open it unto the conscience, it will undoubtedly revive again, and make a man find himself in the mouth of death. Thus we see, that unto the law belongs the conviction of sin, and that in the whole compass of evil that is in it. Three hateful evils are in sin: aberration from God's image; obnoxiousness to his wrath; and rejection from his presence: stain, guilt, and misery, which is the product or issue of the former. Now as we say, ' Rectum est sui judex et obliqui,' the law is such a rule, as can measure and set forth all this evil; it is holy, just, and good. Holy, fit to conform us to the image of God; just, fit to arm us against the wrath of God; and good, fit to present us unto the presence and fruition of God. According unto this blessed and complete pattern was man created; an universal rectitude in bis nature, all parts in tune, all members in joint; light and beauty in his mind, conformity in his will, subordination and subjection in his appetites, serviceableness in his body, peace and happiness in his whole being. But man", being exactly sensible of the excellency of his estate, gave an easy ear to the first temptation, which laid before him a hope and project of improving it: and so believing Satan's lie, and embracing a shadow, he fell from the substance which before he had, and contracted the hellish and horrid image of that tempter which had thus deceived him. Having thus considered, in the general, how the law may be said to quicken or revive sin, by the obligation, irritation, and conviction of it; we will, in the next place, look into the life of those particular species or ranks of sin, which the Spirit in the commandment doth convince men of. Wherein I shall insist at large only upon that sin which is the subject of this whole chapter, and (if not solely, yet) principally aimed at by the apostle in my text, namely, those evils which lie folded up in our original concupiscence. Here then, first, the Spirit by the law intituleth us to Adam's sin, as a derivation * from the root to the branches; as poison is carried from the fountain to the cistern; as the children of traitors have their blood tainted with their fathers' treason, and the children of bond-slaves are under their parents' con t Rom. vii. 12. u Vide Georg. Zeœman. controvers. de Imagine Dei, c. 4. Artic. 48. * John iii. 5, 6. Rom. xi. 5, 16, 17, 18. 1 Cor. xv. 47, 48, 49. dition. We were all one in Adam, and with him; in him legally, in regard of the stipulation and covenant between God and him; we were in him parties in that covenant, had interest in the mercy, and were liable to the curse which belonged to the breach of that covenant: and in him naturally, and therefore unavoidably subject to all that bondage and burden which the human nature contracted in his fall. And though there be risen up a sect of men, who deny the sin of Adam to be our sin, or any way so by God accounted, and to us imputed; yet certain it is, that before that arch-heretick Pelagius and his disciple Cœlestius did vex the churches, never any man denied the guilt of Adam's sin (and guilt is inseparable from the sin itself, being a proper passion of it) to belong to all his posterity. This then is the first charge of the Spirit upon us, participation with Adam in his sin. And inasmuch as that commandment unto Adam was the primitive law, so justly required, so easily observed, therefore exceeding great must needs be the transgression of it. Pride, ambition, rebellion, infidelity, ingratitude, idolatry, concupiscence, theft, apostasy, unnatural affection, violation of covenant, and an universal renunciation of God's mercy promised; these, and the like, were those woful ingredients which compounded that sin; in the committing whereof, we all are sharers, because Adam's person was the fountain of ours, and Adam's will the representative of ours. d с The second charge is touching universal corruption; which hath in it two great evils. First, a general defect of all righteousness and holiness, in which we were at first created; and Secondly, an inherent deordination, pravity, evil dis e y Omnes in Adamo peccaverunt, quia omnes unus ille fuerunt; Aug. Traxit reatum homo, quia unus erat cum illo, à quo traxit; Aug. ep. 23. Prosper. contr. Col. c. 18. Genus humanum in parente primo, velut in radice, putruit; Greg. *'Ημῶν χειρόγραφον πατρῶν, ὃ ἐγγράφει ὁ ̓Αδάμ. Chrysost. apud Aug. Vid. Gerard. Voss. Histor. Pelag. 1. 2. part 1 & 2. Ostorodius Instit. vid. Jacob. Portum, cap. 27. Remon. exam. censur. cap. 7. sect. 4. Quis, ante prodigiosum Coelestium, reatu prævaricationis Adam omne genus humanum negavit adstrictum? Vincent. Lirinens. advers. hæres. c. 34. b Primordialis Lex et Matrix præceptorum Dei. Tert. contra Judæos, c. 2. c Possibile ac facile præceptum. Aug. cont. Jul. 1. 3. c. 18. Aug. Enchirid. cap. 45. d Aug. Retract. 1. 1. cap. 13. Aquin. Andrad. Orthodox. explic. 1. 3. e Vitiositas, inobedientia, vivacitas, libido, morbidus affectus. Aug. de per. Inst. c. 4. de Civ. Dei, l. 14. c. 15. con. Jul. 1. 4. c. 13. de nup. et concupis. 1. 2. c. 13. Retract. 1. 2. c. 15. Zapкós éøpev, kaì oidèr èv dμîv åyaðòv ¿voikeî. Just. Mart. Ecclesia Anglic. Art. 9. position, disease, propension to all mischief, antipathy and aversion from all good, which the Scripture calls the flesh,' the wisdom of the flesh,' the body of sin,' ' earthly members,' the law of the members, m S h n i the works of the Devil,' the lusts of the Devil,' the Hell that sets the whole course of nature on fire.' And this is an evil, of the thorough malignity whereof no man can be so sensible and distinctly convinced, as in the evidence of that conviction to cry out against it with such strange, strong, and bitter complaint as St. Paul doth,- till his P understanding be, by Christ, opened to conceive the spiritualness, 'penetration, and compass of that holy law, which measureth the very bottom of every action, and condemneth as well the "originals as the acts of sin. And hence it is, that * many men plead for this sin, as only an evil