Q18. Wherein consists the sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell?
A. The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consists in the guilt of Adam's first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called original sin; together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it.
Q1. What do you understand by original sin?
A. The sin we have from our original; that is, when the soul is united to the body, or the human nature completed, Psalm 51:5.
Q2. How is original sin usually distinguished?
A. Into original sin imputed, and original sin inherent.
Q3. What is original sin imputed?
A. The guilt of Adam's first sin.
Q4. What is original sin inherent?
A. The want of original righteousness and the corruption of the whole nature.
Q5. What do you understand by the guilt of sin?
A. An obligation to punishment on account of sin, Rom, 6:23.
Q6. How are all mankind guilty of Adam's first sin?
A. By imputation, Rom. 5:19 - "By one man's disobedience, many were made sinners."
Q7. Upon what account is Adam's first sin imputed to his posterity?
A. On account of the legal union between him and them, he being their legal head and representative, and the covenant made with him, not for himself only, but for his posterity likewise, 1 Cor. 15:22 - "In Adam all die."
Q8. Why was Adam's first sin imputed, and none of his after sins?
A. Bec:use the covenant being broken by his first sin, his federal headship ceased; for being then legally dead, and his posterity in him and with him, he stood afterwards merely as a single person for himself, and no longer in the capacity of their public representative in that covenant of life, which, by that first sin, brought him and them under the sentence of death, Rom. 5:12, 13.
Q9. When Adam ceased to be the federal head, by breaking the covenant of works, did that covenant cease likewise?
A. No; that covenant, though broken, stands binding, so as the obligation to pay the debt of obedience to the precept, and satisfaction now to its penalty, remains upon every one of his posterity, while in a natural state, under the law as a covenant of works, Gal. 3:10.
Q10. How does it appear from scripture, that all Adam's posterity had his first sin imputed to them?
A. From their being said to be "made sinners, by one man's disobedience," Rom. 5:19; and to have the judgment, or sentence, by one to condemnation, ver. 16; and surely there can be no condemnation, passed by a righteous judge, where there is no crime, Rom. 4:15.
Q11. Is it not said, Ezek. 18:20, "The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father?"
A. The prophet is there speaking of particular private parents, not of Adam as a federal head; he is speaking of adult children, who were preserved from some grosser violations of the law, of which their parents were guilty, and who did not imitate them; not of the posterity of Adam in general, as exempting them from his first sin, with which the scriptures quoted in answer to the former question, plainly prove them chargeable.
Q12. What is meant by the want of original righteousness?
A. The want of that rectitude and purity of nature, which Adam had at his creation; consisting in a perfect conformity of all the powers and faculties of his soul to the holy nature of God, and to the law which was written on his heart, Eccl. 7:29.
Q13. How does it appear that all mankind are now destitute of this original righteousness?
A. From the express testimony of God, that among all Adam's race, there is none righteous, no, not one; and that by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, Rom. 3:10-12, 20.
Q14. What follows upon this want of original righteousness?
A. That all mankind are naked before God; and that their fig-leaf coverings will stand them in no stead before his omniscient eye, nor answer the demands of his holy law, Rev. 3:17; Isaiah 64:6.
Q15. Does the law of God demand original righteousness from mankind sinners, though they now want it?
A. Yes; their want of it can never derogate from the right of the law to demand it, because God endowed man with this part of his image, at his creation; and his want of it was owing to his own voluntary apostasy from God.
Q16. Under what penalty does the law demand this original righteousness?
A. Under the penalty of death and the curse, Rom. 6:23; Gal. 3:10.
Q17. Is there no help for a sinner in this deplorable state?
A. None in heaven or in earth, but in Christ, the last Adam, the Lord our righteousness, Jer. 23:6, on whom our help is completely laid, Psalm 89:19.
Q18. Does original sin consist in a mere privation, or want of righteousness?
A. It consists also in the corruption of the whole nature, Titus 1:15; Rom. 3:10- 19.
Q19. What is meant by the corruption of the whole nature?
A. The universal depravation both of soul and body, in all the faculties of the one, and members of the other, Isaiah 1:5, 6.
