the lye upon the Promises of God He said that Christ should have a seed Isa 53.10 and yet according to this opinion he may be childless and have none at all He said That he should have the heathen for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession Psal 2.8 and yet he may have nothing He said that he should reign for ever and of his kingdom there should be no end Luk. 1.33 and yet by an utter failer of subjects he might not reign at all and of his Kingdom there might be not so much as a beginning He said That he should be head over all things to the church Eph. 1.22 and yet he may have no body nay nor so much as one poor member of it Notwithstanding all the Promises he may be a Father without Children an Heir without an Inheritance a King without Subjects an Head without Members And how can these things be Or how can God be true to his word which is dearer to him than the whole frame of Heaven and Earth Neither will it salve the matter to say That in the event there was a Church and so much God foreknew For if he foreknew it it was a certain immutable thing Meer Casuals such as may be or may not be are not the objects of Prescience If a Church might be or might not be as this Opinion would have it it was not the object of Prescience If a Church would certainly be then it is the object of Prescience but then this Tenet that it might be or not be falls to the ground However if we suppose a Prescience Prescience is not Providence Neither if there were there only nude Prescience would the Church in the event be from Proscience would the Church in the event be from Providence but from Chance and then the consequence is Chance which made no Promise performs all God who made the Promise performs nothing He is so far from taking care about it that he commits it to the Lottery of mans Will whether there shall be a Church or not If the event hit right yet God is never the truer he never performed the promise he took no care about it that thing or rather Nothing called Fortune did order all 2. This Opinion doth highly disparage Christ and his precious Blood Creatures nay the highest of them Angels may fail and miss the mark they have semina nihili seeds of vanity and defectibility in them but for Jesus Christ who hath all the treasures of wisdom and power in himself to fall short of his end and so as it were to fall from himself and his happiness For him to lay the foundations of a Church in his own blood and to have nothing built upon them For him to make a Laver of his own blood and to have never a soul washed in it For him to procure the Holy Spirit and to have never a Temple for it to dwell in is a wonderful disparagement The reflexion is in effect as if he were but a meer man not wise or powerful enough to compass his end or compleat his work as if his blood had no spirit or divine virtue in it effectually to procure a Church and people to himself All which are below and extremely unworthy of him and the great work in his hands Every little seed in nature hath a body given to it and yet according to this opinion the Son of God might sow his own Blood and Righteousness and have none at all A cup of cold water given in charity hath its reward and yet the Blood of Christ poured out in a transcendent excess of love may want it 3. This casts a foul blot upon Providence that such is its accuracy reaches to every thing in nature even to such minute things as hairs and sparrows yet according to this opinion it neglects Christs blood more worth than a World and the issue of it It was the horrible folly of the Emperor Domitian to spend his time in catching of Flies while he neglected the great things of the Empire And what just apology can be made for Providence if it wake and watch over the Sun Moon Stars Meteors Beasts Plants nay over the very Gnats and minute creatures while it slumbers and sleeps over the sufferings of the Son of God How much more tolerable were a neglect of all creatures than of that one concern which is a thing of infinite moment If we believe that Providence took no care about so great a thing as Christs death how can we perswade our selves that it should respect the creatures which are infinitely below it A greater failure in government there cannot be than this to be accurate in trifles and neglective in momentous things Again Providence reaches to the end of things it doth not go part of the way only but conducts them to their end yet according to this opinion it doth not do so in a thing of more consequence than all the world It watched over the genealogy birth life death resurrection of Christ but then it made a stand taking no care what the issue or fruit of all this should be after all was done whether Christ should have a Church or so much as one believer in all the world was not determined by Providence but left to the Lottery of mans Will A greater defect cannot be imagined than this To do great admirable things and then not to regard what shall become of them I shall say no more to this opinion but conclude That a very great Providence did watch over the issue of Christs death that a Church might be secured unto him But because it may be said That the Providences over Christ and the Church are though great yet but particular ones I shall proceed to the next thing 3. All other Providences may be reduced to the other two As God hath a special eye upon Christ and the Church so he orders other things to be some way or other subservient unto them I shall in brief touch upon the reduction of other Providences first to that over Christ and then to that over the Church First Other Providences are to be reduced to that over Christ It was an ancient saying of the Jews That the World was made for the Messiah The Apostle tells us expresly That all things were created by him and for him Col. 1.16 That Providence which was over him being the Master-piece the highest Providence that ever the Sun saw must in all reason be the rule of the rest in that we have the noblest prospect of God and the creature the Divine Attributes set forth in their glory and a creature an human nature elevated to the highest pitch unto that therefore other Providences are to be referred To give some instances God permitted Adam to fall and break his beautiful image of Holiness all to pieces and why did he permit it doubtless he could have upheld man in his integrity no man dares deny it
