the Sacrament or our Saviour had professed to prescribe or direct the whole form of the Administration of it But as it is notorious enough that the Church of England doth not represent the sign of the Cross as pertaining to the Essence of the Sacrament because administring it after Baptism first given yea after the mention of the Minister's receiving the baptized person into the Congregation of Christ's flock So our Saviour is so far from prescribing the whole external form of its Administration that he hath left us to the general tenour of his Doctrine and the directions of our own reason even for those things that are more material yea for such as are directed (u) See the Directory in the Administration of Baptism by those very Men who cry out against us for adding to Christ's Institution For where I beseech you is there any prescription of other words concerning Baptism than what is imply'd in that short belief into which he commands to Baptize Where to admonish all that are present to look back to their own Baptism and to repent of the violations of the Covenant they made with God in it Where any directions for requiring the Parent of the Child to bring him up in the nurture of the Lord yea to require the Parents solemn promise for the performance of it Nay where which is of all others the most material any Prayer to Almighty God for the sanctifying of the Water he is going to make use of and which I no way doubt is necessary to the Consecration of it All that the Institution of Baptism represents to us being the baptizing those that offer themselves to it in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Now if our Saviour hath not professed to prescribe even as to the things before directed but left Men to the general conduct of his Doctrine and the guidance of their own reason What appearance is there as to his prescribing after what external form and order all these things were to be done and which if he hath not there is no doubt the Governours of the Church may order as they shall see fit yea do so without any fear of being thought to charge his Institutions with imperfection They being not to be thought to do so who prescribe rules concerning those things which the Institutions of Christ profess not to give perfect directions in The only thing which hath occasion'd Men's misapprehensions first and then their passing so severe a Censure upon humane prescriptions in this kind is an hasty opinion they have taken up of Christ's being as particular in directing the external management of sacred Duties as Moses appears to have been as to the services of the Law. For which yet they have had no other pretence than a misapplied Text of the Author to the Hebrews (w) Heb. 3.2 even Christ's being as faithful in that house of God which was committed to his charge as Moses was in his But beside that there appear not any such particular directions from God to our Saviour as there were sometime given to Moses and our Saviour therefore not to be look'd upon as unfaithful for not reaching out such particular directions to us Besides that if our Saviour did not furnish such particular directions yet he hath furnished his Church with a far greater portion of his Spirit and which may serve to it as a guide to fit those Services for its respective members Beside lastly that the Services he enjoyn'd because to be exercised among people of several Nations and humours were not capable as to circumstances of such strict limitations as that which was to be exercised in one single Nation only There is nothing more evident to those that read the Scriptures than that Christ hath given no such particular directions and all Arguments from Christ's fidelity therefore of no more avail in this affair than those which the Papists are wont to draw from the wisdom and goodness of God toward the proving of an Infallible Guide For as no wise Man will be perswaded by such Arguments against the Testimony of his own senses which assure him of the errours of those whom they would have to be Infallible So no considering Man will be perswaded by the other into a belief of those particular directions which are not any where to be seen nor which they themselves who maintain those directions have yet been able to shew For when they have said all they can toward the evincing of their Conclusion the utmost they are able to prove is that Christ hath given some general directions concerning the Administration of religious Offices and which as it doth not prejudge the giving of more particular ones so doth much less make them to reflect any imperfection upon the Institution of Christ because pretending not to concern it self about them One other Charge there is which is more peculiar to the sign of the Cross and that is its being a relique of Popery or giving too much countenance to the Papists abuses of it But as they who advance the former of these make Popery much more Antient than it is for the advantage of Protestantism to allow It being certain from Tertullian (x) De Coronâ— cap. 3. that this Ceremony was in use in his time in almost all the actions they set about So our Church hath taken care to prevent in its own Members all misapplications of it or the giving the least encouragement to those that are made of it by others Partly by confining the use of it to the Administration of Baptism and partly by representing it as only a token of Men's being not ashamed to own the Faith and reproaches of him who suffered upon it Which is certainly a more proper course to discountenance Popery than it can be thought to be to remove the use of it altogether Because at the same time we disavow the errors of that we shew by our Practice our allowance of the Ceremony it self and together therewith our accordance with the Primitive Church which is the only plausible thing the Papists have to boulster up their own cause or reproach us with the neglect of A DIGRESSION Concerning ORIGINAL SIN By way of PREPARATION TO THE Following Discourses The Contents Of the ground of the present Digression concerning Original Sin and enquiry thereupon made what Original Sin is Which is shewn in the General to be such a corruption of the Nature of every Man that is naturally engendered of the off-spring of Adam whereby it becomes averse from every thing that is good and inclinable to every thing that is evil The nature of that corruption more particularly enquir'd into and shewn by probable Arguments to be no other than a Privation of a Supernatural Grace That there is such a thing as we have before described evidenced at large from the Scripture and that evidence farther strengthned by the experience we have of its effects and the
it a law of sin The latter where he represents that carnality and sinful captivity under which the Jew was as the cause of his doing what he would not (t) Rom. 15. and omitting what he would That sin which dwelt in him as doing all the evil (u) Rom. 17.20 he committed And that law that was in his members as warring against the law of his mind (w) Rom. 23. and bringing him into Captivity unto the law of sin For what more could be said on the one hand to shew the thing S. Paul there speaks of to be an inward evil principle and which because even in those who were under the Law is much more to be supposed in the Gentiles Or what more on the other to shew that evil principle to be the parent of our actual sins yea that which gives being to them all And I know nothing to take off the force of it but a supposition of St. Paul's speaking in that place of Evil habits and which as they must be confessed to be of the same pernicious efficacy with Original Corruption so to have been for the most part the condition both of Jew and Gentile before they came to be overtaken by the Gospel But how first supposing the Apostle to have spoken only of evil habits for nothing hinders us from assigning them a part in that Body of sin How first I say doth that agree with the account he before gave concerning sins entring in (x) Rom. 5.12 by Adam and our being constituted (y) Rom. 19. sinners by him For though Original Corruption may come from him yet evil habits can be only from our selves and consequently those sins that flow