ness from the severities of religion; let me live by the measures of thy law, not by the evil example and disguises of the world; renew a right spirit within me, and cast me not away from thy presence, lest I should retire to the works of darkness, and enter into those horrible regions, where the light of thy countenance never shineth.

II.

I am ashamed, O Lord, I am ashamed, that I have dishonoured so excellent a creation. Thou didst make us upright, and create us in innocence. And when thou didst see us unable to stand in thy sight, and that we could never endure to be judged by the covenant of works, thou didst renew thy mercies to us in the new covenant of Jesus Christ; and now we have no excuse, nothing to plead for ourselves, much less against thee; but thou art holy and pure, and just and merciful. Make me to be like thee, holy as thou art holy, merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful, obedient as our holy Saviour Jesus, meek and charitable, temperate and chaste, humble and patient, according to that holy example, that my sins may be pardoned by his death, and my spirit renewed by his Spirit, that passing from sin to grace, from ignorance to the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ, I may pass from death to life, from sorrow to joy, from earth to heaven, from the present state of misery and imperfection, to the glorious inheritance prepared for the saints and sons of light, the children of the new birth, the brethren of our Lord and Brother, our Judge and our Advocate, our blessed Saviour and Redeemer, Jesus. Amen.

A Prayer to be said by a Matron in Behalf of her Husband and Family, that a Blessing may descend upon their Posterity.

I.

O eternal God, our most merciful Lord, and gracious Father, thou art my guide, the light of mine eyes, the joy of my heart, the author of my hope, and the object of my love and worshippings; thou relievest all my needs, and determinest all my doubts, and art an eternal fountain of blessing, open and running over to all thirsty and weary souls that come and cry to thee for mercy and refreshment. Have mercy upon thy servant, and relieve my fears and sorrows, and the great necessities of my family; for thou alone, O Lord, canst do it.

II.

Fit and adorn every one of us with a holy and a religious spirit, and give a double portion to thy servant my dear husband: give him a wise heart, a prudent, severe, and indulgent care, over the children which thou hast given us. His heart is in thy hand, and the events of all things are in thy disposition. Make it a great part of his care, to promote the spiritual and eternal interest of his

Bless, O Lord, my sons with excellent understandings, love of holy and noble things, sweet dispositions, innocent deportment, diligent souls, chaste, healthful, and temperate bodies, holy and religious spirits, that they may live to thy glory, and be useful in their capacities to the servants of God, and all their neighbours, and the relatives of their conversation. Bless my daughters with an humble and a modest carriage, and excellent meekness, a great love of holy things, a severe chastity, a constant, holy, and passionate religion. O my God, never suffer them to fall into folly, and the sad effects of a wanton, loose, and indiscreet spirit: possess their fancies with holy affections; be thou the covering of their eyes, and the great object of their hopes, and all their desires. Blessed Lord, thou disposest all things sweetly by thy providence, thou guidest them excellently by thy wisdom, thou unitest all circumstances and changes wonderfully by thy power, and by thy power makest all things work for the good of thy servants; be pleased so to dispose my daughters, that if thon shouldst call them to the state of a married life, they may not dishonour their family, nor grieve their parents, nor displease thee; but that thou wilt so dispose of their persons, and the accidents and circumstances of that state, that it may be a state of holiness to the Lord, and blessing to thy servants. And until thy wisdom shall know it fit to bring things so to pass, let them live with all purity, spending their time religiously and usefully. O most blessed Lord, enable their dear father with proportionable abilities and opportunities of doing his duty and charities towards them, and them with great obedience and duty towards him, and all of us with a love towards thee above all things in the word, that our portion may be in love and in thy blessings, through Jesus Christ our dearest Lord, and most gracious Redeemer.

IV.

O my God, pardon thy servant, pity my infirmities, hear the passionate desires of thy humble servant; in thee alone is my trust, my heart and all my wishes are towards thee. Thou hast commanded me to pray to thee in all needs, thou hast made gracious promises to hear and accept me; and I will never leave importuning thy glorious Majesty, humbly, passionately, confidently, till thou hast heard and accepted the prayer of thy servant. Amen, dearest Lord; for thy mercy's sake hear thy servant. Amen.

SECTION I.

Of the Fall of Adam, and the Effects of it upon him and us.

