himselfe in Christ Colos 1. 19 20. yet indeed he is as angry with them as with any reprobate in the world that God loveth us not first but so long as we continue in a state of enmitie against him before our conversion he continues our enemy also so that the first act of friendship or love must be performed on our part notwithstanding that the Scripture saith we were reconciled unto God being enemies Romanes 5. vers 10. Thirdly Whither they have not hitherto supposed themselves bound to beleeve that Christ died for their sins and rose for their justification do they not thinke it lawfull to pray that God would bestow upon them grace and glory for Christs sake and to beleeve that Iesus Christ was such a Mediatour of the new Covenant as procured for the persons Covenanted withall all the good things comprehended in the promise of that Covenant I will not further presse upon this prevarication against Christian Religion only I would desire all the lovers of Iesus Christ seriously to consider whether these men doe truly ayme at his honour and advancing the dignitie of his merit and not rather at the crying up of their own indeavours seeing the sole cause of their denying these glorious effects of the blood of Christ is to appropriate the praise of them unto themselves as we shall see in the next Chapter These charges are never to be waved by the vanitie of their sophisticall distinctions as of that of impetration and application which though it may be received in an Orthodox meaning yet not in that sense or rather non-sense whereunto they abuse it viz. As though Christ had obtained that for some which shall never be imparted unto them that all the blessings procured by his death are proper to none but pendent in the aire for them that can or will catch them whereupon when we object that by this means all the efficacie of the merit of Christ is in our own power they readily grant it and say it cannot otherwise be let them that can receive these monsters in Christianitie for my part in these following contradictory assertions I will choose rather to adhere to the authoritie of the word of God then of Arminius and his sectaries S. S. He made him to be sinne for us who knew no sinne that we might become the righteousnesse of God in him 2 Cor. 5. 21. He loved his Church and gave himselfe for it that he might present it unto himselfe a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such things Ephes 5. 26 27. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himselfe 2 Cor. 5. 19. When thou shalt make his soule an offering for sin he shall see his seed he shall prolong his dayes and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand Isa 53. 10. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant iustifie many for he shall beare their iniquities vers 11. Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many Heb. 9. 28. By his own blood he entred in once into the holy place having obtained eternall redemption for us vers 12. He hath reconciled you in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblamable Colos 1. 22. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousnesse for the remission of sins c. that he might be iust and the iustifier of him that beleeveth in Iesus Rom. 3. 25 26. Who his own selfe bare our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sinne should live unto righteousnesse by whose stripes we are healed 1 Peter 2. 24. Lib. Arbit The immediate effect of the death of Christ is not the remission of sins or the actuall redemption of any Armin. Christ did not properly die to save any one Grevinch A potentiall and conditionate reconciliation not actuall and absolute is obtained by the death of Christ Corvin I beleeve it might have come to passe that the death of Christ might have had its end though never any man had beleeved Corvi The death and satisfaction of Christ being accomplished yet it may so come to passe that none at all fulfilling the condition of the new covenant none might be saved idem The impetration of salvation for all by the death of Christ is nothing but the obtaining of a possibilitie thereof that God without wronging his iustice may open unto them a gate of mercy to be entred on some condition Rem Coll. Hag. Notwithstanding the death of Christ God might have assigned any other condition of salvation as well as faith or have chosen the Iews following the righteousnesse of the law Grevin Why then the efficacie of the death of Christ depends wholly on us true it cannot otherwise be Rem Apol. CHAP. X. Of the cause of faith grace and righteousnesse THE second part of this controversie is in particular concerning grace faith and holinesse sincere obedience to the precepts of the new Covenant all whose praise we appropriate to the most high by reason of a double interest First of the merit of Christ which doth procure them for us Secondly of the holy Spirit which works them in us the death of Christ is their
to do what he will then grant him to be contented to do what he may and not much repine at his hard condition certainly if but for this favour he is a debtor to the Arminians theeves give what they do not take having robbed God of his power they will yet leave him so much goodnesse as that he shall not be troubled at it though he be sometimes compelled to what he is very loath to do how doe they and their fellows the Iesuits exclaime upon poore Calvin for sometimes using the harsh word of compulsion describing the effectuall powerfull working of the providence of God in the actions of men but they can fasten the same terme on the will of God and no harme done surely he will one day plead his own cause against them but yet blame them not si violandum est ius regnandi causa violandum est it is to make themselves absolute that they thus cast off the yoke of the Almightie and that both in things concerning this life and that which is to come they are much troubled that it should be said that every one of us bring along with us into the world an unchangeable preordination of life and death eternall for such a supposall would quite overthrow the maine foundation of their heresie viz. that men can make their election