OF man's condition before and after the fall. 167
ing principle and predominant habit from whence they so uniformly proceed.
2. Why it doth not agree to original sin that the account [is] men- tioned, verse 6, of God's repenting that he had made man, and his resolution to destroy him, these gentlemen offer not one word of rea- son to manifest. We say, — (1.) That it can agree to no other but this original sin, with its infallible effects, wherein all mankind were equally concerned, and so became equally liable to the last judgment of God ; though some, from the same principle, had acted much more boldly against his holy Majesty than others. (2.) Its being in men by nature doth not at all lessen its guilt. It is not in their nature as created, nor in them so by nature, but is by the fall of Adam come upon the nature of all men, dwelling in the person of every one; which lesseneth not its guilt, but manifests its advantage for provo- cation.
8. Why the latter testimony is not applicable to original sin they inform us not. The words joined with it are an expression of that patience and forbearance which God resolved and promised to exer- cise towards the world, with a non obstante for sin. Now, what sin should this be but that which is " the sin of the world" ? That actual sins are excluded we say not; but that original sin is expressed and aggravated by the effects of it our catechists cannot disprove. There are many considerations of these texts, from whence the argument from them for the proof of that corruption of nature which we call original sin might be much improved; but that is not my present business, our catechists administering no occasion to such a discourse. But they take some other texts into consideration : —
Q. What tJiinkest thou of that which David speaks, Ps. li. 7, " Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me?"
A. It is to be observed that David doth not here speak of any men but himself alone, nor that simply, but with respect to his fall, and uses that form of speaking which you have in him again, Ps. Iviii. 3. Wherefore original sin cannot be evinced by this testimony.'
But, — ] . Though David speaks of himself, yet he speaks of himself in respect of that which was common to himself with all mankind, being a child of wrath as well as others ; nor can these gentlemen intimate any thing of sin and iniquity, in the conception and birth of David, that was not common to all others with him. Any man's confession for himself of a particular guilt in a common sin doth not free others from it; yea, it proves all others to be partakers in it who share in that condition wherein he contracted the guilt.
' " Quid vero eS, de re sentis quod David ait, Ps. li. 7 ? — Animadvcrtendum est, hie Davidem non agere de quibusvis hominibus, sed de se tantum, nee simpliciter, sed habita ratione lapsus sui ; et eo loquendi modo usum esse, cujus exeniplum apud eun- dera Davidem habes Ps. Iviii. 3, Quamobrem nee eo testimonia effici prorsus potest pcccatum originis."
168 VINDICIiE EVANGELICiE.
2. Thougli David mentions this by occasion of his fall, as having his conscience made tender and awakened to search into the root of his sin and transgression thereby, yet it was no part of his fall, nor was he ever the more or less conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity for that fall ; which were ridiculous to imagine. He here acknowledges it upon the occasion of his fall, which was a fruit of the sin wherewith he was born, James i. 14, 15, but was equally guilty of it before his fall and after.
S. The expression here used, and that of Ps. Iviii. 3, " The wicked are estranged from the womb, they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies," exceedingly differ. Here, David expresses what was his infection in the womb; there, what is wicked men's constant prac- tice y?-07?i the womb. In himself, he mentions the root of all actual sin ; in them, the constant frait that springs from that root in unre- generate men. So that, by the favour of these catechists, I yet say that David doth here acknowledge a sin of nature, a sin wherewith he was defiled from his conception, and polluted when he v/as warmed, and so fomented in his mother's womb; and therefore this place doth prove original sin.
One place more they call to an account, in these words: —
Q. But Paul saith that " in Adam all sinned," Rom. v. 12.
A. It is not in that place, " In Adam all sinned ;" but in the Greek the words are l(p' a, which interpreters do frequently render in Latin in quo, " in whom," which yet may be rendered by the particles quoniam or quatenus, " because," or "inasmuch," as in like places, Rom. viii. 3, Phil. iii. 12, Heb. ii, 18, 2 Cor. v. 4. It appeareth, therefore, that neither can original sin be built up out of this place.*
1. Stop these men from this shifting hole, and you may with much ease entangle and catch them twenty times a day : " This word may be rendered otherwise, for it is so in another place," — a course of pro- cedure that leaves nothing certain in the book of God. 2. In two of the places cited, the words are not If' w, but h (S, Rom. viii. 3, Heb. ii. 18. 3. The places are none of them parallel to this; for here, the apostle speaks of persons or a person in an immediate pre- cedency; in them, of things. 4. But render s(p' (S by quoniam, " be- cause," or " for that," as our English translation doth, the argument is no less evident for original sin than if they were rendered by " in whom." In the beginning of the verse the apostle tells us that death entered the world by the sin of one man, — that one man of Avhom he is speaking, namely, Adam, — and passed upon all men: of which dispensation, that death passed on all men, he gives you the reason in these words, " For that all have sinned ; " that is, in that