complaint of the Elect in the Scripture as it were accusing God that he shews all his power to heap prosperity upon the wicked that all things goe well with them that things which they wish for come to pass beyond their hopes and that no disasters blast their pleasures and their joyes Likewise the most excellent Poet falls out with his gods because his Mistress having sworn by them being perjur'd kept the same face which she had before that she being perjur'd had as long hair as before that she had the same Roses in her cheeks the same neat foot the same fair and clear eyes after she had injur'd the gods as she had before she swore Nay after she had tyed her self by so many execrations she became fairer and fairer And certainly the supposition of the Roman Law granted a great many who were prisoners with the Enemy dead in a civil sense who were notwithstanding in good health Therefore it is apparent that neither suppositions of Law nor intentions of mysterie could any jot indammage nature nor that the imputation of Adams sin which is altogether mystical and spiritual was the cause of Plagues Fevers and other diseases which Nature causes in men but that they happen by reason of vitious matter and the frame of their creation which is subject to corruption CHAP. III. The natural death of men arises from the nature of man which is mortal nor is caus'd by the condemnation of death decreed against Adam which is the legal death and is meant spiritually not naturally ANd it is the fashion of all Inconveniences that one draws another there are not those wanting who affirm That if Adam had not sinn'd men should never have dyed as if immortality which is aeternal life and which onely a new Creation could beget as only having the power of immortality in it could have been bestowed upon men by the force and vertue of the first Creation which by its nature is subject to corruption and death and that men should not have dyed who as the Schools say are naturally corruptible and were created mortal Nay say they God said to Adam Eat not of the tree of good and evil for on that day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death Therefore gather they If death was given as a punnishment to Adam on that day wherein he transgressed the Law of God Adam should have never dyed if he had never sinn'd But that consequence is utterly denied for although they die which kill therefore they which do not kill are not immortal Those that are guilty and not guilty of blood come to a certain end by death This is the difference 'twixt both their deaths that those that are upright 〈◊〉 of good life die simply naturally those that dye by order of Law are said to dye a two-fold death naturally and legally a natural death and that which is can'd legal and civil by the condemnation of the Law Truly whether a man by the sentence of the Judge be strangled or be beheaded or dye upon the rack he is first to be thought dead a natural death as being dead by natural causes as stopping or cutting the passages of his breath Again because to this nature a condemnation by Law is added he is said for the way of his death to have dyed a second and a civil death The same is to be thought to have happened to Adam being condemned by the Law of God which happen'd to other men condemned by the Laws of men Adam should have dyed a natural death and by a cause meerly natural since he was made up of matter corruptible and mortal Adam dyed likewise a legal death by the condemnation of the Law at which time he broke the Law of God The natural death of Adam followed the natural sin of Adam and the infirmity of his corruption springing from the corruptible matter whereof he was made Legal sin made the legal death of Adam There was a mystical cause of that mystical effect which only could be conceiv'd by spirit and reason This shall be evidently prov'd by Adam himself God had said to Adam Whatsoever day then eatest thou shalt die the death Therefore Adam is thought to have died the very same day the very same minute wherein he transgressed the Law of God And yet Adam died neither naturally nor bodily that minute or that day For we know that he liv'd Nine hundred years after he sinned Therefore we shall understand that Adam dyed when he transgressed the Law of God a legal and a spiritual death which only could be conceiv'd in thought Adam dyed a legal spiritual death when he transgressed the Law of God Adam died a natural and a corporeal death when he had liv'd Nine hundred and thirty years and in that set hour where the natural bounds of his life was fixed But we shall more easily understand that Adam dyed the death and that a spiritual death was added to his natural if we review other condemnations decreed by God both against Adam and against Eve and against the Serpent after and for the transgression of Adam This punishment was decreed for Adam after his sin In labour shalt thou eat of the earth all the dayes of thy life But God had plac'd Adam before he sinned in Paradise that he might cultivate it Therefore that he might labour and manure the ground in Paradise before he sinn'd and that by his labour he might eat of it as he did labour and manure it and by his labour did eat of it after his sinne Observe here labour both before and after sin Labours before sin according to the nature of agriculture natural labours after sin by a mystical condemnation which only could be conceived in thought Such is that which the Lord said to Eve I will multiply thy sorrows and thou shalt bring forth with pain and shalt be in the power of thy husband and he shall be Lord over thee The Lord multiplyed the sorrows of the woman when according to the condemnation he added spiritual and mystical griefs to those which were natural by which a woman is naturally torn when she brings forth God multiplyed the subjection of the woman under the power of her husband when he added the condemnation by Law to that natural Law by which the nobler sex hath dominion over the inferiour But chiefly its worth taking notice of what God decreed against the Serpent and what punishment he appointed for him for tempting Eve with eating of the forbidden fruit Because thou hast done this saith the Lord to the Serpent thou shalt goe upon thy belly and shalt eat dust all the dayes of thy life but this was naturally in the Serpent at his creation to creep and crawl that the Serpent should goe upon his belly and eat the dust for God before sin nay the fifth day of the Creation created all manner of creeping things of which sort was the Serpent and chief of them
Israel is placed in the third place betwixt the Egyptians the Assyrians as also that he is a blessing in the midst of the earth that Holy earth which God is said here to have blessed Therfore we may here see the Egyptian and Assyrian placed on this side and that side according to the number of the Sons of Israel and placed neer the banks of the Tribes of the Jews That the Sons of Adam or the Jews were separated from the Egyptians and the Assyrians betwixt whom being placed they are parted from them by the Rivers Nilus and Euphraies is briefly set down in that Geographick Table which is inserted in the third Chapter of this Book Therefore the Sons of Adam are set apart in the Song of Moses The Nations divided by interposition of the Jews are the Egyptians and Assyrians Gentileâ— The Jews are called the sons of Adam upon the same account as Adam is called the father of the Jews Isaiah 43. God reproâ—ing Israel in that Chapter for their sin objects this to him Thy father sinned first Which the Prophet meant of the father of the Jews and not of the Gentiles for he spake onely to Israel and for that reason he said Thy father O Israel who was not likewise the father of the Gentiles that first father of the Jews is without doubt Adam because there was no sinner before him nor none after him can be understood But let us hear Hosea the Interpreter of Isaiah in the sixth Chapter of his Prophesie where God layes the same reproach against the Jews They sayes he have transgressed my Covenant as Adam did Adam then as he was the Father of the Jews so was he the Prototype of the Jews sin according to whose example the Jews were sinners begotten a sinful by father transgressed the Covenant of God and as Adam is the first Father of the Jews so the Jews are all the sons of Adam as likewise Adam was the son of God and derived from God Wo be to the Nations that riseth up against my kinred Judah sung when he had overcome the Nations Wo be to the Gentiles who rise up against the Jews On the contrary The Gentiles were called strangers who did not derive themselves from God and Adam to which strangers and Gentiles it was not lawful for the Jews to approach Act. 10. It is abominable to a Jew to be joynedor draw nigh to a stranger that is to a Gentile besides they were called by the Jews strangers unknown because they were aliens not onely from the Nation but family of the Jews nor were not onely received as brothers into the Holy Cities Ephes 7. The sons