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Chap. 9 those phrafes, fin entred, death paffed, have a plain explication. Sin did not stay in Adam, but it entred into the world: But if Adams fin be not imputatively ours, how did it enter? It entred by Imitation, fay the Pelagians: but how vain is this? Sin entred upon all, upon whom death passed, and death paffed upon all without exception. But neither infants, who fin not actually, or after the fimilitude of Adams tranfgreffion; nor those adult persons, who fin actually, but never fo much as heard of Adams fin, could have fin from Adam by Imitation. We are all finners, and children of wrath, not by Imitation, but by nature; Adams fin was not meerly his own, but ours by Imitation. Thus fin entred into the world, and as a penal fruit of it, death paffed upon all; it did not stay at Adam, but paffed upon all and if Adams fin became not ours, how should that be? The Apostle doth not barely set down fin and death, but fets them down in their order and connexion. First fin entred, and then death paffed, and that not as a meer infelicity or mifery, but as a just punishment for fin. Hence it is obfervable, that the Text faith, That death came by fin, and fo paffed upon all. The Particles (by and fo) fhew that death paffed upon all as a punishment. If Adams fin were not all mens, how could death pass upon infants, who have no actual fin? God is not, cannot be unjuft; where there is no fault, there is no room for punishment; if infants in no fenfe tranfgreffed the Command in Adam, the death in the threatning canDe Incar.14. not fall upon them, Quà juftitiâ parvulus fubjicitur peccati ftipendio, fi nulla eft in eo peccati pollutio? faith Fulgentius; With what juftice can an infant be

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fubject to the wages of fin, if the pollution of it be Chap. 9. not in him? May there be pæna fine caufa, a punishment without a why or a wherefore? It cannot be. If therefore, even Infants in Adam died, as the Apostle fpeaks, 1 Cor. 15. 22, then in Adam all finned, as he tells us in the frequented Text. That this is the genuine meaning of it, doth not only appear by the Text it felf, but by that which followeth: By one mans disobedience many were conftituted finners, v. 19. No unimputed fin can do this. If therefore Adams fin constitute us finners, it is imputed to us. To fay, as the Socinians and fome others do, to constitute us finners, is only to make us obnoxious to death, and fo to be treated as finners, is a thing vain and repugnant to the Text. To be treated as a finner, is not to be constituted fuch. To be treated as a finner, when a man is not fuch, is very unjust and unequal. To be a finner, is to be culpable or guilty of a fault; and the proper fignification must be retained. The Apostle in this Chapter evidently distinguishes between fin and death, tranfgreffion and condemnation, and makes Adam the origine of both, first of fin; and then, by fin, of death: Therefore Adam first makes us finners, and then obnoxious to death. Thus the words being taken relatively, In him all have finned, the conclufion is plain, That Adams fin is imputed to us. Nay, if the words be taken caufally, for that all have finned, the conclufion is the very fame; If death paffed upon all men, because all have finned, then Infants, because death paffes upon them, have finned: And how have they finned? Not in their own perfons, they are not capable of finning actually; but in Adam, the root of mankind: Not E e

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Chap. 9. by an Imitation, they are not capable of fuch a thing; but by a participation of the first fin, which by a just Imputation becomes theirs.

2. The capacity which Adam was in, is very confiderable. He was not confidered as a meer individual perfon, but as the Principle and Origine of Human nature. The admirable endowments of righteoufnefs and immortality, were trufted and deposited in his hands, not meerly for himself, but for his pofterity. The command was not given to him as to a fingular perfon, but as the Root and Head of Mankind. The Covenant made with him, run thus: If he did (as he was able) obey the command, he should transfer innocency and life to his pofterity; If not, he should transfer fin and death to it. We were in him naturally, as latent in his loins; and legally, as comprized within the Covenant. This is very clear, because the death in the threatning annexed to the command given to him, falls upon his pofterity. Had not the command extended to his children, the threatning could not have reached them. Had not they finned in Adam their Head and Root, death could not have faln upon them in fuch fort as it doth; that is, in a state of infancy, void of any actual fin of its own. This being the true ftate of things, it is no wonder at all that Adams fin fhould be imputed to us as parts and pieces of him. Adam was here confidered as the Root and Origine of mankind: his Perfon was the fountain of ours; his Will the reprefentative of ours. Omnes nos unus ille Adam; We were one with him,and branches of him. Hence we finned in his fin, and putrified in him as in the root. These things, if weighed, give an easie solution to all the

