Burnet on Article IX: Of Original or Birth-sin

AFter the First Principles of the Christian Religion are stated, and the Rule of Faith and Life was setled; the next thing that was to be done, was to declare the special Doctrines of this Religion; and that first with relation to all Christians, as they are single Individuals, for the directing every one of them in order to the working out his own Salvation; which is done from this to the Nineteenth Article: And then with relation to them as they compose a Society called the Church; which is carried on from the Nineteenth to the End.

In all that has been hitherto explained, the whole Church of England has been all along of one mind. In this and in some that follow, there has been a greater diversity of Opinion; but both sides have studied to prove their Tenets to be at least not contrary to the Articles of the Church. These different Parties have disputed concerning the Decrees of God, and those Assistances which pursuant to his Decrees are afforded to us. But because the Foundation of those Decrees, and the Necessity of those Assistances, are laid in the Sin of Adam, and in the Effects it had on Mankind, therefore th[?]se Controversies begin on this Head. The Pelagians and the Socinians agree in saying, That Adam’s Sin was Personal: That by it, as being the first Sin, it is said that Sin entred into the World: But that as Adam was made mortal,¹ and had died whether he had sinned or not; so they think the liberty of Human Nature is still entire; and that every man is punished for his own sins, and not for the sin of another; to do otherwise, they say, seems contrary to Justice, not to say, Goodness.

In opposition to this, Iudgment is said to have come upon many to condemnation through one (either Man or Sin.²) Death is said to have reigned by one, and by one man’s offence; and many are said to be dead through the offence of one. All these Passages do intimate that death is the consequence of Adam’s Sin; and that in him, as well as in all others, Death was the Wages of Sin, so also that we dye upon the account of his Sin. We are said to bear the Image of the first Adam, as true Christians bear the Image of the second: Now we are sure that there is both a derivation of Righteousness,³ and a Communication of Inward Holiness transferred to us through Christ: So it seems to follow from thence, that there is somewhat both transferred to us, and conveyed down throughMankind, by the first Adam; and particularly that by it we are all made subject to Death; from which we should have been freed, if Adam had continued in his first state, and that by virtue of the Tree of Life:⁴ in which some think there was a natural Virtue to cure all Diseases, and relieve against all Accidents; while others do ascribe it to a Divine Blessing, of which that Tree was only the Symbol or Sacrament; through the words said after Adam’s sin, as the reason of driving him out of Paradise, lest he put forth his hand and take of the Tree of Life, and eat, and live for ever, seem to import that there was a Physical Virtue in the Tree, that could so fortify and restore Life, as to give Immortality. These do also think that the Threatning made to Adam, That upon his eating the forbidden Fruit he should surely dye, is to be taken literally, and is to be carried no further than to a Natural Death. This Subjection to Death, and to the Fear of it, brings men under a slavish Bondage, many Terrors, and other Passions and Miseries that arise out ofit, which they think is a great Punishment; and that it is a Condemnation and Sentence of Death passed upon the whole Race; and by this they are made sinners, that is, treated as guilty Persons, and severely punished.

This they think is easily enough reconciled with the Notions of Justice and Goodness in God, since this is only a Temporary Punishment relating to mens Persons: And we see in the common methods of Providence, that Children are in this sort often punished for the sins of their Fathers; most men that come under a very ill habit of Body, transmit the Seeds of Diseases and Pains to their Children. They do also think that the Communication of this liableness to death is easily accounted for; and they imagine that as the Tree of Life might be a Plant that furnished men with an Universal Medicine, so the forbidden Fruit might derive a slow Poyson into Adam’s Body, that might have exalted and inflamed his Blood very much, and might, though by a slower operation, certainly brought on death at the last. Our being thus adjudged to Death, and to all the Miseries that accompany Mortality, they think may be well called the wrath of God, and damnation: So Temporary Judgments are often expressed in Scripture. And to this they add, That Christ has entirely redeemed us from this, by the Promise he has given us of raising us up at the Last Day: And that therefore when St. Paul is so copiously discoursing of the Resurrection, he brings this in, That as we have born the image of the first Adam, who was earthy, so we shall also bear the image of the heavenly; and since by man came death, ⁵ by man came also the resurrection from the dead; and that as in Adam all dye, so in Christ shall all be made alive; and that this is the Univesal Redemption and Reparation that all mankind shall have in Christ Jesus. All this these Divines apprehend is conceivable, and no more; therefore they put Original Sin in this only, for which they pretend they have all the Fathers with them before St. Austin, and particularly St. Chrysostom and Theodoret, from whom all the latter Greeks have done little more than copied out their words. This they do also pretend comes up to the words of the Article; for as this general adjudging of all men to dye, may be called, according to the Stile of the Scriptures, God’s wrath and damnation; so the fear of Death, which arises out of it, corrupts mens Natures, and inclines them to evil.

