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

IN the beginning of the Chapter, the Apostle informeth us, That no Gospel privileges, or Evangelical grace amplified to the highest, may encourage to sin, for the Apostle maketh an Objection himself from the Doctrine he delivered; If grace abound where sin doth abound, then why may not we sin more, that grace may abound more? Thus there have always been some who have turned bread into stones, and fish into serpents, making the grace of God to exclude our duty, and a tender care against sin. But the Apostle, as if blasphemy were in this Objection, trieth out, God forbid; You see with what indignation and detestation we should look ⟨p. 78⟩upon all those Doctrines, which under pretence of advancing Grace, do cry down Duties and an holy life, making it a legal and a servile thing.

IN the beginning of the Chapter, the Apostle informeth us, That no Gospel priviledges, or Evangelical grace amplified to the highest, may encourage to sinne, for the Apostle maketh an Objection himself from the Doctrine he delivered; If grace abound where sinne doth abound, then why may not we sinne more, that grace may abound more? Thus there have alwayes been some who have turned bread into stones, and fish into serpents, making the grace of God to exclude our duty, and a tender care against sinne. But the Apostle, as if blasphemy were in this Objection, tryeth out, God forbid; You see with what indignation and detestation we should look ⟨p. 78⟩upon all those Doctrines, which under pretence of advancing Grace, do cry down Duties and an holy life, making it a legal and a servile thing.

Now the Apostle bringeth an Argument against indulgence in sin, notwithstanding Gods grace, Because we are dead to it, and then how can we live to it? Would it not be a monstrous, and an affrighting sight, to see dead men come out of their graves, to live and walk amongst us? Thus also it ought to be no less wonderful, yea terrible, to see a Christian give himself to any evil way. And that we are dead to sin, he proveth by our Baptism, concerning which he speaks admirable and sublime matter: So that if we consider what great things are here spoken of it, we may wonder to see, how cold and rare our meditations are about it; for he makes it to be that Sacrament, in the right use whereof we put on Christ, yea that thereby we are engrafted and implanted into him: Hence ver. 5. he useth that word of being planted into him; a metaphor from the Husbandman, who by planting his Science into, another stock, doth thereby make it partake of the life or death of the Tree; if the Tree liveth, that liveth; if the Tree dieth, that dieth; so it is with us and Christ. By the phrase then is intended no more than our communion with, and interest in Christ, and that both in his death, and his resurrection: For you must know, that the Scripture doth not only make Christs death and resurrection to be the cause of the death of our sins, and of our spiritual resurrection to holiness, but also makes them types and resemblances of such things in us, That as Christ died in his passible body, so we should die to sin; and as Christ after his death did rise again to glory and immortality, thus we should rise out of sin, to walk in newness of life, and both these are signified in Baptism.