say Christus resurrexit Christ is risen For this end Christ is called The first fruit of them that slept vers 20. As the first fruits did sanctifie the whole harvest of corn that was afterwards to be gathered So did Christ rising all his members by his Resurrection assuring them of theirs Hence it is that the Apostles Arguments are not to prove the Resurrection of wicked men for they arise upon another account but onely of the godly who are his members and have an interest in his mediation It is indeed a Dispute Whether even wicked men do not rise by the virtue of Christs merit and his Resurrection Baldwine for determining the negative in locum is traduced by another Lutheran for Popery and Calvinism as introducing that Doctrine of the particularity of Christs death But certainly The wicked mans resurrection is not to be accounted in the number of any mercies and therefore not merited by Christ Hence it followeth necessarily that they rise not by any relation to Christ but by the power and justice of God because of that immutable and unchangeable Decree that every sinner unrepenting shall die both temporally and eternally which later could not be accomplished unlesse the bodies of wicked men were raised up to life again out of the dust Now our Apostle to prove Christ the cause of our Resurrection draweth an Argument from a comparison between Adam and him making them two originals and fountains but of contrary effects the one of death the other of life For as in Adam all die so in Christ all shall be made alive Not that all men universally shall be saved by Christ but the universal particle must be limited according to the subject matter in hand All that are in Christ all that are his members shall be made alive by him And therefore in the next verse it is so limited Christ the first-fruits and afterwards they that are Christs at his coming So that the sense is That as all Adams posterity die because of him so all that are Christs seed shall live by him For the expression in Adam and in Christ do denote a causality in them the one of death the other of life Therefore we must not think that the Apostle doth here only make a bare similitude and comparison shewing that as by Adam we die so by Christ we shall be made alive but it 's an Argument from the power and causality that is in one to the other The Apostle doth in the fifth of the Romans make the like comparison only there is this difference as Calvin observeth In that place the Apostle maketh the comparison chiefly in respect of spiritual effects death as it brings condemnation and life as it is accompanied with justification here and glorification hereafter This Text is greatly agitated in the controversie between Puccius and Socinus Vide Disput de statu primi hominis ante lapsum The former holding truly though he superaddeth many gross errors that Adam was not made mortal and that death came in only by sinne only he goeth absurdly beyond his bounds when he holdeth the beasts were also made immortal The later on the contrary he holdeth That Adam was made mortal that death in natural that though by sinne we are under a perpetual necessity of death which is an ambiguous phrase he useth yet death it self is natural He granteth That immature and violent death cometh by sinne but death as it is a meer dissolution of a person so it is from his primitive creation and constitution Therefore be would have this difference between the Text I am upon and Paul's Discourse in the fifth of the Romans viz. That there indeed he speaketh of the sinne of Adam by which we come to die But here he would have the Apostle consider Adam as he is by Creation and that being mortal from the beginning we also are mortal from him But who can perswade himself that these passages concerning the change of the body hereafter to what it is now It is sown in corruption it 's raised in corruption it is sowen in dishonour it is raised in glory it is sowen in weaknesse it is raised in power are to be understood of our bodies as at the first Creation and not as they are now by Adam's fall Our bodies are made corruptible and vile bodies by reason of sinne We must then understand the Apostle as speaking of Adam sinning though sinne be not here named So that the fifth of the Romans will excellently illustrate this place and that maketh the sense to be That Adam sinning by his sinne death entered upon all mankind so that death is not natural neither doth it arise from our first constitution but it cometh in wholly by sinne SECT II. Death an Effect of Original Sinne explained in divers Propositions HAving then heretofore spoken of some spiritual effects of original sinne and more might be named such as a necessity to sinne an impotency to all good senslesness and stupidity therein the aldom to Satan but I shall pass them by as being very proper to the Common-place of Divinity which is of the grace of God and mans free-will and shall proceed to the effects of original sinne that are of another nature and that is temporal and eternal death The former effects did so slow from original sinne as that also they are sinfull properties in a man but these are meerly punishments It is not our sinne that we are sick that we die but it is the effect From the words then we observe this truth and doctrine That death cometh upon all mankind because of our sinne we have originally from Adam It is true the Socinian will say We put more in the Doctrine then is in the Text but you heard the comparison used by the Apostle in the fifth of the Romans compared with this doth necessarily suppose death to be because of Adam's sinne not only as imputed unto us but because thereby we are made inherently sinfull This truth is of a very vast compasse but I shall consine my self within as narrow bounds as may be I shall follow my usual method to explicate this in several Propositions ¶ 1. FIrst This controversie about mans mortality is very famous in the Church and hath been of old solliciously disputed The Pelagians as they denied original sinne so consonantly to that falshood they affirmed That death was not the punishment of sinne but did arise by the necessity of our natural constitution Which Assertion was condemned by some Councils and the Laws of Emperours as injurious to God the Creator of men For this experience that Infants new born are subject to many miseries and death it self was a thorn in their sides which they could not endure in nor yet possibly pull out Sometimes with the Stocks they would deny death to be an evil Sometimes they would say Children in the womb are guilty of actual sinnes for which they deserved death but that which they did most constantly adhere
posse mori is known by all It is not then an absolute but a conditional immortality we speak of ¶ 3. Propos 3. ALthough we say that God made man immortal yet we grant that his body being made of the dust of the earth and compounded of contrary element it had therefore a remote power of death It was mortal in a remote sense only God making him in such an eminent manner and for so glorious an end there was no proxim and immediate disposition to death God indeed gave Adam his name whereas Adam imposed a name upon all other creatures but not himself and that from the originals he was made of to teach him humility even in that excellent estate yet he was not in an immediate disposition to death When Adam had transgressed Gods Law though he did not actually die upon it yet then he was put into a mortal state having the prepared causes of death within him but it was not so while he stood in the state of integrity then it was an immortal state now it is a mortal one I say state because even now though Adam hath brought sinne and death upon us yet in respect of the soul a man may be said to be immortal but then there was immortality in respect of soul and body the state he was created in did require it So that although death be the King of terrors yet indeed original sinne which is the cause of it should be more terrible unto us Now man by sinne is fallen the beasts could they speak would say Man is become like one of us yea worse for he carrieth about with him a sinfull soul and a mortal body ¶ 4. Distinctions about Mortality and that in several respects Adam may be said to be created mortal and immortal THe fourth Proposition is That from the former premisses it may be deducted that in several respects Adam may be said to be created mortal and immortal yet if we would speak absolutely to the question when demanding how Adam was created we must return Immortall Some indeed because mans mortalilty and immortality depended wholy upon his will as he did will to sinne or not to sinne so they have said he was neither made mortal or immortal but capable of either but that is not to speak consonantly to that excellency of state which Adam was created in for as Adam was created righteous not indifferent as the Socinians say neither good or bad but capacious of either qualification so he was also made immortal not in a neutral or middle state between mortal and immortal so that he had inchoate immortality upon his creation but not consummate or confirmed without respect to perseverance in his obedience for the state of integrity was as it were the beginning of that future state of glory Again Adam might be called mortal in respect of the orginals of his body being taken out of the dust of the earth but that was only in a remote power so God did so adorne him with excellent qualifications in soul and body that the remote power could never be brought into a proxime and immediate disposition much less into an actual death for a thin◠may be said to be mortal 1. In respect of the matter and thus indeed Adams body in a remote sence was corruptible 2. In respect of the forme Thus Philosophers say sublunary things are corruptible because the matter of them hath respect to divers formes whereas they call the heavens incorruptible because the matter is sufficiently actuated by one forme and hath no inclination to another and thus Adam might truly be said to be immortal for it was very congruous that a body should be united to the soul that was sutable to it for that being the form of a man and having an inclination or appetite to the body if man had been made mortal at first the natural appetite would in a great measure have been frustrated it being for a little season only united to the body and perpetually ever afterwards seperated from it Surely as an Artificer doth not use to put a precious Diamond or Pearl into a leaden Ring so neither would God at first joyn such a corruptible body to so glorious and an immortal soul 3. A thing may be said to be mortal in respect of efficiency and thus it is plain Adam was not made mortal for he might through the grace of God assisting have procured immortality to himself that threatening to Adam In the day he should eat of that forbidden fruit he should die the death Gen. 2 17. doth plainly demonstrate that had he not transgressed Gods command he should never have died 4. A thing may be said to be mortal in respect of its end Thus all the beasts of the field whatsoever Puccius thought are mortal because their end was for man to serve him so that it is a wild position to affirm as he doth that there shall be a resurrection of beasts as well as of men for they were made both in respect of matter form and end altogether mortal whereas Adam was made after the Image of God to have communion and fellowship with God and that for ever which could not be without immortality ¶ 5. Prop. 5. THe true causes of death are only revealed in Gods Word All Philosophers and Physitians they searched no further then into the proxim immediate causes of death which are either external or internal they looked no further and knew of no other thing but now by the Word of God we Christians come to know that there are three principal causes of death so that had not they been those intermedious and proxime causes of death had never been The first cause is only by occasion and temptation and that was the Devil he tempted our first parents and thereby was an occasion to let death into the world for this cause the Devil is called Joh. 8. 44. a murderer from the beginning it doth not so much relate to Cain as to Adams transgression yet the Scripture Rom. 5. doth not attribute death to the Devil but to one mans disobedience because Adams will was not forced by Satan he had power to have resisted his temptations only the Devil was the tempting cause The second and most proper cause of death was Adams disobedience so that death is a punishment of that sinne not a natural consequent of mans constitution The History of Adam as related by Moses doth evidently confirme this that there was no footstep of death till he transgressed Gods Law and upon that it was most just that he who had deprived himself of Gods Image which is the life of the soul should also be deprived of his soul which is the life of the body that as when he rebelled against God he presently felt an internal rebellion by lusts within and an external disobedience of all creatures whom he did rule over before by a pacifical dominion so also it was just that he who had deprived himself
Bondage is It s being carried out unto sinne voluntarily and with delight ¶ 9. Thirdly It is evident by its utter impotency to any thing that is spiritual Here is shewed wherein that inability consists ¶ 10. That man naturally loves his thraldom to sin and contradicts the means of Deliverance ¶ 11. It s Bondage is seen in its Concupiscential Affection to some creature or other never being able to lift it self up to God ¶ 12. That when it doth endeavour to overcome any sinne it is by falling into another ¶ 13. The more means of grace to free us the more our slavery appears ¶ 14. The Necessity of a Redeemer demonstrates our thraldome to sinne ¶ 15. An Examination of the Descriptions and Definitions of Freedom or Liberty of Will which many Writers give it Shewing That none of them are any wayes agreeing to the Will unsanctified CHAP. V. Of the Pollution of the Affections Col. 3. 2. Set your Affections upon things above not on things on the earth SECT I. The Text opened SECT II. Of the Nature of the Affections SECT III. How the Affections are treated of severally by the Philosopher the Physician the Oratour and the Divine SECT IV. The Natural Pollution of the Affections is manifested 1. In the Dominion and Tyranny they have over the Understanding and Will ¶ 2. Secondly In regard of the first motions and risings of them ¶ 3. Thirdly In respect of their Progress and Degrees ¶ 4. Fourthly In respect of the Continuance or Duration of them SECT V. They are wholly displaced from their right Object SECT VI. Their sinfulness is discovered in respect of the End and Use for which God ingraffed them in our Natures SECT VII And in their Motion and Tendency thereunto SECT VIII In respect of the Contrariety and Opposition of them one to another SECT IX The Pollution of the Affections in respect of the Conflict between the natural Conscience and them SECT X. In respect of the great Distractions they fill us with in holy Duties SECT XI Their Deformity and Contrariety to the Rule and Exemplary Patern SECT XII Their Dulness and senslesness though the Understanding declare the good to be imbraced SECT XIII The Affections being drawn out in holy Duties from corrupt Motiveâ— shews the Pollution of them SECT XIV That they are more zealously carried out to any false way than to the Truths of God SECT XV. They are for the most part in-lets to all sinne in the Soul SECT XVI The Privacy of them SECT XVII Their hurtfull Effects upon a mans Body SECT XVIII The sad Effects they have upon others SECT XIX And how readily they receive the Devils Temptations CHAP. VI. The Sinfulness of the Imaginative Power of the Soul Gen. 6. 5. And God saw that every Imagination of the thoughts of mans heart was only evil and that continually SECT 1. The Text explained and vindicated against D. J. Taylor Grotius the Papists and Socinians SECT II. Of the Nature of the Imagination in a man SECT III. 1. The Natural Sinfulnesse of the Imagination appears in its making Idols Supports and vain Conceits whereby it pleaseth it self SECT IV. 2. In respect of its Defect from that end and use which God did intend in the Creation of man with such a power SECT V. 3. Restlesnesse SECT VI. 4. Universality Multitude and Disorder of the Imaginations SECT VII 5. Their Roving and Wandring up and down without any fixed way SECT VIII 6. Their Impertinency and Unreasonableness SECT IX 7. The Imagination eclypseth and for the most part keeps out the Understanding SECT IX In the Imaginations for the most part are conceived all actual impieties SECT X. That many times Sinne is acted by the Imagination with Delight and Content without any relation at all to the external actings of Sinne. SECT XI It s Propensity to all evil both towards God and man SECT XII It continually invents new sins or occasions of sins SECT XIII The Sinfulness of the Imagination manifesteth it self in reference to the Word of God and the ministerial preaching thereof SECT XIV It is more affected with Appearances then Realities SECT XV. It s Sinfulness in respect of fear and the workings of Conscience SECT XVI Of the Actings of the Imagination in Dreams SECT XVII The Imagination is not in that orderly Subordination to the rational part of man as it was in the Primitive Condition SECT XVIII It is according to Austin's Judgement the great instrument of conveying Original Sinne to the Child SECT XIX How prone it is to receive the Devils Impressions and Suggestions SECT XX. Some Corollaries from the Premisses CHAP. VII Of the last Subject of Inhesion or seat of Original Sinne viz. the Body of a man 1 Thess 5. 23. And the very God of peace sanctifie you wholly and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and Body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ SECT II. The Text explained SECT III. Scripture-proofs of the sinfull Pollution of the Body SECT IV. The sinfulness of the Body discovered in particulars ¶ 1. It is not now instrumental and serviceable to the Soul in holy Approaches to God but on the contrary a clog and burden ¶ 2. It doth positively affect and defile the Soul ¶ 3. A man acts more according to the Body and the Inclinations thereof then the mind with the Dictates thereof ¶ 4. The Body by Original Sinne is made a Tempter and a Seducer ¶ 5. It doth objectively occasion much sinne to the Soul ¶ 6. It s indisposition to any service of God ¶ 7. How easily the Body is moved and stirred by the passions and affections thereof ¶ 8. The Body when sanctified is become no lesse glorious then the Temple of the holy Ghost CHAP. VIII Of the Subject of Predication Shewing that every one of mankind Christ only excepted is involved in this sinne and misery Luk. 1. 35 Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God SECT I. The Text explained SECT II. The Aggravations of Original Sinne. ¶ 1. The Aggravation of Adam's Actual Transgression ¶ 2. The Aggravation of Original Sinne inherent ¶ 3. An Objection Answered SECT III. That every one by Nature hath his peculiar Original Sinne. SECT IV. That Original Sinne in every one doth vent it self betimes SECT V. How soon a Child may commit Actual Sinne. SECT VI. Whether Original Sinne be alike in all CHAP. X. A Justification of Gods shutting up all under Sinne for the Sinne of Adam in the sense of the Reformed Churches against the Exceptions of D. J. Taylor and others Gal. 3. 24. But the Scripture hath concluded all under sinne that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe SECT I. The Text explained SECT II. Prâ—positions to direct us in this great Point of Gods Proceedings as to the matter of Original Sinne. SECT III. Objections Answered The Contents of the