Q20. How does this corruption of the whole nature appear?
A. In an utter impotency, and bitter enmity to what is spiritually good, Rom. 8:7, and, in the strongest inclination and bias to what is evil, and to that only and continually, Gen. 6:5.
Q21. How may we be certain that our whole nature is corrupted?
A. From the word of God, and from experience and observation.
Q22. How does the word of God assure us of the universal corruption of our nature?
A. It tells us, that the image after which man was at first made, and the image after which he is now begotten, are quite opposite the one to the other. Adam was at first made "in the likeness of God," but having fallen, he "begat a son in his own likeness, after his own image," Gen. 5:1, 3. The scripture assures us, that none "can bring a clean thing out of an unclean," Job 14:4; that we are shapen in iniquity, and that in sin did our mothers conceive us, Psalm 51:5; that "that which is born of the flesh is flesh," John 3:6; and that we are by "nature children of wrath," Eph. 2:3.
Q23. How may we know the corruption of our nature by the experience and observation of things without us?
A. The flood of miseries which overflow the world; the manifold gross outbreakings of sin in it; and the necessity of human laws, fenced with penalties, are clear outward evidences of the corruption of our nature.
Q24. What inward evidences may every one of us experience within ourselves, of the corruption of our nature?
A. Each of us may sadly experience a natural disposition to hearken to the instruction that causes us to err, Proverbs 19:27; a caring for the concerns of the body more than those of the soul, Matt. 16:26; a discontentment with some one thing or other in our lot in the present world, 2 Kings 6:33; an aversion from being debtors to free grace, and an inclination to rest upon something in ourselves as the ground of our hope, Rom. 10:3; every one of which may be an evidence to ourselves, that our nature is wholly corrupted.
Q25. How is the corruption of nature propagated since the fall?
A. By natural generation, Job 15:14 - "What is man that he should be clean? and he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?"
Q26. How can this corruption be propagated to the soul, seeing it is created immediately by God, and not generated with the body?
A. As the creating and infusing of the soul are precisely at one and the same time, so the very moment the soul is united to the body, we become children of fallen Adam, not only as our natural, but as our federal head, Rom. 5:19.
Q27. What is the consequence of becoming the children of fallen Adam, as our federal head?
A. The consequence is, that, the moment we are so, his first sin is imputed to us, and we thus become legally and spiritually dead, under the curse; not only wanting original righteousness, but having our whole nature corrupted and depraved, 1 Cor. 15:22 - "In Adam all die."
Q28. Since, then, the soul of every one is a part of that person, which is cursed in Adam, does God, in the creating it, infuse any sin or impurity into it?
A. By no means; but only, as a righteous judge, in creating the soul, he denies or withholds that original righteousness which it once had in Adam; and this he does as a just punishment of Adam's first sin.
Q29. What follows upon God's withholding original righteousness from the soul, in its creation?
A. The soul being united to the body, in the moment of its creation, the universal corruption of the whole man follows as naturally upon that union, as darkness follows upon the setting of the sun.
Q30. Can it follow, then, from this doctrine, that God is the author of our sin?
A. So far from it, that, on the contrary, it evidently follows, that our state, both of sin and misery, is the bitter fruit of our own voluntary apostasy in the first Adam, as our covenant head, having sinned in him, and fallen with him in his first transgression.
Q31. Does the holiness of the parents prevent the propagation of original corruption to their children?
A. By no means: the saints are holy but in part, and that by grace, not by nature: wherefore, as after the purest grain is sown, we reap corn with the chaff; so the holiest parents beget unholy children, and cannot communicate their grace to them, as they do their nature, Gen. 5:3.
Q32. Has this poison of corruption run through the whole man?
A. Yes; "The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint; from the sole of the foot to the head, there is no soundness in it," &c. Isaiah 1:5, 6.
Q33. How is the understanding corrupted?
A. With darkness and blindness, so that we cannot know and receive the things of the Spirit of God, 1 Cor. 2:14.
Q34. How is the will corrupted?
