The Common Principles of the Christian Religion, Sermon 24
Rom. 5. 22. Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death past upon all men, for that all have sinned.
THis is a sad subject to speak upon, yet it is not more sad then useful: though it be unpleasant to hold out a glass to men to see their own vile faces into, yet it is profitable, yea and so necessary, that till once a soul apprehend its broken and desolate condition in the first Adam, it can never heartily imbrace and come to the second Adam. You have here the woful and dreadful effects and consequents of the first transgression upon all mankind; the effect is twofold, sin and misery, or sin and death; the subject is universal in both, all men, the whole world. Behold what a flood of calamity hath entred at a smal cranny, by one mans transgression? May it not be said of sin in general, which the wise man speaks of strife? The beginning of sin is as when one lets out water, therefore it had been good leaving it off, before it had been medled vvith; it entred at a smal hole, but it hath overflowed a vvhole vvorld since.
That vvhichwhich first occurs, is, that all mankind proceeding from Adam by ordinary birth, are involved in sin by Adams transgression. But that may seem a hard saying, that sin and death should flow unto the vvhole posterity vvho had no accession to Adams transgression. It vvould seem that every man should die for his own iniquity, and that it should reach no further in justice. But consider, I pray you, the relation that Adam stood into, and in vvhichwhich he is here holden out as a figure of Christ. Adam the first man vvas a common person representing all mankind, in vvhose happiness or misery all should share: God contracts vvith him on these terms, that his posterities estate should depend on his behavior. Now if all mankind vvould have reaped the benefite and advantage of Adams perseverance, i… such an undeserved reward of eternal life vvould have redounded by the free promise unto them all, vvhat iniquity is it that they also be sharers in his misery? Our stock & treasure vvas ventured in this vessel; & if vve vvere to partake of its gain, vvhy not of its loss? You see amongst men, children have one common lot vvith their parents; if the father be fore-faulted, the heirs suffer in it, & are cast out of the inheritance. It might appear a surer vvay to have the fortunes of all (so to speak) depend upon one, & their happiness assured unto them, upon the standing of one, then to have every one left unto himself, & his own vvell-being depending upon his own standing, as it is more likely one, and that the first one, shal not sin, then many, and especially when that one knew that the weight of all his posterity hung upon him, it might have made him very circumspect, knowing of how great moment his carriage …. But certainly vve must look a little higher then such reasons, there was a glorious purpose of Gods predominant in this, else there was no natural necessity of imputing Adams sin to the children not yet born, or propagating it to the children: He that brought a holy one & undefiled out of a Virgin who was defiled, could have brought all others clean out of unclean parents: but there is a higher counsel about it, the Lord would have all men subject to his judgement; al men once guilty, once in an equal state of misery, to illustrate that special grace shewed in Christ the more, and demonstrate his power and wrath upon others. That which concerns us most; is to believe this that sin hath over-spread all; and, to have the lively impression of this, were of more moment to true Religion, than many discourses upon it. I had rather ye went home not cursing Adam, or murmuring against the most High; but bemoaning yourselves for your wretched estate, then be able to give reasons for the general imputation & propagation of sin. Ye all see it is, & therefore you should rather mourn for it, then ask why it is.
There is sin entred into the world by imputation, and also by propagation, Adams first sin and hainous transgression, is charged upon all his posterity, and imputed unto them, even unto them who have not sinned according to the similitude of Adams transgression, that is, actually as he did, Infants whom you call innocents (and indeed so they are in respect of you who are come to age) yet they are guilty before God of that sin that ruined all. Now that you may know what you are, and what little reason you have to be pleased with your selves, and absolve your selves as ye do. I shal unbowel that iniquity unto you, First, there was in it an open banner displayed against God: When the soveraign Lord had enjoyned his … …uch a testimony of his homage and loyalty▪ and that so easie to be performed, and such as not a whit could …ba e from his happiness; what open rebellion was it to refuse it? It was a casting off the Soveraign dominion of God than which nothing can be more hainous as if the clay should refuse to serve the Potters pleasure, and therefore it is eminently and signally styled disobedience, as having nothing in it but the pure naked nature of disobedience; no difficulty to excuse it, for it was most easie, no pleasure to plead for it, for there were as good fruit beside, & a world of them. No necessity to extenuate it, so that you can see nothing in it, but the ugly face of disobedience and rebellion, vers. 19. Whereby man draweth himself from his allegiance due to his Maker, and shaketh off the yoke in reproach of the most High. Next, you may behold the vile and abominable …ace of ingratitude and unthankfulnesse in it, and truly heathens have so abhorred unthankfulnesse towards men, that they could not digest the reproach of it. Ingratum si dixeris, omnia dixeris: If you cal me unthankful, your may cal me anything, or all things, its a compend of al vices; Its even iniquity grown to maturity and …: But that such a fruit should grow out of such a holy and good spyle, so wel dressed and manured by the Lord, was a wonder, Lord what is man that thou so magnified him, and made him a little lower tha… the Angels? That thou put all things sublunary under his feet, and exalted him above them: For that creature chosen and elected from among all, to be his minion, to stand in his presence, adorned, & beautified with such gifts and graces, magnified with