2. 4. Luke 2. 25. The Scripture useth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for quatentus as Rom. 11. 13. And indeed this is most consonant to the Apostles scope for why should Adam's sinne be brought in rather than other parents Were it not that we were considered in him under a common respect as one with him It is true Erasmus saith he doth not remember that ever he read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a Dative case but Heb. 9. 17. may confute him And among prophane Authors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither can 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 26. 50. be said by most men to signifie in as much For as De Dieu observeth the postpositive is for the demonstrative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Art thou come for this as the other Evangelists Dost thou betray the sonne of man with a kisse Although if we should render it causaâ—ly as the adversaries contend it would no wayes prejudice the truth we plead for seeing that the sinne here charged upon all mankind is because of Adam And therefore if we will make any rational coherence in the Apostles discourse it must be after this manner As by one man sinne entered into the world and death by sinne and so death passed upon all men as much as all have sinned that is all sinned in that one man for what sense it is to say That by one man sinne and death entred upon all because all sinned in themselves This would be a contradiction to lay the death of mankind upon Adam's sinne and upon all mens actual sinnes likewise Yea it is wholly repugnant to the Apostles scope who is comparing Adam and Christ not simply as two originals and beginnings but as two causes of death and life Indeed I would not much contend with any that would render the word causally and so make the verse an whole entire proposition in it self without any defective expression at all so that we understand all mens sinning to be interpreted of that which they are guilty of in Adam It is not worth time to take notice of the wild Divinity imposed upon this Discourse of Pauls by the late Writer Vnum Necessar pag. 365 who would have Death come upon mankind occasionally onely by Adam's sinne and that but till Moses his time and after Moses to come upon a new account by the Law promulged through his ministry The mentioning of this is confutation enough for here in this Text the Apostle doth make all mankind to die because of Adam And why may not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here be the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text. Another Text witnessing this truth is Rom. 6. 23. The wages of sinne is death Here death is not taken only for eternal death as the Socinians say because the opposite unto it is made eternal life but for both kinds of death eternal and temporal temporal death being the in-let of eternal and so contrary to eternal life Neither is that cavil of their worth any thing who would make the wages of sinne to be the Subject and not the Predicate because the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put to it but that is no sure Rule Sometimes the Article is put to the Predicate for some emphasis sake and not the Subject as I Cor. 9. 1. Are not ye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my work in the Lord Are ye not that eminent and conspicuous singular work of mine in the Lord We see then what it is that sinne deserveth even temporal and eternal death it cometh not from mans primitive constitution but Adam's transgression Therefore it is that we deserve many thousand deaths if it were possible for original sinne deserveth death every actual sinne deserveth death yea and hell also Oh how miserable is man who thus deserveth to die and to be damned over and over again Therefore the Apostle useth the plural number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie the manifold evils that are in this death The word properly signifieth that meat which was allowed souldiers for their service in warre We see then how fearfull we all are to be of sinne What wages wilt thou have for every pleasant every profitable sinne even death temporal and eternal The last Text I shall mention is that which Austin so much urgeth in this point Rom. 8. 10. The body is dead because of sinne which is chiefly to be understood of our mortal body now he saith it's dead because of the sentence of death passed it so that there is no way to escape it It is sinne then that maketh the body in a state of death that deserveth the whole harmony and good temperament of the body should be dissolved and therby follow a dissolution of the whole man For though sinne deserve death yet there must be thereby some ataxy or disorder made in the body of a man otherwise death would not follow So that though sinne be the meritorious cause yet several diseases the effect of sinne do actually cause death Not that sinne maketh a substantial change in a man but an accidental only Thus you see the Scripture constantly attributing death yea and our mortality and corruptibility to sinne onely and not to our natural constitution Therefore those are strange positions we meet with Vnum Necessar cap. 6. Sect. 1. pag. 371 372. That death came in not by any new sentence or change of nature for man was created mortal and that if Adam had not sinned he should have been immortal by grace that is by the use of the tree of life That to die is a punishment to some to others not It was a punishment to all that sinned before Moses and since upon the first it fell as a consequent of Gods anger upon Adam upon the later it fell as a consequent of that anger which was threatned in Moses Law but to those who sinned not at all as Infants and Ideots it was meerly a condition of their nature and no more a punishment then to be a child is But seeing he professeth himself to be of the same judgement with his incomparable Grotius let him consider how these positions agree with him who doth against Socinus industriously and solidly prove Defens fid de satisfac cap. 1. pag. 19 20 21. that death hath alwayes some respect of a punishment instancing in the Texts I have mentioned using such words Quidclarius Quis vel verba legens non videat hanc sententiam and Corinthians the words of my Text and an ad anussim respondereisti ad Romanos Yea he concludeth That it were easie to prove that it was the perpetual judgment of the ancient Jews and Christians that death of whatsoever kind it be viz. whether with violence or without violence was the punishment of sinne adding that the Christian Emperors did deservedly condemn beside other things this opinion of Pelagians that they held mortem non ex insidiis fluxisse peccati sed exegisse eam legem
of men had committed some crimes for which they were adjudged to bodies as unto prisons and dungeons How comes it about that the rational part of a man which was made to be the guide and called by Philosophers the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it should follow after the inferiour lusts of the soul That this candle should be put not under a bushel but a dunghill That the elder should serve the younger That the tail should lead the head we are not carried out to what reason by the word of God commands but by what every sinfull affection doth suggest Those that say this rebellion between the mind and affections was from the Creation that God made man with this contrariety in himself must needs make God the author of sin but God saw every thing that he had made and it was exceeding good If then thou doubtest whether this universal pollution be upon thee look into thy self observe the rebellion the repugnancy there unto all light whether natural or supernatural and this will make thee readily confess it SECT VI. 6. THe incurvation of the soul unto all earthly and worldly objects this also makes it plain we came with original sin into the world The very making of the body different from other creatures who look downwards doth denote that therfore God created us that both soul and body should look upwards But is not every mans soul till rectified by grace bowed down to these earthly vanities no more able to soar up to Heaven than the worm can flie Now this is a plain sign of thy sinful apostate condition It is one of Hippocrates his rules That when a sick man catcheth inordinatly at the feathers of his pillow or at straws and any such light matter it is a sign of death and truly to see men by nature so immoderatly snatching and catching at these worldly things argue thou art a dying a perishing man unless Gods grace doth interpose As the Sun though with its beams it shine upon the earth yet it is not thereby defiled So man ought though he meddle in all outward affairs though he marry though he buy and sell and use this world yet he ought not in the least manner to soil and pollute his soul thereby But as the body deprived of the soul fals prostrate on the ground thus doth man deprived of Gods Image so that he is never able to get above the creatures but is vassaliz'd to them SECT VII THe work remaining is to give further reasons the Scripture being first laid as a foundation to demonstrate this truth That we are by nature originally defiled For though man be unwilling to be found thus a sinner and the entertaining of this truth seemeth to strike down all the hopes and comforts that a naturall man hath Believe this and all men as in respect of defect are so many damned men so that flesh and blood must needs deny cavill distinguish and turn it self into a thousand shapes ere it will acknowledge it yet look we into our selves diligently and compare our selves with the glass of Gods Word we cannot but say That all we have heard by the Ministers all that Sermons and Books tell us come not up to what we feel in our selves So that as the Apostle when he said This corruption shall put on incorruption he did cutem tangere did lay his hand upon his body as Tertullian thought so do thou strike upon thy thigh and smite upon thy breast and say within this body lieth a soul covered all over with sinne and damnable guilt To assure us more herein these further discoveries may be added First That spirituall death in sinne which we are all plunged into whereby we do become altogether senseless and stupid as to any spirituall concernement The death threatned upon Adam's trangression was spirituall as well as corporall and therefore Ephes 2. We are said to be dead in sinnes till Christ quicken us by his power Now this is a full discovery that we have lost Gods Image and all spiritual life otherwise why should not spirituall life be as quick active and moving towards spirituall objects as our naturall and corporall life is to corporall things Why is it that when any do threaten corporall death and outward misery we are afraid and will give all we have for this corporall life But when the Devil tempts and the world tempts so that we are in danger of loosing eternal life we have no trembling or horror taking hold upon us Nebuchadnezzar made a law that whosoever would not worship his Image should be cast into a fiery furnace and unless the three Worthies none refused so great a matter is the fear of a naturall death But hath not God threatned hell which is ten thousand times more dreadfull then that fiery fornace to every one that goeth on wickedly yet none trembleth because of this Is not this plain then that thou art a dead man in sinne Further concerning our corporall life how sollicitous are we about the preserving of it what carking and caring for meat and raiment what labour for the back and the belly Is not the greatest imployment in the world for these two things and all this is that our frail perishing life may yet be continued But do men naturally manifest any such thoughts and diligence about the meanes of a spirituall life The preaching of the Word the Ordinances these God hath appointed to be spirituall food by these our heavenly life is maintained these are the oyl to keep that lamp burning But do not all men by nature loath these are they not a burden to them do they ever pant and thirst or hunger after these things as men do for meat or drink now why is all this but because we have no spirituall life in us So that if you do consider the insensibleness and stupidity of every naturall man as to things of an heavenly aspect you need no more to perswade you that Gods Image is lost and we are dead in sinne When the body needeth food needeth raiment all is supplyed but so thy soul needeth Christ needeth grace and there is not the least thought to have a supply yea we are not only dead in sinne but have been a long while thus dead and if she said of Lazarus Joh. 11. 39. Lord by this time he stinketh for he hath been dead four dayes How much more may we say this in a spirituall sense of thee who it may be hast been dead fourty or fifty years Secondly This may be further inlarged by a consectary from the former will not this abundantly declare we are all over sinfull Because heavenly things are not such objects of delight and pleasure to us as carnall and worldly things are This is a palpable demonstration of our wretched pollution That we cannot feel any sweetness any pleasure or joy in those things which immediately concern God Adam in his state of integrity was like Jacob's ladder the foot whereof
