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ADAM hath conveyed a Law of Righteousness to All his Posterity, engrafted in∣to their Hearts, and It is so in∣separable from Humane Nature, that one cannot pass without the other; but he hath not conveyed a Nature answerable and agreeable to that Law, but sunk down from it into Sin, which is the truest Ac∣count of Original Sin, however It cannot be search'd in all the particulars in so short a sum∣mary; but thus he hath con∣veyed Sin, and Death to all
his Posterity; and thus the* 1.1 Apostle proves the Common Headship of Adam. There can∣not be Death without Sin, there cannot be Sin without a Law, there cannot be a Law without the giving that Law, there was no universal Law till Moses; There was univer∣sal Death of all Mankind, even of Infants before Moses, there must be therefore universal Sin, and therefore also there must have been an universal Law given; Such a Law being no way so Given, till Moses, but by that Law written in Mens Hearts; Hereby it necessarily arises, Adam must be a Head conveying an Ʋniversal Law; But not conveying an univer∣sal Nature, suitable to it, as Righteous, Holy, and Good, as* 1.2 that Law is, He hath convey∣ed Sin, and Death, Universally.
1. Adam was entrusted with a Nature perfectly agreeable to this Law; but falling from it, under the Justice of God, He conveys this Law with the disagreeable Nature, on which follows Sin and Condemnati∣on. He was in the best Cir∣cumstances any Man could be to have preserved the one with the other; and as the Com∣mon Father of All the most ob∣liged, to look well to it, and much stronger, then if every single man had been to pre∣serve it only for himself, seeing the Care of an Universal Pa∣rent must needs be in Nature the highest Care, and our dai∣ly Unfaithfulness to our selves in what is in our Power, shews, how little Reason there is to complain, as if we would have done better, each man for himself, then Adam for us All.
Herein how does Christ ex∣cell Adam, as a Common Head or Mediator. For He con∣veys a Law indeed, but it is a Law of the Spirit of Life, as to Justification, and that carries with it an Efficacious Law to Sanctification, as shall be shown.
Adam conveying a Law, but not conveying a Foun∣tain of Action agreeable, hath convey'd a Law of Sin and Death, because the Law con∣demns the Nature; but Christ conveys nothing but Grace, Righteousness, and Life to All in Him. Thus different a Head he is from Adam, both ways, who was a Figure and not a Figure of Christ who is to be that Head; a Figure in con∣veying, but not a Figure in conveying Sin and Death in∣stead of Life and Righteousness, as he was at first appointed.
2. What Adam conveys, he* 1.3 conveys by Natural Generati∣on, and so especially by the Body; as all evidence of Scrip∣ture assure us, too many to need pointing to; Hence Children of Wrath by Nature, by Conception in Sin, the Na∣tural States call'd the Old Man a Body, and Members of Sin, The Soul coming with a Law of Righteousness engraven up∣on it immediately by Gods Creation into such a Body, and sinking into its Corruption, as descending from Adam, and not keeping up to its Law of Creation, sinks into Sin and Death.
But Christs Regeneration by his Spirit dwells as a higher* 1.4 Spirit in the Regenerated Spirit, and from thence making a Temple of the Body, gives pre∣sent Life to that Spirit by Righteousness, when ever it se∣parates
from the Body; and a Resurrection to the Body after Death.
3. The Law of conveyance of Sin and Death is unrepeal∣able upon All, that is of Apo∣state Adam; The Spirit or highest Soul of all the Chil∣dren of Adam, cemented with the Body, is till recover'd by Christ under Condemnation, notwithstanding It was given by Creation from God: It cannot be renewed perfectly, so as to be Life till separated from the Body by the Death of the Body. The Body till it be a Body of the Resurrection, is under Death; and All this by vertue of that Decree upon Adam the Head. But in Christ the head of recovery All is in its own order recovered into the Reign of Life; the Spirit beginningly now, perfectly at Death, becomes Life. The Bo∣dy
as the Temple of the Holy Ghost dwelling in the Soul shall be certainly rais'd by the Spirit of Christ dwelling in the Soul, and by it in the Bo∣dy also.
All which teaches us to look to this, that we be found in the Second Adam, out of whom there is in from the First Adam, as a Common Head, nothing but Sin, Death, and Condemnation.
Rom. 5. 13, 14.
Rom. 7. 12.
Psal. 51. 5. Ephes. 2. 〈◊〉〈◊〉 c. 4. 22.
1 Cor. 6. 19. Rom. 8. 10, 11.