Ir was well said of St. Austin in this thing, though he said many others in it less certain, "Nihil est peccato originali ad prædicandum notius, nihil ad intelligendum secretius." The article we all confess; but the manner of explicating it is not an apple of knowledge, but of contention. Having therefore turned to all the ways of reason and scripture, I at last apply myself to examine how it was affirmed by the first and best antiquity. For the doctrine of original sin, as I have explicated it, is taxed of singularity and novelty; and though these words are very freely bestowed upon any thing we have not learned, or consented to; and that we take false measures of these appellatives; reckoning that new that is but renewed, and that singular that is not taught vulgarly, or in our own societies; yet I shall easily quit the proposition from these charges: and though I do confess, and complain of it, that the usual affirmations of original sin are a popular error; yet I will make it appear that it is no catholic doctrine, that it prevailed by prejudice, and accidental authorities; but after such prevailing, it was accused and reproved by the greatest and most judicious persons of christendom.

And, first, that judgment may the better be given of the allegations I shall bring from authority, I shall explicate and state the question, that there may be no impertinent allegations of antiquity for both sides, nor clamours against the persons interested in either persuasion, nor any offence taken by error and misprision. It is not therefore intended, nor affirmed, that there is no such thing as original sin; for it is certain, and affirmed by all antiquity, upon many grounds of scripture, that Adam sinned, and his sin was personally his, but derivatively ours; that is, it did great hurt to us, to our bodies directly, to our souls indirectly and accidentally.

2. For "Adam was made a living soul," the great representative of mankind, and the beginner of a temporal happy life; and to that purpose he was put in a place of temporal happiness, where he was to have lived as long as he obeyed God (so far as he knew, nothing else being promised to him, or implied); but when he sinned, he was thrown from thence, and spoiled of all those advantages by which he was enabled to live and be happy. This we find in the story; the reasonableness of the parts

of which teaches us all this doctrine. To which if we add the words of St. Paul, the case is clear, "The first Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit, that is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthly; the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthly, such are they that are earthly; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly; and as we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly: now this I say, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption." a This discourse of the apostle hath in it all these propositions, which clearly state this whole article. There are two great heads of mankind, the two Adams; the first and the second. The first was framed with an earthly body, the second had (viz. after his resurrection, when he had died unto sin once) a spiritual body. The first was earthly, the second is heavenly: from the first we derive an earthly life, from the second we obtain a heavenly; all that are born of the first are such as he was naturally, but the effects of the Spirit came only upon them who are born of the second Adam: from him who is earthly we could have no more than he was, or had; the spiritual life, and consequently the heavenly, could not be derived from the first Adam, but from Christ only. All that are born of the first, by that birth inherit nothing but temporal life and corruption; but in the new birth only we derive a title to heaven. For "flesh and blood," that is, whatsoever is born of Adam, "cannot inherit the kingdom of God." And they are injurious to Christ, who think, that from Adam we might have inherited immortality. Christ was the giver and preacher of it; "he brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." It is a singular benefit given by God to mankind, through Jesus Christ.

3. Upon the affirmation of these premises, it follows, that if Adam had stood, yet from him we could not have, by our natural generation, obtained a title to our spiritual life, nor by all the strengths of Adam have gone to heaven: Adam was not our representative to any of these purposes, but in order to the perfection of a temporal life. Christ only is and was from eternal ages designed to be the head of the church, and the fountain of spiritual life. And this is it which is affirmed by some very eminent persons in the church of God; particularly by Junius and Tilenus, that "Christus est fundamentum

a 1 Cor. xv. 45, &c.

totius prædestinationis;" all that are, or ever were, predestinated, were predestinated in Christ: even Adam himself was predestinated in him; and therefore from him, if he had stood, though we should have inherited a temporal happy life, yet the Scriptures speak nothing of any other event. Heaven was not promised to Adam himself, therefore from him we could not have derived a title thither. And therefore that inquiry of the schoolmen-whether if Adam had not sinned, Christ should have been incarnate-was not an impertinent question, though they prosecuted it to weak purposes, and with trifling arguments; Scotus and his scholars were for the affirmative; and though I will not be decretory in it, because the scripture hath said nothing of it, nor the church delivered it; yet to me it seems plainly the discourse of the apostle now alleged :-That if Adam had not sinned, yet that by Christ alone we should have obtained everlasting life. Whether this had been dispensed by his incarnation, or some other way of economy, is not signified.