Others do so far approve of all this, as to think that it is a part of Original Sin, yet they believe it goes much farther; and that there is a Corruption spread through the whole Race of Mankind, which is born with every man. This the Experience of all Ages teaches us but too evidently; every man feels it in himself, and sees it in others. The Philosophers, who were sensible of it, thought to avoid the difficulty that arises from it, when it might be urged, That a good God could not make men to be Originally depraved and wicked; they therefore fancied that all our Souls pre-existed in a former and purer state, from which they fell, by descending too much into Corporeal pleasure, and so both by a lapse and for a punishment, they sunk into grosser Bodies, and fell differently according to the different degrees of the Sins they had committed in that state: And they thought that a Virtuous Life did raise them up to their former pitch, as a Vicious one would sink them lower, into more depraved and more miserable Bodies. All this may seem plausible: But the best that can be said for it, is, That it is an Hypothesis that saves some difficulties; but there is no sort of proofs to make it appear to be true. We neither perceive in our selves any remembrances of such a state, nor have we any warning given us either of our fall, or of the means of recovering out of it: So since there is no reason to affirm this to be true, we must seek for some other source of the Corruption of human Nature. The Manichees imputed it to the Evil God, and thought it was his work, which some say might have set on St. Austin the more earnestly to look for another Hypothesis to reconcile all.

But before we go to that, it is certain, that in Scripture this general Corruption of our Nature is often mentioned. The Imaginations of man’s thoughts are only evil continually: ⁶ What man is he that liveth and sinneth not? The just man falleth seven times a day: The heart of man is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it? All that are in Christ must become new Creatures, old things must be done away, and every thing must become new. God made man upright, but he sought out to himself many Inventions. The Flesh is weak; The Flesh lusteth against the Spirit; The carnal mind is enmity to the law of God, and is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be: And they that are in the Flesh cannot please God: Where by Flesh is to be meant the natural State of Mankind, according to those words, That which is born of the Flesh, is Flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit, is Spirit. These, with many other places of Scripture to the same purpose, when they are joined to the universal Experience of all Mankind, concerning the Corruption of our whole Race, lead us to settle this point, that in Fact it has over-run our whole kind, the contagion is spread over all. Now this being setled, we are next to enquire, how this could happen; We cannot think that God made men so: For it is expresly said,⁷ That God made man after his own Image.