of nature rather troublesome than sinful. That concupiscence was not contracted by nature de novo' in the fall; but that it is annexed to nature by the law of creation, that it belongeth to the constitution and condition of a sensitive creature; and that the bridle of original and supernatural righteousness being removed, the rebellion of the fleshly against the spiritual, that is, as these men most ignorantly affirm, of the sensual against the reasonable part which was by that before suspended, did discover itself. It will not be therefore amiss to open unto you what it is to be in the state of original sin; and what evils they are which the commandment doth so discover in that sin, as thereby to make a man feel the burden of his own nature, smell the sink and stench of his own bosom, and so (as the prophet speaks) abhor himself,' and never open his mouth any more, either proudly to justify himself, or foolishly to charge God; but to admire and f John iii. 6. i Col. iii. 5. g Rom. viii. 6. James iii. 15. 7. h Rom. vi. 6. Eph. iv. 22. Rom. vii. 23. 11 Joh. iii. 8. m 1 Joh. viii. 44. n Jam. iii. 6. • Rom. vii. 24. 2 Cor. xii. 8. P Luke xxiv. 25. q Rom. vii. 14. Joh. iv. 24. Heb. iv. 12. Psal. cxix. 66, * Luke x. 27. u Lex etiam origines delictorum, i. e. concupiscentias et voluntates, non minus quam facta condemnat; Tert. de pudic. cap. 6. * Piggius controv. 1. Soto de natura et gratia, lib. i. cap. 3, Andrad. orthodox. explic. lib. iii. p. 217. Perer. in Gen. lib. v. de stat. Innocent. disp. de excel. 4. q. 4. num. 164. Bel. de gratia primi hominis, cap. v. Corvin. contr. Molin. cap. viii. sect. 1. Quam sententiam hoc fundamento rejecit Stapletonus, ne Deus author peccati statuatur; de justific. lib. ii. cap. 7; et Joh. Driedo Hæreticam esse dicit; de gratia et lib. arbitr. adore that mercy, which is pleased to save,--and that power which is able to cure, so leprous and unclean a thing. 66 First, Consider the universality of this sin, and that manifold. Universality of times; from Adam to Moses, even when the law of creation was much defaced; and they that sinned, did not sin after the similitude of Adam, against the clear revelation of God's pure and holy will. For that I take to be the meaning of the apostle in these words," Until the law, sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed, where there is no law." Though the law seemed quite extinct between Adam and Moses in the wicked of the world, and with it sin, because sin hath no strength where there is no law; though men had not any such legible characters of God's will in their nature, as Adam had at first, and therefore did not sin after the similitude of his prevarication; yet even from Adam to Moses did sin reign over all them,” even the sin of Adam, and that lust which that sin contracted. And if sin reigned from Adam to Moses, in that time of ignorance, when the law of not lusting' was quite extinct out of the minds of men; much more from Moses after: for the law entered by Moses, that sin might abound; that is, that the concupiscence which reigned without conviction before during the ignorance of the original implanted law, might, by the new edition and publication of that law, be known to be sinful,' and thereby become more exceeding sinful to those who should be thus convinced of it, that so the exceeding sinfulness of sin might serve both the sooner to compel men to come to Christ, and the grace of Christ might thereby appear to be more exceeding gracious. For the law was revived, and promulgated anew, merely with relation to Christ and the gospel; and therefore the apostle saith, "It was added and ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator;" or by the ministry of the mediator. Where there are three reasons to shew God's evangelical purpose in the publication of the law anew. First, it was not published alone, but as an additament, with relation to C Rom. vii. 7. c Phrasis 2 notat ministerium the evangelical promise, which was before made. Secondly, the service of angels or messengers; which shews, that, in the law, God did send from Heaven anew to instruct men, and therein to take care of them, and prepare them for salvation; for angels minister' for this purposed, that men might be heirs of salvation.' Thirdly, the ministry of a mediator, namely Moses, who was mediator in the law, with reference whereunto Christ is called mediator of a better covenant,' and was faithful as Moses. Now where there is a mediator appointed, therein God declares his purpose to enter anew into a treaty with men, and to bring them to terms of agreement and reconciliation with him. Men were rebels against God, held under the sentence of death and vengeance; they are in darkness, know not whither they go; are well pleased with their own estate; give no heed to any that would call them out. For this reason, because God is willing to pull men out of the fire, he sends first Moses armed with thunder and brightness, which cannot be endured (for the shining of Moses' face, which the people could not abide, denotes the exceeding purity and brightness of the law, which no sinner is able with peace to look on), and he shews them whither they are hastening, namely, to eternal death"; and like the angel that met Balaam in a narrow room, shuts them in, that either they must turn back again, or else be destroyed and in this fright and anguish, Christ, the mediator of a better covenant,' presents himself as a sanctuary and refuge from the condemnation of the law. Secondly, There is universality of men ; and, in men, universality of parts: all men, and every part of man, shut up under the guilt and power of this sin. Both these the apostle i proves at large; "Jews, Gentiles, all under sin, none righteous, no not one, all gone out of the way, altogether become unprofitable, none that doeth good, no not one: every mouth must be stopped, all the world must be guilty before God; all have sinned and come short, or are destitute d Heb. i. 14. 30. 2 Cor. iii. 7. 18.20. • Deut. v. 5. f Heb. viii. 6. |