Q. 6. How came we into this miserable state and condition t
A. " Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me," Ps. li. 5. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one," Job xiv. 4. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh," John iii. 6. "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin ; so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned," Rom. v. 1 2.
Q. 7. Is, then, the guilt of the first sin of our first parents reckoned unto us?
A. " But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For through the offence of one many be dead," Rom. v. 1 5. " And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation," verse 16. " For by one man's offence death reigned," verse 17. "Therefore by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation," verse 18. " By one man's disobedience many were made sinners," verse 1 9.
Thus, and much more fully, doth the Scripture set out and declare the condition of man both before and after the fall ; concerning which^ although the most evident demonstration of the latter lies in the revelation made of the exceeding efficacy of that power and grace which God in Christ puts forth for our conversion and delivery from that state and condition before described, yet so much is spoken of this dark side of it as will render vain the attempts of any who shall
154 VINDICI^ EVANGELIC^.
endeavour to plead the cause of coiTupted nature, or alleviate tlie guilt of the first sin.
It may not be amiss, in the winding up of the whole, to give the reader a brief account of what slight thoughts this gentleman and his
o o o
companions have concerning this whole matter of the state and con- dition of the first man, his fall or sin, and the interest of all his pos- terity therein, which confessedly lie at the bottom of that whole dispensation of grace in Jesus Christ which is revealed in the gospel. First. [As] for Adam himself, they are so remote from assigning to him any eminency of knowledge, righteousness, or holiness, in the state wherein he was created, that, —
1 . For his knowledge, they say, " He was a mere great baby, that knew not that he was naked ;"^ so also taking away the difference between the simple knowledge of nakedness in innocency, and the knowledge joined with shame that followed sin. " Of his wife he knew no more but what occurred to his senses;"^ though the ex- pressions which he used at first view and sight of her do plainly argue another manner of apprehension, Gen. ii. 28. For " the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he knew not the virtue of it;"^ which yet I know not how it well agrees with another place of the same author, where he concludes that in the state of innocency there was in Adam a real predominancy of the natural appetite, which conquered or prevailed to the eating of the fruit of that tree.* Also, that being mortal, he knew not himself to be so.^ The sum is, he was even a very beast, that knew neither himself, his duty, nor the will of God concerning him.
2. [As] for his righteousness and holiness, which, as was said before, because he was made upright, in the image of God, we ascribe unto him, Socinus contends in one whole chapter in his Prelections, " that he was neither just nor holy, nor ought to be so esteemed nor called."®
And Smalcius, in his confutation of Franzius' " Theses de Peccato Originali," all along derides and laughs to scorn the apprehension or persuasion that Adam was created in righteousness and holiness, or that ever he lost any thing of the image of God, or that ever he had
* " Adamus instar infantis vel pueri se nudum esse ignoravit." — Smalc. de Ver. Dei Fil. cap. vii. p. 2.
2 " De conjuge propria, non nisi sensibus obvia cognovit." — Socin. de Stat. Prim. Hom. cap. iv. p. 119.
3 " Vim arboris scientise boni et mali perspectam non habuerit." — Idem ibid, p. 197.
* Socin. Proclect. cap. iii. p. 8.
* " Cxim ipse mortalis esset, se tamen mortalem esse nesciverit."' — Socin. de Stat. Prim. Horn. cap. iv. p. 118.
« "Utrum primus homo ante peccatum justitiam aliquara originalem babucrit? Plcrique omnes eum illam babuisse aflSrmaut. Sed ego scire velim . . . coucludamus igitur, Adamum, etiam antequam mandatum illud Dei traiisgrederetur, rcvera justum non fuisse. Gum nee impeccabilis esset, nee ullum peccandi occasionem habuisset ; vel ccrte justum eum fuisse affirmari non posse, cum nullo mode constet, eum ulla ratione a jxccaudo abstinuisse." — Socin. Proclect. cap. iii. p. 8; vid. cap. iv. p. 11.
OF man's condition before and after the fall. 155
any thing of the image of God beyond or besides that dominion over the creatures which God gave him/
Most of the residue of the herd, describing the estate and condition of man in his creation, do wholly omit any mention of any moral uprightness in him.^