A brief view of the state of mankind in the first Adam and the second Adam being the sum of many larger discourses upon that great context of the redemption and mediation of Jesus Christ / by T. Beverley.

I have under the foregoing Pro∣position given a Sum of the whole Context, and laid the Foundation, I shall now go on to give the Sum of every Proposition arising from it.

Propos. 2.

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 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 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 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 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.

Ʋse.

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.

Proposition 3.

Adam by his Fall, and Conveyance of a Law of Ho∣liness, and of a Nature not agreeable to that Law of Ho∣liness, hath been a Head, Com∣mon Person, or Mediator of abundance of Sin, Disobedi∣ence, Offence, Transgression, Condemnation, Death, and the Reign of Death, to the Poste∣rity

of Mankind; The Law of Righteousness published in a fairer, fuller, clearer Edition in Scripture, then as it is in the Heart of Man, since the Fall, hath made the Offence and the Death upon it much more to abound and Reign, by the clearer Knowledge, and more manifest Discoveries of them.

1. Adam notwithstanding his Fall, ceased not to be the prolifick, and fruitful Head of millions of Mankind that have been, and are yet to be.

2. To All these He conveys the Nature of Men in all its vigour of Thoughts, Words, and Actions, according to the variety of Degrees, of Action, whereunto the several Tem∣pers, Educations, Stations, and Ages of Men give them Op∣portunity.

3. He hath no less conveyed that Law of Righteousness to be

the Rule of the numberless Persons of Mankind, and their far more numerous Actions, of which the Fiery Law of God in Scripture now gives the clearest Beams.

4. Hereupon by Reason of the unanswerableness of their Natures, and Powers of Acti∣on, and so of their Actions themselves to this Law, a kind of Infinity of Actual Sin hath flown in upon the World, much more discovered and aggravated by that Fiery Law.

5. From thence Death in all its various shapes in this pre∣sent World, and the unsheath∣ing of Death in the Second and Eternal Death, of which the present Death is but the sheath, or Scabbard, hath had and must have a wonderful, and trium∣phant Reign on the World; of which all the Threats in the

Word of God are a notorious Evidence.

6. Besides the Evidence of the Word of God, all the Ex∣perience, all the Laws, all the Writings, all the common and ordinary Discourse in the World, are the most known, and familiar Assurances of the Abundance of Sin and Death.

7. The close Attendance of Reason, and its Enquiries will necessarily lead us to the First man, as the original of both; but the unquestionable De∣monstration of it is this Word of God which best knows, how Mankind began, which hath given the most convictive Ac∣counts of Sin, and Death, and which our own Sentiments of Mind most conspire with; and so is most to be believ'd in the Original of them.

8. In all this so abundant Communication of Sin, and

Death, of which Adam by the accident of his own Sin is be∣come a Head, He is by that accident also yet the Figure of him, who is to be the Second Adam in regard of the Exube∣rancies of Communication, though not in regard of the Things Communicated as con∣trary and opposite, one to another, as Sin, and Death are contrary to Righteousness and Life.

But to All that are in Christ, Christ is a Mediator as much excelling Adam in the Power and Triumph of Communicati∣on of Righteousness, Life, and the Reign of it, as the Anti∣type excells the Type, (as was before said) and that not only in the Excellency of the Things Communicated, but in the Rich∣ness, and Plenty of the Com∣munication.

Ʋse.

How Necessary is it we should All behold our selves in the First Adam, in whom we certainly are by Natural Generation, and that thereup∣on we should be filled with the Shame, Horror, Sorrow, and Humiliation flowing from such a lost Nature, and our in∣numerable Actual Transgressions upon it; And that thereupon we should hasten into the Se∣cond Adam by Faith, and Re∣generation, who is the Head of Life, and Recovery.

Proposition 4.

Jesus Christ is brought in by God, the Second, Last, perfect Adam, the most Excel∣lent One Man, the Common Head, and Mediator of Hu∣mane Nature the Antitype to the Type, the First Adam.

The First man, Adam was before his Fall a Person of Great Value, of Great Suffici∣ency, when He was appointed a Mediator by God: But by his own Sin He sunk, and Fell, and is become to all his Poste∣rity a Head of Ruine.

Christ therefore comes as a Person of infinitely Greater va∣lue into the Humane Nature, and into Adams Station to Raise, Recover, and Boy it up.

He came into the Nature so, as to embrace the whole Na∣ture in Himself without a Hu∣mane Person, and so was more perfectly a Man then Adam, not a Great Man, but The Man Christ Jesus.

