Chapter II
What are the reasons or causes of the corruption of man s nature. That Adam s nature was presently depraved ly the commission of his first sin. That if Adam s first act of sin had an influence to corrupt his nature, it hath the same influence to deprave ours, we being guilty of the first sin, as
48 AN UNREGENERATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK II.
well as Adam himself was. How man s soul, which proceeds not from the
parents, but is created by God, comes to be corrupted by sin.
Now, to shew you the grounds why our natures are thus corrupted, and not only the guilt of Adam s offence conveyed.
First, If Adam s nature was stained and corrupted with an inherent cor
ruption by the act, then must ours also, if we be guilty of it as well as he, by an equal and necessary covenant. The proof of this consequence I
will prove anon ; but Adam, by the commission and guilt of that first
actual sin, had, and that necessarily, his nature thus stained and cor
rupted ; which proposition I will first prove, the truth of the other being built upon it.
1. Ve facto, That his nature was thus thereby corrupted, and the image of God extinguished, it appears by what is spoken of him, as the effect and immediate consequent following on it ; and this by a sensible alteration which Adam found in himself, for he found himself naked, and that not only in body, to cover which Jie sewed two fig-tree leaves, as Gen. iii. 7, And the
eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. But he found himself naked in soul also : ver. 10,
* And he said, I heard thy voice in the
garden ; and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself. For it was such a nakedness as made him afraid of God s wrath, exposed him to it, which his bodily nakedness did not ;
* I heard thy voice in the garden ; and I was afraid, because I was naked. Now nakedness is the want of some
garment which a man should be clothed with ; now if you would know what
garment it was he wanted, see Col. iii. 10, Put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge, after the image of him that created him. He speaks here expressly of the image of God, wherein man was first created ; and
likens it to a garment, as the phrase putting on implieth. Now, in Gen.
i. 26, it is said indeed of Adam, that he was created in God s image, clothed with it as with a garment ; and now you see he is stripped of it, he is be come naked, naked in soul, and therefore afraid of God ; and so nakedness
is used for the want of God s image we were at first created in : 2 Cor.
* For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven : if so be that, being clothed, we shall not be found naked. We shall be clothed with glory, if we be found clothed, viz. with grace, and not naked. Nakedness is taken for the want of the image of God. Neither was Adam only naked, as stripped of this robe of God s
v. 2, 3,
image ; but, Gen. v. 3, you shall find him clothed with an image, which in
opposition to God s (wherein at first he was created) is called his own
twice ; and in the same words, as in the other place, Gen. i. 26, says God
twice, Let us create man according to our own image, our likeness ; there
in Gen. v. 3, it is said of Adam, as in opposition, that he begat Seth in his
image, his likeness ; which image of his, therefore, is differenced from
: 1 Cor. xv. 47-49, The first man is of the earth, earthy ; the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they that are earthy ; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are
Christ s image
heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also
bear the image of the heavenly. Adam s image is here distinguished from
the image of Christ as a differing thing, as much differing as earth and
heaven : whereas otherwise, the image which God created Adam in at
first, is the same which we have from Christ, as appears by Col. iii. 10,
for the new man is called the image which God created man in at first. This
you see, de facto, was the immediate consequent of the first sin in him.
