An exact collection of the works of Doctor Jackson ... such as were not published before : Christ exercising his everlasting priesthood ... or, a treatise of that knowledge of Christ which consists in the true estimate or experimental valuation of his death, resurrection, and exercise of his everlasting sacerdotal function ... : this estimate cannot rightly be made without a right understanding of the primeval state of Adam ...

CHAP. XI.

Containing the Resolution of the maine Difficultie proposed, to wit, How the First Actual Sin of our First Parents did produce more then a Habit of Sin, an Hereditarie disease in all their Posteritie.

1.* 1.1 THe chief Difficultie (at least as some make it) is, How the First Sin whether of our Father Adam, or of our Mother Evah, or of both, could possibly produce a perpetuall Habit of Sin in themselves, or an Hereditarie corruption of the Humane Nature, propagated from them throughout all generations. This difficultie (though) cannot be press'd or drawne unto any Contradiction to the unquestionable rules of Reason or true Philosophy. The full and cleer Solution of it only surpasseth the reach of Reason meerely na∣tural, or of Philosophy not enlightened by sacred History or Mosaicall Relations of the estate wherein man was created. Surely if Plinie or some other Natu∣ralist had been so happy as to have diligently perused and beleeved the Oracles of God delivered by Moses, Gen. 1. 2. and 3. &c. We Christians this day Li∣ving might have had more satisfactorie Resolutions for clearing this Point, then we can gather from the Schoole-men or many of the Ancient Fathers. * 1.2 Some Schoole-men do think that our Nature was corrupted by the poyso∣nous breath of the old Serpent in his conference with our Mother Evah. I neither know nor remember whether they have any ground of this conje∣cture from true Antiquitie; or whether it be a Masterlesse piece of their own coyning. The conjecture or Phancie it self is for this reason Less probable, because the Nature of our Father Adam, who held no parlie with the old Serpent, was no less corrupted then the Nature of his Consort Evah. Other good writers are of opinion, that the fruit of the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evill was for its specifical quality of a poysonous Nature both to the Soul and body; at Least, apt to taint or corrupt both: and the first mans nature was tainted by tasting or eating of it: For of it he did eate as much as Evah did, if not more, though she were more in the transgression, because she had pluck∣ed it from the tree. And I cannot conjecture any ground why any ingenu∣ous Reader of the sacred Story should peremptorily reject this opinion, which I (for my poore talent in Divinite,) hold in some better esteem then a meere or probable conjecture. No Article of Christian Faith it is, (though we should suppose Faith it self to be no more then an Opinion) yet to be ad∣mitted into the List of piè Credibilia, or to be ranked amongst such opinions, as may be more piously and more safely beleeved, then peremptorily reje∣cted or derided. The Consequence of this Opinion or Supposition is, That Adam did become his own Executioner, Or as the Canonists speak, incidere in Ca∣nonem, did absolutely inflict that punishment upon himself, unto which his Creator had but conditionally sentenced him. Gen. 2. 17. But of the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evill, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely dye. There was no Necessity Laid upon him by his Creator that he should eat of it; but such a peremptory Restraint or Command to the Contrary, that whensoever he did eat of it, Death should necessarily follow. And so it did; for Mortality and Corruption did enter into his Nature with the Figg or Apple which he tasted, not only upon the same day wherein he tasted it, but in the very same moment. And the same mortality and corruption are propagated to all his Sons from the first mo∣ment or point of time wherein they begin to be his Sons. Or more briefly,

The Forbidden Fruit, of what sort soever it were, did as truly beget or bring forth corruption and Mortality in our Nature, as Adam did beget Cain, or Evah bring him forth.

