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

There remaineth one great Objection against the heinousness of this sin,

THere remaineth one great Objection against the hainousness of this sinne,

That it is wholly involuntary, and therefore we are traduced in this particular, that we charge our sins hereby upon Adam, or God himself, freeing our selves; Thus we accuse others, and excuse our selves, Is not this to do as Adam, who put off all to the woman whom God had given him, so we to clear our selves put all upon Adam's score? Therefore many Papists and others complain of us, as aggravating it too much, whereas one of them saith (Rundus Tappor, Disp. de peccato origin.) that it is minus minimo peccato veniali, less then the most least venial sin. But to answer this:

That it is wholly involuntary, and therefore we are traduced in this particular, that we charge our sinnes hereby upon Adam, or God himself, freeing our selves; Thus we accuse others, and excuse our selves, Is not this to do as Adam, who put off all to the woman whom God had given him, so we to clear our selves put all upon Adam's score? Therefore many Papists and others complain of us, as aggravating it too much, whereas one of them saith (Rundus Tappor, Disp. de peccato origin.) that it is minus minimo peccato veniali, lesse then the most least venial sinne. But to answer this:

First, As this Doctrine about original sin is wholly by revelation, so we are to judge of the heinousness of it according to Scripture-principles. It is true, (as hath been said formerly) the Heathens did complain of the effects of this original sin, but they did not know the cause; so that as by the Word we come to know that from our descendency from Adam we do contract this original pollution, thus also by the Word we are to pass sentence about the greatness of the sin: If the Scripture saith, We are by nature the children of wrath; If God in destroying of the world, doth not simply look to actual sins, but as they flow from such a polluted principle; If by this we are in bondage to Satan, and are under his power, though there were no actual sins committed by us, then let us not matter the speculations of Philosophers, nor the Political sentences of Civil Magistrates, for by these nothing is accounted culpable, but what is voluntary by our own personal will: Hence Austin explained that assertion of his, when dealing against the Manichees, Usque adeò peccatum est voluntarium, &c. Voluntariness is so necessary to the being of a sin that it cannot be any sin; if this be wanting in this (saith he) all Laws, all Nations, all Governors, &c. do agree: The Pelagians commended this of Austin, and improved it against him; but in his explication of himself, he calleth it Politica sententia; This is true according to the political Laws of Governors, and withal agreeth to actual sins: But the truth about original sin merely by revelation, we need not then regard, what Aristotle and other Philosophers say in this matter, who as they knew nothing of the creation of Adam, so neither of his fall; and this caution is necessary to every one that would not be deceived in this point.