from them How secondly supposing none but evil habits to be here intended can we make that Body or law of sin whereof S. Paul speaks to be the portion of all that are under an obligation to Baptism as that Apostle plainly supposeth when he makes the design of Baptism (z) Rom. 6.6 to be the destruction of it For to say nothing at present concerning the case of Infants because the best evidence of their Obligation to Baptism is the Corruption of their Nature and that Obligation therefore rather to be prov'd from Natural Corruption than Natural Corruption from it Neither can it be deny'd even from the Commandment * Mat. 28.19 that our Saviour gave concerning Baptism that all adult persons are under an Obligation to it nor therefore but that they carry about them that body of sin which Baptism was intended for the destruction of But so all adult persons cannot be supposed to do if that body of sin be no other than evil habits Because it must be sometime after that maturity of theirs before they can come to those evil habits or therefore to be under an Obligation to that Sacrament which is to destroy it In fine how supposing none but evil habits to be intended by that body or law of sin whereof the Apostle speaks can we give an account of so holy and just a Law as that of Moses is stirring †Rom. 7.9 Concupiscence in those that are under it and not rather hindring it from coming to effect For as nothing hinders the proposing of that Law before such persons come to any evil habits and therefore also before there is any thing in them to stir them up to such a Concupiscence So nothing can hinder that Law when duly proposed to them from preventing all such Concupiscence as it was the design of the Lawgiver to forbid Because as the persons we speak of must be supposed to be without any contrariety in their Nature to the matter of that Law which is propos'd So they must also be suppos'd to be in that state wherein God had set them and because God cannot be thought to place Men in any other estate than that of uprightness in such a state as will make them willing to listen to the divine Laws and receive their directions from them By which means the divine Laws shall rather keep Men's Concupiscence from coming to effect than give any occasion for the stirring of it I conclude therefore from that as well as the former arguments that the evil principle spoken of by S. Paul cannot be evil habits and consequently nothing more left to us to demonstrate than that it is derived to us from our Birth or rather from our Conception in the Womb which is all that is affirmed concerning Original Corruption Now that that evil principle whereof we speak is derived to us from our Birth will become at least probable from what was before said concerning the earliness of Men's being under sin yea their being so as the Scripture instructs us even from their Youth For as it is hard to believe that all Men should be so early under sin if it were not from some inward principle that was antecedent to that Age For what should otherwise hinder some of them at least from preserving their integrity for some time especially supposing as that tender Age maketh it reasonable to suppose a more peculiar watchfulness of the Divine Providence over it So it will be much more hard to believe supposing that evil principle to be antecedent to their Youth that it should not be derived to them from their Conception and Birth The Ages preceding that being not in a capacity to produce in themselves such an evil principle and therefore to be suppos'd to have had it transmitted to them together with their Nature and so also by the same means and from the same time in which that their Nature was And indeed as even the tenderest age falls under death and not unreasonably therefore concluded to be some way or other under sin if as S. Paul †Rom. 5.12 speaks death enter'd by it and so pass'd upon all Men for that all have sinned So there want not some places of Scripture which do yet more directly evince that the first beginnings of our Nature are tainted with that of which we speak Of this sort I reckon that of Job (a) Job 14.4 which is so commonly apply'd to this affair even his demanding of God with reference to himself (b) Job 1 c. and all other Men who could bring a clean thing out of an unclean and thereby therefore intimating that it was not to be done For as it is manifest from his alledging that the better to countenance his own expostulation concerning God's bringing him into judgment that by the unavoidable uncleanness there intimated must be meant a sinful one as which alone could either dispose him to such actions as could be a proper matter for judgment or be alledged in bar to a severe one So it is alike manifest from Job's asking who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean that Men are not only so unclean in their Nature but that they become so by those evil principles out of which they are brought and so
so what was wanting in their former estate might be supply'd by them in their following one For as it is not easie to suppose that the corruptible body should so far stupefie the Soul as to hinder it from emerging in time out of sleep in which it may seem to have been cast and accordingly from calling to mind what had been before transacted within it Because though the Body may be some hindrance to the faculties of the Soul yet it doth not hinder them from coming in time to exert their proper operations So it is much less easie to suppose that God should not however bring to it's memory its past State and Actions by which it offended against him Partly to make it sensible of its former guilt and God's choosing to punish it by thrusting it into a Body and partly to make it so much the more careful to break off from those sins by which it had before offended him These as they are the only imaginable ends why God should thrust an offending Soul into such a Body so being perfectly lost to that Soul in which there is no consciousness of it's former state and of those enormities which were contracted in it I conclude therefore that whatever may be said as to this particular concerning Original Sin yet it did not take its rise from the evil acts or habits of the Soul in any praexistent estate and nothing therefore left to us to resolve it into but the depravedness of those from whom we all descended and from whom it is transmitted to particular Souls and Persons I deny not indeed that even this Account is not without its difficulties and such as it will be hard if not impossible perfectly to assoile I deny not farther that those difficulties are much enhanc'd by the ignorance we are under concerning the Original of humane Souls and which whilst we continue under it will not be easie for us to shew how that depravedness of Nature should pass from them to us But as those difficulties are no ways comparable to the difficulties of two of the former even those which resolve Original Sin into the malignity of some evil spirit or the pravity of matter So they can much less be thought to be of force against the testimony of the Scripture if that as I shall afterwards shew favour its arising from the pravity of our first Parents Partly because the thing in question is a matter of fact and therefore to be determin'd rather by testimony than the force of reason and partly because the testimony of Scripture is the most Authentick one as being no other than the testimony of God. Now that there wants not sufficient evidence from thence that that Original Sin whereof we speak ariseth from the pravity of those from whom we first descended will appear if these three things can be made out First that the sin of all mankind enter'd in by Adam Secondly that it enter'd in by Adam not meerly as the first that committed it or tempted other Men by his ill example to do the like but as more or less the cause of all their sins by his own Thirdly that he became the cause of all their sins through his by depraving thereby his own Nature and then communicating that depravation to those that descended from him That the Sin of all Mankind enter'd in by Adam will need no other proof than that known Text of S. Paul (p) Rom. 5.12 even that by