live where you have the duty supposed to mortifie that implieth it is not enough to forbear from the actings of sinne but they must kill it Sinne may be left upon many considerations yet not mortified Look therefore that sinne be dead in thee and not asleepy or onely restrained for a season Again To mortifie signifieth the pain and renitency that is in the unregenerate part against this Duty A wicked man had almost as willingly be killed as leave his lusts This sheweth how fast sinne is rooted in us more than a tooth in the jaw or the soul in the body and if any of these are not taken away without much pain and trouble no wonder if the leaving of our corruptions be so troublesom to us Lastly This word supposeth It 's a constant work we are alwayes mortifying alwayes crucifying This is spoken to comfort the godly that they should not wholly be dejected if they find some actings and stirrings of sinne still within them SECT III. SEcondly There is the Object of this Duty and that is The deeds of the body Many translate it The deeds of the flesh for that which was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before is here called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now this body is not only sinne putting it self forth in bodily actions but it is the same with flesh which is original corruption defiling the whole man So that the body here as Beza doth well observe is The whole man in soul and body while unregenerate for the flesh the body here spoken of by the Apostle is in the soul as well as body it is every thing that is opposite to God in a man whether it be in his mind or in his flesh So that Austin said The Epicurean he saith Frui carne meâ est bonum to enjoy the flesh is good The Stock he saith Frui mente meâ est bonum to enjoy my mind is good but both are deceived for to enjoy God only is good and both the body and the mind are all over defiled with sin SECT IV. LAstly There is the Efficient Cause by which we mortifie the deeds of the body and that is the Spirit It 's not our power but Gods Spirit that conquereth these lusts for us Observe That original sinne is a body in us It is a body both in our soul and body it 's called a body not properly as if it were a substance but metaphorically and allusively So Rom. 6. 6. it 's called The body of sinne and certainly it may as well be called so as flesh and the old man SECT V. Why Original Sinne is called a Body BUt let us consider Why it hath such a name given to it And First It is to shew That original sinne doth not lie latent in our breasts but putteth it self forth visibly in all the operations of the body That as the Godhead is said to dwell in Christ boaâ—ly and the Word was made flesh because the Divine Nature which is immaterial and invisible did through the body become as it were visible Thus we may say Original sinne dwelleth in us bodily and that it is made our flesh because in and through all bodily actions it doth manifest it self both to our selves and others It is then the body of sinne because it makes it self outward visible and doth as it were incarnate sinne hence it is called the outward man Indeed it is disputed whether 2 Cor. 4. 16. where the Apostle saith Though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed daily By outward man there is meant the body only or original sinne in the bodily deeds thereof Most do interpret it of the body only yet Paraeus understands it of original sinne with the body That as the body and original corruptions with the effects thereof are constantly dying being mortified by the Spirit of God so the inward man which is the work of grace is daily more confirmed Howsoever this be yet it is plain Rom. 7. 22. That the work of grace within us being called the inward man that by opposition original corruption must be the outward man and therefore called The Law in our members It is thought by Nerimbergius that the Apostle taketh this distinction of an outward and inward man from Plato out of whom he quoteth a place with some vicinity to Paul's expression This is certain That original sinne may well be called a body and the Law in our members because by these it doth so palpably put forth its self Insomuch that we may wonder any will not believe there is original sinne for it is obvious to the sense they may behold the effects of it that as you may know a man hath a soul because he speaketh and laugheth though you cannot see the soul Thus though you cannot see original sinne yet because as soon as ever the child can speak or do any thing you see vanity and sinne put forth it self therefore you may conclude there is original sinne Thou then that wilt not be convinced of it by Scripture by reasons and several Authorities we send thee to experience You cannot go from house to house from Town to Town from company to company but you may see the effects and actings of original sinne If you say It 's mens actual sins and custom therein that makes them so vile It is true But still we ask Whence came the custom Whence came they to have those actings Certainly those streams could not have been polluted if the fountain had not been and if original sinne did not infect our natures why should not men generally as well act that which is good and obtain a custom in that which is commendable Therefore experience thy eyes thy ears may convince thee of this bodily sinne Secondly The Apostle calleth it a Body to answer those other expressions that he useth about it for he often calleth upon us to mortifie to kill to crucifie this original sinne Now to mortifie and crucifie are properly relating to a Body we do not say properly accidents or qualities are crucified To make therefore the expression harmonious he calleth it a Body Howsoever therefore it is with our natural body that no man ever yet hated his own flesh we are to nourish and cherish that and it would be murder to mortifie that body yet this Body of sinne is to be kept under we are not to spare it but by the Spirit of God to be constantly crucifying of it neither let that discourage thee because as you heard this will be painfull and grievous to flesh and blood for you must conclude upon this That the way to Heaven is narrow and straight there must be constant violence and opposition to all natural inclinations Every godly man may well be called a Martyr for though he may feel no pain in the killing of his natural body yet he must and will feel much exercise in killing the body of sinne but better endure some grief here than eternal torments hereafter
Our Saviour speaks to this twice as it 's mentioned by the Evangelist Matthew Chap. 5. 30 18. 3. It is better saith he to go halt and blind into life than with two hands and eyes to be cast into everlasting fire Think then whether will be more burdensom to leave the pleasures of sinne here or hereafter to be tormented to all eternity Thirdly Original sinne may be called a Body To shew the reality of it that it is not a meer fancy or humane figment as some call it or a non ens as the late Writer D. J. T. Answ to a letter We know the Scripture and so our use of speech opposeth a body to a shadow The Legal Rites are called a shadow and Christ the body Thus original sinne it is not the shadow or the notion of a sinne it liveth and moveth as well as actual it provoketh God it curseth and damneth as well as actual sins So that we are not to flight it or to be fearless of it but rather to tremble under it as the fountain of all our evil and calamity The word Body is sometimes taken for that which is substantial and real in which sense some have excused Tertullian and others that attributed a body to God and Angels as if they intended nothing but a real substance as the aâ—iome of the Stoicks was Omne quod est est corpus Hence they made Virtues and the Arts Bodies But whatsoever their intentions might be the expression is dangerous for God is a Spirit but there is no danger to call original sinne a Body thereby to express the full and real nature of it and thus farre Illyricus his intention was good though his opinion was absurd to amplifie those terms the Scripture giveth to original sinne in opposition to Popery wherein they speak so coldly and formally of it only that he should therefore make it to be more than an accident even the substance of a man in a theological consideration hence he did overthrow all Philosophy and Divinity So that properly the Lutheran Poet cannot be excused when he saith Ipse Deo eoram sine Christo culpa scelumque Ipse ego peccatum sum proprieque vocer In a figurative expression it may pass but he intended Flaccianism hence Contzen speaks of Illyricus by scorn Cujus vel substantia est peccatum Yet thus much we must take notice of That the Scripture doth not in vain use such substantive names about our natural defilement for hereby it doth aggravate it and would have us also know the greatness and vileness of it For how few are there till sanctified and enlightned by the Spirit of God that do bewail this as an heavy burden They can complain of the pains the aches the troubles of their natural body but do not at all regard this body of sin whereas to a spiritual tender heart this body of sinne is farre more grievous than any bodily diseases or death it self yea death is therefore welcome to them because that alone will free from this body of sinne so that they shall never be molested with it more Fourthly Original sinne is called the Body of sinne Because it is a mass of sin a lump of all evil It is not one sinne but all sinne seminally And this seemeth to be the most formal and express reason why the Apostle giveth it this name calling it a Body and attributing members to it for as a body is not one member or one part but the whole compounded of all Thus is original sinne it is not the defilement or pollution in one part of the soul but it diffuseth it self through all It is a body of sinne and herein it doth exceed all actual transgressions and for this reason we ought the more to grieve and mourn under it The body is heavier than one part why are actual sins a load upon thee but this which is the cause of all and comprehends all thou art never affected with O pray more for the Spirit of conviction by the Word Look oftner into the pure glass of the Law Compare thy universal deformity with that exact purity It is for want of this the pharisaical and the natural man is so self-confident trusteth so much in his own heart doth so easily perswade himself of Gods love whereas if we come to a Christian like Paul complaining of this Law of sinne within him finding it captivating and haling of him whither he would not then we have much a do to comfort such an one all our work is to make him have any hope in Christ he thinketh none are so bad as he that the very devils have not worse in them than he feeleth in himself and all this is because original sinne is such a loathsom dunghill in his brest that as those who have putrified arms or other parts of their body they cannot endure themselves they would flie from themselves Thus it is with them because of this original pollution Fifthly Original sinne may be called a Body Because it inclineth onely to carnal earthly and bodily things not at all savouring the things of God and his Spirit Hence it is called so often the flesh because it only carrieth a man to fleshly things being contrary to God and full of enmity to his will as Rom. 8. And doth not experience confirm this Take any man till renewed by grace and all the bent and impulse of his soul are to such things alone that are earthy and sensual Jam. 3. 17. The Apostle James doth there excellently describe the nature of all natural wisdom It is earthy sensual and devilish Every one by nature is both beastly and devillish This body of sinne presseth him down to the earth and hell Insomuch that you may as soon see a worm flying in the air like a bird as a man abiding in this natural pollution having his conversation in heaven So that being made thus bodily and carnal all the spiritual things of God are both above our apprehension and contrary to our affections Now this very particular if there were no more is as deep as the Sea and containeth unspeakable matter of humiliation viz. That by this natural pollution we are destitute of Gods Spirit Spiritual things are no more apprehended by us than melody by the deaf ear Do ye not see wise men learned men yea great Scholars when you come to discourse with them about spiritual things they are very fools and are as blind as moles that live wholly in the earth But of this more in the effects of original sin Lastly In the Scripture Body is used sometimes for the strength and power of a thing And thus original sinne is the body as that which giveth life and motion to all actual sins Let the Use be greatly to humble thee under this notion Gods word gives original sinne This sinfull body It troubleth thee thou hast a mortal body a corruptible body but above all this body of sinne should be a burden to
