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as they believe that original fin is quite taken away by ART. baptifm, fo finding that this corrupt difpofition ftill remains in us, they do from thence conclude, that it is no part of original fin; but that this is the natural state in which Adam was made at firft, only it is in us without the restraint or bridle of fupernatural affiftances, which was given to him, but loft by fin, and restored to us in baptifm. But, as was faid formerly, Adam in his first ftate was made after the image of God, fo that his bodily powers were perfectly under the command of his mind; this revolt, that we feel our bodies and fenfes are always in, cannot be fuppofed to be God's original workmanship. There are great difputings raised concerning the meaning of a long difcourfe of St. Paul's in the feventh of the Romans, concerning a conftant ftruggle that he felt within himself; which fome, arguing from the scope of the whole Epiftle, and the beginning of that chapter, understand only of the ftate that St. Paul reprefents himself to have been in while yet a Jew, and before his converfion: whereas others understand it of him in his converted and regenerated ftate. Very plaufible things have been faid on both fides, but without arguing any thing from words, the fense of which is under debate; there are other places which do manifeftly express the ftruggle that is in a good man: The flesh is weak, though the fpirit is willing: the flesh lufteth against the fpirit, as the Spirit lufteth against the flesh: we ought to be ftill mortifying Gal. v. 17. the deeds of the body; and we feel many fins that do fo Rom. viii. cafily befet us, that from these things we have reafon to conclude, that there is a corruption in our nature, which gives us a bias and propenfity to fin. Now there is no reason to think that baptifm takes away all the branches and effects of original fin: it is enough if we are by it delivered from the wrath of God, and brought into a state of favour and acceptation: we are freed from the curfe of death, by our being entitled to a blessed refurrection and if we are fo far freed from the corruption of our nature, as to have a fœderal right to fuch affiftances as will enable us to refift and reprefs it, though it is not quite extinct in us, fo long as we live in these frail and mortal bodies, here are very great effects of our admiffion to Chriftianity by baptifm; though this should not go fo far as to root all inclinations to evil out of our nature. The great difpofition that is in us to appetite and paffion, and that great heat with which they inflame us; the averfion that we naturally have to all the exercises of religion, and the pains that must be used to work us up

to

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ART. to a tolerable degree of knowledge, and an ordinary meafure of virtue, fhews that thefe are not natural to us: whereas floth and vice do grow on us without any care taken about them: fo that it appears, that they are the natural, and the other the forced growth of our fouls. Thefe ill difpofitions are fo univerfally spread through all mankind, and appear fo early, and in fo great a diverfity of ill inclinations, that from hence it feems reasonable and just to infer, that this corruption is fpread through our whole nature and fpecies, by the fin and disobedience of Adam. And beyond this a great many among ourfelves think that they cannot go, in afferting of original fin.

But there is a farther ftep made by all the difciples of St. Austin, who believe that a covenant was made with all mankind in Adam, as their firft parent: that he was a perfon conftituted by God to represent them all; and that the covenant was made with him, so that if he had obeyed, all his pofterity fhould have been happy, through his obedience; but by his disobedience they were all to be efteemed to have finned in him, his act being imputed and transferred to them all. St. Auftin confidered all mankind as loft in Adam, and in that he made the decree of election to begin: there being no other reprobation afferted by him, than the leaving men to continue in that ftate of damnation, in which they were by reason of Adam's fin; fo that though by baptifm all men were born again, and recovered out of that loft ftate, yet unless they were within the decree of election, they could not be faved, but would certainly fall from that state, and perish in a state of fin; but fuch as were not baptized were fhut out from all hope. Those words of Christ's, John iii. 3, Except ye be born again of water and of the Spirit, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of God, being expounded fo as to import the indifpenfable neceffity of baptifm to eternal falvation; all who were not baptized, were reckoned by him among the damned: yet this damnation, as to thofe who had no actual fin, was fo mitigated, that it feemed to be little more than an exclufion out of heaven, without any fuffering or mifery, like a ftate of fleep and inactivity. This was afterwards dreffed up as a divifion or partition in hell, called the Limbo of Infants; fo by bringing it thus low, they took away much of the horror that this doctrine might otherwise have given the world.

5.

It was not easy to explain the way how this was propagated they wished well to the notion of a foul's propagating

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pagating a foul, but that seemed to come too near creation; fo it was not received as certain. It was therefore thought, that the body being propagated defiled, the foul was created and infufed at the time of conception: and that though God did not create it impure, yet no time was interpofed between its creation and infusion: fo that it could never be faid to have been once pure, and then to have become impure. All this, as it afforded an eafy foundation to establish the doctrine of absolute decrees upon it, no care being taken to fhew how this fin came into the world, whether from an abfolute decree or not, so it seemed to have a great foundation in that large difcourfe of St. Paul's; where, in the fifth of the Romans, he compares the bleffings that we receive by the death of Chrift, with the guilt and mifery that was brought upon us by the fin of Adam. Now it is confeffed, that by Chrift we have both an imputation or communication of the merits of his death, and likewife a purity and holinefs of nature conveyed to us by his doctrine and spirit. In oppofition then to this, if the comparison is to be clofely pursued, there must be an imputation of fin, as well as a corruption of nature, transfufed to us from Adam. This is the more confiderable as to the point of imputation, because the chief defign of St. Paul's difcourfe feems to be levelled at that, fince it is begun upon the head of reconciliation and atonement: upon which it follows, that as by one man fin entered into the world, and Rom. v. 12, death by fin, and death passed upon all men, for that (or, as to the end. others render it, in whom) all have finned. Now they think it is all one to their point, whether it be rendered, for that, or in whom: for though the latter words feem to deliver their opinion more precisely, yet it being affirmed, that, according to the other rendering, all who die have finned; and it being certain, that many infants die who have never actually finned, thefe must have finned in Adam, they could fin no other way. It is afterwards faid by St. Paul, that by the offence of one many were dead: that the judgment was by one to condemnation: that by one man's offence death reigned by one. That by the offence of one, judg ment came upon all men to condemnation: and that by one man's difobedience many were made finners. As these words are pofitive, and of great importance in themfelves, fo all this is much the ftronger, by the oppofition in which every one of them is put to the effects and benefits of Chrift's death; particularly to our juftification through him, in which there is an imputation of the merits and effects of his death, that are thereby transferred to us;

