8. It is not impossible that one act should be so high and intense in its kind as to induce a habit into the subject, and so Adam's na- ture be vitiated by it ; and he begot a son in his own likeness. The devils upon one sin became obstinate in all the wickedness that their nature is capable of. (2.) This one act was a breach of covenant with God, upon the tenor and observation whereof depended the enjoy- ment of all that strength and rectitude with God wherewith, by the law of his creation, man was endued. (3.) All man's covenant good, for that eternal end to which he was created, depended upon his conformity to God, his subjection to him, and dependence on him; all which, by that one sin, he wilfully cast away for himself and pos- terity (whose common, natural, and federal head he was), and right- eously fell into that condition which we have described. (4.) The apostle is much of a different mind from our catechists, Rom. v. 15, 16, etc., as hath been declared.
4. What is credible concerning God and his goodness with these gentlemen I know not. To me, that is not only in itself credible which he hath revealed concerning himself, but of necessity to be believed. That he gave man a law, threatening him, and all his pos- terity in him and with him, with eternal death upon the breach of it; that upon that sin he cast all mankind judicially out of covenant, imputing that sin unto them all unto the guilt of condemnation, seeing it is " his judgment that they who commit sin are worthy of death;" and that " he is of purer eyes than to behold evil," — is to us credible, yea, as was said, of necessity to be believed. But they will answer the proofs that are produced from Scripture in the as- sertincf of this oriicinal sin.
166 VINDICIiE EVANGELIC^.
Q. But that there is original sin these testimonies seem to prove: Gen. vi. 5, " Every cogitation of the heart of man is only evil every day ;" and Gen. viii. 21, " The cogitation of man's heart is evil from his youth?"
A. These testimonies deal concerning voluntary sin ; from them, therefore, ori- ginal sin cannot be proved. As for the first, Moses showeth it to be such a sin for whose sake God repented him that he had made man, and decreed to destroy him with a flood ; which certainly can by no means be affirmed concerning a sin which should be in man by nature, such as they think original sin to be. In the other, he showeth that the sin of man shall not have that efficacy that God should punish the world for it with a flood; which by no means agreeth to origi- nal sin.'
That this attempt of our catechists is most vain and frivolous will quickly appear; for, — 1. Suppose original sin be not asserted in those places, doth it follow there is no original sin? Do they not know that we affirm it to be revealed in the way of salvation, and proved by a hundred places besides? And do they think to overthrow it by their exception against two or three of them, when if it be taught in any one of them it suffices? 2. The words, as by them rendered, lose much of the efficacy for the confirmation of what they oppose which in the original they have. In the first place, it is not, " Every thought of man's heart," but, " Every imagination or figment of the thoughts of his heart." The " motus primo primi," the very natural frame and temper of the heart of man, as to its first motions towards good or evil, are doubtless expressed in these words. So also is it in the latter place.
We say, then, that original sin is taught and proved in these places; not singly or exclusively to actual sins, not a parte ante, or from the causes of it, but from its effects. That such a frame of heart is so universally by nature in all mankind, and in every indi- vidual of them, as that it is ever, always, or continually, casting, coin- ing, and devising evil, and that only, without the intermixture of any thing of another kind that is truly and spiritually good, is taught in these places; and this is original sin. Nor is this disproved by our catechists; for, —
1. " Because the sin spoken of is voluntary, therefore it is not ori- ginal," will not be granted. (1.) Original sin, as it is taken peccatuvi originans, was voluntary in Adam ; and as it is originatum in us is in our wills habitually, and not against them, in any actings of it or them. (2.) The effects of it, in the coining of sin and in the thoughts of men's hearts, are all voluntary; which are here mentioned to demon- strate and manifest that root from whence they spring, that prevail-
' " Venintamen esse peccatum originis ilia testimonia docere videntur, Gen. vi. 5, etc., viii. 21. — Hsec testimonia agunt de peccato voluntario ; ex iis itaque effici nequit peccatum originis. Quod autem ad primum attinet, Moses id peccatum ejusmodi fuisse docet cujus causa pcenituisse Deum quod homiuem ci'Citsset, et eum diluvio punire de- crevisset ; quod certe de peccato quod homini natura inesset, quale peccatum originis censeat, affirmari nullo pacto potest. In altero vero tcstimonio docet, peccatum homi- nis earn vim habiturum non esse, iit Deus mundum diluvio propter illud puniret ; quod etiam peccato originis nullo modoconvenit."