The surest way to find out what this Image was at first, is to consider, What the New Testament says of it, when we come to be restored to it. We must put on the new man, ⁸ after the Image of him that created him; or as elsewhere, the new man in righteousness and true holiness. This then was the Image of God, in which man was at first made. Nor ought the Image of God to be considered only as an Expression that imports only our representing him here on Earth, and having Dominion over the Creatures: For in Genesis the Creation of Man in the Image of God, is expressed as a thing different from his Dominion over the Creatures,⁹ which seems to be given to him as a consequent of it. The Image of God seems to be this, That the Soul of Man was a Being of another Sort and Order than all those material Beings till then made, which were neither capable of Thought nor Liberty, in which respect the Soul was made after the Image of God. But Adam’s Soul being put in his Body, his Brain was a Tabula rasa, as White Paper, had no Impressions in it, but such as either God put in it, or such as came to him by his senses. A Man born deaf and blind, newly come to hear and see, is not a more Ignorant and Amazed-like Creature than Adam must have been, if God had not conveyed some great impressions into him; such as first the acknowledging and obeying him as his Maker, and then the managing his Body so as to make it an Instrument, by which he could make use of and observe the Creation. There is no reason to think that his Body was at first inclined to Appetite, and that his Mind was apt to serve his Body, but that both were restrained by supernatural Assistances: It is much more natural and more agreeable to the words of the Wise-man, to think that God made man upright, that his Body craved modestly, and that his Mind was both Judge and Master of those cravings; and if a natural Hypothesis may be offered, but only as an Hypothesis, it may be supposed, That a Man’s blood was naturally low and cool, but that it was capable of a vast Inflammation and Elevation, by which a man’s powers might be exalted to much higher degrees of Knowledge and Capacity: The Animal Spirits receiving their Quality from that of the Blood, a new and a strong Fermentation in the Blood, might r[?]ise them, and by consequence exalt a man to a much greater sublimity of Thought: But with that it might dispose him to be easily inflamed by Appetites and Passions, it might put him under the power of his Body, and make his Body much more apt to be fired at outward Objects, which might sink all Spiritual and pure Ideas in him, and raise gross ones with much Fury and Rapidity. Hereby his whole frame might be much corrupted, and that might go so deep in him, that all those who descended from him, might be defiled by it, as we see Madness and some Chronical Diseases pass from Parents to their Children.

All this might have been natural, and as much the Physical effect of Eating the forbidden Fruit, as it seems Immortality would have been that of Eating the Fruit of the Tree of Life: This might have been in its nature a slow poison, which must end in Death at last. It may be very easy to make all this appear probable from Physical Causes. A very small Accident may so alter the whole Mass of the Blood, that in a very few Minutes it may be totally changed; so the Eating the forbidden Fruit might have, by a natural chain of things, produced all this. But this is only an Hypothesis, and so is left as such. All the Assistance that Revealed Religion can receive from Philosophy, is to shew, That a reasonable Hypothesis can be offered upon Physical Principles, to shew the possibility, or rather probability of any particulars that are contained in the Scriptures. This is enough to s[?]op the mouths of Deists, which is all the use that can be made of such Schemes.

To return to the main Point of the Fall of Adam: He himself was made liable to Death. But not barely to cease to live: for Death and Life are terms opposite to one another in Scripture. In Treating upon these Heads it is said, That the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. ¹⁰ And though the addition of the word Eternal, makes the Signification of the one more express, yet where it is mentioned without that addition, no doubt is to be made, but that it is to be so meant: As where it is said, That to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace: And believing, we have life through his Name: ¹¹ Ye will not come unto me that ye may have life. So by the rule of Opposites, Death ought to be understood, as a word of a general Signification, which we who have the Comment of the New Testament to guide us in understanding the Old, are not to restrain to a natural Death; and therefore when we are said to be the servants of sin unto death, we unders[?]and much more by it, than a natural Death: So God’s threatning of Adam with Death, ought not to be restrained to a natural Death. Adam being thus defiled, all Emanations from him must partake of that vitiated State to which he had brought himself. But then the Question remains, How came the Souls of his Posterity to be defiled; for if they were created pure, it seems to be an unjust Cruelty to them, to condemn them to such an Union to a defiled Body, as should certainly corrupt them? All that can be said in Answer to this, is,