in he had nothing within him that might concupiscentially draw away his heart from God It was not with Adam as with us who though we have grace by Christ to help us yet there is within us a repugnant principle thereunto There is a root of rebellion within us to this grace of God but all things in Adam were quiet and harmonious when the Devil did cast in his fiery darts there was not so much as the least prepared materials to receive them as it is with us when the Devil doth tempt without we have something within that is treacherous that is ready like a little thief to let in the great one but in Adam every thing was right all lay in the meer determination of his will if he would stand he might there was nothing within or without that was an impediment to him whereas the great misery that is brought upon man by this original corruption is that though grace doth many times excise and stirre up the will yet we cannot do what we would as Paul doth most sadly complain Rom. 7. Adam while in the state of integrity did resemble God though with infinite disproportion in whom potestas and voluntas are all one Thus in Adam his posse was his velle let him will what was good and he did it there was no innate corruption to make the execution of it difficult but alas man in his lapsed estate doth need that grace which doth not only give the posse but the velle also Hence he is said to work in us both to will and to do Phil. 2. 13. and that of his good pleasure not of our good will and pleasure as some would pervert that Text. SECT III. Objections Answered WE are vindicating the righteousness of God in his proceedings with mankind about original sinne being presumptuously accused by those who harden themselves against this truth I proceed therefore to lay down one Proposition only more thereby answering their particular Objections which will help us to much light in this point that it may seem no new or strange thing that Radix damnata should proferre ramos damnatos a condemned root should bring forth condemned branches or a poisoned fountain invenomed streams The Proposition is this God who made man thus perfect and exactly qualified every way to attain that glorious and for which he was made did not appoint him as a meer single person to stand and fall for himself but as a publique person in whom we were all represented and whose will should be as the will of all mankind and therefore Rom. 5. we are not only said to be made sinners by him which denoteth our inherent corruption but also to sinne in him which supposeth that our persons were represented in him not in this sense as if we had appointed Adam our delegate as it were and so had passed over our wils to him for how could that be when we had no existency or being at all Therefore this was wholly by the appointment of God that it should be so who is the supream Lord over all mankind Even as Christ was Surety for all those who were given him of the Father not as if believers did delegate him as some have absurdly and odiously stated the Question but he was designed to that office by the appointment of God Adam then was made the common Trustee and Treasurer for all mankind though he did prove as it were the Phaeton involving all his posterity in utter destruction so that Adam was the head of mankind two wayes 1. He was the caput naturale the natural head from which his off spring was to descend and so original sinne is communicated unto us because of our natural propagation from him This maketh Austin call it therefore so great a sinne that we are never able to judge enough of the hainousness of it because hereby the whole mass and lump of mankind is soured with it but this is not all Therefore In the second place He was made caput morale God did appoint him to be our moral head covenanting with him that if he perservered the good promised should redound to him and to all his posterity but if he did apostatize then he and all his off-spring shall be plunged into the evil threatned and this Covenant was made known to Adam that so he might be the more carefull to look to his duty Neither was it requisite that God should expect Adam's consent or ours to this agreement seeing God is the absolute Sovereign and Lord of all and herein did consult for our good better then if he had taken any other way as is more to be insisted on But against this Covenant many rise up with open mouth Soto the Papist he derides it the late Writer so often mentioned saith he knoweth of no such thing and which is the greater pity Jausenius more orthodox though a Papist then many who call themselves Protestants in the Pelagian Controversies he following Austin too rigidly calleth it Novum pacti mysterium c. the new mystery of a Covenant founded upon no Scripture Tradition or solid Reason but exeogitated by meer humane Authority De Stat. Nat. lap lib. 1. cap. 16. But though this Covenant with Adam be not expressed yet evident and inseparable consequences from the Scripture will compel us to believe it For was the commination of death only to him as a singular person was he only interessed in the punishment of death if he did disobey The event demonstrateth the clean contrary for do not all die upon his voluntary transgression Is not this then plainly to say that God made a Covenant with him as a publique person And if Austin were not of that mind how could he say Omnes homines fuernnt ille unus homo We were not all that one man physically and naturally therefore morally and by Covenant in Gods estimation per jurisfictionem as they say though we must not think this was a meer fiction or imaginary thing as the Remonstrants call it only a dispensative Covenant not as if God were really angry with mankind for this transgression Again If there were not this Covenant the Apostle could not lay it still upon one man Rom. 5. and 1 Cor. 15. but if it were only because the root is defiled then our parents sins would be accounted to us as well as Adam's which compelled Austin to incline to that opinion also Lastly For I have proved this before Adam is called Rom. 5. 14. The figure of his who was to come that is Christ The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Type that is by way of contrariety that as Christ was the head of all believers to justification and eternal life so Adam was the head of all his posterity to sinne and eternal death Therefore Christ is called the second Adam whereby it is plain That God did appoint these two as two contrary heads and publique persons for two contrary ends which doth necessarily imply a Covenant
of spiritual life should also be divested of his natural life Hence it is that the Apostle informeth us of that which all the natural wise men of the world were ignorant of Rom 5. 12. That by one mans sinne death entred into the world where the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is observed to have its peculiar Emphasis pertransiit sicut lues even as the rot doth destroy an whole flock of sheep and therefore at the 14th Verse the Apostle useth another emphatical expression Death reigned and that upon those who had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression Seeing then by Adams transgression death cometh thus to reign over all mankind and there would be no justice to have 〈◊〉 inflicted where there is no sinne it followeth necessarily that every child becometh inherently sinful because internally mortal and corruptible Thirdly The third and last cause is the anger of God justly inflicting this punishment of death upon us death may be considered in respect of the meritorious cause and so it is not of God but of sinne Secondly in respect of the decreâ—ing and punishing cause and this death is from God as an evil justly inflicted upon man for his sinnes God inflicts the sentence of death upon us but sinne deserveth it not that death can properly be caused by God for that is a privation but by removing life God in taking away life is thereby said to cause death Even as when the Sunne is removed from our Hemispere then darkness doth necessarily follow These then are the causes of death but oh how little are they attended untoâ— men attributing death to many other causes besides this ¶ 6. Prop. 6. VVHen we say that death cometh by original sinne in that we comprehend all deseases pains and miseries which are as so many inchoate deaths yea all labour and weariness for so God threatned Adam Gen. 2 17. Cursed is the ground for thy sake in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the dayes of thy life In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground for out of it wast thou taken In this sentence there is matter enough to humble us there is not a thistle in thy corn not a weed in thy garden but it may put thee in mind of original sinne yea there is not the least pain or ach of thy body but this may witness it to thee so that Austin saith truly we do circumferre testimonium c. We carry about with us daily full evidence to confirme this Doctrine of original sinne for such evils and calamities as do necessarily follow our specifical nature accompanying us as men they cannot be attributed unto any other cause but original sin which consideration viz. of mankind being universally plunged into miseries and not knowing the cause thereof made the Platonists and some Heretiques conclude that the soules of men had sinned formerly and by way of punishment were therefore adjudged to these mortal and wretched bodyes Though death be only mentioned because that is most terrible and all other miseries tend thereunto yet they are necessarily included Some ask the Question Why God did not threaten hell rather then death but no doubt eternal death is understood in this commination for temporal and eternal death are the wages of sinne only death is mentioned as being most terrible to sense men being more affected with that then with hell which is believed by faith The Scripture then mentioning death only how absurd and preposterous are the Socinians who in that threatning will comprehend any thing but death death they say cometh from the necessity of that matter we are constituted of but sickness labour and such miseries as also eternal death these are the proper fruit of sinne Thus men delivered up to errour are hurried from one dangeous precipice to another But let Christians in all deseases miseries and death it self look higher then the Philosopher or the Physitian Let them acquaint themselves with original sinne and thereupon humble themselves under Gods hand ¶ 7. The several Grounds assigned by Schoolmen of Adam's immortality rejected and some Causes held forth by the Orthodox Propos 7. ALthough it be agreed upon by all except Socinians and their adherents that Adam was made immortal at least by grace and the favour of his Creator yet there is difference among the Popish Writers upon what to fasten the ground of his immortality What was the cause of it therein they disagree Some place it in a certain vigor and excellency that was then in the soul whereby it was able to preserve the body from death Molina liketh not this De opere sex dierum Disput 28. and therefore he doth affirm that the body of Adam was made immortal and impassible by an habitual gift bestowed upon it which he saith was a corporeal quality extended through the whole body Because saith he this immortality was not a transient thing but an enduring gift sutable to that state and God is used to give permanent gifts not immediately but by some inherent principle Even as the glorified bodies are made immortal by some intrinsecal quality accommodated to that state yea and the bodies of the damned also though they are immortal yet they are not impassible because they are tormented in the flames of hell fire But Suarez Lib. 3. de hominis Creatione cap. 14. doth upon good grounds reject any such supposed corporeal quality as being without any foundation from the Scripture and introducing a miraculous way without necessity For who can think that Adam had such an intrinsecal quality in his body that fire would not burn him that if he went upon the waters his body would not sink Others they attribute his immortality to the tree of life that was say they both alimentum medicamentum as it was both nourishment so it preserved life and as it was medicinal so it did repair that partial abating of natural strength in concoction which would otherwise in time have come upon man But this opinion taketh that for granted which yet is greatly controverted viz. that it was called the tree of life as if there had been some active physical power in the fruit thereof to continue a mans life either for a long time as some think or for ever as others whether indeed once eating of it or constant eating was necessary as opportunity did require is also debated by curious Authors for some make it to be called a tree of life onely Symbolically as being a signe of eternall life which Adam should have enjoyed had he continued in obedience And truly though it should be granted that there was such a virtue in the tree yet when Adam had sinned it would no wayes have helped him or preserved him from death because the wages of sinne is death and therefore would not have produced that in him which it is supposed that it might have had in Adam's obedience yet God would cast him out
