and perfectness but that they might be restrained within them Divine law will'd that men should not only continue in their righteousness and perfection but that they should be advanced above their own righteousness and perfection Humane lawes have provided that men like beasts should not be meerly turned to pasture The Divine law will'd that man should be carried upward to the sight and glory of immortal God Humane lawes were within the limits of men Divine lawes were above men Humane lawes restrained the nature of men Divine lawes resolv'd to alter humane nature Humane lawes grafted in nature help nature and savour of nature Divine lawes being placed above nature breath all Mysterie and Divinitie help nature that it may purifie it nay that it may turn humane nature into divine Let us here leave Humane lawes and onely talk of that which God gave to Adam And because by the mystical not the natural dispensation of that Law we become more than men and are transform'd into gods Which is the end of this Systeme of Divinity and Christianity Likewise we shall handle that legal sin which broke the Law of God I say that first Law of God which Adam the first man did transgress And which men were reputed to have violated in Adam CHAP. II. The natural sins of men are the very defaults of humane nature the causes of which are not to be ascribed to the sins of Adam Legal sin imputed to men by the sin of Adam is additional Conceiv'd spiritually and not propagated naturally THere are some persons who believe that Warrs Plagues Fevers and all the troop of natural corruptions invaded the Earth by that imputation of the sin of Adam which first transgressed the Law of God And much they stand for this not taking notice of the difference betwixt natural and legal sin For Warrs Plagues and Fevers and whatsoever else of this sort troubles and afflicts mankind are the consequences of natural sin which is the wickedness and imperfection of Nature This will easily appear to such who will suffer that antient cloud of prepossession to be remov'd which dulls their sight for who knows not that Warrs had their original from such whom either greedy desire of prey or cruel thirst after revenge or sacred ambition of Rule stirred up to take arms Then who hath not had experience of the breeding and inflammation of Plagues and Fevers either by the natural corruption of the air or by the corruption of our natural bodies We have as many witnesses of this observation and truth as we have Statesmen and Physicians whose approbations almost innumerable it is needless here to relate We shall therefore assert a double sin in Adam a natural and a legal A natural sin naturally inherent in Adam by the infirmity of his nature and that peccant matter whereof he was made Legal which hapned and was imputed to Adam by violation of the Law of God A natural sin which infected the natural sense matter and nature of Adam A legal mystical and spiritual which broke the Law mystical spiritual which only in spirit and reason could be conceived For who can conceive a tree of good and evil who can understand the eating of knowledge the eating of good and evil unless he conceive it intellectually and mystically Likewise we conceive a two-fold sin in all men as we assert a two-fold sin in Adam natural and legal A natural sin which being innate in every person by reason of his peccant nature is deeply and naturally rooted in their very bowels Which proceeds from the fat of them as is elegantly expressed in the 73 Psalm A legal sin which happen'd and was imputed to all men by the transgression of that Law which Adam did violate A natural sin which had an influence upon the natural sense and corporeal matter of all men Legal which pass'd upon all men spiritually and mystically by the legal sin of Adam We conceive that mystical and spiritual passing of legal sin upon all men by another sin which was Adams to have been by imputation by which we meant that it was imputed to all men that Adam had sinned With any else besides Divines imputation of anothers trespass is a meer supposition in Law but with Divines it is the form of the mysteries which I shall clear to you by a very part example Sedechias King of the Jews brake his allegeance to the King of Assyria That fault was imputed to all the Jews who were thought perjur'd in the perjury of the King by that supposition of the Law of Nations by which people are thought to commit a fault in the faults of their Kings God had entered into a Covenant with Adam and in him with all men as being the Governour Defender and Prince of all men That Covenant Adam broke and that failing of Adam was ascribed to all men by that divine way of mysterie by which all men are thought to be delinquents in the faults of their Governours Defenders or Princes Therefore I think not that the imputation of Adams sin did overthrow mans nature nor doe I again agree with those that will grant nothing to imputation I leave to things natural and mystical their own room Natural things I would have