Sermon IX
And were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. VER. 3.
THESE words are the general conclusion and winding up of what the Apostle had said concerning our state by nature ; which he had largely and punctu ally set forth in the words before. And unto all that he had said before, there is in these words the addition of three things
1. Of the cause, and the first cause, or at least the fundamental cause, of all the corruption that is in our hearts, and of all those lusts, and of all that flesh and corruption which he had spoken of immediately before ; and were by nature.
2. Of that punishment which is due to men in their natural state, and for their natures, and for all the sins : committed in that state ; the children of wrath.
3. Of universality ; it is every man s case, both Jew and Gentile; even as others.
I opened formerly the phraseology of these words. As
I. What was meant by nature here. I told you by nature was meant here
1. Natural dispositions. The inlet of sin, the ground and the root of it, was not custom and imitation, but it was our natural dispositions.
2. By nature, that is, by birth; so it is taken in Horn, il 14. 3. By nature : it imports that whole estate of nature which while men live in, they live in the lusts of the flesh, they are dead in sins and trespasses, and they are children of wrath.
II. What was meant by children of wrath. I shewed you the phrase was taken both actively and passively. Actively, for what one is addicted to; so they are called children of wisdom, children of obedience, and in the words before, children of disobedience. Passively, so it is taken here, chil dren of wrath; or, as Peter hath it, cursed children ; or, as it is in the original, children of the curse.
III. What was meant by that phrase, even as others. I told you it im plied two things
1. That it is the common condition of all men. 2. That it is equally the condition of all men. Answerable to these three phrases, I pitched upon three things to be ex plained.
Of the first I have spoken at large. I made entrance into the second, viz., that the corruption which is in us, we have it by birth and by the law of nature. But I finished it not. I shall give you a brief account of what I then delivered, and so I shall proceed. I explained this unto you both by some generals, and also I began to enter into particulars. The generals are these :
1. We have it by birth and not by imitation. For then we should have the fountain of our corruption ascribed unto the devil, for he was the first
: x POSITION or Tin: LITTLE [SERMON IX.
sinner; and unto Eve, for she was first in the transgression, 1 Tim. ii. 14. But you shall find in Scripture it is ascribed to the first man, namely, unto Adam, as I shall shew you afterwards.
2. It is not simply coming of Adam : for then, if you could suppose that God should have taken the rib out of Adam after that he had sinned, and
have made Eve thereof, it is true she had been of Adam, but yet she had not
been corrupted, she had not been sinful ; because it is to be by nature, ami
so by birth and by generation. Therefore Christ, though he is called the
sou of Adam, Luke iii., and the seed of the woman, Gen. ii., that is, he was made of that matter which was propagated from Adam, yet he was not
corrupted, because he had it not by the law of nature, he had it not by birth.
3. It is not the sin of the parents in the act of begetting that is conveyed. For marriage is honourable, as the Scripture hath it. Adam did not con
vey, when he first begat his son Cain, the sin of that act of begetting, for
the action itself is lawful ; but it was his first sin, his eating of the forbid
den fruit. These were the generals I gave you. For all these do but prepare a way
for the opening of what it is by virtue of which sin is derived unto us. And I find it exceeding hard to speak distinctly to it, to find out that origi nal seed of poison from whence it is diffused, and the weight of it. I shall now therefore come to particulars whereby I desire to explain it, and in them
I shall briefly give you my whole judgment in the thing; and when I have
done, I shall resolve it into two or three propositions, which shall contain
the sum of all, for your clearer understanding. It is evident, you see, by
this text, that it is by nature ; and therefore that it is by birth and by the
law of nature. Now to proceed In the first place, our God did put this difference between angels and
men, that angels were created single ; and therefore when they fell, they did
fall singly, each one for himself. They had their nature conveyed to them
by God s immediate creation, and therefore they stood upon their own bot
toms. But he ordained that men should all come of one man. Acts xvii.
* He hath made of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the
20,
face of the earth. Now then, the law of nature that doth convey blood
that i.s, manhood to us, conveys also the natural properties that do accom
pany and are in that nature, in the fountain of it, whether they shall be
good or eviL Now, good they were by creation, that is certain. And the
reason is, because that law of nature that did fall upon the generation of all
creatures else, falls upon man s generation also. Now you shall find that it
is not only the law proper to man, but to all things begotten of another, that
they all bring forth in their kind. If you look into Gen. i., you shall see
that of the very herbs God saith, Let them bring forth in their kind ; he
saith it also of the beasts, and it holds of man too, that he is to bring forth
in his kind. If there be a generation and a begetting, he is to bring frlh
in his kind. If his nature had remained holy and good, he had brought
forth that which was holy and good. So the same providence of (- d that
would have accompanied man to convey and propagate a holy nature had
he remained holy, doth also accompany him to convey a corrupt nature now
he is corrupt and made evil. As the same acts of common providence which run on and assist us in doing good concur even in evil aUo, so is it
here. And that is the first thing. Yet, in the second place, let me tell you this, that tabour birth and
", it is but the
generation simply, and that is not the cause, tinphy
ni -n. therefore it is the
Ern. II. 3.] TO THE EPHESIANS. 127
instrument also of making sinful men. Now that generation is not the cause
is evident by this : because if it were, then men should beget men sinful ac
cording to that degree of sinfulness they themselves have. And therefore
parents more wicked should beget children more wicked ; parents in their
elder days, when they are more wicked, as wicked men are, for they grov/ worse and worse, should then have children more wicked than in their younger time ; but so it is not. It is therefore to be resolved into the common law that lies upon generation, not simply into generation itself, or what it con-
veyeth. Generation is but the channel, the pipe, in which it runneth ; it is-
therefore, I say, rather the law that is annexed unto generation. And the law of generation doth not reach to degrees of sinning, but only to the sub
stantial image, not to the gradual.