of strangers shall build the walls Isaiah 60. and in the 61 Chap. And strangers shall stand up and feed their cattel and the sons of strangers shall be labourers and dressers of vines Which ought to be understood of the servants of the Iews or their hirelings to which adde six hundred such which you may every where finde in holy Writers But not onely by kinred and exposition of kinred did God distinguish the Iews from the Gentiles but would have them different in the species it self He chused it for his inheritance the kinred of Iacob whom he loved Psalm 47. Where observe that the kin of the Iews is distinguished from the kin of the Gentiles whom God did neither love nor chuse for his inheritance Certainly the Philosophers make the brures a distinct species from men and with the holy Writers the species of the Iews is distinct from that of the Gentiles whom you shall every where read confusely mentioned with beasts and esteemed beasts in regard of the Iews who by excellency are called men or by a more excellent title are called the men of God You shall finde the species of the Iews peculiarly made and formed by God in Adam you shall finde the species of the Gentiles promiscuously created with the rest of the creatures in the same day of Creation which is diligently to be observed that a day did not distinguish them whom the nature of their Creation did not distinguish The Iews were properly and apart from all other things created the frame and work of the second Creation in Adam the Gentiles properly were the promiscuous buds of the first Creation together with all things else created and the off-spring of that earth which likewise brought forth other creatures Therefore did David call upon all Nations in these words Hear all you Natious hearken all you inhabitants of the earth and ye sons of men David spoke palpable to the Gentiles sons of men the Inhabitants of all the earth whom he likewise calls born upon the earth to distinguish them from the Jews who were not born upon the earth or born from the earth as the Gentiles who were not created in the beginning of things but form'd out of the clay in Adam Furthermore the Psalmist comparing here the Gentiles to foolish beasts sayes They were made like to them who like beasts were allotted to death to eternal death from which they should not return to life their graves are their houses for ever sayes the Psalm as also in the same place they shall not see light for ever likewise David distinguishes the Jews from them in the same Psalm in which he exhorts them not to fear those beasts born upon the earth who should sometime be governed by the Jews The just shall have power over them in the morning the just are the Jews of whom we spoke before that power of the Jews upon the Nations as also that morning shall be expounded in their own places This Psalm has given us a reason why the Iews ought not to fear these earth-born Gentiles of the first Creation in the words following immediately Their help shall grow old in the grave from their glory but God shall redeem my soul from hell David mixes his soul with the souls of the Iews none of the Gentiles sayes he shall redeem his soul God shall redeem the souls of the Iews when he shall receive the Iews or at such time as he shall receive the ejected Iews the Gentiles shall rise to eternal death or which is the same they shall die eternally by the fate of their Creation the Iews shall rise again to eternal life or which is the same they shall live eternally by the prerogative of their regeneration Therefore let the Jews who shall receive eternal life little regard the Gentiles destind to eternal death So farre were the Gentiles different in relation and kindred from the Jews as those divers species of creatures in unknown Countries are from those which we know so likewise were there more Nations unknown to the Jews than were known that is to say in those Countries which the Jews knew not Nor were these Nations only unknown to the Jews but likewise to their Fathers I say to their Fathers who were deriv'd from Adam Which God having a regard to threatens the Jews
here not of that death which is naturally riveted to mans corruption but of that only which follow'd the nature of Adams sin and which by mystical imputation passed from the death of Christ upon all men And Christs death was call'd a transient death as the sin of Adam was call'd a transient sin Death says the Apostle passed upon all men that he might intimate that he had nothing here to do with that death which by their natural corruption is naturally inherent to them and happens to them naturally but onely of that which in the expiation of Adams sin by the death of Christ passes upon all men But that you may yet have a clearer light shine into your eyes take good notice to what in the same place presently follows Death reign'd from Adam tâ—ll Moses Death reign'd from Adam and that Law which Adam brake until Moses and that Law which was in force from Moses till Christ Christ dying extinguish'd all Law both that of Adam and Moses his Law Blotting out says the Apostle Col. 2. the seal of the decree which was against us for it was contrary to us and taking it away nayl'd it to his crosse That bond or decree which was against us was the condemnation of death decreed by the Law and obligation against all men in the sin of Adam For judgement from one became condemnation as it is written Rom 5. For that condemnation hung over all mens heads and reign'd over them from Adam til Moses and that time layd a tie of Law upon all men Nor did death properly as I said before reign upon all men because no man properly dyed for the sin of Adam but properly the condemnation of death which reigned over them was that which by the death of Christ was blotted out taken away and nailed to the Crosse God appointed then Adam and Moses the known limits and times for Adams sin or to that death or condemnation of death which was decreed by that sin But the same God appointed no limits no times either to sin naturally inherent or to death which by natural default is inherent to all persons Sin naturally inherent was before the Law and Adam since the creation and beginning of things which is without beginning Natural sin reign'd after Moses and after legal death of Adam and Moses 〈◊〉 the same death reign'd and shall reign to the end of ages which cannot be numbred The same natural death St. Paul meant first to the Corinth chap 15. The last enemy that shall be destroyed says he is death Which death cannot be understood of death deserv'd by the sin of Adam For when Moses was dead that was destroyed Death reign'd upon Adam till Moses they must then be understood of a natural death the destruction of which God has deferr'd till the end of things The last enemy which shall be destroyed is death For natural and inherent death is not yet destroyed which follows the nature of its natural and inherent sin These two shall we force indivisibly till the end of time natural sin and natural death nor shall they be destroyed but when the world is destroyed Therefore the Apostle did not joyn these two which he handled apart and which the order of things set at a distance that is sin Imputed and sin Naturally inherent death reigning by the imputation of sin and death naturally following sin naturally inherent The one treatise was spiritual and mystical the other material and natural The Apostle â—ivides that spiritual and mystical subject from the material and natural to shew that there was no need of the traduction of Adam material and natural towards the imputation which was mystical and spiritual which he more openly declares Rom. 5. where he compares the obedience of Christ with the disobedience of Adam and the imputation which did abound from the sin of one Adam to the condemnation of death with the imputation of grace which is given from above of which is given to the satisfaction of life in the offering up of one Jesus Christ which are nothing material or natural but rellish altogether of spirit and mystery And that the compafison of Adam and Christ may be absolute Adam ought to be imputed to men after the same manner spiritually and mystically as Christ is imputed The best Divines confesse that Paul spoke properly in the 5 chapter to the Romans of the guilt and imputation of Adams sin and considered sin not as the fountain of humame corruption but as it involves Adam and in him all men in the same guilt For the Apostle did not write that men were corrupted in Adum but sinn'd in him That they sinn'd in Adam by imputation not since Adam by imputation That they sinn'd â—irtually in Adam not by vertue of seed but by vertue of imputation And Adam is ordained in that place the head of all men not naturally but mystically And one excellent Divine speaks very fitly to this place By natural reason says he It cannot be that all men who were not yet born sinn'd in Adam Unlesse Adam in his moral existence be supposed the Prince of all men For which cause the Apostle says in the same chapter