2.* 1.3 But it may be (and I presume will be) Objected, That not the For∣bidden Fruit only, but the whole Tree whereon it grew, root and branch, were immediately created by God, before Adam could taste or eat of it. And if it were for specifical quality poysonous, or did necessarily taint the whole humane Nature, being once tasted of: How can either Fruit or Tree be conceived to be any part of Gods six-days-works, all of which were very good? Or how shall we salve, or be able to maintain that Maxim of the Wise man [God did not create death,* 1.4] seeing he did create that poysonous Fruit, by which our Nature was deadly poysoned? Facilis Solutio, the answer is ready: Albeit deadly poyson be not Good to him that takes it, yet, that there should be poyson, or herbs and fruits in their nature poysonous, as well as medicinal or wholsom, is, and from the beginning was very Good. Good like∣wise it was; exceeding Good, that the First man should have death as well as Life proposed to his Free or unnecessitatible choice. So the whole fault was in himself; no part in the fruit which God had forbidden him to eat: For he by thus eating of it did chuse death before life. And however the fruit, which we suppose to have carried deadly poyson with it into his body, were immediately created by God: Yet that of the Prophet is more remark∣ably true of our first Parents, then of Israel unto whom it was directed, Perditio tua ex te; O Adam, Thou wast the cause of thine own and of our destru∣ction: But of our salvation in and through the promised seed, Our gratious Creator is the sole Cause and Author. Again, Albeit Adam did exceeding ill in chusing death before Life: yet This in the Consequence, by special di∣spensation of divine Mercy, was Good for us. Our Nature was not so much wounded or made worse by that unhallowed Food, as our persons are better∣ed and our estate amended by the new Covenant in Christs bloud; unlesse we abuse those Talents which our Gratious Creator and Red••emer hath given us, as Adam did his. Were Free choice left unto us which now are living; Whether we would accept that estate or Condition of life wherein Adam was created, or that which is granted us by the new Covenant in Christs bloud: He should commit as great a folly as our First Parents did, that would not embrace the later Condition and refuse the Former.

3 But for the former Difficulty, How more then a Habit of sin; an He∣reditary disease of nature, should be produced by one or two Acts, I am afraid some men make it seem a great deal greater then it is, more by their own incogitancy then by any positive Argument that can be brought to en∣large or presse it further, then at the first sight it appears to every young Student. First, these men take it not into consideration that our First pa∣rents might commit more Actual sins then that One often mentioned, before the corruption of nature was propagated to their Successors. Besides The Alteration of their diet, change of dwelling and air, might depresse their nature, and dispose then to a deeper degree of Mortality and Corruption then they were subject unto when they were first driven out of Paradise. And Paradise for ought we know, or can possibly object to the contrary, might, for many conveniences and conducements to preservation of health whether of body or minde, exceed all other habitations, as far as Princes Palaces do common Gaoles. What further impressions other occurrences besides these mentioned, intervenient between our First Parents Grand-sin and the birth of Cain, of Seth, or others of their Children, from whom all

the Kindreds of the earth Lineally descended, might make in the nature pro∣pagated from them; or what effects or Symptomes our mother Evah's Long∣ing after the forbidden Fruit might leave in her self or in her Children, is unknown to us: yet a Point to be considered by such as think it scarce possible for one Act to produce a Habit. This we know in general; That the eager Longings of Mothers, or distastes or affrightments taken by them, do often imprint many hereditary dispositions in their Children. And from this original, all or most of those strange Antipathies unto meats or drinks in themselves good and wholsome, and unto other Live or Livelesse creatures no way noysome, do (as Learned Physitians resolve us) naturally issue. Yet no Antipathies in private families can be so perpetually hereditary, as those inclinations unto Evil, or Antipathies unto goodnesse, which proceeded from the First well-head or spring of our Nature, to wit, from our mother Evah: That being once corrupted, could not but corrupt the whole current. As for Evah's Lusting after whatsoever other unlawful pleasures, her Long∣ing after the Fair-seeming Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, we may hence ga∣ther to have been very intemperate and exuberant beyond the ordinary size of unruly appetites; in that, Holiness with sobriety is more specially at Least under more expresse Condition required unto the salvation of the weaker sex, as our Apostle hath it, 1 Tim. 2. 15. Notwithstanding, she shall be saved in Child-bearing, if she continue in faith and charity, and holinesse with sobrie∣ty. And so is abstinence from some peculiar sins, or from Occasions of tem∣ptations to such sins as their Progenitors have been most prone unto, more peremptorily required in their Children, then in Other Men whose Ance∣stors or Progenitors have not been tainted with the like sins, nor obnoxious to like temptations.