In the third place, the cause and the ground why we are made sinful is not simply that we are born of immediate parents that are sinful, that is not the whole cause neither : but as generation is but as the channel, so the immediate parents are but the instruments of conveying it. My meaning is
this : the ground why a man is born sinful is not simply because his next
parents, father and mother, are such. They are causes sine quibus non of
sin ; that is, if it could be supposed they are not sinful, the child would not be sinful ; they are but instruments of conveying it. And that they arc in struments of conveying it, is clear by what David saith, Ps. li. 5, in sin did my mother conceive me. But yet they are causes sine quibus non, without which sin would not be.
There are two great evidences to me of this truth. The one is a negative one, the other a positive.
The negative one is this : the Lord hath expressly said he hath a whole
chapter about it, Ezek. xviii. that the child shall not bear the iniquity of the father. And our Saviour Christ saith, John ix. 3, that it was not for the sin of the parents that the man was born blind. So that it is not put upon the sin of the ordinary parents. Nay, I shall give you a further instance of it, why it is not to be put simply upon the immediate parents. For although we come of Eve, yet, notwithstanding, the corruption that we have and the sin which we have by nature is not put upon Eve now, it is
put upon Adam, and that throughout the whole Scripture. Though Eve did first corrupt our nature, for she was first in the transgression ; though we all come of her as well as of Adam, and have a share as from her and that by generation also ; yet notwithstanding, read Rom. v. 12, By one man
sin entered into the world : which was the type of Christ s conveying obe dience and righteousness. I will not dispute that nice question which some divines have, Whether, if that Eve had not fallen, though Adam had fallen, we should have been corrupted or no ? No, for we must all acknowledge that she was causa sine qua non. Had not her nature been corrupted, we had not had sin derived to us. All divines do attribute a secondary cause to
her, but still the primary to the man.
The positive ground is this : that the Scripture doth ascribe it to our coming of Adam, and that by birth, coming of that first man ; and therefore what is here said in the text to be by nature, if you consult other scrip tures, you shall find it to be because we come of Adam, that one man, be cause we come by generation from him. Mark it, so I put it; though parents are the instrumental cause of conveying it, generation is the channel, yet it
is because we fetch our nature from that fountain. I shall give you Scrip ture express for it. Not only that in Rom. v. 12, which yet is very clear ; for otherwise Eve had been made the type of Christ as well as Adam : but
128 N* OF THE EPISTI.r. [SERMON IX.
the text there you see doth only put it upon Adam, as being the type or
figure of him that was to come, so ver. 14. And, ver. 18, by the offence of
one, and, by one man s disobedience, ver. 19. It is not only for one
offence, as some of those texts have it, but other texts run, of one man ; so ver. 12, Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world. But besides this scripture, look into 1 Cor. xv. 47, 48, and there you shall see
this truth clear. The Apostle there puts it upon the first man. The first
man, saith he, is of the earth, earthy. As is the earthy, such are they that
are earthy. As we have borne the image of the earthy, namely, of this first
man, as he had called him, so we shall bear the image of the heavenly. And as the New Testament affirms this, so the Old too. I shall give you but that one scripture in Isa. xliii. 27, Thy first father hath sinned, and thy teachers, or, thy intercessors,
* have transgressed against me, speaking to the nation of the Jews. Thy first father hath sinned, and thy interventores, as Junius translates it, that is, those that come between me and thee, they have all sinned. What is the reason God objecteth this ? Why, in the words
before he stands upon the confounding of them against all their carnal pleas and justifications of themselves, and he rips up their sin from the first. Come, saith he, ver. 26,
* let us plead together : declare thou, that thou
mayest be justified, if thou hast anything to say. Besides all the wicked
ness that is in thyself, whatsoever thou canst trust in, I can easily answer it. Thou dost trust in thy father Abraham, and thou thinkcst because thou art
of the seed of Abraham thou shalt be saved. I tell thee thou hast an older
father than Abraham, thy first father Adam hath sinned. But thou wilt say unto me that thou hast priests that do daily offer sacrifice, and do come be tween me and thee ; I tell thee that those that are thy intercessors, thy teachers, and thy interpreters, as it is translated by others, that come between me and
thee, they have transgressed against me. The Lord takes both away ; they boasted that they had Abraham to their father. Ay, but, saith he, there is an older father, thy first father. And though some would interpret it of their
fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and make it in the plural, yet there is an
emphasis upon this, it is father, and it is thy first father. And it agrees
clearly with what the New Testament saith, in that 1 Cor. xv. 45, &c., where
you shall find that the Apostle doth put the conveying of the image upon our depending upon that first father, and that therefore we bear the image of the earthy. So as that now generation and immediate parents are indeed the channel and instruments of conveying ; but the original cause, as the
Scripture makes it, is the first father. Our generation then, or our birth, had a curse laid upon it, and by the law of nature, by reason and by virtue
of that first man. And because all men did depend upon him by genera
tion, that is, are propagated from him by generation, therefore by the l;iw
of generation, by virtue of something that he did and that he was, it is that we are corrupted to the end of the world. I take it to be one great ri why corrupt nature is called in Scripture the old man, because it is derived
for so many generations from that old first man Adam. We ourselves usually, when we sec a thing that is evil or corrupt in children, say, This is old Adam.
