and effects only that an internal cause then should be put for an external effect must needs be most unusual Entred into the World We may understand this Entrance of Sin in divers senses and that very Orthodoxally 1. Sin was not in the beginning for it had no being before the Entring and therefore was no eternal evil principle but only the issue of some inordinate and irregular Act. 2. It entered not as a creature or substance that had some existence in it self but as a vicious accident that could not subsist without a Subject in which it must inhere And therefore though it entred into our Nature and substance yet our nature and Substance it was not 3. It entered not of it self but by means by one man by a second cause Therefore himself grants Sin had its beginning and thence let the fault and guilt be fetcht causally what need is there to seek further than the beginning why then is there such prying into the first cause such disputing such labouring to entitle hereunto his Decreeing his ordaining and permitting disposing dispensing c. For so indeed the most we do is bus to disparage and dishonour him in his glorious Titles and Attribut It is enough for us to beleeve him to be just wise good c. in all things because he cannot possibly be otherwise although in some dispensations it is not possible for us to comprehend him 4 If entred into Loe the Apostle speaks plainly of an ingression not as of an accession of a thing inward and not outward only doubtless then it must needs be something inherent and not imputed only 5. It entred into the World {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} it came into even the reduplicated praeposition is a note of more intimate and peculiar manner of introduction namely by way of Generation and Propagation not by Temptation nor by Imitation not by Temptation for so it came from the Devil to Eve not by Imitation for so it came from Eve to Adam but by Propagation for so it came from Adam to us all Had it been otherwise than so Sin could not in any adaptness or propriety have been said to have Entred into the world but the world must then have caused it and called it and sought it and brought it and taught it to it self And death by Sin that is to say by the same Sin which came into the world by one Man namely the Original So then death it is that cannot be denied But now men must be Judges and take upon them to determine what kind of death albeit the Apostle speak it never so indefinitely He must mean temporal death says he well and thus he may inferr it because St. Paul speaks of such a Death as entred into this world and that 's but temporal But then he ought to observe withall that St. Paul speaks here not only of Deaths first Entrance but of Deaths through passage now such a passage is out of the world and beyond it and so must be eternal But he objects eternal death did not pass upon all men That 's easie to be answered from some of his own words The Sentence did though the Execution did not in the one was the Divine Justice to be magnified and his Mercy in the other Thus the Divine Attributes know how to save and to exalt themselves on either side if men would not seek to make them seem to clash by humbling those high things to their low and weak apprehensions And so Death passed upon all men sc. Death entred by Sin and so by Sin Death passed So that whether we consider the terminus a quo or ad quem we may directly hence collect that Death even the coporal as well as the eternal was not the sequel or necessity of Nature but even the penalty and wages of Sin because death is a separation quite contrary to the natural union especially to that of Nature in her integrity and original perfection But say that because of a composition and that of contrary Elements there might be nevertheless some kind of mutation migration melioration yet this was far from separation dissolution confusion and that dolorous and ignominious execrable and damnable This makes me I cannot so well brook or digest those passages of his His Sin left him to his Nature we returned to the state of meer nature of our prime creation thrust back to the form of Nature was remanded to his mortal natural State means he to a corrupt state of Nature that was not the former or from the prime Creation or means he by the form of Nature that of Natures first forming why that was after the Divine Image and similitude or means he by meer Nature those they call Pure Naturals which indeed are nothing because Nature cannot be so abstractly considered but either in the state of Integrity or in the state of Corruption a third state before between of after those two never was and therefore is not to be imagined Ever since the Fall and Original Sin we aptly conceive that there is a difference still to be made betwixt the substance of Nature and the corruption of Nature But that this Nature and this corruption was ever separated in any Christ only excepted we beleeve not or that there shall be a State of pure Naturals again till the Resurrection of the Dead We all know and beleeve Adam by his disobedience defected and fell from what he was before sc. from the Image and Original Righteousness but that by his Sin he fell into a Nature or state which he had before or without original righteousness that we understand not not yet of any remanding obtruding or returning thither Indeed we read God said Dust thou art and to Dust thou shalt return Gen. 3. 19. but that noted only some materials in part but no certain state neither had that dust returned to the dust but that the Image and righteousness was forfeited and lost For we see it was so not by a natural propensity so much as by a provoked Commination Besides this methinks he says something to oppose himself in this part when he says our Nature is of Gods making and consequently is good or Nature is almost the same c. What good and yet punished nay and we remanded to it for a punishment What almost the same in goodness and yet nothing the same in immortality and the blessing Thus here again Gods Justice is brought upon the Stage nay and upon the rack too especially by our scanning betwixt the two Terms of Death entring by one man and Death passing upon all men For we cry why the punishment and how of all for one so forth Mean while it is not considered by us Nay not believed how we were all in the lump loyns of that one which remains hereafter to be demonstrated only thus much is now to be said That while the Divine Attributes are pretended for saved harmless by us either