which would have redounded to the dishonour of God his maker neither could it so well be said By one man or by the Devil death came into the world as by God who is supposed to make man in such a mortal and frail estate But I proceed to a second Argument and that may be drawn from the commination made by God to Adam upon his disobedience compared with the execution of this sentence afterward which might be enough to convince any though never so refractory The threatning to Adam we have recorded Gen. 2. 17. where God prohibiting him to eat of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil confirmeth this Law with a penalty viz. That in the day he did eat thereof he should surely die dying thou shalt die The gemination is to shew the certainty as also the continuance or it So that Socinus and others who would not understand corporal death in this place as being from the natural constitution of a man and so would have been had there not been this commination doth joyn too much with the Devil in this business for his endeavour was to perswade the woman that this threatning was false and that she should not die death should not be the punishment of her transgression But what need we any clearer place then this divine commination Doth not this necessarily suppose that if Adam had not transgressed he should not have died and so by consequence have been immortal it being not possible for death to come in at any other door but that of sinne To threaten a mortal man with mortality had been absurd or to make his natral condition a punishment for then it would have been a punishment to be made a man if made mortal The Socinians therefore to elude this would not understand by death the separation of the soul and body but eternal death or as they say at other times a necessity of dying but a necessary death and eternal death are absurdly made parallel by them For beasts are under a necessity of death yet cannot be said to partake of eternal death especially the godly they cannot but die yet they are absolutely delivered from eternal death We must therefore take death for corporal death not but that the death of the soul by sinne here and eternal separation from God hereafter is to be included herein yet this temporal death is also a great part of the penalty here threatned which may be evinced by these three reasons 1. Moses is relating in an historical manner what was done to man in the beginning Now in an historical Narration we are not to go from the literal meaning unless evident necessity compel much lesse may we do so here when we have the Apostle acted by the same Spirit of God as Moses was in being Penman of the Scripture attributing our corporal death to Adam For no doubt when Paul wrote this Text In Adam we all die he had this historical relation made by Moses in his mind 2. The sentence and execution of it must be understood in the same manner Now it 's plain that in the execution of it mentioned Chap. 3. 19. corporal death is meant because Adam is thus told That dust he was and unto dust he should return 3. It must be meant of temporal death because this alone and not eternal death doth belong to all mankind For although at the day of judgement it is said some shall not die yet that suddain change made then upon them will be equivalent to death Thus you see the threatning made to Adam at first doth abundantly confirm this truth There is one doubt only to be answered If death be meant in that sentence how then is it that Adam did not immediately die How is it that he lived many hundred years afterwards To this some say That the restriction of time viz. the day is not to be made to the time of eating as if at that day he should die but to death as if the sense were thou shalt die one day or other thou shalt be in daily fear of death But if this be disliked then we may understand it of a state of death that day he did eat thereof he became mortal for every day is a diminution of our life As a man that hath received a deadly wound we say he is a dead man because though he did linger it out yet all is in a tendency unto death Now this will appear the more cogent if you take notice of the execution of this sentence mentioned Gen. 3. 17 18 19. where the ground is cursed and man also adjudged to labour and wearness all the dayes of his life even till he return to the ground out of which he was made But here the Socinian thinketh he hath an evasion Death saith he is not here made a curse but only it 's the term how long mans curse shall be upon him It is not poena but terminus saith he for it is said he should be under this labour till he did return to the ground but if we consider the sentence before-mentioned it is plain it is a curse So that in this place it is both a curse and a terme putting an end to all the temporal miseries of this life though to the wicked it is the beginning of eternal torments ¶ 3. THe third Argument for our mortality and also actual death by original sinne is taken from those assertory places which do in expresse words say so Not to mention my sext which hath said enough to this truth already We may take notice of other places affirming this And certainly that passage of Pauls Rom. 5 12. may presently come into every mans mind By one man sin entred into the world and death by sinne and so death passed upon all men in whom all have sinned It is true we told you Calvin maketh the Apostle to speak of spiritual death here as in my Text of temporal death which the coherence also doth confirm but though that be principally intended yet not totally Even temporal death is likewise to be understood as being the beginning and introduction to eternal death if the grace of God doth not prevent We have then the Apostle attributing death not to mans creation at first but to his disobedience Neither is this death upon men because of their actual sinnes but because of Adam's disobedience by whom we are made sinners yea in whom we have sinned That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is diversly translated and much contention about it viz. whether it should be rendred in whom or causally for as much It is true the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as learned men observe is used in the New Testament variously sometimes for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 5. 5. sometimes for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 10. 9. sometimes for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 3. 16. and otherwise but for ought I can observe it may very well be understood for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Mark
of Infants dying in their original sinne without Baptisme Lib. 6. de Amissione grat naming five several opinions some whereof are more rigid others more favourable That our opinions cannot at all alter or change the state of Infants so deceased The rigid opinion doth not hurt them neither doth a favourable opinion do them any good but the Word of God that will stand our favourable and pitifull opinions will not make the natural estate of any man the better yea when such Doctrines are found to be contrary to the Word of God they may do a great deal of hurt plunging of them into dangerous consequences that may flow therefrom Therefore to such Disputants we may well reply that which Acosta the Jesuite Lib. 5. de procur Indorum salute cap. 3. saith to some of his own Religion that held even Heathens might be saved without the knowledge of Christ and that the contrary Doctrine was inhumane and severe Non hic agitur saith he durumne hoc severum sit an benignum liberale sed utrum verum necne Secondly As we are not to attend to humane affections in this point so neither to humane and natural reasonings Why God should impute Adam's sinne to us and we all be accounted as sinners in him and from him the cursed root we the cursed branches do spring ariseth from the just proccedings of God though happily the causes the thereof be unknowen to us When therefore the Scripture of God doth plainly affirm such a sinful and cursed estate let not philosophical Arguments obstruct our faith lest if we do so in other mysteries of Religion as well as in this at last we fall into plain Atheisme Let us be content with our own measure of understanding not invading the secrets of God lest we herein betray notoriously our original sinne while we labour to deny it For Luther speaking against these Curislae and Quaeristae as he calleth them In Gen. whereby men will demand a reason of Gods proceedings and affect to be like God in knowledge as Adam did hath this expression Fieri Deorum est originale peccatum original sinne is the affection of a Deity Thirdly We are alwayes in this controversy to distinguish between the merit of condemnation and the actual condemnation it self It is unquestionably true that all by nature do deserve this eternal damnation but then concerning the actual damnation thereby there are different opinions Some have delivered positively that none is ever damned for original sinne only as some Papists and the Remonstrants yea there are many say that this actual condemnation by original sinne is universally taken off all mankind by Christ so that as by the first Adam all were put into a state of Gods anger so by the second Adam all are put into a state of actual reconciliation by Christ till by their actual sins they do refuse Christ and so procure to themselves damnatation not upon any account of Adam's sinne but their own voluntary transgresson Concerning Infants also dying in their infancy great Disputes there are Some concluding all that die so though of Unbelievers and Pagans that they are saved original sinne not damning any others they conclude otherwise but then they are divided into several opinions amongst themselves of which in time more is to be said For we are not as yet come to that point concerning the actual condemnation of any by original sinne meerly but the merit and defect of it what every man doth deserve by it as soon as he is born though every sinne deserveth 〈◊〉 yet this obligation to eternal punishment may be taken off yea and that while the sinne abideth as original sinne doth in some measure in a godly man There are indeed some who make the reatus poenae the guilt of punishment to be the forme of a sinne and if this were true then they could not be 〈◊〉 Others make it a proprium to sinne but this cannot be understood of actual guilt but potential guilt Every sinne and so original doth deserve that those who are infected therewith should perish in hell torments eternally but yet the actual obligation hereunto may be removed by the grace of God the sinne still remaining in some degree as the fire had a power to burn the three Worthies though the actual working thereof was hindered SECT VI. Arguments to prove that by Nature we are all as so many damned men That Damnation belongs to the Sinne we are borne in THis being premised let us now consider those Arguments which may firmly establish us in this truth That by nature we are all as so many damned men that of our selves we can expect no other and that though we were free from actual transgression It is the grace of God only that delivereth us All mankind is like that wretched Infant Ezek. 16. spoken of by the Prophet wallowing in bloud filthy and loathsome necessarily perishing unlesse the grace of God speak unto us to live we all lie like Ezekiel's any bones of whom we may say Can these live Can these be saved Not one unlesse God give life And First All deserve eternal damnation by original contagion Because it is a state of sinne and spiritual uncleannesse we are born in And therefore if once it be granted to be a sinne the wages thereof must be hell and damnation Insomuch that some Popish Writers are very absurd who disputing against Pelagians That our birth-sinne is properly and univocally sinne yet afterwards question Whether children dying therein do go to hell or no Some assign them a Paradise wherein they have a natural happiness as Catharinus Opusc de statu pucrorum c. Others as Bellarmine that they have poena damni but not sensus as if there were half an hell or that one might be shut out from the beatifical fruition of God and yet not be tormented with sensible pain This is certain if it be truly and directly a sinne as the Scripture so often calleth it then without the grace of God there is no possibility of escaping hell thereby why then should damnation because of it be thought so horrid when it is acknowledged to be a sinne Job you heard saith Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean Job 14. 4. here we are all unclean Now what doth the Scripture pronounce of such Revel 21. 29. There shall not in any wise enter into the heavenly Jerusalem any thing that is unclean or that defileth No unclean thing can enter into the kingdom of heaven and if they do not enter in there they must enter into the kingdom of hell There is no middle place Qui inducis medium recede de medio as Austin The Scripture also calleth it sinne Psal 51. 5. Behold in sinne did my mother conceive me and what is the wages of sinne but death Rom 6. 23. not only bodily death but that eternal death which is opposite to everlasting life and the Apostle saith The sting of death is sinne 1