It is not what is in other parents so much, though their corrupt
i"ii is causa
fine qua non, it is the cause without which it would not be comw ,1 t> \\^
J but it is Adam s image, the image of that first man ; so it is called in 1
Cor. xv. Therefore Adam is said to beget in hi.s likeness, Gen. iv. So that, in a word, this is the sum of these thnr things. It is not geneu simply that physically com. ys it. Init rath, r the 1,-nvthat fallrth upon gen .-, s , much as it is that first man
EPH. II. 3.] TO Tin: LPHESIANS. 129
Adam ; because we depend upon him by nature and by generation, hence it
is we have been and are all corrupted. Now we will go on further, and more particularly still, to search into it, and to see whether it was by nature or no. And I shall do it by answering these
queries
Query 1. What it was in that mem, which we ly generation have from him, that polluteth (
Ana. If you would have the great and the principal cause, I answer you
fully, according to the Scriptures, it was an act of sinning of his, and the
first act of sinning that he committed. Generation, as I have said, is but the mere channel, and immediate parents are but mere instruments ; as they beget men, they beget men sinful : but if you ask what it is that is con
veyed, and which to the end of the world polluteth and defilcth by genera
tion, as the instrument and channel ; it is the first sin of that first man. Will you give me leave, by this supposition, to make my meaning plain, and then I shall make it good by proofs ? As I told you before that simply generation doth not do it ; so if you could have supposed corruption of nature had been derived by birth, physically, as a leprosy is from parent to child, or by virtue of that law of generation that like shall beget like, yet let me
tell you, that unless he that had this corruption conveyed to him by nature had been guilty of some act which did first corrupt that nature, that corrup tion had not been sin in him. I shall express it thus. Adam, you know, lost all righteousness, and had his nature corrupt, as ours is ; if we could
suppose this righteousness to have been taken from him, without being guilty of an act that was the cause of it, that corruption indeed had been a
punishment, it had not been his sin ; that which makes it to be sinful is, be cause that it was lost and he was deprived of it justly by an act of sin. Take Adam himself, if you could have supposed him deprived of it any other
ivay, without a precedent act, or the guilt of an act that caused it ; I say, it had not been sin to him, it might have been a punishment, but not a sin. And therefore now it must be the guilt of an act that doth defile us, and make the corruption of nature in us, and that which we have by birth to be
sinful.
But then all the question will be by and by, Whether by nature we are
guilty of that act or no ? Now here is all the difference between us and Adam, that he was personally guilty of that act, but we are guilty of it by a just law of nature, as I shall endeavour to explain it to you by and by. But as he became a dead man, dead in sins and trespasses, by eating of the forbidden fruit ; so must we be supposed to be also. Therefore we shall
find, the New Testament, which speaks more accurately in this point than the Old, though it mentions generation as the instrumental cause, which the Old Testament only did run upon, yet it puts it upon that one act. So Rom. v. 12,
* By one man sin entered into the world, in whom, mark the
* in whom all are made sinful, as it follows in the 19th verse ; but it is, in whom all have sinned. It is
expression, all have sinned. It is not only,
plain he speaks not only of inherent corruption in our natures, but of an act of sin ; for he saith all have sinned. Now, mark it, in the 14th verse, he speaks of children that never actually sinned personally, as Adam did ; and yet he saith that death reigned over them. Death reigned, saith he, from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam s transgression ; that is, they did not personally in themselves sin, as Adam himself did, and yet death did pass iipon them ; therefore they must be guilty of that act of his.
*x i
VOL. H.
130 ^ITION OF THE EPISTLE
HOW I take it, those w.-nK death ->vi-r all, arc the interpretation of the first curse, In the day thou eatest thou shalt
. *th, in which Adam was considered as a common person. Now by virtue of this law and
rule given, death reigneth according to the threatening. And the next
words, which are those I pitch upon, do give the reason of it clearly and
* until
plainly, which are otherwise very obscure. For, saith he, ver. 13,
the law, sin was in the world ; but sin is not imputed where there is no law.
This is brought in as a reason, by virtue of what it was, that children an made sinful, or accounted to have sinned. Why this, saith he, cannot be
by Moses law ; you cannot find it that children are guilty of sin, of whom he
speaks, ver. 14, and that all have sinned, so he saith, ver. 12, in the ten commandments. And yet it must be by some law or other ; for if there had not been a law, God would never have charged children and all the
world with this sin ; therefore clearly it must be that law which God gave
peculiarly to that first man. This is plainly the Apostle s meaning, and the
coherence of those words. You shall not find this, saith he, in Moses law ;
it is therefore to be resolved into that first Inrw that was given to Adam, In
the day thou eatest thou shalt die ; thou, and all thy posterity ; for it must
be some older law than that of Moses which this must be put upon ; for, saith
he, there was sin in the world before the law of Moses came, or else God
could not have charged it, and children should not have died : but they did
all die, death reigned over all ; therefore it must be resolved into a higher law than that of Moses ; and what was that ? I say, that law that God
gave to Adam, In the day thou eatest thou shalt die. And that is clearly
interpreted in 1 Cor. xv. 22, In Adam all died ; that is, by reason of the
transgression of that first law, which is a law older than Moses, by virtue of which children arc said to have sinned in Adam, and so also to have died
in him.
Now then, to conclude this first query. If you ask, what it is that in
strict terms is the cause that doth pollute us to the end of the world ; I
say, it is not generation, it is not the immediate parents, they are the
channels through which it is conveyed ; but it is plainly and clearly that first
act of Adam s, which as it corrupted his nature, coinipteth ours to the end
of the world. The text is so clear for this, as nothing more. Rom. v. 19,
1 By one man s disobedience many were made sinners. If you ask what it
is that makes many sinners, the Apostle himself resolves you, it is that
one man s disobedience. Even as Christ s obedience doth make us holy to
the end of the world ; though God use the word and use ministers to con
vert us, yet it is not the word nor the ministers that make us holy, but it is
* By the obedience of one, saith he in the
that one man s obedience.