A. With enmity and rebellion against God; with opposition to his law and gospel; with aversion from the chief good; and inclination to all evil, Rom. 8:7.
Q35. How are the affections corrupted?
A. By being displaced and disordered, set upon trifling vanities and sinful pleasures, instead of God the supreme good, Psalm 4:2, 6. Isaiah 55:2.
Q36. How is the conscience corrupted?
A. By not discharging its office faithfully according to the law, in accusing or excusing, but many times calling "evil good, and good evil," &c. Isaiah 5:20.
Q37. How is the memory corrupted?
A. It is like the riddle, or sieve, that lets through the pure grain and keeps the refuse; it retains what is vain and unprofitable, and forgets what is spiritual and truly advantageous, Psalm 106:13, 21.
Q38. How is the body corrupted?
A. All the members of it are become instruments, or weapons of "unrighteousness unto sin," Rom. 6:13.
Q39. Is original sin of its own nature damning?
A. Beyond all doubt it is; because it is in a state of sin and spiritual uncleanness we are born, Psalm 51:5. And "there shall in no wise enter into the heavenly Jerusalem, any thing that defileth," Rev. 21:27. The blood of Christ is necessary to cleanse from it, as well as from actual sin; for Christ is "the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world," both original and actual, John 1:29.
Q40. How may we know the being of original sin, antecedently to the commission of any actual transgression?
A. From the severe troubles and distresses to which infants are liable, and from death passing upon them before they are capable of sinning, after the similitude of Adam's transgression; that is, of committing actual sin, Rom. 5:14.
Q41. What do you understand by actual transgression or sin?
A. Every deviation from the law of God in our actions, whether internal or external.
Q42. How may actual sin be distinguished from original?
A. As the act is distinguished from the habit; or a fault of the person, from a fault of the nature.
Q43. Is omission of what is required an actual sin, as well as the commission of what is forbidden?
A. Yes; because all omissions are either accompanied with some act of the will consenting, directly or indirectly, to it; or they flow from some antecedent act, which is either the cause, occasion, or impediment, of the duty omitted; as excess in eating and drinking is frequently the cause or occasion of omitting the public or private duties of God's worship.
Q44. From whence do all actual transgressions flow?
A. They all proceed from original sin, or the corruption of nature, as impure streams from a corrupt fountain, Eph. 2:3; James 3:11.
Q45. What may we learn from the doctrine of original sin?
A. That it is no wonder the grave opens its devouring mouth for us, as soon as we come into the world, seeing we are all, in a spiritual sense, dead born, Eph. 2:1; that as every thing acts agreeably to its own nature, so corrupt man acts corruptly, Matt. 7:17, 18; and, consequently, we may learn the necessity of regeneration, and ingraftment in the second Adam, without which it is impossible we can enter into the kingdom of heaven, John 3:3.
Q1. How many sorts of sins are all men under?
A. All men are guilty before God of two sorts of sin; of original, and of actual; Psalm 51:5. Behold I was shaped in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Ecclesiastes 7:20. For there is not a just man upon earth, that does good, and sins not.
Q2. How can we be guilty of Adam's first sin?
A. We are guilty of it, because Adam sinned not only as a single, but also as a public person, and representative of all mankind: Romans 5:15, 16, 17. But not as the offence, so also is the free gift: for if through the offence of one many be dead; much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, has abounded unto many: And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift; for the judgment was by one to condemnation.
Q3. How else came we under his guilt?
A. We are guilty of his sin by generation; for we were in his loins, as treason stains the blood of the posterity, or parents leprosy the children: Psalm. 51:5. Behold, I was shaped in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Q4. Wherein does it consist?
A. It consists in two things. FIRST, In our aversion and enmity to that which is good; Romans 7:18. In me, that is, in my flesh, there dwells no good thing, SECONDLY, In proneness to that which is evil; Romans 7:14. But I am carnal, sold under sin.
Q5. Is this corruption of nature in all men?
A. Yes; in all mere men, and women, none exempted; Rom 3:10 and 23. As it is written, there is none righteous, no not one for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.