Cor. 15. 56. which Austin expounds in this sense as that by sinne death is caused as that is called Poculum mortis a cup of death which causeth death or as some say The Tree of life is called so because it was the cause of life If then original sinne be a sinne it must have a sting and this sting is everlasting death So that if we attend to what the Scripture speaketh concerning us even in the womb and the cradle that we are in a state of sinne we must conclude because it is a sinne therefore it deserveth damnation Hence you heard the Apostle Rom. 5. expresly saith Judgement came by one to condemnation and Rom. 3. That the whole world is guilty before God Secondly The Scripture doth not only speak of this birth-pollution as a sinne but as an hainous sinne in its effects whereby it doth admis of many terrible aggravations as you have heard It is the Law in our members it 's the flesh tho body of sin the sin that doth so easily beset us the sin that warreth against the mind and the Spirit of God that captivateth even a godly man in some measure which maketh Paul groan under it and cry out of his miserable condition thereby so that it is not meerly a sinne but a sinne to be aggravated in many respects and therefore necessarily causing damnation unlesse God in his mercy prevent Let Bellarmine and others extenuate it making it lesse then the least sinne that is of which more afterwards let them talk of venial sinnes that do not in their own nature deserve hell yet because all sinne is a transgression of Gods Law the curse of God belongeth thereunto therefore it hath an infinite guilt in respect of the Majesty of God against whom it is committed and they who judge sinne little must also judge the Majesty of God to be little also What shall one respect of involuntariness which is in original sinne make it lesse then others when 〈…〉 so many other respects some whereof do more immediately relate to the nature of sinne then voluntariness can do farre exceed other sinnes Thirdly Original sinne must needs deserve damnation because it needeth the bloud of Christ to purge away the guilt of it as well as actual sins Christ is a Saviours to Infants as well as to grown men and if he be a Saviour to them then they are sinners if he save them then they are lost As for that old evasion of the Pelagian Infants need Christ not to save them from sinne but to bring them to the Kingdom of Heaven it 's most absurd and ridiculous for the whole purpose of the Gospel is to shew That Christ came into the world to bring sinners to Heaven through his bloud his death was expiatory and by way of atonement therefore it did suppose sinne hence he is sad to be the Lamb of God that taketh away the sinne of the world John 1. 29. which is both original and actual Fourthly That eternal damnation belongeth to the sinne we are born in appeareth by those remedies of grace and Ordinances of salvation which were appointed by God both in the Old and New Testament for the taking away of this natural guilt Circumcision in the Old Testament did declare that by nature the heart was uncircumcised and that every one was destitute of any inherent righteousnesse hence circumcision is called The seal of the righteousnesse which is by faith Rom. 4. 11. To this Baptism doth answer in the New Testament the external never whereof with the formal Rite of Administration doth abundantly convince us of our spiritual uncleanness as also the need we have of the bloud of Christ and also of his Spirit for our cleansing Now because the known Adversary to this truth affirmly That he knoweth of no Church that in her Rituals doth confesse and bewail original sinne As also that we might see the Judgement of our first Reformers in England about Baptism as relating to original sinne It is good to observe what is set down in the Publique Administration of Baptism as by the Common-Prayer-Book was formerly to be used there the Minister useth this Introductory Forasmuch as all men be conceived and born in sinne adding from hence That none can enter into the kingdom of Heaven unlesse he be born again It is the sinne he is born in not pure Naturals as the Doctor saith that inferreth a necessity of regeneration Again In the Prayer for children to be baptized there is this passage That they coming to thy holy Baptism may receive remission of sins Now what sinnes can children have but their original It is spoken in the plural number because more than one child is supposed to be baptized Again in the same Prayer we meet with this Petition That they being delivered from thy wrath What can more ashame the Doctors opinion then this That which he accounteth so horrid is here plainly asserted That children are born under Gods wrath therefore prayer is made that they may be delivered from it Lastly In another Prayer after the Confession of Faith we have this Petition That the old Adam in these children may be so buried that the new man may be raised up in them Why doth he not seoff at this expression saying as he doth upon another occasion That they change the good old man with these things that he never thought of No doubt but he will force these passages by some violent Interpretation as he doth the 9th Article but certainly it would be more ingenuity in him to flie to his principles of liberty of prophesying rather then to wrest these publick professions of original sinne It is true the Ancients and so the Papists put too much upon Baptism For Austin thought every child dying without Baptism yea and without the participation of the Lords Supper was certainly damned But of this extream more afterwards It is enough for us That Christs Institution of such a Sacrament and that for Infants doth evidently proclaim our sinfulnesse by nature and therein our desert of eternal wrath Fifthly To original sinne there must needs belong eternal wrath because of the nature of it and inseperable effects flowing from it The nature of it is the spiritual death of the soul by this a man is alienated from all life of grace and therefore till the grace of God appear it 's true of all by nature as followeth in the Chapter where this Text is vers 12. Without Christ alient from the Commonwealth of Israel strangers from the Covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world Thus Davenant upon that Text Dead in sinne Col. 2. 13. saith All the sons of Adam are accounted dead first because they lie in a state of spiritual death having lost the Image of God and partly because they are under the guilt of eternal death being obnoxious to the wrath of God for by nature we are the children of wram If then original sinne put
Free-will and so the praise shall be given partly to our selves and partly to God But above all he that doth either deny or diminish the guilt and contagion of this sinne can never exalt Christ in all his Offices as he ought to do He that denieth the disease must needs derogate from the Physician The whole need not the Physician saith our Saviour Matth. 9. 12. And therefore it 's of great consequence to be fully perswaded about the depth breadth and length of this sinne that thereby we may be able to comprehend the dimensions of Christs love to us Not that Christ came only to take away the guilt of original sin as some Papists affirm but because this is the womb wherein all other sins are conceived This is the wound of the whole nature actual sins only infect the person of a man We may then easily see the necessity of being truly informed about this Subject for this is like miscarriage in the first concoction which cannot be amended by that which followeth And therefore this consideration should quicken you up in a diligent attention to the whole Doctrine which shall be delivered about it SECT III. IN the next place we are to shew you of what practical advantage it is for all to be fully informed about this native contagion and leprosie we bring with us into the world And First He that doth truly believe in this point will quickly silence all those impatient if not blasphemous complaints that are uttered by many against nature because as they say it is such an hard step-mother to mankind Non tam editi quum ejecti said the Heathen I call them blasphemous complaints because what is spoken against Nature redounds upon God the Author of Nature Hence in the Scripture what Nature doth God is said to do Now then if we consider what impatient expostulations the Heathens have made why man of all creatures should be by Nature most miserable No true answer could ever be given to satisfie but this because man comes sinfull into the world The young ones of beasts and birds are not so miserable as our Infants because not corrupted with evil in their Natures as they are So that if we see our very Infants which yet as the Scripture saith cannot discern between the right hand and left and have not done actual good or evil subject to grievous diseases and death it self Wonder not at this for they have in themselves through their native sinfulness a desert not only of this pain but eternal torments in hell Hence it is that the Scripture instructs us in that which all Philosophy could never inform us viz. the cause and original of all those diseases and pains yea of death it self which reigneth over all mankind Insomuch that thereby we see though there were not one actual sinne in the world though all men had no more sinne upon them then what they had in the womb and in the cradle yet there was demerit enough of that vengeance of God which upon mans transgression was threatned in the Word Gen. 6. 5. The main cause why God brought that universal deluge upon the whole world was not so much their actual wickedness as such but because it came from a polluted fountain which would never be wholly cleansed Their hearts were so many shops wherein were constantly formed all manner of impieties yea by this we see not only the miseries upon man but all the bondage an vanity that is upon the whole world That there are any barrenness any famines that the ground brings forth thorns and thistles that the woman brings forth with so much labour and forrow all these things come by original sinne God did not at first create things in such disorder and confusion If therefore thou wouldst quiet thy heart under all tumults and vexing thoughts to see the manifold mischiefs and miseries mankind is subject unto This Grave jugum super filios Adam as Austin often out of Ecclesiasticus this heavy yoke upon the sons of Adam have recourse to a serious meditation about original sin Secondly The true knowledge of this natural defilement will also satisfie us in those doubtfull Questions which some have greatly tormented themselves with viz. How sinne comes to be in the world And whence it is Austin in his seventh Book of his Confessions and fifth Chapter doth there bewail before God the great agonies and troubles of mind he was in about the beginning of sinne whence it did arise For seeing every thing that God made was exceeding good this exceedingly puzzled him to know how evil should be Yea this knot was so hard to unty in some mens judgments that it made many of the Marcionites heresie who because they saw men commit evil as soon as they were born and yet withall being convinced That God was good and could not be the beginning of evil They therefore maintained two principles of all things the one good of all good things The other evil of evil things Thus men have wonderfully plunged themselves into boggs and quagmires of danger and destruction because not acquainted with this main Truth of Original sin Thirdly For want of knowledge herein that main duty so much commended both by Scripture and the Heathens viz. To know our selves can never be put in practice The Heathen said è Coelo descendit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And as for the Scripture How often is it required That we should search and try our hearts That we should examine our selves and commune with our own hearts and be still Psal 4. Now these duties can never be effectually done without a firm belief of that desperate pollution which is in our heart And till we acknowledge with Jerem. 17. The heart is deceitfull above all things and desperately wicked Who can know it Yea we see David Psal 19. 13. though a godly man and much enlightned thereby being enabled to make deep search into his soul and having the Sun beams could discern those atoms and motes of sinne which man in the dark could not do yet he crieth out Who can understand his errors Cleanse me from secret sins that is such sins that lie latent and lurking in my heart that never yet I could find out If then this duty be so great of knowing our selves that some make all Religion to be in these two things The knowledge of our selves and of God then how necessary is it that we should be thorowly acquainted with this heart and nature-sinfulness for without this we can never know how vile and loathsom we are Our actual impieties though never so gross and numerous do not demonstrate our loathsomness so much as this bitter and sour leven within These are the stream that is the fountain These are the effects that is the cause Therefore the greatest strength of our wickedness lieth in a defiled Nature as you see in a Serpent or Toad that venom it sends forth at any time is nothing to the venom in