not of those sins by which Adam was corrupted naturally and by which all men are naturally corrupted but of one offence one sin one disobedience which deserv'd a guilt to Adam and in him to all men and which not actually but by imputation pass'd upon all men By which means says Cardinal Bellarmin That disobedience might be communicated to all men And the famous Gamach of Sorbon We grant says he That the actual sin of Adam as actual was not in men but by imputatign The Law or the transgression of the Law caus'd the imputation of that sin Nature begat the real inherence of habitual sin which is wickednesse of Nature Nature and Law are quite different in the scheme of things God the Creator of all things produced nature The same God the restorer or second creator made the Law And as nature could not contract a guilt from anothers fault as the violation of the Law might doe so neither guilt by the violation of the Law and by anothers fault could corrupt Nature A moral cause such as was the disobedience of Adam could not produce a natural corruption Therefore much lesse could the imputation of that disobedience produce that corruption Thaâ— imputation which is an effect meerly spiritual oâ— that moral cause and a cause mystical arising from a moral Therefore the Apostle coupled not these things thus dis-joyned and which can no way agree one with another Nature and Law Sin by Nature and Guilt by Law in this Treatise which he here intended concerning that sin which in the transgression of Adam was imputed to all men Nay no where in St. Paul or in any other sacred author can be read or gather'd that the natural traduction of Adam did any way conduce not to say was necessary to the imputation of Adams
sin CHAP. VI. How the sin of Adam was cause of mens salvation not condemnation Since the death of Christ no mans sin is imputed to another but every own bears his own sin THat question which is commonly disputed concerning original sin is intricate dark and difficult upon presupposition that all men were born of Adam Upon my supposition if God give me leave I will make it so plain and open that we shall never have any difficulty There are some that throw hatred upon God according to the first supposition in saying that his Law was too rigid and cruel in that he imputed that which was done by Adam without the knowledge of men before they had a being to all mankind and in that the punishments for that sin were so heavy that the whole nature of man was over-run with punishments and plagues For by no humane Laws was there ever any successors appointed of others crimes Let Children says Plato not suffer for the wickedness of their Parents It seem'd a cruel and pernicious president to the Senate of Rome to destroy Cassius's children when Cassius the Offender himself was destroyed people who did endeavour to settle such ways of punishment seemed to do things worthy the hatred of men and the anger of the Gods But this seems to exceed all kind of cruelty that after a miserable and tormenting life men should be cast into a burning lake and give their enlivened liver again to be gnawn by worms and there in weeping and gnashing of teeth to die and never die for ever and beyond eternity To which inconveniences that from my supposition I may briefly and clearly answer and stop every mouth speaking irreverently of God It is before sufficiently shown that the imputation of Adams sin added nothing to the nature of man given to corruption which is meerly mystical and is only conceived in spirit therefore as to nature that imputation added no new businesse We must here consider what damage men receiv'd in this according to mystery We must first resolve that the Apostle Paul where he says in the 10 to the Romans That Christ is the end of the Law Meant that Christ was the end of all mysteries both which were commanded by the Law and contained in the books of the Prophets In which signification the Law is very frequent and is taken for the whole Bible Let it be so saith the Lord to St. John refusing to baptize him for thus it becoms us to fulfill all-truth Truth in that place is the mysterie For Christ fulfilled all mysteries which he perfected and accomplished the ends of them Besides mystery is called truth because all mysteries ordain'd by God lead to truth Nor is mysterie an empty name and a bare title or fiction without its reallity and species Yea it accomplishes the chiefest thing of all in that it begets truth salvation and immortality to men which shall be cleared in its own place Christ was the chief end of that mysterie by which the sin of Adam was imputed to men that to them the justice of Christ which is the death of Christ might be imputed You must also take notice that Christ is Jesus who is the Saviour to whom the destroyer is oppos'd and that is Antichrist the destroyer of men Jesus came to save men not to destroy them But as Christ was ordained the end to the salvation of man their were mediums appointed to bring them to that end for the accomplishment of the forementioned salvation The imputation then of the sin of Adam which brought us to that end was the cause of our salvation not our destruction Therefore that dispensation of the divine Law was first of meeknesse and bounty not of wrath and crueltie by which men not knowing and being not yet born had the guilt of Adam imputed to them For the sin of Adam was imputed to them without their knowledge that the justice of Christ might be likewise imputed to them without their knowledge which is the salvation of the Lord Sin begat Justification by the same miracle as darknesse is said to have produced light and death raised up life They are much deceiv'd who think that eternal death ensued that condemnation of death which was decreed upon the sin of Adam For I think it is sufficiently clear'd out of the Apostle Paul to the Romans whom to this purpose I cited in the former chapter that the condemnation was not eternal but bounded with some limits That it was born with Adam and ended with Moses Death reign'd from Adam to Moses says the Apostle For that death followed the fate of sin and of the father of it who begat it The sin of Adam began to reign from the transgression of the Law which I therefore call a legal sin Legal sin liv'd as long as the Law liv'd and when the Law was extinct that was likewise extinguished That legal death reign'd as long as the Law reign'd and behoved to die also when the Law died Eternity also is indefinite Legal death had its certain limits Adam and Moses beyond which it could not remain Therefore that death could not confer an eternity upon men which it self had not What then shall we sin because we are not under the Law and because there is now no condemnation remaining by the Law which may hinder our design of sinning Far be it says the Apostle And that this objection may be quite satisfied I think I shall doe very well to discover the whole mystery in order and what I have spoken apart to set down together and represent it altogether to the view Reason and holy Writ witnesses that all things are corruptible and mortal which are composed of mortal and corruptible matter And that men being made of matter mortal and corruptible by virtue of their mortal and corruptible creation could not ascend up to an incorruptible and immortal God to become themselves immortal and incorruptible God is incorruptible but men from their flesh which is their matter reap corruption Galat. 6. God is immortal The flesh savours of death Rom. 8. God is good it self Goodnesse dwels not in the flesh of man but evil is continually with it Rom. 7. Men that are in the flesh cannot please God For the flesh is enmity to God Is not subject to the Law of God nor can be And a thousand such things we read in the Scripture By which it appears the vitiousnesse of the flesh matter and creation of man ought to be redrest and that men ought to be transformed to new creatures that of evil they might become good of corruptible incorruptible of mortal immortal and possesse the Kingdom of God Which flesh and blood which is corruption cannot possesse Cor. 1. Chapter 15. Men that were to be transform'd and new created behov'd to die as we have shown you before And God decreed that they should all die in his Christ who in forming a humane body and dying for them by proxie might alter