the repugnancy and rebellion of the sensitive appetite to the reason ariseth from the very internal constitution of a man And therefore the Papists they make original righteousness to be the bridle only to curb this appetite or an antidore to prevent this infection And as for the Socinian he denieth that Adam had any such righteousness at all and therefore they say he sinned Because his sensitive appetite did prevail against the rational Thus they make man even while he was in honour and before his fall to be like the beast that perisheth and to have no understanding comparatively even in that place of Paradise But this errour is so dangerous that we are not to give place to it no not for a moment In that holy estate the soul commanded the body and all the affections They did goe when he bade them goe and stood still when they were commanded Oh but now in what a warre in what a confusion and distraction are we plunged now we cannot be angry but we sinne now we cannot grieve or love but we sinne Thou that deniest original sinne let the exorbitancy of thy passions the inordinacy of thy affections convince thee Is thy heart in thy own power Canst thou have every thing stirre and move in thy soul how and when thou pleasest Canst thou say in respect of thy heart and all the stirrings of thy soul as the Centurion did of his servants that were at his command How is experience a mistress of us fools in this particular Wherein doth our weakness our sinfulness more appear than in our passions and affections As Alexander when his flatterers exalted him as a God he derided at it when he saw blood come from his body Thus when men cry up free-will power to do what is good deny original sinne and make us in our birth free from all evil With what indignation mayest thou reject it when thou seest the Chaos and confusion that is in thy soul when thou findest not any affection moving in thee but it overfloweth it's banks presently Whereas original righteousness gave Adam as much power over those as he had over all the beasts of the field but as the ground hath now thorns and thistles in stead of those pleasant herbs and plants it would have produced of its own self Thus also man now hath all his heart and affections grown wild and luxuriant so that Solomons observation in other things in here made true Servants ride on hors-back and Princes go on foot Fifthly This Image of God was partly in respect of the glory honour and immortality God created him in Adam was made after the Image of God not only in holiness but also in happiness he was not subject to any fears or tears nothing from within or from without could cause pain and grief to him Hence death by which is meant all kind of evil and misery was threatned unto him as a reward of his disobedience but Adam did not beget Seth after this Image we are now made dust and in a necessity of dying which is the effect of our original sin Lastly The Image of God doth consist by way of consequence in dominion and superiority The Socinians indeed because when it 's said God made man after his own Image Gen. 1. 26. it 's added And let him have dominion over the beasts of the field c. make it the only thing wherein it doth consist But we are to believe the Apostle Ephes 4. Col. 3. expounding this Image of God more than they who applieth it to righteousness and true holiness yet it cannot be denied but from this Image of God did flow that Dominion and Sovereignty which the woman also was created in for though she was made in subjection to her husband and so is called The Image of her husband as the husband is the Image of God yet in respect of the creatures so she had power over them and they were subject to Eve as well as to Adam Thus you see what this Image of God in a brief manner is the next work is to amplifie our losse of it is taken away both meritoriously and efficiently meritoriously our Apostasie deserved that God of a Father and a friend should become a Judge and an Adversary to us it deserved that we should be children of wrath by nauture who were children of love by Creation What tongue of men and Angels can express the dreadfulness of this condition viz. of coming into the world under Gods wrath and vengeance God is not to us what he was in the state of integrity not that any change is in God but in us Again This friendship and love of God is expelled efficiently for fallen man hath no suitableness and fitness no proportion or ability to have communion with God Darkness cannot delight in light neither bitterness in sweetness The swine cannot love pearl and precious flowers man corrupt cannot love or delight in the enjoyment of God so that the guilt of sinne did presently make Adam afraid of God so as to runne from him SECT IV. 4. THis privation of Gods Image is more than like the spoiling of a man of his cloaths or like the taking of a bridle from the horses mouth or removing the bonds and chains a man might be in Which when taken off he can walk well enough For the Popish party though they grant Man fallen hath much hurt by Adam yet they make the privation of original righteousnesse to be no more than the spoiling of a man of his garments so that as a man without his cloaths is a man still though naked and exposed to many difficulties Thus they say man still hath his naturals though he hath lost his supernaturals Original righteousness was like an antidote or a bridle against the inferiour parts of the soul they say so that what man is deprived of is only what was supernatural and meerly superadded to humane nature By these subtilties of theirs a mans losse is made to be far lesse than indeed it is Hence they do so often apply that Parable of the man going to Jericho that was wounded and left half dead to Adam fallen to all mankind in him as if we were but dangerously wounded and not throughly dead But the scope of that Parable is wholly to a different purpose Original righteousness is not to be conceived as a supernatural excellency bestowed upon man after his Creation but as a concreated perfection in all the parts of his soul So that the losing of this is not like the losing of some accidental glory and ornaments but even those concreated perfections in the soul are also lost The misunderstanding of this breedeth a dangerous errour as if by original sinne we onely had lost these superadded ornaments but did retain our pure naturals still as they call it which are indeed altogether impute Eccl. 7. God made man right Even as all other creatures were exceeding good Now God had made man the more
that whereas in some the fleshly mind of man runneth out into superstitious and excessive wayes of devotion which God never required so in others again it acteth the clean contrary way pretending to Enthusiasts Revelations and strange raptures and impulses of soul and herein they think they are the only spiritual men and that all others are in the flesh but strong delusions under the pretence of Revelations Apparitions and visions have been no new thing in the Church of God neither are we to stagger in our saith because of these things for the flesh excited by the Devil may vent it self in these extasies and raptures as well as in superstitions yea which is further to be observed a man may be altogether fleshly while he pretends to an high spiritual way of subduing and keeping down the flesh Col. 2. 23. Those who were puft up in their fleshly minds about Angel-worship yet are said to have a shew of humility in not sparing the body and this we may say to those deluded Papists who macerate and excruciate the flesh of the body it would be better if they did cast out at the same time their fleshly mind Seventhly A natural man in his most religious deportment is only fleshly Because whatsoever he doth in these things he is furthered only by natural strength For being without the grace of God either in his understanding or his will hence it is that he can rise no higher than natural reason natural conscience and natural will doth enable him unto and these being altogether polluted by sinne in stead of furthering they are an hindrance and opposition to him If therefore you ask From what principles and by what strength doth a natural man draw nigh to God The answer is only by that power which he hath of himself The grace of God which alone can elevate the soul to God that he is wholly destitute of And although it must be granted that there are some common principles and dictates in all about God and moral good things yet these are never improved any otherwise but from carnal principles and to carnal ends And thus much may suffice for this branch viz. The carnality of a man by original sinne in his most religious offices and duties In the last general place Man may justly be said to be all over sinfull and flesh only Because all his care his thoughts are only for his body and sensible things in the mean while neglecting God and his immortal soul I shall conclude with this because all else comprehended in this name will come in at some other seasonable time By nature we are in the flesh we walk after it we make provision for it so that we willingly lose God and our souls to save and preserve that Who is there that will believe our Saviour saying What will it profit a man to winne the whole world and lose his own soul Mat. 16. 26. What complaints and accusations may the soul make against us when the body hath said Feed me Cloath me you have done it But when the soul hath famished and been perishing you have not heard the cries of it Oh men only flesh and utterly devoid of all spiritual power CHAP. XVI Reasons demonstrating the Positive Part of Original Sinne. SECT I. HItherto we have been informed out of this Text what is comprehended in the word Flesh attributed to every one that is in a natural way born of mankind We now proceed to that Truth for which it was designedly pitcht upon viz. That Original sin is not only a Privation of Gods Image but doth cannote also a Positive inclination and an impetuous propensity to every thing that is evil For this Question is agitated between some Papists and the Protestants They asserting That the whole nature of original sinne lieth in the privation of Gods Image But the Orthodox they say That although original sinne is privative yet it is not meerly privative but doth include in it as the materiale that habitual crookedness and perversnes which is in all the faculties of the soul And thus the Protestants do almost in effect say the same with Aquinas who calleth original corruption a corrupt habit not a meer privation for privations are of two sorts either simple that imply onely a privation as blindnesse and death or compounded and mixed which besides the meer privation do denote some materiale or substratum with it Thus Aquinas compareth original sinne to a sickness or disease which doth not only signifie a privation of health but also the humours excessively overflowing and thereby dissolving the due temperament of the body Such a privation is original sinne a mixt or compounded privation that besides the absence of what righteousness is due denoteth also a propensity and violent inclination unto that which is evil It is true indeed if we come punctually to examine how the will is disobedient and how the affections are so disorderly we cannot resolve into any thing but this privation the understanding is therefore darkness and erroneous because without its primitive light The will is crooked and perverse because without its primitive rectitude So that Calvin saith well He that cals it the privation of Gods Image saith the whole nature of it yet when we speak of the privative part of it only we do not so fully and significantly expresse the dreadfull pollution of it Even as concerning vicious habits in morality intemperance injustice it is not enough to say they are the privation of those virtues which are immediately contrary to them but they do denote also such an inclination in a man that thereby he is carried out to those vicious of such habits constantly and with delight SECT II. Why Divines make Original Sinne to have its Positive as well as Privative Part. THe Reason why our Divines make original sinne to have its Positive as well as Privative part is to obviate that errour of the Papists who supposing original righteousness to be only by way of a bridle in Adam to curb and subjugate the inferiour part to the superiour of the soul when Adam lost this they conceive mankind hath not any further pollution upon it but that meer losse Insomuch that they say Man is now as if God had created him in his pure naturals without any supernaturals The Socinians likewise they deny any such pollution and make us to be born in the same condition Adam was created in death as a punishment only accepted meerly without either sinne or righteousnesse like Aristotles Obrasa Tabula in a neutral indifferent way Now to confront such dangerous opinions we say That by our birth-sinne we are not only deprived of Gods Image but are in an habitual inclination to all evil which is also active and repugnant to all good SECT III. Reasons to evince the Positive part of Original Sinne. NOw that we are to judge of it thus will appear from Scripture upon these grounds First The names that the Scripture attributeth to
to prove the Creation of the soul shall be from Eccl. 12. 7. Then shall dust returne to the earth as it was and the spirit shall returne to God who gave it This seemeth to be very clear for he speaketh of every man that dieth he considers the two essential parts of man his body which he calleth dust because it was made of dust and then his soul which he cals a spirit because of its simple and incorporeal nature again which strengthens the Argument he compareth these two in their contrary or divers originals The body returneth to the earth the Spirit unto God that gave it Though we would think this might satisfie yet Austin of old and those that are Traducians they say God indeed giveth the soul by propagation as well as by Creation God giveth two wayes by Creation or by Propagation as saith Austin God is said 1 Cor. 15. 38. to give every several grain its body yet it is by seminal propagation and God is often in the Scripture said to give us our eyes and our ears and our bodies yet they are by natural generation or if this will not serve then they say This is true onely of Adam not his posterity because Adam's body was only made of the dust not ours and God did breath a soul into him at first But every one may see these are weak exceptions as for the later it 's plain he doth not speak of Adam but every man that dieth For having advised the young man to improve his youth for God he tels him old-age is coming and then death then shall he return How can this be applied to Adam who had returned to the earth many hundreds of years before that was spoken And whereas it is said That only Adam's body was made of dust The answer is easie That though our bodies be of flesh and bone immediately yet the remote principle is dust and therefore Abraham though his body was not made as Adams yet he said 〈◊〉 was but dust and ashes Thus this Text stands firm for the immediate Creation of the soul Though let me by the way give you rightly to understand that later clause The spirit returneth to him that gave it The meaning is not as if the soul of every man was saved but that it goeth into the hands of God as a Judge to dispose of it according to what hath been done in the flesh As for the next exception that will be answered in the following Argument only in the general this may be said That if God gave the soul onely mediately by propagation then the body might be said to return to him as well as the soul SECT II. WE will proceed to a second and that is from Zech. 12. 1. The Lord which stretcheth forth the Heavens and layeth the foundation of the earth and formeth the spirit of man within him Here we see the Lords power described by a three-fold effect the making of the Heavens the laying of the earths foundation and making the spirit of man Now it is plain that the two former were by Gods immediate Creation therefore the later must be So that the Context doth evidently shew That Gods making of the soul of a man within him is no lesse wonderfull then the making Heaven and earth This Text was also of old agitated by Austin in this controversie and to answer it he runneth to his old refuge of forming a thing immediately and by natural propagation God is not to be excluded saith he from having a special hand in giving being to the soul yet it doth not follow that therefore it must be by creation out of nothing To this purpose they bring that of Job Chap. 10. 10 11. where Job attributeth the making and forming of his body to God Hast thou not poured me out like milk c Thou hast cloathed me with skin and flesh So Psal 139. 13 14 15. where David acknowledgeth the wonderfull wisdom and power of God in making his body Then hast curiously wrought me As the curious needle-woman doth some choice piece now we cannot from hence prove that therefore the body is of God by immediate Creation But this cannot weaken the Text for we told you That the Argument is not meerly from that expressing of forming the spirit of man within him but from the upper two Attributes Besides the Scripture tels us plainly of what materials the body is formed of whereas they who hold the propagation of the soul are extreamly streightned and difficultated to say what the soul is made of They say it is not ex animâ but ab animâ not of the soul but from the soul of the Parent but then are divided amongst themselves when they go to explicate how the soul hath its being if not from Creation Some say it hath its being by a corporal seminal manner but then it must be a body which Austin would constantly deny for he dissents from Tertullian in that though both held the natural Traduction of the soul Austin I mean only suppositively but Tertullian positively yet he professeth his dissent from Tertullian who made it a body This therefore being thought absurd others they tell us of an incorporeal and immaterial seed from the soul of the Parents which causeth the soul of the child To this purpose Tertullian in his book de animâ distinguisheth of semen animale which cometh from the soul and semen corporeum which cometh from the body But this may easily be judged as absurd as the former If therefore the Scripture when it speaketh of the forming of mans spirit within him had discovered the materials of which it is formed as well as when it speaketh of the forming of the body there would have been some pretence for the Argument But calling it a spirit and as you see in the Text comparing the forming of it with the making of the Heavens and the Earth this makes the creation of the soul more than probable Tarnavius the Lutheran would likewise avoid this place Comment in loc by saying the Hebrew word Jahac doth most commonly signifie not an immediate creation out of nothing for so the Hebrew word Barah doth for the most but a mediate out of some prejacent matter yet indisposed but this Rule being not universal it hath no strength in it Besides the Hebrew word is in the Present tense who formeth so that it cannot relate to the making of Adam's soul at first Indeed the fore-named Tarnavius doth from the participle Benani draw an Argument against us saying It doth not alwayes signifie actum secundum but habitum and potentiam and so maketh the sense to be God who hath this power immediately to create the soul if he will but all will confess this to be forced That is more considerable when he saith As God in stretching out the Heavens and laying the foundation of the earth is not thereby declared to create new Heavens and a new earth every day so neither is it