one Man sin enter'd into the World and death by sin and so death passed through unto all Men for that all have sinned For as we cannot well interpret the word sin of any other than the sin of all Men because there is nothing in the Text to limit it to any particular Man's so much less when S. Paul doth afterwards affirm that that death which enter'd in by it passed thorough unto all Men for that or because all had sinned by the means of him That as it makes death to pass upon all Men with respect to their several sins and consequently their several sins to be the immediate door by which it enters so making those several sins therefore to be included in that sin which he before affirmed to be the cause of that death and together with it to have enter'd in by Adam But because among those at least by whom the Scripture is acknowledg'd the question is not so much whether all sin enter'd by Adam but after what manner it enter'd by him And because till that be known we cannot speak with any certainty concerning the derivation of the corruptness of our Natures from that of our first Parents or Parent Therefore pass we on to shew according to the method before laid down that as the sin of all Mankind enter'd in by Adam so it enter'd in by him not as some have vainly deem'd meerly as one who first committed it or tempted others by his example to do the like but as one also yea especially who by the malignant influence of his sin was more or less the cause of all those sins that followed it That the sin of all Mankind enter'd not in by Adam either meerly or principally as one who first committed it will need no other proof than his being not the first committer of sin even in this sublunary World but that Serpent who tempted our first Parents to it For as he and his fellow Angels sinned before them in those glorious seats in which they were first bestow'd So he sinned also before them here by that temptation which he suggested to them and without which they had not fallen from their integrity Which as it is an evidence of sin 's not entring in by Adam in that sense and consequently that that was not the sense intended by S. Paul So is the more to be considered because S. John attributes this entrance of sin to the Devil (q) 1 Joh. 3.8 yea makes all the committers of sin to be therefore of him But besides that Adam was not the first of those that sinned and we therefore not so to understand S. Paul when describing sin as entring by him Neither was he the first of humane kind that sinned which will be a yet farther prejudice to the former surmise For as we learn from the story of the Fall (r) Gen. 3.6 yea from this very Apostle elsewhere (Å¿) 1 Tim. 2.14 Adam was not deceiv'd that is to say was not the first that was so but the Woman being deceiv'd was in the transgression Which what is it but to say that sin did not enter in by Adam in that sense and consequently that that was not the sense intended by the Apostle in it Only if it be said and more than that cannot be said in it that we are not so to understand S. Paul when describing sin as entring by Adam as not also to suppose him to connote the Partner both of his Bed and of his transgression As I
will not be forward to deny the suggestion altogether because believing them both to have contributed to the production of our transgressions as well as Nature so I cannot forbear to say upon the account of that which follows that we ought to consider Adam as the more especial instrument in it Because S. Paul not only represents him (t) Rom. 5.14 in particular as the Type or Figure of him that was to come but both describes him all along under the notion of one Man (u) Rom. 5.12.15 16. c. yea makes a great part of the likeness that was between him and Christ to consist in it Which could by no means have been proper if he had meant no other by sin's entring in by Adam than entring in by him as one of the first committers of it For in this sense Eve must necessarily have had the preeminence because not only offending before her Husband but tempting even him to do the same From that first sense therefore pass we to the second and which indeed is both more antient and plausible than the former For as it is as old as that Pelagius (w) Vid. Voss Hist Pelag. li. 2. parte 2. Thes 1. who first call'd Original Sin in question so it allows the sin of Adam to have had an influence upon other Men's sins as well as to have given beginning to the being of it But that it hath as little solidity or pertinency to the words whereunto it is apply'd will appear if we reflect upon the sequel of S. Paul's Discourse or the subject matter of that which is offered as the interpretation of it For is there any reason to think without which that interpretation can be of no avail that Adam by his sin tempted all his posterity to offend Nay is there not reason enough to believe that that example of his contributed little to Men's following sins yea contributed nothing at all to many of them For how many Men have there been to whom the knowledge of his sin never reach'd How many are there yet who are under the same ignorance or may hereafter be And must not these therefore be look'd upon as exempted from the influence of his ill example and consequently if their sins entred in by Adam be acknowledg'd to have entred some other way And though the same be not to be said of those to whom the Scriptures have come because those are not without the knowledge of his sin nor incapable of being influenc'd by his example Yet is there as little reason to think that that example of his contributes much to their sins or indeed ever did to theirs who lived nearer to him and so were more likely to have been inflicted by him For beside that a sin so chastis'd as that was was not very likely to draw their thoughts towards it and therefore as little likely to tempt them to the imitation of it Beside that many of them might have no actual consideration of it as no doubt many now have not even when they offend in the like kind They might have been influenc'd and no doubt were by other sins of his as much or more than by his first transgression or by the ill examples of those that were nearer to them rather than by any of his In fine they might have been and no doubt often were influenced by the baits of pleasure or profit and thereby drawn aside from their integrity These having been as apt to influence them as the example of that sin by which their several offences are suppos'd to have entred into the World. And I shall only add that as that sense cannot therefore be reasonably impos'd if we regard as no doubt we ought the subject matter of it So we shall find as little encouragement for it from the sequel of his Discourse whose words are now under consideration For beside that he himself may seem sufficiently to obviate it by affirming presently after (x) Rom. 5.14 that there were many of those that sinned that did not nor well could sin after the similitude of Adam's transgression because knowing nothing at all of any such positive law as he transgress'd It is the main design of his Discourse to compare the good that Christ brought by his obedience with the hurt which that type of his did by his transgression Which comparison had been but a frigid one if all the hurt that Adam did us was by the force of his ill example Because it is certain that Christ's obedience was of a much more efficacious influence in the kind of it as well as in the degree and would therefore rather have been vilified than any way illustrated or commended by the comparison if the malign influence of Adam's sin had reach'd no farther than that of an example I conclude therefore that what ever was meant by sin's entring in by Adam yet something more was meant by it than its entring by him either as the first committer of it or as one who by his ill example tempted others to do the like And indeed as the instance but now alledg'd even the likeness that is between Adam's sin and Christ's obedience makes it but reasonable to look upon all sin as entring also by Adam as more or less the cause of it so it stands yet more confirm'd by what S. Paul affirms in the ninteenth verse especially as it lies in the Original The