CHAP. II. ] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 49
2. In reason it could not be otherwise, but that that first offence should
corrupt his nature thus, and deprive him of God s image ; for an act of sin, or transgression of the law, though it be a transient thing, yet by whomso ever it be committed, it hath a permanent effect and consequent, and leaves behind it a depravation of God s image, and an inherent defilement and cor
ruption ; and though it comes out from the soul, yet it casts defilement into
it : Mat. xv. 18-20, But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart ; and they defile the man. For out of the heart
proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness,
: these are the things which defile a man ; but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man. Those evil thoughts which come from the heart do defile the man, Christ says, do leave a stain, a corruption, a defilement behind them. And this I take to be the evident meaning of that
blasphemies
* As ye have yielded your members servants to un-
place, Rom. vi. 19, 20,
cleanness, and to iniquity unto iniquity ; even so now yield your members
servants to righteousness, unto holiness. The apostle here brings a most
effectual motive why men should not serve sin, for, says he, the more you serve it, the more you are brought into bondage by it, for every act of service
you do to it makes your natures more prone to it, fills them with all iniquity
(for that is the meaning, neither can there be any other, of serving iniquity unto iniquity ), a new and further stain, and impression, and defilement
being left upon the soul by every act, as the fruit, consequent, and effect
that every sinful act ends in ; whereas in serving righteousness, as the con
trary, you do not only thereby do that whereof the end is eternal life, but
increase holiness still in your hearts, every act making the heart more holy, and so every sin the heart more sinful : therefore, ver. 22, he says, the
* fruit is holiness, besides, the end everlasting life. So that Adam com
mitting that act of iniquity, he did not barely commit that single act, and there to be an end, but iniquity was the fruit of it, iniquity defiling, cor
rupting his heart, and bringing the whole man in bondage into sin, by stain
ing his nature with a proneness to all iniquity. So, 2 Peter ii. 19, While
they promise themselves liberty, they themselves are the servants of
: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in
corruption
bondage. This is a rule whick all victors observe, that if they overcome, they bring in bondage, clap irons and bolts upon a man ; so, says he there, doth sin and corruption. When a man s heart hath been overcome and
foiled by one act of it, it brings all into bondage, casts out that which ruled
before, and chains the heart to sinful practices for ever after by evil dis
positions which it engenders in it. So that Adam s heart being overcome
by that act, his nature was corrupted thereby, and chained to all manner of
lusts and pleasures.
But you will say, though indeed custom in sinning may thus change Adam s heart, expel grace out, and defile it, as the prophet says, Jer. xiii. 23, that being accustomed to do evil, makes the heart defiled as the blackmoor s
skin, spotted as the leopard s. But will one act do it ? I answer, yes ; one act of sin expels all grace, and leaves a proneness or bondage to all sin in the heart.
1. Because the punishment of the least sin is, that a man shall lose all
grace, and that his nature shall be brought into bondage by it, as Gen. ii. 17, That day thou eatest thou shalt die the death, all manner of deaths ; not death temporal only
: that was not then fulfilled ; nor of eternal in hell : for that follows upon the temporal ; but death spiritual, whereby the soul is
deprived of spiritual life, and become dead in sin. As a man that commits VOL. X. D
50 AN UNREGENERATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK II.
a murder, or an act of high treason against the king, hath his goods and
life taken from him, so Adam, for that one act of rebellion, wherein he committed high treason against God, deserved to have all grace taken from
* For all have sinned and come short
him, as indeed he had, Rom. iii. 23,
of the glory of God.
But, 2, this is not all ; for this one act of sinning did not only deserve to have grace taken away, and to have nature corrupted, and so taken away as a punishment, but it did also by a physical energy expel it, not only by a penal, political consequence, but by a physical, causal consequence, even
as a stab a man gives himself causally separates the soul and body, and
leaves the carcase a dead thing, or as cold in water expels heat in fire.
For (1.) it separates betwixt God and a man. Now, as the soul is the
life of the body, so was God the life of Adam s soul ; and grace in him was but the light of God, as the sun shining in his heart, as the beams of the sun do in the air, and as lumen est imago lucis, so grace in Adam s heart was
the image of God. Now, as whatsoever comes but between the sun and the
air, may be said truly to extinguish the light in the air, by cutting the beams
?vanish, so sin coming between God and Adam, extinguished the light and life of grace in his heart, and left it
off from their head, out of which they
nothing but sin and a Inmp of darkness.
(2.) It was not only the cause interposing, and so depriving him of God s
image, but expulsive, as one contrary expels another ; for contmria mntub se
expellunt. Now, every act of sin is contrary to holiness, and it is said to be
enmity against God and his law : Rom. viii. 7, Because the carnal mind is
enmity against God ; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. If sin be contrary to God s law, so by consequence it is to his
image ; for the image of God was the law written in Adam s heart. And to
* But I see another law in my mem
the same intent it is said, Rom. vii. 23,
bers warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to
the law of sin which is in my members. It wars against the law of the
mind, that is, the image of the law in the mind ; the least act of sin dotb.
* For the flesh lustet .1
so, and the habit but by the acts ; and so Gal. v. 17,
against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh : and these are contrary the one to the other ; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would ; the one and the other, and their acts, are said to be contrary.