punishment the punishment of another Besides that it is sinne inherent in us and not only imputed appears by David's acknowledgement Psal 51. In sinne was I born and in iniquity did my mother conceive me But of this more in time You see by what hath been said That our original sinne is more than meer guilt or Adam's actual sinne imputed to us it denoteth withall an inherent contagion of the whole man Therefore it is absurdly and falsly said by that late Writer It may be called original guilt rather than original sin SECT V. IN the fourth place there are those yet who draw a more narrow line in this matter than the former For when this Question is put Whether original inherent sin be truly and properly a sin They then distinguish between Peccatum and Vitium It is vitium say they but not peccatum or when it is called peccatum it is in a large sense not strictly and properly For with these nothing is a sinne properly but some action repugning to the word of God and because original sinne cannot be an action therefore say they it 's not properly a sinne In which sense they deny habits of sinne to be peccata but only vitia Though this be to play with words seeing the same thing is intended And although Austin abstaineth much from the word peccatum as if that alwayes did suppose a reatus yet that is a needless scrupulosity men may use words as they please Therefore Hierom thought Vide Whitak de peccato orig lib. 3. cap 6. vitium was more than peccatum contrary to Austins notion when he said Some man might be found without vice but not without sinne They say indeed a thing may repugn the Law of God three wayes Either Efficienter so the Devils and wicked men do yet they are not sinnes 2. Materially and thus the act of every sinne doth 3. Formally and so the obliquity in the act only doth and this they make only truly and properly a sinne But whether this will stand good or no will be examined in the Objections As also that Assertion of a learned man Molinaus vide infra That original sinne is condemned by the Law but not prohibited it being absurd as he thinks to appoint a Law for one grown up that he should have been born without sinne It is true in assigning the proper notion of sinne to it hath some great difficulty Neither doth it become us to be over-curious in this point above what is written remembring that original sinne came in by desiring too much knowledge I shall therefore treat of it so farre as it may tend to edification not to satisfie curiosity For when Austin was puzled with such doubts he brings that known Apologie Epist 29. of one who fell into a deep pit and being ready to be suffocated he crieth out to one passing by to help him out The man asketh him How he came in Do not saith he stand disputing of that but help me out Thus saith he every man being fallen into this deep pit of original sinne it 's not for us to be curiously and tediously inquiting how we came in but speedily seek for the grace of God to deliver us our CHAP. VIII That the inward Contagion which we have from Adam's Disobedience is truly and properly a Sinne. THerefore in the fifth place This sinne whereby we are infected from Adam's disobedience is truly and properly a sinne we are truly and inherently made sinners by Adam A man is not more properly and really made a sinner by any actual transgressions he doth commit then he is by his original sinne he is born in Insomuch that though an Infant knoweth not what he doth nor is capable of acts of reason when he is born yet he is properly and formally a sinner and the discovery of this will make much for our humiliation and Christs Exaltation Now that it is truly and properly a sin appeareth by these Arguments Argum. 1. That the Scipture speaking of it doth constantly call it so and therefore we are not to recede from the proper interpretation unless some weighty reasons compelâ—us What a poor and weak thing is it to deny original sinne to be imputable to us or to have the proper essence of evil because with Aristotle none are blamed for those things they have by nature or are not in their own power For it 's plain Aristotle understood nothing of this original pollution and by his Philosophy we must also quit many fundamental points in our Christian saith It is enough that the Scripture speaking of it and that purposely doth call it sinne as Psal 51. this Chapter of Romans and Chap. 7. often It 's the Law of sinne working in us So that this want of Gods Image and an inclination to evil is not to be considered as a meer punishment or as a spiritual disease and weakness upon nature but no sinne at all For it 's as truly a sinne as an actual sinne yea in some respects it is a more grievous and heavy sinne than actual sinnes as is to be shewed For the cause hath more in it than the effect It is from this evil heart that all actual evils do flow Argum. 2. It 's truly and properly a sin Because thereby a man is made obnoxious to death and eternal condemnation The wages of sinne is death and by nature we are children of wrath If then for this inherent corruption we die we are subject to miseries to Gods wrath and the curse of the Law then it must necessarily follow that this is truly and properly a sin Argum. 3. That which is made opposite to Righteousness that is truly and properly sinne For not punishment and Righteousnesse but sinne and Righteousnesse are two immediate Contraries Now it 's plain That this inherent corruption makes us sinners so that we need to be made righteous by Christ Argum. 4. The Apostle distinguisheth Adam 's imputed sinne and inherent sinne as two sinnes and so they have a two-fold distinct guilt as is to be shewed though some think it hard to say so Thus the Apostle By one mans offence sinne entred into the world Therefore Adam's actual sinne and that sinne which entred thereby are two distinct sinnes and differ as the cause and the effect By imputed sinne we are said to sinne in him actually as it were because his will was our will but by inherent sinne we are made sinners by intrinsecal pollution Argum. 5. This original inherent sinne is truly and properly a sinne Because it is to be mortified to be crucified We are to subdue the reign of it in our hearts which could not be if it were not properly a sin Argum. 6. It is a true and proper sinne Because by this our persons are made unclean so that naturally we cannot please God We are corrupt fountains we are bad trees and all this before we commit any actual sin Argum. 7. If Adam had stood that which would have been
a consequent from the former viz. The Privacy and Propriety of it For whereas by the primitive Institution our will is to be commensurated and regulated by the will of God now it naturally abhorreth and refuseth any such agreement as if our will were to take place of Gods will as if the prayer were that our will not Gods will might be done In this is an Abysse of all evil that our will naturally inclineth to be independent on Gods will we would have that a measure and rule even to Gods will that God should not will but what we would have Oh horrible blasphemy and confusion for the humane will of the Lord Christ was not a rule and measure of things to be done being the will of a creature therefore he prayeth Not my will but thy will be done Luk. 26. 39. If then Christs humane will was to be regulated by that superiour and increated will how much more is the will of a sinfull and corrupt man This then is that which maketh the whole soul like a Blackmoor This is the essence as it were of all sinne A mans own will not Gods will is regarded but a mans own proper will is wholly followed we would give Laws to God and not God to us Whensoever thy heart is carried out to lusts to any wickedness What is this but to exalt thy will and to depress the will of God Hath God said Be not proud thou wilt be proud Hath God said Swear not thou wilt swear Thus all sinne is nothing but a mans own will lifted up against the will of God No wonder then if one said Cesset voluntas propria non ardebit gâ—henna Let there be no longer our own will and there will be no longer any hell It 's this proper private will of ours that was the cause of hell Adam and Eve they preferred their will before Gods will and that brought in death and demnation Therefore regeneration is the writing of Gods Law in our hearts whereby we come to say as Christ I come to do thy will O God and Paul immediately upon his conversion saith Lord what wilt thou have me do he giveth up his will as a blanck on which God may write his will O Lord there shall not be any longer my will to persecute my will to oppose thy Church I will break this will of mine renounce this will of mine Thus as a vessel melted in the fire may be put into any forme or fashion the artificer pleaseth so was it with Paul's will This proper private will of thine likewise maketh all the trouble and misery thou meetest with it is thy own will that maketh thee to walk so heavily and discontentedly for were thy will resigned up into Gods were thou able to say in all things the will of the Lord be done I have no will but what God would have me to exercise this would keep thee in a quiet calm frame all the day long whereas now all the dispute and contention is whether thy will or Gods will must give place to each other Oh vain and wretched man how long shall this self-will of thine be thy ruine Is it not reason that the will of the creature should give place to the will of the Creator as the starres do not appear when the Sunne beginneth to arise ¶ 5. The Pride and Haughtiness of the Will THirdly The great and notable pollution of the Will Is the pride and haughtiness of it not only refusing subjection to the Will of God and to be under that as hath been shewed but in some remarkable particulars The first whereof is an affectation of equality with God himself Thus the will of a poor weak wretch that cannot turn a white hair into black whose breath is in his nostrils that hath the same originals for his body as a worm hath yet the aspireth after a Deity and would be like God himself As 1. in attempting to make gods and then to worship them What pride and vanity is in man to take upon him to make what he intends to worship so that what man pleaseth shall be a god and what pleaseth him not shall be none Deus non erit Deus nisi homini placuerit Thus whereas God at first made man after his image now man maketh God after his image Besides the horrible blindness that is upon the mind in this thing there is also pride and arrogancy of the will what is this but to assume superiority over their own gods which yet they worship and adore But 2. This pride of the will is more conspicuously manifested In affecting to be like the true God not to endure him to be a superior above us While our first parents had not any internal pollution at all upon them yet this sinne did presently insinuate them whereby they aspired after a Deity therefore the Devil tempted them with this sutable bait Ye shall be like Gods knowing good and evil That sinne of Adam hath still a more peculiar impression upon mankind Whence came that abominable and blasphemous custome into the world of deifying men which they called Daimons but from that inbred pride of the will desiring to be like God Ezek. 28. 2. Thus it was with that Prince of Tyrus he lifted up himself and said I am a god I sit in the seat of God thou hast ser thine heart as the heart of God What detestable and loath some arroganacy is here Oh the patience of God that doth not immediately consume such a wretch as he did Herod who sinned not so highly for he did not proclaim he was God only the people by way of flattering cryed out the voice of God and not of man which because he did not disclaim but secretly owned therefore was such a remarkable punishment inflicted upon him We see from these instances what pride lurketh in mans will there is the cockatrice egg which may quickly prove to be a flying Serpent This pride is thought also to be the sinne of the Devil whereby he was not contented with the station God had put him but was ambitious of a divine nature as if he with Christ might think it no robbery to be equal with God This unspeakable arrogancy did shew it self notoriously in some great Potentates of the world Caius Caesar especially for which cause Grotius though absurdly maketh him to be the Antichrist that did exalt himself above all that is called God This madness of pride was as visible in Alexander who though sometimes through the consciousness of humane imbecillity as when he was wounded and saw bloud fall from him would refuse such a thought yet at other times he did industriously affect to be related among the number of the Gods and to have divine worship performed to him and as the sonne of Jupiter Hammon would be pictured with hornes and Jupiters Preist meeting of him instead of that form 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did purposely mistake saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