inflicted by Soveraignty but Justice such as were not the Curse causless but merited by sin unless they were merited by sin they were meer suffering not punishment punishment for nothing is no punishment if there was no punishment in his sufferings how were they satisfactory If there was no merit of sin to procure them how were they penal If Justice inflicted them not how were they a punishment or if they were penal how could Justice inflict them upon an Innocent Here we have nothing to say but this Christ was so far made one with us as to render his sufferings penal and satisfactory The other is that special conjunction which is between Christ and Believers Christ is the Head they are the Members the Ligatures of this Mystical Union are the Holy Spirit and Faith the quickning Spirit saith the reverend Vsher descends downwards from the head to be in us a fountain of supernatural life a lively Faith wrought by the same Spirit ascends from us upward to lay fast hold upon him The Scripture notably sets forth this Union We dwell in Christ and he in us John 6.56 We abide in him and he in us John 15.4 We are Members of his Body of his Flesh and of his Bones Ephes 5.30 32. And he is in us the hope of Glory Col. 1.27 This the Apostle calls a great Mystery and the Riches of the Glory of the Mystery we are ingrasted into him as Branches into a Root cemented to him as the building is to the foundation incorporated with him as the food is with our Bodies united to him as Members are to the Head We eat his Flesh and drink his Blood and become one Spirit with him nothing can be more emphatical the Holy Spirit which resides in him the Head falls down upon us his Members and so makes a kind of continuity between him and us too Spiritual and Divine to be interrupted by any local distance Hence St. Chrysostom saith that there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Com. 1 Cor. 3.11 no medium or middle between Christ and us hence St. Austin saith that Fideles siunt cum homine Christo unus Christus Believers are made one Christ with the Man Christ the Head and the Body make up one Christ Hence that of Aquinas that Christ and his Members are but una persona mystica one mystical person the consequence of this admirable Union is the communication of Divine Blessings from him to us tota verae justitiae salutis vitae participatio ex hâc pernecessariâ cum Christo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pendet saith the learned Zanchy All our good things depends on this most necessary Vnion Thirdly The righteousness of Christ may be taken under a double notion either as it was the very idem to all the Laws he was under or else as it was the tantundem a plenary satisfaction to the moral Law by us violated in the first notion it was a righteousness ex naturâ suâ being a perfect conformity to those Laws in the second it was a satisfaction ex divinâ ordinatione being by God ordained so to be in the first notion it was not for us who being once sinners were incapable of it But for himself to justifie and sanctifie him in that state which he undertook to be in In the second it was not for himself who as being pure from all sin was incapable of it but for us to justifie us sinners against the Law Here I shall only add that under the notion of satisfaction I take in all Christ's righteousness Active as well as Passive though I think the Active in it self alone could not have amounted to a satisfaction because without shedding of blood there was no remission to be yet the Active being in Conjunction with the Passive is a part of the satisfaction and makes it the more compleat for a satisfaction made up of both together answers the threatning and honours the precept of the Law it satisfies God's Justice in it self by penal sufferings and in its foundation that is God's holiness by perfect obedience Fourthly The Active and Passive Righteousness of Christ are not imputed to us as they are the Idem a perfect conformity to the Laws he was under for we were not under the Mediatorial Law nor being once sinners are we capable of a perfect conformity to the moral but they are imputed to us as they are the tantundem a plenary satisfaction to the moral Law by us broken for so they are very apt and proper to justifie sinners against the Law Neither is Christ's satisfaction imputed to all actually to justifie them against the Law for all are not justified against it but it is imputed to Believers as being mystical parts and portions of him hence that Learned Bishop saith Dav. de Just hab 369. Quia insiti sumus in corpus ejus coalescimus cum illo in unam personam ideò ejus justitia nostra reputatur because we are ingrafted into his body and grow as it were into one Person with him therefore his Righteousness