; many are made righteous. So is it here. It is not generation
verse,
simply doth pollute us ; neither is it our immediate parents ; these arc in
struments and ways of conveying it, they are channels through which it runs :
but it is that one man s disobedience, it is the guilt of that act that seizeth
upon us all, which makes us sinners.
And so much now for that first query. I come now to a second, and that
is this:
Query 2. Why should the guilt of that act which infects our nature be con
veyed to us by generation, as the cfiannel, and by nature, rather than the sin
of other parents ?
Ant. All divines do answer that clearly thus : that Adam was a public
person, and he wag therein Christ s type, which no other parent is. was not : fur though she was first in the transgression, yet it is not said, by
EPH. II. 3.] TO THE ETMII:<IAXS. 131
the disobedience of that one woman, or, by the disobedience of those first
parents, we are made sinners ; but it is clearly put upon the disobedience
of that one man. Why ? Because he was made a public person, and stood
as ;i public person, which Eve in that respect did not. Indeed, without her, and her corruption and fall, we had not been sinful ; but if you resolve it
into its original primary cause, it is the sin of that one man, because, I say, he was a public common person, representing all his posterity, which other
parents are not, which Eve herself was not : and therefore he was Christ s
type, which Eve was not.
I will not stand to shew you the equity of that, that those that stand as common persons convey the guilt of their act to their posterity and those
they represent, it hath been cleared enough, but rather come to a third
question j for by answering questions, I hope I shall clear the thing. Query 3. Whether was Adam a common person by the laiv of nature, yea or no ? Whether by the law of generation ? that is more. For we must
bring it to birth and generation at last.
Ans. There are three ways by which you may suppose one to be a common
person. Either
1. By choice of the parties themselves, as you choose the burgesses in
Parliament. It is clear, Adam was not so a common person, we never chose
him, our wills did never go to make him one. Or else
2. A common person is chosen for us by another. So Christ ; we did not
choose him to be our Head, but God chose him for us. But
3. There is a third way, and that is, that it shall not only be founded
upon a mere act of choice, but upon a law of nature and so, I take it, Adam was a common person. He was so by God s appointment, yet by God s ap pointment founded upon a law of nature. And therefore, both by genera tion as the channel, and by the law of nature as the foundation, are we made sinful to the end of the world. This I shall endeavour to make clear
to you.
I take it, it was mixed of both ; that is, both that God made him so, and
yet God s choice of him was not merely an act of his prerogative, or a mere
act of his will ; but it was an act of his will founded upon the law of nature, and the law of nature required it, and it was necessary it should be so, and
that therefore we come to inherit the guilt of that act of his. It is clear
that God did pronounce Adam a common person ; for, before ever Eve was
made, it is said, Gen. i. 28, God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. And in 1 Cor. xv. 45,
it is said that the first man Adam was lysvsro, made, that is, appointed, as in Heb. iii. it is said that Christ was faithful to him that made him, so
it is in the Greek ; to him that appointed him, so we translate it, he was made to be a living soul ; unto others, namely, as well as in himself, as I have elsewhere opened. But yet it was not by a mere act of prerogative, but upon a natural and necessary ground that it should be so.
You shall observe this difference between conveying Adam s disobedience and Christ s obedience. The one, speaking of Adam s, is expressed thus,
( By the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation. But
speaking of Christ s obedience, he calls it the free gift of righteousness; for
it was a mere voluntary act. So you have it in Rom. v. 18. But how is this made out? Thus : Adam being the first man, he was the receptacle of man s nature, the whole cistern of it \ he had all the blood of mankind in him ; they must
all fetch it from that fountain, at that well-head, and generation or birth
AN EXPOSITION Or THK EPIsTLK [SERMON IX.
was the way by which he should propagate. Now tho law of generation was, that lie should beget in his own imago, whatever it should be ; and that, as I said before, is the common law of all creatures else. Now add that to
it, this nature could not have been conveyed as sinful that is, that it should be a sinful, corrupt nature such as it was in him unless we had been guilty of that act which he committed, of that act which first in him did infect our nature. Therefore now, if he should propagate his like, and if he did not, the law of nature should not be fulfilled, for that law was to take place in him as in other creatures, namely, that he was to beget in his own image, of ne
cessity he must be constituted by a law a common person, that that act that
corrupted his nature, his posterity must be guilty of. I say, the law of nature could not else have taken place, and it would not otherwise have been a sinful image, but in relation to the guilt of such an act which was the cause of it. Hence therefore, if you will suppose him to convey by the law of nature his corrupt sinful image, of necessity the same law must and doth
constitute him to be a common person, as in relation to that act that did first
defile him. So far, and in order to propagation of his like, if he fall, in
respect of that act that defiled him, it was necessary he should be constituted, for that first act, to be a common person. You shall see that his being a common person was only upon this neces
sary ground, to be exceeding clear by this one instance. For as soon as ever he had eaten the forbidden fruit, as soon as he had committed that same one
siii, he ceaseth to be a common person, he is then but as any ordinary parent. And that is clear by this. For otherwise all the sins he committed before he begat Cain should have been imputed to Cain, as well as the first sin of all. And otherwise likewise, had he continued a common person after he committed that first sin, we had not been made sinners by that one dis
obedience, as the text hath it in that Horn, v., and by that first act of dis
obedience, but we must have inherited all the sins that he committed. No, only that first act ; and the reason is this : because when that was once done, when that sin was committed, that first act did cast our nature out of the road of holiness into the road of sin, corrupted our nature. So that it is clear he was a common person by virtue of that law that he should beget in his own likeness ; for as soon as the corrupt image was stamped upon his heart by that first sin, he ceased to be a common person.