As the Son of God He was Creator, and Lord of the Na∣ture, and so had Right to Re∣cover it, as his own. As the Son of Man He bore the ab∣stracted

Humane Nature, not limited to a Humane, but uni∣ted to the Divine Person, and so was incomparably beyond Adam, fit to be the Common Head; because he had all the Nature so abstracted, not bounded (as in Adam) by a Humane Person, that must look to it self, as well as to the Na∣ture. So All he did, and suf∣fer'd, ran out wholly to the Nature; but He is the Head most properly, especially to the Renewed, Humane Nature, entire in Him; being concei∣ved into it by the Holy Spirit, Adam therefore left his pub∣lick Station, and privately, as a private Person retired into this Head, looking (as I said) to Himself, and not to the Na∣ture in this Action.

The Ends of Gods Consti∣tuting this One Man as a Com∣mon

Head, even his Son our Lord Jesus Christ, are;

1. That He might have in Humane Nature an Adoption of many Sons to Glory in this Great Son of God and Son of Man, Heb. 2. 10.

2. There is a Redundancy of Benefit; Common Grace, and other Advantages upon all parts of Humane Nature in preserving so much of the Remains of Conformity to the Law of Righteousness in the World, which would only condemn as in Hell, and not guide to any Thing Good, but turn the World into a Hell, were it not for Christ; in whom also so much of Patience, and Bounty is vouchsafed to men in out∣ward Blessings, essaying their Return to God by Repentance, in hopes of his Mercy, to which this Patience, and Bounty give so Great Encouragements.

Ʋse.

This shews the admirable Congruity to our Case, to have our Help laid upon so mighty, and near a Mediator, as Em∣manuel, God with us.

Proposition 5.

Jesus Christ is a Mediator of the Grace of God, and of the Free Gift of Righteousness by Grace in its Great Abundance, even as Adam was of the Of∣fence and its Abundance: yet so as that He is a Mediator of Righteousness in his own Obe∣dience also.

The Grace of God is the Highest Manifestation of the Divine Glory, and Goodness to us; How High therefore is the Honour of Christ to be the Mediator of it?

Adam was at first intended to be the Mediator of Righte∣ousness, and of the Benignity of

the Creator to his Creatures, ac∣cording to a Covenant of Works, and Debt, and proportionably by his Fall He becomes a Me∣diator of the Justice of God up∣on Sin, and Sinners; For Sin, were it not for that Justice, were only the Impotency, and weakness, and defect of a Crea∣ture, made to be so Righteous, not bearing up to Righteousness, that Justice makes Sin so strong. 1 Cor. 15. 56.

Christ as a Mediator of Free Grace hath infinite Advantages in regard of us, above a Me∣diator of Righteousness only. [for Righteousness walks by severe Rules and exact Steps.] Adam being so, and sinning could never Recover by Him∣self; Nor any of his Posterity by any Power Receiv'd from Him, who entailed Sin and Death. But Grace is unlimi∣mited, and unbounded in all

its motions, having no Cause, but it self, no bound but it self, viz. Its own Wisdom, and Holiness; so is infinitely more potent then Sin.

It is True, Justice in God is Infinite, as Grace, for in God They are one: Grace therefore provides an infinite Satisfacti∣on to Justice in the Obedience of Christ constituting Righ∣teous, Rom. 5. 19. of which being secure, It triumphs as it pleases; and Sin vanishes be∣fore it, for the strength of Sin is the Justice of God in his Law. That satisfied, Sin is weak, and is blotted out as a Cloud; is sought for, and not found, Cor∣ruption dyes, vanquished as Grace pleases.

That the Mediatorship of Christ may be more fully un∣derstood in its being a Medi∣atorship of Grace, seeing Justice is infinite in God, and his

Grace and his Justice One in Him; which Justice Judges, acts, and proceeds according to number, weight, and measure. The Apostle hath joyn'd in an opposite parallel on the other side of the proposition, v. 18. the Obedience of Christ; so full and so perfect; that he plainly asserts, that even as by the Dis∣obedience of one many were made or constituted, that is judg'd and determin'd Sin∣ners; so by the Obedience of One many were not only par∣doned, and so accepted as Righteous, but They are, and shall be constituted, decreed, determined, and justly judged to be Righteous, by this Righ∣teousness of Christ infinite in number, weight, and measure becoming theirs.

Ʋse.