is reputed ours neither is Christ's satisfaction imputed to his belleving Members according to its fulness and latitude as it is in Christ the Head but in such sort and measure as is meet for it to be communicated to Members this is notably illustrated in the parallel of the two Adams who are two such communicative Heads as never were the like who communicate to theirs in such proportion as is congruous between Head and Members Adam's sin is derived to each of us not in its full latitude but pro mensurâ membri and in like manner Christ's satisfaction is derived to each Believer not in its full latitude but pro mensurâ membri so much of Ada's sin comes upon each one of us as soon as he is proles Adae as makes him a sinner so much of Christ's satisfaction comes upon each one of us as soon as he is proles Christi as makes him Righteous against the Law in both there is a communication to Members yet in such a way as that the difference between Head and Members is observed Fifthly There was a Divine Constitution that Jesus Christ should be our Sponsor and standing in our room should satisfie for us that he should be an Head to Believers and his satisfaction should so far become theirs as to justifie them against the Law accordingly that satisfaction is truly imputed to them Some Persons have been pleased to speak of Imputed Righteousness as if it were a fancy a meer putative imaginary thing but we see here upon what grounds it stands the first Foundation of it is the Divine constitution made touching Christ the intermediate Foundation is this that Christ was our Sponfor and satisfied for us the immediate Foundation is this that Christ is a communicating Head to his believing Members and they as Members participate in his satisfaction these things are sufficient to make us conclude as Bishop Davenant doth
die and in that other which is a kind of Commentary upon it Cursed is he that continueth not in all things These Threatnings which were the sanction of that eternal Law touching which our Saviour assures us that one jot or tittle of it shall not pass away are not to be confounded with those conditional Threatnings which are extant in Scripture and were by God used to induce men unto repentance Now that Truth might be salved there was in Christs Sufferings a conjunction of a Satisfaction and a kind of execution of the Law Indeed an execution of it in the rigour or strict letter of it there was not neither could that be but upon the Sinner himself yet there was a kind of execution of it in an equitable sense in our Sponsor Jesus Christ his Satisfaction though it was not the idem the very same which the letter of the Law called for yet in infinite Wisdom it was accommodated to the terms of the Law as far as the decorum of his Sacred Person could admit of in the threatning there was Death and a Curse and both these were in the sufferings of Christ hence the Apostle saith That sin was so condemned in his flesh that the righteousness of the Law was fulfilled Rom. 8.3 4. It was in a sort executed in our Surety that in the same sufferings there might be a satisfaction to Justice and a compliance with Truth He that considers these Conjunctions will have cause to cry out with the Psalmist Mercy and truth are met together righteousness and peace have kissed each other Psalm 85.10 5. That poor lapsed man with his blind eyes and hard heart utterly uncapable in himself of Heaven may be made meet for it there was in Christs sufferings a conjunction of Satisfaction and Merit Justice was compensated and Grace impetrated Indeed the Socinians blind with their own corrupt reason cannot see how these two should stand together ubi est satisfactlo ibi non est meritum Satisfactio est solutio debiti de jure meritum autem opus indebitum Soc. Satisfaction being the payment of a just debt and Merit the doing of an undue work To which I answer It is true that when one pays a finite sum for his own debt there is not there cannot be a merit in it but when Jesus Christ paid down sufferings of an infinite value for us there cannot but be an immense merit in them Infinity is an Ocean and may run over in effects as far as it pleases those sufferings had a kind of Infinity in them enough to pay divine Justice and over and above by a redundance of merit to purchase all grace for us Hence the Apostle saith That the Holy Ghost is shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ Tit. 3.6 Christ ascended up to Heaven in the glory of his Merits and from thence poured down the Holy Spirit on men that their blind eyes might be opened upon the mysteries of the Gospel and their hard hearts might be melted into repentance Thus a fair way is opened to make fal'n man capable of Eternal Life 6. Because the inward vital principles of Grace in men must needs flourish most when there is an outward excellent pattern of Holiness set before them there was therefore in Christs sufferings a conjunction of Merit and Example the Merit procured the principles of Grace and the Example by its divine beauty drew them out into imitation Vix fieri posse videtur ut unâ eâdem re satisfiat simul exemplum relinquatur Socin Prael cap. 20. Socinus thinks that a Satisfaction and an Example can very hardly meet together in the same thing the like scruple may be made touching Merit and Example and the very truth is Satisfaction and Merit are a Cup which we cannot drink of a Sea in which we cannot trace or follow our Saviour Nevertheless infinite Wisdom laid one plot under another and under inimitable Satisfaction and Merit couch'd an incomparable