the forms of men and change them into new creatures Which could not be done but by mysterie by the vertue of which they might be thought dead in Christ whose bloud had sprinkled them and as the Dyers of red colours such garments as they intend of a crimson or scarlet dye they first work them rub them and stain them with woad that they may prepare a convenient reception for red colour that fastens to the woad which is the ground of it So it behov'd men by the imputation of Adami sin first of all as it were with woad or the first ground be wrought drench'd that they might more fully suck up the bloud of Christ and after the second colouring be of a more perfect dye Therefore the imputation of Adams sin was a preparative for the susception of justice which flow'd from the bloud of Christ by which preparation all men thirsting might more earnestly seize upon his justification and receive it inwardly And as scarlet dye added to the wool drenched in takes away the stain of the woad and extinguishes the woad it self so likewise the blood of Christ cast upon the ground of Adams imputation took away the imputation of sin and utterly extinguish'd the sin it self so that by the death of Christ there is no imputation of that sin Sin was before the Law but it was not imputed when there was no Law Ro. 5 For the strength of sin is the Law Cor. 1. Chap. 15. The Law adds strength and force to sin and so has doubled sin and of sin simply so call'd made a sin imputable by Law Christ took away that imputation by Law and the Law it self The Revelation tells us of a Beast with many heads whose one head was wounded as it were to death the rest of his heads remaining but his wounds unto death was cured Sin was the two-headed beast whose one head was before the Law the other after the Law Christ dying cut off that head of sin which was after the Law and that wound unto death was not cured for that head was quite cut off and pluck'd from its neck After the death of Christ there is another head which was before the Law That sin is extinguished in the death of Christ which was imputed to Adam and in him to all men by violation of the Law which sin I call legal Since the death of Christ that sin remains which was not imputed whilst the Law was not which naturally before the Law was inherent to all which I now call natural Christ then restor'd men to that condition wherein Adam had found them into the condion of sin not imputed by the Law and men became after the destruction of that Law the very same thing before the Law was given to Adam for another mans sin is not imputed to any since the death of Christ but every one bears his own sin It is not now said as under the Gospel The faithers have eaten a sowr grape and the childrens teeth are set on edge Jer. 31. Every one dies not for the sin of Adam but every one for his own sin Every one gives an account of himself to God Rom. 14. Of himself not of Adam of his sowr sin in his own behalf not of the strong sin of Adam which diligently observe Every one carries his own burthen Galat. 6. And every one obtains what he does in his own body Cor. 2. chap. 5. God under the Gospel judges the secrets of men Rom. 2. The secrets of men that is their proper faults their belov'd vices every ones own sin and no mans else imputed to them Since the death of Christ God imputes not sins done against the Law but ascribes to all men their natural sins which are not in the Law but in the flesh and which reap corruption according to the nature of corrupt flesh which savour of death in whom goodnesse dwells not but on the contrary evil cleaves to them and who not in regard of the Law but in regard of their corrupt and mortal nature can not possess the immortal and incorruptible kingdom of God The old Adam is crucified with Christ and our old legal man but our old natural man lives in us which is really ours and is not dead in the death of Christ but shall by the vertue of his resurrection sometimes be extinguished whâ—n God shall cloath us with full sanctification which shall be our full and perfect restoring and resurrection At which time our last enemy Death shall be destroy'd I saâ— natural death the reward of natural sin which so long as natural sin is in force is alwayes in men which also when the natural sin is extinguished tinguished must also be extinguished But in the mean time let it be our business continually to be in exercise of godliness and endeavouring of our sanctification that the old sin which adheres to our flesh may be extinguish'd and the justification of Christ may be reveal'd in us from faith to faith as it is written in the first of the Romans that is from sanctification to sanctification For sanctification is our true and solid faith in the concrete here meant by the Apostle not that idle and empty faith which some do urge in the abstract Let us not therefore sin because we are no more confin'd by the Law of Adam or by any punishment of death decreed since the Law of Adam after Christs death but because really and according to the nature of the business we barricado our way to eternal life and to the sight and glory of God if we indulge matter and our flesh and extinguish not sin bred in us No thought of cruelty then as to the Law of God nothing dissonant or inconvenient shall arise in our thoughts by the imputation of that legal sin of Adam which ensued upon that transgression if all this business according to my supposition be taken as a mystical institution that it might prepare a fit ground for the reception of the justice of Christ which is the sanctification and salvation of men and their chief happiness for according to this mystery any thing which might have seem'd in God cruel against mankind seems rather to have been design'd for the salvation of man CHAP. VII Why Adam who sinn'd in the nature of a head was not likewise punish'd in the nature of the head The sin of Adam was disobedience Natural and Legal sin was the two-fold barricado against men to shut them out of Paradise Christ dying broke the barr of the Law Christ rising again and sanctifying us shall also break the natural sin EXaminers use to be more severe in the punishing of the actor than in the punishing of the complices and partakers which all Lawes teach us both natural civil and Law of Nations Nor needs this any proof for it is already so often prov'd that it would be clouded to cite all proofs Only that Law held not in Adam who although he sinn'd as the
head yet he was not punish'd as the head for his sin For if all sin and wickedness all feavers and plagues and eternal death it self as it is believ'd enterd into the world and pass'd upon all men Why was not Adam readiest to sin amongst all men being the head and cause of all sins by reason of his transgression Why was not he seized himself with troops and companies of all manner of plagues and fevers And why was not that author of eternal death himself given to eternal death Yea why did Adam if we will except his single transgression become famous for no other sin Yea why did he enjoy his health so well Why enjoyd he a long life nine hundred and thirty years Why has none of the Divines sent him to Hell that amongst the torments of the wicked and the damned he might be punisht with eternal death But if on the contrary no man was ever partaker or conscious with Adam of Adams sin yea if all men were purer from that sin then Children are free from sin as being not born when Adam dam sinn'd What was the reason thar men should become more wicked by that sin than Adam himself For it is certain that a great many men have been thought more famous for the sin of Adam then Adam himself were sore handled their life short and sickly and at last thrown down to hell there to die an eternal death This darkness from my supposition I will make as clear as day if we consider the sin of Adam either against the Law which was a legal sin or by default of his Nature subject to corruption which is a natural sin If we consider Adam sining by a legal sin or against the Law which is the same thing we shall conceive him not only as to himself but also in regard of all men and to all mankind whom he did represent by force and virtue of which representation he deserved the imputation of that sin to himself and all Mankind For as an Ambassadour who yeilds up a people to a conquering Prince in the name of his Country does not only bind in his rendition himself but all the people of the City whom the Ambassadour represents So Adam in regard that he did represent all mankind did not only bind himself but all mankind to the decree which went out against his sin and made them and himself partakers of the same sin And as in the businesse of rendition which the Ambassadour does in the behalf of his Country all are equally obliged to the Laws of it as well the Ambassadour as all men of the Country Just so in the businesse of Adams sin all mankind did equally fall into the imputation And as this rendition according to the School men is neither lesse nor more in one than another nor of all those that are yeilded none is more engaged to it than another Iust so the imputation of the sin of Adam admits not of a more or a lesse nor can the sin of Adam be thought to be imputed more or lesse to any man that ever was or is or shall be And Lucans expression might be very fit in this case It stains and equals all Yea Adam and all men that ever were made or shall be have suffered alike for that sin for all have equally endured the condemnation of death decreed against that sin and all those men were thought to be dead alike according to that legal spiritual and mystical death which ensued upon that legal spiritual and mystical sin If we consider Adam sinning in