purport thereof being that Men are constituted sinners by his disobedience yea that they are so constituted sinners by it as Men are constituted righteous by the obedience of Christ For though the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may in themselves be capable of a softer sense and accordingly signifie no more than Men's being reputed and us'd as sinners upon the account of that transgression which Adam committed Yet I see not how that sense can be thought to fit them here or indeed any other than that of constituting or making Men sinners Partly because their being constituted sinners by Adam's disobedience is rendred by S. Paul (y) Rom. 5.18 19. as the reason of their condemnation by it and ought therefore to be distinguished from it And partly because they are said to be constituted sinners by Adam's disobedience as they who belong to Christ are constituted righteous by his obedience For the obedience of Christ procuring Men's being really righteous as well as their being reputed such yea procuring their being really righteous in some measure that they may be so accounted of and us'd What can be more reasonable than to think that that disobedience of Adam which is affirmed to be like it is of the same causality and accordingly constitutes or makes Men sinners as well as accounted of as such One only thing remains towards the clearing of the matter in hand even the derivation of the corruptness of our Nature from that of our first Parent or Parents And that is that as all sin entred in by Adam as more
or less the cause of it by his own so he became the cause of it by his own by thereby depraving his own Nature first and then communicating that depravation to those that descended from him Of the former whereof as there cannot well be any doubt considering the hainousness of that sin which he committed That as it could not but occasion the withdrawing of the Divine Grace from Adam so neither but draw after it the depravation of his Nature as which receiv'd all its rectitude from the other so there will be as little doubt of the latter if we compare what S. Paul here saith concerning Adam's being the cause of all our sins by his own with what he afterward saith * Rom. 7.17 20. concerning Men's falling into actual sin by vertue of an evil principle that dwelleth in them For if all actual sin proceed immediately from such an evil principle that evil principle must be also from Adam as without which otherwise he could not be the cause of our sins by his own nor constitute us sinners by it IV. I will not be over positive in defining by what means this evil principle is convey'd because I am not well assur'd how our very Nature is It shall suffice me to represent what may tend in some measure toward the clearing of it That Original sin cleaving to our nature from the first beginnings of it must consequently be conveyed to us by the same general means by which our nature is even by natural generation yea that the Scripture teacheth us so to reason where it affirms Men to be conceiv'd in sin (z) Psal 51.5 to become flesh by being born †Joh. 3.6 of flesh and unclean * Job 14.4 by being brought out of those Parents that are so That though the more particular means by which Original Sin is convey'd cannot with any certainty be assign'd because it is alike uncertain whether those Souls in which it is most reasonable to place it be either traduced or immediately created yet there would not be any uncertainty as to this particular if we believ'd the Souls of Men to be traduc'd as several of the Antients †Vid. Vossi Hist Pelag. Lib. 2. Parte 3. Thes 1. and not a few of the Moderns have believ'd For so it would not only not be difficult to apprehend the particular means of the others conveyance but almost impossible to overlook them because making it to pass together with those Souls to which it adheres and diffuse it self from thence to those Bodies to which they are united That though the traduction of Souls be not without its difficulties and such as I shall not be so vain as to attempt the solution of yet it is in that particular but of the same condition with the immediate Creation of them that I say not also less exceptionable as to the business of Original Sin In fine That as it hath nothing from Scripture to prejudice the belief of it as appears by the solutions which have been long since (a) Hotham's Introd to the Trent Philosophy given to the Objections from it So it seems to me much more agreeable to that account which it gives of the Creation and indeed to the Nature of a Parent For what can be more clear from the Story of the Creation than that God designed once for all to Create all the Beings which he intended leaving them and particularly Man to carry on the Succession by those productive principles which he had planted in them For if so what should hinder us from believing but that Men produce their like after the same manner that other Creatures do and by the same Divine Benediction and concurrence Sure I am as they will otherwise fall short of the powers of inferiour beings as well as be an anomalie in the Creation so they will be but very imperfectly in the condition of Parents because contributing only to that part which is the least considerable in their Posterity Only as I list not to contend about any thing of which I my self am not more strongly persuaded So I shall leave it to those whom the immediate creation of Souls better pleaseth to make their advantage of it and satisfie themselves from it concerning the means of Original Sin 's conveyance Which if they do they shall do more than the great S. Augustin could after all his travails in this Argument Because professing that he could not find either by reading or praying or reasoning (b) Ep. 157. ad Optatum how Original Sin could be defended with the opinion of the Creation of Souls V. I may not dismiss the Argugument that is now before us or indeed so much as attend to the consideration of those Objections that are made against it before I have also enquir'd whether that which hath the name of Original Sin be truly and properly such and not rather so stiled in respect of that first sin from which it proceeded or in respect of those sins to which it leads For beside that that Church whose Catechism I have chosen to explain leads us to the consideration of it because both there and elsewhere (c) Art. of Relig. 6. affirming it to have the nature of a Sin to make us the Children of Wrath and to deserve God's Wrath and Damnation The resolution of it is of no small moment toward the right stating of our duty and the valuableness of that remedy which Christianity hath provided for it For neither otherwise can we look upon Original Sin as any proper matter for our Repentance whatsoever it may be for our lamentation nor upon Baptism as bringing any other pardon to Infants than that of the Sin of their first Parents and which they who look upon Original Sin as rather our unhappiness than fault are generally as far from charging them with This only would be premis'd for the better understanding of it that by Sin is not meant any actual transgression of a Law for no Man was ever so absurd as to affirm that concerning Original Sin but that which is contrary to a Law in the nature of an evil habit and both imports an absence of that Righteousness which ought to be in us and an inclination to those evils from which we ought to be averse This as it is no less the transgression of a Law than any actual sin is so making the person in whom it is as obnoxious to punishment and consequently to be look'd upon as yet more properly a sin Now that that which we call Original Sin is really such in this latter notion will appear if these two things be considered First that the Scripture gives it the title of sin Secondly that it represents it as such upon the account of our being obliged by the Law of God to have in us a contrary temper That the Scripture gives that whereof we speak the title of sin is evident from those Texts which we before made use
