First, All deserve eternal damnation by original contagion, Because it is a state of sin and spiritual uncleanness we are born in. And therefore if once it be granted to be a sin, the wages thereof must be hell and damnation: Insomuch that some Popish Writers are very absurd, who disputing against Pelagians. That our birth-sin is properly and univocally sin, yet afterwards question. Whether children dying therein do go to hell or no? Some assign them a Paradise, wherein they have a natural happiness, as Catharinus (Opusc. de statu pucrorum, &c.) Others, as Bellarmine, that they have poena damni, but not sensus, as if there were half an hell, or that one might be shut out from the beatifical fruition of God, and yet not be tormented with sensible pain. This is certain, if it be truly and directly a sin, as the Scripture so often calleth it; then without the grace of God, there is no possibility of escaping hell thereby. why then should damnation because of it be thought so horrid, when it is acknowledged to be a sin? Job (you heard) saith, Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Job 14. 4. here we are all unclean. Now what doth the Scripture pronounce of such, Revel. 21. 29. There shall not in any wise enter into the heavenly Jerusalem, any thing that is unclean, or that defileth. No unclean thing can enter into the kingdom of heaven; and if they do not enter in there, ⟨p. 534⟩they must enter into the kingdom of hell; There is no middle place, Qui inducis medium recede de medio, as Austin. The Scripture also calleth it sin, Psal. 51. 5. Behold in sin did my mother conceive me; and what is the wages of sin but death? Rom 6. 23. not only bodily death, but that eternal death, which is opposite to everlasting life; and the Apostle saith, The sting of death is sin, 1 Cor. 15. 56. which Austin expounds in this sense, as that by sin death is caused, as that is called Poculum mortis, a cup of death, which causeth death; or as some say, The Tree of life is called so, because it was the cause of life. If then original sin be a sin, it must have a sting, and this sting is everlasting death. So that if we attend to what the Scripture speaketh concerning us, even in the womb and the cradle, that we are in a state of sin; we must conclude, because it is a sin, therefore it deserveth damnation. Hence you heard the Apostle Rom. 5.
First, All deserve eternal damnation by original contagion, Because it is a state of sinne and spiritual uncleannesse we are born in. And therefore if once it be granted to be a sinne, the wages thereof must be hell and damnation: Insomuch that some Popish Writers are very absurd, who disputing against Pelagians. That our birth-sinne is properly and univocally sinne, yet afterwards question. Whether children dying therein do go to hell or no? Some assign them a Paradise, wherein they have a natural happiness, as Catharinus (Opusc. de statu pucrorum, &c.) Others, as Bellarmine, that they have poena damni, but not sensus, as if there were half an hell, or that one might be shut out from the beatifical fruition of God, and yet not be tormented with sensible pain. This is certain, if it be truly and directly a sinne, as the Scripture so often calleth it; then without the grace of God, there is no possibility of escaping hell thereby. why then should damnation because of it be thought so horrid, when it is acknowledged to be a sinne? Job (you heard) saith, Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Job 14. 4. here we are all unclean. Now what doth the Scripture pronounce of such, Revel. 21. 29. There shall not in any wise enter into the heavenly Jerusalem, any thing that is unclean, or that defileth. No unclean thing can enter into the kingdom of heaven; and if they do not enter in there, ⟨p. 534⟩they must enter into the kingdom of hell; There is no middle place, Qui inducis medium recede de medio, as Austin. The Scripture also calleth it sinne, Psal. 51. 5. Behold in sinne did my mother conceive me; and what is the wages of sinne but death? Rom 6. 23. not only bodily death, but that eternal death, which is opposite to everlasting life; and the Apostle saith, The sting of death is sinne, 1 Cor. 15. 56. which Austin expounds in this sense, as that by sinne death is caused, as that is called Poculum mortis, a cup of death, which causeth death; or as some say, The Tree of life is called so, because it was the cause of life. If then original sinne be a sinne, it must have a sting, and this sting is everlasting death. So that if we attend to what the Scripture speaketh concerning us, even in the womb and the cradle, that we are in a state of sinne; we must conclude, because it is a sinne, therefore it deserveth damnation. Hence you heard the Apostle Rom. 5.