Q6. In what part of our nature does this sin abide?
A. It abides in the whole man, in every part of man, both soul and body; Genesis 6:5. God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually; 1 Thessalonians 5:23. Now the God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit, and soul, and body, be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Q7. How is the body infected by it?
A. In the readiness of the bodily members to further sin, and its temptations in the soul; Romans 3:13, 14, 15. Their throat is an open sepulcher, with their tongues they have used deceit, the poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood.
Q8. What learn we from original sin!
A. To bear patiently the miseries we see on our children, and their death also without murmuring; Romans 5:14. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression.
Q9. What is the second instruction?
A. It teaches us humility, and should be matter of confession and humiliation, when we sin actually; Psalm 51:5. Behold I was shaped in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Q10. What is the third instruction?
A. It should provoke parents to use their utmost diligence for the conversion of their children who draw sin from them.
Q11. What is the last instruction?
A. It teaches us the necessity of regeneration, and should provoke us greatly to desire it. Of Man's Misery
Q1. Are we all born under guilt?
A. Yes: For all the world is guilty before God, Rom. 3:19.
Q2. Does the whole race of mankind stand attainted at God's bar?
A. Yes: For the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, Gal. 3:22.
Q3. Is this according to God's rule of judgment?
A. Yes: For he visiteth the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, Exod. 20:5.
Q4. Is not God unrighteous who thus takes vengeance?
A. No: God forbid, for then how shall God judge the world, Rom. 3:6.
Q5. Are we all born in sin?
A. Yes: Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me, Ps. 51:5.
Q6. Are we of a sinful brood?
A. Yes: For we are a seed of evil-doers, Isa. 1:4.
Q7. May we be truly called sinners by nature?
A. Yes: Thou wast called a transgressor from the womb, Isa. 48:8.
Q8. Is there in every one of us by nature the want of original righteousness?
A. Yes: There is none righteous, no, not one, Rom. 3:10.
Q9. Is there in us an aversion to that which is good?
A. Yes: For the carnal mind is enmity against God, Rom. 8:7.
Q10. Is there in us a moral impotency to that which is good?
A. Yes: For the carnal mind is not in subjection to the law of God, neither indeed can be, Rom. 8:7.
Q11. Can we of ourselves do any thing that is good?
A. No: For we are not sufficient of ourselves to think any thing of ourselves, 2 Cor. 3:5.
Q12. Is there in us a proneness to that which is evil?
A. Yes: My people are bent to backsliding from me, Hos. 11:7.
Q13. Are there the snares of sin in our bodies?
A. Yes: For there is a law in the members warring against the law of the mind, Rom. 7:23.
Q14. And are there the seeds of sin in our souls?
A. Yes: For when I would do good, evil is present with me, Rom. 7:21.
Q15. And is the stain of sin upon both?
A. Yes: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God, Rom. 3:23.
Q16. Did we all bring sin into the world with us?
A. Yes: For man is born like the wild ass's colt, Job 11:12.
Q17. Is it in little children?
A. Yes: For foolishness is in the heart of a child, Prov. 22:15.
Q18. As reason improves, does sin grow up with it?
A. Yes: For when the blade is sprung up, then appear the tares also, Matt. 13:26.
Q19. Is it not a wonder of mercy then that we are any of us alive?
A. Yes: It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, Lam. 3:22.
Q20. Is the whole nature of man corrupted by the fall?
A. Yes: The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint, Isa. 1:5.
Q21. Is the understanding corrupted?
A. Yes: The understanding is darkened, being alienated from the life of God, Eph. 4:18.
Q22. Is that unapt to admit the rays of divine light?
A. Yes: For they are spiritually discerned, 1 Cor. 2:14.
Q23. Is the will corrupted?
A. Yes: The neck is an iron sinew, Isa. 48:4.
Q24. And is that unapt to submit to the rule of the divine law?
A. Yes: For what is the Almighty (say they) that we should serve him? Job 21:15.
Q25. Are the thoughts corrupted?
A. Yes: For the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth, Gen. 8:21.
Q26. Is the fancy full of vanity?