the Nature of every Man that is naturally engendered of the off-spring of Adam whereby it becomes averse from every thing that is good and inclinable to every thing that is evil The nature of that corruption more particularly enquir'd into and shewn by probable Arguments to be no other than a Privation of a Supernatural Grace That there is such a thing as we have before described evidenced at large from the Scripture and that evidence farther strengthned by the experience we have of its effects and the acknowledgments of the wiser Heathen Enquiry next made from whence it had its beginning which is shewn to have been not from any evil Spirit or Daemon the pravity of matter or the evil habits the Soul contracted in a praeexistent state but from the pravity of our first Parents This last at large confirm'd out of the Doctrine of the Scripture and followed by some light reflections upon the means by which it is conveyed A more just account from the Scripture of its being truly and properly a sin partly from its having the title of a sin but more especially from its being represented as such upon the account of our Obligation to the contrary A consideration of those Objections which are commonly made against the Doctrine of Original Sin Which are shewn either not to be of that force whereof they are esteem'd or however not to be a sufficient bar to what the Scripture hath declar'd concerning it p. 89 The Contents of the Fourth Part. Of the things signified by Baptism on the part of God or its inward and spiritual Grace THE things signified by Baptism are either more general or particular More general as that Covenant of Grace which passeth between God and Man and that body of Men which enter into Covenant with him More particular what the same God doth by vertue of that Covenant oblige himself to bestow upon the Baptized and what those Baptized ones do on their part undertake to perform These latter ones proposed to be considered and entrance made with the consideration of what God obligeth himself to bestow upon the Baptized called by the Church An inward and spiritual Grace Which inward and spiritual Grace is shewn to be of two sorts to wit such as tend more immediately to our spiritual and eternal welfare or such as only qualifie us for those Graces that do so To the former sort are reckon'd that inward and spiritual Grace which tends to free us from the guilt of sin called by the Church forgiveness of sin That which tends to free us from the pollution of sin called by our Catechism A death unto it And that which tends to introduce the contrary purity and hath the name of a New birth unto righteousness To the latter sort is reckoned our union to that Body of which Christ Jesus is the Head and by means whereof he dispenseth the former Graces to us Each of these resum'd and considered in their order and shewn to be what they are usually stil'd the inward and spiritual Graces of Baptism or the things signified by the outward visible Sign thereof p. 185 The Contents of the Fifth Part. Of Forgiveness of sin by Baptism OF the relation of the sign of Baptism to its inward and spiritual Grace and particularly to Forgiveness of sin Which is either that of a means fitted by God to convey it or of a pledge to assure the Baptized person of it The former of these relations more particularly considered as that too with respect to Forgiveness of Sin in the general or the Forgiveness of all Sin whatsoever and Original Sin in particular As to the former whereof is alledged first the Scriptures calling upon Men to be Baptiz'd for the remission or forgiveness of sin Secondly the Church's making that Forgiveness a part of her Belief and Doctrine Thirdly the agreeing opinions or practices of those who were either unsound members of it or Separatists from it And Fourthly the Calumnies of its enemies The like evidence made of the latter from the Scripture's proposing Baptism and its Forgiveness as a remedy against the greatest guilts and in special against that wrath which we are Children of by Nature From the premises is shewn that the sign of Baptism is a pledge to assure the Baptized of Forgiveness as well as a means fitted by God for the conveying of it p. 203 The Contents of the Sixth Part. Of Mortification of sin and Regeneration by Baptism OF the relation of the sign of Baptism to such inward and spiritual Graces as tend to free us from the pollution of sin or introduce the contrary purity And that relation shewn to be no less than that of a means whereby they are convey'd This evidenced as to the former even our death unto sin which is also explain'd from such Texts of Scripture as make mention of our being baptiz'd into it and buried by Baptism in it or from such as describe us as cleansed by the washing of it The like evidenc'd from the same Scripture concerning the latter even our new birth unto righteousness As that again farther clear'd as to this particular by the consentient Doctrine and practice of the Church by the opinion the Jews had of that Baptism which was a Type and exemplar of ours and the expressions of the Heathen concerning it The Doctrine of the Church more largely insisted upon and exemplified from Justin Martyr Tertullian and S. Cyprian p. 217 The Contents of the Seventh Part. Of our Union to the Church by Baptism OF the relation of the sign of Baptism to our Vnion to the Church and that relation shewn to be no less than that of a means whereby that Vnion is made This evidenc'd in the first place from the declarations of the Scripture more particularly from its affirming all Christians to be baptiz'd into that Body as those who were first baptiz'd after the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles to have been thereby added to their company and made partakers with the rest in the Apostles Doctrine and fellowship in breaking of Bread and in Prayers The like evidence of the same Union to the Church by Baptism from the declarations of the Church it self and the consequences of that Vnion shewn to be such as to make that also to be accounted one of the inward and spiritual Graces of that Baptism by which it is made p. 237 The Contents of the Eighth Part. Of the Profession that is made by the Baptized Person THE things signified by Baptism on the part of the baptized brought under consideration and shewn from several former discourses which are also pointed to to be an Abrenunciation of sin a present belief of the Doctrine of Christianity and particularly of the Trinity and a resolution for the time to come to continue in that belief and act agreeably to its Laws Our resolution of acting agreeably to the Laws of Christianity more particularly consider'd and the Profession thereof shewn by several
acknowledgments of the wiser Heathen Enquiry next made from whence it had its beginning which is shewn to have been not from any evil Spirit or Daemon the pravity of matter or the evil habits the Soul contracted in a praeexistent state but from the pravity of our first Parents This last at large confirm'd out of the Doctrine of the Scripture and followed by some light reflections upon the means by which it is conveyed A more just account from the Scripture of its being truly and properly a sin partly from its having the title of a sin but more especially from its being represented as such upon the account of our Obligation to the contrary A consideration of those Objections which are commonly made against the Doctrine of Original Sin Which are shewn either not to be of that force whereof they are esteem'd or however not to be a sufficient bar to what the Scripture hath declar'd concerning it AN account being thus given of the outward visible Sign of Baptism Question What is the inward and spiritual Grace which is the first of those things I proposed to entreat of Reason would Answer A death unto Sin and a new birth unto Righteousness For being by nature born in Sin and the Children of wrath we are hereby made the Children of Grace as well as the method before laid down that I should consider the things signified by it Which on the part of God and Christ are an inward and Spiritual Grace as on the part of the baptized an Abrenunciation of their former sins and a resolution to believe and act as Christianity obligeth them to do But because both the one and the other of these suppose the baptized persons to have been before in a sinful