A26923:478
An end of doctrinal controversies which have lately troubled the churches
An end of doctrinal controversies which have lately troubled the churches by reconciling explication without much disputing. Written by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for John Salusbury, 1691
Chapter 12 › Section 1: Of the Law or Covenant of Innocency made to Adam.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
§. 17. Others say, That if he had overcome one Temptation he should have been confirmed; but I find no Promise or Proof of it in Nature, nor in Scripture; and I suppose they feign not a secret conditional Will of God.
§. 18. Though it be agreed on by most Protestants, That Adam had been an Heir of Death and Hell if he committed the least Sin, even an idle thought or word, though he had not eaten the forbidden Fruit, and so that the Law of Nature made Hell the due punishment of the least Sin, and doth so still if it be not pardoned, yet the Law of Nature in our lapsed state is herein somewhat dark, and the Scripture not so clear for it as some imagine: But thus much methinks Nature it self still speaketh.
§. 19. 1. That the least sin deserveth some degree of Punishment. 2. That God hath various degrees of Punishment, suited to the degrees of Sin. 3. That the least Sin hath a tendency to more, and that still to more, till Man be utterly miserable. And that both in its own Nature, and in the forfeiture of some measure of God's Grace or Help. 4. That if you suppose that vain thought or word to consist still with true Love to God, God could not immediately hate and damn that Soul that so loved him. But if that Person perish, it must be by that idle thought or word producing worse, till it had turned his love from God to the Creature. 5. That antecedently to Gods undertaking to be the Ruler of Man, no doubt but as an absolute Owner, he might have taken away all that he gave him, even his Life and Being, without any fault in Man: for he may do as he list with his own: And therefore he might have done the ⟨p. 118⟩same for the smallest fault, which he might have done without it. And therefore he might have inflicted any Pain, which to Man is not worse than Annihilation, for ever. But whether his three forementioned Acts; 1. Antecedently placing Man as he did. 2. Making him such Duty as he made him. 3. And such Inclination to better, do not imply that God would not punish him unless he sinned, and then but according to the degree of his Sin, I leave to Consideration.