A. Yes: Vain thoughts lodge within us, Jer. 4:15.
Q27. Are the affections corrupted?
A. Yes: It is a carnal mind, Rom. 8:7.
Q28. Is conscience itself corrupted?
A. Yes: Even the mind and conscience is defiled, Tit. 1:15.
Q29. Is the whole soul corrupted?
A. Yes: The heart is deceitful above all things, Jer. 17: 9.
Q30. Is this corruption of the mind sin?
A. Yes: For it is enmity against God, Rom. 8:7.
Q31. Have we it from our original?
A. Yes: For that which is born of the flesh is flesh, John 3:6.
Q32. Do we derive it through our parents?
A. Yes: For who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Job 14:4.
Q33. Does it render us odious to God's holiness?
A. Yes: For the foolish shall not stand in his sight, Ps. 5:5.
Q34. Does it render us obnoxious to his justice?
A. Yes: For death reigns over them that have not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, Rom. 5:14.
Q35. Does this original corruption produce actual transgression?
A. Yes: For a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit, Matt. 7:18.
Q36. Does it produce it betimes?
A. Yes: For the wicked are estranged from the womb, they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies, Ps. 58:3.
Q37. Does it produce it naturally?
A. Yes: As a fountain casteth out her waters, Jer. 6:7.
Q38. Does all sin begin in the heart?
A. Yes: For when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, James 1:15.
Q39. Is it not necessary therefore we should have a new nature?
A. Yes: Marvel not that I said unto you, Ye must be born again, John 3:7.
Q40. Can we get to heaven without it?
A. No: For flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, 1 Cor. 15:50.
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Sin and Human Nature
The fall, sin, and the misery of humanity
Q13. Did our first parents continue in the estate wherein they were created?
A. Our first parents, being left to the freedom of their own will, fell from the estate wherein they were created, by sinning against God.
Q14. What is sin?
A. Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God.
Q15. What was the sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created?
A. The sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created, was their eating the forbidden fruit.
Q16. Did all mankind fall in Adam's first transgression?
A. The covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself, but for his posterity; all mankind, descending from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him, in his first transgression.
Q17. Into what estate did the fall bring mankind?
A. The fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery.
Q18. Wherein consists the sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell?
A. The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consists in the guilt of Adam's first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called original sin; together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it.
Q19. What is the misery of that estate whereinto man fell?
A. All mankind by their fall lost communion with God, are under his wrath and curse, and so made liable to all miseries in this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell for ever.
Q20. Did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery?
A. God having, out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life did enter into a covenant of grace, to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a Redeemer.
### 3. Original Sin
Q-16: DID ALL MANKIND FALL IN ADAM'S FIRST TRANSGRESSION?
A: The covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself, but for his posterity, all mankind descending from him, by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him in his first transgression.
'By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin,' &c. Rom 5:12.
Adam being a representative person, while he stood, we stood; when he fell, we fell, We sinned in Adam; so it is in the text, ‘In whom all have sinned.'
Adam was the head of mankind, and being guilty, we are guilty, as the children of a traitor have their blood stained. Omnes unus ille Adam fuerunt. ‘All of us,' says Augustine, ‘sinned in Adam, because we were part of Adam.'
If when Adam fell, all mankind fell with him; why, when one angel fell, did not all fall?
The case is not the same. The angels had no relation to one another. They are called morning-stars; the stars have no dependence one upon another; but it was otherwise with us, we were in Adam's loins; as a child is a branch of the parent, we were part of Adam; therefore when he sinned, we sinned.
How is Adam's sin made ours?
(1.) By imputation. The Pelagians of old held, that Adam's transgression is hurtful to posterity by imitation only, not by imputation. But the text, ‘In whom all have sinned,' confutes that.