Estate and our Catechism in particular to have been born in it and by that as well as by the sins they afterward contracted to be made the Children of wrath Therefore it will be but necessary for us to premise something concerning that sinful Estate as which Baptism both presupposeth and professeth to provide a remedy for Now as that sinful State whereof we speak is best known by the name of Original Sin and will therefore most commodiously be described by it So I will make it my business to enquire What that is and what appearance of the being of it from whence it had its beginning and by what means it is conveyed whether as it hath for the most part the name of a Sin so it be truly and properly such and what is to be said to the Objections that are made against it I. To begin with the first of these even what Original Sin is and which in the general may be defin'd to be such a Corruption of the nature of every Man that is naturally ingendred of the off-spring of Adam whereby it becomes averse from every thing that is good and inclin'd to every thing that is evil I call it a Corruption of nature to distinguish it from nature considered in it self and as it was in the first formation of it Partly because Nature being as such the work of God cannot be supposed to be corrupt And partly because the Scripture assures us that whatsoever it now is God made it upright * Eccl. 7.29 and so free from all corruptions whatsoever But so also do I entitle it the Corruption of the Nature of every Man that is naturally ingendred of the off-spring of Adam Partly because the Scripture where it entreats of it represents all Men as under the Contagion of it and partly to exempt our Lord and Saviour from it who was ingendred after another manner and whom the same Scripture assures to have been free †2 Cor. 5.21 from all sin yea to have been so * Luk. 1.35 from his Birth I call it lastly such a Corruption of humane Nature whereby it is averse from every thing that is good and inclin'd to every thing that is evil Which I do upon the account of the Scripture's representing it as a sinful (a) Psa 51.5 one and which as such will make those in whom it is averse from good as well as inclinable to evil yea averse from all that is good and inclinable to all evil Because good yea all good is opposite to such an estate and evil yea all evil connatural to it If they in whom that corruption of nature doth as yet abide be not always actually prevail'd upon to reject that good from which we have affirm'd them to be so averse or to pursue that evil to which we have affirm'd them to be inclinable it is not because they want any averseness for the one or inclination to the other but for some other collateral considerations Such as is for example the reputation or advantage that may accrue to them from the espousing of any thing that is good or the omission of any thing that is evil For all good and all evil being of one uniform nature because becoming good or evil by the conformity they bear to the divine Laws or by their deviation from them where there is an inclination to any thing that is good there must be an inclination to all that is of the same nature as on the other side where an averseness from any thing that is evil an averseness for all that which is alike a transgression of the Divine Laws But as therefore nothing can hinder us from representing natural corruption as making Men averse from all that is good and inclinable to every thing that is evil So neither can any thing oblige us to extend the force of it so far as to make it to determine them in all their actions and accordingly to carry them to an actual rejection of all that is good or a pursuance of all that is evil Partly because Men may and often do act contrary to their natural aversions or inclinations where there is hope of temporal advantage or fear of any temporal evil And partly because we do not only find few natural Men proceeding to the extremity of Impiety but find also great variety among them in the omission of good Actions or the commission of those that are evil Of which variety what account could be given when the Corruption of Nature is and must be equal because all Men were alike in and are alike descended from Adam were it not that even that Corruption leaves place for the performance of many good and the avoiding of many things that are evil For to ascribe that variety either wholly or principally to the different degrees of God's restraining Grace is not only to speak without all Authority that I know of but to take away all diversity between the evil demerits of natural Men and together therewith all different degrees of punishment yea to make the Corruption of Nature the only proper ground of punishment For as if there be nothing but God's restraining Grace to take off natural Men from falling into the
untowardnesses produce such an habitual inclination to them that their more free reason when they come to it shall not be able to surmount it I answer that that indeed might well enough be granted if we had no reason to believe that God would so watch over them by his providence as to hinder their natural temperament from having such an influence upon them But as we have reason enough to believe from the love God bears to his own Workmanship as well as to Piety and Vertue that he would not be wanting in that particular to the estate of Children if it were no other than such as he himself had plac'd them in So we must therefore believe also that that temperament of theirs is not the cause of their miscarriages but somewhat else that is not from God and which because not from him he doth not think himself under any necessity to provide against And indeed though some who call themselves Christians have notwithstanding the former evidences oppos'd themselves against that which we have offered as the Original cause thereof Yet have the more sober Heathen though ignorant of the occasion of it both acknowledg'd and lamented it and so furnish'd us with a farther argument for the belief of it For thus as Dr. Jackson (n) Coll. of his Works Book 10. Ch. 8. did long since observe we find one of them affirming that the nature of Man is prone to lust and another that nature cannot separate just from unjust Thus a third as the forementioned Author remarks that to Man of all the creatures is sorrow given for a portion to him luxury in innumerable fashions and in every Limb To him alone ambition and avarice to him alone an unmeasurable desire of living In fine that whilst it is given to other creatures yea the most savage ones to live peaceably and orderly together Man is naturally an enemy to those of his own stock To the same purpose are those which are quoted by Grotius (o) De jure Bedi ac Pac. li. 2. c. 20. sect 19. in Annot. in locum if they are not also yet more worthy of our remark Such as are that among the other incommodities of mortal nature there is the darkness of Men's minds and not only a necessity of erring but a love of errours That we have all sinned some in weightier instances others in lighter some of set purpose and design others it may be carried away by other Men's wickedness That we do not only offend but we shall offend to the end of our lives and although some one may have so purg'd his mind that nothing shall any more disturb or deceive him yet he comes to innocency by offending That this evil disposition is so natural to Men that if every one be to be punished that hath it no Man shall be free from punishment That there is therefore a necessity upon those who are entrusted with the power of Chastisement to wink at some errours He who punisheth Men as if they could be free from all sin exceeding the measure of that correction which is according to nature or as another hath expressed it shewing himself injurious to the common infirmity of Men and forgetful of that infirmity which is humane and universal For as it is evident from these and the like passages that they from whom they fell had the same opinion of the State of Nature which Christianity obligeth us to take up So that opinion of theirs cannot but add to the confirmation of our own and to the belief of that depravation which it is the design of this