Now here, to shut up all, observe, that in this inquiry of the de- sert of original sin, the question is not, What shall be the certain lot of those that depart this life under the guilt of this sin only? but. What this hereditary and native corruption doth deserve in all those
OF OPJGINAL SIN. 81
in whom it is? for, as St Paul saitli, "We judge not tliem that are without" (especially infants), 1 Cor. v. 13. But for the demerit of it in the justice of God, our Saviour expressly affirmeth, that " except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God," John iii. 3, 5 ; and let them that can, distinguish between a not going to heaven and a going to hell : a third receptacle of souls in the Scrip- ture we find not. St Paul also tells us that " by nature we are the children of wrath/' Eph. ii. 3. Even originally and actually we are guilty of and obnoxious unto that wrath, which is accompanied with fiery indignation, that shall consume the adversaries. Again, we are assured that no unclean thing shall enter into heaven, Rev. xxi. 27; with which hell-deserving uncleanness children are polluted: and, therefore, unless it be purged with the blood of Christ-, they have no interest in everlasting happiness. By this means sin, is come upon all to condemnation; and yet do we not peremptorily censure to hell all infants departing this world without the laver of regeneration, — the ordinary means of Avaiving the punishment due to this pollution. That is the question ** de facto," which we before rejected. Yea, and two ways there are whereby God saveth such infants, snatching them like brands out of the fire : —
First, By interesting them in the covenant, if their immediate or remote parents have been believers. He is a God of them and of their seed, extending his mercy unto a thousand generations of them that fear him.
Secondly, By his grace of election, which is most free, and not tied to any conditions; by which I make no doubt but God taketh many unto him in Christ whose parents never knew, or had been despisers of, the gospel. And this is the doctrine of our church, agreeable to the Scripture, affirming the desert of original sin to be God's wrath and damnation. To both which how opposite is the Arminian doctrine may thus appear : —
S. S. Lib. Arbit.
" By the offence of one .]udg- " Adam sinned in his own
ment came upon all men to con- proper person only, and there is demnation," Rom. v. 18. no reason why God should impute
that sin unto infants," Borgeus. " By one man's disobedience " It is absurd that by one man's many were made sinners," Rom. disobedience many should be V. 19. made actually disobedient," Cor-
vinus. " Behold, I was shapen in ini- " Infants are simply in that
quity; and in sin did my mother estate in which Adam w^as before conceive me," Ps. li. 5. his fall," Venator.
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82
A. DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM.
s. s.
" Else were your children un- clean; but now are they holy," 1 Cor. vii. 14. " Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean ? not one/' Job xiv, 4. " Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God," John iii. S. " That which is born of the flesh is flesh," John iii. 6.
" By nature the children of wrath, even as others," Eph. ii. 8. *' By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin ; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned," to wit, in him, Rom. v. 1 2, " For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing," chap, vii. 18.
" In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," Gen. ii. 17. " For as in Adam all die, even so," etc., 1 Cor. xv. 22. " By nature the children of wrath," Eph. ii. 3. " And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth," Rev. xxi. 27.
Lib. Arbit. " Neither is it considerable whether they be the children of believers or of heathens; for all infants have the same innocency," Rem. Apol. " That which we have by birth can be no evil of sin, because to be born is plainly involuntary," Idem.
" Original sin is neither a sin properly so called, which should make the posterity of Adam guilty of God's Avrath, nor yet a punishment of any sin on them," Rem. Apol. " It is against equity that one should be accounted guilty of a sin that is not his own, that he should be judged nocent who in regard of his own will is truly innocent," Idem.
" God neither doth nor can in justice appoint any to hell for original sin," Rem. Apol. " It is perversely spoken, that original sin makes any one guilty of death," Annin. " We no way doubt to affirm, that never any one was damned for original sin," Corv.
CHAPTER VIII.
Of the state of Adam before the fall, or of original righteousness.
In the last chapter we discovered the Arminian attempt of re- advancing the corrupted nature of man into that state of innocency and holiness wherein it was at first by God created ; in which design, because they cannot but discern that the success is not answerable to their desires, and not being able to deny but that for so much good as we want (having cast it away), or evil of sin that we are sub- ject unto more than we were at our first creation, we must be re-