That God has setled it as a Law in the Creation, That a Soul should inform a Body according to the Texture of it, and either conquer it, or be mastered by it, as it should be differently made; and that as such a degree of Purity in the Texture of it, might make it both pure and happy; so a contrary degree of Texture might have very contrary effects. And if with this, God made another general Law, that when all things were duly prepared for the propagation of the Species of Mankind, a Soul should be always ready to go into, and animate those first Threads and Beginnings of Life; those Laws being laid down, Adam by corrupting his own frame, corrupted the frame of his whole Posterity, by the general course of Things, and the great Law of the Creation. So that the suffering this to run through all the Race, is no more (only different in degrees and extent) than the Suffering the folly or madness of a man to infect his Posterity. In these things God acts as the Creator of the World by general Rules, and these must not be altered because of the Sins and Disorders of men: But they are rather to have their course, that so Sin may be its own punishment. The defilement of the Race being thus stated, a Question remains, Whether this can be properly called a Sin, and such as deserves God’s Wrath and Damnation? On the one hand an opposition of Nature to the Divine Nature, must certainly be hateful to God, as it is the root of much malignity and sin. Such a Nature cannot be the Object of his Love, and of it self it cannnot be accepted of God: Now since there is no mean in God, between Love and Wrath, Acceptation and Condemnation, if such persons are not in the first order, they must be in the second.

Yet it seems very hard on the other hand to apprehend, how persons, who have never actually sinned, but are only unhappily descended, should be, in consequence to that, under so great a misery: To this several answers are made: Some have thought that those who die before they commit any actual Sin, have indeed no share in the favour of God, but yet that they pass unto a state in the other World, in which they suffer little or nothing. The stating this more clearly, will belong to another Opinion, which shall be afterwards Explained.

There is a further Question made, Whether this Vicious Inclination is a Sin, or not? Those of the Church of Rome, as they believe that Original Sin is quite taken away by Baptism, so finding that this corrupt Disposition still remains in us, they do from thence conclude, that it is no part of Original Sin, but that this is the Natural State in which Adam was made at first, only it is in us without the restraint or bridle of Supernatural Assistances; which was given to him, but lost by Sin, and restored to us in Baptism. But as was said formerly, Adam in his first state was made after the Image of God, so that his bodily powers were perfectly under the command of his mind; This Revolt that we feel our Bodies and Senses are always in, cannot be supposed to be God’s Original Workmanship. There are great Disputings raised concerning the meaning of a long Discourse of St. Paul’s the 7th of the Romans, concerning a constant struggle that he felt within himself; which some, arguing from the Scope of the whole Epistle, and the beginning of that Chapter, understand only of the state that St. Paul represents himself to have been in, while yet a Iew and before his Conversion: Whereas others understand it of him in his converted and regenerated state. Very plausible things have been said on both sides, but without arguing any thing from words, the sense of which is under debate;¹² there are other places which do manifestly express the struggle that is in a good Man: The flesh is weak, though the spirit is willing: The flesh lusteth against the spirit, as the spirit lusteth against the flesh: We ought to be still mortifying the deeds of the body; and we feel many Sins that do so easily bese[?] us, that from these things we have reason to conclude, that there is a Corruption in our Nature, which gives us a biass and propensity to Sin. Now there is no reason to think that Baptism takes away all the Branches and Effects of Original Sin: It is enough if we are by it delivered from the Wrath of God, and brought into a State of Favour and Acceptation: We are freed from the Curse of Death, by our being Entitled to a Blessed Resurrection: And if we are so far freed from the Corruption of our Nature, as to have a foederal right to such Assistances as will enable us to resist and repress it, though it is not quite extinct in us, so long as we live in these frail and mortal Bodies, here are very great Effects of our Admission to Christianity by Baptism; though this should not go so far as to root out all Inclinations to Evil out of our Nature. The great Disposition that is in us to Appetite and Passion, and that great heat with which they Inflame us; the Aversion that we naturally have to all the Exercises of Religion, and the Pains that must be used to work us up to a tolerable Degree of Knowledge, and an ordinary Measure of Virtue, shews that these are not natural to us: Whereas Sloth and Vice do grow on us without any care taken about them; so that it appears, that they are the natural, and the other the forced growth of our Souls. These ill Dispositions are so universally spread through all Mankind, and appear so early, and in so great a Diversity of ill Inclinations, that from hence it seems reasonable and just to infer, That this Corruption is spread through our whole Nature and Species, by the Sin and Disobedience of Adam. And beyond this a great many among our selves think that they cannot go, in asserting of Original Sin.

