Section 1186
III. The doctrine of Adam’s fall, and original sin. Under this head our author endeavors
1. To prove the entire innocence of infants from scripture. [5548] The passages he produces or refers to, are Jeremiah 2:30 and 19:4, Matthew 18:3, 4, the two first of these seem rather to be understood of the prophets, as they are by several expositors, than of infants; the former of them has no apparent reference to children, and the latter of them distinguishes innocents from the sons, or the children that were burnt with fire, for burnt-offerings to Baal; and both seem rather to regard the prophets; who, though not free from sin, yet were innocent as to any crime for which they suffered, and their blood was shed. And supposing infants were intended, they are only called so in a comparative sense, in comparison of others, who have added to their original guilt and corruption many actual sins and transgressions; and as for the words of our Lord in Matthew 18:3, 4, the meaning is not, that men must be perfect1y innocent, and entirely free from sin, or there can be no expectation of entering the kingdom of heaven; for then no man could hope to enter there; but that men must be born again, and appear to be so, and, in a comparative sense, must be holy, and harmless, free from pride, ambition, malice and envy. And even his learned Cicero, to whom he has recourse, helps him off but very lamely; for in the very citation he makes from him, he says, “We are no sooner born, but we fall into a wretched depravity and corruption of manners and opinions; so that we seem almost to suck in error with our mother’s milk.”
2. This writer endeavors [5549] to set aside the proof of the imputation of Adam’s sin to his posterity, and the corruption of human nature by it, taken from Psalm 51:5, Romans 5:19. Ephesians 2:3, by giving different turns to, and false glosses on these passages. As to Psalm 51:5, he insinuates, that David might be base born, or unlawfully begotten, and so shapen in iniquity; and asks, is this a proof that other men are so, or that all men are so? This is a gloss which is formed at the expense of the characters of David’s parents, of whom there is not the least suggestion of this nature in the word of God, but the reverse; for they are represented as holy and religious persons: this sense of them makes David illegitimate, who, therefore, must have been excluded from the congregation of Israel; whereas we have no intimation of any such exclusion; but, on the contrary, that he frequently went into the house of God with company; besides, he is not speaking of any sin his parents were guilty of, when he was conceived and shapen, but of sin and iniquity, in which he was conceived and shapen; nor would it have been agreeable to his design and view, to expose the sins of his parents, whilst he was lamenting his own. Our sense of Romans 5:19. that all mankind are made sinners by the imputation of Adam’s disobedience, is [5550] said to be “contrary to reason, to the context, to known truths, to other more plain scriptures, to be in injurious to God, and abusive to mankind.” It is not contrary to reason; imputation is not used by us in a moral sense, as when a man’s own personal action, good or bad, is accounted to himself, but in a forensic sense, as when the debts of one man are, in a legal way, transferred and placed to the account of another; which is neither contrary to reason, nor the practice of men: nor is it contrary to the context, which, this writer says, leads us, by sinners to understand sufferers, mortal men liable to die, as verse 12, etc. but this is to make the apostle a most miserable reasoner, and guilty of proving the same thing by the same; the sense of whose words, death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned, must be, according to this interpretation, all men die because they die, or all men are sufferers because they are sufferers; whereas the apostle in these words, and throughout the context, shows, why death passed on all men, why many were dead, why death reigned as it did, why judgment came upon all men to condemnation; because all sinned in Adam, and by his disobedience were made, reckoned, and accounted sinners. Nor is this sense contrary to known truths, and other more plain scriptures; as to the latter, this author does not pretend to mention any to which it is contrary; and as for the former, though nothing can act personally before it has an actual personal being; yet as men may have a representative being, before they have an actual one, so they may act in their representative, as Levi paid tithes in Abraham before he was born; and though sin is a personal act, and a transgression of a law, yet it may be transferred to another, by imputation, not in a moral way, but in a judicial one: nor is our sense injurious to God, his being and perfections, or contrary to his methods of proceeding, who, in many cases, has visited the iniquities of the fathers upon the children: nor does it abuse mankind, but only represents how mankind are abused by sin; to which is owing all the miseries and calamities endured by man in this, or the other world. On the whole, our sense of the passage before us stands firm, without giving up any plain rule of interpretation of scripture, and which is further confirmed by the other clause in the text; for as men are made righteous in a forensic sense, or are justified, and have a right to life, through the righteousness or obedience of Christ, which this author owns, so they are made sinners in a forensic sense, by the disobedience of Adam, that is, by imputation; and this gives light to another passage of the apostle’s, (1 Corinthians 15:20) in Adam all die; and shows a reason for it, because all sinned in him, or were made sinners by his disobedience. The text in Ephesians 2:3. And were by nature children of wrath, even as others; is not forgotten by us to be understood of God’s elect; who, consistent with their being beloved in Christ with an everlasting love, may, considered as the guilty and polluted descendents of Adam, be called children of wrath; that is, deserving of it; for so they are by nature, guilty through the imputation of sin unto them, being the natural posterity of Adam, and filthy through a corrupt depraved nature, propagated and communicated to them by natural generation; for whatsoever is born of the flesh is flesh, carnal and corrupt, and not by custom or habits of sin, which become second nature.
3. We are called upon to prove that God made a covenant with Adam and all his posterity, which is the ground of his imputing sin unto them. That there was a covenant made with Adam, I suppose, will not be denied, since a promise of life was made to him upon his obedience, and death was threatened in case of disobedience, to which he agreed in his state of innocence; all which formally constitutes a covenant, and is so called, Hosea 6:7. They, like men, or Adam, have transgressed the covenant. That this covenant was made with Adam and his posterity, in which he was their federal head and representative, appears from his being called the figure of him that was to come; (Romans 5:14) which is to be understood either of all mankind, who were to spring from him, or of the Lord Jesus Christ, who was to come in the fullness of time; if of the former, it proves that Adam was a type or figure of all his posterity, that he personated them all, and that they were all represented in him and by him, which is the very thing it is brought to prove; if of the latter, that is, of Christ, Adam could only be a type or figure of him, as a public person and a covenant-head; and the parallel between them, as such, is clearly run by the apostle in the context, and in another place; (58) showing that as the one conveys sin and death in all his posterity, the other conveys grace, righteousness and life to all his. Without allowing such a covenant made with Adam and his posterity, in which they were to stand or fall with him; and without considering him as a covenant-head, and representative of them, in whom they sinned and fell, it cannot be accounted for, how Adam’s sin should “bring death on many, or render them liable to be treated as sinners, or make them more liable to both sin and death, or that they should share in the fatal consequences of his disobedience; ” all which is acknowledged by this writer. [5551]