such glorious priviledges, made according to the most excellent pattern, His own Image, to …orget all, & forget so soon; and when he had such a spacious Garden to make use of (as is supposed to make up the third part of the earth) to eat of no fruit but that which was forbidden there is no such monstrous ingratitude can be imagined as here was acted. But then consider the two fountains from which this flowed, unbelief and pride; & ye shal find it the heaviest sin in the world: unbelief of his word and threatning, first he was brought to question it and doubt of it, & then to deny it. A Word so solemnly and particularly told him by the truth it self, that ever a question of it could arise in his mind to get entry, what else was it than to impute iniquity to the Holy One? And that iniquity or falshood and lying, which his nature most abhors? What was it to blaspheme the most High and faithful God, by hearkning to the suggestions of his enemy, and credit them more then the threatning of God? To give the very flat contradiction to God, we shal not die; and to assent so heartily to Sathans slanders and reproaches of God. And this unbelief opened a door to ambition and bride, the most sacrilegious ingredient of all, which is most opposite to God, and unto which he most opposed himself from the beginning. You shal be like gods, Was he not happy enough already, & according to Gods Image? Nay, but this evil principle would arise up to the throne of God and sit down in his stead. Pride hath Atheism in it, to deny the true God, & yet would be a god it self. For the foot-stool to lift up it self thus, what an indignity was it? & indeed this wretched aime at so high an estate hath thrown us down as low as hell. You see then how injurious this transgression was to God. There was disobedience and rebellion in it, which denies his dominion and supremacy, there was unthankfulnesse in it, denying his goodness and bounty, there was unbelief in it contradicting his truth and faithfulnesse, & finally pride opposing it self to all that is in God, reaching up to his very crown of Majesty to take it off. You see then what you are guilty of, in being guilty of Adams transgression, many of you flatter your selves in your own eyes, that ye have not done much evil, and yee will justifie your selves in your comparisons with others. But I beseech you consider this; though you had never done personally good or evil, here that which drowned the World in misery is your sin, and charged upon you; you are guilty of that which ruined all mankind, and makes the Creation subject to vanity & corruption. O if ye believe this, ye would find more need of the second Adam than ye do. O how precious would this righteousnesse and obedience be to you, if ye had rightly apprehended your interest in the first mans disobedience?
But besides this imputation, there is much more propagated unto all, and that is a total corruption and depravation of nature in soul & body whereby man is utterly indisposed, disabled and made opposite unto all that is truly and spiritually good, and wholly inclined to all evil, & that continually which is commonly called Original sin: A total aversenesse from God, and from al goodnesse, an antipathy against the wayes of holinesse, & a propension & strong impulse towards evil, even as a stone move downward; This poyson & contagion of sin entering into the world, hath infected al, & gone through all the members; Neither is it any wonder it be so, whē this leprosie hath defiled the wals & roof of the house, I mean, hath made the Creation subject to vanity and corruption, It is no wonder that it spread abroad in his issue, and makes al unclean like himself; And truly this is it which most abases mans nature, and being seen, would most humble men; yea, til this be discerned no man can be indeed humbled, he will never apprehend himself so bad as he is, but still imagine some excellency in himself, til he s…e himself in this glasse: You talk of good natures, and good dispositions, but in our flesh (saith the Apostle) dwels no good thing: the seed of all wickednesse are in every one of us, & its the goodness of God for preserving humane society, that they are restrained and kept down in any from the grossest outbreakings. They know not themselves, who know any good of themselves, and they know not themselves who either are in admiration at, or in bitterness or in contempt against other sinners, whose sins are manifest to all. This were the only way to profite by looking on others evils, if we could straight way retire within and behold the root of that in our sevles, the fountain of it within us, and so grow in loathing not of these persons, but of humane nature, and in suitable thoughts of our selves & others, & might wonder at the goodnesse and undeserved bounty of the Lord that passes an act of restraint upon our corruption, & dammes it up. Oh that we could learn to loath our selves in other mens evils▪ thus we might reap good out of the evil, and prevent more in our selves; But the looking upon grosse provocations as singularities, make them more general, because every man does not charge himself with the corruption that is in all these, but prefers himself to another, therefore are reins loosed to corruption; & a sluce opened, that it may come out, that he who would not see his own Image in another mans face, may behold it in the glasse of his own abominations. There is no point lesse believed than this, though generally confessed, that man is dead in sins and trespasses, & impotent to help himself. You will hardly take with wickednesse when you confesse weaknesse, as if nature were only sick, but not dead, hurt, but not killed; therefore it is that so many do abide in themselves; and trusting to their own good purposes, & resolutions, & endeavo…s▪ do think to pacifie God▪ and help themselves out of their misery. But, O look again, and look in upon your selves in the glass of the Word, and there is no doubt but you vvill straightway be filled vvith confusion of face, and be altogether spoiled of good confidence and hope, as you call it: you vvill find your self plunged in a pit of misery, and all strength gone, and none on the right hand or the left to help you; and then, and not till then, vvill the second Adams hand stretched out for our help be seasonable.