the default of his Nature given to corruption which is natural sin then we shall conceive him in regard of himself not in regard of all men And in that regard the more that Adam sinn'd to himself in that natural sin he gain'd himself more natural evil and punishment and so had fall'n into more grievous diseases And indeed because natural sin is receptive of more or lesse according to mans nature more or lesse corrupt as likewise all natural punishments admit of more or lesse and all natural evils which ensue upon that natural sin And as Adam beyond all other men was of a lesse corrupt nature by the prerogative of his creation which he had from God himself so sinn'd he lesse than other men in natural sin And was lesse punished for his natural sin and suffered fewer evils than other men suffered yea fewer than they for the self same sin now suffer Let us examine this businesse on the right ballance of reason that it may appear beyond all controversie that the sins of all men and all those evils and plagues which punish men and their eternal death which hinders them from eternal life to have flow'd from the fault of their own nature inherent to them and not from the sin of Adam Whence I pray that thirst of blood by which one man is a wild beast to another one man kills another is it not from black choler with which mans liver swells whence all those incestuous marriages contrary to Law whence unlawfull venerie and those wild lusts by which men run upon beasts rashly not from perverse and corrupt lust which is the itch of perverse and corrupt nature whence rapine and theft whence war and strife amongst you says St. James in his 4 Chapter of his Epistle are they not from your lusts And hence we chiefly gather that such vices are altogether tyed and addicted to the substance of men since the same substance is to men and beast and men and beast have the same vices Hence it is they call murtherers cruel persons Tigers Bears Lions Lustfull persons Goats Backbiters Dogs Thieves Kites and Eagles tallons Belly-gods hogs c. Because we believe that the sin of Adam was imputed to beasts and engendred such vices also in them Whence is it likewise that men have their health so that they are girt with the spleen as with a girdle whence have they the Kings evil whence bleer'd eyes their guts ake the roots of their hearts are perished whence have they these continual uncertain or Periodical Fevers whence so many sorts of the Gout and either the stone or gravel in the Kidneys which occasions a strangurie and other several sorts of diseases by which mens bodies are tormented are they not from the ill dispositions of mens bodies which are higher or lesse grievous in humane bodies as the badnesse of their affections is either lightned or remitted But certainly varieties of sins or health which make men either ill or diseased do plainly shew that all this vitiousness springs from our nature and from the substance of men which as it is diversly affected to divers by either lesse or more it is corrupted and troubled Neither could the legal sin of Adam ever bring any such thing to passe For it is but one and not vicious and passed not upon men either more intense or more remiss but made all men alike guilty and had made all
men alike evil and alike bad and had put all men in the same kind and condition for sin and death if the sins and diseases of men had taken their originals from that one and one kind of sin It is objected to this that Adam when he transgressed the Law did sin naturally for he naturally desired the forbidden fruit and naturally did eat of it Therefore the sin of Adam was natural not legal only And therefore not only by mystical and spiritual imputation but by Nature also and traduction from Adam it passed upon all men I answer that Adam did not therefore sin because he naturally desired the fruit and naturally did eat it but because he desired it against Gods command and eat it contrary to his Law The Apostle calls the sin of Adam disobedience moral not natural or as there was a formality not a materiality in that sin I say a formality morality and mystery which alone was imputed to Adam and to all men and for which he gained death to himself and to all men The nature and materiality of that sin was properly no sin For of it self and naturally it was no sin to covet and eat that fruit which was fair to the eye and good to eat as Moses witnesses of it The force of that sin consisted only in the transgression and disobedience of Adam which was the formality and morality of that sin Besides that sin was two manner of ways imputed to Adam Either in that by his corrupt mind and will he transgressed the Law of God or in so much as corporally or by eating he broke it In so far as Adam by his corrupted mind and will broke the Law which was the formality and the spirituality of his sin he deserv'd that condemnation ordained by the Law of God so dyed the death a moral and a spiritual death which Christ really and in his body suffered for Adam In so far as Adam in his body transgressed he was in his body thrust out of Paradise lest perhaps says Genesis he should put out his hand and take the tred of life and live for ever Both these happened to Adam by this transgression death and thrusting out of Paradise but both significatively parabolically and by similitude All men dyed by the sin of Adam by the same spiritual and mystical death by which Adam dyed All men were thrown out of Paradise not actually and corporally as Adam was but significatively and mystically The nature of Man corrupt and subject to death debarr'd men of the Paradise of God which is eternal life The Law given to Adam did double barricado the way to this Paradise and added strength to that sin as says the second Epistle to the Corinthians which that sin brought to passe making it exceeding sinfull as the Epistle to the Rom. speaks And man had two stops to eternal life the default of his nature and the rigour of Gods Law which was drawn and offered the sharp edge to all that should offer to enter into Paradise The nature of men given to corruption was the first and material stop their own impediment which hindered mans entrance into immortality The Law violated by Adam was the second and the spiritual hindrance not an innate but an impediment by another which shut up Paradise and which not naturally nor by traduction from Adam but which by imputation spirit and meer fiction of divine mysteries was objected to all men that upon the same account they might lose eternal life Christ dying for us took away the second spiritual hindrance which by Adams sin was against us The first natural and material stop yet remains and shall be removed by Christ also when he shall arise again and sanctifie us All that are dead and are mortal are thrown out of Paradise and shut out of eternal life by the sin of Adam mystically and parabolically that by the resurrection of the same Christ they might enter into the same Paradise and enjoy eternal life not mystically nor Parabolically but truly and really all I mean that should be chosen to it CHAP. VIII All men have sinned according to the similitude of Adams sin Infants have sinned according to the same similitude THe Apostle writes that Adam was a type of Christ Christ was then a prototype of Adam but by way of similitude of Adam with Christ his prototype And in regard as Christ who was to restore what Adam had lost was not the last of all men to comprehend men that were only past in his grace and justification no more needed Adam to be the first of all men to involve all men that were after him only in the imputation of his sin And as the death of Christ the prototype was imputed to all men both who liv'd in Christs time and who were from all time before him and those that have been since Christ and shall be born to the end of all time by the same type and similitude of the Prototype the sin of Adam was imputed to all men those who liv'd in the dayes of Adam and who were born before Adam and shall be born to eternity and the one sin of Adam caus'd all men both since and before to be condemned And that was it which the Apostle spoke very palpably in the same chapter 15. Rom. where he says That death reign'd from Adam unto Moses upon those also that had not sinned according to the similitude of the transgression of Adam Upon those who had not sinn'd which words are no doubt to be understood of those men that were born before Adam Men that were born before Adam did sin The men that were born after him sinn'd Men that were sinners according to the similitude of the transgression of Adam born before Adam Men that were born after Adam sinn'd acording to his similitude Which to open up in order we must observe that never no man sinned actually as Adam sinned but that it was actually imputed to all for no man as I said before did actually eat the fruit of the tree of good and evil which according to the common opinion no mortal men ever saw nor could see for the tree was remov'd from the sight of all men so soon as Adam was thrust out of Paradise But if no man could actually sin as Adam did and yet all sinn'd as Adam did it remains that all sinn'd according to the similitude of that sin by the imputation of it Certainly all Orthodox Divines agree upon what I said before That to impute to any one anothers sin is to esteem him as the committer of it In which it is requisit that one of the persons have not committed it otherwise not another mans sin but his own shall be imputed to him And it is certain that the adventitious sin of Adam was imputed to all men We must therefore think that all men were esteem'd in the same condition as if they had perform'd that sin not actually for then no mans sin