naturally taken Things mystical I would have mystically understood Corruption contracted from that matter of all men which is addicted to corruption was that which overthrew the nature of mankind The mystical imputation of the sin of Adam is that which infected all men with the mystical stain of condemnation I assert imputations without which the mysteries of Christianity would be subverted but these I restrain within their mystical limits lest they stray beyond their mysterie beyond conception spirit Therefore I think not from thence because the sin of Adam was imputed to all men that thence they came to be obnoxious to diseases but by reason of their corrupt and rotten nature The innate infirmity of men was the real and natural calamity of men And according to Ezekiel Chap. 28. There came a fire out of the midst of them to consume them than which there is nothing more true for it is a mans own nature which causes burnings in his heart which that I may the more evidently prove by examples It is not known that Adam who was the criminal and as they say the first fountain of so great evils was ever so much as troubled with the least disease all the Nine hundred and thirty years which he liv'd unless you will believe him who relates out of I doe not know what Author that Adam dyed of the Gout with which he was troubled and which he pretends that he had by succession from his Ancestors Did Cain fall sick when he slew his Brother Nay he was very strong and lusty he fled to the east of Eden got a company of wicked persons about him with whom he rob'd He married a Wife begot a Son and built a City And this is a continual
against God when that fervour which was within them the corruption of their imperfect nature forc'd them headlong from the perfection of their creation to the imperfection of their matter For no guilt could be imputed by God no lawfull condemnation pronounced no death justly inflicted upon men meerly for that backsliding by which men who were of their own disposing turn'd from the uprightnesse of their creation into the wickednesse of their own creation According then to that mysterie that God would have all men to die in one God-man according to that same mysterie he resolv'd that all should sin and by one man be condemn'd a man I say simply so and not a God God would have all men die in Christ and sinne in Adam The vertue of the most high according to the great power of God over-shadowed a Virgin untouched and of her Christ was born in whom all men should die a pure sacrifice of a pure Virgin and of the stock of the Jews That so by the Jews and by the seed of the Jews Jesus Christ all men might receive salvation God fram'd Adam the Father of the Jews of common and impure earth corruptible to whom he gave his Law which if he did violate all men should be guilty in him and condemned by that Law That so likewise condemnation might come upon all men by Adam the father of the Jews But there was no need that men should by traduction be born of Christ that in him they migâ—â— die nor needed all men to be born of the descent of Adam that in him all men might die All that mysterie of salvation and condemnation of men in Christ and Adam made up the body of the mystery that is the spiritual and divine way above nature and which is ingendred in all men by intellect and mysterie and not by nature Whosoever understands the ways of Supposition in Law shall easily conceive the force of that mysterie by vertue of which men suffered losse of degree were chang'd or restor'd unto their estates and by which things only agreed upon were ratified and by formality of which they did obtain in antient time and yet obtain the lordship of most things All these things might have compass'd their effects and shown their natural force by bare Covenant or consent without any supposition But the Lawgivers did imagine ingrafting in these things which were naturally acted the legalities of their art to have added a better understanding to them As choice plants grow better when they are planred in Crab-tree stocks and such as grow wild God resolving to restore man that had fallen from his creation would not perfect the work in that direct and natural order as many things are done amongst men but by crooked windings of mystery by applications and spiritual graftings he thought best to perform the whole work Such mysteries seem to me very well to be titled Holy draughts Parables or Similitudes as the Apostle call'd them in that place of the eleventh Chapter to the Hebrews where Isaac is presuppos'd as a figure of Christ to have laid down his life under the knife and according to that Parabolical death resembling the death of Christ he is presupposed to rise according to the similitude of the resurrection of Christ Where Abraham I say is presupposed to have sacrificed his son Isaac and to have received him again in Parable or similitude of resurrection which the Apostle purposely and very subtilly observed The Apostle Paul hath taught us that men die in the death of