So that now it was not a mere act of prerogative in God, as some think, that Adam should be made a public person in that act of disobedience ; but
it is resolved into that principle of the law of nature, that he must beget his like ; and it would not have been a sinful likeness that he should beget, if he had not been a public person in that first act that should make his nature so. It is not by any positive law, as that of Moses was; for that law came after, and yet it was charged upon us, as I have before shewed, and
therefore it must be founded upon, and resolved into a law of nature. And that is the difference betwixt Christ and Adam. God did distinctly with Christ ; he told him he must be a head, and undertake for these and
these persons; but you do not find that God did propound it distinr; Adam. He never said to him, Look to yourself, what you do it is for your pos
terity; and if you cat of the forbidden fruit, not only you, but all that come of you shall die the death. No, it needed not ; for all men being to come of him, he being to convey his sinful image, and that image could not be
conveyed except he became guilty of a sinful act, he must needs know that
his posterity must be guilty of it if his in. conveyed. So that it
EPH. II. 3.] TO THE EPHESIAXS. 133
was necessarily resolved into the law of nature ; although it was mixed, it was by God s appointment also that it should be so.
So that now, to sum up this business : still, we see, we are children of wrath by nature. Whether we respect the corrupt sinful habit which we have inherent in us, conveyed to us by birth, or whether we respect the guilt of that act, it is still resolved into the law of nature, and generation or birth is but the channel to convey it, and our immediate parents are but the instru ments of conveying it, the causes indeed without which it would not be conveyed ; but it is the guilt of that first act of Adam, upon whom by nature and generation we all depended, and it is that first act of his that to the end of the world makes us sinners.
And so now I shall, in a word or two, gather up in a few propositions what I have said, and so pass over this point. The sum of all I shall resolve into these three propositions
Prop. 1. First, That generation is not the physical cause of our being sinful, that is, it is not because a man hath sin propagated in the matter that comes from his parents; that is not it. But it is the common law that
lies upon all creatures, and that lies upon man also, that like shall beget like. Whether his soul be created by God, or whatever it be, yet notwithstanding, I say, it is the law of generation that doth it.
Prop. 2. Secondly, Generation is but the channel ; it is the act of Adam s
sin, and the first act of Adam s sin, whilst he stood a common person, beingimputed to us, charged upon us, that makes us sinful. Only, if you ask who they are that shall be made sinful ; only those that come of Adam by generation, because it is by virtue of the law of generation that like shall beget like. So that it is not, I say, that the children have an impure nature from an impure nature of the next parents ; this is not simply it. Whether the soul be from the parents, as some hold, or immediately from God, it is all one, because it is the act of Adam s sin seizing upon a man, he being made a son of Adam, that pollutes him. By one man s disobedience we are made
sinful. If the soul be made immediately by God, yet it being at the same instant that it is made united to the body; hence the guilt of Adam s sin, by virtue of that law of nature, seizeth upon it ; and the guilt of it seizing thus upon that soul in this body, which is now made a son of Adam, the Lord making of it, withdraws his Spirit from it, from giving grace. Not that God
is the author of it, but that sin cometh in between, and cutteth off the influ ence which God would have upon it, according to the original law of nature, to make it holy. And as sin caused God to withdraw his Spirit out of Adam, so it preventeth that God should bestow holiness upon this soul, which is made a man as soon as made a soul. So that you need not trouble yourselves about those questions, whether the soul be ex traduce,
<fcc. For all those questions suppose that the matter of our nature is corrupted from our parents, and so is derived unto us. But it doth not lie in that, but in the guilt of Adam s act, and that is it which makes sinners to the end of the world.
Prop. 3. Thirdly, That Adam was by the law of nature a common per son, and therefore we come to be guilty of that first act by which our nature was defiled. , And so now I have explained this thing, as far as to me the Scripture doth give leave, as briefly as I could.
Let me but add this : Hence it comes to pass that Jesus Christ comes not to be tainted with original sin. The matter of his body, he had
134 AN EXPOSITION OF THE EPI> [SfiKV
>N IX.
it in the womb of the virgin; for he was in that respect tinBOO of A dam,
but he caine not from Adam according to the law of nature, that is. by
generation ; and therefore Adam was not a common person to represent
him. For the ground of Adam s being a common person was, that IKwas
to becret his like, and his nature was to be propagated by generation. Now
Christ was not to come of him by generation ; hence therefore our Saviour
Christ is separated from sinners, as Hcb. vii. 26 hath it. He had a nu>!
and his mother conceived him; but she did not conceive him in sin, be
cause it was not by the way of generation: for he was conceived by the
Holy Ghost, the text saith so, Matt. i. 20. The Holy Ghost did articulate
(whereas the spirits of the father do it in ordinary generation) that body of
* A body hast thou framed me/ saith he, Heb. x. 5. Therefore
Christ,
* made of a woman, not begotten of a woman, in Gal. iv. 4. And therefore he camo not under (and it was well for us he did not) the law
he is said to be
of generation ; hence he cscapeth being denied with original sin. And
hence Adam is not a common person to him ; no, he was ordained a com mon person before Adam was made one, for Adam was his type. And
therefore things are ordered so that he should not come by generation,
because he was to be a head of a second sort ; and therefore he is called the
second man, as Adam is the first.
And let me add this likewise for our comforts : That Christ, because he
would take away original sin in us, he came as near as possibly could be,
so as to escape pollution. He would be made of the same matter we were
made oif ; he would be made in the womb of a virgin ; he would be con
ceived ; and he took upon him too the likeness of sinful flesh, with all the
frailties of it, as like sinful flesh every way as could be. Nay, he would
have his mother go and be purified, as if she had brought forth an unclean
son ; for the law in Leviticus was, to shew the impurity of our birth, that
the mother was to be purified. Nay, and not only so, but he was circum
cised, as if he had had original sin to be cut off as well as we. What was
all this for? The Apostle tells us, Col. ii. 11, we were circumcised in
Christ, that the body of sin might be cut off by the circumcision of Christ.