Obj. But you will say, One contrary expels not another, unless it be
* The strong man yields not up the house, unless a stronger than he comes.
stronger; as Christ says,
Ans. It is true ; but know, that one act of sin is stronger than all created
grace and holiness in itself, and therefore overcoming the heart, the will, in
wtych grace was, expels it. Take all other contrary acts, and they weaken
their contrary habits, but do not expel them ; lut one act of sin not only weakens grace, but expels it, for it is stronger. See the strength of the
power of sin above grace in itself, in the accusing power. Suppose Adam had lived in the state of holiness thousands of years, and served God per
fectly all that while, one act of sin would have marred all his service, and condemned him ; he had lost all as if it had never been. Now, upon the same ground it hath as much power to expel grace, and therefore it is called
the old leaven, whereof a little leavens the whole: 1 0>r. v. 6, 7, Your
glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leave i leaveneth the whole lump ? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye nuy bo a new lump, as
ye are unleavened. It is called the old leaven, because it was that which leavened Adam s heart, and ours from him, expelling grace out.
If you ask, Whence hath sin this power ?
CHAP. II.] IN KESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 51
I answer, from the law: 1 Cor. xv. 55, death, where is thy sting?
grave, where is thy victory ? From which law grace too in him had its
strength to justify ; and which law, whilst Adam kept in every part, he kept grace in his heart ; but if a man breaks it in one, he breaks it in all, and so
that original conformity to the law in a man s nature is expelled, and he made prone to offend in all : James ii. 10, For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all ; for as grace was held by keeping it, grace must be lost therefore by the breach.
But, you will say, according to this, grace in a regenerate man s heart would be extinguished by every act of sin, whenas it is called the seed that remains : 1 John iii. 9. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for
his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
I answer, there is not the same case of Adam s grace and a regenerate man s, for the strength of Adam s grace was only the law and a legal cove
nant, and one breach of it is stronger than all grace given and held by that covenant ; but the strength of a regenerate man s grace is the gospel, a new
covenant, backed with the strength Q Christ, the power of God : 2 Cor.
xii. 9, And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Grace is there
fore made sufficient and strong enough in time to overcome sin and all thorns in the flesh, not because in itself it is stronger, but because God s
power joins with grace, which grace is there called weakness ; and this power which joins with grace, sin cuts us not off from the derivation of it, because it cuts not off a man from Christ, that is the spring and fountain of
grace : Rom. viii. 38, 39, For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, &c., shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing is able to separate us from the love of God and Christ.
For that other proposition, that if Adam s nature was thus corrupted by that act, then must ours, we being guilty of it as well as he ; the conse
quence stands upon a treble reason, the one of which is a degree to the
other, and either enough to prove it.
First, If it were no more than that Adam was the person representing all mankind, what befell him by virtue of anything done by him wherein he
represented us, must befall all as well. Now in that act (as I formerly shewed) he represented us all. To give you an instance of this : they say that when the devil appears in any shape, representing the person of the witch with whom the covenant is made, look what either mischief the devil then doth, the witch is said to do it ; and look what hurt seems to befall the
shape he takes on him, cutting off a member, &c., the same mischief he hath power to execute on the witch herself. This hath been related by the confes sions of witches, and this is done by a covenant. So now Adam being by a
just covenant the representative person of all mankind, look what he doth
they are said to do, and what hurt he sustains by any act he represents us
in, we sustain also ; as your burgesses in parliament house, if they will do such acts whereby the privileges of subjects are infringed and lost, they lose not their own rights only, but those of the countries they represent also. So Adam being the representative of all mankind, had the privilege and great charter by which we all hold our grace ; and he doing this act whereby he
lost his own, lost ours also. And this reason will hold : suppose we had been all alive then, and never in his loins, but had been immediately created with him, and had personally all severally had grace in our hearts, yet he
representing us thus, and having broke the great charter, the law, though but
52 AN UNREGEXERATE MAX s GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK II.
in one thing, all had been void, all the rich endowments of grace we held by
it might and would have been taken from us.
But add to this, secondly, that our nature was in him, that he had all our stock committed to him, and we to have it paid and derived to us at the
day of our births ; then since he by this net lost all grace, lost all at one bad
throw, suppose in that throw he had not represented us, yet his loss had been our loss, as the spending of a prodigal father, or feoffee in trust for some under age, is the loss of the children and young ones also, and they are undone by it ; for nihil darepotest, quod in se non habet, nothing can give what it hath not. We might have sued him, indeed, but recover nothing we could, for as ex nihilo nihil fit in philosophy, out of nothing comes no
thing, so where nothing is nothing can be had in law, but the king himself
loseth his right.