Discourse to evince Because not taken up either in whole or in part from prejudices imbib'd from Books but from the experience they had of its effects and which as they themselves could not but feel and acknowledge so we have no reason to question because conscious of the like effects of it in our selves III. There being therefore no doubt to be made but that there is such a thing as Original Sin because sufficiently attested by the Doctrine of the Scripture and our own and other Men's experience It cannot but be thought reasonable to enquire from whence it had its beginning and so much the rather because both Scripture and reason assure us that it cannot be thought to have had its Original from God. Now there are but four things from whence it can be supposed to proceed and within the consideration whereof therefore this Enquiry of ours will necessarily be bounded some evil Daemon or Spirit which concurrs with God to our production or the natural pravity of that matter which God makes use of in order to it Some evil habits which Souls contracted before they were sent into their present bodies or some pravity in those from whom they first descended and which is transmitted from them to particular souls and persons The first of these opinions is attended with this great inconvenience among many others that it chargeth God either with malignity or impotency With malignity if willingly suffering any evil spirit to mix it self in his productions With impotency if not able to hinder it though he would The second as it is alike injurious to the power of God because subjecting that power of his to the indisposition of the matter so it makes Original Sin to be natural and unavoidable and consequently also those actual sins that flow from it By which means it not only renders all our endeavours against them useless but casts a blemish upon those divine Laws which pretend to forbid them and upon those divine judgments which pretend to punish them For neither can God without great unreasonableness forbid what is not to be avoided nor punish it without the imputation of injustice But it may be though Original Sin had not its beginning either from some evil spirit or the pravity of the matter which are the two first opinions which pretended to give an account of it yet it might as is suggested in the third arise from such evil habits as Men's souls contracted before their descent into this World and into those bodies wherewith they are invested That indeed might yet more reasonably be believ'd that I say not also abstracting from the Authority of the Scripture much more reasonably than the account that is given of it from Adam if there were but equal reason to believe that Men's Souls had any separate existence antecedently to their conception in the Womb. But as that is a thing for which there is not any solid ground either in reason or Scripture and the supposition of it therefore the meer issue of fancy and conjecture So it is sufficiently confuted by the ignorance Men's Souls are under of any such previous estate For why if Men's Souls had any such previous existence should they not be conscious of it and of the things that were performed by them in it Nay why should not God take care to fix such a remembrance in them that
may be yea be assur'd to us of the original or conveyance whereof we our selves are perfectly ignorant for who doubts of the being of humane Souls though he neither knows nor well can whether they be traduc'd or infus'd and partly because the testimony of Scripture with the experience we have of its effects is a much more forcible argument of the being of it than all the former reasons are of the other These being direct and immediate proofs of its existence whereas the other are only indirect and mediate From such objections therefore as consider Original Sin as a simple Corruption of humane Nature pass we to those which consider it also as sinful and which indeed seem most hardly to press upon it Such as are that all sin is the transgression of a Law which Original Sin seems not to be That it requires the consent of the will of him in whom it is which cannot well be affirm'd of that As in fine that the Scripture it self may seem to make that which we call Original Sin rather the Parent of Sin than sin it self because making sin to arise (o) James 1 13 c. from the conception and parturition of it As to what is objected from the forementioned Scripture it is either nothing at all to the purpose or very much against the purpose of those that alledge it Partly because by the sin there spoken of can be meant no other than actual sin and nothing therefore to be concluded from thence but that all actual sin is the product of Men's Lust and partly because that Text makes even actual sins to be the product of Men's Lust yea of such a lust as draweth them aside and enticeth them For who can well think the Parent of such Children to be of a better Nature than the Children themselves especially when she is described as giving birth to them by false and deceitful Arts Such Arts as those reflecting no great honour upon the Mother but on the contrary making her to be altogether as criminal as the other If therefore they who impugn Original Sin as such would do it with any advantage it must not be by Arguments drawn from Scripture which will rather hurt than profit them but by Arguments drawn from reason and particularly by such as represent Original Sin as no transgression of a Law and therefore no sin properly so call'd or as a thing which hath not the consent of the will of him in whom it is and therefore yet farther removed from it As concerning the former of these even that which represents Original Sin as no transgression of a Law I answer that they who so speak must deny it to be such either because it is no Act or because there is no Law which it can be suppos'd to be a transgression of If the former of these be their meaning I willingly grant what they alledge but I say withall that it will not from thence follow that it is no sin at all For if Men are obliged by the divine Law to a pious and innocent temper as well as not to swerve from it in their actions the want of that happy temper or the having a contrary one will be as much the transgression of a Law as the want of the same piety in their actions Which will consequently devolve the whole force of that Objection upon the supposition of there being no such Law of God which requires the former temper or which therefore Original Sin can be thought to be a transgression of But as I have already made it appear in some measure that there is in truth such a Law as requires a pious and innocent temper so I shall now endeavour to strengthen it by some more particular proofs and by answering those exceptions that are made against it In order to the former whereof we are to know that as the Law we speak of must be supposed to have been given to Adam as that too not only in his private but publick capacity and as he may be thought to have been the representative of all Mankind there being no other Law which can be suppos'd to concern us before we come to be in a capacity to apprehend and obey it so I shall endeavour to make it appear first that there was such a Law given to Adam and then that it was given to him not only in his private but publick capacity and as he may be thought to have been the representative of all Mankind Now that there was a Law given to Adam requiring a pious and innocent temper as well as the preserving that piety and innocency in his actions will need no other proof than God's creating him in it and the love he may be supposed to bear unto it For as we cannot think God would have ever intrusted such a Jewel with Adam if it had not been his intention that he should preserve and exercise it so much less when the holiness of the divine Nature persuades his love to it as well as the declarations of his word For what were this but to make God indifferent what became of his most excellent gifts which no wise person and much less so hearty a lover of them can be supposed to be If therefore there can be any doubt concerning the Law we speak of it must be as to its having been given to Adam in his publick