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

SECT. I.

FIrst, In the soul, as it is endowed with reason and understanding: For herein man did transcend all other visible creatures, that God made him with a rational soul, investing him with reason and free-will, and in this respect the Image of God is not totally lost; For though by it we have lost all our power and understanding in holy things, yet we have not lost our souls, and the natural faculties thereof; we are not made bruit beasts, we are men still; Hence it is that still the reason holds, Why a man should not kill another, Gen. 9. 6. For in the image of God made he man; If there were not yet the Image of God in some respect, the reason would not be so forcible; For what weight would it carry to say, Thou shalt not kill a man, because once he had the Image of God, but now he hath lost it? God speaketh of what he will require of every man that hath slain another, and that because in the Image of God he made him: Thus Jame. 3. 9. aggravateth the sinne of cursing any man, because man is made after the similitude of God; To this we may appropriate that of the Poet, confirmed (Act. 17.) by the Apostle himself, We are his off spring: We will grant then, That the Image of God, so farre as it consists in the soul, and the natural faculties, is not lost, though in re∣gard of the actings thereof even about natural things, they are made infirm and weak.

Secondly, The Image of God did consist in that holinesse and righteousness, which God did adorn the soul with: And this indeed is the most noble and principal part of Gods Image, to be made like God in righteousnesse and holinesse; There∣fore Col. 3. 10. Ephes. 4, 24. we read the Image of God is said to be in righteous∣nesse and true holinesse: Insomuch that many learned Divines do make this the onely Image of God, though not so probably; This indeed is the principal and chief, the other is but remote and secundary, for the later abideth even in the Devils and the damned in hell; They have reason and understanding, yet they cannot do the least good action, no not for a moment, although they have so much light in them. This holinesse and righteousnesse then in the whole man, was the chiefest resemblance of God, he being holy as God was holy, not by equa∣lity, but similitude. But alas, who is able to apprehend aright of this? Who can now tell, being plunged into all evil and sinne, what it is to be altogether holy, what it is to be without any blemish or spot? Yet in such a glorious and admirable manner we were created.

Thirdly, The Image of God did not only comprehend this holinesse actually dwelling in us, but a power and strength also to persevere in this holinesse; for if God had been never so bountifull in one, yet if he had denied the other, he would have made us happy,

that thereby we might become more miserable. But this is not to be thought of that God, who shewed so much love and bounty in our first Creation; Adam there∣fore had the Law of God written in his heart, having strength and ability from within to withstand all temptations, and to perform any holy auty; so that we cannot instance in any holy action, which he had not power to perform Indeed to believe in Christ as a Saviour, to repent of sinne, he could not actually do them, because they do necessarily imply the subject sinfull, and in a miserable estate and conditi∣on, but eminently and transcendently these things were in his power; yea, this power of his did extend to keep all the Commandments of God, and that without any imperfection; Insomuch that being under the Covenant of works, he might have obtained justification by them, though not meritoriousty; This glory did God at first put upon us, who now have nothing but a cursed slavery unto sinne, and an utter impotency to any thing that is holy: As for resisting any temptation, he had strength and ability enough to gainsay it, though it had been in many degrees more violent, than that which 〈◊〉〈◊〉 him: It is true, he was overcome by a temptation, and in that which might have easily been repulsed, as we would judge; but this was to shew, That although he was created holy, yet he was also mutable; Though he had power to persevere, yet he had not that grace which did make him actually to persevere, as the confirmed Angels have: So that what Historians say of the Marsi in Italy, and the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 in Africa, That they had such a temper of body, that no Serpents could hurt them, or poison them; Such an admitable temperament was Adams soul in, that the Serpent would not have deceived them had not they given consent; For, if while we are in this corrupted estate, yet the Devil cannot force us to sinne, be cannot make us sinne, whether we will or no, but it is lust within us, that betrayeth all to him: No wonder then, if in that state of integrity, there was no 〈…〉〈…〉 to sinne, either from within or without.