(2.) Adam's sin is ours by propagation. Not only is the guilt of Adam's sin imputed to us, but the depravity and corruption of his nature is transmitted to us, as poison is carried from the fountain to the cistern. This is that which we call original sin. ‘In sin did my mother conceive me.' Psa 51:5. Adam's leprosy cleaves to us, as Naaman's leprosy did to Gehazi. 2 Kings 5:27. This original concupiscence is called,
(1.) The ‘old man.' Eph 4:22. It is said to be the old man, not that it is weak, as old men are, but for its long standing, and for its deformity. In old age the fair blossoms of beauty fall; so original sin is the old man, because it has withered our beauty, and made us deformed in God's eye.
(2.) Original concupiscence is called the law of sin. Rom 7:25 Original sin has vim coactivam, the power of a law which binds the subject to allegiance. Men must needs do what sin will have them, when they have both the love of sin to draw them, and the law of sin to force them.
I. In original sin there is something privative, and something positive.
[1] Something privative. Carentia Justitiae debitae [The lack of that righteousness which should be ours]. We have lost that excellent quintessential frame of soul which once we had. Sin has cut the lock of original purity, where our strength lay.
[2] Something positive. Original sin has contaminated and defiled our virgin nature. It was death among the Romans to poison the springs. Original sin has poisoned the spring of our nature, it has turned beauty into leprosy; it has turned the azure brightness of our souls into midnight darkness.
Original sin has become co-natural to us. A man by nature cannot but sin; though there were no devil to tempt, no bad examples to imitate, yet there is such an innate principle in him that he cannot forbear sinning. 2 Pet 2:14. A peccato cessare nesciunt, who cannot cease to sin, as a horse that is lame cannot go without halting. In original sin there is,
(1.) An aversion from good. Man has a desire to be happy, yet opposes that which should promote his happiness. He has a disgust of holiness, he hates to be reformed. Since we fell from God, we have no mind to return to him.
(2.) A propensity to evil. If, as the Pelagians say, there is so much goodness in us since the fall, why is there not as much natural proneness to good as there is to evil? Our experience tells us, that the natural bias of the soul is to that which is bad. The very heathens by the light of nature saw this. Hierocles the philosopher said, ‘it is grafted in us by nature to sin.' Men roll sin as honey under their tongue. ‘They drink iniquity as water,' Job 15:16. Like a hydropsical person, that thirsts for drink, and is not satisfied; they have a kind of drought on them, they thirst for sin. Though they are tired out in committing sin, yet they sin. Eph 4:19. ‘They weary themselves to commit iniquity'; as a man that follows his game while he is weary, yet delights in it, and cannot leave it off. Jer 9:5. Though God has set so many flaming swords in the way to stop men in their sin, yet they go on in it; which all shows what a strong appetite they have to the forbidden fruit.
II. That we may further see the nature of original sin, consider,
[1] The universality of it. It has, as poison, diffused itself into all the parts and powers of the soul. ‘The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint.' Isa 1:5. Like a sick patient, that has no part sound, his liver is swelled, his feet are gangrened, his lungs are perished; such infected, gangrened souls have we, till Christ, who has made a medicine of his blood, cures us.
(1.) Original sin has depraved the intellectual part. As in the creation ‘darkness was upon the face of the deep,' Gen 1:2, so it is with the understanding; darkness is upon the face of this deep. As there is salt in every drop of the sea, bitterness in every branch of wormwood, so there is sin in every faculty. The mind is darkened, we know little of God. Ever since Adam did eat of the tree of knowledge, and his eyes were opened, we lost our eye-sight. Besides ignorance in the mind, there is error and mistake; we do not judge rightly of things, we put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter. Isa 5:20. Besides this, there is much pride, superciliousness and prejudice, and many fleshly reasonings. ‘How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?' Jer 4:14.
(2.) Original sin has defiled the heart. The heart is deadly wicked. Jer 17:9. It is a lesser hell. In the heart are legions of lusts, obdurateness, infidelity, hypocrisy, sinful estuations; it boils as the sea with passion and revenge. ‘Madness is in their heart while they live.' Eccl 9:3. The heart is, Officina diaboli, ‘the devil's shop or workhouse,' where all mischief is framed.