capacity and as he may be suppos'd to have been the representative of all Mankind Which I shall endeavour to evince first by shewing what I mean by his publick capacity secondly by shewing that Adam was set in such a capacity and thirdly that the Law we speak of was given to him as considered in it By the publick capacity of Adam I mean such a one whereby as he was design'd to be the Father of all Mankind so God made him a kind of Trustee for it In order thereunto both giving him what he did for their benefit as well as his own and obliging him for their sakes as well as his own to see to the preservation of it and act agreeably to it Which if he did his Posterity as well as himself should have the benefit thereof and God's favour together with it but if not forfeit together with him what God had so bestow'd upon him and incurr the penalty of his displeasure Now that Adam was set in such a capacity which is the second thing to be demonstrated will appear from the Scriptures making him the cause of all Men's death by his offence and disobedience For the effects of another disobedience being not otherwise chargeable upon any Man than as that other may be suppos'd to be appointed to act for him If the effects of Adam's disobedience were to fall upon all his Posterity he also must be supposed to have been appointed to act for them and consequently to have been set in that publick capacity whereof I speak Which will leave nothing more for us to shew upon this
Imprimatur Johannes Battely RRmo P. ac D no D no Wilhelmo Archiep. Cantuariensi à Sacris Domesticis Ex Aedib Lamb. Apr. 10. 1686. OF THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM In Pursuance of an EXPLICATION OF THE CATECHISM OF THE CHURCH of ENGLAND BY GABRIEL TOWERSON D.D. and Rector of Welwynne in Hartfordshire LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in S. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXVII TO THE Right Reverend FATHER in GOD FRANCIS Lord Bishop of ELY AND LORD ALMONER TO His Majesty My Lord YOUR Lordship 's favourable acceptance of my Discourse of the Sacraments in General with the desire I have if it may be to put an end to the whole hath prompted me to make the more hast to present your Lordship and the World with this of Baptism in particular Two things there are in it which I thought my self most concern'd to clear and which therefore I have employ'd all requisite diligence on the Doctrine of Original Sin and Infant-Baptism The former being in my opinion the foundation of Christianity the latter of our interest in it For if there be no such thing as Original Sin I do not see but some persons heretofore might and may hereafter live with such exactness as not at all to stand in need of a Saviour And I see as little if Infant-Baptism be null what interest any of us can have in him according to the ordinary dispensation of the Gospel who have for the most part been baptized in our Infancy or at least have been baptized by those that were Throughout the whole Treatise I have endeavour'd to retrive the antient notion of Baptism to shew what advantages are annexed to it and what duties it either involves or obligeth to To either of which if I have given any light or strength I shall hope I have done some small service to the Church and which your Lordship in particular will take in good part from Your Lordship's Most obliged Most obedient and Most humble Servant GABRIEL TOWERSON Wellwyne Aug. 23. 1686. THE CONTENTS OF THE FIRST PART Of the Rite of Baptism among the Heathen and the Jews THe Heathen themselves not without the knowledge of another World and of the insufficiency of natural Religion to bring them to the happiness thereof Occasion taken by them from thence to enquire after other ways of obtaining it and by the Devil to suggest the mysteries of their respective Deities as the only proper means of compassing it Those mysteries every where initiated into by the Rite of Baptism partly through Men's consciousness of their past sins and which they judged it but meet they should be some way purged from and partly through the policy of the Devil who thereby thought to procure the greater veneration to them That as it was a Rite which was in use among God's own people so naturally apt to represent to Mens minds their passing from a sinful to a holy Estate Of what Service the Heathens use of this Rite is toward the commendation of the Christians Baptism and a transition from thence to the use of it among the Jews Which is not only prov'd at large out of the Jewish Writings and several particulars of that Baptism remark'd but that usage farther confirm'd by several concurring proofs such as is in particular the no appearance there is otherwise of any initiation of the Jewish Women the Baptizing of the whole Nation in the Cloud and in the Sea and a remarkable allusion to it in our Saviour's Discourse to Nicodemus The silence of the Old Testament concerning that Rite shewn to be of no force because though it take notice of the first Jews being under the Cloud and passing through the Red Sea yet it takes no notice at all of their being Baptized in them or of their Eating and Drinking that spiritual Repast whereof S. Paul speaketh The Baptism of Christians copied by our Saviour from that of the Jews and may therefore where it appears not that he hath made an alteration receive an elucidation from it p. 1. The Contents of the Second Part. Of the Baptism of the Christians and the Institution of it THe Institution of the Christian Baptism more antient than the Command for it in S. Matthew 28.19 though not as to the generality of the World nor it may be as to the like explicit Profession of the Trinity As is made appear from Christ or his Disciples baptizing in Judea not long after his own Baptism by S. John. Enquiry thereupon made whether it were not yet more antient yea as antient as Christ's execution of his Prophetical Office. Which is rendred probable from our Saviours making Disciples before and the equal reason there appears to have been for his making them after the same manner with those of Judea From Christ's representing to Nicodemus the necessity of being born again of water and the spirit which is shewn at large to be meant of a true and proper Baptism As in fine from Christ's telling S. Peter when he ask'd the washing of his Hands and Head as well as Feet that he who had been washed needeth not save to wash his feet An answer to the supposed silence of the Scripture concerning so early a Baptism and that shewn to be neither a perfect silence nor an unaccountable one p. 23. The Contents of the Third Part. Of the outward visible Sign of Baptism THe outward visible Sign of the Christian Baptism shewn to be the Element of Water and enquiry thereupon made wherein it was intended as a Sign Which is shewn in the general to be as to the cleansing quality thereof more particularly as to the use it was put to toward new-born Infants and that application of it which was first in use even by an immersion or plunging the Party baptized in it Occasion taken from thence to enquire farther how it ought to be applyed more especially whether by an immersion or by that or an aspersion or effusion Evidence made of an immersion being the only legitimate Rite of Baptism save where necessity doth otherwise require And enquiry thereupon made whether necessity may justifie the Application of it by an Aspersion or Effusion and if it may whether the case of Infants be to be look'd upon as such a necessity What is to be thought of those additions which were antiently made or continue as yet in being in the outward solemnities of Baptism Where the sign of the Cross in Baptism is more particularly considered and answer made to those Exceptions that are made against it as a Ceremony as an addition of Men to the Institution of Christ and as a supposed Relique of Popery or giving too much countenance to the Papists abuses of it p. 43. A Digression concerning Original Sign By way of Preparation to the following Discourses The Contents OF the ground of the present Digression concerning Original Sin and enquiry thereupon made what Original Sin is Which is shewn in the General to be such a corruption of