regarded neither is that Exposition to be endured of that late Writer with whom we have so often to do As if the Apostle meant That death relatively to Adams sinne had no effect further then to Moses and there it ceased for this doth palpably contradict the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. 22. where by Adam all are said to die Therefore by those who sinne not after the similitude of Adams transgression Some understand it thus viz. not so capitally and atrociously as he did for he sinned against an express Law but the Apostle speaketh of such who sinned without such a declared Law as Hos 6. 7. They like men have transgressed in the original like Adam Many Expositors make it the proper name of Adam hereby the Prophet aggravating their sin That as Adam in Paradise did voluntarily transgress Gods Law So the Jews in the good Land God had given them did treacherously against him But Mercer rejecteth this because in the Hebrew it is not Câ—hadam with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 emphatical as it is commonly applied to Adam There is such an expression in Job which some understand of Adam Job 31. 33. where it is translated If I covered my transgressions as Adam or as in the margin After the manner of men This interpretation may be admitted as part but 2. we are to understand it more largely of all those who sinne without a Law revealed for the Apostle had said That sinne is not imputed viz. to a mans conscience where there is no Law men are apt to be secure in sinne when there is no Law expresly threatning them Now saith the Apostle let none think so For as death so sinne was in the world before Moses his time though there was not such severe precepts against it and therefore those who had not such an express command as Adam had yet death and sinne was imputed to them So that by this is understood That all those who live out of the Church all Heathens and Pagans who have not the revealed will of God to walk by even those who never heard of Adam and so could not imitate him in sinning are in this clause comprehended Lastly By this also is declared That all Infants though they cannot actually sinne yet because of original sinne death reigneth over them likewise Though Calvin think the former sort chiefly aimed at yet he confesseth Infants are herein included Thus we have finished this Text the Doctrine whereof should make the world a valley of tears in respect of godly humiliation as it is indeed in respect of miseries As the shadow followeth the body so should holy sorrow the truth of this point Believe it and tremble for it is every ones case she out of thy self to that Saviour who delivereth from original sinne as well as actual This is most properly the sinne of the world CHAP. IX The Qualities or Adjuncts of Original Sinne. SECT I. The Text explained GEN. 8. 21. And the Lord said in his heart I will not again curse the ground any more for mans sake for the imagination of mans heart is evil from his youth I Have formerly treated on that parallel Text to this Gen. 6. 5. but wholly to another purpose Though therefore this be of great affinity with the former yet I shall deliver altogether new matter from it From the two-fold Subject of original sinne of Inhesion and Predication I proceed to the consideration of the Qualities and Adjuncts of it and begin with this Text which containeth a gracious promise from God never to bring such an universal deluge or any other general judgement upon the world for mans sake any more This promise is made a consequent of Gods Reconciliation with Noah upon whose Sacrifice it is said God smelled a sweet savour speaking after the manner of men not that God did regard the material Sacrifice for the smell of that must needs be distastfull and unsavoury but because Noah did it with a pure and holy heart and withall chiefly because this Sacrifice of Noah was typical of Christs sacrificing himself in time by whom alone God becometh propitious For Christs offering up of himself is said to be Ephes 5. 2. A Sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour which was chiefly in the Eucharistical Sacrifices not that Christs death is compared to them only as the Socinians would have it but principally and chiefly to the Expiatory Sacrifices as appeareth in the Epistle to the Hebrews only in Christs death there was that which was in Eucharistical Offerings a sweet savour unto God whereby he became propitious unto mankind God being thus graciously pleased we have this promise of God declared in the Text wherein is considerable First The Cause of it and that is Gods Deceree The Lord said in his heart that is an expression after the manner of men For you must not conceive of God as changing his mind or altering his purposes upon better considerations or as if he took up a contrary resolution to that when he intended to destroy the world but this is wholly spoken to our capacity By this is meant no more then Gods purpose and secret Decree which yet he manifested to the comfort of Noah and therefore we have Moses recording of it Secondly There is the object matter of this promise and that is two-fold I will not curse the ground neither will I smite any more every living thing as I have done God cursed the ground at first upon Adam's fall but this is meant of the Deluge as appeareth by the other particular for by that general floud it is conceived the ground was made worse then before The meaning then is That God will not bring any more universal judgement not but that particular Towns or Nations may be consumed by water or other punishments but there shall not be such a general one by water any more no nor any general punishment For what comfort would it have been to Noah if that the world should be preserved only from drowing if it might have been destroyed any other way Therefore when at the Day of Judgement the whole world shall either be destroyed or renewed by fire that will not be so much by way of punishment to the inhabitants as to change its use and to prepare for the great alteration that God is then to make Thirdly There is the aggravation of this mercy God will do this Though the imagination of mans heart be evil This clause is to be considered first as a Reason then Absolutely in it self If as a reason then here is the difficulty taken notice of how it can be made the ground why God will not destroy the world seeing formerly Chap. 6. 5. it is there made the only reason why he would destroy it can it be the motive for two contrary effects Some therefore do not make it a reason at all but part only of the description of Gods promise he will not destroy the earth again for this sinfull disposition but
original imputed sinne or of that inherent corruption which we have from our birth and both do admit of great aggravations It is true some Orthodox Writers doe deny the imputation of Adam's actual disobedience unto us as Josua Placeus who bringeth many Arguments Thes Salm. Dis de statu hominis lapsi ante gratiam but my work is not to answer them I suppose it for granted as a necessary truth Concerning Adam's sinne which is thus ours by imputation Bellarmine maketh the Question An sit gravissimum Whether it was the greatest of all sinnes And he concludeth following the Schoolmen that absolutely it is not only respectively Secundum quid in some considerations which he mentioneth Bonaventure saith It is the greatest sinne extensive not intensive But we are to judge of the hainousness of sinne as we see God doth who esteemeth of sinne without any errour Now it is certain there was never any sinne that God punisheth as he doth this The sinne indeed against the holy Ghost in respect of the object matter of it and the inseparable concomitant of unpardonablenesse is greater as to a particular person but this being the sinne of the common nature of mankind doth bring all under the curse of God So that we may on the contrary to Bellarmine say That it is absolutely the highest sinne against God but in some respects it is not I shall be brief in aggravating of that not at all touching upon the other Question which hath more curiosity in it Whether Adam's sinne or Eve's was the greatest then edification Because our proper work is to speak of original inherent sinne yet it is good to affect our souls with the great guilt thereof for some have been ready to expostulate with God Why for such a small sinne as they call it no more then eating the forbidden fruit so many millions of persons even all the posterity of mankind should thereby be made children of wrath and obnoxious to eternal damnation Doth not the Pelagian opinion that holdeth it hurteth none but Adam himself and his posterity onely if they willingly imitate him agree more with the goodnesse of God But if we do seriously consider how much evil was in this one sinne which Tertullian maketh to be a breach of the whole Law of God we will then humble our selves and acknowledge the just hand of God For First This is hainously to be aggravated from the internal qualification of the subject Adam who did thus offend was made upright created in the Image of God In his understanding he had a large measure of light and knowledge For though the Socinians would have him a meer I deot and innocent yet it may easily be evidenced to the contrary The Image of God consisteth in the perfection of the mind as well as in holiness of the other parts of the soul Neither did Elâ—phaz in his discourse with Job apprehend such ignorance in Adam when he saith Art thou the first man was born Wast thou made before the hils Dost thou restrain wisdom to thy self Job 15. 7 8. implying that the first man was made full of knowledge If then Adam had such pure light in his mind this made his sinne the greater yea because of this light some have proceeded so far as to make Adam's sinne the sinne against the holy Ghost but I shall not affirm that Certainly in that Adam had so great knowledge this made his offence the more evil hence because there was no ignorance in his mind nor no passions in the sensitive part at that time to disturb him his sinne was meerly and totally voluntary and the more the will is in a sinne the greater it is Hence Rom. 5. It is called expresly disobedience By one mans disobedience Yea learned men say That this was the proper specifical sinne of Adam eveâ— disobedience For although disobedience be in a large sense in every sinne yet this sinne of Adams was specifically disobedience for God gave him a positive command meerly that thereby Adam should testifie his obedience to him The thing in it self was not intrinsecally evil to eat of the forbidden fruit it was sinfull only because it was forbidden and by this God would have Adam demonstrate his homage to him but in offending he became guilty in a particular way of disobedience Secondly If you consider Adam in his external condition His fin is very great God placed him in Paradise put him into a most happy condition gave him the whole world for his portion Every thing was made for his use and delight now how intolerable was Adams ingratitude for so small a matter to rebell against God Therefore the smalness of the matter of the sinne doth not diminish but aggravate he might the more easily have refused the temptation so that this unthankfulness to God must highly provoke him Thirdly The sinne was an aggregate sinne It had many grievous sins ingredient into it It was a Beelzebub sin a big-bellied sinne full of many sins in the womb of it his sinne was not alone in the external eating of the forbidden fruit but in the internal causes that made him do so There was unbelief which was the foundation of all the other sinfulness he believeth the Devil rather then God There was pride and ambition He desired to be like God There was apostasie from God and communion with him There was the love of the creature more than of God and thereby there was the hatred of God Thus it was unum malum in quo omnia mala as God is unumbonum in quo omnia bona Lastly Not to insist on this because formerly spoken to There was the unspeakable hurt and damage which hereby he brought to his posterity Not to mention the curse upon the ground and every creature The damning of all his posterity in soul and body it the grace of God did not interpose It cannot be rationally conceived but that Adam knew he was a publique person that he was acquainted upon what terms he stood in reference to his posterity That the threatning did belong to all his as well as himself if he did eat of the forbidden fruit Now for Adam to be a murderer of so many souls and bodies to be the cause of temporal spiritual and eternal death to all mankind who can acknowledge but that this sinne is out of measure sinfull ¶ 2. The Aggravation of Original Sinne inherent in us OUr next work is to consider the aggravation of original sinne inherent in us and this is our duty to do that so being sensible of our own contagion we may not flatter our selves in the power of our free-will but fly alone to Christ who is a Phisitian and Saviour even to Infants as well as grown men and the rather we are to be serious and diligent in this because of all those prophane opinions which do either wholly deny it or in a great measure extenuate it Some Papists make it less then a venial sinne and many