none of the Adversaries to the souls immediate Creation do deny it Now then If the soul of Adam was by creation Is it not probable that all other souls were in the like manner What a great disproportion would there be between Adam and us if his soul was by creation and ours by generation Some have questioned Whether it would not make a specifical difference between Adam and us But that is not to be affirmed For Christ as man was of the same species with other men though his Conception and Nativity were miraculous But the Argument from the Creation of Adam's soul to the Creation of ours though it be not cogent yet it maketh it more then probable because God at first did appoint that order which afterwards was to continue So he appointed the animate creatures to multiply in their way making their bodies and forms to be educed out of the power of the matter as Philosophers expresse it though very obscurely but he did not do so with Adam's soul Can we think that our souls are lesse glorious and precious before God I mean as meet creatures then Adam's was It is true There was a necessity that Adam 's body should be otherwise made then ours because he was the first Parent and so he could not be bygeneration Thus the other living creatures they had their bodies at first out of the earth or out of the water not by generation as afterwards Thus for the body there was a necessity but then for the soul there was none at all Why might not Adam's soul have been with his body out of the prejacent matter as well as it was with other living creatures But because the soul of man is of an higher nature coming from God alone This Argument will appear in further strength if you consider that Eve though she was made in such an extraordinary manner out of Adam yet she had not her soul from him but her body only For when he awakened see what he saith This is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh He doth not say This is soul of my soul and yet as Austin in this matter though doubting doth well argue That if Eve had had her soul from Adam Quid charius potuit dicere saith he This would have been a more indeared and affectionate expression to have called her soul of his soul then flesh of his flesh It is true some say it is a synecdochical speech By flesh they say is meant whole Eve her whole person soul and body but that is easier said than proved No doubt if it had been so Adam would have expressed it as being a manifestation of greater unity then what was in the body only If you say But why is it not said then that God created Eve 's soul as well as Adam ' s If God had so immediately breathed a soul into her would not the Scripture have mentioned it No that is not necessary it 's enough that we read what God did to Adam about his soul and the Scripture saith Genes 1. 27. God created man in his Image male and female created he them Thus you see they were both as in respect of Gods Image made alike So Chap. 5. 2. Male and female created he them and called their name Adam And thus much for the first Reason The second is more cogent and that is taken from the soul of Christ If Christ had his soul by creation then we had ours also The consequence is clear because Christ is said to be like us in all things sinne onely excepted Hence it is that he also would have assumed our humane Nature in an ordinary way of generation but that it could not be without sinne If then Christ became like us in all things wherein sin was not necessarily adherent then if he had his soul by immediate Creation we had ours also This Argument doth divide the Adversaries to the Creation of the soul For some say Christ had not his soul by immediate Creation no more then we but from his mother But the most wary will not say so Austin in this controversie doth alwaies except Christs soul and indeed there is this Argument which may nforce us to it taken from the comparison that the Apostle maketh between Levi and Christ affirming Levi did pay tythes in Abraham's loynes but not Christ Heb. 7. 9. Now if Christ was every way in Abraham's loynes as Levi was then must Christ have paid tythes in Abraham as well as Levi and so the Apostles Argument would be without any force But it may be and indeed it is urged by Austin and others This will prove Levi's soul to have been in Abraham else Levi could not have been said to have paid tythes in him but as because Christs soul was not in Abraham originally therefore he did not pay tith so neither might Levi To this therefore the solid Answer is That the reason why Christ did not pay tythes in Abraham in the Apostles sence was not because his soul was immediately from God for so also was Levi's but because Christ was of Abraham only Quoad corpulentam substantiam not seminatam rationem his fleshly substance was from Abraham but not by natural propagation he was from Abraham only materialiter not effectivè whereas Levi was both waies and hence he cometh short of Christ Thirdly If so be that the soul of the parents did beget or multiply the souls of children then this would hold also in Angels for the multiplication of another must needs be acknowledged a perfection where the subject is capable of it Certainly generation of another is not in it self an imperfection for then in the blessed Trinity the Sonne could not be begotten of the Father but generation as in creatures denoteth imperfection If then souls may come from souls why not Angels from Angels but this is acknowleged by all That no Angel can produce another but that there are as many and no more or less then was at first Creation As for that example of the soul producing another as we see one candle light another that is nothing to this purpose for therefore doth the candle inlighten another because there is prepared and fitted matter to receive this light so that its from prejacent materials the light is produced but how can this be applied to the soul which is wholly spiritual what preexistent matter that can be made of Fourthly If so be the soul be not by immediate Creation then it must be material corporal and mortal for although this consequence is denied yet the evidence of natural reason will commend this It s traduced saith Tertullian and is a body yet is immortal It is by propagation say the Lutheran Divines and yet is not a body but a spirit and immortal But above all those abominable Mortalists they make it to be only the crusis of the body of which opinion Galen also is said to be and so they make it mortal We see
and affections are seated The will then is in a man his rational appetite following the proposition and manifestation of the understanding For if a man did know what was good or what is evil and no appetite to imbrace the one or avoid the other he would be no better than a stone or a statue for all his reason We see then why God hath placed such a power in the soul as the will is It is that the good which the understanding manifesteth may be imbraced and entertained and the evil it doth discover may be shunned Whether this will be distinct really from the soul it self and from the understanding is a Philosophical Dispute and will not tend to your edification Secondly Though it be the appetite in a man yet it is a rational appetite it is subjected in the rational soul There is a three-fold appetite 1. Natural which is in the motion of inanimate things as in the stone to descend downwards this is called an appetite though properly it is not so because it doth not follow knowledge but is consequent upon the forme immediately 2. There is the sensitive appetite which moveth upon the knowledge of sense and this is both in beasts and also in men yea naturally we live and desire even all the motions of the soul are according to sense and so in this respect man is become like the bruit beast But of this afterwards 3. There is the rational appetite and that is called the will and this is in man onely a beast hath not properly any will no more then he hath understanding so that the will of a man is a noble and high faculty in him appointed to follow reason and to be regulated by it in all things and therefore Austin saith Voluntas tantum est in bonis The will is only in good things If a man love evil or desire evil this is not voluntas saith he but cupiditas It doth not deserve the name of the will but of lust but common speech is otherwise there is a bad will a corrupted will as well as a good will only when we say the will is a rational appetite that must not be understood formaliter but participativè as they say that is the will doth not know doth not reason but is directed thereby therefore it is called coeca potentia a blind power and if you say it is blind How then can it see the good proposed I answer it followeth the good proposed not because it knoweth it but because of its essential subordination to the understanding Hence it is that to have a good will it is so requisite to have a sound mind Ignorant and blind minds are alwayes accompanied with corrupt and polluted wils There cannot be a sanctified will where there is not an enlightened mind This should make the ignorant and stupid to tremble in their estate they live in This should make you prize knowledge above gold and pearls as also to wait upon the Ministery with diligence seeing that by knowledge the will cometh to be made holy Fourthly we are the more to inform our selves about its depravation by how much the more noble and excellent it is It is hotly disputed between the two factions of Thomists and Scotists which is the more excellent faculty the understanding or the will The Thomists are for the understanding the Scotists for the will but these two cannot absolutely and in every respect be commended before each other only in respect of power and efficacy the will is more eminent for the understanding it self in respect of its exercise is subject to the dominion of the will and the will also is properly the original and fountain of all good or evil in a man for though the understanding hath actual sinfulnesse and the affections yet this is because of the will either directly or indirectly so that to an actual deliberate sinne there is required some kind of voluntarinesse either expresly or interpretatively either in se or in causâ Original sinne you heard was voluntary in some sense although we need not judge of that by Aristotle's rules who was ignorant of any such thing Therefore Julian the Pelagian triumphed in his Aristotelical Philosophy against original sinne despising his Ecclesiastical Judges as not knowing Aristotle's Categories as if saith Austin he desired a Synod of Peripateticks rather than Judges in the Church but though original sinne with the indeliberate motions thereof have not the actual personal will of a man yet all other sinnes have so that the pollution of the will is in effect the pollution of the whole man Hence In the fifth place There is this difference between the understanding and the wil in relation to its objects The understanding doth receive the species of the object to it self not the objects themselves and therefore when we know or understand evil as an object this doth not defile the understanding but is a perfection of it Thus Godknoweth all the evil committed in the world yet his knowledge is not polluted thereby Scire malum non est malum but the will that goeth out to the objects as they are in themselves and thereby loving of them is what the object is Thus if we will sinne it is sinne and not if we know sin because the will goeth out to a sinfull object as it is in it self so that above all keepings we are to keep the will for what that is placed upon it presently becomes like it If thou lovest the world or earth thou art earth thou art of the world Hence all the while sinne is kept out from the will though it be in thy mind though it be by suggestion to thee yet because there is no consent it is not thy sinne but thy misery I speak not of the motus principatus which are antecedent to our will but of suggestions only offered from without but when the will yeeldeth when that consencs it becometh thy evil immediately as poison while it is in the remote parts of the body may not kill but when it striketh to the heart then it is mortall Thus sinne in temptation sinne in suggestion doth not destroy till the will receive it so great a matter is it to look to this power of the soul For In the sixth place Because of this rule and dominion the will hath therefore it is called the universall appetite of the whole man We see all the other powers of the soul have their peculiar and proper inclination The eye to see the ear to hear the understand to know but the will is to will the good for the whole person therefore it is not limited to one good object more then another but bonum in communi the good in general is the object of it so that the will is the universall appetite and inclination of the whole man now if this great wheel that moveth all be irregular and out of order what good can be expected in the less wheeles if the foundation
learned men have said all they can they must confess their ignorance of onely you must know that as the affections are very potent in a man to turn him this way or that way so also is the imagination and fancy of a man Insomuch that it is a great happiness to have a sanctified fancy that is commonly in men the womb wherein much iniquity is conceived It is greatly disputed in Philosophy What the power and strength of imagination is Some have gone so farre as to attribute all miracles whether Divine or Diabolical to the strength of imagination Yea Abilardus his position was That fides was estimatio Faith was nothing but a strong fancy but these are absurd Onely it is granted that some strong impressions it may make on the party himself as also on the fruit of the womb in conception As for Jacob's art of laying parti-coloured sticks before sheep when they came to be watered that in the time of gendring they might bring such coloured lambs though imagination might be something conducible thereunto yet rather ascribe this with some learned men to a miracle and the peculiar blessing and power of God towards Jacob. But I shall not hold you any longer here let us proceed to the discovery of the natural sinfulness thereof SECT III. The Natural Sinfulnesse of the Imagination appeares in making Idols daily Supports and vain Conceits whereby it pleaseth it self FIrst The metaphorical expression in the Text doth fully declare it For as the Potter doth make vessels upon the wheel daily or as some explain it as the Artificer doth of his wood and other materials make Idols which he worshippeth as gods though they be vanities Thus the imagination of man doth daily fabricate such fancies and Idols to it self making gods of them and putting confidence therein And if you observe what riseth daily in the heart of a man devoid of grace you shall find That it is a continual Idol-maker it maketh daily puppets and vain conceits whereby it pleaseth it self and accounteth it self happy therein Thus we see what shops as it were our hearts are The imagination having that sinfull artifice as to make and erect Idols all the day long Even as children naturally delight to make babies and then to play with them so do all men by nature How many vain Idols do the ambitious men the unclean men of the world daily build up in their fancies Hence it is that the glorious things the pleasant things they please themselves with are more in the imagination then in any real possession as is more to be dilated upon In the mean while let us sadly mourn under this horrible corruption of the imaginative part of a man that it should be daily making new gods continually erecting Idols in which we are apt to put our confidence Lapide on the 8th Chapter and Verse 21. where we have the like expression and metaphor doth offer ntollerable ' violence to the sacred Text for whereas it saith The imagination is only set to evil he would make two shops as it were wherein this imagination doth work a shop of sinne wherein it only fabricateth evil and a shop of vertue wherein it imagineth good things but what can be directly to confront a Text and to put the lie upon it if this be not Let us then be willing to be found out in all this evil Let us acknowledge that our imagination doth continually set up vanities Idols we make to our selves gods and so leave the only true God We have made some entrance already upon the discovery of that wound and deadly blow the imaginative power of man hath received by original sinne and wonder not if in the managing of this point we often mention thoughts discourse invention and apprehensions attributing these to the Imagination for although the understanding be properly the power of the soul from whence these operations do proceed yet because as you have heard the imaginative faculty is so near to the inteliectual that in all is operations it hath some dependance on it so that it is hard to know or perceive when some internal parts of the soul are the operations of the fancy or of the mind Though indeed sometimes reason doth correct our imaginations even as they do sense Yea Divines and Philosophers do commonly attribute some kind of opinion and judgement yea imperfect discourse unto it and this difference is given between the common internal sense and the imagination The common sense doth receive the simple impressions of things as of a stone of bread as the wax receiving the impression of a seal not the seal it self but the image of it Thus doth the common sense receive the species of things and retaineth them But the fancy doth go higher it doth compound these single species together witness those many dreames and also Chimeraes which many do Imagine that never had any existence in the world Therefore by this office it hath we see how near it is to the understanding yea Suidas saith That Aristotle calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it hath in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it is with formes and species that it doth apprehend things and therefore saith Suidas it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make those forms and appearances to consist however this be we may conclude because of the immediate subserviency to the understanding and conjunction with it we may without any absurdity say The thoughts the opinion the judgement thereof And so I proceed to the further manifestation of its pollution SECT IV. In respect of its Defect from that end and use which God did intend in the Creation of man by making him with this Imaginative Power SEcondly In respect of its defect from that end and use which God did intend in the Creation of man by making him with this imaginative power We must readily yeeld that as God did shew his wonderfull wisdome and power in making of man which the Scripture often observeth comparing the workmanship of our body to the curious needle work of some skilfull woman Psal 139. 