is upon the Sons of Adam from the day that they goe out of their Mothers womb till the day that they return to the Mother of all things would not be so grievous or so unequal to their apprehensions But they would soon be convinc'd to lay their hands upon their mouths yea would be content to say every man for himself This is my Yoak the image of the earthy and I will bear it I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him which is never to be brought to passe if we once go about to unyoak our selves of the Sin But whether we will do so or no God will be true when all men are found Lyers his ways will be proved equal when our ways are reproved for unequal and wisdom will be justified and cleared when she is judged though no flesh living can be justified in her sight The very punishment and infliction from God is sufficient to argue the sin and guilt in us For Death reigned by one not only by one man in the Masculine as he spake immediately before but by one in the Neuter one Sin for death could never so have reigned by the one Man had it not been by the one sin Yet see how he would labour to bring the Original punishment on our heads that will not admit us to bring the Original Sin so much as upon our Shoulders For so he supposes it If the sin of Adam alone could bring death upon the world who by imitation of his transgression on the stock of their own natural choice did sin against God though not after the similitude of Adams transgression How says he no Sin but in imitation no punishment but for imitation he knows full well whose exploded heresie that was and therefore shall do very well to renounce both name and thing at once But how agree his own words to themselves sinning by imitation and yet not after the similitude of Adams transgression which cannot genuinely no nor conveniently be interpreted but of sinning actually and by imitation yea let it be understood of sinning less than he did yet so it is by imitation Again Sinning on the stock of their own natural choice and yet not sinning after the similitude of Adams transgression Why how sinned Adam but out of the stock of his own natural choice And how sinned we in him but out of the stock of his natural choice for indeed he was our natural stock and we were the branches thereof And it was he that received the whole stock of Natures choice liberty Free will and consent for himself and likewise for us all and out of this stock of natural choice and liberty it was that we sinned not only by him but in him and with him wherefore I heartily wish him to be wary how he exempts sinning after the similitude of Adams transgression and sinning on the stock of our own natural choice each from other lest he impâ—ir that stock and overthrow that Rock of liberty and Free will which against both Supralapsarians and Sublapsarians he laboured ere while so earnestly to establish and so prove to strike upon them and himself and the Divine Attributes all at once But to remedy all this here it is not only by one Man who had his personal choice but by one sin wherein was our natural choice and therefore let us go on to see what the Apostle inferrs and preferrs in such a case How much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousnesse shall reign in life by one Iosus Christ sc. Though Death reigned much both by one man and by one sin yet by one Christ they shall reign much more But then they must be duely qualified for it is They which receive and that argues no capacity no ability in them notwithstanding the blemish of Orginal sin for thereby they were under Death's reign which was spiritual and not corporal only and held under the power and utter slavery of Sin as well as Death rather it convinces them of their privation and impotence as not having but as they receive yet notwithstanding such emptiness and unaptness being prepared and embled by Christs abundance they must receive that is rightly apply Grace sc. the grace of justification by Faith and likewise the Gift of Righteousness sc. the sanctification of the Spirit to holy walking And both these they shall have both in their kinds and measures sc. abundance namely for sufficiency but not to supererogation And so they shall reign in life sc. from Vassals under Sin and Death become Free-men nay Kings in life both of Grace and Glory And all this not of themselves nor for any worthiness of their own but by the sole merits and mediation of one Iesus Christ who is God all-sufficient and besides whom there is no Saviour All these Excellencies of Remedy put together serve but to set forth the destituteness and desperateness of the Disease Verse 18. Therefore as by the offence of one Iudgement came upon all men to condemnation even so by the righteousness of one the Free gift came upon all men unto justification of life THerefore as by the offence of one man judgement came upon all men c. This 18 verse by the illative seems to me rather to refer to the 16 verse than to any of the rest and may thence more expresly and peculiarly be supplyed Howbeit the Comparison was there with more precise respect to the Things huâ— here to the persons Therefore then the illative is a reduplicate and concludes so much the stronger as by the offence of one man or by one offence whether the primordial Act of his person or the original stain of our Nature judgement of the Divine Decree so wise so just came upon all men all common men and born after the ordinary way of Nature not the blessed Virgin none but Christ himself excepted unto condemnation at least from his sentence and according to our desert even so by the righteousnesse of his person natures offices the Free gift of grace and salvation came upon all men sufficiently yea and effectually too upon all the faithfull For he is the Saviour of all men especially of those that beleeve unto justification of life sc. that life which only the justified or which by justification only all men attain unto And here I have only those words of his to except against The proportion and comparison lies in the mayn emanation of death from one and life from the other That certainly it does not if we look at the Comparison no further than as it lies in the present verse for here the main proportion and comparison is betwixt the offence of one and the righteousness of one both here and throughout the whole Comparison Sin and Grace the offence and the free-gift these are the main opposites as being the principal causes The other two Death and Life are but secondarily set opposite as being but the consequents