But there is a further step made by all the Disciples of S. Austin, who believe, That a Covenant was made with all Mankind in Adam, as their First Parent: That he was a Person Constituted by God to represent them all; and that the Covenant was made with him, so that if he had obeyed, all his Posterity should have been happy, through his Obedience; but by his Disobedience they were all to be esteemed to have sinned in him, his Act being Imputed and Transferred to them all. S. Austin considered all Mankind as lost in Adam, and in that he made the Decree of Election to begin: There being no other Reprobation asserted by him, than the leaving Men to continue in that state of Damnation, in which they were by reason of Adam’s Sin; so that though by Baptism all Men were born again, and recovered out of that lost state, yet unless they were within the Decree of Election they could not be saved, but would certainly fall from that state, and perish in a state of Sin: But such as were not Baptized were shut out from all hope. Those words of Christ’s, Except ye be born again of the water and of the Spirit, ¹³ ye cannot enter into the kingdom of God, being Expounded so as to Import the Indispensable Necessity of Baptism to Eternal Salvation. All who were not Baptized were reckoned by him among the Damned: Yet this Damnation, as to those who had no Actual Sin, was so mitigated, that it seemed to be little more than an Exclusion out of Heaven, without any Suffering or Misery, like a state of Sleep and Inactivity. This was afterwards dressed up as a Division or Partition in Hell, called the Limbo of Infants; so by bringing it thus low, they took away much of the horror that this Doctrine might otherwise have given the World.

It was not easy to Explain the way how this was propagated: They wished well to the Notion of a Soul’s propagating a Soul, but that seemed to come too near Creation: So it was not received as certain. It was th[?]refore thought, That the Body being propagated defiled, the Soul was created and infused at the time of Conception: And the though God did not Create it impure, yet no time was interposed between its Creation and infusion: So that it could never be said to have been once pure, and then to have become impure. All this, as it afforded an easy Foundation to Establish the Doctrine of Absolute Decrees upon it, no care being taken to shew how this Sin came into the World, whether from an Absolute Decr[?]e or not, so it seem’d to have a great Foundation in that large Discourse of St. Paul’s; where in the 5th of the Romans, he compares the Blessings that we receive by the Death of Christ, with the Guilt and Misery that was brought upon us by the Sin of Adam. Now it is confessed, That by Christ we have both an Imputation or Communication of the Merits of his Death, and likewise a Purity and Holiness of Nature convey’d to us by his Doctrine and Spirit. In opposition then to this, if the comparison is to be closely pursued, there must be an Imputation of Sin as well as a Corruption of Nature, transfused to us from Adam. This is the more considerable as to the Point of imputation, because the chief design of St. Paul’s Discourse seems to be levelled at that, since it is begun upon the Head of Reconciliation and Attonement: Upon which it follows, That as by one man sin entred into the world, ¹⁴ and death by sin, and death passed upon all men, for that (or as others render it, in whom) all have sinned. Now they think it is all one to their Point, Whether it be rendered, for that, or in whom: For though the later words seem to deliver their Opinion more precisely, yet it being affirm’d, That according to the other rendring, all who die have sinned; and it being certain, That many Infants die who have never actually sinned, these must have sinned in Adam, they could sin no other way. It is afterwards said by St. Paul, That by the offence of one many were dead: That the judgment was by one to Condemnation: That by one man’s offence death reigned by one. That by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to Condemnation: And that by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners. As these words are positive, and of great importance in themselves, so all this is much the stronger, by the opposition in which every one of them is put to the Effects and Benefits of Christ’s Death; particularly to our Justification through him, in which there is an Imputation of the Merits and Effects of his Death, that are thereby transferred to us; so that that the whole Effect of this Discourse is taken away, if the Imputation of Adam’s Sin is denied. And this Explication does certainly quadrate more entirely to the words of the Article, as it is known that this was the Tenet of those who prepared the Articles, it having been the generally-received Opinion from S. Austin’s days downward.