at the beginning endeavoured to clear himself and to charge his sinne upon God The woman thou gavest me And happily some even in the primitive times by mis-understanding some places of Scripture wherein God is said to give men up to their lusts to harden and blind men in their sinnes might occasion such a detestable Position And although the Papists do ordinarily charge this damnable Doctrine upon the Calvinists yet there needeth no more to justifie Calvin in this particular then what he doth most excellently and solidly deliver upon this very Text. The truth is our learned men shew expressions from the Papists yea from Bellarmine himself more harsh and incommodious then I believe can be found in any Protestant Writer But this by the way The Apostle being to inform us of the true cause of all the sinne we do commit and that not God no nor Devils or wicked men are to be blamed comparatively but our own selves sheweth that all this evil cometh from that concupiscential frame of heart we have within us And as for God the Apostle expresly instanceth concerning him prohibiting any one to think or say it is from God that they do sinne Let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God and he giveth two reasons whereof one is the cause of the other If you ask How is it that God is said to tempt no man seeing he tempted Abraham and the Israelites Austin's distinction is made use of that there is a temptation probationis and seductionis of probation or tryal or of deceiving and enticing to sin God indeed doth often tempt his people the former way not but that he knoweth what is in the heart of every man but that hereby a godly mans graces may be the more quickned as also a man have more experimental knowledge of himself As for the other temptation of seduction God doth not thus tempt that is he doth not encline or enrice to sinne It is true we read the Prophet Jeremiah saying O Lord I am deceived and thou hast deceived me Jer. 20. 7. But that is spoken unadvisedly and rashly by the Prophet who thought because what he had prophesied was not as yet fulfilled and therefore his adversaries derided and scorned him that therefore it would not at all be fulfilled and so by consequence that God had deceived him Secondly Divines distinguish temptation into external and internal External are afflictions and troubles called often so in Scripture and these temptations are from God 2. Internal which do immediately incline to sinne and with these God doth not tempt Now although the Apostle had in the former part spoken of external temptations yet now he speaks of internal ones though some think he continueth his discourse of externals because these many times draw out hearts to sinne but this ariseth not from God The reason why God cannot tempt to sinne is from the infinite perfection of holiness which is in God he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He cannot be tempted by evil It is true men are said to tempt God many times and so ex parte hominu there is done what man could do even to make God deviate from his own holy nature and Law but the Apostle meaneth ex parte Dei that God is of such absolute purity and transcendent holiness that there cannot arise any motion in his nature to make him sinne For so we expound the Greek word in a passive sense Estius himself granting that the use of it in an active signification can hardly be found though Popish Interpreters plead for the active sense but then there would be no distinction of this from the following words Neither tempteth he any man The original word is used only here in the New Testament The strength then of the Argument lieth in this God doth not tempt any man to sin because he hath no inward temptation or motion in his own nature to sin for that is the reason why the Devil is so impetuous and forward in tempting us to sin because his nature is first carried out to all evil so there is no man that doth draw on another to sin but because he in his own heart is drawn aside with it before The Apostle having thus justified God and removed all cause of evil from him In my Text he directeth us to the true internal and proper cause of all the sinne that we do commit and therein doth most excellently shew the several steps and degrees of sinne whereby of an Embryo as it were at first it cometh to be a compleated and perfected sinne This Text is much vexed by Bellarmine and Popish Authors to establish their distinction of a venial and mortal sinne though they cannot find any true aid from the Text. Let us consider the particulars of this noble Text The Cause of a mans sinne is said to be lust 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is the same with original sinne the corruption of all the powers of the soul whereby it is inordinately carried out to all things Of which more in the Doctrine This is described from the note of propriety 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His own lust This expression is used that we may not lay all upon the Devil or other men for this is ordinarily brought by men to excuse themselves It is true I was in such a fault I have sinned but the Devil moved me or such wicked companions they enticed me or I did it because men compelled me and terrified me all this will not serve thy turn It is thy own lust within not men without that hath made thee thus to sinne And this sheweth That every man hath his own proper original sinne by way of a lust within him 3. This is further amplified from the Vniversality of the Subject wherein this lust is seated Every man so that no man but Christ who was God and man is freed from this incentive to evil 4. There is the Manner How this lust doth tempt us to sinne and that is expressed in two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Drawn away that is as some from God from heavenly objects because in all sinne there is an aversion from God and a conversion to the creature or else as others Drawn aside form the consideration of hell of the wrath of God of eternal death and damnation For we sinne continually as Eve did at first The Devil perswaded her she should not die and then when this fear was removed she presently falleth into the transgression and thus before men fall into the pit of any sinne they are drawn aside from those serious thoughts This will offend God this will damn me The other word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Metaphor either from birds or fishes which have baits to allure them and thereby are destroyed Thus lust appeareth with a bait but the hook doth not appear In the next place This original sinne is illustrated in the issue of it the Apostle sheweth how sinne Ã
primo ad ultimum cometh to be accomplished So that as in other places we read of the generations of men the generations of Adam of the Israelites so here is the generation of sinne described Now it is good to observe that in this whole discourse the Apostle doth proceed metaphorically comparing original sinne to a woman like that whore in the Proverbs alluring and enticing man to sinne or as Adam was at first tempted to sinne by Eve so still we are drawn aside to sinne by this original corruption which is like an Eve or like a Daeliah and a Joseph's mistress importunately solliciting of us to what is evil and as with the woman there is pleasure in conception but pangs and sorrows in bringing forth so it is with sinne while we do at first entertain it there is pleasure and delight but afterwards it leaveth a terrible sting in a man depriving him of all comfort day and night We may therefore observe the several steps and degrees of sinne before it cometh to be consummated 1. There is the mother or root of all and that is called lust which must not only be extended to the carnal sensual appetite of a man but principally to the rational part for there original sinne hath its chiefest dominion that is the metropolis as afterwards is to be shewed 2. There are the motions to sinne and titillations or delectations about it this is implied in the word enticed taken from the bird who is allured by the bait the meat it leeth but observeth not the snare Thus in man there are sudden motions and delights arising in the soul towards sinfull objects which do antecede all deliberation and consultation There are pleasing motions towards sinne and secret titillations of the soul before the will doth give its perfect and full consent I say perfect consent for it may be in all the tickling motions to sinne though never so sudden there may be some imperfect consent The third step or degree to the compleating of sinne is expressed vers 15 When lust hath conceived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is applied to women conceiving Luke 1. 24. Luke 1. 31. and by this is meant that consent and imbracement which the soul giveth to sinne For as it was with Joseph though his mistress did so violently sollicit him yet he not consenting fled away from her So it falleth out sometimes with the godly that though original sinne in the immediate motions thereof may tempt may delight and secretly please yet grace being strong may refuse to consent and then these Babylons brats are immediately killed before they grow up Thus many sinnes to the godly prove abortive original sinne hath a miscarrying womb for by grace they are inabled to resist those temptations and so sinne is killed as soon as ever it hath any life Not but that these motions to sinne though not consented unto are truly and properly sins but being withstood by grace they are not imputed And thus farre we admit that saying of Bernard Non nocet sensus ubi deest consensus These motions and stirrings of lust within us if resisted and refused shall not be able to condemn us but in all natural men for the most part lust doth conceive no sooner doth it entice but presently there is consent given to it No sooner doth it knock at the door but presently it is opened to receive this lust in and now when this consent is given then as to the eyes of God the iniquity is fully committed then a man is a murderer and an adulterer before God as appeareth Mat. 5. 28. Yet the Apostle addeth The fourth step and that is Lust thus consented unto bringeth forth sinne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 still continuing in the metaphor By sinne is meant actual sinne expressed in words and actions so that sinne is first in the heart in motions in secret consents and imbracements before it cometh to be expressed actually But why doth not the Apostle give it the name of sinne till it be compleated in action The Papists greedily lay hold on this and would therefore conclude from hence that the motions of the heart to sinne if not consented unto that the lusts which rise up in us to our grief and trouble are not truly and properly sins But 1. They themselves do acknowledge that sinne consented unto lusts yeelded unto though in the heart only are truly and properly sinnes that those are damnable though never actually committed whereas this Text if they rigidly urge it would prove as well that such lusts are not sin Besides Though the Apostle James doth not here call such motions sinnes yet Paul Rom. 7. doth very often give them that name and accounteth himself miserable in respect of his captivity to them though he doth utterly disallow them Therefore the Answer is That the Apostle taketh sinne here strictly for only actual sinne because this is onely visible to the eyes of the world and because though motions consented unto yea and unconsented unto are truly and proper sinnes yet because these are in a tendency to actual sinnes actual sinne is the terminus ad quem as it were they are not fully compleated in the utmost of their iniquity till actually committed No wonder if that be called only sinne not by way of exclusion to the motions within but by way of aggravation to shew that then sinne when it s actuated hath gone to its utmost Lastly Here is the last step and utmost end of sinne and that is sinne thus finished Bringeth forth death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now all the pleasure is turned into bitterness in death in the torments of hell all the delights of sinne will be forgotten as the whorish woman in her pangs and troubles when she labours to bring forth and cannot doth then forget all her former wanton lusts The damned in hell will cry out then Oh if they had remembred into what doom the short pleasures of sinne have brought them how that all their honey is now turned into bitter gall they would never have given way to these evil lusts So that we may metaphorically apply that to such sinners at the day of Judgement which our Saviour did to some because of the day of Jerusalem's destruction Woe be to those that are with child and give suck that thus conceive and bring forth in those dayes And here again you may ask Why is it said that sinne thus finished bringeth forth death if sin be entertained in the heart though it go no further It is not mortal and damnable The Papists therefore they would from hence also establish their distinction of venial and mortal sinne But this Text will not help them for as was said they acknowledge that adultery in the heart is a mortal sinne though not outwardly committed and if these motions be truly and properly a sinne as we shewed then eternal death must needs be the wages of them Rom. 6. 23. Therefore death is attributed to
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