It was that he might take away this original corruption, which we had
from the first Adam.
Now then, having explained this, I come to some observations.
Ols. i. The first is this, which is the Apostle s scope here : That we
should get our hearts humbled for the sin of our nature, and for the sin of Adam which by generation corrupteth our nature to the end of the world,
whereof we are guilty. This is that which is the great corrupt cr of us, it
is the greatest cause of all the rest. You know, David, in Ps. 1L, hath
* In sin,
recourse to it, as to the spring of all his actual defilements.
he, hath my mother conceived me ; and he puts a behold upon it,
because his soul was eminently humbled for it. It is the cause, ami
greatest cause. Do but take a poisonous root, and you shall find more
venom in the root than in all the branches that spring from it. Tim
greater contrariety betwixt God and us in that our nature is drtiK-d, linn
that our actions are sinful. For as holiness that is in the nature of ( Jod is
>> that is in his
greater and deeper, and a higher holiness, than that holim
actions, or in what is done by him, for that is an essential holiness, the
other is but a manifestative holiness, so there is a iarfaln< - that
, rc than is simply in our actions. V"u shall liud. in I>a. IMV. (J,
i, ,,
r. y humbled tfMnMfoB, tli.-y do no1
<-l" l]l - lmt tlu ) lliu111
say that theii . -ness was ; HI
EPH. II. 3.] TO THE EPHESIANS. 135
cry out of their persons. We are all, say they, as an unclean thing ; and then follows, and our righteousness as a menstruous cloth. But, I
say, the uncleanness of their persons, and that in respect of their natures, is that they chiefly complain of ; and they do it in the very same terms that the leper complains in Lev. xiii. 45. It is our nature that is abomi nable to God ; we are children of wrath by nature. Therefore God hateth
it, and God is angry with nothing but what he hateth, and but for sin. Now in Job xv., saith he, filthy man, abominable, putrihed man, as the word signifies, he speaks of what we are by nature : for he had discoursed of it in the 14th and 15th chapters. And the Psalmist useth that very same word when he speaks of the corruption of nature, Ps. xiv. 3, and
liii. 3, both which psalms are psalms of the corruption of man by nature. He calls man stinking, compares him to a rotten carcass ; for so he is in the nostrils of God, in respect of his original pollution, and so he is to the
regenerate part, and therefore Paul, in Rom. vii, calls it a body of death, as if there were twins, one whereof was dead, and the other that lived was forced to carry it about with him, which continually did stink and annoy him :
such, saith he, is this corruption of nature that is in me, it is a body of death.
Obs. 2. Secondly, you see the reason why death reigneth over infants ; for so the Apostle tells us in Horn. v. 13, 14. It is because they have sinned, and sin is conveyed to them by generation, as the channel and instrument. God, in 1 Sam. xv., commanded that the sucklings of the Amalekites should be destroyed, as well as men and women, and others. And of Edom it is said in Ps. cxxxvii. 9, Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones. This must needs be for the guilt of sin, for sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so saith the text, Rom.
v. 12.
But you will say, Doth God inflict eternal death merely for the corrup tion of nature upon any infants ?
My brethren, it must be said, Yes; we are children of wrath by nature: and unless there come in election amongst them, for it is election saveth, and is the root of salvation, it must needs be so. Sodom and Gomorrah
all suffered the vengeance of eternal fire, and surely there were multitudes of infants there ; and if they had been righteous as well as others, they might have been put into Abraham s plea, but they were not. The flood
swept away infants, and they are called, I mean those that were destroyed with the flood, in 2 Peter ii. 5, the world of the ungodly. And God
therefore, if you mark it, both in Gen. vi. 5 and viii. 21, did put the
bringing of the flood upon the original corruption of man s heart ; that not
only the heart, but the formation, the very womb, the matrix, so the word which we translate the imaginations of the heart, signifies, in which all our thoughts are formed, the very frame in which they are cast and moulded, is evil, and only evil, and evil continually, yea, evil even from his
infancy, (for what we translate youth up, the same word in Exod. ii. 6 is used for Moses when he was an infant,) not only in respect of actual sin, but in respect of original sin. Therefore, saith God, because man is thus flesh, and nothing but corruption, I will bring the flood ; and the flood came upon the world of the ungodly, upon infants as well as upon others. But in Rom. v. it is more express. Death, saith the Apostle, reigned before Moses ; it reigned over children, saith he. And there was that instance of
it, for he alludeth especially to the instance of the flood, and it was a great instance, when God came and swept away all the world of the ungodly, with all their infants, even they that were in the very womb.
136 AN: N 1 FTI.i: KHSTLE [SEKVoN IN.
But you will say, Do these perish? or, Doth God K-t lLose
Doth his wrath MiM upon them ! Not only what the text saith, but that in Rom. v. is clear for it. For
having instanced in children in the 13th and 14th verses, he goes on, and
shews that the death he intendeth is not only bodily death, but eternal ;
for, saith he, ver. 16, the judgment was by one to condemnation. And
as he had said, ver. 14, that death reigned over all from Adam to Moses,
so at ver. 21 he saith, As sin hath reigned unto death, so might graee
reign through righteousness unto eternal life. Here you see eternal life is
opposed to that death that is said to have reigned, and condemnation is
said to come by one man s disobedience ; and what is that condemnation
opposed to? It is opposed plainly to justification ; so it follows, but the
free gift is of many offences to justification. Therefore those that have a
death opposite to eternal life, and have a condemnation by that one man s
disobedience opposite to justification, must needs reach to eternal death as
well as to temporal. It is true, election knows its own amongst infants, but it must be free grace, it must be by grace that you are saved, for
clearly by nature ye are all children of wrath. Therefore the Lord, as ho
will have instances of all sorts that are in heaven, so he will have some that
are in hell for their sin brought into the world.
