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

Hence in the second place, Adam when he first transgressed that command of God, and thereby involved all mankind in darkness and misery, did it from a voluntary free principle within, there was no internal or external necessity compelling him to sin, for he was made with the image of God in him, and that matter wherein he did transgress, he might easily have attained from God, giving him liberty to eat of all other trees, so that it was merely, and solely from Adams own will, that he undid himself and all his posterity. It is true, God if he had pleased could have prevented his sinning, he could have confirmed him in such grace, as we see he did the other Angels that fell not, whereby he would certainly have been preserved from all sin, but God is the supreme Sovereign, and is not tied up as men are to inferior Laws. It is true, he is an eternal Law of Righteousness to himself, whereby he cannot do any thing, but what is just and righteous, yet he hath also an absolute Dominion over all things, and may dispose of his creatures as he pleaseth; and from this it was that he created man with power to fall, as well as to stand, making him mutable and changeable, whereas the glorified Saints in Heaven shall be delivered from such mutability, and there shall not be in them a posse peccare, a power to sin, so greatly shall their souls be perfected in Heaven: So that still you see, God is freed, and mans destruction is of himself.

Hence in the second place, Adam when he first transgressed that command of God, and thereby involved all mankind in darkness and misery, did it from a voluntary free principle within, there was no internal or external necessity compelling him to sinne, for he was made with the image of God in him, and that matter wherein he did transgress, he might easily have attained from God, giving him liberty to eat of all other trees, so that it was meerly, and solely from Adams own will, that he undid himself and all his posterity. It is true, God if he had pleased could have prevented his sinning, he could have confirmed him in such grace, as we see he did the other Angels that fell not, whereby he would certainly have been preserved from all sinne, but God is the supreme Sovereign, and is not tied up as men are to inferiour Laws. It is true, he is an eternal Law of Righteousness to himself, whereby he cannot do any thing, but what is just and righteous, yet he hath also an absolute Dominion over all things, and may dispose of his creatures as he pleaseth; and from this it was that he created man with power to fall, as well as to stand, making him mutable and changeable, whereas the glorified Saints in Heaven shall be delivered from such mutability, and there shall not be in them a posse peccare, a power to sinne, so greatly shall their souls be perfected in Heaven: So that still you see, God is freed, and mans destruction is of himself.