Again, the possessions and right of citizenship of one convicted of high treason, a crime between man and man, are forfeited, not only as respects himself, but all his posterity; and legal authorities decide similarly in other analogous cases. We all know what are the recognized rights of war, not only with regard to the immediate parties themselves, but all who fall into the power of the enemy, such as women and children, and those who have contributed nothing to the progress of the war either in will or deed. THE PERSONAL SIN OF EACH INDIVIDUAL IS THAT WHICH EACH IN HIS OWN PERSON HAS COMMITTED, INDEPENDENTLY OF THE SIN WHICH IS COMMON TO ALL. Here likewise all men are guilty. Job ix. 20. 'if I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me." x. 15. "if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head." Psalm. cxliii. 2. "in thy sight shall no man living be justified." Prov. xx. 9. "who can say, I am pure from my sin?" Eccles. vii. 20. "there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good, and sinnetʼn not.” Rom. iii. 23. "all have sinned." Both kinds of sin, as well that which is common to all, as that which is personal to each individual, consist of the two following parts, whether we term them gradations, or divisions, or modes of sin, or whether we consider them in the light of cause and effect; namely, evil concupiscence, or the desire of sinning, and the act of sin itself. James i. 14, 15. “every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin." This is not ill expressed by the poet : Mars videt hanc, visamque cupit, potiturque cupita. Ovid. Fast. III, 21. Evil concupiscence is that of which our original parents were first guilty, and which they transmitted to their posterity, as sharers in the primary transgression, in the shape of an innate propensity to sin.7 This is called in Scripture "the old man, and the body of sin," Rom. vi. 6. Eph. iv. 22. Col. iii. 9. or simply "sin," Rom. vii. 8. "sin taking occasion by the commandment.” "Quasi habitum quendam sive fomitem deinceps peccati ingenerarunt. • The particulars commonly reckoned, are that from Adam we derive an original ignorance, a proneness to sin, a natural malice, a 'fomes,' or nest of sin imprinted and placed in our souls,' &c. Taylor's Works, X. 10. v. 17, 20. "indwelling sin." v. 21. "evil present with us." v. 22. "the law in our members." v. 24. "the body of death." viii. 2. "the law of sin and death." The first who employed the phrase ORIGINAL SIN is said to have been Augustine in his writings against Pelagius;" probably because in the origin, that is, in the generation of man, it was handed down from our first parents to their posterity. If however this were his meaning, the term is too limited; for that evil concupiscence, that law of sin, was not only naturally bred in us, but dwelt also in Adam after the fall, in whom it could not properly be called original. This general depravity of the human mind and its propensity to sin is described Gen. vi. 5. "God saw that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." viii. 21. "the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth." Jer. xvii. 9. "the heart is deceitful above all things." Matt. xv. 19. "out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders," &c. Rom. vii. 14. "the law is spiritual, but I am carnal." Rom. viii. 7. "the carnal mind is enmity against God." Gal. v. 7. "the flesh lusteth against the Spirit." Eph. iv. 22. "the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts." This depravity was engendered in us by our first parents. Job xiv. 4. "who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?" xv. 14. "what is man that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?" Psa. li. 5. "behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." lviii. 3. "they go astray as soon as they be born." Isai. xlviii. 8. " thou wast called a transgressor from the womb." John iii. 6. "that which is born of the flesh is flesh." Eph. ii. 3. we were by nature the children of wrath, even as others," those even who are born of regenerate 66 8 This is incorrect. Augustine wrote in the beginning of the fifth century, but the term had been before employed by Cyprian, in the middle of the third. Fuerant et ante Christum viri insignes, prophetæ et sacerdotes; sed in peccatis concepti et nati, nec originali nec personali caruere delicto.' De Jejunio et Tentatione. Milton only once admits the expression into his poem: Wept at completing of the mortal sin Paradise Lost, IX. 1003. See Taylor's Doctrine and Practice of Repentante, Chap. iv. Sect. 1. Works, IX. 1. parents; for faith, though it takes away the personal imputation of guilt, does not altogether remove indwelling sin. It is not therefore man as a regenerate being, but man in his animal capacity, that propagates his kind; as seed, though cleared from the chaff and stubble, produces not only the ear or grain, but also the stalk and husk. Christ alone was exempt from this contagion, being born by supernatural generation, although descended from Adam. Heb. vii. 26. holy, undefiled." 