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cavils and objections which the Pelagians and their Chap. 9. followers make against the imputation of Adams fin to us. First, They fay, Deus, qui propria peccata remittit, non imputat aliena: God, who forgives us our own firs, doth not impute to us another mans. But here is a great mistake, as if Adams fin were just nothing at all to us. Adam was the Root, and bore all mankind in himself; we were feminally and legally in him: His fin therefore was not alien altogether to us, but in a fort our own. We finned in him as our Head: We fell with him as the branches fall with the body of the Tree. St. Austin faith, Contr. Jul.l.6: Though Adams fin were alien proprietate actionis; yet cap. 4. it was ours contagione propaginis. Gregory Nazianzen fpeaking of Adams fin, cryes out pathetically, O infirmitatem meam! O my infirmity! St. Bernard notably ex- Serm. 1. Dom. preffes it, Culpa aliena eft, quia in Adam omnes nefcientes 1. Post. 8. Epeccavimus, noftra, quia etfi in alio nos tamen peccavimus, Piph. & nobis jufto Dei judicio imputabatur,licet occulto:Adams fin was alien to us, because we ignorantly finned in him; yet it was ours, becaufe we finned, though in another; and it was to us imputed by the juft, though fecret counfel of God. Again they fay, That which is properly fin in us, is voluntary, and an act of our will; but Adams was not fuch. I anfwer: The foundation of this Objection, That all proper fin is voluntary, or an act of our will, is not univerfally true: Vain thoughts are fin, and fuch as are the objects of a good mans hatred, much more of the hatred of the Holy One; yet they are no acts of our will. The first rifings and ftirrings of luft, which antecede confent, are fins, and yet no acts of our will. The mutinies and rebellions of the lower faculties against Reafon, are fins, and yet Ee 2

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Chap. 9. no acts of our will. But might this rule hold in actual fin, yet furely it cannot in original; for then there fhould be no fuch thing as original fin, though Scriptures, Fathers, Councils, affert it; though the Church have been poffeffed of this truth in all ages; yet it is an error, there is really no fuch thing: For neither was Adams tranfgreffion the act of our will, neither is the inherent pravity in us fuch. If then we confess original fin, we must acknowledg that the rule extends not to it. Thus when Julian objects, That there is no fin in Infants, because they have not the exercife of free-will; St. Auftin distinguishes thus: Contr. Jul. Hoc recte dicitur propter proprium cujufq; peccatum, non lib. 3, cap. 5. propter primi peccati originale contagium; Whatever may be faid in actual fin,it is not fo in original.Further, Adams fin as to us, may be faid to be voluntary, in two respects; the one is this: It was voluntary,voluntate primi parentis,in the will of Adam the Head of Mankind, while he stood in his integrity. He was the moral Head of Mankind, and, as Bellarmine fpeaks, Totius humani generis geffit perfonam, he fustained the perfon of all mankind; his will therefore was interpretatively ours; our will was virtually in his. Murder is imputed to the hand, because the will, though it be not there, is yet in that person of whom the hand is a part. In like manner Adams fin is imputed to us, because the will, though it was not perfonally in us, was yet in him, of whom we are parts and members. Thus that De Peccat.Or. learned Profeffor Dr. Ward, Ex voluntate primi parentis, ex quo tota pofteritas derivatur, peccatum illud in pofteris, velut in membris Ade, voluntarium effe cenfetur 5 The will of the first Parent, from whom all the pofterity is derived, renders his fin voluntary in

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