Add to this, thirdly, that we were to have our natures from him by natural generation, concerning which God had given this especial law, that
everything shall bring forth according to its kind ; and God had given this
power to Adam before he fell, increase and multiply, in all which multipli cation of his the law of nature would have taken place, simile general simile,
like begets its like. As his nature before that act had God s image on it, so we should have had it conveyed by virtue of that law, so now, on the con
trary, he having contracted a corrupt nature, deprived of grace and filled with
sin, we must have the same image by the law of nature, though we suppose the other considerations cut off. John iii. 6, that which is born of the
flesh must be flesh ; and, Gen. v. 3, Adam begat Seth in his image and
likeness ; not only the image of him for substance, but for qualities also, therefore both added ; for res dicuntur similes vel dissimiles d qualitatibus, et earum privationibus, things are called like or unlike from their qualities and
the privations of their qualities, and therefore, 1 Cor. xv. 48, such as was
the earthly man Adam, such are the earthly of him. He speaks there not
only of him as the conveyer of the guilt of the fact, but also of the likeness
of his nature in regard of the qualities of it, for he says such. Now that notes
out and imports a likeness of qualities. Things are denominated such or such from their qualities : res tales dicuntur d qualitatibus. And to this the
Scripture refers us when it argues the case even from the law of nature : Job
* Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean ? Not one. Every root bearing fruit according to its kind ; he speaks it to this very purpose, that because our nature is derived to us from our parents which are unclean, therefore ours must be so also.
xiv. 4,
So that now join all these reasons in one, and it is a threefold cord to
pull on this consequence. If it were no more than that we are born of him,
it were enough, especially seeing he received that grace as a common stock ; but most of all because in that act of sinning he represented us, for indeed
that is the main, principal, radical reason ; and therefore seeing that act
extinguished grace (as I have proved), we still being guilty of it, and wrapped and involved in the guilt of that disobedience as soon as conceived, there
fore that effect which it had in Adam it hath now in us. And though indeed the Scripture ascribes it to natural generation often, as here in John iii. 6, it is therefore flesh, because born of the flesh, yet that is but the instrumental, accidental cause of it, quod agit virtute princi-
palis agentis, which acts by the virtue of the principal cause, namely, Adam s
sin, which carries in it and conveys with it the power of that curse which God gave against Adam,
* The day thou eatest thou diest ; and on the day we are born and become sons of Adam, that curse seizeth on us, and is
applied to us by natural generation, which makes us men. And therefore
CHAP. II.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 53
you shall find that it is the guilt of that sin which is that which corrupts all men s natures, and makes them sinful to the end of the world : Rom. v. 19, By one man s disobedience^ many were made sinful. By natural genera tion you are made men indeed, as by the principal cause, for vis prolifiea unites soul and body, yet it is the guilt of that one offence that makes men
sinful to the end of the world. For there he speaks not only of conveying of
it, for being made sinners signifies more, implies inherent corruption, and
by the context it appears, for ver. 12, 13 says, not only all had sinned, but
* sin was in the world, that is, in all mankind, as in a subject. And then at the end of that discourse comes in this general conclusion, Rom.
v. 19, For as by one man s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Sp that it is Adam s
sin that hath an influence into all men s hearts at their births to make them
sinful, both to be sinners and sin to be in them.
Generation, indeed, I say, is a means to convey it, because Adam s sin
seizeth but upon us when we come to be men, for it is said to have passed upon all men, Rom. v. 12 ; and because generation makes men men (so Eve, Gen. iv. 5,
* I have gotten a man from the Lord, ) though God creates
the soul, and therefore the man begotten is said to be from the Lord in a more especial manner than other creatures, yet so as the parents get the man, homo general hominem ; for there is a power of uniting and joining soul and body together in semine, which the parents transmit. Therefore the
depravation of our nature is ascribed to generation, because it presents a fit
subject for Adam s sin to work on, and to deprive of righteousness ; yet still
so as that it was the first of sin extinguished it in Adam, so it is the guilt of
it deprives us of righteousness, and it is that makes sinful men.
But you will say, Though, indeed, thus it deprived Adam, because he
personally then committed it, and it passed actually from him, and so might have such an effect, yet being long since past, how can it have the same
effect ? We may conceive how Cain and Ishmael might be poisoned by it,
being nigher the fountain.