But to many other Divines, this seems a harsh and unconceivable Opinion; it seems repugnant to the Justice and Goodness of God, to reckon Men guily of a Sin which they never committed, and to punish them in their Souls Eternally for that which was no Act of theirs: And though we easily enough conceive how God in the Riches of his Grace, may transfer Merit and Blessings from one Person to many, this being only an Oeconomy of Mercy, where all is free, and such a method is taken as may best declare the Goodness of God: But in the Imputation of Sin and Guilt, which are Matters of strict Justice, it is quite otherwise. Upon that Head God is pleased often to Appeal to Men of the Justice of all his ways: And therefore no such Doctrine ought to be admitted, that carries in it an Idea of Cruelty,¹⁵ beyond what the blackest Tyrants have ever invented. Besides, that in the Scripture, such a method as the punishing Children for their Fathers Sins, is often disclaimed, and it is positively affirmed, that every man that sins is punished. Now though in Articles relating to the Nature of God, they acknowledge it is highly reasonable to believe, That there may be Mysteries which exceed our Capacity; yet in Moral Matters, in God’s foederal dealings with us, it seems unreasonable and contrary to the Nature of God, to believe that there may be a Mystery contrary to the clearest Notions of Justice and Goodness; such as the condemning Mankind for the Sin of one Man, in which the rest had no share; and as contrary to our Ideas of God, and upon that to set up another Mystery that shall take away the Truth and Fidelity of the promises of God; Justice and Goodness being as inseparable from his Nature, as Truth and Fidelity can be supposed to be. This seems to expose the Christian Religion to the Scoffs of its Enemies, and to Objections that are much sooner made than answered: And since the foundation of this is a supposed Covenant with Adam as the Representative Head of Mankind, it is strange that a thing of that great consequence, should not have been more plainly Reported in the History of the Creation: But that men should be put to fetch out the knowledge of so great and so extraordinary a thing, only by some remote Consequences. It is no small prejudice against this Opinion, That it was so long before it first appeared in the Latin Church; that it was never received in the Greek; and that even the Western Church, though perhaps for some Ignorant Ages it received it, as it did every thing else, very implicity, yet has been very much divided both about this, and many other Opinions related to it, or a rising out of it.

As for those words of St. Paul’s, that are its chief, if not its only Foundation, they say many things upon them. First it is a single Proof. Now when we have not a variety of places proving any point, in which one gives Light, and leads us to a sure Exposition of another, we cannot be so sure of the meaning of any one place, as to raise a Theory, or found a Doctrine upon it: They say further, That S. Paul seems to argue, from that Opinion of our having sinned in Adam, to prove that we are justified by Christ. Now it is a piece of Natural Logick not to prove a thing by another, unless that other is more clear of it self, or at least more clear by its being already received and believed. This cannot be said to be more clear of it self, for it is certainly less credible or conceivable, than the Reconciliation by Christ. Nor was this clear from any special Revelation made of it in the Old Testament: Therefore there is good reason to believe, that it was then a Doctrine received among the Iews, as there are odd things of this kind to be found among the Cabbalists, as if all the Souls of all Mankind had been in Adam’s Body. Now when an Argument is brought in Scripture to prove another thing by, though we are bound to acknowledge the Conclusion, yet we are not always sure of the Premises; for they are often founded upon received Opinions. So that it is not certain that S. Paul meant to offer this Doctrine to our belief as true, but only that he intended by it to prove our being reconciled to God through the Death of Christ; and the Medium by which he proved it might be, for ought that appears from the words themselves, only an Opinion held true among those to whom he writes. For he only supposes it, but says nothing to prove it: Which it might be expected he would have done, if the Iews had made any doubt of it. But further they say, that when Comparisons or Oppositions, such as this, are made in Scripture, we are not always to carry them on to an exact Equality: We are required not only to be holy as God is holy, but to be perfect as he is perfect: ¹⁶ Where by the as is not to be meant a true Equality, but some sort Resemblance and Conformity: Therefore those who believe that there is nothing imputed to Adam’s Posterity on the account of his Sin, but this Temporary punishment of their being made liable to Death, and to all those Miseries that the fear of it, with our other concerns about it, bring us under, say that this is enough to justify the comparison that is there stated: And that those who will carry it on to be an exact parallel, make a stretch beyond the Phraseology of the Scripture, and the use of Parables, and of the many comparisons that go only to one or more points, but ought not to be stretched to every thing.