Fourthly, This Image of God in the holinesse of it, was not only in the mind and the will, with a clear knowledge of God, and love of him, but it did extend also to the affections, so that they were made with a regular subordination to the rule of ho∣linesse within a man. These wild horses (for our possions are no better) were then all tamed, and as much subject to mans will, as the winds and tempells were to Christs: Anger, grief, love and desire, these did not rise or continue in our soul any longer, or otherwise, but as they were conducted by the light of God shining in the mind: This must necessarily be comprehended in that expression, Eccles. 7. when God is said to make man right, rectitude is an universal harmony and congruity of all the parts of the soul unto the rule. Austin did once wonder at that disobedience which now man finds in himself, Superat animu corperi &c. (Confes. lib. 8. cap. 9.) The soul commands the body, and presently it obeyeth, but (saith he) Imperat sibi ipsi, it commands it self, and then there is rebellion, but it was not thus from the beginning: Therefore the Papists and Socinians they do blaspheme in some sense God our holy Maker, whale they affirm, That the repugnancy and rebellion of the sensitive appetite to the reason, ariseth from the very internal constitution of a man; And therefore the Papists they make original righteousness to be the bridle only to curb this appetite, or an anti∣dore to prevent this infection. And as for the Socinian, he denieth, that Adam had any such righteousness at all, and therefore they say he sinned, Because his sensitive appetite did prevail against the rational: Thus they make man, even while he was in honour, and before his fall, to be like the beast that perisheth, and to have no understanding comparatively even in that place of Paradise; But this errour is so dangerous, that we are not to give place to it, no not for a moment. In that holy estate the soul commanded the body, and all the affections; They did goe, when he bade them goe, and stood still, when they were commanded: Oh but now, in what a warre, in

what a confusion and distraction are we plunged? now we cannot be angry, but we sinne; now we cannot grieve, or love, but we sinne; Thou that deniest ori∣ginal sinne, let the exorbitancy of thy passions, the inordinacy of thy affections convince thee: Is thy heart in thy own power? Canst thou have every thing stirre and move in thy soul, how, and when thou pleasest? Canst thou say in respect of thy heart, and all the stirrings of thy soul, as the Centurion did of his servants that were at his command? How is experience a mistress of us fools in this parti∣cular? Wherein doth our weakness, our sinfulness more appear than in our passi∣ons and affections? As Alexander when his flatterers exalted him as a God, he derided at it, when he saw blood come from his body. Thus when men cry up free-will, power to do what is good, deny original sinne, and make us in our birth free from all evil, With what indignation mayest thou reject it, when thou seest the Chaos and confusion that is in thy soul, when thou findest not any affe∣ction moving in thee, but it overfloweth it's banks presently? Whereas original righteousness gave Adam as much power over those, as he had over all the beasts of the field; but as the ground hath now thorns and thistles in stead of those plea∣sant herbs and plants it would have produced of its own self; Thus also man now hath all his heart and affections grown wild and luxuriant, so that Solomons ob∣servation in other things in here made true, Servants ride on hors-back, and Prin∣ces go on foot.

Fifthly, This Image of God was partly in respect of the glory, honour and im∣mortality God created him in. Adam was made after the Image of God, not only in holiness, but also in happiness; he was not subject to any fears or tears, nothing from within, or from without could cause pain and grief to him; Hence death, by which is meant all kind of evil and misery, was threatned unto him, as a reward of his disobedience; but Adam did not beget Seth after this Image, we are now made dust, and in a necessity of dying, which is the effect of our original sin.

Lastly, The Image of God doth consist by way of consequence in dominion and superiority. The Socinians indeed, because when it's said, God made man after his own Image, Gen. 1. 26. it's added, And let him have dominion over the beasts of the field▪ &c. make it the only thing wherein it doth consist; But we are to believe the Apostle, Ephes 4. Col. 3. expounding this Image of God more than they, who applieth it to righteousness and true holiness; yet it cannot be denied, but from this Image of God, did flow that Dominion and Sovereignty, which the woman also was created in; for though she was made in subjection to her husband, and so is called, The Image of her husband, as the husband is the Image of God, yet in respect of the creatures, so she had power over them, and they were sub∣ject to Eve as well as to Adam. Thus you see what this Image of God in a brief manner is, the next work is to amplifie our losse of it.

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