(3.) The will. Contumacy is the seat of rebellion. The sinner crosses God's will, to fulfil his own. ‘We will burn incense to the queen of heaven.' Jer 44:17. There is a rooted enmity in the will against holiness; it is like an iron sinew, it refuses to bend to God. Where is then the freedom of the will, when it is so full not only of indisposition, but opposition to what is spiritual?
(4.) The affections. These, as the strings of a viol, are out of tune. They are the lesser wheels, which are strongly carried by the will, the masterwheel. Our affections are set on wrong objects. Our love is set on sin, our joy on the creature. Our affections are naturally as a sick man's appetite, who desires things which are noxious and hurtful to him; he calls for wine in a fever. So we have impure lustings instead of holy longings.
[2] The adhesion of original sin. It cleaves to us, as blackness to the skin of the Ethiopian, so that we cannot get rid of it. Paul shook off the viper on his hand, but we cannot shake off this inbred corruption. It may be compared to a wild fig-tree growing on a wall, the roots of which are pulled up, and yet there are some fibres of it in the joints of the stonework, which will not be eradicated, but will sprout forth till the wall be pulled in pieces. Original concupiscence comes not, as a lodger, for a night, but as an indweller. ‘Sin which dwelleth in me.' Rom 7:17.
It is a malus genius, ‘an evil spirit' that haunts us wheresoever we go. ‘The Canaanite would dwell in that land.' Josh 17:12.
[3] Original sin retards and hinders us in the exercise of God's worship. Whence is ‘all that dullness and deadness in religion? It is the fruit of original sin. This it is that rocks us asleep in duty. ‘The good that I would, I do not.' Rom 7:19. Sin is compared to a weight. Heb 12:1. A man that has weights tied to his legs cannot run fast. It is like that fish Pliny speaks of, a sea lamprey, that cleaves to the keel of the ship, and hinders its progress when it is under sail.
[4] Original sin, though latent in the soul, and as a spring which runs under ground, often breaks forth unexpectedly. Christian, thou canst not believe that evil which is in thy heart, and which will break forth suddenly, if God should leave thee. ‘Is thy servant a dog that he should do this great thing?' 2 Kings 8:13. Hazael could not believe he had such a root of bitterness in his heart, that he should rip up the women with child. Is thy servant a dog? Yes, and worse than a dog, when that original corruption within is stirred up. If one had come to Peter and said, Peter, within a few hours thou wilt deny Christ, he would have said, ‘Is thy servant a dog?' But alas! Peter did not know his own heart, nor how far that corruption within would prevail upon him. The sea may be calm, and look clear; but when the wind blows how it rages and foams! so though now thy heart seems good, yet, when temptation blows, how may original sin discover itself, making thee foam with lust and passion. Who would have thought to have found adultery in David, and drunkenness in Noah, and cursing in Job? If God leave a man to himself, how suddenly and scandalously may original sin break forth in the holiest men on the earth!
[5] Original sin mixes and incorporates itself with our duties and graces. (1.) With our duties. As the hand which is paralytic or palsied cannot move without shaking, as wanting some inward strength; so we cannot do any holy action without sinning, as wanting a principle of original righteousness. As whatever the leper touched became unclean; such a leprosy is original sin; it defiles our prayers and tears. We cannot write without blotting. Though I do not say that the holy duties and good works of the regenerate are sins, for that were to reproach the Spirit of Christ, by which they are wrought; yet this I say, that the best works of the godly have sin cleaving to them. Christ's blood alone makes atonement for our holy things.
(2.) With our graces. There is some unbelief mixed with faith, lukewarmness with zeal, pride with humility. As bad lungs cause an asthma or shortness of breath, so original corruption has infected our hearts, so that our graces breathe very faintly.
[6] Original sin is a vigorous active principle within us. It does not lie still, but is ever exciting and stirring us up to evil; it is an inmate very unquiet. ‘What I hate, that do I,' Rom 7:15. How came Paul to do so? Original sin irritated and stirred him up to it. Original sin is like quicksilver, always in motion. When we are asleep, sin is awake in the fancy. Original sin sets the head plotting evil, and the hands working it. It has in it principium motus, not quietis [a principle of restlessness, not of tranquillity]; it is like the pulse, ever beating.