That vvhichwhich next follows, is, that vvhichwhich is the companion of sin inseparably, Death hath past upon all, and that by sin. Adams one disobedience opened a port for all sin to enter upon mankind, and sin cannot enter vvithout this companion Death. Sin goes before, and Death follows on the back of it, and these suite one another, as the vvork and the vvages; as the tree and the fruit, they have a sibness one to another; sowing to corruption, reaps an answerable harvest, to vvit, corruption: Sowing to the vvind, and reaping the vvhirlewind, how suitable are they? That men may know how evil and bitter a thing sin is, he makes this the fruit of it. In his first Law and sanction given out to men, he joyns them inseparably, sin and death, sin and vvrath, sin and a curse.
By Death is not only meant bodily death, which is the separation of the soul from the body; but first the spiritual death of the soul, consisting in a separation of the soul from Gods blessed enlightning, enlivening, and comforting countenance. Mans true life wherein he differs from beasts, consists in the right aspect of God upon his soul, in his walking with God, and keeping communion▪ with him; all things besides this, are but common and base, and this was cut off: his comfort, his joy and peace in God extinct; God became terrible to his conscience; and therefore man did flee and was araid when he heard his voice in the garden. Sin being interposed between God and the soul, cut off all the influence of heaven: Hence arises darkness o… mind, hardness of heart, delusions, vile affections, horror of conscience. Look what difference is between a living creature and a dead carcase, so much is between Adams soul upright, living in God, and Adams soul separated from God by sin. Then upon the outward man the curse redounds, the body becoms mortal which had been incorruptible: it's now like a besiedged City, now some outward sorts are gained by diseases, now by pains and torments, the outward wals of the body are at length overcome; and when life hath fled into a Castle within the City, the heart, that is at last all besiedged so straitly, and stormed so violently, that it must render unto death, upon any terms. The body of man is even a seminary of a world of diseases and grievances, that if men could look upon it aright, they might see the sentence of death every day performed. Then how many evils in estate, in friends and relations, in imployments; which being considered by Heathens, hath made them praise the dead more then the living; but him not yet born most of all, because the present life is nothing else but a valley of misery and tears, a sea of troubles, where one wave continually prevents another, and comes on like Iobs messengers; before he speak out his wo…ul tydings, another comes with such like, or worse. But that which is the sum and accomplishment of Gods curse and mans misery, is that death to come, eternal death; not death simply, but an everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and the glory of his power. An infinite loss, because the loss of such a glorious life in the enjoyment of Gods presence, and an infinite hurt and torment beside, and both eternal. Now this is that we would lay before you; you are under such an heavy sentence from the womb, a … ▪ of the Almighty, adjudging you for Adams guilt, and your own, to all the misery in this world; and the next, to all the treasures of wrath that are heaped up against the day of wrath: and strange it is, how vve can live in peace, and not be troubled in mind, vvho have so great and formidable a party. Be perswaded, O be perswaded, that there shal not one …ot of this be removed, it must be fulfilled in you, or your Cautione…; and vvhy then is a Savior offered, a City of refuge opened, and secure sinners vvill not flee into it? But as for as many as have the inward dreadful apprehension of this vvrath to come, and knows not vvhat to do, know, that to you is Jesus Christ preached, the second Adam, a quickning Spirit, and in that consideration better then the first; not only a living soul himself, but a Spirit to quicken you vvho are dead in sins; one that hath undertaken for you, and vvill hold you fast: Adam vvho should have kept us, lost himself. Christ in a manner, lost himself, to save us: And as by Adams disobedience all this sin & misery hath abounded on man, know, that the second Adam his obedience and righteousness is of greater vertue and efficacy to save; and in stead of sin, to restore righteousness; and in stead of death, to give life: therefore you may come to him, and you shal be more surely kept then be…ore.