The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Introduction
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• The Divine Feudal Law Represented
• §1.
• §2.
• §3
• §4
• §5
• §6
• §7
• §8
• §9
• §10
• §11
• §12
• §13
• §14.
• §15
• §16
• §17
• §18
• §19
• §20
• §21
• §22
• §23
• §24.
• §25
• §26
• §27
• §28
• §29
• §30
• §31
• §32
• §33
• §34
• §35
• §36
• §37
• §38
• §39.
• §40
• §41
• §42
• §43
• §44
• §45
• §46
• §47
• §48
• §49
• §50
• §51
• §52
• §53
• §54
• §55
• §56
• §57
• §58
• §59
• §60
• §61
• §62
• §63
• §64
• §65
• §66
• §67
• §68
• §69
• §70
• §71
• §72
• §73
• §74
• §75
• §76
• §77
• §78
• §79
• §80
• §81
• §82
• §83
• §84
• §85
• §86
• §87
• §88
• §89
• §90
• §91
• §92
• §93
• §94

§26

Of the State of Man after the Fall, and of Original Sin.Thus therefore did Man, after the Violation of that Covenant, fall from the Benefits that were annexed to it, and contracted a Soil or Pollution, whereby his Understanding was corrupted, especially with Relation to Divine Matters, and his Will became enclin’d to Evil. Which Pollution cannot properly be said to be the Punishment of that Violation of the Covenant; for that it seems hardly consistent with the Justice of God to appoint another Sin directly for the Punishment of Sin, or such a Condition as puts Mankind under a Necessity of Sinning: But it was as it were a natural Consequent of the Fall, and a Corruption of the Mind, which proceeded from that first Sin: By which Sin the Original Sanctity and Integrity was destroyed, and the Divine Grace which accompanied it was also expell’d. For even now we know that one heinous Sin leaves after it a proneness to more; and he who once has lost his shame in consenting to Lust, will with the more proneness rush into any Filthiness: And as the Historian says, A Woman that has lost her Modesty will hardly refuse any thing. Nor is it to be believ’d that there was in the Sin of our first Parents but a slight and small Disorder when they fell into the Breach of this Covenant. For instead of a Reverence for God, there came upon them a Contempt of him, while the Suggestions and Perswasions of the Serpent prevail’d against a Covenant guarded by the threatning of so severe a Penalty. And in the Room of a filial Love, they entertain’d a Contempt, join’d with Hatred, affecting an equal Condition with God himself. For he who affects to be equal with his Superior, it is not possible but he must despise and hate him. As when after the Knowledge of their Crime began to grow upon them, the first Parents attempted to hide themselves, which was a sign of Folly, and a corrupted Understanding, in that they went about to deceive and conceal themselves from the Omniscient God; and also of Hatred, and the Disdain of Subjection and Obedience, as if they would hereafter live entirely to themselves, and have nothing to do with him. And the excuse which they afterwards made for themselves signified nothing of Submission, but rather much of Fierceness, and a Tacit blaming of God himself. But since the preserving of Adam in his present State, in which God had created him, was a Condition of the Covenant which could not take place, or be fulfill’d, the Covenant being broken, God was not bound, as we may say, or engaged, to restore him to his Original State: Therefore he left Man to the Corruption which he had contracted by his own Fault, by which he is drawn after the Allurements of External Objects, even in Contradiction to the Divine Law. And that Corruption was moreover propagated to his Posterity, because in the New Covenant God has not promised the restoring of the Primitive Perfection, but to find out another Mean for the obtaining of our Salvation. He therefore has suffer’d the Corruption introduced upon the Humane Nature to remain; which it is no more repugnant to Nature that it should be propagated by natural Generation, than it is (as we see) that the Inclination of the Parents to particular Vices, or their Disposition towards particular Distempers of the Body do pass to their Off-spring, Job 14:4. Joh. 3:14. 1 Cor. 5:48. And that Corruption contracted by the Fall of Adam is what is wont to be call’d by the Name of Original Sin. The chief Place of Scripture which concerns this Matter is Rom. 5:12, &c. to which may be join’d 1 Cor. 5:22. where, by the Opposition of Christ and Adam, it is manifest, that as the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ is by Covenant, so the Sin of Adam was the Violation of a Federal Condition, which Adam was bound to have perform’d in the Name of all Mankind; and which being violated by him, all Mankind became Obnoxious to the penal Sanction of that Covenant, tho’ they had not sinned actually after the Similitude of Adam’s Transgression. From thence Death invaded us, and the Things that prepare the Way to it, and the loss of the primitive Sanctity, and their most happy Habitation; but so as that the Obligation to the having of that Sanctity was not extinguish’d with the Fall, for that God gave it to be kept and retain’d under a Federal Condition, or as it were a Feudal one, and as Obnoxious to a Commissory Law, Rom. 1:18, &c. 2:9. The Condition of Man thus far fallen was so much the more miserable, for that his Understanding knew no Way of appeasing God, and his Will, prone to Evil, could not but be averse to him, whose Anger he was afraid of, and from whom he could expect nothing Propitious or Favourable, without some new Pledge of Favour receiv’d from him.