pattern of Holiness for us We may clearly see in him how we are to mortifie corruptions bear afflictions learn obedience by sufferings and obey unto the death In these he hath left us an Example that we might follow his steps 1 Pet. 2.21 Having seen the contrivance in these rare Conjunctions let us now consider how the Divine Wisdom set Ambushments for our spiritual Enemies I mean Sin Satan the World and Death all which are in a very admirable manner overcome by Jesus Christ Sin which meritoriously was the bloody crucifier of the Son of God was crucified together with him when he suffered it was in his flesh condemned as an accursed thing worthy to die no sooner are we in him by Faith but it loses its kingdom and by a divine Virtue from his Cross it droops and languishes away in us Satan the arch-enemy at Christs death seemed to be a Conqueror that God Incarnate should be slain by his hellish Instruments that the whole Church should die in its Head looks like a mighty Victory when the Head shall die what shall the Members do when the Sun the great Globe of Light in the spiritual World shall be turned into blood what should remain but that darkness which Satan hath the power of Upon the death of the Duke of Guise Henry the Third broke out thus Nunc demum Rex sum Now at last I am King Upon the death of our Saviour Satan might suppose himself absolute Prince in the lower World a greater Adam than the first being fallen no man can probably stand before him But here infinite Wisdom shews forth it self Satan is taken in his own snare by that very death of Christ which was procured by his own Agents is he utterly overthrown Christ upon the Cross did spoil Principalities and Powers and triumph over them in it Col. 2.15 The satisfaction in his sufferings paid off divine Justice and the Merit in them procured that divine Spirit which is able to bind and cast out Satan from the hearts of men The Cross was now turned into a triumphant Chariot and as an Ancient hath it there were two affixed to it Du◠in cruce affixi sunt Christus visibiliter sponte ad tempus diabolus invisibiliter invitus in perpetuum Orig. Christ visibly freely for a time the Devil invisibly coactively for ever that Cross was a final Victory over him He was overcome not by a man only but by a man suffering bleeding dying upon a Cross the Lord reigneth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Cross as some of the Ancients read that 10th verse in the 96 Psalm through death he destroyed him that had the power of death that is the devil Heb. 2.14 The Devil was destroyed by Death his own weapon and overcome in that which he had the power of The wicked World at the death of Christ triumphed and insulted even to blasphemy He saved others himself he cannot save Matth. 27.42 as if all his miraculous power were now
sin and his Justice which punisheth it were both gratified to the full This Satisfaction as obediential pleased Gods Holiness as penal satisfied his Justice in both there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sweet-smelling savour unto God He was at least as highly if not more pleased in it as he was displeased at the sin of a world Thus there was as Providence would have it a very full and just compensation for sin and withal a redundancy of Merit to procure all good things for us 2. There was a great Providence over the fruit of his Satisfaction in raising up a Church to God The Son of God assuming our nature and in it making so glorious a satisfaction for us Providence would not I may say without disparagement to its own perfection could not suffer so great a thing to be vain or to no purpose no it therein aimed at a Church Two things will make this appear The one is the Promises of God He did not only say That Christ should be a light to the Gentiles and his salvation to the ends of the earth Isa 49.6 but in express terms That he should see his seed Isa 53.10 Which Promise having no other condition but his death only did thereby become absolute it was as sure as the Truth of God could make it that there should be a seed a progeny of believers And for the continuance of this seed successively remarkable is that promise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 filiabitur nomen ejus His name shall be sonned or childed from generation to generation Psal 72.17 There shall from time to time be a company of believers coming forth as the genuine off-spring of Christ Thus run the Promises and if God take care of any thing he will take care to be true If Providence which without an aim is not it self aim at any thing in all the world it will aim at the performance of the Promises the keeping of Gods word being more precious to him than the preserving of a World The other thing to clear this point is the End of Christs death which is signally set down in Scripture Christ loved his church and gave himself for it that he might sauctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word Eph. 5.25 26. He gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purisie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2.14 He died that he might gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad John 11.52 Here the end of his death is plainly expressed and if Providence did not aim at the same thing how should the wills of God and Christ stand in harmony whilst Providence neglects what Christ desigs Or how should Christ after so vast an expence as his own blood ever arrive at the intended end To arrive at that by Providence which Providence never aimed at was impossible to hit it by chance