there be a natural similitude of all mens sins with the sins of Adam yet the Apostle meant not that material and natural similitude here wherein we may also communicate with the beasts according to whose similitude all men sin naturally and materially by reason of their commmon nature and matter St. Paul meaned only that mystical and spiritual similitude which only man is capable of Men I say who have also a spiritual and mystical communion with Christ to which communion to say that beasts could come were wickedness CHAP. IX How the imputation of the sin of Adam was imputed backward and upon the predecessors of Adam by a mystery provided for their salvation How the predecessors of Adam could be sav'd BUt how could say they the sin of Adam be imputed backward And how could death reign back upon them that were already dead Nor ought it seem a wonder to any that the sin of Adam was imputed backward considering what I have often inculcated That the faith of Abraham according to the consent of all Divines was imputed to the Predecessors of Abraham though dead and that Christ was imputed to all both before himself and Abraham though dead and buried But yet it will seem prodigious that death reign'd back from the imputation of the sin of Adam considering that no death could happen to men but that which descended upon men by the seed of Adam which as they say became mortal and begat death since Adam sinn'd For grant this and it is impossible to imagine that death pass'd upon all men by the seed and sin of Adam because it is impossible to be done and impossible to be conceiv'd that Adam did beget his predecessors But if we consider that death which passed from Adam upon all men to be mystical and spiritual which not materially nor naturally but mystically and spiritually returned upon all men that will be very clear For as we conceive that death invaded Adam and all after him that very hour when he sinn'd Why should we not think that death seiz'd also all before and all after And if there be any thing of impossibility to be spoken of the men that were before Why should there not be the same impossibility in those that come after Yea in this mysterie their should be a greater regard had to those who were before than those that came after Because those which are dead and are not are in some condition thought to be because they were certainly but those who are to come never were and it may be never will have any being The Apostle tels us plain That the kingdom of death did vanish after the destruction of the Mosaical Law or since Christ which is the same Let no man doubt notwithstanding that death reign'd upon all men who were begotten since Christ to our times and upon those that shall be begotten after us to the end of all time The question is Since which time did death reign over those that were born since Christ and shall be born after him Certainly not since the death of Christ as is said For Christ dying destroyed the kingdome of Death Since that time then when the kingdome of death was in force From Adam and since that time wherein Adam and all men in Adam deserv'd to die for their transgression who by Cassiodorus are elegantly said To have deserv'd death before they tasted of life Death then reign'd from Adam upon men that were to be and were not yet born which if it could any otherwise than mystically and meerly intellectually let every body imagine And what hinders us to have the same thoughts of men that are past as we have of those men that were to come And we grant that death reigned mystically upon one and that it did reign likewise mystically upon the other Likewise by way of mystery Parabolically and in all supposition of Law there will be more reason why death should reign over those that are past than those that are not born if we call to mind the ways of Judges in Criminals with whom it is no new thing to inflict a punishment upon the dead who command the dead bodies of guilty persons to be present at judgement that according to the punishment of the Law they may suffer a civil death which by a natural one they have prevented But what Law is so cruel as to ordain any such thing concerning men that never were What Law condemns men not born to die Let us therefore think that a mystical and spiritual death reign'd upon all the predecessors of Adam Just as the Civil Law presupposes those that have dyed a natutural death may be also condemned to a civil death But any one may answer Those guilty persons dyed a deserved civil death by the sentence of the Judges for breach of the civil Law But those men who dyed before Adam and never did violate any Law because never none was given to them how could they deserve any such thing at Gods hands and what such barbarous Law allow'd the Custome to involve dead men in guilt kill them over again and add a legal death to their natural death by a Law which they never transgress'd Let us never have any such thought that there is any such injustice in God or any cruelty in his Law God forbid that any such thing should come into our minds that God should ever decree any thing that should tend to their destruction which we confuted before Whatsoever God decreed concerning men it is decreed for their salvation and if there was any thing then which seem'd to them disadvantagious God would in his own time turn it to the best Therefore God provided for those men which were before Adam that they should die by the transgression of Adam that they might again rise from the dead according to the spirit of sanctification which is in Christ They were sav'd because they perished And it had been thought a disadvantage to the mystery unlesse those who were in possibility to rise again had perished And both could be well enough performed upon them to die in Adam and rise in Christ by the mutual and reciprocal imputations of Adam and Christ mystically and spiritually understood if we conceive the condemnation of death turn'd back upon them in the same manner as we understand the absolution from condemnation by the satisfaction and death of Christ mystically and spiritually returned also Yea they do object How can ever the predecessors of Adam be sanctified and a rise up to eternal life in Christ if life eternal which is the salvation of man is granted to none but such as know God the Father and believed in Christ his Son whom the Father sent But how could they either know God the Father or believe in Christ his Son who never heard any thing neither of Father nor Son for knowlege and faith are by hearing That I may answer this according to time and place you must know that all Adams
which should be the glory of the earth The Lord would have his people encreased to a full and sufficient number of inhabitants which should be able to defend themselves from the beasts of Canaan and secure the people But if God had a double caution in this case for the comliness and security of the Land of Canaan alone although the Jews then abounded in number and were grown to be many hundred thousands What care shall we think God took in the Creation of the World for the comliness not onely of one Land but also of the Lands of the whole World lest they should be made desolate if he had created one man and one Woman from the beginning in the earth And if God would not expose many hundred thousand Jews to the beasts of one Land shall we think that he would expose one single man and woman to the heasts of all Lands Certainly if the beasts of the Land of Canaan had been so much multiplied against so many hundred thousand Jews that dwelt in 't much more should they have been multiplied against Adam and Eve being alone upon the whole earth CHAP. II. Adam was created apart from other men in that creation which is mentioned Gen. 2. Adam was thefirst and father of the Jews not of all men The framing of Adam was altogether different from the creation of the first men Eve could not be created the same day as Adam was made THe author of Genesis having absolâ—'d in the first Chapter the six dayes of the creation begins the second Chapter from the sanctification of the Sabbath which was the seventh day and rehearses what he had said in the first Chapter of the creation of the whole of which there was no more to be related But because the nation of the Jews was separate and set apart from all the Nations of the earth