These are the things that other great Divines among us have opposed to this Opinion. As to its Consonancy to the Article, those who oppose it do not deny, but that it comes up fully to the highest sense that the words of the Article can Import: Nor do they doubt, but that those who prepared the Articles, being of that Opinion themselves, might perhaps have had that sense of the words in their Thoughts. But they add, That we are only bound to sign the Articles in a Literal and Grammatical Sense: Since therefore the words God’s wrath and damnation, which are the highest in the Article, are capable of a lower sense, Temporary Judgments being often so expressed in the Scriptures,¹⁷ therefore they believe the loss of the Favour of God, the Sentence of Death, the Troubles of Life, and the Corruption of our Faculties, may be well called God’s wrath and damnation. Besides they observe, That the main point of the Imputation of Adam’s Sin to his Posterity, and its being considered by God as their own Act, not being expresly taught in the Article, here was that moderation observed, which the Compilers of the Articles have shewed on many other occasions. It is plain from hence, that they did not intend to lay a Burthen one Mens Consciences, or oblige them to profess a Doctrine that seems to be of hard digestion to a great many. The last prejudice that they offer against that Opinion, is, That the softening the terms of God’s wrath and damnation that was brought in by the followers of St. Austin’s Doctrine to s[?]ch a moderate and harmless Noti[?]n, as to be only a loss of Heaven, with a sort of unactive S[?]ep, was [?]n effect of their apprehending that the World could very ill bear an Opinion of so strange a sound, as that all Mankind were to be Damned for the Sin of one Man: And that therefore to make this pass the be[?]ter they mitigated Damnation far below the Representation that the Scriptures generally give of it, which propose it as the being adjudged to a place of Torment, and a state of Horror and Misery.

Thus I have set down the different Opinions in this point, with that true Indifference that I intend to observe on such other occasions, and which becomes one who undertakes to explain the Doctrines of the Church, and not his own: And who is obliged to purpose other Mens Opinions with all Sincerity, and to shew what are the Senses that the Learned Men of different persuasions in these matters, have put on the words of the Article. In which one great and constant Rule to be observed, is, To represent mens Opinions candidly, and to judge as favourably both of them and their Opinions as may be: To bear with one another, and not to disturb the Peace and Union of the Church, by insisting too much and too peremptorily upon matters of such doubtful Disputaion; but willingly to leave them to all that liberty, to which the Church has left them, and which she still allows them.

Footnotes

1. [?]om. 5.1[?]. ↩

2. ver. 1[?]. ↩

3. 1 Cor 15.49. ↩

4. Gen. 3.22. ↩

5. 1 Cor. 15.21, 22. In Ep. ad Rom. passim. ↩

6. Gen. 6.5.8.21. 1 Kings 8.46. Prov. 24.16. Jer. 17.9. 2 Cor. 5.17. Eccl. 7.20. Gal. 5.17. Rom. 8.7, 8. John 3.6. ↩

7. Gen. 1 27. ↩

8. Eph. 4.22, 24. ↩

9. Gen. 1.27, 28. ↩

10. Rom. 6.23. ↩

11. Rom. 8.6. Joh. 20.31. Joh. 5.50. ↩

12. Gal. 5.17. Rom. 8.13. ↩

13. Joh. 3.3, 5. ↩

14. Rom. 5.12. to the end. ↩

15. Jer. 31.29. Ezek. 18.20. ↩

16. 1 Pet. 1.15, 16. Mat. 5.48. ↩

17. Ex. 32.10. and […] the whole Old Test[?] ment. Mat. 3.7. 1 Thess. 2.16. Luk. 23.40. 1 Cor. 11.29. 1 Pet. 4.17. Rom. 13.2. 2 C[?]r. 7.5. John 8.10, 11. Rom. 14.13. ↩