A treatise of original sin ... proving that it is, by pregnant texts of Scripture vindicated from false glosses / by Anthony Burgess.

SECT. II.

ORiginal sinne is an horrid depravation and defilement of the whole man, caused by the Devils temptation, and our first Parents obedience there∣unto, and from them descending by propagation to all his Posterity, being stript of Gods glorious Image, whereby they are prone to all evil, and so are under the bon∣dage of the Devil, and obnoxious to eternal wrath. It is not my purpose in making this draught of it, to attend unto the exact rules of Logick, but so to compose it, that every thing considerable to give the true knowledge of it, may be comprized therein. And

First, We say, It's a depravation and defilement, which implieth the sinfulness of it, that it is truly and properly a sinne; And therefore sinne is truly and uni∣vocally divided into original and actual; so that they who make it onely to be guilt without any inward contagion, they do wholly erre from the Scripture, they say not enough. It is true, Adam's sinne in the guilt of it is imputed unto us, which made Ambrose of old say, as Austin alledgeth him against the ••elagians, Morinus sum in Adamo, ejectus sum in Paradiso in Adamo &c. I am dead in Adam, I am cast out of Paradise in Adam: But we are not disputing of original imputed sinne, but original inhering; Therefore original inherent sinne is truly and pro∣perly a defilement upon us against the Law of God, and this sinfull estate of all by nature, should be farre more terrible unto us, then our miserable and mortal estate. Again, When we call it a defilement, we oppose their opinion, who make it only morbus, and not truly a sinne; As also those who say, It is the substance of a man, for if so, then Christ could not have taken our nature without sinne, neither could there be glorified bodies in Heaven without sinne, for all these have the humane nature of a man. Further we say, It's an horrid depravation: This Epithete is necessary to be added to awaken pharisaical and self-righteous persons, it being so dreadfull an evil, that we are never able to go to the depth of it: Never therefore think of speak of original sinne, but let thy heart tremble, and let horrour and amazement take hold of thee, because of it; and this is put in the Description to obviate those opinions that make it the least of all sinnes. Some complain,

That we are too severe and tragical in the ag∣gravation of it;

but enough hath been already spoken out of Scripture, to shew, that neither heart can conceive, or tongue express the foulness of it. This is the general part of the Description.

Secondly, You have the Subject of it, and because the Subject thereof is two∣fold, of Inhesion, and of Predication. In this part, we have the Subject where∣in it is, and that is totus homo, and totum hominis, the whole man, and the whole of man, there being no part free from this contagion; so that it's repletively and diffusively in all the parts of soul and body, though eminently and princi∣pally in the mind and will, and the whole heart. It's true, sinne is not properly seated in the body, the eyes or hand, or in the sensitive part, yet participatively and subordinately, as they are instruments to the soul in its actings, so they are said to be sinfull: Thus there are lustfull eyes, cursing tongues, unclean bodies; There are sinfull imaginations and fancies, because these are the organs by which the soul putteth forth its wickedness: So that the body is like a broken, spoiled instrument of musick, and the soul, like an unskilfull Artificer playing on it, which causeth horrid and harsh sounds for pleasant melody. But as God is every where, yet in Heaven after a more glorious and signal manifestation of himself: So on the contrary, though original sinne be a Leprosie infecting the whole man, yet it's most principally in the intellectual and immaterial parts of the soul. It's horrible darknesse in the mind, aversnesse in the will to all that is good, and contu∣macy in the heart to whatsoever is holy; And this part doth directly oppose all

those who grant indeed original sinne, but yet grant it wholly in the inferiour and sensitive part, as if our reason and mind were like the Heavens of a quintes∣sential frame in respect of any unholy contagion, whereas indeed because these eyes of the soul are dark, therefore is the whole body dark: Because the Sunne, and Moon, and Starres, as it were, of this little world of man, are turned into bloud, therefore every part else is also become blood, defiled and loathsom; and this is the reason, why so few do either believe, or know this natural corruption, because it benummeth us, yea it taketh away all spiritual life, so that we cannot discern of it. The declaration of the cause of it, followeth in this description, where we have the external efficient cause, and the internal; The external was the Devil; after his all and apostasie, he endeavoured, being a murderer from the beginning, to destroy man also, and accordingly he did prevail, and thus by the Devil sinne came into the world; yet he is the external cause onely, he could not force or compel our first parents to sinne, he did onely perswade and entice them; Therefore the internal cause was the freedom of their will, God created them in, whereby they might either imbrace good, or chuse evil, which mutabi∣lity was the cause of their apostasie. It is true, the dispute is very curious, How Adam being created perfect could yeeld to sinne? Whether did the defect arise in his will or understanding first? But seeing it's clear by Scripture, that he did sinne, and we feel the wofull effect of it: Let us not busie our heads in metaphy∣sical curiosities, although I see the soundest Authors make the beginning of his sinne to be in inadvertency, for his soul being finite, while he earnestly intended to one thing, he did not attend to another, and so sinne was inchoatively first in his understanding, not by errour or ignorance, for Adam's understanding was free from that, but by not attendency to all considerations and arguments, as he ought to do. Although it must be confest, that the root and foundation of his sin, was the vertibility of his will, for as he might not sin, so also he might sin, he had then a posse peccare in him, and so a defectibility from the Rule. Thus although effici∣ent causes use not to be put into exact definitions, neither hath sin so properly effi∣cient, as deficient causes, yet in large descriptions, it is very usefull to name them, for hereby God is wholly cleared, although he created man, and fore-knew he would fall, yea permitted him to fall, yet he was no cause of his fall; neither did God make Adam, that he might sinne, as some would calumniate the Ortho∣dox Doctrine with such consequences: Even as Austin's adversaries said, he did Sub nomine gratiae asserere fatum, because we do not make God an idle Spectator, as it were, of Adam's fall, or make it wholly uncertain and casual, as it were, to God, but acknowledge his permission and ordination of Adam's evil to a better good than his evil, could be evil, therefore it is that some do so paratragediate. Take we heed then, that in the acknowledging of this Doctrine, we have no fro∣ward or foolish though ••s rising against God; Adam's destruction, and of all his posterity, was of and through himself.

