Goodwin - BX9315 G6 v1

An Expojition of the EpiJUe ·;---=----- s ~ halt Prielts that do daily offer Sacrifice, and do come between me and thee. I tell ~thee that thole that are thy Interceffors, thy Teachers, and thy Interpreter: (as it it is tranOated by others) that come between me and thee, they have tranfgreffed againfl: me. The Lord takes both away, they boafl:ed that they had Abrabam to their Father; Ay, but fatth he, there IS an older Father, thy firfl: Father: And tho fome would interpret it of _their Fathers, .Abrahav;, lfoac, and J.tcob, and make tt m the plural; yet there Is an emphafis upon tb1s, 1t ISFather, and it isthy firfl: Father. And lt agrees clearly wtth what the New Teltament faith, in that I Cor. I 5· 45, &c. where you !ball find, that the Apofl:le cloth put the conveying of the Image upon our depending upon that firfl: Father, and that therefore we bear the Image of the earthy. So as that now Generation, and immediate Pa– r~nts, they are indeed the channel,_ an_d infl:ruments of conveying ; but the ori– gmal caufe, as the Scrtpture makes 1t, 1s the firfr Father. ·our Generation then or our Birth had a Curfe laid upon it, and by the Law of Nature, by reafon and by virtue of that firfl: Man: And becaufe all Men did depend upon him by Ge– neration, that is, are propagated from him by generation ; therefore by the Law of Generation, by virtue of fometbing that he did, and toot he was it is that we are corrupted to the end ofthe World. I take it to be one great ;eafon' why corrupt Nature is called in Scripture the old Man ; becaufe it is derived fo; fo many Generations from that old firfr Man, Adan1. We ourfelves ufually, when we fee a thing that is evil or corrupt in Children, fay, this is old Adam. It is not \~h~t is in other ~arents fo m~ch, tho their Corruption is Caufo fine q1ta non, 1t IS the Caufe Without wh1ch 1t would not be conveyed to us; but it is Ad,,m's fmage, the Image of that firlt Man; fo it is called in I Cor. I 5· There– fore Adam is faid to beget in his likenefs, Gen. +· So that in a word, this is the Sum of thefe three things: It is not Generation limply, that phyfically conveys it, but rather the Law that falleth upon Gene– ration ; it is not the immediate Parents, fo much as it is that firfr Man Adam; bccaufe we depend upen him by Nature, and by Generation, hence it is we have and are all corrupted. Now we will go on further, and more particularly frill, to fearch into it, and to fee, .whether it was by Nature, or no. · And I !ball do it by anfwering tbefe Q\1eries: Q])ery 1. What it was in that Man, which we by Ge11cration have from hint, · that polluteth ? An f. If you would have the great and the principal Caufe, I anfwer you fully, according to the Scriptures, it was an Afr. of Sinning of his, and the firll>Afr. o£ Sinning that he committed. Generation ( as I have faid) it is but the meer channel, and immediate Parents are but meer Inltruments; as they beget Men,. they beget Men finful ; but if you ask, what it is that is ~onveyed, and which to the end of the World pollut_eth and defileth by Generation, as the Infrrument and Channel? It is the firfr Sin of that firfr Man. Will you give me leave, by this Suppo6tion, to make my meaning plain, and then I !ball make it good by Proofs ? As I told you before, that limply Generation cloth not do it : [o, if you could have fuppofed Corruption of Nature bad been derived by Birth, phy– lically, as a Leprofy is from Parent to Child, or by virtue of that Law of Gene– ration, that like !ball beget like ; yet let me tell you, that unJefs he that•had this Corruption conveyed to him by Nature, had been guilty of fome Atl: whieh-did" fir([ corrupt that Nature, that Corruption bad not been Sin in him. I !ball ex– prefs it thus : .Ad•m, you know, lofr all R.ighteoufnefs, and had his Nature corrupt, as ours is; if we could fuppofe this R.igbteoufnefs to have been taken from him, without being guilty of an Ail: that was the caufe of it, that Cor– ruption indeed bad been a Puni!bment, it had not been his Sin; that wh1ch· makes it to be linful is becaufe that it was loll:, and be was deprived of it jufl:ly by an Ail: ofSin. fake Adam himfelf, if you could have fuppofed him deprived' of it any other way, without a pre~dent Afr, or the Guilt of an Ailt that cau~ed' * Jt;

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