The Papists, suitable to their doctrine, as they hold that original sin hath
nothing positive in it, they say it is but a mere privation, a mere empti
ness, so answerably they put children into a state, not of positive pain, not
of wrath, but they put them into a state called limbus infantum, where they do as it were eternally sleep ; there is a privation, but no torment, no wrath. But you see that here we are said plainly to be children of wrath, and
wrath implies more than a mere privation ; it implies not only a punishment of loss, but a punishment of sense, and of the sense of that loss. This you shall see plainly in John iii. 3G, He that believeth not the Son shall nofc
see life ; but the wrath of God abideth on him. Shall not see life, there is
the privation ; and the wrath of God abideth on him, there is the punish ment of sense too ; there is the wrath of God, as the text here hath it,
I told you there is a third interpretation of these words, children of wrath
by nature. It implied a state, their whole state as well as their birth. Now the observation from thence is this, That the great thing that should
affect the hearts and spirits of men, is their being in a sinful state till such
time as God doth engraft them into Jesus Christ and save them. It is
plainly the Apostle s scope, for ho opposcth here by nature to by grace in the 5th and Gth verses that follow. It is the great error of multitudes
of carnal men ; they say we are all born by nature children of wrath, neve?
considering that till such time as they are turned unto God and engrafted into Christ, they remain in that state. You were, saith he, children of wrath ; he speaks in relation to the whole condition from the very first moment of their conception till God called them and turned them to him.
This is it which the Apostle would hold forth to these Ephesians, and th<- want of the right understanding of this truth undoes thousands of souls : for
they put off the state of nature; they say it is but the condition of all men ; and they arc humbled for acts of sin, but never consider the state they are
in, which while a man continues in, he is a child of wrath ; after conversion, though he commit acts of sin, he is not a child of wrath.
But what in this state of nature ? A child of wrath ; it is as if a man should be condi-mm-d to die, we say
. he is a child of death; thouirh IKlife and !
EPH. II. 3.] TO THE EFHESIANS. 1 37
afterwards, yet put him into wh.it clothes you will, let him eat what meat
ye will, let him have a thousand changes, he is still in a state of death. So, have what changes thou wilt in this condition ; if thou growest rich, or noble, or honourable, thou mayest have a great many changes in thy spirit, even
till thou growest good, yet till such time as this state is altered thou art a
child of wrath. Therefore, when John would convince a carnal professor, and set upon him the consideration thereof, saith he in 1 John ii. 0, He
that saith he is in the light, and hatcth his brother, is in darkness even until now; that is, he is not only to take upon him the guilt of that sin, but even from the very first time of his birth to this day, he hath been in dark
ness, he hath been in his first condition. And as men should lay it to heart, that they have been first in the state of nature even until now, so it is a
great argument that there is no falling from grace ; for it is but until now, saith he. But, I say, it is the Apostle s scope to shew them the state wherein they were, the more to affect their hearts and spirits.
The state of nature is the state in which all your sins come upon you. Therefore the Scripture puts much upon it. John doth the like; he calls
conversion, therefore, a passing from death to life, that is, from a state of death to a state of life. And in John iii. 3G, He that believeth not is con demned already, and the wrath of God abideth on him ; though the sen tence is not executed, is not fallen upon him, yet it is v-ireg, it is above him, as the word is, hangs over his head. And the word abideth, it noteth, as Austin well observeth, perpetuity. It hath been upon him from his birth, and remains to this day upon him ; and though it hath not seized on him, yet the wrath of God cometh upon him ; it sleepeth not, as Peter saith. Now there
fore, this is that which men should lay to heart, not only actual sin, but a
state of sin, in which whilst they remain unchanged, unjustified, unsanctined, and not united to the Lord Jesus Christ, till they enter into another state,
all that while they are in their sins, they shall answer for every sin them
selves, the wrath of God doth all that while abide upon them. They were
children of wrath by nature at first; but they are ten thousand times more the children of hell than they were at first. Every .actual sin makes them
afresh children of wrath by nature, addeth to their natural defilement, makes the tincture of that dye deeper, makes them worse the children of the devil and of hell than before; as the expression is, Matt, xxiii. 15. Therefore re member this, that if you will go to heaven, your state must be altered ; you must not only seek for the pardon of this sin, and of that sin, but your very state must be changed. It must not be a physical change ; you may havo n hundred such changes, and yet continue in the state of nature still. No-,
it must be a moral change ; a change from being a child of wrath to a child
of light ; from being a son of perdition to be a son of peace ; a change that
fioweth, and argueth union with Jesus Christ.
Again, you see, when he expresseth the misery of man by nature, in respect of the punishment which he must undergo for ever, he calls him a child of
wrath. Whose wrath is it ? It is the wrath of God. Hence observe this
Obs. That the wrath of God is that which is the hottest torment and
punishment in hell. It is being punished from his power, and from his pre sence ; we are punished out of his presence, and from his power. What
power 1 The power of his wrath. I will give you a scripture or two, that
you may understand it rightly; for it is good to have notions of heaven and
hell in a right manner : Rom. ii. 8, 9, Indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doth evil.
* Tribulation and
anguish, they are the effects ; indignation and wrath, they are the cause.
s IX.