voide and frustrate as they joyntly lay it down in their Apologie nay it is a dreame saith Dr. Iackson to thinke of Gods decrees concerning things to come as of acts irrevocably finished which would hinder that which Welsingius laies down for a truth to wit that the elect may become reprobates and the reprobates elect now to these particular sayings is their whole doctrine concerning the decrees of God inasmuch as they have any reference to the actions of men most exactly conformable as First their distinction of them into peremptory and not peremptory termes rather used in the citations of litigious courts then as expressions of Gods purpose in sacred Scripture is not as by them applyed compatible with the unchangeablenesse of Gods eternall purposes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say they or temporary beleevers are elected though not peremptorily with such an act of Gods will as hath a coexistence every way commensurate both in its originall continuance and end with their fading faith which sometimes like Ionas gourd is but filia unius noctis in the morning it flourisheth in the evening it is cut down dried up and withereth a man in Christ by faith or actually beleeving which to do is as they say in every one 's own power is in their opinion the proper object of election of election I say not peremptory which is an act pendent expecting the finall perserverance and consummation of his faith and therefore immutable because man having fulfilled his course God hath no cause to change his purpose of crowning him with reward thus also as they teach a man according to his infidelitie whether present and removeable or obdurate and finall is the only object of reprobation which in the latter cause is peremptory and absolute in the former conditionall and alterable it is the qualities of faith and unbeliefe on which their election and reprobation doe attend Now let a faithfull man elected of God according to his present righteousnesse apostate totally from grace as to affirme that there is any promise of God implying his perseverance is with them to overthrow all religion and let the unbeleeving reprobate depose his incredulitie and turne himselfe unto the Lord answerable to this mutation of their conditions are the changings of the purpose of the Almightie concerning their everlasting estate againe suppose these two by alternate courses as the doctrine of Apostacie maintaineth they may should returne each to their former estate the decrees of God concerning them must againe be changed for it is injust with him either not to elect him that beleeves though it be but for an houre or not to reprobate unbeleevers now what unchangeablenesse can we affixe to these decrees which it lies it in the power of man to make as inconstant as Euripus making it beside to be possible that all the members of Christs Church whose names are written in heaven should within one houre be enrolled in the blacke book of damnation Secondly as these not-peremptory decrees are mutable so they make the peremptory decrees of God to be temporall finall impenitencie say they is the only cause and the finally unrepenting sinner is the only object of reprobation peremptory and irrevocable as the Poet thought none happy so they thinke no man to be elected or a reprobate before his death now that denomination he doth receive from the decree of God concerning his eternall estate which must necessarily then be first enacted the relation that is betweene the act of reprobation and the person reprobated importeth a coexistence of denomination when God reprobates a man he then becomes a reprobate which if it be not before he hath actually fulfilled the measure of his iniquitie and sealed it up with the talent of finall impenitencie in his death the decree of God must needs be temporall the just judge of all the world having till then suspended his determination expecting the last resolution of this changeable Proteus nay that Gods decrees concerning mens eternall estates are in their judgement temporall and not beginning untill their death is plaine from the whole course of their doctrine especially where they strive to prove that if there were any such determination God could not threaten punishments or promise rewards Who say they ean threaten punishment to him whom by a peremptory decree he will have to be free from punishment it seemes he cannot have determined to save any whom he threatens to punish if they sinne which is evident he doth all so long as they live in this world which makes God not only mutable but quite deprives him of his foreknowledge and makes the forme of his decree run thus if man will beleeve I determine he shall be saved if he will not I determine he shall be damned that is I must leave him in the meane time to doe what he will so I may meet with him in the end Thirdly they affirme no decree of Almightie God concerning men is so unalterable but that all those who are now in rest or misery might have had contrary lots that those which are damned as Pharaoh Iudas c. might have been saved and those which are saved as the blessed Virgin Poten Iohn might have been damned which must needs reflect with a strong charge of mutabilitie on Almightie God who knoweth who are his divers other instances in this nature I could produce whereby it would be further evident that these innovators in Christian religion doe overthrow the eternitie and unchangeablenesse of Gods decrees but these are sufficient to any discerning man and I will adde in the close an