This Obedience therefore is to be considered in the Medi∣ator of it, truly higher then the

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Heavens, deeper in sufferings in their value and vertue, then the lowest Hell, broader then the Persons, and Sins of All, over whom and over which Adams Sin can extend it self, in those, for whom as in Christ It is accepted; and lon∣ger then the whole Line of Adams Sin, beginning with Time, and running on for ever if not cut off by this Righte∣ousness of Christ, which is eter∣nal, or from Everlasting to Everlasting, and nothing be∣yond it.

And thus was the Obedience of Jesus Christ (an Obedience of infinite Purity, and of un∣fathom'd sufferings of the Son of God, a Priest for ever, with∣out beginning of Days, or end of Life) Eternal.

Propos. 6.

Upon this full, and compleat Satisfaction to Justice, although the one Sin of Adam becomes

Legions of Legions by Actual Transgressions, and are seen in every Atom, every aggravating Circumstance in the Beams of that Fiery, Law, yet the Free Gift of Grace in, and upon this Righteousness blots them all out of this Light of Gods Coun∣tenance; And this Righteous∣ness, and Obedience is as the Ark of Noah, that was not overwhelm'd by the swelling of the Floods, but Rode above them, and the higher they were, the higher the Ark was; so the Soul enclos'd and AR∣KED in this Righteousness of Grace, and the Free Gift Rides above all the surges of raging Guilt, whether from just fears of Gods Righteous Judgment; from the Turmoils of Consci∣ence, or the soming Accusations from Hell; and stands Righte∣ous (notwithstanding All) be∣fore God; before Angels, and

to the Consternation, and si∣lence of lost Spirits. For where Sin abounds, Grace does much more abound, and the Free Gift is of many, never so many Offences to Justification.

Ʋse.

Behold then by way of Ado∣ration, and Holy Confidence the ample Rest of Consciences wash'd in the Blood of Jesus.

Proposition 7.

The Great Question now arising will bee; How can it be ever reconciled to Divine Justice, or to Natural Consci∣ence, that the Righteousness of one should be made the Righ∣teousness of so many; To this the Apostle hath laid the An∣swer in the Center, and even ballance of the whole Dis∣course; As by the Offence of one Judgment came upon All to Condemnation; so to the Righ∣teousness

of one to the Justifica∣tion of Life.

The infinite Righteousness, and Truth of God hath deter∣min'd the Case; One Person may communicate to Many, and to All in Him, for the Ma∣ny, who are also the All in One Adam (in whom the Man Christ Jesus was not) fall un∣der Judgment from Him to Condemnation; So the Many, even the All in Christ (in whom All Ʋnbelievers and Im∣penitent are not) receive Righ∣teousness to the Justification of Life. All therefore, who be∣ing cut out of the old stock of Apostate Adam, and are en∣grafted into the New, Second, Last Adam, by Humiliation, Faith, Repentance, the New Creation are so one Spirit, and one Body with Him, that his Righteousness overflows them All, as naturally, as what is

the Heads flows down on all the Members; as the Root is the Branches, the Husbands Glory, and Riches the Wifes, the Parents the Childrens, or the Things of a Mans self the Things of his whole self.

Ʋse.

Look well then to this Im∣plantation into Christ, and Ʋnion with Him, that it be as real, as our Being in Adam.

Proposition 8.

To the Great Difficulty, that may Arise to Consciences con∣cerning the Impossibility of this Implantation to Christ by any Faculties, or Powers of our own, the Apostle hath in∣sinuated Great Consolation in those two Forms of speaking. As Judgment by the Offence of one to Condemnation; so by the Righteousness of one to the Justification of Life; signifying,

that as Judgment burst out from Adams Sin, so from the Second Adams Righteousness, Justification of Life is even in Pain, and violent to break out. Whoever therefore in another Expression, v. 17. Re∣ceives its Abundance, It flows amain upon him. If we had therefore but the Heart, the Mind, the Soul to Receive it, It could not but be ours. A Heart set upon Christ, and his Grace according to those Ex∣pressions, c. 8. v. 6. &c. of Solomons Song, shall certain∣ly have it; Thus free is the way of having this free Gift. It is True; It must be a full and compleat desire, like that to the Pearl of Great Price, Matt. 13. 45. so it is fit It should be for such a Pearl.

Ʋse.

Oh how do we perish for want of desire to Christ, for want of will to come to Him,

that we may have Life. He justly perishes, who will not desire such a Good with a de∣sire answerable to it.