15. so all these powers and parts of the soul were made for singular and admirable use and therefore the imagination as well as the rest yea we are to know that in all those visions and dreames by which God did appear to the Prophets and others it was by exciting and working upon their imagination so that God hath exceedingly honoured that part of the soul in this way The use of this imaginative power is two-fold as of the other senses The one proxime and immediate which is to performe their operations for which they were given to men The other remote and more general which is to be instrumental to the salvation of the soul and also to the glorifying of God For by the imagination we are
would not have been any privation of such light as was necessary but it would have been meer nesciency and so no sinne and therefore such a nesciency was in Christs humane nature while and Infant Luk. 2. 52. He encreased in wisdome and stature as also Isa 7. 15. Butter and honey shall be eat that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good that is he should eat on childrens usuall food till he did encrease in knowledge but all this was without sinne This Proposition may satisfie that Infants cannot have any actual sinne while meerly so because the want of use of reason in them is no sinfull imperfection neither are they under the commands of God to beleive and know him as also to love him with all their soul Therefore it is absurd in the Lutherans to say that these commands of actual knowledge fear or love do bind them while thus under a natural nesciency that floweth from their very nature as nature not as vitiated and defiled Prop. 3. The reason why Infants have not the actual use of reason as soon as they are born ariseth not from their soult but the constitution of their bodies As in natural fools mad men or men in sleep there is no defect in their souls but in the body which is the organical instrument of the soul Therefore when Infants die as soon as ever their souls are seperated from the body they have perfect knowledge and reason but the want of the use of reason ariseth from the abundance and overflowing of humours whereby the sensitive powers of the soul are make indisposed for their operations Prop. 4. Seeing therefore that the soul cometh to work rationally by the successive alteration of the complexion of the body as the organs are disposed which in some is sooner in some later it is impossible to give not only the metaphysical indivisible instant but even the moral time wherein a child doth first begin to have an actual sinne As we cannot observe it in our selves when we first had any use of reason so neither can we in another and therefore the limiting of the works of understanding to the fourth sixth or seven years is altogether uncertain only we are to conclude That children sinne long before they know what sinne is or can understand what it is to offend God for those peevish 〈◊〉 vexations which are in little ones even while sucking are not to be freed 〈◊〉 some kind of guilt for such things would not have been in the state of innocent◠And if you say Why should we think those are sins seeing they do not flew from the use of reason and free-will Therefore The fifth Proposition is That contrariety to the Law of God is of the essence of a sinne not voluntariness in actu secundo as they say as if immediately elicited by the will For habitual sins are not voluntary in that but because they are the effect produced by voluntary acts of sinning that did precede therefore they have as much voluntariness as is required to make an habitual sinne and thus original sinne with the immediate effects that flow thence have as much voluntarness as is required to make them sinnes for as habitual sinnes are therefore sins because contracted by our own personal will so original sinne is voluntary because descending upon as by his will who was our Head both quoad esse naturale and morale as it is in time more to be explained Therefore that Position of Socinians and others That nothing can be a sinne which is not committed by the voluntary consent of our own personal will is to be rejected as that false foundation upon which they build so many erroneous Doctrines The sixth Proposition is That even young children very early have imperfect workings of understanding and will So that those obscure actings of a rational soul begin farre sooner to put themselves forth then many do think Hence it is that they know and love those that give them suck we must then consider that there are imperfect workings of reason and perfect formed ones These later indeed are not so soon but the former are very early Lapide in Psal 25. speaketh out of Gregory of a child but five year old guilty of blasphemy And certainly Austin in his Confessions doth much bewail his sins while he was a child he was but tantillus puer yet tantus peccator a little boy but a great sinner This truth is very usefull not only to confute Pelagiant and Socinians who make in a child an indifferency to good or evil or with Aristotle a blank table to receive any impression but especially to quicken up Parents to their duty in diligent admonition and institution of them For Solamon wiser than any Pelagian saith Prov. 22. 15. Folly is bound up in the heart of a child The word signifieth is close bound to his soul as if it were with ropes Now if besides this natural folly there be wicked education and evil example this will be such a three-fold cord that will not easily be broken Oh then do not think it is no matter what children do their sins are but sports and jests you will not have them displeased or corrected for this is contrary also to Solomon's counsel Prov. 22. 5. Train up a child in the way he should go c. Some render it dedicate some instruct it cometh all to one sense but who must be thus trained Even a child in the Hebrew it is Gnal pene super es viae which causeth divers Interpretations Some understand it of the very first beginnings of a childs course when he in bivio whether he shall take to virtue or vice Some for the very time that any entrance can be made upon them for children are to learn many things by meer memory before they have understanding neither is that though in holy things a taking of Gods name in vain but a serving of God according to their capacity Some understand it according to the capacity of the child as a vessel with a narrow mouth must have liquour poured into it by degrees all these senses tend to the same purpose viz. that Parents should not put off the instruction of their children or to think because they are children therefore their sins are not to be much regarded for you have Job sharply bewailing these Job 13. 23. What were those iniquities for which God did so severely chastice Job Why did God write such bitter things against him it was because of the sins of his youth the same word in the Text And Psal 25. 7. David in great affection prayeth God would not remember the sins of his youth the same word also in the original as is in my Text And certainly we have a dreadfull example of Gods anger even against the sins of little children 2 King 2. 23. for such came out of the City and mocked the Prophet saying Go up thou bald head and there presently came two she-bears
that did tare in pieces two and fourty of them They were but little children and you would think none would regard what they said but behold the heavy judgement of God upon them Therefore let Parents be more deeply affected with the lies and sinfulness of their children then commonly they are The wicked man is said Job 20. 11. to have his bones full of his puerilities or as we translate it the sinne of his youth because sinne acted in the youth doth cleave more inseperably then other sins even as he who had been possessed with a Devil from his youth was more difficultly cured therefore the Text addeth Those sins lie down in the dust with him Thy youth-sins will go to the grave with thee if grace make not a powerfull change SECT VI. Whether Original Sinne be alike in All. THe last thing to be treated on is to answer that Question Whether original sinne be alike in all Do we not see some even from the very womb more propense to iniquities then others And if it be equal in all Why should not all be carried out to the same sins alike Why is not every one a Cain a Judas To this we answer these things 1. If we take original sinne for the privative part of it viz. the want of Gods Image so all are alike Every one hath equally lost this glorious Image of God none hath any more left of it in them then another Even as it is concerning those that are damned in hell They are all equal in their punishment in respect of the poena damni they lose the presence of the same God and are all alike cast out from his presence but there is a difference in respect of the poena sensus some have greater torments then others 2. Original sinne is alike in all in the positive part if you do respect the remote power of sinne that is there is in all equally an habitual conversion to the creature Even as all have the same remote power of dying alike though for the proxim power some die sooner and some later The seed then of all evil is alike in all all are equal in respect of the remote power of sinning 3. By original depravation all are alike in respect of the necessity of sinning There is no man in this lost estate but he doth necessarily sinne quoad specificationem as they say whatsoever he doth he sinneth though not quoad exercitium this sinne or that sinne one is more ingaged unto then another Neither is this necessity of sinning like the necessity of hunger and thirst for these are meer natural and not culpable but this necessity of sinning is voluntarily brought upon us and though it be necessary yet is voluntary and with delight also As Bernard expresseth it The voluntariness taketh not off from the necessity nor the necessity from the voluntariness and delight Lastly Original sinne is equal in all in respect of the merit and desert it deserveth death it deserveth hell There is none cometh into the world thus polluted but he is obnoxious to death and an heir of Gods wrath For although some are freed from hell yea and one or two have been preserved from death yet is wholly by the grace of God The desert of original sin is equal in all But then you will say How cometh it about that some are more viciously given then others some more propense to one sinne then another I answer 1. From the different complexions and constitutions of the body with their different temptations and external occasions of sinne as they meet with Though the remote power be equal in all yet the immediate and proxim disposition is the bodies complexion and other concurring circumstances For original righteousness being removed then a man is carried out to sinne violently according as his particular torrent may drive him Even as if the pillars or supporters of an house should fall to the ground every piece of wood would fall to the ground more heavily or lightly as the weight is or as you heard Aquinas his similitude when the mixt body is dissolved every element hath his proper motion the air ascends upward the earth downwards and this is the cause of the divers sins in the world and some mens particular inclinations to one sinne more than another And then 2. The grace of God either sanctifying or restraining doth also make a great difference It is God that saith to the sea of that corruption within thee Hitherto thou shalt go and no further Think not that thou hadst a better nature or lesse original sinne than Judas or Cain but God doth either change thy nature or else he doth several wayes restrain thee that thou canst not accomplish all that actual wickedness thy heart would carry thee unto CHAP. X. A Justification of Gods shutting up all under Sinne for the Sinne of Adam in the sense of all the Reformed Churches against the Exceptions of Dr J. T. and others SECT I. GAL. 3. 24. But the Scripture hath concluded all under sinne that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe THe Apostle having made an Objection against himself vers 21. Is the Law then against the promises of God He answereth it 1. With a detestation God forbid 2. He sheweth wherein the Law is so farre from being contrary that it is subservient to the Gospel Only we must distinguish of the use of the Law which is per se and which is per accidens The use of the Law per se is to give eternal life to such who have a perfect conformity thereunto but per accidens when it meeteth with lapsed man who must needs be cursed by it because he is so farre from continuing in all the duties thereof that he is not able to fulfill perfectly one iota or tittle thereof therefore it provoketh us to seek out for a Saviour as a man arrested for debt enquireth for some friend or surety to deliver him Now this subservient use of the Law is expressed in the Text mentioned wherein you have the condition of mankind declared viz. That they are shut up under sinne 2. The Universality All. 3. The Cause appointing and declaring of this The Scripture 4. The final Cause That the promise c. Let us briefly open the particulars And First The Condition of man is said to be shut up under sinne or concluded it is a Metaphor from those malefactors that are shut up in a prison and cannot come forth So that the word implieth partly the condemnation that is upon all mankind and partly the impossibility to escape it and then whereas it is said under sinne that denoteth both the guilt of it and the dominion of it and that both original sinne and actual for both are comprehended herein else Infants would be excluded from having an interest in Christ for whosoever are brought to Christ are necessarily supposed to be in a state of sinne Hence In the