Christ according to parable and similitude of his death 6 Chap. to the Rom. In which place he directly tels us that by Baptism there is ingendred in us not only a similitude of his death but that there is engrafted in them by that same Sacrament a similitude of his resurection For if we be engrafted in him in his death so shall we be also in his resurrection And the Apostle taught us that all men sinn'd were guiltie and were condemn'd in Adam who sinned according to the similitude of his transgression According to the similitude of the transgression of Adam For that is to be understood a similitude and a Parable no propagation of nature as all men died in Christ Which that we may the better understand we must more at large handle the sin of Adam which is commonly called Original sin CHAP. II. Of Original sin It is inherent It is imputed What it is to impute That is imputed which is joyn'd in a kind of communion with that to which it is imputed Of communions and conjunctions of things Physical Political and Mystical Christ the end of all mysteries Adam ought to be referr'd to Christ not Christ to Adam Adam ought to be imputed to men as Christ is imputed to them spiritually and mystically WHat I shall speak first concerning Original sin is asserted by all Orthodox Divines That sin is consider'd two manner of ways either as sin or as a guilt as a sin so it is inherent as it is a guilt it is adventitious and pass'd from Adam upon them all The one is proper to all men the other a stranger and call'd the sin of Adam The first is the formality the second is the materiality of the sin The material sin is proper and inherent an hereditary disease or blemish in which all men are conceiv'd and born according to that of the Psalmist In sin hath my Mother conceiv'd me A formal sin which is anothers and is become a guilt which was the disobedience of Adam imputed to all men according to that of the Apostle By the disobedience of one many became sinners The materiality of sin which is the proper fault and infection inherent in all by propagation of the matter and nature of men subject to corruption The formality of sin which is a stranger and transient had its beginning from imputation by the transgression of the Law which Adam did violate To impute to any one the sin of another is to esteem him in the same condition as if he had committed the fault himself Otherwise it is not anothers fault but his own which is imputed to him Beside the fault of one uses to be imputed to another which has some communion or conjunction with him as having some manner of corporal societie and similitude with him For as smoke coming near the fire takes fire by reason of the similitude and aptitude is has to flame so things that have a communion and conjunction betwixt them are apt or susceptive one of anothers imputations Communions and conjunctions of things fit for imputation by reason of their similitude are three-fold Physical Political and Mystical The fault of their Fathers is imputed to the Children by reason of that common and natural similitude by which sons begotten of their fathers are naturally joyn'd to them The sons are said to have sinn'd in the loyns of their Fathers as Levi is said to be taken for tithe in the loyns
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
may be any ways prejudicial to Christian Doctrine if I say that we did not need Adam for our naturall Father and begetter of all Mankind to have his sin imputed to all men For to what purpose should there here be a confusion of mystical and natural of imputation meerly spiritual with propagation meerly natural For the guilt of imputation which is by Adam and natural wickednesse which is by traduction and propagated by generation are different The Divines doe confesse those two together who say that original both as it is imputed and as it is naturally deriv'd came from one fountain Adam They acknowledge a distinct and real difference betwixt mystical and physical that which is imputed that which is naturally inherent They say likewise that it is not by nature that all men are condemn'd for one mans fault They acknowledge something else another communication which is by imputation mystery and by the councell of God besides the natural way of Propagation by which sin is inherent in men They know also that none will ascribe that to the unserchable judgments of God that a sickly man begets a sickly man that a diseased person begets a diseased person But that comes not by miracle but by nature and an ordinary way They also call that sin of Adam which was first imputed to all men that defection transgression a thing transient and actual They call that sin which is naturally inherent in all persons a corruption an infection depravation a sin sprung up permanent internal natural habitual And although these two sins are so much different one from the other as mystery is different from nature imputation from natural inherence external and adventitious from internal and proper material and corporeal from