4. But then, if from Adam we should not have derived our title to heaven, though he had stood, then neither by his fall can we be said to have lost heaven. Heaven and hell were to be administered by another method. But then, if it be inquired what evil we thence received? I answer, that the principal effect was the loss of that excellent condition in which God placed him, and would have placed his posterity, unless sin had entered. He should have lived a long and lasting life, till it had been time to remove him, and very happy. Instead of this, he was thrown from those means which God had designed to this purpose, that is, Paradise and the trees of life; he was turned into a place of labour and uneasiness, of briers and thorns, il air and violent chances, "et novo febrium Terris incubuit cohors;" the woman was condemned to hard labour and travail, and (that which troubled her most) obedience to her husband; his body was made frail, and weak, and sickly; that is, it was left such as it was made, and left without remedies, which were to have made it otherwise. For that Adam was made mortal in his nature, is infinitely certain, and proved by his very eating and drinking, his sleep and recreation; by ingestion, and egestion, by breathing and generating his like, which immortal substances never do; and by the very tree of life, which had not been needful, if he should have had no need of it to repair his decaying strength and health.

5. The effect of this consideration is this, that all the product of Adam's sin, was by despoiling him, and consequently us, of all the superadditions and graces brought upon his nature. Even that which was threatened to him, and in the narrative of that sad story expressed to be his punishment, was no lessening of his nature, but despoiling him of his supernaturals and therefore Manuel Palæologus calls it κοινὸν τῆς φύσεως αὐχμὸν, “ the common dryness of our nature;" and he adds, Tρоλéуш dè проñатоρικὴν ἁμαρτίαν δι' ἧς τῆς χάριτος ἐκπεπτώκαμεν, “by our father's sin we fell from our father's graces." Now, according to the words of the apostle, " As is the earthly, such are they that are earthly;" that is,

all his posterity must be so as his nature was left; in this there could be no injustice. For if God might at first, and all the way, have made man with a necessity as well as a possibility of dying, though men had not sinned; then so also may he do, if he did sin; and so it was; but this was effected by disrobing him of all the superadded excellencies with which God adorned and supported his natural life. But this also I add, that if even death itself came upon us without the alteration or diminution of our nature, then so might sin, because death was in "re naturali," but sin is not, and therefore need not suppose that Adam's nature was spoiled to introduce that.

6. As the sin of Adam brought hurt to the body directly, so indirectly it brought hurt to the soul. For the evils upon the body, as they are only felt by the soul; so they grieve, and tempt, and provoke, the soul to anger, to sorrow, to envy; they make weariness in religious things; cause desires for ease, for pleasure; and as these are by the body always desired, so sometimes being forbidden by God, they become sins, and are always apt to it; because the body being a natural agent, tempts to all it can feel, and have pleasure in. And this is also observed and affirmed by St. Chrysostom, and he often speaks it, as if he were pleased in this explication of the article: Μετὰ γὰρ τοῦ θανάτου φησὶ καὶ ὁ τῶν παθῶν ἐπεισῆλθεν ὄχλος· ὔτε γὰρ θνητὸν ἐγένετο τὸ σῶμα, ἐδέξατο γὰρ καὶ ἐπιθυμίαν ἀναγκαίως, λοιπὸν, καὶ ὀργὴν καὶ λύπην, καὶ τὰ ἄλλα πάντα, ἃ πολλῆς ἐδεῖτο φιλοσοφίας· ἵνα μὴ πλημμύρα τὸν ἐν ἡμῖν καταποντίσῃ λογισμὸν εἰς τὸν τῆς ἁμαρτίας βυθόν ἀῦτα μὲν γὰρ οὐκ ἦν ἁμαρτία, ἡ δὲ ἀμετρία αὐτῶν μὴ χαλινουμένη τοῦτο εἰργάζετο. “ Together with death entered a whole troop of affections or passions. For when the body became mortal, then of necessity it did admit desires, or lust, and anger, and grief, and all things else which need great constancy and wisdom; lest the storm should drown reason in us, in the gulf of sin. For these affections or passions were not sin; but the excess of them, not being bridled, did effect this." b The same he affirms in homil. 11. ad Rom. vi. and homil. 12. on Rom. vii. And not much unlike this was that excellent discourse of Lactantius, in his seventh book "de Divino Præmio," cap. 5. But Theodoret, in his commentaries upon the Romans, follows the same discourse exactly. And this way of explicating the entrance and facility of sin upon us, is usual in antiquity; affirming, that because we derive a miserable and an afflicted body from Adam, upon that stock sin enters.

Quæ quia materiam peccati ex fomite carnis
Consociata trahit, nec non simul ipsa sodali
Est incentivum peccaminis, implicat ambas
Vindex pena as, peccantes mente sub unâ
Peccandique cremat socias_cruciatibus æquis.
PRUDENTIUS in Apotheosi.

