A treatise of original sin ... proving that it is

To answer then this Objection about Christ. The Arminians (as you heard) glory in their invention of Arminius, as if he only had found out the true answer to this, and not the Reformed Divines; The reason (saith he) of Christs immunity from all sin by Adam, was because Christ had his being not by virtue of that original blessing, Increase and multiply, but by a special promise made after Adam's fall; so that Christs being is not supposed till Adam had fallen, and then upon a special promise (viz.) The seed of the woman to bruise the head of the Serpent, Gen. 3. 15. Christ is to become man; Thus Christ could not be any way included in him. This hath some truth in it though the answer be not every way cogent; for Isaac was born (as we argued formerly) by a special promise, there being no possibility for his existence in a natural way, yet he was born in original sin; and although to me it seemeth most consonant to Scripture, that Christ would not have been made man, unless Adam had fallen, because the end of his coming into the flesh is said to be a Saviour and a Redeemer; yet there are men of great learning that hold, Christ would have been made man howsoever, though Adam had stood, and to such this reason would be of no great validity. But it must be confessed, that Christ could not be included in Adam, for the Scripture maketh him a public person, and head to believers as Adam was to all men; hence he is called the second Adam, so that Christ was a public person and head as well as Adam, and one public person especially in an opposite way could not be represented by another; Though this be so, yet we shall adhere to the Answer that is commonly given by Reformed Divines, That Christ therefore was free from sin, because conceived in that miraculous manner, and though he had his being in respect of his corpulent substance from the Virgin Mary, yet this was materially only, not by way of efficiency, and any active disposition; so that ⟨p. 393⟩Christ could not be said by imputation to be in Adam, seeing there was no efficient disposition in Adam's posterity to cause his humane being.

To answer then this Objection about Christ. The Arminians (as you heard) glory in their invention of Arminius, as if he only had found out the true answer to this, and not the Reformed Divines; The reason (saith he) of Christs immunity from all sinne by Adam, was because Christ had his being not by vertue of that original blessing, Increase and multiply, but by a special promise made after Adam's fall; so that Christs being is not supposed till Adam had fallen, and then upon a special promise (viz.) The seed of the woman to bruise the head of the Serpent,