or effects And this I note that Christs excellency might appear much more in remedying the cause than in removing the effect only Verse 19. For as by one Mans disobedience many were made Sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous FOr as by one man's disobedience many were made Sinners here concludes the comparison betwixt Adam and Christ and he says well this is the sum of all for 't is the principal scope of the Holy Ghost to prefer Christ making righteous to Adam making sinners And therefore he saith yet better we are made much more righteous by Christ than we were sinners by Adam and yet best of all the graces we derive from Christ shall be more and mightier than the corruption and declination by Adom because the excess and excellency of Christ appeareth much more in taking away the Sin and corruption than in a delivering from the misery and mortality of Original Sin And therefore the Apostle in this case and comparison concludes it for his greatest glory in making Sinners righteous above that of making the miserable happy or bringing those that were subject to Death to reign in life saying thus as the sum of all as by one mans disobedience Adams prime and personal Act with all the affections and circumstances Many {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the many that is all for none that ordinarily proceeded out of his loyns are to be excepted were made Sinners from and in that very Act not only imputed and accounted but constituted and really so effected And so the very word is used both by St. Paul in this place and by St. Peter 2 Pet. 1. 8. and by St. Iames Iam. 4. 4. to signifie the very being of the thing and not the bare reckoning only And we may take his own construction of the word put into the order of sinners but then we understand it of the humane and natural order as by generation and propagation and the like but not of the divine and eternal order as made such by Gods appointment It stranges me still that he who even now was so vehemently invective against both Supralapsarians and Sublapsarians upon the account of the horrible and necessitating Decree in this case of Original Sin as reproving their supposition if it be by the Decree of God by his choice and constitution that it should be so c. and again if God may ordain men to Hell for Adams Sin which is derived to them by Gods only constitution c. And now for all that that himself is here saying many were constituted or put into the order of sinners they were made such by Gods appointment to speak altogether so like them Is this the way I pray you to vindicate the Divine Attributes against them nor will such an exception salve it at all to say not that God could be the Author of a Sin to any but that he appointed the evil which is the consequent of Sin to be upon their heads who descended from the Sinner For though Sin and the Sinner may be put for the punishment and the punished in some other places of Scripture yet can neither be so understood or accepted in this to the Romans because the Sin and the punishment both are here noted again and again in their proper plain and distinct expressions and comparisons Neither is there truth much lesse safety to the Divine Attributes to speak in such a sense as that God appointed by his Decree the evil of punishment and misery which is the consequent of Sin anothers and not their own to be upon their heads outwardly and temporally though the pravity was never in their hearts who descended from the Sinner and yet descended not Sinners themselves For thus though he labours not to speak out a man of any strict observation or narrow search must needs accept him and the rather because of former passages to this purpose not a few besides what necessity is there to wrap in here the divine constituting either for sin or suffering where the humane constituting is so evident so sufficient It is but asking by whom or by what were many made sinners and the answer is here already made to our hands by one Mans disobedience to bid us satisfie all our curiosity in that and to seek no further for a constituting cause nor indeed will the whole Analogie endure it For the total comparison is not betwixt God and Christ but betwixt Christ and Adam neither is all this excesse or excellence of State wherein Christ constituted us above that wherein Adam destituted us spoken with any respect to God but in a direct and compleat respect to Adam only So by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous By the obedience both active and passive of one Lord Jesus Christ who alone is sufficient to satisfie for all sins original and actual shall many even all the Elect all that beleeve be made righteous made as himself says well and constituted righteous And we hope he means really righteous by the Spirits imparting as well as Christs imputing else where were all this contrariety of the Comparison For what excesse or excellency were it to make a thing really righteous if it was not really sinfull and corrupt before and righteous that is not only happy but holy withall And therefore the Sinners must needs be understood not only as miserable and afflicted but as declined and corrupted and so signifying we joyn with him as we have already approved him in what he says to the end of the Paraphrase Nevertheless we may not doe so as touching the Consequents or Antecedents thereof Therefore 1. As to the Antecedents HIs Position which he intimates in opposition to the Objection is That to deny original sin to be a sin properly and inherently is not expresly against the words of St. Paul in the 5 chapter to the Romans And for this he hath these sayings For as for reasons he hath more reason than to call them so 1. He supposes the words are capable of interpretation otherwise than is vulgarly pretended Now I suppose that the interpretation of the Primitive Churches Councils Fathers Papists Protestants Lutherans Calvinists and the most learned and moderate of them is of other account with him than either as vulgar or as pretended Yea a reason or the Maior of it is propounded by him For any interpretation that does violence to right reason to Religion to holinesse of life and the divine Attributes of God is therefore to be rejected and another chosen True but then it remains on his part to be proved That such an Interpretation as is contrary to his understandiug does so in all or in some one of them at least And withall that an Interpretation of his own understanding be not such in all or any one of them 2. Sin in the Scripture is taken for the punishment what then it is not so here nor in more than hundreds of