ARMINIANI.SM. 4L defaao,what God Both; but de jute, what rich finners deserve they tell usplainly (a)'that Gcd wilt not def}inare any infants ro eternal puotifhmonr for original fin, without their owti-ppoper aftual fins, neither canhe do fo by right, or in jßíce : fo thatthe children of lurks, Pagans, and the like infidels, ftrangers from the covenant ofgrace, departing in theirinfancy are far happier than any chriflian men, who mull undergo a hardwarfare againft fin, and Satan, in danger to fall finally away at the laft hour ;. and through many difficulties, entering the kingdom of heaven, when they without further trouble are prefently aHUmed thither for their innocency. Yea although they are neither ele&ed of God; for as they affirm, he choofeth none but for their faith, which they have not : nor re- deemed by Christ, for he diedonly for finners, he faveth his peoplefrom their fins, which they are not guilty of; nor fan&ified by the holy ghoft, all whore operations they re- {train to amoral f vafio:, whereofinfants are not a capable fubje&. Which is not much to the honour of the b'leífed trinity : that heaven flhould be replenished with them whops the father never eie£led, the ibnnever redeemed, nor the holy ghoft fan&ified. And thus you fee, whatthey makeof this original gravity of our nature, at molt an infirmity, or languor thereof; neither a fin, not the punishment of fin properly focal- led, nor yet a thing that defaces punishment as a fin. Which fail affertion, whether it beagreeable toholy fcriptnreor no, thofe two followingobservatious will declare. (r.) There is no confufion, no diforder, no vanity in the whole world, infany of God's creatures, that is not a punishment of our fin h, Adam. That great and almoft univerld ruine of nature, proceeding from the curfe of Gcd overgrowing the earth; and the wrath of God revealing it felf from heaven, is the proper iffue of his cranf- greffion. It was of' the great mercy ofGod; that the whole frame of naturewas not prefently rolled up in dariçnefs, and reduced to its primitive confufion. Had we our felves been deprivedof thofe remaining fparksof God's image in our fouls, whichvin- dicates us from the number ofthe beasts that perish, had we been all born fools, and void ofreafon, by dealing R> with fore in particular, he fheweth us it had been but justice to have scrapped us inthe fame mifery, all in general. All thingswhenGod firft created them, were exceeding good, and thought fo by the wifdom ofGod himfelfa but our fineven compelled thatgood and wifecreator, to hate, and curie the work of hisown hands, turfed it theground, faithhe to Adam, fo thy fake,. in fervour shalt thou eatof it all the days of shylife ; thorns alfa and thiflles (hall it bring forth unto thee, Gen. iii. 17, IS. Hence was that heavy burden ofvanity, that bondage ofcorruption, under whichto this day the whale creation gróaneth, and eravelleth in pain until it bedelivered, Rom. viii. zr, 22. Now if our fin had fisch a ftrange malignant influence upon thole things;. which have no relation unto us, butonlyas they were created for our ufe ; furely it is ofthe great mercy ofGod that we our felves are not quite confounded : which doth not yet fo interpofe it felf, but that we areall compaffed withdivers fad effe&s of this iniquity, lying a&ually tinder divers preffang miseries, and defervedly obnoxious to everlafting deftru&ion. So that, (z.) Death temporal, with all its antecedents, and attendants, all infirmities, fick- neffes, wafting deflroyiog paffions, cafualties that are penal, all evil conducing there- unto, or waiting on it, is a punifhment of original fin : and this not only, becaufe the first actual fin of Adam is imputedto us, but molt ofthem are the proper issuesof that native corruption, and pollution offm, which is Stirring and operative within us, for the produ&ion offuch fad effe&s, our whole nature being by it throughly defiled. Henceare all the disfortures, and diflemperatures of the foul, by lulls, concupilkences, paffions, blindnefs of mind, perverfenels of will, inordinafenefs ofaffe&ions,. where- with we are preffed, and turmoiled : even proper iffues of that inherent fin, which poffeffeth our whole fouls. Upon the body al fo it hath fachan influence, in difpofing it to corruption and mortality, as it is the original of all thofe infirmities, fickneffes rand difeafes, which make us nothing but a flop of fach, miferies for death itfelf; as thefe and the like degrees, are the steps which lead us on apace in the road that tends unto it ; lit they are thedire& internal efficient caufes thereof, in fubordination to the justice ofalmighty God, by filch means mailing it as a punifltment ofour finsin Adam. Manbefore his fall, thoughnot in regard ofthe matter whereof he was made, nor yet meerely in refpe& ofhis quickning form, yet ill regard of God's ordination, was im- (a) Pro certo Raruunt beam hullos infantes, fine alnalibus ac propeiis precari,, moriestes, erre. 's cruciaribns deiinare eelle, ant jure deftinare paffe ob peccatum quad vocatur originis, Rem. Apol. I. 87. N mortal,
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