1. When it is actually and personally committed by the man. I name this first, because it is most plain and accountable. Sin is properly a Moral Transgression, and supposeth a Law against which the transgression is: and to actual sin it is requisite that it be done by a reasonable creature, capable of acting as a cause by counsel: this therefore is not imputable to Infants, for, though they have a reasonable Soul in them, yet it is not in a present capacity of exercising that reason; which want seems not to be a fruit of sin, but a condition of nature, and had not man fallen, it would in all likelihood have been so; it is therefore said of those that die in their Infancy, That they have not sinned after the similitude of Adams Transgression, Rom. 5.14. Though how soon they discover their natural corruption is lamentably to be observed; however this extends to all men without exception, that arrive to any use of their reason; how actual sin will be charged on mere naturals, I cannot grasp, though the want of the use of reason be a punishment of Adams sin; yet this utterly obstructs the rational acting of such an one, for ⟨p. 86⟩that he cannot discern between good and evil. But there is none that ever had the use of reason, but hath abused it by sinning against God, and that both by sins of Omission and Commission: he hath thought, spoken, done otherwise than the Law requires; we have a natural man characterized, Rom. 3.10. &c. And none are exempted from it, we are told, Psal. 58.3. They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies; i. e. they are set that way, and it breaks out as soon as they are capable, though in some more notoriously than in others. Now there is no difficulty in telling how actual sin should be imputable to the person committing it; for, if all owe Obedience to the Law, their neglect of, or doing any thing contrary to it, cannot but render them Guilty.
1. When it is actually and personally committed by the man. I name this first, because it is most plain and accountable. Sin is properly a Moral Transgression, and supposeth a Law against which the transgression is: and to actual sin it is requisite that it be done by a reasonable creature, capable of acting as a cause by counsel: this therefore is not imputable to Infants, for, though they have a reasonable Soul in them, yet it is not in a present capacity of exercising that reason; which want seems not to be a fruit of sin, but a condition of nature, and had not man fallen, it would in all likelihood have been so; it is therefore said of those that dy in their Infancy, That they have not sinned after the similitude of Adams Transgression, Rom. 5.14. Though how soon they discover their natural corruption is lamentably to be observed; however this extends to all men without exception, that arrive to any use of their reason; how actual sin will be charged on meer naturals, I cannot grasp, though the want of the use of reason be a punishment of Adams sin; yet this utterly obstructs the rational acting of such an one, for ⟨p. 86⟩that he cannot discern between good and evil. But there is none that ever had the use of reason, but hath abused it by sinning against God, and that both by sins of Omission and Commission: he hath thought, spoken, done otherwise than the Law requires; we have a natural man characterized, Rom. 3.10. &c. And none are exempted from it, we are told, Psal. 58.3. They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies; i. e. they are set that way, and it breaks out as soon as they are capable, though in some more notoriously than in others. Now there is no difficulty in telling how actual sin should be imputable to the person committing it; for, if all owe Obedience to the Law, their neglect of, or doing any thing contrary to it, cannot but render them Guilty.
