Speculum theologiæ in Christo, or, A view of some divine truths which are either…

Chap. 9 The Doctrine of Original sin, the great moment of it. Adam's sin imputed to us. The proof of it from Scripture. Adam's capacity. Adam's righteousness. Objections answered. Our inherent pravity. The proof of it from Scripture. The experience of our hearts. The actual sins in the world. The doctrine of Original sin manifested from Christs extraordinary Conception. His Headship opposed to Adam's, from the institution of Baptism. The wickedness of the Jews in crucifying of Christ. The purchase of Regeneration and Salvation made by Christ. A short improvement of this Doctrine.

IN the next place I shall proceed to consider Original sin, the Doctrine of which is very momentous. The Psalmist in the fourteenth Psalm notably sets forth the corrupt estate of man by nature; and again, he sets it forth in the 53. Psal. almost in the same words, pointing out to us the great necessity and utility of this Doctrine,¹ which admirably tends to undeceive and deliver us from that fascinating opinion of our own righteousness and worthiness, which too much charms the hearts of all men; and withal to prepare and make us ready to accept a cure from Christ, and his regenerating Grace. This is a most necessary fundamental Doctrine.² St. Austin speaking of Adam and Christ, saith, In horum duorum hominum causa proprie fides Christiana consistit: the Christian faith stands in the knowledge of those two men; the ⟨p. 203⟩one the spring of sin and death; the other the spring of grace and life. And speaking of the Pelagians as denying Original sin, he charges them,³ fundamenta Christianae fidei evertere, to overturn the foundations of the Christian faith. Without the knowledge of this sin, that excellent rule, [Greek or Hebrew], know thy self, becomes altogether unpracticable; a man though near to his own soul, is a stranger to it; though he hath a reflecting faculty, yet he cannot make a true inspection into his heart he sees only his outside: within there is a deadly wound, yet he feels it not; a sink, a chaos of corruptions, yet he perceives it not: that holy image which was the beauty and pure rectitude of his nature, is departed and gone; yet he is not concerned at it. He is, as Nazianzen speaks, totus lapsus, all fallen, all out of order; yet it seems to him as if all were well and in a due posture: he is miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, and yet insensible in all these, according to that false or rather no-judgment that he hath of himself: he is happy in his misery, rich in his poverty, seeing in his blindness, beautiful in his shame and spiritual nakedness; in the midst of straits and necessities he finds no need of Christ, or regenerating grace: the necessity and excellency of these appears in such proportion as the depth and breadth of that sin is apprehended to be. Hence it is observable on the one hand, Those who own Adam to be a fountain of sin and death, do withal own Christ to be a fountain of righteousness and life.