^"Whether ever any one were damned for original sin, and adjudged to everlasting torments, is deservedly doubted of Yea, we doubt not to affirm that never any was so damned," saith Corvinus. And that this is not his sole opinion he declares by telling you no less of his master, Arminius. ^" It is most true," saith he, "that Arminius teach- eth that it is perversely said that original sin makes a man guilty of death." Of any death, it should seem, temporal, eternal, or that an- nihilation they dream of And he said true enough. Arminius doth affirm it, adding this reason, ^" Because it is only the punish- ment of Adam's actual sin." Now, what kind of punishment they make this to be I showed you before. But truly I wonder, seeing they are everywhere so peremptory that the same thing cannot be a sui and a punishment, why they do so often nickname this " in- firmity of nature," and call it a sin; which they suppose to be as far different from it as fire from water. Is it because they are unwill- ing, by new naming it, to contradict St Paul in express terms, never proposing it under any other denomination? or, if they can get a sophistical elusion for him, is it lest, by so doing, Christians should the more plainly discern their heresy? Or whatever other cause it be, in this I am sure they contradict themselves, notwithstanding in this they agree full well, *" That God rejecteth none for original sin only," as Episcopius speaks. And here, if you tell them that the ques- tion is not " de facto," what God doth, but " de jure," what such sin-
1 " An ullus omnino homo, propter peccatum originis solum damnetui", ac asternis cruciatibus addicatur, merito dubitaii potest : imo nullum ita damnari aflSrmare non veremur." — Corv. ad Molin., cap. ix. sect. 5.
2 " Verissimum est Ai-minium docere, perverse dici peccatum originis reum facere mortis." — Coit. ad Tilen., p. 388.
' " Perverse dicitur peccatum originis, reum facere mortis, quum peccatum illud poena sit peccati actualis Adami." — Armin. llesp. ad Qutest. ix. a. 3.
* " Deus neminem ob solum peccatum originis rejecit." — Episcop., disp. ix. thes. 2.
78 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM.
ners deserve, they tell us plainly, ^" That God will not destinate any infants to eternal punishment for original sin, without their own pro- per actual sins; neither can he do so by right or in justice." So that the children of Turks, Pagans, and the like infidels, strangers from the covenant of grace, departing in their infancy, are far happier than any Christian men, who must undergo a hard warfare against sin and Satan, in danger to fall finally away at the last hour, and through many difficulties entering the kingdom of heaven, when they, without farther trouble, are presently assumed thither for their inno- cency; yea, although they are neither elected of God (for, as they affirm, he chooseth none but for their faith, Avhich they have not) ; nor redeemed by Christ (for he died only for sinners, " he saveth his people from their sins," which they are not guilty of) ; nor sanc- tified by the Holy Ghost, all whose operations they restrain to a moral suasion, whereof infants are not a capable subject; — which is not much to the honour of the blessed Trinity, that heaven should be replenished with them whom the Father never elected, the Son never redeemed, nor the Holy Ghost sanctified.
And thus you see what they make of this original pravity of our nature, at most an infirmity or languor thereof, — neither a sin, nor the punishment of sin properly so called, nor yet a thing that deserves punishment as a sin ; which last assertion, whether it be agreeable to holy Scripture or no, these three following observations will declare : —
First, There is no confusion, no disorder, no vanity in the whole world, in any of God's creatures, that is not a punishment of our sin in Adam. That great and almost universal ruin of nature, jDroceed- ing from the curse of God overgrowing the earth, and the wrath of God revealing itself from heaven, is the proper issue of his trans- gression. It was of the great mercy of God that the whole frame of nature was not presently rolled up in darkness, and reduced to its primitive confusion. Had we ourselves been deprived of those re- maining sparks of God's image in our souls, which vindicate us from the number of the beasts that perish, — had we been all born fools and void of reason, — by dealing so with some in particular, he showeth us it had been but justice to have wrapped us in the same misery, all in general. All things, when God first created them, were exceed- ing good, and thouglit so by the wisdom of God himself; but our sin even compelled that good and wise Creator to hate and curse the work of his own hands. " Cursed is the ground," saith he to Adam, " for thy sake ; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life ; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee," Gen. iii. 17, 18.
1 " Pro cci-to statuunt Deum inillos infantes, sine actuaUbus nc propriis pcccatis morientes, icternis ciniciatibus ilestinare velle, aut jure destiiiare posse ob pcccatum quod vocatur origiuis." — Kcm. Apol., p. 87.