fo

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ART. fo that the whole effect of this difcourfe is taken away, if the imputation of Adam's fin is denied. And this explication does certainly quadrate more entirely to the words of the Article, as it is known that this was the tenet of those who prepared the Articles, it having been the generally-received opinion from St. Auftin's days downward.

29.

But to many other divines this feems a harsh and unconceivable opinion; it feems repugnant to the juftice and goodness of God, to reckon men guilty of a fin which they never committed, and to punith them in their fouls eternally for that which is no act of theirs and though we easily enough conceive how God, in the riches of his grace, may transfer merit and bleffing from one person to many, this being only an economy of mercy, where all is free, and fuch a method is taken as may beft declare the goodness of God: but in the imputation of fin and guilt, which are matters of strict juftice, it is quite otherwife. Upon that head God is pleased often to appeal to men for the juftice of all his ways: and therefore no fuch doctrine ought to be admitted, that carries in it an idea of cruelty, beyond what the blackett tyrants have ever invented. Befides that in the Scriprape ture fuch a method as the punishing children for their Jer. xxxi. fathers' fins, is often difclaimed, and it is pofitively affirmed, that every man that fins is punifhed. Now Ezek. xviii. i though, in articles relating to the nature of God, they acknowledge it is highly reasonable to believe, that there may be myfteries which exceed our capacity; yet in moral matters, in God's fœderal dealings with us, it seems unreasonable, and contrary to the nature of God, to believe that there may be a mystery contrary to the clearest notions of juftice and goodnefs; fuch as the condemning mankind for the fin of one man, in which the rest had no fhare; and as contrary to our ideas of God, and upon that to fet up another myftery that fhall take away the truth and fidelity of the promises of God; juftice and goodness being as infeparable from his nature, as truth and fidelity can be fuppofed to be. This feems to expofe the Chrif tian religion to the fcoffs of its enemies, and to objections that are much fooner made than answered: and fince the foundation of this is a fuppofed covenant with Adam as the representative head of mankind, it is ftrange that a thing of that great confequence fhould not have been more plainly reported in the hiftory of the creation; but that men fhould be put to fetch out the knowledge of fo great and fo extraordinary a thing, only by fome remote confequences.

IX.

confequences. It is no fmall prejudice against this opi- ART. nion, that it was fo long before it firft appeared in the Latin Church; that it was never received in the Greek; and that even the Western Church, though perhaps for fome ignorant ages it received it, as it did every thing elfe, very implicitly, yet has been very much divided both about this, and many other opinions related to it, or arifing out of it.

As for those words of St. Paul's, that are its chief, if not its only foundation, they fay many things upon them. Firft, it is a fingle proof. Now when we have not a variety of places proving any point, in which one gives light, and leads us to a fure expofition of another, we cannot be fo fure of the meaning of any one place, as to raise a theory, or found a doctrine upon it. They fay farther, that St. Paul feems to argue, from that opinion of our having finned in Adam, to prove that we are juftified by Chrift. Now it is a piece of natural logic not to prove a thing by another, unlefs that other is more clear of itfelf, or at leaft more clear by its being already received and believed. This cannot be faid to be more clear of itself, for it is certainly lefs credible or conceivable, than the reconciliation by Chrift. Nor was this clear from any special revelation made of it in the Old Teftament: therefore there is good reafon to believe, that it was then a doctrine received among the Jews, as there are odd things of this kind to be found among the Cabbalifts, as if all the fouls of all mankind had been in. Adam's body. Now when an argument is brought in Scripture to prove another thing by, though we are bound to acknowledge the conclufion, yet we are not always fure of the premises; for they are often founded upon received opinions. So that it is not certain that St. Paul meant to offer this doctrine to our belief as true, but only that he intended by it to prove our being reconciled to God through the death of Chrift; and the medium by which he proved it might be, for aught that appears from the words themfelves, only an opinion held true among thofe to whom he writes. For he only fuppofes it, but fays nothing to prove it: which it might be expected he would have done, if the Jews had made any doubt of it. But farther they fay, that when comparisons or oppofitions, fuch as this, are made in Scripture, we are not always to carry them on to an exact equality: we are required not only to be holy as God is holy, but to be per- 1 Pet. i. 15, fed as be is perfect: where by the as is not to be meant a true equality, but fome fort of refemblance and conformi- Mat. v. 48.

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16.