under dissolution, dissolution itself being not penal), and not any abiding punishment, as will afterward be farther manifest. They go on,

'Q. But how doth this agree with those places of Scripture, wherein it is written that man was created in the image of God, and created unto immortality, and that death entered into the world by sin?' Gen. i. 26. Wisd. ii. 23. Rom. v. 12.

'A. As to the testimony which declareth that man was created in the image of God, it is to be known, that the image of God doth not signify immortality; (which is evident from hence, because at that time, when man was subject to eternal death, the. Scripture acknowledgeth in him that image; Gen. ix. 6. James iii. 9.) but it denoteth the power and dominion over all things made of God on the earth; as the same place where this image is treated of clearly sheweth ;' Gen. i. 26.

The argument for that state and condition wherein we affirm man to have been created, from the consideration of the image of God wherein he was made, and whereunto in part we are renewed, was formerly insisted on. Let the reader look back unto it, and he will quickly discern, how little is here offered to enervate it in the least. For,

1. They cannot prove that man in the condition and state of sin, doth retain any thing of the image of God; the places mentioned, as Gen. ix. 6. and James iii. 9. testify only, that he was made in the image of God at first, but that he doth still retain the image they intimate not; nor is the inference used in the places, taken from what man is, but what he was created.

2. That the image of God did not consist in any one excellency hath been above declared; so that the argument to prove that it did not consist in immortality, because it did consist in the dominion over the creatures, is no bet

Qui vero id conveniet jis Scripturæ locis, in quibus Scriptum extat, hominem ad imaginem Dei creatum esse, et creatum ad immortalitatem, et quod mors per peccatum in mundum introieret?-Gen. i. 26, 27. Sap. ii. 23. Rom. v. 12.

Quod ad testimonium attinet, quod hominem creatum ad imaginem Dei pronunciat, sciendum est, imaginem Dei non significare immortalitem; (quod hinc patet, quod Scriptura eo tempore, quo homo æternæ morti subjectus erat, agnoscat in homine istam imaginem. Gen. ix. 6. Jacob. iii. 9.) sed potestatem hominis,et do minium in omnes res a Deo conditas, supra terram, designare: ut idem locus, in quo de hac eadem imagine agitur, Gen. i. 26. aperte indicat.

ter than that would be, which should conclude that the sun did not give light because it gives heat. So that,

3. Though the image of God, as to the main of it, in reference to the end of everlasting communion with God (whereunto we were created) was utterly lost by sin, or else we could not be renewed unto it again by Jesus Christ, yet as to some footsteps of it, in reference to our fellow-creatures, so much might be, and was retained, as to be a reason one towards another, for our preservation from wrong and violence.

4. That place of Gen. i. 26. 'Let us make man in our image, and let him have dominion over the fish of the sea,' &c. is so far from proving that the image of God wherein man was created, did consist only in the dominion mentioned, that it doth not prove that dominion to have been any part of, or to belong unto, that image. It is rather a grant made to them who were made in the image of God, than a description of that image wherein they were made.

It is evident then, notwithstanding any thing here excepted to the contrary, that the immortality pleaded for belonged to the image of God, and from man's being created therein, is rightly inferred, as above was made more evident.

Upon the testimony of the book of Wisdom, it being confessedly apocryphal, I shall not insist. Neither do I think, that in the original any new argument to that before mentioned of the image of God, is added; but that is evidently pressed, and the nature of the image of God somewhat explained. The words are; "Ori ó òs ektide tòv ἄνθρωπον ἐπὶ ἀφθαρσία, καὶ εἰκόνα τῆς ἰδιάς ἰδιότητος ἔποιησεν αὐτὸν. Φθόνῳ δὲ διαβόλου θάνατος εἰσῆλθεν εἰς τὸν κόσμον πειράζουσι δὲ αὐτὸν οἱ τῆς ἐκείνου μερίδος ὄντες. The opposition that is put between the creation of man in integrity and the image of God in one verse, and the entrance of sin, by the envy of the devil in the next, plainly evinces, that the mind of the author of that book was, that man, by reason of his being created in the image of God, was immortal in his primitive condition. That which follows is of another nature, concerning which they thus inquire and

answer:

'Q. What," moreover, wilt thou answer to the third testimony?'

A. The apostle in that place treateth not of immortality, [mortality] but of death itself. But mortality differeth much from death; for a man may be mortal and yet never die.' But,

1. The apostle eminently treats of man's becoming obnoxious to death, which until he was, he was immortal. For he says that death entered the world by sin, and passed on all men, not actually, but in the guilt of it, and obnoxiousness to it. By what means death entered into the world, or had a right so to do, by that means man lost the immortality which before he had.

2. It is true, a man may be mortal as to state and condition, and yet by Almighty power be preserved and delivered from actual dying, as it was with Enoch and Elijah; but in an ordinary course he that is mortal must die, and is directly obnoxious to death; but that which we plead for from those words of the apostle is, that man by God's constitution and appointment was so immortal, as not to be liable nor obnoxious to death until he sinned. But they will prove their assertion in their progress.