"Because the soul joined to the body draws from the society of the flesh incentives and arguments to sin, therefore both of them are punished, as being guilty by consociation." But then thus it was also

b Ad 7. Rom. homil. 13.

Hæc prima est natura animæ, sic condita simplex
Decidit in vitium per sordida fœdera carnis.

"The soul was created simple and pure, but fell into vice by the evil combination with the flesh."

infirm sickly body, and enters upon the actions of life through infancy, and childhood, and youth, and folly, and ignorance; the devil, it is certain, will not omit his opportunities, but will with all his power possess and abuse mankind; and upon the apprehension of this, the primitive church used, in the first admission of infants to the entrance of a new birth to a spiritual life, to pray against the power and frauds of the devil; and that brought in the ceremony of exsufflation, for ejecting of the devil. The ceremony was fond and weak, but the opinion that introduced it was full of caution and prudence. For as Optatus Milevitanus said, “Ne

7. From hence it follows, that naturally a man cannot do or perform the law of God; because being so weak, so tempted by his body; and this life being the body's day, that is, the time in which its appetites are properly prevailing; to be born of Adam, is to be born under sin, that is, under such inclinations to it, that as no man will remain innocent, so no man can of himself keep the law of God; "Vendidit se prior, ac, per hoc, omne semen subjectum est peccato. Quamobrem infirmum esse hominem ad præcepta legis servanda;" said the author of the commentary on St. Paul's epistles usually attributed to St. Ambrose.d

But beyond this there are two things more considerable; the one is, that the soul of man being divested by Adam's fall, by way of punishment, of all those supernatural assistances, which God put into it; that which remained was a reasonable soul, fitted for the actions of life and of reason, but not of any thing that was supernatural. For the soul, being immerged in flesh, feeling grief by participation of evils from the flesh, hath and must needs have discourses in order to its own ease and comfort, that is, in order to the satisfaction of the body's desires; which, because they are often contradicted, restrained, and curbed, and commanded to be mortified and killed, by the laws of God, must of necessity make great inlets for sin; for while reason judges of things in proportion to present interests, and is less apprehensive of the proportions of those good things which are not the good things of this life, but of another; the reason abuses the will as the flesh abuses the reason. And for this there is no remedy but the grace of God, the Holy Spirit, to make us be born again, to become spiritual; that is, to have new principles, new appetites, and new interests.

The other thing I was to note is this; that as the devil was busy to abuse mankind, when he was fortified by many advantages and favours from God: so now that man is naturally born naked, and dic Lib. 1. advers. Gentes. d In cap. 7. Rom.

vis de christianis parentibus nascitur, sine spiritu immundo esse non possit; quem necesse sit, ante salutare lavacrum, ab homine excludi ac separari.”e It is but too likely the devil will take advantages of our natural weaknesses, and with his temptations and abuses enter upon children as soon as they enter upon choice, and indeed prepossess them with imitating follies, that may become customs of sinfulness before they become sins; and therefore with rare wisdom it was done by the church, to prevent the devil's frauds and violences, by an early baptism, and early offices.

8. As a consequent of all this, it comes to pass, that we being born thus naked of the Divine grace, thus naturally weak, thus encumbered with a body of sin, that is, a body apt to tempt to forbidden instances, and thus assaulted by the frauds and violences of the devil; all which are helped on by the evil guises of the world; it is certain, we cannot with all these disadvantages and loads soar up to heaven; but, in the whole constitution of affairs, are in sad dispositions to enter into the devil's portion, and go to hell not that if we die before we consent to evil, we shall perish; but that we are evilly disposed to do actions that will deserve it, and because if we die before our new birth, we have nothing in us that can, according to the revelations of God, dispose us to heaven; according to these words of the apostle; "In me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.' "[

But this infers not, that in our flesh, or that in our soul, there is any sin properly inherent, which makes God to be our present enemy; that is, the only or the principal thing I suppose myself to have so much reason to deny; but that the state of the body is a state not at all fitted for heaven, but too much disposed to the ways that lead to hell. For even in innocent persons, in Christ himself it was a hinderance or a state of present exclusion from heaven; "he could not enter into the second tabernacle" (that is, into heaven) "so long as the first tabernacle of his body was standing;" the body of sin, that is, of infirmity, he was first to lay aside, and so by dying unto sin once, he entered into heaven; according to the other words of St. Paul, "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God," it is a state of differing nature and capacity : Christ himself could not enter thither, till he had