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

A third Rule is, Those graces which import an imperfection repugnant to the state Adam was in; They were in him habitually, but not actually; They instance in the virtues of mercy and repentance; Besides others, we may also add, the grace of justifying Faith; So that although the Arminians judge such a position as this absurd, yet almost the common current of Schoolmen go this way; And if the grace of mercy, of liberality, of fortitude and patience were in Adam habitually, why not of justifying Faith? Neither is it any Argument at all, to say, That these habits are given for their acts, but the acts are inconsistent with that state he was made in, for these habits were bestowed by way of perfection and ornament to mans nature in the general, and the want of the habits of them would have been an imperfection: Even as Adam's knowledge did extend to the medicinal virtue in herbs and plants, which yet could not in that state of integrity be put in practice: So that those habits, though not reducible into acts, yet were not in vain, because they were for the perfection of humane nature. When therefore Adam after his fall did repent and believe in Christ, the seed of the woman promised; He did not put forth those acts from the habits of faith and repentance he was created in, as some have said; but the whole Image of God being lost, every gracious habit or act, was then supernatural to him, which before was natural Yet Suarez in his Disputations concerning the Creation of man, saith, That even the habits of repentance and mercy were in the state of integrity reducible into some acts, though not into all; as if I should sin, I would abhor it, and bewail it; if there were any miserable, I would ⟨p. 129⟩relieve him, which (saith he) are not mere conditional acts in the understanding, but presuppose a purpose in the will. Again (saith he) Adam from those habits had a complacency in his mind, and an approbation of such acts, when they could be performed by him in a suitable state; But I press not these things.

A third Rule is, Those graces which import an imperfection repugnant to the state Adam was in; They were in him habitually, but not actually; They instance in the virtues of mercy and repentance; Besides others, we may also adde, the grace of justifying Faith; So that although the Arminians judge such a position as this absurd, yet almost the common current of Schoolmen go this way; And if the grace of mercy, of liberality, of fortitude and patience were in Adam habitually, why not of justifying Faith? Neither is it any Argument at all, to say, That these habits are given for their acts, but the acts are inconsistent with that state he was made in, for these habits were bestowed by way of perfection and ornament to mans nature in the general, and the want of the habits of them would have been an imperfection: Even as Adam's knowledge did extend to the medicinal virtue in herbs and plants, which yet could not in that state of integrity be put in practice: So that those habits, though not reducible into acts, yet were not in vain, because they were for the perfection of humane nature. When therefore Adam after his fall did repent and believe in Christ, the seed of the woman promised; He did not put forth those acts from the habits of faith and repentance he was created in, as some have said; but the whole Image of God being lost, every gracious habit or act, was then supernatural to him, which before was natural Yet Suarez in his Disputations concerning the Creation of man, saith, That even the habits of repentance and mercy were in the state of integrity reducible into some acts, though not into all; as if I should sin, I would abhorre it, and bewail it; if there were any miserable, I would