I answer, by a similitude taken from the second Adam, whose righteous
ness, though long since past, and his death past but once for all as in Heb. ix. 14, 26, How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God ; But now once in the end of the world hath he appeared, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself yet the power and force of his blood and righteousness hath a real influence for
ever into men s hearts to sanctify and regenerate. So also Adam s sin, though
long since committed, hath an efficacy to make men sinful to the end of the
world.
But you will say, As to Christ s blood and righteousness, that hath such an
effect, because there is an applier of the power, the Spirit, which works in men s hearts by virtue of Christ s death, purchasing a right for him to work, which Spirit hath real power in him, and is existing to do it : That which
is born of the Spirit is spirit, John iii. 6. But what then is the applier, is the agent, that so works by virtue of Adam s sin ?
I answer, there need none but only the guilt of that sin imputed, for that
naturally cuts the man off from God, who is the fountain of grace, as the sun
is of light, and comes as a cloud between, so as grace cannot be derived as otherwise it should ; it comes as an impediment to hinder the glorious in
fluence of God s image. As I shewed the act did in Adam, so the guilt of
it doth the same thing in us; therefore it is said, Rom. iii. 23, All have
sinned, and come short of the glory of God. By glory of God is meant in
54. AN UNREGENERATE MAN*S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK II.
general but that life of glory which sin cuts a man off from, so as he cannot come to see the glory of God, sin separating. And also the image of God
is called the glory of the Lord, 2 Cor. iii. ; which image God would make
* he hath
to shine into the man as soon as he is born, but that this comes in,
sinned, and that as a bar keeps him short of it. This, then, is the reason why we are not born in God s image in holiness,
* All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God ; so that, suppose the soul was created holy, and then united, yet when it is united, this sin separates it from God, as it did Adam, and so it falls short of his glory, as the air doth of light when a cloud comes. Or, consider it created at the same instant when it is united, still, though God produceth the soul, yet the union making it guilty of sin, bars
that influence of the glory of God.
Neither is this depriving it of this glory a punishment, which God as an
agent inflicts, or hath any physical influence in working, but it is a coming short, as the air doth of light when a cloud intercepts it ; the sun causeth not the darkness, it would give light, rather it causally doth that; so God works not this privation of original righteousness, but Adam s sin stops the
passage of it, so as it works it as a cause, which though it exist not in the
act of it, yet in the guilt before God it ever remains, and therefore hath al
ways this effect to bring us out of his favour, to separate us from him, and
upon their separation necessarily follows this want of righteousness, as death
follows on the separation of soul and body.
But you will say, Original corruption is not only the want of righteous ness, but a positive pravity, a vicious disposition.
I answer, it is true it is so, yet so as that positive pravity is a consequent of that privation. Look as when the soul is separated from the body, then death follows, which is a privation of life; and the corruption of the body follows upon that, which sends forth noisome stinks (which Christ s body, though it tasted of death, doth not, for it saw no corruption, Ps. xvi. 10), so in the death of the soul, this want of righteousness is necessarily accom
panied with positive corrupt disposition, which put forth noisome, stinking vapours, actual sins, yet so as the corruption is originally inherent there as the cause, and as a part of original sin.
Lastly, You will object, If sin imputed thus extinguisheth righteousness, how came it that Christ, that had Adam s sin, and all the sins of the world
laid on him, yet it had not this effect ? Wherein lies the difference ? And
yet it separated him, as appears from his crying out in that manner, Mat.
xxvii. 46, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?
I answer,
1 . You must distinguish between imputation voluntarily taken, and in obe dience to God (as Christ did, and therefore only underwent the punishment of being made a curse, without sin, to satisfy for sin), and the guilt passing
necessarily as this doth, which therefore works this effect, Rom. v. 12, Sin
passed upon all.
2. Though Christ was made by imputation sin, yet so as he could not be
said to have sinned in us ; but we having sinned once, God laid on him the
* All we like sheep have gone astray : we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. But Adam s sin is therefore imputed, because we were considered
iniquity of us all : Isa. liii. 6,
* Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. And therefore though this imputation of sin
as those that sinned in him : Rom. v. 12,
wrought a separation of the light of God s countenance, the light indeed from Christ, yet not the heat and influence of grace ; as metals under
CHAP. III.] IN RESPECT OP SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 55
ground, though they are separated from the light of the sun, yet not from
its influence.