all those voluminous disputations of this state of pure nature is wholly De non ente there being not the least title in Scripture to establish any such opinion upon it It is true the Author mentioned is often affirming and dictating Magisterially concerning such an estate but never yet hath any Scripture-proof been brought for it some philosophical arguments happily may be Now being this is the foundation upon which many of the Adversaries to original sinne do build I shall in its time and order God assisting raze up this foundation and lay the Axe against the root of the Tree proving that it is both against Scripture and solid reason Lastly That there is such an inclination naturally in a man to sinne and repugnant to what is good a mans own experience may teach him were there no Bible no Orthodox Teachers a mans own heart may convince him of such a perversnesse within him though by natural light he could never discover the spring of it Doth not Paul even while regenerated complain of this Law of sinne within him Rom. 7. Nazianzen maketh sad complaining verses about this constitution of his soul Carmen quartum pag. 69. The conflict with the flesh and spirit which in a most excellent and affectionate manner he doth there bewail And certainly if the Adversaries to this Doctrine find not such a pronenesse in them it is because they are blinded they are benummed within as the Pelagians of old bragged That a man might be without passions and sinfull commotions That they did not pati they felt none of these things but herein they were either horrible hypocrites or stupidly hardened SECT IV. Of the Causes or Fountain of the vehement proneness and inclination to sinne that is in all men by nature and of the false Causes assigned by the Adversaries THus you see this Text hath sufficiently informed us of this Truth That there is in all men by nature a vehement proneness and inclination to sinne To which we have also added many other Demonstrations of this Truth not so much that it is doubtfull and needeth to be proved For the Adversaries do confess it as that thereby we might the more deeply humble our selves under the consideration of it If then there be such constant muddy streames we are to enquire what is the fountain of them And although this Text and many others of the like nature do evidently proclaim it to be that corrupt and unclean heart of a man within that he hath hereditarily and by natural propagation yet because the Adversaries to original sinne will by no meanes assent to this let us consider what are the causes they assign and herein we shall find they do not so much speak falshood as blasphemy against God But before we come to the particular causes specified by them let us in the general consider How many wayes this propensity in mankind may be imagined to proceed for some gave one head or spring to it Others another so that there is not more dispute in Philosophy about the cause of the ebbing and flowing of the sea or about the rise and spring of Nilus that famous river in Egypt then there is about the original of this impetuousness in man to sinne The effect is acknowledged by all but the dispute is about the cause thereof In the first place therefore Some do assign this inclination to sinne to the souls operations before the body was made For they conceit that the soul had a being before the body and according to the evil or good they had they were adjudged to proportionable bodies and thereby it cometh to pass that some have better tempered bodies then others according to that Rule gaudeant bâ—â—è nati They are to rejoyce that have good and kindly constitutions This was the opinion of the Platonists and Origen who was justly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the monstrous opinions he brought into the Church did proâ—â—â— absurd fancy Yea it is thought that this opinion was amongst the Jewes as seemeth to be implyed in that Question propounded by the Disciples to our Saviour concerning the man born blind Did this man sinne or his parents Joh. 9. 2. as also a passage in the Apocryphal Writer inclineth thereunto Wiâ—â— 8. 20. And being good I came into a body undifiled which Grotius understands of the pre-existency of the soul adding that Synesius though made Bishop yet did not retract this errour But this being so gross a figment it 〈◊〉 not any confutation and the rather because it is a wonder that no such pre-existent soules should behave themselves well for which they should have assigned to them undefiled and immaculate bodies for we believe not the 〈◊〉 mentioned Author in that boast he there maketh A second opinion of the Manichees who feigned two principles of good and evil and this evil principle they made the cause of man whereupon they condemned marriage as unlawfull and made man to be opus Diaboli the work of the Devil This Manicheism the Pelagians have alwayes endeavoured to fasten upon such as do affirme original sinne but it is done maliciously and ignorantly for we say this evil came not into man at first by nature but by the free and voluntary consent of Adam and since man is fallen we do not say sinne is his nature or his substance but that it is a vitious quality adhering thereunto as leprosie to the body 3. There are others who may be reduced to the Manichees and they were Heretiques called Materiaris who feigned an eternall matter that was so evil that the wisdome and power of God could not subdue it but that this malignancy did adhere to it whether God will or no. And this they make the cause of that vicious inclination in man It is say they from the evil matter man is made off which is inseperable from it but this doth grosly contradict the History of the Creation as recorded by Moses Wherein it is said God made every thing exceeding good Gen. 1. 31. Fourthly The Pelagian many Papists and the late Socinian Writers all these attribute it to mans Creation and constitution at first at least in part for they tell us of a state of pure naturals that man hath whereby the appetite doth rebell against the mind for man confisting of a soul and a body hereby say they do necessarily arise contrary inclinations The soul enclineth one way and the body another way and this conflict they are not afraid to say was in Adam himself and therefore God gave him grace as a supernatural and superadded ornament yea and as a remedy to keep the inferior appetite in its order now man being fallen he hath lost those superadditionals but continueth in his meer naturals and these being weak and imperfect are easily carried out to sinne wanting the grace of God to elevate them This is the mystery of their iniquity This is the fountain of all their poisonous impieties and therefore God assisting is
nature of the flesh and Spirit thus to oppose one another for this is say they against the nature of habits seeing it is the property of habits to make the will readily and willingly will and do those things which formerly were grievous and troublesome but the Scripture speaketh of the actual reluctancy it doth not say it may or it can but it doth lust and as for habits though we grant when these supernatural habits of grace are infused into the soul we are carried out with readiness delight and willingness in those holy duties which formerly were tedious and grievous unto us yet because neither the habits of grace are perfect within us nor the acts that flow from them therefore it is that there is a mixture of our dross with the spirits gold For although the habits of grace are immediately inspired or infused from God and so as they come from him are perfect yet because that is a true rule Quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis whatsoever is received is received according to the capacity and qualification of the subject Hence it is that these habits of grace are imperfect as received and seated in us and whereas again they reply that suppose this Text be understood of actual reluctancy yet it is not generally to be extended to all but limited to the Galathians who were but new converts but beginners and therefore had this fight within them that is also false The Apostle saith the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh in the general It is an universal Proposition neither is it any more to be limited to the Galathians then the duty enjoyned which is to walk in the Spirit so that as the duty belongeth to every godly man the reason likewise must and therefore the Apostle doth not say the flesh lusteth against the Spirit in you they put in vobis into the Text but speaketh universally of all that have the Spirit of God Besides this Text opposeth them for grant these Galathians were new converts yet the cause of the combate within them is not attributed to their former custome of impiety as they would have it but to the flesh which is original sinne within them when therefore a man is truly converted that difficulty to leave his former lusts doth not arise because the habits of sinne do still abide in him but because original sinne is still living in us and therefore according to the greater or lesser measure of grace healing and sanctifying of us so we find the greater opposition in parting with the sinnes we formerly committed ¶ 3. WE are to lay it down for a certain foundation to build upon as hath formerly been delivered That this spiritual conflict was not in the state of integrity Adam before his fall could not find such a rebellion in him for if so this would greatly have interrupted all his blessedness and withall such a duell within him and that necessarily flowing from his creation would have redounded to the great dishonour of God his Maker Now the Adversaries of original sinne whether Papists Remonstrants or Socinians who do usually traduce the orthodox Doctrine about it as if horribly injurious to God do in this particular farre transcend all such supposed reflections either upon the justice or mercy of God For they do boldly affirm That by the very natural constitution of man there is a necessary conflict between the rational and sensitive part only say the Papists original righteousness which the Socinian derideth as much as original sinne did keep down this repugnancy so that Adam had not any actual rebellion within though it was there potentially and radically Thus Soto though Stapleton fluctuateth and seemeth to be his Adversary therin expresly affirmeth Lib. de Naturâ Gratiâ c. 3. that the conflict mentioned by the Apostle Gal. 5. 17. is Homini â naturâ ingenita inbred in the very nature of a man which he would prove from a philosophical Discourse out of Aristotle who divideth man into two parts his rational and sensitive adding that the sensitive part obeyeth the rational not despotically as servants who have no right of their own do to their masters for so the members of the body only do serve the mind but politically and civilly as a Citizen doth his Prince in whose power it is to disobey But as Aristotle knew nothing of mans creation or the Image of God put upon him nor of his fall and the utter depravation of mans soul thereby so it would be absurd to runne to his darkness to fetch light about these things Hence also it is that the same Author Cap. 13. in another place compareth man fallen with man standing to some weighty piece that hangeth on high but is hindred that it cannot fall and the same piece when the impediment is removed For as such a piece of timber had the same proneness to fall to the ground while it was hindred as when the obstacle was removed only it did not actually fall Thus man abiding in his state of integrity had this principle within to carry him more affectionately to sensible things then spiritual only original righteousness did stop and hinder the actual motions thereof It is true that all Papists do not assert this repugnancy from our primitive constitution For Cajetan upon the place doth note truly Sermo est c. saith he The speech is of the flesh as infected with original sinne for thence the flesh lusteth against the Spirit not from the primary Creation Yea their admired Thomas a Kempis Pag. 77. for his practical devotion confesseth that Adam in the state of innocency had not this conflict And no wonder that Papists thus dogmatize when Arminius who useth to be very wary being he was the first that was to broach those dangerous errours the Devil delighting to use a Serpent not an Ass because he was more subtil then other beasts of the field yet asserteth that the inclination to sinne was in Adam before his fall Licet non ita vehemens inordinata ut nunc est although not so vehement and inordinate as now it is It is true the whole Paragraph is put by way of question but in the procedure thereof this is spoken affirmatively Articul perpendendi cap. de peccato originis And with the Socinians nothing is more ordinary then to affirm such a rebellion in man and that so peremptorily that from this they conclude Adam did sinne it was from his concupiscence that he did break the Law of God Yea some are not afraid to attribute this repugnancy and conflict to Christ as if when he prayed Father if it be possible let this Cup passe away that this came from the Agony between the rational and sensitive part within him It is wonder that these do not also hold that it will continue in Heaven also so that as long as man hath a soul and a body this opposition cannot be removed but surely the naming
unto was That Adam was made mortal and would have died if he had not sinned death being a necessary consequence as they say from a mans corporal constitution The Papists especially the Schoolmen of old and the Jesuites of late to whom Jansenius doth vehemently oppose in this point 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek expression is say That Adam was indeed by nature mortal but by grace and superadded favour he was immortal So that both Papists and Protestants agree in this That Adam was made immortal in his Creation Only the difference is Whether as original righteousness so immortality may be said to be natural or supernatural to Adam We say it 's natural they say it 's supernatural and yet Bellarmine De gratiâ primi Hom. lib. cap. 5. in his explication of himself in this point cometh very near us or at least speaketh contradictions to himself For he saith if natural be taken for that which was put into man from his nativity if natural be taken for that which was to be propagated to Adam's posterity if natural be taken for that which is convenient to perfect and prepare a man for his end then they say original righteousness and so by consequence immortality would have been natural to Adam's posterity but if we take natural for that which doth internally constitute nature or necessarily flow from the principles of nature then they say immortality was supernatural even as original righteousnesse But the Protestants when they call original righteousnesse natural they doe not meane effectivè as if it were not the gift of God bestowed upon us as if it did flow from the principles of nature but subjectivè that is original righteousnesse and immortality were not supernatural to Adam as they are now to us being we are corrupted but connatural or a due perfection to man supposing God created him for such an end as to enjoy himself So that it is due not so much to the nature of man as to Gods Order and Decree concerning man Thus as in birds supposing God would have them to flie it was necessary they should have wings though they come from a natural principle so in man supposing God made him for communion with and enjoyment of himself it was necessary that he should be indewed with holiness Though flowing not from nature but concreated by God with man Thus that which is the gift of God and cometh only from him may be in respect of the subject a due perfection It was thus with Adam in respect of his soul that was created immediately by God it did not flow from any natural causes yet supposing God would make him a rational creature then this became a due perfection to him Adam then was immortal by nature in a well-explained sense as he had a reasonable soul by nature But however it be Protestants and many Papists agree in the thing that he was made immortal only they differ in the manner How Now the Socinian differeth from all for he dogmatizeth That Adam was made mortal that death was natural and denieth any original righteousnesse or immortality that was bestowed upon Adam any way It is true sometimes he saith That though Adam was made mortal yet God might have preserved him from actual death by some way or other only that he was made immortal that he denieth So that what the Papists dream about their imaginary pure naturals saying God might have created man so Socinians affirm defacto it was so The late Writer Dr. T. is also positive for Adam's mortality by nature That Adam was made mortal by nature saith he is infinitely certain and proved by his eating and drinking c. Further Explicat pag. 453. instancing in those Arguments the Socinians use to bring All which Assertions do directly and evidently oppose the word of God ¶ 2. How many wayes a thing may be said to be Immortal and in which of them man is so SEcondly When we say God made Adam immortal and that upon his transgression both himself and his posterity are subjected to a necessity of death We must rightly understand in what sense he is said to be so For 1. A thing may be said to be immortal absolutely and essentially having no principles of death within nor cannot be destroyed by any cause without Thus 1 Tim. 6. 16. God is said only to have immortality This is that comfortable attribute which the people of God make use of under all changes and vicissitudes God is alwayes the same Though father die though mother die yet God doth not as one in the Ecclesiastical Story said when word was brought him that his father was dead Desine saith he blasphemias loqui pater enim meus immortalis est Cease to speak blasphemy for my father is immortal 2. That may be said to be immortal which is so by some singular dispensation of God either in respect of mercy or of justice and thus it is with the glorified bodies of the Saints and the damned bodies of wicked men for the Saints their vile bodies shall be made like Christs glorious body they are raised to incorruptibility and glory and as for the bodies of damned persons though they be raised to reproach and dishonour yet by Gods justice they are preserved immortal so that the fire cannot consume them to ashes neither shall length of time ever destroy them For if God could make the Israelites cloaths and shoes to last so many years without being consumed no wonder if he do a greater matter upon the bodies of men 3. That may be said to be immortal which by the will of the Creator is so constituted that being separated from all matter it hath no principles of dissolution from within And thus the Angels are immortal they have no principle of corruption within yet they are annihilable by the power of God should God withdraw his preservation of them they would cease to be but from within they have no cause of dissolution The Devils also in this sense are immortal and that is the reason though many wicked and bloudy persecutors of Gods Church have died yet the Devil being immortal hath stirred up new ones which made a good man say to one who did greatly rejoyce at the death of a cruel persecutor At diabolus non moritur but the Devil doth not die Lastly A thing may be said to be immortal Conditionally supposing such and such conditions he performed and in this sense only we say God made Adam immortal for 〈◊〉 had a power to sinne and so a power to die he had a power to stand and to a power to be freed from death So that we do not say Adam had such an immortality as the glorified bodies have that cannot die but conditionally onely As he had in him power to sinne so he had a power to deprive himself of all happinesse and immortality which fell out also to our utter undoing Autin's expression of Posse non mori and Non