4.* 1.5 But here if any man be otherwise minded or disposed to contradict what I have said or shall briefly say Concerning this point, I professe I shall not be willing to debate the Probleme any further with him. Only I must for mine own part protest, that there never yet arose any doubt or question between me and my most retired thoughts; Whether there may not be and are sundry particular Branches of sin or natural inclinations unto Evil, pro∣pagated from intermediate Parents unto their Children or Families for many Generations, which do not by any Natural Necessity grow out of that Original Stem or Root of Corruption, whereof all of us are partakers by the Fall of our First Parents. Yet I would intreat the Reader to take this Consideration along with him; That such Hereditary ill dispositions or inclinations to some peculiar vices as we mean, may abate, remit, or revive and be improved through several successions or collateral Lines of the same Stem, unto which they are (for some generations) Hereditary, or finally expire, after the same manner that similitude of bodily Lineaments, feature, or visages do vary, alter, or expire in many Ancient families: Some Children being more true pictures of their Great Grand-fathers or Grand-fathers or great Uncles, then of their immediate Parents: Others again more like their immediate pa∣rents, then to any of their Ancestors, whether by father or mother. Concern∣ing the Cause or manner How similitudes of feature, of bodily Lineaments or visages do or may abate or remit in the first or second Descent, and revive in third or fourth;* 1.6 this the Reader must learn from Philosophers or Phy∣sitians, as Aristotle or Galen, which of purpose have searched into this secret of Nature For illustration of the maner, how hereditary indispotions of the heart or affections may abate, revive, or expire in the several Descents of families, the determination of that moral Probleme [An nobilitas generis desinat in uno vitioso?] will be pertinent.

Now that Nobility of Bloud, or those inclinations unto Heroical vertues for which some Ancient Families have been famous, do not necessarily cease or expire through the vitiousnesse of one Succession, was a point determined in the Schools when I first knew them. And Experience may teach a Long∣Liv'd Observant man, that Two vitious or lewde Successors do not often∣times so abate or utterly dead those seeds of vertue which were propagated to them from their Ancestors, but that they may revive, or be impro∣ved in the Fourth Generation or Descent. The abating, reviving or ex∣piring of them depends most upon their Education: And so doth the abate∣ment or improvement of Original Sin or inclinations unto Evil. Even that Corruption of Nature which we necessarily draw from the losse of Paradise, is not equal in all the sons of Adam, though it be most true; That every one of us is as truly tained with it, as any Other. Again, though it be univer∣sally true; That all men are by Nature Sinners; all destitute of the Grace of God: Yet is it no part of this Vniversal truth; to deny That some Race or Brood of Men are from their birth or Conception, much more by Educati∣on, more gracelesse then Others are. And yet for such as have the least measure of sin, whether Original, Habitual, or Actual; Or for men as we terme them, of Sweet Dispositions or Good nature, it is as impossible to be freed from Natural Servitude unto sin, without the Special Grace of God in Christ, as it is for the greatest Sinners or most Gracelesse Brood of men. The best of us, even after the participation of Grace in some degree, have a greater measure of one or other kind of sin, then we take notice of, or then we can Learn from most Professors of Divinity, which have purposely un∣dertaken to Decypher the nature and haynousnesse of it.

Notes

• * 1.1

  The eating of the Forbidden Fruit, did pol∣lute or poyson the nature of man.
• * 1.2

  Gregorius de Arimino.
• * 1.3

  Objections that are or can be made against the former Re∣solutions, an∣swered.
• * 1.4

  Wisd. 1. 13.
• * 1.5

  Whether all branches of sin Original do ne∣cessarily spring from our first Parents Sin.
• * 1.6

  Vid. inter ali∣os Francis∣cum Vallerio∣lam in comm. in Hippocr.