being elected by God That it might be to him a peculiar people of all the nations upon the earth which we prov'd our of the 7 of Deut Therefore the author of the Pentateuch who was himself a Jew whose end it was to write the original the deduction the Laws and Chronologie of his own Nation apart from the creation of the whole world and of all Nations begins the particular framing of the first Jew from whom that peculiar and choice Nation was deriv'd that is of them by whom salvation should be communicated to all Nations in Christ as to all Nations had come perdition from Adam And God fram'd Adam Gen. 2. Man that is Adam But because this Narration begins with and it is ordinarily received as a more special explanation of the creation of that man in his kind of whom Moses spake in the Ch. 1. Let us make man But they heed not that the particle and in the Hebrew is the introduction of a new matter not a continuation of that which was mention'd before such beginnings of Narrations you shall every where meet with in sacred authors yea books beginning with and as Ezechiâ—l And it came to pass in the thirtieth year And Jonas 〈◊〉 the word of the Lord came to Jonas Hence is it chiefly prefum'd that this framing of Adam was not that which is mentioned in the former Chapter of Gen. Because it is granted by all that â—haâ— first creation in the first Chapter which accoring to my supposition was the creation of the first men was compleated mone day the sixth and the last as is set down in the first Chapter But it is impossble that all those things which are set down in the second Chapter could have been transacted in that time which is receiv'd from morning to evening Therefore much lesse in the half of that sixth day in which God first oreated all creatnres then man Let us tell every minute in which God was pleased to declare that all his works were perform'd with time though he could have done them without time We shal find no such thing in the first creation of men nor the action of the creation of male and female interrupted as it is a long space betwixt the forming of Adam and Eve It is first said That God created Adam of the clay of the earth Where observe that God who in the first Chapter created man not simply of the earth but of that first matter of which he made the earth in this second Chapter fram'd Adam of the dust of the earth Observe that God I say who was in the first Chapter the Creator of man was in the second the framer of Adam For which cause God is also the framer of the Jews Isa 45. Thus says the Lord the holy One of Israel his maker The maker of Israel because the maker of Adam the first Father of Israel But of this enough already Secondly it is said That God breath'd upon the face of Adam the breath of life Thirdly He led him into Paradise Take good notice of these words of Genesis God had planted from the beginning a Paâ— adise of pleasure wherein to place man Understand by that beginning not of that time in which God made Adam but of that beginning long before which is spoken from the beginning of the first Chapter of Genesis In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth In which he likewise created men in their kind who from the beginning did inhabite that earth Certainly if this Adam had been he who was created in the beginning three dayes after the earth was created Genesis had not spoken of this Adam whom the Lord carryed into Paradise God had planted Paradise from the beginning Nay rather upon the third day he made Paradise for the third day dry land appeared and Paradise was planted and the sixth day man was created in his kind Fourthly it is written that God gave this Adam laws what he should eat what he should not eat what he should doe what he should shun Observe here narrowly no Law given to the men of the first creation which is related in the first Chapter of Genesis and no tree forbidden them And God said Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed upon earth and all trees which have in them their seed according to their kind that it may be to you for meat The tree of knowledge of good and evil was forbidden Adam the first man of the second creation which is mentioned in the second Chapter Thou mayest eat of every tree in the garden but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat For in the day that thou eatest of it thou shalt dye the death But those being divers ordinances argue different times Fifthly the Scripture stammeringly shews us That God had learn'd as it were by experience in a certain time passed That Adam being without a helper had neither till'd nor conveniently kept the Garden Therefore God said It is not convenient that man should be alone Let us make him a helper like unto himself Sixthly God
the whole Sea betwixt a grain of sand and all the sand in the shore For a drop of water and the whole Sea are things omogeneal as also a grain of Sand and the whole shore as also these are here compared according to their habitude of number and measure by which they have relation one to another But there can be no proportion betwixt a thousand years which is a body of years and a Homogeneous body These are likewise compared together according to the habitude of number and measure which have relation one to another but there can be no proportion betwixt the eternity of God and a thousand years because they are of different kinds A thousand years and that pure eternity are of several kinds because that eternity consists not of years nor is compounded of ages or times and they cannot be compared according to their habitudes and measures for they have none common to both The things which I mentioned before of the beginnings of things and of the creation of the world from eternity out of Diodorus agree very well wiâ—h these testimonies of holy Scripture That the ancient Physiologists and Historians did believe that the world was eternal as also affirm'd that men were from eternity which Diodorus peaking of the Chaldeans expounds thus That they believed that the world was eternal having no certain determinate beginning for they did not deny the beginning of the world but thought it unknown and uncertain according to that of Ecclesiasticus There is no remembrance of former things That eternity was uncertain and undeterminate Wherefore in the Bible eternity is often undeterminate As it is read Genesis 6. My spirit shall not contend with man always Eternity in that place is long after undeterminâ—d which appears by what follows And his days shall be a hundred and twenty years For God determined here the age of man a hundred and twenty years which before was far longer and undetermined so it is to be understood of that servant whose ear his Master pierced with an Awl Deut. 5. He shall seâ—ve thee for ever that is undeterminately and so long as he liâ—es I passe by a great many places of this same sorâ— Let it therefore be taken for good that the creation of the world which is said from eternity by the authority of both Testaments could by no means be undersâ—ood since Adam was made according to the definition of both ages Whether you call eternity which is reckoned from many ages and times Or whether you understand it indefinitely or undeterminatly For it is known that the time betwixt â—s and Adam is within account For the times from Adam are of a known period without the account of ages Besides there is a great deal of difference betwixt those things that preceeded the beginning of all things and those things which were before 〈◊〉 Adam Of these there is neither mention nor knowledge Of the other there is certain knowledge and memory CHAP. XIII Of the ages of creatures describâ—d by Hesiod and Ausonius Why the Histories of the first men were not known Out of Plato By the change of the Epoche The Aboriginal Nations of the world are not known I Often have wondred at the ages of creatures which Hesiod relates That the just age of a man is Ninety six The age of a Crow eight hundred and sixty four The age of a Hart three thousand three hundred and fifty six The Rooks ten thousand three hundred and sixty eight The Phoenixes ninety three thousand three hundred and twelve The Nymphs live Nine hundred thirty three thousand a hundred and twenty For he put those very ages into a Verse from a tradition far more antient as we may conjecture than Hesiod There Hesiod was antienter than Ausonius who since that time a long while did translate them in Latine Verses But Plinie thinks that but a Fable which he writes concerning the Phoenix and the Nymphs Well grant they bee fabulous notwitstanding it appears by this that Hesiod receiv'd them of a fabulous and most ancient tradition I say from that tradition which had set down the ages of Crows Harts and Rooks of which the Antients doubted not and which they could not affirm the certainty of without many and frequent experiments Neither had Hesiod a most learned and elegant old Poet vouchsaf'd to have describ'd such idle stories in such excellent Verses nor Ausonius after him a sweet and acute Poet