us into a spiritual death if thereby we be deprived of all spiritual life How can it be avoided but that eternal damnation must foâ—â—ow thereupon by the desert thereof And as for the inseparable effects of it which are to carry us on necessarily to sinne in all that we do to make us utterly impotent and unable for any thing that is good What can this produce but everlasting misery to our souls Sixthly Original sinne is of a damnable nature because of that spiritual bondage and vassalag we are thereby put into even to the Devil himself For not being the children of God we are necessarily the children of the Devil And therefore to be children of Gods wrath in the Text is no more then to be the children of hell and of the Devil for which reason he is called The Prince of the World Seeing then the Devil hath power over all mankind they are in his bondage and Christ came as a Redeemer to deliver us from him This doth argue in what a wofull and dreadfull estate we are left in by this original filthinesse To have the Devil possesse our bodies how terrible is it But he possesseth the souls of every one by nature till Christ doth destroy him and cast him out Hence the Apostle celebrateth that powerfull grace of God whereby we are delivered from the power of darkness into the kingdom of his dear Sonne Col. 1. 13. from which children are not to be excluded Seventhly That original sinne hath merit of demnation is plain Because by it we are in an unregenerate estate John 3. Whatsoever is born of the flesh is flesh and therefore unlesse a man be born again of the Spirit and from above he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven yea none that are in the flesh can please God Rom. 8 8. If then no unregenerate man can be saved and by original sinne we come to be in that state of carnality it is plain that by nature we are prepared fuel for eternal flames in hell Eighthly That original sinne deserveth damnation appeareth in the consequents of it For when Adam fell into this spiritual death which is the same with original sinne in us though it could not be called so in him because he had not it from his first being neither was it derived to him from any other we may take notice of two sad and terrible effects thereof besides many others The first whereof was the terrour and fear upon his conscience when God called him by name saying Adam where art thou He then flieth from God and would have hid himself from his face How cometh Adam thus to be afraid thus to tremble who had such peaceable enjoyment of God before Was it not because he had now lost the Image of God And this impression is still upon all men by nature There is an inward terrour and fear of God knowing he is an holy just and omnipotent God who cannot but hate and punish sin and therefore we being conscious of that sinfulness and pollution which is in us are afraid of him dare not think of him or draw nigh to him horror is ready to surprize us when we think of God while in our natural estate The other consequent upon Adam's pollution was the casting him out of Paradise and in him all his posterity was likewise ejected Now this was a type as it were of our being cast out of Heaven This is like that solemn curse at the last day Depart from me ye cursed So that if all these Arguments be duly considered we cannot any longer resist the light of this truth That to us belongeth hell and damnation as soon as ever we are born even before we have committed any actual sinne at all SECT VII Some Conclusions deduceable from the Doctrine of the damnableness of Original Sinne. THe Doctrine of our native impurity and the damnable consequent thereof being thus established upon the Scripture rock which will dash in peices all errours that beat upon it I shall proceed to some Conclusions deduceable thence from As First That position of some though of different principles is wholly contrariant to the word of God that none are damned for original sinne For seeing this sinne hath the same damnable guilt with it as actual sinne hath there is no more reason for the non-damnation of persons in one more then in another neither can we conceive God obliged to forgive one more then another why then should it thus universally be acknowledged that for actual sinnes God may and doth damn men but not for original sinne It is true when we speak of persons growen up we cannot seperate their actual sinnes and original because original sinne is alwayes acting and conceiving putting it self forth into many divers lusts and thereupon we cannot say of any adult person that he is damned meerly for original sinne because to this original hath been superadded many actual transgressions and thereupon all impenitent persons dying so are condemned for both yea their condemnation is inhanced thereby for the desert of damnation by original and actual sinne both is greater then by original or actual severally Seeing then many die in the guilt of their natural and actual uncleanness it is an unsavoury Doctrine to affirm that no man is damned for original sinne It is true some men do dogmatize that original sinne in respect of the guilt of it is universally taken off all and that all mankind is put into a state of reconciliation by the second Adam as they were into a state of wrath by the first but this over-throweth the Doctrine of special election and doth confound nature and grace together yea it maketh Christ to have died in vain of which more fully in its time For the present seeing that so many die unconverted in their state of unregeneracy it must necessarily follow that many are damned both for their original and actual sinne also For shall the root be less damning then the branches or fruit actual sinnes demonstrate the effect and power or original sinne and the aggravation of the effect doth necessarily aggravate the cause As they said to Gideon desiring he should slay them Judg. 8. 21. As is the man so is his strength Thus it is here as a mans corrupt nature is so are his actions the one is actus primus and the other is actus secundus Thus as life though an actus primus yet is alwayes expressed in second acts and the effects thereof so it is with original sinne it is by way of a fountain in us yet alwayes emptying it self into streames It is then a subtle devise of Bellarmine who being unwilling to make damnation as it comprehends the punishment of sense to be the consequent of original sinne to say that one dying in his original sinne is not damned by reason of his original sinne but ratione subjecti it bringeth damnation because such a subject is destitute of spiritual life and grace But this is to
the Sacrament what endlesse controversies hath it begotten And therefore it was the King of Navarr's counsel to the Divines when the Lutherans and Calvinists were upon pacification about the Sacrament that they should not De modo ultra modum disputare Now although this be good counsel yet when heretical and erroneous opinions have invaded the Modus then it is our duty to maintain not onely the truth of a thing but the manner of it also What is a greater mystery then the Sonne of God having his being from the Father He that will touch this mystery with meer natural reason doth as if the Smith should handle his live-coals with his hands and not the Tongs saith Chrysostome yet because of the Socinians who say He is onely a made God in time and hath his Deity by donation We are forced not to be content onely to believe that he is the Sonne of God but also how viz. By eternal Generation So in the great Controversie with the Arminians about the conversion of man It is not enough to say we are converted by grace but are necessitated also to expresse the manner How not by a moral suasion or per modum sapientiae onely but by invincible efficacy and power also Thus the manner of Christs presence in the Sacrament was necessarily to be determined against the Lutherans Thus it is in our point in hand we might well enough sit down with this Truth That original sinne is communicated to every sonne of Adam and enquire no further as the primitive Church did till Austin's time in a great measure But when Heretiques will deny the true Doctrine because the manner is difficult to expresse or when men will deny the Creation of the soul then it 's our duty in a sober manner to search into the way how we partake of it Neither doth the fore mentioned Text contradict this For though we know not how the bones grow in the womb exactly and punctually yet we know in the general that they do by virtue of generation So although we know not particularly how the soul cometh to have its being in the body yet in the general that it is by Creation we have had Scripture light fully to convince us therein This then premised Let us proceed to clear the Doctrine of the Propagation of original sinne and that by several Propositions which will be as so many steps and degrees to the main Truth SECT VII Propositions to clear the Doctrine of the Propagation of Original Sinne by the Souls Creation FIrst We lay this for a foundation That God doth create the soul of every man a spiritual substance This Proposition must be the foundation-stone to build upon That God doth create the soul immediately you have heard several Texts attesting thereunto So that Bellarmine was too dissident when moved it seemed by Austin doth wave all Texts of Scripture for the creation of the soul and so proceedeth to other Arguments Perierius on 2 Chap. of Genes vers 7. giveth a better censure of Austin for having produced some Texts for the Creation of the soul he saith Conatur Augustinus sed frustra hos locos elidere I shall adde one more fit for that purpose also The Text is 1 Pet. 4. 19. Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls unto God as to a faithfull Creator Here the afflicted children of God are required as Christ did to commend their souls to God and the reason is Because he is a faithfull Creator of them So that Gods Creation of them is here made an engagement to God to keep them they being now sanctified and made holy Our souls then are created In the next place I say they are created Substances This is to obviate those that make the soul onely an accident or the crasis and temperament of the humours Galen as Cerda on Tertull de animâ alledgeth him in his second Book of prediction by the pulses hath this passage Hitherto I have doubted what should be the substance of the soul but by age and experience being made wiser I dare be bold to affirm it is no other thing then the temperament He was not made wiser but more absurd and foolish in this thing Yea there is one Dicaearchus much spoken of that said The soul was nothing it was but an opinion And the Mortalists they directly joyn with Galen's opinion Who would think that when we have the Scripture speaking so plainly about the soul that it is a spirit that it removeth when the body is killed that any should be delivered up to such licentious and abominable Doctrines Again I adde God createth it a spiritual substance This opposeth the Sadduces who denied any spirits It is plaine by Scripture that they are substances and spiritual ones because they subsist without the body Tertullian though he doth so acutely perstringe the Philosophers about the soul yet some of them were more sound then he Men saith he have thought about the soul either as Platonis honor Zenonis vigor Aristotelis tenor Epicuri stupor Heracliti maestor Empedoclis furor persuaserint It is true some of these thought the souls to be bodies and so doth Tertullian and happily he might have been excused by taking body largely for that which is not nihil in which sense he attributeth a body to God but that he saith the soul is not only a body but effigiated and shaped also yea that the souls differ in sex which is very irrational We may then conclude this with a saying of Numertus That if any souls are corporeal it is of those who say souls are corporeal A second Proposition is That though God doth create immediately the souls of all men spiritual substances yet they are not compleat and perfect substances as Angles are but the essential parts of men Upon this Proposition depends much weight of this Truth about the communicating of original sinne for we are apt to think God createth our souls like Angels perfect and having subsistency of themselves whereas they are created as parts of a man neither do they come from God any otherwise If God should create a soul to subsist of it self and not to be united to the body to constitute a man that soul would not be polluted But because every soul is created as an essential part of man and so hath its being Hence it is That it cometh into the world part of Adam and so obnoxious to that curse which he had deserved whatsoever then in its first being is part of man that is partaker of Adam's sinne and curse But the soul in its first instant of being is part of man therefore no wonder if it became polluted and cursed The example of that miraculous Resurrection of Lazarus and others may something clear this they were fully dead their souls and bodies union dissolved yet because their souls were not made perfect and pure without sinne and translated into Heaven but