was uncertain and infinitely below such an Agent as Christ and such a work as his Satisfaction It was therefore the aim of Providence that there should be a Church Further Providence doth not only intentionally aim at it but actually procure it And here two things are to be noted 1. Providence directs the outward means of grace These which are things so great that the Kingdom of God is said to come nigh unto men in them go not forth by chance but by the Divine pleasure they are not hits of Fortune but blessings of Providence and that in a choice special manner Evangelical light doth not as the corporeal Sun shine every-where Supernatural dews do not as the common rain fall in every place Providence directs whither they shall go Hence the Apostles did not at least for some time let out their light or drop their heavenly Doctrine in Asia or Bithynia Act. 16.6 7 but pass into other parts Their Commission was general to preach to every creature but they followed the duct of Providence in the executing of it When Paul was at Corinth his stay there was proportioned to his work God had much people in that city Act. 18.10 There was a great draught of believers to be made therefore the Evangelical Net was long and after cast in that place as Providence would have it So the holy light was spread abroad in the World 2. Providence takes order that the Holy Spirit in the use of the means should so effectually operate as might infallibly secure a Church unto God Hence besides the light in the means there is an in-shining into the heart besides the outward hearing there is an hearing and learning of the Father Cathedram in coelo habet In Epist Joh. Tract 3. qui corda docet He hath a Chair of State in Heaven who teaches hearts saith St. Austin There is not only a proposal of objects but an infusion of principles to assimilate the heart thereunto The Gospel doth not come in word only but in power and in the Holy Ghost 1 Thes 1.5 A Divine power opens the heart unlocks every faculty dissolves the stone which is in it imprints the Holy Law there and frames and new-moulds it into the image of God and thus there comes forth a Church of Believers or as the Apostle speaks a church of the first-born which are written in heaven Heb. 12.23 and all this is from the Providence and good pleasure of God Hence Saint Paul saith That they are called according to his purpose and grace 2 Tim. 1.9 Saint James saith That they are begotten of his own will James 1.18 Saint John saith That they are born not of the will of man but of God John 1.13 all is from the fo the good-will and pleasure of God This Providence which watches over the Church though it be a very signal one and next to that over Christ himself hath not wanted Adversaries Socinus saith That Christ the Head was predestinated but believers the Members were not Caput quidem certum esse debuit membra autem non modo incerta esse possunt sed etiam debent Praelect Theol. cap. 14. Corvinus saith That notwithstanding the death of Christ it was possible that there might be no Church or believer Grevinchovius asserts That Redemption might be impetrated for all and applied to none because of their incredulity This Opinion to me is a very impious one The Learned Junius observes upon that of Socinus Fieri potuisse ut nemo hominum in Christum crederet ac nulla esset Ecclesia Cor. contr Mol. That it is a portentous and monstrous thing that there should be an Head without a Body Omnibus potuit esse impetrata redemptio tamen nullis applicari propter incredulitatem Grevinch contr Ames And the Professors of Leyden * Censur fol. 289. call that of Corvinus Dogma 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an opprobrious and blasphemous Opinion The impiety of it appears in the foul consequences which flow from thence 1. It puts
gush out with water all the Creatures should muster up themselves to defend the body of Christ Thus that excellent person One thing more as a seal to all the rest may be noted Christ the head of the Church hath all the power in heaven and in earth Mat. 28.18 He is head over all things to the Church Eph. 1.22 The Church is the primary mark and scope of his Government therefore he rules with an eye upon it and orders other things in a way subservient to it Having seen the Divine Providence manifested in Christ I shall now consider what Objections or Exceptions have been made against Providence and how and in what manner they are solved in Christ First Epicurus denied a Providence God saith he hath no business at least not in the lower world This he said as Gregory Nyssen observes because he would not have God to be Creator of the World and if he were not Creator how should he be a Provisor The fundamental reason why Epicurus denied a Providence was that opinion of his that an infinite number of Atoms dancing in inanity did at last by a fortunate chance meet together in a world To this opinion a no-Providence best accords a world made by chance should be ruled so Why should God rule in a world not of his own making But that opinion in it self is very monstrous and absurd Atoms did by good fortune make a world But as an ancient hath it Vnde ista corpuscula whence came these lucky Atoms Are they Temporal or Eternal things If Temporal they must own a Maker whom they oppose If Eternal they must be invariable that is dance on in their inanity and never sit down in a world How should Atoms if eternal produce so imperfect a thing as chance or chance so irregular in it self produce such an harmonious order as is in the world May the blind Particles of