such who are lest Neither is that any better than Adam's fig-leaves to cover his nakedness which the Pelagians of old and others of late would runne unto That Infants indeed need Christ to carry them to Heaven though they have no sinne in them for this they suppose without the grace of Christ though that they distinguished into nature at last was not of it self able to bring to Heaven though it had no sinne in it yet it had imperfection say they But this is to make Christ a Christ to whom he was not a Saviour for he is a Saviour Because he did save his people from their sinnes Mat. 1. 21. If then he bringeth Infants to eternal glory he must do it as a Christ not as a Saviour which distinction can no wayes be founded upon Scripture 5. From this wrath of God there ariseth an obligation to eternal damnation For you may say If God be angry with man thus by nature doth it follow therefore that man must be obliged to eternal death Will not temporal death and the miseries of this life be enough No from Gods wrath thus against us there is a debt and obligation lying upon us to everlasting misery And the reason is Because this corruption we are born in is truly and properly a sin and to every sin there is adhering the merit of utter destruction So that the Schoolmen and some Papists who dispute Whether original sinne deserve everlasting damnation in hell and concluding upon the negative that it hath some lesse punishment is frivolous and absurd For if it have truly and properly the nature of sinne in it then it cannot be denied according to Scripture-grounds but hell is the proper reward of it Lastly This wrath may be considered either immanently as it is in God viz. his will abhorring all sinners or transiently in the effects thereof For that it is of great use in Divinity to distinguish between the Attributes and Effects of them for the Attributes as they are in God cannot receive any intension or remission but the effects may and do Now the godly they were the children of wrath by nature as the Apostle speaketh here but they are not so now For though original sinne doth still abide in some measure yet it is not imputed unto a godly man so that they are not for the present under Gods wrath though once they were not that any change is made in God but in man who is the object The effects of this wrath are partly in the temporal miseries of this life and partly in those eternal torments which shall be in the world to come The child cometh weeping into the world as prognosticating it's misery thus it is miserable before it hath any actual sinne So that whereas the Infant cannot without teaching learn to speak or go of it 's own self it inclineth to weep Cerda upon Tertullian De animâ lib. 3. cap. 19. speaketh of some that thought Infants by these complaints did accuse our first parents and that the male children cry A as if they intended Adam and the females E as if they meant Eve though he saith others attribute it to their different strengths of nature But this is a foolish and ridiculous fancy It is certain that these weepings and complaints do argue the misery of our natures though but new born and so by consequence the sinfulness of them The other effect is eternal damnation in hell which God might inflict upon every child new born so that he might go weeping hence into that place of weeping in hell of which we have many more things as yet to speak SECT V. Some Propositions in order to the proving That the wrath of God is due to all mankind because of Original Sinne. NOw because this curse seemeth cruell and unjust to humane reason till by actual sinnes men have procured wrath upon their own heads It is good to establish it upon Scripture-grounds which is so sure a rock that though the stormes and tempests of mens rage do arise against it yet it will abide immoveable But before we do that we are to premise something by way of Observation tending thereunto As First In deciding of the doctrinal truths of Religion we are not to attend to our own humane affections but meerly to the voice of God in the Scriptures Gods dispensations are not to be regulated according to our pitifull affections most of the Arminian Tenents are suited to humane compassions rather then commensurated to Scripture-regulations But if men will give way to that why shall not Origen's position of the salvation of all the damned yea Devils and all at last be received as most commending of Gods mercy and most suitable to our pittifull affections And why should not all embrace the pleasing and pitiful Doctrine of one Georgius Siculus mentioned by Crakanthorpt Defens Eccles Anglic. contra Spalat cap. 37. by whose Books he saith many were bewitched His opinion was that neither this or that particular man was predestinated to salvation but that God had appointed a time when he would save the whole world and quicquid de pradestinatione tradimus philosophicâ tantum argutiâ niti and what was delivered by learned orthodox men as we must suppose was grounded onely upon philosophical niceties Is not this absolute salvation of all men very agreeable to humane desires and affections yea and why doth not God vouchsafe not only the immediate offers of grace to all men and effectually bless the same to all so that all men shall be converted and saved for he can as easily save all men as one if he please Nay if we do consult with our own pitifull estates how offensive would several passages of Gods providence in many outward temporal judgements be unto us As in the drowning of the world where many children had not corrupted their wayes as men of the world had yet they were all miserably destoyed thus also in the terrible destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah all the little children therin who could not be guilty of such hainous transgressions as the Sodomistes were yet did partake of that dreadful judgment wheras at another time God in his conviction of Jonah why he would not destroy that great City of Nineveh useth this Argument Jonah 4. 11. to spare that place because there were more then sixscore thousand persons that could not discern between their right hand and lest If then a man should give liberty to his humane affections to expostulate why these tender babes that knew nothing of their fathers sinnes should be involved in such sad calamities with their ungodly parents how hardly would he keep within the bounds of sobriety and modesty Thus it is about this Doctrine of original sinne whereby we are all in our very birth exposed to eternal damnation Some call it a rigid and cruel Doctrine and all because they judge of God according to their own affections But as Bellarmine well observeth in the dispute about the state
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
hath made thee a child of such special favour and mercy SECT IX Of the state of Infants that die in their Infancy before they are capable of any Actual Transgressions and that die before Baptisme THe next particular in order to be treated upon is concerning the state of those Infants who die in their Infancy before they are capable of any actual transgression These having only original sinne upon them what may we conclude about their final estate for we will take for granted that the Doctrine of the Lutherans is to be exploded who hold that Infants have actual sinnes and that some do partake of actual grace this is repugnant to reason and experience Now to proceed more orderly in this point we are to take notice of these ensuing particulars First That it is one thing to be a child of wrath by nature and another thing to be reprobated for ever by God never to be admitted into his favour When the Apostle calleth us children of wrath the meaning is not as if there were a final and total rejection from all grace for then the meaning would be that all men are damned which is manifestly contradicted by many places in Scripture Though therefore all Infants are by nature the children of wrath yet all are not reprobated though all deserve to be damned yet all are not actually damned Secondly We are to know that those who hold some Infants dying in their original sinne to be damned do yet acknowledge that it is as Austin calleth it mitissima omnium poena the mildest of all punishments because they have no actual sinnes joyned with their original to encrease the torments of hell It is true we told you original sinne in the nature of it is very great and hainous even so great that none are able to express the loathsomness thereof yet because it hath this diminishing circumstance that it is not voluntary personally in an Infant therefore we may conclude that they have lesser torments in hell then Adult persons For that there are degrees of torments in hell some punished more extreamly then others is acknowledged by all though some learned men question whether there be any degrees of glory in heaven Thirdly As for the Doctrine of the learned about the state of Infants dying in their Infancy there are several opinions Some hold that all Infants dying so whether in the Church or out of the Church whether of believing or unbelieving parents are saved They think this opinion doth most suit with the goodness and mercy of God of this opinion are not only the Heterodox Doctors but even learned Junius in his answer to Puccius Zuinglius also is alledged for this Others they make a distinction of Infants dying in their Infancy For either they die without Baptisme or with Baptisme if without Baptisme then they conclude of their damnation and in this rigid way Austin went and many follow him yea Austin thought that if they died without the Sacrament of the Lords Supper also for at that age it was generally held that both the Sacraments were necessary to salvation and therefore both to be applyed to Infants But then for these Infants who die partakers of Baptisme they concluded undoubtedly of their salvation this being their Doctrine that Baptisme doth wash away original sinne The Papists they all agreeing in this likewise that Baptism is necessary necessitate medii to salvation either really or in voto in desire and because an Infant dying without Baptisme cannot have a desire thereunto Hence they conclude of eternal death as a punishment unto such yet Elisius a Papist in his piorum clypeus c. Quest 10. Art 3. is very bold saying that opinion which many Divines and the Church holdeth concerning the state of Infants dying without Baptisme according to the ordinary law est saâ—â—dura onerosa is very hard and burdensome and not conformable to the precepts of Christ which are sweet and easy and therefore he alledgeth Gerson and Cajetan for this opinion which he is so farre from judging heretical that he calls it pietati conformis but generally the Papists go otherwise But then they differ amongst themselves Some of them as Catharinus place Infants so dying in a terrestrial Paradise where they have a natural though not a supernatural happiness Opus de statu parv Others make their condition more miserable viz. that they have the privative part of eternal death though not the positive they have the poena damni the punishment of loss though not of sense they are shut out from enjoying God but yet they say this will not work any sorrow in them because they know that they were not in a capacity for enjoying the face of God as say they a Country Peasant is not grieved because he is not a King because he never was in any probability for such a dignity But as a Popish Writer Flor. Conrius Archip. Thuani observeth confuting his own party and rigidly following Austin in a Tractate joyned to Jansenius his Works These Infants saith he knowing that they are shut from the face of God must needs be exceedingly grieved because in Adam they had a capacity to enjoy God even as a poor man may mourn that he is not a King when his ancestors had a right to it but sinfully lost it and this is the case of all Infants so that it is a meer figment that many Papists have to make an half hell and a semi-damnation as if we might be deprived of Gods favour and not be positively damned It is true here also the Papists are divided Bellarmine maketh five divers opinions concerning the state of dying Infants and he joyneth with those that hold they have inward sorrow in that eternal death but yet not so great as to be called hell fire or the worm of conscience For this end they write and speak so much of a limbus Infantum a border or fringe as it were in hell where Infants are all disposed being without the Vision of God yet not tormented with boddy pain but there is no Scripture for such a place and therefore we leave this limbus to these limbatis pontificiis who love to enlarge their limbos and simbrias as one saith Lastly There are others and they distinguish of Infants dying either they are such as are within the Covenant and are of believing parents and of such they conclude their salvation for they look upon their federation as an external sign of their election but then for all such as die without the Covenant the children of Pagans they say that by the Scripture they cannot conclude of any hope of salvation for them Thus you see into how many divers wayes they go who handle this Question I might adde another opinion mentioned by Vorstius Anti Bellar. in Quâ—rt Tom. Censur ad Thes Duodes of some who affirm Infants do wholly perish as beasts but saith he these are not to be accounted inter Evangelicos amongst the Evangelical Churches