1. As the Desert of Sin. The first design of the Creator was his own Glory in conjunction with the happiness of Man. He ⟨p. 13⟩was made accordingly Holy in perfection, placed in Paradise, and his state contained all the Ingredients of Felicity proper to his Nature. He was capable of dying, as sad experience proves, yet no Accident from without, no Distemper from within had impaired his vigour, and made him actually subject to Death without sin. Whilst innocent he was immortal, not from everlasting Principles of Nature, but by Divine Preservation, of which the Tree of Life was the ordained Means and sacramental Pledge. For God unchangeably loves his own Image: and tho' by his Sovereignty and absolute Power he may resume the Being he gives, yet his Goodness and Covenant were a sacred assurance that Man's happy Life should run parallel with his perseverance in his Duty. ⟨p. 14⟩This Immortality was not the singular privilege of Adam's Person, but had been the Inheritance of all his Progeny. But he soon revolting from his just Obedience, of Immortal became Mortal, and according to the original establishment of Propagation, transmitted his Nature with the guilt and poison of Sin to all his Posterity. Thus by one Man Sin entered into the World, 1and Death by Sin, and so Death passed upon all Men▪ for that all have sinned. As his Obedience had been rewarded, so his Rebellion is punished in all that naturally descend from him. From hence it is, that so numerous a part of Man-kind are cut off before the commission of actual Sin. Death enters into the Forge of Life, and destroys the Conception that newly began to live. And what is more righteous ⟨p. 15⟩than that Man when he disobeyed the Author of Life, should forfeit his Life and Blessedness. The Soul voluntarily lost the spiritual Life by forsaking God,2 therefore unwillingly loses the natural Life by expulsion from the Body. The Apostle declares, the Wages of Sin is Death, 3not only that of the Body, but the Death of the Soul, which is a dreadful Concomitant of it. And from hence we may discover the false Philosophy of the wisest Heathens in their Opinion of Death. They judged it to be the primary necessity and condition of Nature,4 sixth by irresistible Fate: and not understanding the true and just reason of its coming into the World, they could not apply a sufficient Remedy against its Evil.
1. As the Desert of Sin. The first design of the Creator was his own Glory in conjunction with the happiness of Man. He ⟨p. 13⟩was made accordingly Holy in perfection, placed in Paradise, and his state contained all the Ingredients of Felicity proper to his Nature. He was capable of dying, as sad experience proves, yet no Accident from without, no Distemper from within had impair'd his vigour, and made him actually subject to Death without sin. Whilst innocent he was immortal, not from everlasting Principles of Nature, but by Divine Preservation, of which the Tree of Life was the ordained Means and sacramental Pledg. For God unchangably loves his own Image: and tho' by his Sovereignty and absolute Power he may resume the Being he gives, yet his Goodness and Covenant were a sacred assurance that Man's happy Life should run parallel with his perseverance in his Duty. ⟨p. 14⟩This Immortality was not the singular privilege of Adam's Person, but had been the Inheritance of all his Progeny. But he soon revolting from his just Obedience, of Immortal became Mortal, and according to the original establishment of Propagation, transmitted his Nature with the guilt and poison of Sin to all his Posterity. Thus by one Man Sin entered into the World, 1and Death by Sin, and so Death passed upon all Men▪ for that all have sinned. As his Obedience had been rewarded, so his Rebellion is punisht in all that naturally descend from him. From hence it is, that so numerous a part of Man-kind are cut off before the commission of actual Sin. Death enters into the Forge of Life, and destroys the Conception that newly began to live. And what is more righteous ⟨p. 15⟩than that Man when he disobeyed the Author of Life, should forfeit his Life and Blessedness. The Soul voluntarily lost the spiritual Life by forsaking God,2 therefore unwillingly loses the natural Life by expulsion from the Body. The Apostle declares, the Wages of Sin is Death, 3not only that of the Body, but the Death of the Soul, which is a dreadful Concomitant of it. And from hence we may discover the false Philosophy of the wisest Heathens in their Opinion of Death. They judged it to be the primary necessity and condition of Nature,4
- 1Rom. 5. 12.
- 2Anima volens perdidit vivere, nolens ergo perdat & vivificare.
- 3Rom. 6. 23.
- 4Hac lege intraverant, ut exirent. Senec.