matter rally themselves into a world or which way should they sink into an Earth melt into a Sea spread into a Firmament inflame themselves into a Sun Moon and Stars and subtiliate themselves into Life Sense and Reason It is far easier to believe that Letters should casually cast themselves into an accurate Poem or that Stones and Timber should happily lay their heads together in a delicate structure than that Atoms should chance to meet and settle in a world incomparably transcending all humane Arts and Composures And could a world be so made how should it be secured Who shall clip the Wings of those Atoms or chain them to their seats that they may not fly away from their bodies and dance again in inanity It being most rational that a world made by chance should be so dissolved Reason tells us that in this opinion we have nothing but an heap of absurdities but Scripture tells us That the World was not made by Chance but by Christ the Eternal Word and Wisdom of the Father in whom as the Schoolmen say was the Eternal Idea of all things according to which as the grand Exemplar all were made The Eternal Wisdom which comprized all in it self produced all in time Another objection which Epicurus made against Providence was this God being blessed in himself must not trouble or disparage himself by taking care of these inferior things But this is as great non-sense as the other What! can there be trouble in a pure Act in one who can do every thing by a word of power who needs only to speak and the thing is done May there be a disparagement in ruling over what he hath made Are not these inferior things the works of his hands If not how came they out of nullity If so how doth he disparage himself by ruling over his own works If it be a disparagement to care for them was it not so to create them Nay Non secisse nulla injustitia non curare summa inclementia Officior l. 1. c. 13. as St. Ambrose hath observed not to make them was no injustice not to care for them being made is great inclemency But the greatest solution of all we have in Christ in him we plainly see the Son of God very God not only taking care about his creatures but which is a condescension infinitely lower though without disparagement assuming a creature an humane nature into his own Sacred Person No man may now dream that Providence doth in the least disparage the Deity Leaving Epicurus I pass unto another exception There may be a Providence over some things but surely not over the free acts of men Epicurus thought some things too low for Providence others think human acts because free too high for it Thus Cicero thought Aust de civ Dti l. 5. c. 9. that if there were a certain order of things and causes human Liberty would be subverted there would be no room for Laws or Exhortations or Virtues or Vices or Rewards or Punishments This made St. Austin pass that censure upon him Dum vult facere liberos sacit sacrilegos While he would make men free he made them sacrilegious Thus the Pelagians affirmed That the will is destroyed if it want the help of another That Jerom ad ctesiphont c. 3. there being a free-will God is no further necessary to us indeed the posse or power is from God but the velle or willing August de Grat. Christi cap. 4. is only from our selves Thus Socinus distinguishes between the internal and external acts of men Pralect Theol. cap. 7. the internal are only in mans power as not belonging to the administration of the world the external may fall under Providence but not the internal Volkelius and others go the very same way This Opinion to me is a very impious one it highly disparages Divine Providence it is in effect as much as to say God hath nothing to rule over but the Brutal World the Rational is lost out of his dominions It takes away the glory and crown of Providence which rules over free Agents in so rare and admirable a manner that they though moving upon the wings of liberty do infallibly hit the mark It subverts the certainty of Providence and that in those things which were positively decreed by God and of the highest moment to men What more positively decreed or more highly momentous to the Jewish Church than those two famous deliverances from Egypt and Babylon Or what more positively decreed or more highly momentous to the whole world than the sufferings of our Saviour Yet these things being to come to pass by the free acts of men and those free acts not being under Providence the event must needs be pendulous and uncertain as those free acts upon which the event depends are Providence having no soveraign dominion over those free acts doth not ascertain the Event but leave it dubious and fluctuating till the human Will determines it self And what is this but to make Providence nothing and man an independent Agent And whither
