I see no reason, then, why Corvinus should affirm, as he doth, *" That it is absurd, that by one man's disobedience many should be made actually disobedient,'^ unless he did it purposely to contradict
1 " Contra naturam peccati est, ut censeatur peccatum, aut ut proprie in jDcccatuni iniputetur, quod propria voluntate commissum non est." — Rem. Apol., c. vii. p. 84.
2 " Omnes eramus unus ille homo." — Aug.
5 " Est voluntarium, voluntate primi originantis, non voluntate contralientis : ratiore naturae, non personse." — Thorn, i. ii., q. 81, a.
♦ " Absurdum est ut ex unius inobedientia multi actu inobedientes, facti essent." — Corv. ad Molin., cap. vii. sect. 8.
74 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM.
St Paul, teaching us that " by one man's disobedience many were made sinners," Rom. v. 19. Paulus ait, Corvinus negat; eligite cui credatis; — Choose whom you will believe, St Paul or the Armi- nians. The sum of their endeavour in this particular is, to clear the nature of man from being any way guilty of Adam's actual sin, as being then in him a member and part of that body whereof he was the head, or from being obnoxious unto an imputation of it by reason of that covenant which God made with us all in him. So that, denying, as you saw before, all inherent corruption and pravity of nature, and now all participation, by any means, of Adam's transgres- sion, methinks they cast a great aspersion on Almighty God, hoAV- ever he dealt with Adam for his own particular, yet for casting us, his most innocent posterity, out of paradise. It seems a hard case, that having no obliquity or sin in our nature to deserve it, nor no interest in his disobedience whose obedience had been the means of conveying so much happiness unto us, we should yet be involved in so great a punishment as we are; for that we are not now by birth under a great curse and punishment, they shall never be able to persuade any poor soul who ever heard of paradise, or the garden where God first placed Adam. And though all the rest, in their judgment, be no great matter, but an infirmity and languor of nature, or some such thing, yet, whatever it be, they confess it lights on us as well as. him. ^" We confess," say they, "that the sin of Adam may be thus far said to be imputed to his posterity, inasmuch as God would have them all born obnoxious to that punishment which Adam incurred by his sin, or permitted that evil which was inflicted on him to descend on them." Now, be this punishment what it will, never so small, yet if we have no demerit of our own, nor interest in Adam's sin, it is such an act of injustice as we must reject from the Most Holy, with a " God forbid." Far be it from the Judge of all the world to punish the righteous with the ungodly. If God should im- pute the sin of Adam unto us, and thereon pronounce us obnoxious to the curse deserved by it, — if we have a pure, sinless, unspotted nature, — even this could scarce be reconciled with that rule of his proceeding in justice with the sons of men, " The soul that sinneth it shall die;" which clearly granteth an imjjunity to all not tainted with sin. Sin and punishment, though they are sometimes separated by his mercy, pardoning the one and so not inflicting the other, yet never by his justice, inflicting the latter where the former is not. Sin imputed, by itself alone, without an inherent guilt, was never
1 " Fatcmur peccatum Adanii, a Deo posse dici imputiitnin postcris ejus, quatcmis Deus posteros Adami eidem malo, cui Adamus per peccatum obnnxium se reddidit, ob- noxios nasci voluit; sivc quatenus Deus, malum, quod Adamo inflictum crat iu poeuam, in posteros ejus diinauare et transire permisit." — Kern. Apol., p. 84.
OF OEIGINAL SIN. 75
punished in any but Christ. The unsearchableness of God's love and justice, in laying the iniquity of us all upon him who had no sin, is an exception from that general rule he walketh by in his deal- ing with the posterity of Adam. So that if punishment be not due unto us for a solely imputed sin, much less, when it doth not stand with the justice and equity of God to impute any iniquity unto us at all, can we justly be wrapped in such a curse and punishment as woful experience teaches us that we lie under. Now, in this act of injustice, wherewith they charge the Almighty, the Arminians place the whole nature of original sin. ^ " We account not," say they, " original sin for a sin properly so called, that should make the pos- terity of Adam to deserve the wrath of God, nor for an evil that may properly be called a punishment, but only for an infirmity of nature ;" which they interpret to be a kind of evil that, being inflicted on Adam, God sufifereth to descend upon his posterity. So all the de- pravation of nature, the pollution, guilt, and concupiscence we derive from our first parents, the imputation of Adam's actual transgres- sion, is all straitened to a small infirmity inflicted on poor innocent creatures.