[7] Original sin is the cause of all actual sin. It is fomes peccati [the kindlingwood of sin], it is the womb in which all actual sins are conceived. Hence come murders, adulteries, rapines. Though actual sins may be more scandalous, yet original sin is more heinous; the cause is more than the effect.
[8] It is not perfectly cured in this life. Though grace does subdue sin, yet it does not wholly remove it. Though we are like Christ, having the first fruits of the Spirit, yet we are unlike him, having the remainders of the flesh. There are two nations in the womb. Original sin is like that tree, in Dan 4:23, though the branches of it were hewn down, and the main body of it, yet the stumps and root of the tree were left. Though the Spirit be still weakening and hewing down sin in the godly, yet the stump of original sin is left. It is a sea that will not, in this life, be dried up.
But why does God leave original corruption in us after regeneration? He could free us from it if he pleased.
(1.) He does it to show the power of his grace in the weakest believer. Grace shall prevail against a torrent of corruption. Whence is this? The corruption is ours, but the grace is God's.
(2.) God leaves original corruption to make us long after heaven, where there shall be no sin to defile, no devil to tempt. When Elias was taken up to heaven his mantle dropped off; so, when the angels shall carry us up to heaven, this mantle of sin shall drop off. We shall never more complain of an aching head, or an unbelieving heart.
Use one: If original sin be propagated to us, and will be inherent in us while we live here, it confutes the Libertines and Quakers, who say they are without sin. They hold perfection; they show much pride and ignorance; but we see the seeds of original sin remain in the best. ‘There is not a just man lives and sins not.' Eccl 7:20. And Paul complained of a ‘body of death.' Rom 7:24. Though grace purifies nature, it does not perfect it.
But does not the apostle say of believers, that their ‘old man is crucified;' Rom 6:6, and they are ‘dead to sin?' Rom 6:11.
They are dead. (1.) Spiritually. They are dead as to the reatus, the guilt of it; and as to the regnum, the power of it; the love of sin is crucified.
(2.) They are dead to sin legally. As a man that is sentenced to death is dead in law, so they are legally dead to sin. There is a sentence of death gone out against sin. It shall die, and drop into the grave; but at the present, sin has its life lengthened out. Nothing but the death of the body can quite free us from the body of this death.
Use two: Let us lay to heart original sin, and be deeply humbled for it. It cleaves to us as a disease, it is an active principle in us, stirring us up to evil. Original sin is worse than all actual sin; the fountain is more than the stream. Some think, as long as they are civil, they are well enough; ay, but the nature is poisoned. A river may have fair streams, but vermin at the bottom. Thou carriest a hell about thee, thou canst do nothing but thou defilest it; thy heart, like muddy ground, defiles the purest water that runs through it. Nay, though thou art regenerate, there is much of the old man in the new man. Oh how should original sin humble us!
This is one reason God has left original sin in us, because he would have it as a thorn in our side to humble us. As the bishop of Alexandria, after the people had embraced Christianity, destroyed all their idols but one, that the sight of that idol might make them loathe themselves for their former idolatry; so God leaves original sin to pull down the plumes of pride. Under our silver wings of grace are black feet.
Use three: Let the sense of this make us daily look up to heaven for help. Beg Christ's blood to wash away the guilt of sin, and his Spirit to mortify the power of it; beg further degrees of grace; gratiam Christi eo olonoxiam ambiamus. Though grace cannot make sin not to be, yet it makes it not to reign; though grace cannot expel sin, it can repel it. And for our comfort, where grace makes a combat with sin, death shall make a conquest.
Use four: Let original sin make us walk with continual jealousy and watchfulness over our hearts. The sin of our nature is like a sleeping lion, the least thing that awakens it makes it rage. Though the sin of our nature seems quiet, and lies as fire hid under the embers, yet if it be a little stirred and blown up by a temptation, how quickly may it flame forth into scandalous evils! therefore we need always to walk watchfully. ‘I say to you all, Watch.' Mark 13:37. A wandering heart needs a watchful eye.