saved without any respect to Christ or faith in him and what need then was there of Christ or his satisfactory sufferings for us the great work might be done without him Hence it appears that to deny Original sin is to cast off Christ and Grace The Jewish Rabbins who made the evil figment in mans heart to be but a light matter small as a thread weak as a woman ruleable by the good figment of our own reason were very ignorant of that great point of Regeneration Hence Nicodemus a Master in Israel was startled and stood at a maze at our Saviours Doctrine about it How can a man be born when he is old can he enter the second time into his mothers womb and be born saith he Joh. 3.4 Such carnal and gross expostulations could never have dropt from him if he had had a true sense of Original sin but for want of that Regeneration was a strange and unintelligible mystery to him The Pagan Philosophers had some glimmerings of Original sin hence they complained that the soul had lost her wings and crept upon these lower things that it was in the body as a prison and there lookt out at the grates of sense that it was fallen from the happy Region and inclined to evil But because these were but glimmerings they did not so much as dream of Grace or Regeneration because they did not see the depth and venom of our Original wound they thought there was medicamentum in latere enough in the Power and Free-will of the soul to heal it self they reckoned all virtues to be among the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the things in our power and accounted the will to be such a mistress of it self that it might make it self good and excellent at its pleasure By all these instances we see plainly that the Doctrine of Original sin is very useful and momentous Original sin is set forth by many names in Scripture It is called Sin The sinning sin The sin that dwelleth in us The sin that doth easily beset us The Law of sin and death The Law in the Members The flesh and the old man The root of bitterness The plague of the heart in the Fathers it is called the paternal poyson The first radical sin The venom and stroke of the old serpent The contagion of the ancient death The weight of the ancient crime The injury of our Original And St. Austin that he might ascertain that in which he opposed the Pelagians called it Original sin from whence that name was afterwards frequent in the Church it was so called partly because we have it in our Original it is interwoven with our nature and may say to every one of us As soon as thou wert I am partly because it is derived to us from Adam the head and original of mankind * Non peccat iste qui nascitur non peccat ille qui genuit non peccat iste qui condidit per quas rima◠inter tot praesidia innocentiae peccatum fingis ingressum Aust de Nup. l. 2.28 Hence when Julian the Pelagian argued thus against Original sin He sins not who is born he sins not who begets he sins not who creates By what chinks or cranies among so many guards of innocence Quid quaerit latentem rimam cum habeat a pertissimam januam Per unum hominem ait Apostolus quid quaerit amplius do you feign that sin did enter St. Austin answers him thus Why doth he seek a chink or a crany when he hath an open gate By one man saith the Apostle what would he have more It is that one man Adam the original of mankind by whom sin entred into the world it is by him that it is derived to us That one Text touching the one man is enough to break and sweep away all the subtile cobwebs which the Pelagians and Socinians have spun out of their Wit and carnal Reason to oppose the Doctrine of Original sin Original sin consists in two things 1. In that Adams first sin is imputatively ours 2. In that we have an inordination and inherent pravity derived upon us from him The first thing is Adams first sin imputatively ours not that God reputes us to have done it in our own person not that it is imputed to us in the full latitude as it was to Adam We sinned not as the head and root of mankind we murdered not the whole humane nature we did not usher in sin and death upon the world no as the Apostle saith this was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by one Adam but as soon as any man becomes proles Adae in conjunction with him it is imputed to him pro mensura membri in such sort and proportion as is competent to him being a part and piece as it were of Adam 12. Quest 81. Art 1. Aquinas illustrates this by a notable instance Murder as a sin is not imputable to the hand in it self as distinct or separate from the body but as it is a Member in man and moved by his Will in like manner the sin of Adam is imputed to us not so properly as we are in our selves but as we are parts and pieces of him and derived our nature from him Adams sin was past before we were born It is therefore as Bellarmine well expresses it Nobis communicatur co modo quo communicari potest id quod transiit nimirum per imputationem De Amiss Grat. l. 5. c. 17. communicated to us in that manner as a thing past can be communicated namely by imputation we did not personally commit it It is therefore imputed to us in that measure as is fit and just for it to be imputed to those who are parts and members of Adam In that capacity it is constructively and interpretatively ours and accordingly God justly reckons and imputes it unto us That this is so I shall offer some Considerations 1. That of the Apostle is very pregnant by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned Rom. 5.12 In the Original it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in him that is in Adam all have sinned Those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are Relative Three things as St. Cont. 2. Epist Ptl. l. 4. c. 4. Austin observes are set down in this verse before Adam Sin and Death those words relate not to sin for Sin in the Greek is a Feminine nor to death for men do not sin in death but dye in sin therefore they relate to Adam in him all have sinned It 's true others take the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 causally for that all have sinned But I think that as I said before they are to be taken Relatively in him all have sinned Thus those three things which the Apostle conjoyned together in this verse that is the propagation of sin the original of death and the foundation of both very well cohere