translated them if both of them had thought that the beginning of things was to be reckon'd from Adam from whom to Hâ—siod there was not as yet passed the age of an Hart. Those Poets set down such ages such bounds to the lives of Beasts but thought that God the Judge of eternity knew all other ages namely that of the world heaven and stars Of eternity I say which in that place Ausonius sets down as a secret and known to God alone The knowledge of those eternal ages which were from the beginning was hid from men according to that decree by which he has hindred men to know all things and through which he thought it fit in his wisdom that they should be ignorant of the dispensations of time According to that of the Lord when he was ascending to heaven It is not for you to know the times which the father has put in his own power Acts. ch 1. The Egyptians according to Plato ascrib'd the cause of this ignorance to the several destructions of men of which the greatest were by fire and water the lesser by many other several ways They said in some long tract of time there were some changes and differences of things in motion both in heaven earth in some long tract of time Whence higher Countries either were consum'd with too much fire or the lower drown'd by too large effusion of showrs But the Egyptians were free from fire and floud Nile saving them from fire And such was the temper of their climate that no showr from above had ever water'd them or ever should Nor were they water'd at any time with any other water than which either flow'd over from Nilus or sprung out of the bowels of the earth And for that cause being not much subject to fire nor overwhelm'd with water some men were always preserv'd with them sometimes more sometimes lesse but never a general desolation For which reasons they reserâ—'d alone the most antient Records And that both their own actions and the actions of other Nations which were memorable were diligently set down and written in the Records kept in their Temples That the Greeks and other Nations either by Plagues sent down from heaven or being desâ—royed either by water or fire in certain space of time had lost both letters and knowledge and enter'd as it were again into their childhood beginning at their Alphabet nor knew what had been at home or abroad but through a cloud and by hear-say Therefore they believe that the head of all
dead Not that the sins of men were imputed to men but that by the damage of such things which were profitable to men those errours which they had committed might be more imputed to them so we read that for the sin of men all things that were upon the face of the earth were destroyed from men to beasts as well creeping things as the fowls of heaven Moreover for the wickednesse of the Sodomites both their Towns and themselves were destroy'd What shall I mention that for the wickedness of the Jews their earth was made iron that the heaven became brasse and fires were kindled to burn every tree both dry and green That became common by the mystical imputation of the sin of Adâ—m For the earth was curs'd for the rebellion of Adam The Serpent was accurs'd among all creatures and beasts of the field He was commanded to goe upon his belly and commanded to ear dust all the days of his life and those things which were joyn'd in no societie with Adam endur'd the condemnation of that fault This was the difference betwixt inflicting of punishments in Physical and punishments ordain'd upon the Mystical imputation of the sin of Adam That those punishments were Physical and real according to their Physical and real imputations the other Mystical and spiritually understood according to the spiritual and mystical imputation of the sin of Adam Certainly the sin of Adam added nothing to the sinfull nature of man but a meer guilt which ought mystically to be understood Nor did the punishment ordain'd against him from the imputation of sin add any thing to the corruption and natural condition of men but a mysticall condemnation which could only be imagin'd in the understanding The punishment decreed against the Serpent added nothing to the reptile nature of the Serpent besides a condemnation meerly spiritual and mystical For according to the reptile condition of his nature and his creation the Serpent was to creep upon his belly and to eat dust all the dayes of his life which I shew'd before and thought fit here to rehearse The punishment decreed against the earth to bring forth Thorns and Thistles added nothing to the condition of the earth but the meer imagination of condemnation For the earth is properly called the mother of thorns and thistles The punishment pronounced against men that in the sweat of their brows they should eat their bread added nothing to the natural destinie of men but a bare mysterie of condemnation For a man is born to labour and a fowl to fly And it is as natural for a man to labour as to a fowl to flie And the same is to be thought of the pains of women in child-birth Nor did the condemnation of death pronounced against Adam adde any thing to the natural death by which Adam and all men according to the Law of their creation ought to die besides the mystical condemnation consisting in mysterie and spirit Adam is understood to be dead according to that condemnation and all men are understood to be dead in Adam by that mysterie and mystical way of imputation by which the death of Christ ought to be apply'd to Adam and to all men Nor did Adam really die nor man ever dy'd really by the decree of that condemnation one Christ alone who was the expiation for all sin both ought to doe and did that and dy'd for Adam and all men and repeal by his death that condemnation which was gone out against Adam and all mankind Yea Christ himself who was slain before the world was ordaind and to whom was allotted the task of expiating Adams sin succeeded in Adams place at the very minute when Adam sinn'd and in the place of all men who were esteem'd to sin in Adam And God sustain'd the punishment for Adam and for all men who ought to have dyed for Adam and who from that very minute wherein Adam dy'd were understood dead not really and actually for they could not because they had no being as yet but by the force of mysterie and that mystical imputation which was in force after the death of Christ and before the death of Christ upon men not as yet born CHAP. IV. The imputation of another mans sin is not conceivable but by some supposition in Law Adams sin was imputed to all men in a spiritual manner not by natural propagation Divines confuse nature and guilt which ought to be understood apart in original sin Nature is before guilt Guilt did not corrupt nature yea on the contrary corrupt nature caus'd guilt Which is prov'd by the example of Adam when he sinn'd IT is a most certain truth of which no Orthodox Divine makes any question That God in a secret way and by a marvellous mysterie imputed to all men the sin of one man And that all mankind had a being in one man not truly and properly but mystically which is so to be understood by a certain presupposition in the Law of God according to the words of no ordinary Divine The whole nature of man sayes he was in one man Adam as in the head And all we not truly and properly for that time truly and properly we were not in being but potentially and virtually or by a certain supposition in Gods Law in the act of Adam broke the Law of God and transgressed his Covenant as sayes the Scriture And truly if we take diligent heed there is no imputation from anothers fault whether Physical Political or Mystical or any other kinde which is any other than imaginary or can any other way be conceived than by imagination which is chiefly to be thought of mystical imputations which are lesse corporeal and more spiritual and therefore more apt for fiction That is according to imputation mystical which the Apostle says Rom. 2. That uncircumcision is reputed to them that keep the Law for circumcision But how could the uncircumcised be thought circumcised but by that supposition which being corporeal is conceived in spirit and thought The sin of Adam was made the sin of all men by imputation and that same supposition of mystery by which all men that are that were that shall be are imagined to have plucked that forbidden fruit with their own hands at the same time when Adam did snatch it and to have eaten it at the same time when Adam swallowed it and by which supposition the numerical sin of Adam is thought to be numerically the sin of all men he in whom all men are thought to have been in him all men are said to have sinn'd and so have deserved death Nor were all men really and actually in Adam nor are they to be thought to have sinn'd really and actually nor did they really and naturally deserve death by that sin but by force of mystery which I have often repeated interpretatively and imputatively as the Divine says which was meerly by supposition And since these things are undoubted and believed firmly I see nothing that