The next thing considerable in the Description, is the propagating and commu∣nicating of it to all his posterity that naturally descend from our first Parents. This also is very material to open the nature of this sinne, that it's by propaga∣tion Adam's sinne was not personal, as ours are, but common to the whole na∣ture; Therefore the Apostle Rom. 5. putteth it upon one sinne, or offence, and that by one man. The Pelagians were vehement opposers of this, and therefore called the Orthodox Traduciani, because they hold the traduction of this origi∣nal sinne, Adam being a common person, and he as our Head being in Covenant with God, when he became a Covenant-breaker, then we all forfeited all in and by him; So that it's the Covenant of God that is the foundation of communica∣ting original sinne, as farre as sinne can be communicated to all mankind, yet natural generation is the medium, or way of conveying it; But of this more in it's time.

It followeth in the Description, That this original sinne, as it is by propaga∣tion, so to all and every one of mankind, who were in his loins, for Christ was not properly in Adam's loins, and so his sinne could not be imputed to Christ because Adam was not in Covenant for him, otherwise not the Virgin Mary or any other is exempted from this universal pollution. So that here we have the Sub∣jectum praedicationis, as formerly inhaesonis, that subject of whom this sinne may be predicated, and that is every Infant new born, as soon as he hath a being, so soon doth he become thus all over stained and abominable; and this should make Parents have sad and serious thoughts about their children, there is that corru∣ption planted in their souls, which no instruction, no discipline can eradicate, nay the grace of God sanctifying doth not wholly expel in this life; Although the grace of God in some Obed-Edoms and Timothies appear in them from the youth, yet these were by nature dead in sinne, and children of wrath, onely Gods grace was very wonderfully conveyed unto them in their youth or infancy. Do not therefore think, that because thou hast a more ingenuous, civil and moral nature, that therefore original sinne is not in thee, yea many times the actings, and workings of it are more mortiferous and pestilential than in grosse sinners. But let us proceed to the parts, as it were essential and intrinsecally constituent of this depravation, and that is said to be the losse of Gods glorious Image, and there∣by a proneness to all evil; we need not say more to explicate these particulars: As in hell there is a privative part, the losse of the enjoying of God, and then a po∣sitive punishment through the torments of hell fire. Thus in original sinne we are without the Image of God. There is not that light or holiness he created us in, and withall an impetuous inclination to whatsoever is evil; So that now all the powers of the soul they move inordinately, and with great precipitancy, as Seneca saith of old men, because of their feebleness, Dum ambulare volunt, cur∣runt, they do not walk but runne; Thus our affections, our will, they do not so much go, as tumble headlong to their objects. Hence Tanrellus (Tryumphus Philos. pag. 18.) maketh original sinne to be nothing but impotentia naturam cohibendi, that we cannot stop nature in the impetuous motions thereof to sinne, no more than we can the violent torrents and streams of water in excessive floods. In these two things then lieth the whole venom and poison of this natural filthi∣ness, we are without all good, and under the dominion of all evil, and this is to speak all the misery that possibly a man can be capable of.

In the last part we adde in the description a two-fold effect of this natu∣ral defilement, which although they are to be treated of in a more large manner, with all the particular effects of this sinne, or some of them at least, yet in the general something is to be said, that we may affect our souls with them. And

First, Hereby we are made obnoxious to the curse and wrath of God: Even before any actual sin is ever committed, for this Infants dying immediately upon their birth, may justly be damned to all eternity; This is that which carnal reason strometh at; This is that which the nature of man will hardly yeeld to; Therefore the po∣sition of many have been, That there is nothing damnable in Infants; And al∣though some would not admit them into the Kingdom of Heaven, yet freed them from the place of the damned, but we must submit our humane reason, and our humane affections to the Scripture, if so be that Gods word saith, We are by nature children of wrath; If Jesus Christ be a Saviour to Infants as well as to men; if he came to redeem them as well as actual sinners, then of themselves their condition was damnable, for Christ came to seek that which was lost, and the whole need not the Physitian, but the sick: Oh then let us all humble our selves under this sentence of condemnation passed upon us. God might say of every Infant, In the day thou art born, thou shalt be damned, and it is the meer gracious favour of God, that deferreth the execution of this sentence, for till a man be in

Christ, he is not freed from this curse, only God in much patience doth put off the execution.

The second effect is, To be under the power and dominion of the Devil, Eph. 2. The Devil is said to rule in the hearts of men, and is therefore called, The Prince of this world regeneration is not only subduing of corruption in us, not only repairing the glorious Image of God which we have lost, but also a dispos∣sessing of the devil, who had a throne in every mans soul. By nature therefore because thus polluted, we are vassals and bondslaves to Satan, we are of him, we do his works; The bodily possessed by Satan were not more miserably agitated by him, then our souls are spiritually by him; what he tempts us to, we obey; what he suggests to us, we entertain: Insomuch that every man by nature may say, he no longer liveth, but sinne in him, and the Devil in him; Hereby thy heart may be called hell, yea and Legion, because many Devils do rule in thee: Oh that God would make this Truth like a two-edged sword in our hearts, that we may not rest day or night, till God hath delivered us from this wretched estate! Pray for it, groan for it, all the day long.