Proposition 9.

But seeing there is a multi∣tude of Mankind in Adam, who perish; How can the Grace of Christ be commensu∣rate to, and equal, much less surmount Adams Offence? To this it may be answered, the Holy Seed are the whole Sub∣stance of Mankind. All else being not of the Renewed Hu∣mane Nature of Christ, are not accounted His All, or any of His, or for his Seed, but sink down first into Earth, or meer Body; then into sensitive Soul, a Nature more below Christs Humane Nature, then the brutal below the rational Humane Na∣ture; And at last the higher Souls,

or Spirits of Men not Partakers of the Divine Nature by Christ, and in Christ, become of the kind and species of Devils or fallen Angels, according to James 3. 15, 16, 17. and carry the whole man with them.

Yet is the number of the saved in Christ an incompre∣hensible great Number, a num∣ber that no one can number, and Jesus Christ at the Head of that General Assembly with the in∣numerable Company of Angels, makes them as far beyond the Account of the Lost, as sub∣stantial Figures are beyond ne∣ver so innumerable Cyphers. These are the First Born who have the Inheritance.

Ʋse.

Be not therefore discoura∣ged, but strive the more; Be in an Agony to enter; for though many strive to enter, and are not able; yet the Tru∣er, more substantial number,

the Jewels, the Vessels unto Ho∣nour, the precious Gold and Silver, the Wheat are sav'd, which are also beyond num∣ber; The Dross, the Refuse, the Chaff, the Tares, the Vessels to Dishonour are only the Lost. And if a Man purge Himself from these, He shall be a Vessel unto Honour, Sanctified, Meet for the Masters Ʋse, ready to every good Work.

Proposition 10.

The Reign in, and unto Eternal Life in Christ is so much above the Reign of Death from Adam, that it infinitely surpasses, and surmounts the whole Condemnation, and Death by Adam.

The Blessedness of separate Spirits before the Resurrection.

The incomparable Glory of the First Resurrection, and of a

part in it, in the Paradise of God, in the New Jerusalem, in the Restitution of All Things, in the New Heaven, and the New Earth, in the Glorious Kingdom of Christ.

The Blessedness of Saints being with Christ, and beholding the Glory he had with the Fa∣ther, who loved him before the World was, and being so em∣braced into this Love, that this Love is in the Saints, and Christ in them in the pure and per∣fect Eternity, when God shall be All in All.

All these are so beyond All that Eye hath seen, or Ear hath heard, or that hath entred into the Heart of Man to conceive, that we cannot know it; For we shall be like Him, and see Him, as He is; This swallows all Objection from the Few∣ness of the sav'd, and shews the Reign of Grace to Life, above Deaths Reign.

Ʋse.

But Let Him that hath this Hope, purifie Himself, even as He is pure. And that no Man may think this a Licencious Doctrine, let him consider the Doctrine of Gospel Sanctifica∣tion, flowing from, and along with this Doctrine of Grace by Christ the Mediator, in whom All Dye to Sin, Rise to Righteousness in and with Him, have part for part, Grace for Grace, answering to his Righ∣teousness in inward Righteous∣ness, of which the Apostle treats in the following Chap∣ters, and wherein by Gods Grace my Discourse shall fol∣low Him.

Notes

• Rom. 5. 13, 14.
• Rom. 7. 12.
• Psal. 51. 5. Ephes. 2. 〈◊〉〈◊〉 c. 4. 22.
• 1 Cor. 6. 19. Rom. 8. 10, 11.
• Observe the whole Context from verse to verse.
• Rev. 20. 14, 15.
• Observe the much more along the Con∣text.
• One Man, One Jesus Christ is oppos'd to One Man Adam throughout the Con∣text.
• 1 Tim. 2. 5.
• Phil. 2. v. 6. 8.
• Rom. 2. 4. 2 Pet. 3. 9.
• Compare v. 15. and v. 19. the double pa∣rallel, lying on each side the Propositi∣on. v. 18.
• Rom. 4. 4.
• Psal. 145. 17.
• Ephes. 1. 6, 7. 11. c. 2. 7, 8, 9.
• verse 16. compared with 20.
• v. 18.
• The Reign of Grace, Righteous∣ness, and Life, above the Reign of Sin and Death on both sides the Propo∣sition. v. 17. v. 21.
• Revel. 7. 9.
• Heb. 12. 23
• Luc. 13. 24.
• 2 Tim. 2. 21.
• John 17. 24. 26.