'Q. What therefore is the sense of these words, that death entered into the world by sin?'

This; that Adam for sin by the decree and sentence of God, was subject to eternal death; and therefore, all men, because, or inasmuch as they are born of him, are subject to the same eternal death. And that this is so, the comparison of Christ with Adam which the apostle instituteth from ver. 12. to the end of the chapter, doth declare.'

Be it so, that this is the meaning of those words; yet hence it inevitably follows, that man was no way liable or obnoxious to death, but upon the account of the commination of God annexed to the law he gave him. And this is the whole of what we affirm; namely, that by God's ap

* Quid porro ad tertium respondebis?—Apostolus eo in loco non agit de immortalitate, [mortalitate] verum de morte ipsa; mortalitas vero a morte multum dissidet; siquidem potest esse quis mortalis, nec tamen unquam mori.

Quæ igitur est horum verborum sententia; quod mors per peccatum introierit in mundum?-Hæc, quod Adamus ob peccatum, decreto et sententia Dei æternæ morti subjectus est; proinde, omnes homines, eo quod ex eo nati sunt, eidem æternæ morti subjaceant: rem ita esse, collatio Christi cum Adamo, quam Apostolus eodem capite, a ver. 12. ad finem, instituit, indicio est.

pointment man was immortal, and the tenure of his immortality was his obedience; and thereupon, his right thereunto he lost by his transgression.

2. This is farther evident from the comparison between Christ and Adam, instituted by the apostle. For as we are all dead without Christ and his righteousness, and have not the least right to life, or a blessed immortality; so antecedently to the consideration of Adam and his disobedience, we were not in the least obnoxious unto death, or any way liable to it, in our primitive conditions.

And this is all that our catechists have to plead for themselves, or to except against our arguments and testimonies to the cause in hand. Which how weak it is in itself, and how short it comes of reaching to the strength we insist on, as little comparison of it, with what went before, will satisfy the pious reader.

What remains of that chapter, consisting in the depravation of two or three texts of Scripture, to another purpose than that in hand, I shall not divert to the consideration of; seeing it will more orderly fall under debate in another place.

What our catechists add elsewhere about original sin or their attempt to disprove it, being considered, shall give a close to this discourse.

Their tenth chapter is, de libero arbitrio,' where after, in answer to the first question proposed, they have asserted, that it is in our power to yield obedience unto God, as having free will in our creation so to do, and having by no way or means lost that liberty or power; their second question is,

Is not this free will corrupted by original sin?

A. There is no such thing as original sin; wherefore that cannot vitiate free will; nor can that original sin be proved out of the Scripture and the fall of Adam being but one act, could not have that force as to corrupt his own

P Nonne peccato originis hoc liberum arbitrium vitiatum est?-Peccatum originis nullum prorsus est: quare nec liberum arbitrium vitiare potuit; nec enim e Scriptura id peccatum originis doceri potest, et lapsus Adæ cum unus actus fuerit vim eam, quæ depravare ipsam naturam Adami, multo minus vero posterorum ipsius posset, habere non potuit. Ipsi vero in pœnam irrogatum fuisse, nec Scriptura docet, uti superius exposuimus; et Deum illum, qui omnis æquitatis fons est, incredibile prorsus est, id facere voluisse. Cap. 10. de lib. Arbit. q. 2.

nature, much less that of his posterity. And that it was inflicted on him as a punishment, neither doth the Scripture teach, and it is incredible that God, who is the fountain of all goodness, would so do.'

1. This is yet plain dealing. And it is well that men who know neither God nor themselves, have yet so much honesty left, as to speak downright what they intend. Quickly despatched; there is no such thing as original sin. To us the denying of it, is one argument to prove it. Were not men blind, and dead in sin, they could not but be sensible of it. But men swimming with the waters feel not the strength of the stream.

2. But doth the Scripture teach no such thing? Doth it nowhere teach, that we who were created upright, in the image of God,' are now 'dead in trespasses and sins, by nature children of wrath, having the wrath of God upon us, being blind in our understandings, and alienated from the life of God, not able to receive the things that are of God, which are spiritually discerned, our carnal minds being enmity to God, not subject to his law, nor can be?' That our hearts are stony, our affections sensual, that we are wholly 'come short of the glory of God? That every figment of our heart is evil, so that we can neither think, nor speak, nor do, that -which is spiritually good, or acceptable to God; that being born of the flesh, we are flesh; and unless we are born again, can by no means enter into the kingdom of heaven? That all this is come upon us by the sin of one man, whence also judgment passed on all men to condemnation? Can nothing of all this be proved from the Scripture? These gentlemen know that we contend not about words or expressions; let them grant this hereditary corruption of our natures, alienation from God, impotency to good, deadness and obstinacy in sin, want of the spirit, image, and grace of God, with obnoxiousness thereon to eternal condemnation, and give us a fitter expression to declare this state and condition by, in respect of every one's personal interest therein, and we will, so it may please them, call it ‘original sin' no more.

3. It is not impossible, that one act should be so high and intense in its kind, as to induce a habit into the subject, and so Adam's nature be vitiated by it; and he begot