die which clearely granteth an impunity to all not tainted with sinne Sinne and punishment though they are sometimes separated by his mercy pardoning the one and so not inflicting the other yet never by his justice inflicting the latter where the former is not sinne imputed by it selfe alone without an inherent guilt was never punished in any but Christ the unsearchablenesse of Gods love and justice in laying the iniquitie of us all upon him who had no sinne is an exception from that generall rule he walketh by in his dealing with the posteritie of Adam so that if punishment bee not due unto us for a solely imputed sinne much lesse when it doth not stand with the justice and equitie of God to impute any iniquity unto us at all can we justly be wrapped in such a curse and punishment as wofull experience teacheth us that we lye under Now in this act of injustice wherewith they charge the Almightie the Arminians place the whole nature of originall sin We account not say they originall sin for a sin properly so called that should make the posteritie of Adam to deserve the wrath of God nor for an evill that may properly be called a punishment but only for an infirmitie of nature Which they interpret to be a kinde of evill that being inflicted on Adam God suffereth to descend upon his posteritie so all the depravation of nature the pollution guilt and concupiscence we derive from our first parents the imputation of Adams actuall transgression is all streightned to a small infirmitie inflicted on poore innocent creatures But let them enjoy their own wisdome which is earthly sensuall and devillish the Scripture is cleare that the sinne of Adam is the sinne of us all not only by propagation and communication whereby not his singular fault but something of the same nature is derived unto us but also by an imputation of his actuall transgression unto us all his singular disobedience being by this means made ours the grounds of this imputation I touched before which may be all reduced to his being a common person and head of all our nature which investeth us with a double interest in his demerits whilest so he was 1. as we were then in him and parts of him 2. as he sustained the place of our whole nature in the Covenant God made with him both which even according to the exigence of Gods justice require that his transgression be also accounted ours and Saint Paul is plaine not only that by one mans offence many were made sinners Rom. 5. 19. by the derivation of a corrupted nature but also that by one mans offence iudgement came upon all vers 18. even for his one sinne all of us are accounted to have deserved judgement and condemnation and therefore vers 12. he affirmeth that by one man sinne and death entred upon all the world and that because we have all sinned in him which we no otherwise doe but that his transgression in Gods estimation is accounted ours and the opposition the Apostle there maketh betweene Christ and his righteousnesse and Adam and his disobedience doth sufficiently evince it as may appeare by this figure Sicut sic ex Adamo Christo in omnes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 redundavit eis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per unū 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Adami 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christi the whole similitude chiefly consists in the imputation of Adams sinne and Christs righteousnesse unto the seed of the one by nature and of the other by grace but that we are counted righteous for the righteousnes of Christ is among Protestants though some differ in the manner of their expressions as yet without question and therefore are no lesse undoubtedly accounted sinners by or guilty of the first sinne of Adam I shall not shew their opposition unto the truth in many more particulars concerning this Article of Originall sinne having beene long agoe most excellently prevented even in this very method by the way of Antithesis to the Scripture and the Orthodoxe doctrine of our Church by the famously learned Master Reynolds in his excellent Treatise Of the sinfulnesse of sinne where he hath discovered their errours fully answered their sophisticall objections and invincibly confirmed the truth from the word of God onely as I have shewed already how they make this we call originall sinne no sinne at all neither inherent in us nor imputed unto us nor no punishment truly so called so because our Church saith directly that it meriteth damnation I will briefly shew what they conceive to be the desert thereof First for Adam himselfe they affirme that the death threatued unto him if he transgressed the Covenant and due unto him for it was neither death temporall for that before he was subiect unto by the primarie constitution of his nature nor yet such an eternall death as is accompanied with damnation or everlasting punishment No Why then let us here learne some new Divinitie Christians have hitherto beleeved that whatsoever may be comprised under the name of death together with its antecedents consequents and attendants was threatned to Adam in this commination and Divines untill this day can finde but these two sorts of death in the Scripture as poenall unto men and properly so called and shall we now be perswaded that it was neither of these that was threatned unto Adam in must be so if we will beleeve the Arminians it was neither the one nor the other of the former but whereas he was created mortall and subject to a temporall death the sanction of his obedience was a threatning of the utter dissolution of his soule and body or a reduction to their primative nothing but what if a man will not here take them at their words but beleeve according to Saint Paul that death entred by sinne that if we had never sinned we had never died that man in the state of innocency was by Gods constitution free even from temporall death and all things directly conducing thereunto Secondly that this death threatned to our first parents comprehended damnation also of soule and body for evermore and that of their imaginarie dissolution there is not the least intimation in the word of God why I confesse they have impudence enough in divers places to begge that we would beleeve their assertions but never confidence enough to venture once to prove them true Now they who make so slight of the desert of this sinne in Adam himselfe will surely scarce allow it to have any ill merit at all in his posteritie Whether ever any one were damned for Originall sinne and adiudged to everlasting torments is deservedly doubted of yea we doubt not to affirme that never any was so damned saith Corvinus and that this is not his sole opinion he declares by telling you no lesse of his Master Arminius It is most true saith he that Arminius teacheth that it is