Thirdly, and principally, Whence had our primitive nature this affection to those things that were forbidden it, — this rebellion and repugnancy to the law, which must needs be an anomy, and so a thing sinful ? There was as yet no demerit, to deserve it as a punish- ment. What fault is it to be created? ^The operation of any thing which hath its original with the being of the thing itself must needs proceed from the same cause as doth the essence or being itself; as the fire's tending upwards relates to the same original with the fire: and, therefore, this inclination or affection can have no other author but God ; by which means he is entitled not only to the first sin, as the efficient cause, but to all the sins in the world arising from thence. Plainl}^, and without any strained consequences, he is made the author of sin; for even those positive properties which can have no other fountain but the author of nature, being set on evil, are directly sinful. And here the idol of free-will may triumph in this victory over the God of heaven. Heretofore all the
• " Vidi ego zclantcm parvulum qui nondum loquebatur, et intuebatur pallidas, amaro aspectu colluctancum suiim." — Aug.
2 " Operatic qufc simul incipit cum esse rei, est ci ab agcute, a quo babet esse, sicut moveri sursum inest igni a generautc." — Alvar., p. 199.
OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST.
87
blame of slu lay upon his shoulders, but now he begins to complain, Oix sydi a'/T/og s'ifLi dXXa Zsig xa/ /jLoTpa. "It is God and the fate of our creation that hath placed us in this condition of naturally affecting that which is evil. Back with all your charges against the ill govern- ment of this new deity within his imaginary dominion; what hurt doth he do but incline men unto evil, and God himself did no less at tlie first ?" But let them that will, rejoice in these blasphemies : it sufficeth us to know that " God created man upright," though he " hath sought out many inventions;" so that in this following dissonancy we cleave to the better part: —
S. S.
"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him ; male and female created he them," Gen. i. 27. " Put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him,"
Col. iii. 10. " which after
God is created in righteousness and true holiness," Eph. iv. 24.
" Lo, this only have 1 found, that God hath made man up- right ; but he hath sought out many inventions," Eccles. vii. 29. "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin," Rom. V. 12.
" Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God : for God tempteth no man : but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust," James i. 18, 14.
Lib. Arbit.
" There was in man before the fall an inclination to sinningf, though not so vehement and in- ordinate as now it is," Armin. " God put upon man a repug- nancy to his law," Gesteranus in the Synod. " Man, by reason of his creation, had an affection to those things that are forbidden by the law," Corv.
"The will of man had never any spiritual endowments," Rem. Apol.
" It was not fit that man should have a law given him, unless he had a natural inclination to what was forbidden by the law," Corv.
CHAPTER IX.
Of tlie death of Christ, and of the efficacy of his merits.
The sum of those controversies, wherewith the Arminians and their abettors have troubled the church, about the death of Christ, may
88 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM.
be reduced to two heads: — First, Concerning the object of his merit, or whom he died for; secondly, Concerning the efficacy and end of his death, or what he deserved, procured, merited, and obtained, for them for whom he died. In resohition of the first, they affirm that he died for all and every one ; of the second, that he died for no one man at all in that sense Christians have hitherto believed that he laid down his life, and submitted himself to bear the burden of his Father's wrath for their sakes. It seems -to me a stranjre extenuation of the merit of Christ, to teach that no good at all by his death doth redound to divers of them for whom he died. What participation in the benefit of his suffering had Pharaoh or Judas ? Do they not at this hour, and shall they not to eternity, feel the weight and burden of their own sins ? Had they either grace in this world, or glory in the other, that they should be said to have an interest in the death of our Saviour ? Christians have hitherto believed, that for whom Christ died, for their sins he made satisfac- tion, that they themselves should not eternally suffer for them. Is God unjust to punish twice for the same fault ?. his own Son once, and again the poor sinners for whom he suffered ? I cannot con- ceive an intention in God that Christ should satisfy his justice for the sin of them that were in hell some thousands of years before, and yet be still resolved to continue their punishment on them to all eternity. No, doubtless: Christ giveth life to every one for Avhom he gave his life ; he loseth not one of them whom he purchased with his blood.