formal and spiritual which is utterly another thing Notwithstanding the Divines make up one original sin of these two sins which they say consists of two parts imputation and real communication of corruption out of two wholes they make up the two parts of one Furthermore they say that the imputation of the first sin of Adam and his inbred corruption are so indivisibly link'd that they make not up more guilts but one entire guilt which by traduction of propagation as they say pass'd upon all men But we shall readily prove out of the Apostle Rom. 5. That sin naturally inherent is originally different from that which is imputed and that these two sins were not always invisibly joyn'd nor were not always the same original sin says the Apostle Until the Law sin was in the world If sin was in the world until the Law it was before the Law also and had its original before the Law Certainly that sin which was before the Law was not sin imputed because sin imputed was not before the Law but by the Law after the Law for the imputation of sin could only come by the Law And these two sins come only under consideration Imputative and Naturally inherent Therefore if sin imputed was not before the Law certainly that natural inherent sin must be before the Law which was not imputed when there was no Law And again if sin which was imputed had its original from the Law that which was naturally inherent no doubt was the Ancestors being before the Law The Law was by Adam and was given when Adam was made Therefore sin naturally inherent was ancienter than Adam and ancienter than sin imputed which had its original from Adam And that I may make it appear by plain truth and demonstrate it by an irrefragable argument that sin naturally inherent was by inbred corruption and the viciousnesse of mans nature that it was ancienter than the sin of Adam which in Adam was imputed to all men we must more narrowly pry into the History of Gen. and the sin of Adam The Woman saw saith Gen. That the tree was good to eat fair to the eye and delightfull to behold and she took the fruit and did eat and she gave it to her Husband and he did eat Where you see clearly that the senâ—es of Adam and Eve were corrupted before both did eat and sin Both were deceived with the fairnesse of the fruit sweetnesse of the smell and softnesse of the touch the enticement of his Wifes tongue and deliciousnesse of the tast before he did eat the fruit and sin The corrupt senses of Adam corrupted him by that small fault of this corruption which was inherent to Adam So soon as he saw it he was undone Adam sinn'd by his sight before he sinn'd by his tast He saw the fruit and as his liver was apt to concupiscence he covered it The concuâ—iâ—cence was a sin And according to the saying of oâ—r Saviour Adam who coveted the fruit sinn'd before he did sin He sinn'd by concupiscence which is call'd corruption Pet. chap 1. where he exhorts us to eschew The corruption of concupiscence And St. James in the first chapter of his Epistle Everyone says he is tempted being drawn away and enticed by his concupiscence and concupiscence having concerved brings forth sin and sin coming to perfection brings forth death Where observe the progresse of natural sin from the first corruption of concupiscence to â—oâ—id sin and full corruption which engenders death The concupiscence then of Adam did corrupt him before he was corrupted by that â—n which was imputed to him from the transgression of the Law not from the corruption of nature They that interpret the sin of Adam Allegorically say that the Serpent washissense the Woman the reason the Man the intellect the fervent perswasion of his sense blinded his reason and reason deprated blinded his intellect The corrupt sense of Adam sinn'd his crooked reason was faulty before that his vitiated intellect had sinn'd Hence you may see how preposterously they overturn the order of things that say Adams reason was therefore deprated his senses corrupted because he had eaten the forbidden fruit Nay rather upon the contrary Adam sinn'd eating the forbidden fruit because his senses were first corrupted his reason first depraved And Adam sinn'd twice first in his sences and reason before he sinn'd in his intellect and will in that sin which was imputed to him and in him to all men Here observe the force of that innate and inherent corruption before the fruit touch'd his lips His concupiscence was neither afraid of the edict of God nor dreaded death which was threatned to him yea such was the fury of his Nature that he would have endured death in the bitterest manner rather than he would not satisfie his appetite I acknowledge that the imputation of his sin and inbred corruption were joyn'd in him after he had sinn'd But these were not always joyn'd in Adam That league was not entred before the Law of God and before the expiation of it The inbred and innate corruption of Adam was only inherent to him before his fall That natural corruption was the sin of which the Apostle Which was before the