by the power of God detained here on earth that the glory of Christ might be exalted he doth unite this soul though with pollution to the body Now Gods uniting of the sinfull soul to the body did not make him the cause of any sinne therein Because he united it as part of that man who yet was not wholly purged from sinne Now the reason why the soul is created not as a perfect substance in it self is Because it 's the forme of man not an assisting forme and therefore is not in the body as when an Angel did assume bodies or as a man in his house or as a Musician useth an Instrument but a form informing whereby it is made an intrinsecal essential part of a man The truth of this will give much light to our point in hand the soul is created by God The informing forme of a man and so hath no other consideration but as an essential part of him and therefore seeing the man is in Adam whose soul this is that is thereby exposed to all the sinne of Adam Hence it is that there is some difference between the creation of Angles and the Chaos at first which were made absolutely of nothing and of the soul For the soul though it be created of nothing yet because a form hath an essential respect to its matter for which cause Contarenus as Zanchy saith affirmed The soul had a middle way of being between Creation and Generation and therefore is that distinction of some learned men that though the soul be not ex materiâ yet it is in materiâ God did not create it but in the body though not of the body and thus farre it may be said to be of man as that he is the cause though not of the being of the soul yet of the being of it n this body The third Proposition The soul being thus created an essential part of a man and the form informing of him Hence it is That we must not conceive the soul to be first created as it were of it self subsisting and then infused into the body but when the materials are sufficiently prepared then as the Schoolmen expresse it well Infundendo creatur and creando infuditur it 's infused by the creating of it and created by infusing So that the soul is made in the body organized not without it so the Scripture Zech. 12. 1. Who formeth the spirit of man with him and because of the souls unon to the body when thus disposed Hence it is that man may truly and univocally be said to beget a man though his soul be created for seeing man who is the compositum is the Terminus generationis Hence it is that man begets man as well as a beast though the soul of a beast be from the matter as we see in Christ the Virgin Mary is truly said to be the mother of Christ though she was not the mother of his Divine Nature nor of his soul Thus man doth properly beget another man though the soul be by Creation as the matter also according to Philosophy is ingenerable because the soul is united to the body prepared and disposed for it by man from which union resulteth the whole person or compositum consisting of soul and body So that although man be not the cause of his childs souls being yet that it hath a being in this body and thereby such a person produced he is the cause of it and by this if well understood you may see original sinne communicated to every one though the soul be created In that way which the humane nature is communicated to every one So that if we truly know how a man is made a man from his parents we may also know how sin is thereby also communicated The fourth Proposition is Although God doth daily create new souls yet his Decree and Purpose to do so was from all eternity And therefore in this respect we may say all men consisting of souls and bodies were present to God in Adam in respect of Gods Decree and also his Covenant with Adam so that although there be a new Creation yet there is no new institution or ordination on Gods part Whereas therefore it 's thought hard that because Adam was so many thousand years ago the soul created now should partake of his sinne The Answer is That in respect of Gods Decree and Covenant we were all present to God in Adam There is no man hath his being De Novo but unto God he was present from eternity so that though the things in time have a succession of being yet to God all are present in eternity Not that we can say they were actually sinners or actually justified but in respect of Gods purpose all were present and this will help much to facilitate this difficulty we are as present to God in respect of his Decree and knowledge as if we had been then actually in Adam in which sense it 's said Omnes fuerunt ille unus homo and Act. 15. 18. Known to God are all his works from the beginning The fifth Proposition Hence it is that the just and wise God is not to alter and change that course of nature because man hath sinned It is vain to say Why will God unite this soul to the body when thereby both shall be polluted For though man hath by his sinne deserved that this should be yet God is not therefore to cease of the continuing and multiplying of mankind God doth keep to the fixed course of nature notwithstanding mans sinne And therefore we see that even to those who are begot in fornication and whoredome yet even to such in that unlawfull act God giveth souls because he will not interrupt the course of nature The sixth Proposition Adam by his first transgression did deserve that all who should be of him should be deprived of the Image of God and the privation of that doth necessarily inferre the presence of all sinne in a subject susceptible As take away light from the air and it must be dark so that this Proposition answereth the whole difficulty Adam deserved by his transgression that all his posterity should become dead in sinne and as he had thus deserved it so God had ordained it and appointed it The soul then of every one being made part of that man who is thus cursed in Adam it becomes deprived of the Image of God and so full of sinne So that although God create the soul naturally good yet because part of man condemned by his sentence he denieth it that original righteousnesse it once had God doth not infuse any evil into the soul nor is the Author of any sinne therein but as a just Judge denieth that righteousnesse which otherwise the soul might have had So that you must not look for an efficient cause of original sinne in the soul but a deficient and a meritorious cause So that the Summe is this If you ask How cometh the soul defiled if created of
for he had our true flesh upon him but in the likeness of sinfull flesh he had not the sinne of our nature though he had the nature it self As the brazen Serpent was like a Serpent but it had not the poison and venom of a Serpent And certainly speaking this as the peculiar commendation of the Sonne of God sent into the world it plainly evidenceth that all other are indeed sinfull flesh and not onely in the likeness of it Now he is said to be in the likeness of sinfull flesh because he was subject to misery and death which is the reward due to sinners We have likewise a comfortable place Heb. 4. 15. for Christs holiness is the foundation of all our consolation This is that which we must rest upon under the accusation of the Law under the strict demands of justice when God shall require that righteousnesse we once had or call for that purity which the Law doth command our support is this though we have not a perfect holinesse yet Christ our High-Priest and Surety hath and to this end is that place when the Apostle had shewed we had an High Priest who was touched compassionately with a sense and feeling of all our infirmities and that he was tempted in all things like unto us he addeth but without sinne That temptation is not meant of enticing to sinne but it is as much as exercise and affliction he was subject unto the common miseries of mans nature yea the Apostle meaneth more not only the substance of mans nature but the affections and qualities thereof he had grief and fear upon him onely all these were without sinne And this is to be our comfort that in all the miseries all the oppositions he conflicted with yea in all those soul-affections and agonies even when he cried out My God my God why hast thou for saken me yet still there was no sinne now all this was for us we needed a Saviour that could in an holy manner work out our redemption for us So that it is not our inherent holiness but Christs holiness that we must trust to when we have to do with God We have the Apostle also again considering this property of our High-Priest because it is so usefull Heb. 7. 26. It behoved us to have such an High-Priest who is holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners How many glorious properties are here The Socinians Schlitingius in locum would apply this to Christs condition in Heaven his immortality and glory there expounding this holiness and harmlesness not in respect of grace inherent but freedom from infirmities and miseries because it is added Made higher then the Heavens But these properties do belong to him while on earth with relation to what he shall have hereafter for that sheweth Christ is above Angels and that no Angel could be our Mediator Now those several properties in Christ signifie the same thing only the last is very emphatical Separate from sinners not that he was not among sinners while he was in the world but this sheweth that he was segregated or divided from all men in respect of the sinne of their natures though he communicated with them in their natures and therefore though happily some High-priests as Aaron might be holy and unblameable yet none of them was separate from sinners These places may abundantly confirm this fundamental Article That Christ only was pure from original sinne and that all those who deny original sinne make Christ to have no priviledge in this respect but that we are all alike pure in respect of nature Well then How shall we understand those places Heb. 7. 27. where it is said Christ needed not to sacrifice first for his own sins and then for the peoples for this he did once when he offered up himself The Socinian Expositor Sciâ—laingius maketh this to relate to both the particulars going before He offered up himself once for his own sinnes and for the people and at the first sight it would seem so But you must know that the later clause viz. This he did once doth relate to the last passage only He once offered himself for the sinnes of the people for if it should be connected with the other passage it would be contradictory to the Apostles scope which is to shew that he was separate from sinners and therefore had no cause to offer for any of his own The other Text is Heb. 9. 28. where it is said Christ shall appear the second time without sinne which might seem to imply that he had sinne in the first coming but the Text doth not speak of any sinne of his own inherent in him but of ours which was laid upon him as the Apostle saith He who knew no sinne became sinne 2 Cor. 5. 21. And indeed to say with the Socinian That Christ offered for his own sinnes that is his bodily infirmities is a most absurd expression for all Sacrifices were for sinne properly so or legally and in a typical sense not for what was a meer affliction or bodily misery So that from these things we may undoubtedly conclude That Christ and Christ only of all mankind is not polluted with this original contagion Let the Use then be to humble every one under this truth thou hearest none is free Therefore let every one say I am the man that am by nature the child of wrath I am the man that was conceived and born in iniquity This particular appropriation should astonish and amaze thee In thy brest hath the spawn of all evil there is a fountain of all impiety What miserable objects are those persons who have cancers and wolves breeding in their brests that live to see themselves dead as it were that do behold themselves as so many carkases yet thy condition is farre more miserable who hast this original sinne consuming soul and body also Think not that any greatness of birth or nobility doth deliver thee from this universal pollution as sure as thou art a man so surely a polluted and sinfull one SECT II. CHrist we heard had this peculiar prerogative alone to be the holy one the contrary in the Text is true of every one born in a natural way To every mother we may say that unholy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the child of the Devil for it is by nature the child of wrath only it may seem difficult to give the reason why he is exempted for seeing he is a man ejusdem speciei of the same nature with us and though he had his humane nature in an extraordinary manner by the over-shadowing of the Holy Ghost yet that doth not hinder but he is a man as well as we are Even as Adam was made a man after a different manner from his posterity they by generation but he by wonderfull production out of the earth in respect of his body yet we are men of the same kind with him seeing then Christ was a man though he had
a different original from us will not that necessarily involve him in Adam's sinne And if it be said that the power of the Holy Ghost sanctified that corpulent mass of which Christs body did consist that may happily free him from original inherent sinne but how can it from original imputed sinne Must not Christ be said to sinne in Adam though he had no inherent defilement because he was a man yea the Scripture doth not only make him a man but calleth him the seed of David and of Abraham that he came out of their loynes and which is more Luke reckoning the genealogy of Christ by his humane nature doth carry it up to Adam making him the son of Adam and if the son of Adam how could he not but sinne in Adam by imputation though he had none by inhesion This consideration hath so much strength that Bellarmine though he is laborious to prove that the Virgin Mary was exempted from original inherent sinne that she had an immaculate conception yet be confesseth she had original imputed sinne that she sinned in Adam because she was in Adam To answer then this Objection about Christ The Arminians as you heard glory in their invention of Arminius as if he only had found out the true answer to this and not the Reformed Divines The reason saith he of Christs immunity from all sinne by Adam was because Christ had his being not by vertue of that original blessing Increase and multiply but by a special promise made after Adam's fall so that Christs being is not supposed till Adam had fallen and then upon a special promise viz. The seed of the woman to bruise the head of the Serpent Gen. 3. 15. Christ is to become man Thus Christ could not be any way included in him This hath some truth in it though the answer be not every way cogent for Isaac was born as we argued formerly by a special promise there being no possibility for his existence in a natural way yet he was born in original sinne and although to me it seemeth most consonant to Scripture that Christ would not have been made man unless Adam had fallen because the end of his coming into the flesh is said to be a Saviour and a Redeemer yet there are men of great learning that hold Christ would have been made man howsoever though Adam had stood and to such this reason would be of no great validity But it must be confessed that Christ could not be included in Adam for the Scripture maketh him a publique person and head to believers as Adam was to all men hence he is called the second Adam so that Christ was a publique person and head as well as Adam and one publique person especially in an opposite way could not be represented by another Though this be so yet we shall adhere to the Answer that is commonly given by Reformed Divines That Christ therefore was free from sinne because conceived in that miraculous manner and though he had his being in respect of his corpulent substance from the Virgin Mary yet this was materially only not by way of efficiency and any active disposition so that Christ could not be said by imputation to be in Adam seeing there was no efficient disposition in Adam's posterity to cause his humane being That is justly rejected as a fond conceit of Galatinus and others who that they might maintain the flesh of Christ to be free from sinne as well in himself as parents affirm That God did in Adam design and seperate as it were some part of his substance that it might be preserved from the law of sinne and that this was successively transmitted even to the Virgin Mary that so of it Christs more pure body might be formed of which absurdity see Ferrins Sckolastic orthodox spec cap. 21. Let us now consider this Doctrine as it is exclusive of all other of mankind only Christ we say is free all the rest born of mankind in a natural way are all over defiled with this native pollution To clear this I shall proceed by several Propositions First That the only way by which original sinne as inherent is communicated to Adaems posterity is by natural generation Not indeed by generation simply for that is by Gods institution and a good thing in its kind but by the generation of a man that is fallen and corrupt some few have thought that if Adam had not fallen Adams posterity would have been multiplyed not by generation but by some other way which is a most irrational conceit If then Adams children abiding in integrity had been by generation then thereby would have been conveyed original righteousness and an holy nature as there is now a sinful and impure nature original sinne cometh then to us by generation from sinful parents so that if God should miraculously create some men de novo make children to Abraham out of stones these would have no original sinne neither if they should beget children would original sinne be transfused to them because these would not be in Adam as a corrupt root as for such a Question What if God should make a man or woman out of the rib or shoulder or any other part of man now fallen as Eve was at first made of a rib whether such a person would have original sinne It is a question of needless curiosity and so no Answer is to be formed to it This is enough That the ordinary way and meanes whereby we become polluted in sinne is because we are begotten and born of sinful parents as David acknowledgeth Psal 51. Austin indeed limiteth it to the libidinous disposition of mankind in begetting of children he seemeth to lay the whole cause upon that but he is carried out too immoderately in that point against the Pelagians for though parents should have no sinful actual lust yet because they are sinful originally this is enough to infect their posterity and if this were so it would follow That godly parents the more sanctified and mortified they were they would have children less infected with original sinne then the children of those who are grossely wicked and unclean It is then because we are born of parents polluted by Adam that we also are polluted as for that famous Question how original sinne should be communicated to the soul of a man by generation seeing that is created we have already spoken to that The summe whereof is That though we are to conceive of the soul as pure while coming from God yet considering it in termino as the part of man who descended from Adam so it is polluted not by any physical cause for that sinne cannot have but a moral one which is the first trangression of Adam for although that hath had no being these thousand yeares yet it is not requisite that a moral cause should exist to produce its effect Because then the soul in the same instance it is created it is also united as a forme to the