And the tribr.
i ancniisli that the souls have in hell, it is the indignaand wrath of l!nl. it is the ;hat v.nith f.il);:
* vessels of wrath, lima. ix. 22. In hill, (;..,! 3]
:vforc they are called,
forth the power of his wrath. As the height and top of hra\vn is (j,.d im
mediately enjoyed in mercy and in love, God is love, and in heaven all
attributes appear in love, so hell is nothing else but all attributes ap;
ing in wrath ; it is dwelling with everlasting burnings, as God is a consuming
fire. There is not fire in hell, what torment soever it is; but a torn
there is ; how else shall the devils be tormented ? And this is the wrath of God. Nothing can kill the soul but God. The devil himself can but kill the body; if he could kill the soul, he should be feared too ; but, you know, we are bid not to fear the deviL But it is no creature, no elementary fire, can destroy the soul, that is, bring the soul to a state of not being. It is
only the wrath of God, that is the greatest torment and punishment in hell. Take a man that hath no outward pain, or misery, or affliction, or cross in his
estate ; let but a drop of the wrath of God from heaven fall into that man s
conscience ; why, that man is in hell You may clearly see what is hell by that Even just as when God fills the heart with joy unspeakable and glori ous, it is the immediate participation of himself, and it is the beginning of heaven ; you may know what heaven is by that, it is the enjoyment of that :
for I have more joy in that enjoyment than if all the saints and angels were about me. So, on the other side, all those impressions of wrath which Judas and others had, arc but the beginnings of hell ; and in hell men are but thrown into that sea of wrath everlastingly whereof they feel some drops here,
iience those that sin against the Holy Ghost, that sin wilfully after they have received the knowledge of the truth, it is said of them, Heb. x. 26, that
* there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, that is, the wrath of God working as fire, which shall devour the adversaries, shall swallow them up, as Nebu chadnezzar s funiace did, or as the fire that did consume Nadab and Abihu.
It is an allusion unto them, for they sinned against Moses law, which the
comparison there runs upon. It is not an elementary lire, but fiery indigna
tion, whereof they that sin against the Holy Ghost receive an earnest in this
Life ; for it is said, there remaineth nothing but a certain fearful looking for
of judgment. Now the word in the original is not looking, but receiving ;
: for whoever sins that sin, God makes an im
they have received judgment
pression of wrath upon his spirit ; he hath received the earnest of hell, which hath set his soul into opposition and enmity against God, as being already cart
off from him.
And so much now for that point. A word of the last clause
ven as others. It noteth out two things, as I said at first :
First, That it is the common condition even of all that are derived from Adam. They are all thus by nature children of wrath. That it is the com mon condition of all men, you have that in Horn. iii. It is the very scope of that chapter to shew that all are corrupted. First, that all in man was
corrupted, his understanding, will, and affections. And then, that all men
were corrupted ; he instanccth first in the Jew, and in the Gentile. And
then, ver. 10, he quoteth the 14th Psalm, and saith, There is none righteous,
no, not one. And, ver. 19, We know, saith he, that what things soever
the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law. Now all men are under the law by nature; this is therefore the condition of all men. And the reason is this, because we all come from that first man. M
it been any other, this had not fallen out; but we all depend upon genera-
El MI. II. 3.] TOTHEKI Iil>! 139
tion from that first man, hence it falleth upon all. Therefore it is said that Adam, when he begat Cain, begat him in his own image, and in that image
vvc are begotten to the end of the world. It is well for us that Christ was ordained to be, and that he was, another common person, and was not by the law of generation found in the first Adam ; no, he was ordained a second Adam, which takes that off. In the meantime, you see the difference be twixt Christ s kingdom and the devil s. The devil hath a law of generation that seizeth upon all mankind, that all that are born are his bond-slaves, and that by nature. But Christ s kingdom is made up of those that election
gets out of the devil s kingdom, of those upon whom the Holy Ghost falleth, either in infancy, by virtue of election ; or when they grow up, and are called.
Christ s kingdom is but taken out of Satan s. However, it is the common
condition of all, to be born in the devil s kingdom.
Secondly, It noteth, also, that it is equally the condition of all men. In Bom. iii. he doth not only say, ver. 10, that none are righteous, no, not
one/ but he afterwards tells us, ver. 22, that there is no difference, for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. There is no difference,
clearly and plainly none, not in respect of what we have from Adam. There
fore sometimes, when God speaks to the Jews, he saith, Thy father was an Amorite and a Hittite / that is, If I look upon you simply, in respect of
that original constitution and law, what you have by birth from Adam, your father Abraham was but an Amorite and a Hittite ; though out of his loins otherwise I have a holy seed, yet take your natural condition, and there is no difference at all. Therefore in Prov. xxvii. 19, as in water face answereth
to face, so the heart of man to man. As when a man looks in the water, he sees the same proportion, limb for limb ; so one man s heart is made up of the same sins by nature that another s is : we are all begotten in the same
image, and the whole image, which consists of all sins, and of all parts.
And the reason is this, it is founded upon what I said before : because we have it from Adam by virtue of a natural covenant. He by the law of
nature, I said, was a common person. Now nature, if it work as a natural
agent, it doth always work ad ultimam potentiam, to the uttermost of his
power. But now take Jesus Christ, and it is otherwise. We have holiness and righteousness from him, not by a natural covenant, it is not founded
upon a law of nature, but upon a covenant of grace, upon a gift. Hence
therefore the Lord, when he calls a man and first works upon him, can give him more grace than another ; though both born of the same second Adam,
yet the one may be born a strong man the first day, as Paul was ; the other a poor creature, that is growing up many years to that degree of strength. Why ? Because that Christ works freely j we are in him by virtue of a covenant of grace ; and therefore the proportion, the degrees, how much
grace he will bestow upon a man, and how little, it is by his own power and
ordination. But now we are in Adam by a natural covenant : and as natural
causes work ad ultimam potentiam, as the sun shines to the uttermost ; hence now Adam conveys to his posterity one and the same corruption,
equally to all.
1 10 AN EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE [SERMON X.