66 Some contend that this original sin is specially guiltiness;" but guiltiness is not so properly sin, as the imputation of sin, which is also called the judgement of God, (Rom. i. 32, "who knowing the judgement of God") whereby sinners are accounted worthy of death, and become ódio, that is, guilty before God," Rom iii. 19. and "are under sin," v. 9. Thus our first parents, in whom, as above observed, there could have been no original sin, were involved in guiltiness immediately upon their fall; and their posterity, before original sin was yet engendered, were involved in the same guiltiness in Adam; besides, guiltiness is taken away in those who are regenerate, while original sin remains. Others define original sin to be the loss of original righteousness, and the corruption of the whole mind. But before this loss can be attributed to us, it must be attributed to our first parents, to whom, as was argued before, original sin could not attach; in them therefore it was what is called actual sin, which these divines themselves distinguish from original sin. At any rate it was the consequence of sin, rather than sin itself; or if it were sin, it was a sin of ignorance; for they expected nothing less than that they should lose any good by eating the fruit, or suffer harm in any way whatever. I shall therefore consider this loss of original righteousness in the following chapter, 9 Concupiscentia est reatus originalis peccati.' tractationum. August. in libro Re 1 'Peccatum originis varie admodum definitur a theologis. na ut quid per ipsum intelligant vix satis capi possit. Scholastici dicunt vulgo, esse carentiam justitiæ originalis debitæ inesse. Sed Protestantes non acquiescunt in hac definitione, nec etiam inter se bene consentiunt.' Curcell. Dissertatio secunda de Peccato Originis, 5. See Calvin's Objections to this Definition, Institut. II. 1, 8. Compare also Thomas Aquinas, 12 Qu. 82, Art. 1. Concl. under the head of punishment, rather than in the present, which relates to sin. The second thing in sin, after evil concupiscence, is the crime itself, or the act of sinning, which is commonly called Actual Sin. This may be incurred, not only by actions commonly so called, but also by words and thoughts, and even by the omission of good actions. It is called Actual Sin, not that sin is properly an action, for in reality it implies defect; but because it commonly consists in some act. For every act is in itself good; it is only its irregularity, or deviation from the line of right, which properly speaking is evil. Wherefore the act itself is not the matter of which sin consists, but only the ToxɛíμEvo or subject in which it is committed. By words. Matt. xii. 36. "every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof." xv. 11. "that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man. By thoughts. Exod. xx. 17. " thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house." Psa. vii. 14. "behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood." Prov. xxiv. 8. "he that deviseth to do evil-." Jer. xvii. 9. " the heart is deceitful above all things," &c. Matt. v. 28. "he hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." xv. 19. "out of the heart proceed evil thoughts.' 1 John iii. 15. "whoso hateth his brother is a murderer." By omission. Matt. xii. 30. "he that is not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth abroad." See also Luke xi. 23. and vi. 9. where to omit saving the life of a man is accounted the same as to destroy it. Matt. xxv. 42. "I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat." James iv. 17. "to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." 2 All sins however are not, as the Stoics maintained, of equal magnitude. Ezek. v. 6. "she hath changed my judgements 2 Sins are not equal, but greater or less in their principle, as well as in their event. It was one of the errors of Jovinian, which he learned from the school of the Stoics, that all sins are alike grievous: Cum dicas esse pares res Furta latrociniis, et magnis parva mineris Falce recisurum simili te, si tibi regnum Permittant homines. Hor. Serm. I. 3. 121.' Taylor's Works, VIII. 337. "thou into wickedness more than the nations." viii. 15. shalt see greater abominations than these." John xix. 11. " he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin." This inequality arises from the various circumstances of person, place, time, and the like. Isai. xxvi. 10. "in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly." The distinction between mortal and venial sin3 will come more properly under consideration in another place. In the mean time it is certain, that even the least sin renders the sinner obnoxious to condemnation. Luke xvi. 10. "he that is unjust in the least, is unjust also in much. CHAP. XII.-OF THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN. THUS far of Sin. After sin came death, as the calamity or punishment consequent upon it. Gen. ii. 17. "in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Rom. v. 12. "death entered by sin." vi. 23. "the wages of sin is death." vii. 5. "the motions of sins did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death." Under the head of death, in Scripture, all evils whatever," together with every thing which in its consequences tends to death, must be understood as comprehended; for mere bodily death, as it is called, did not follow the sin of Adam on the self-same day, as God had threatened." See also Cicero's third paradox, ὅτι ἴσα τά ἁμαρτήματα καὶ τὰ κατορθώ para; and his oration pro L. Murena: omnia peccata esse paria; omne delictum scelus esse nefarium; nec minus delinquere eum, qui gallum gallinaceum, cum opus non fuerit, quam eum qui patrem suffocaverit. * See 1 John iv. 17. ἔστιν ἁμαρτία οὐ πρὸς θάνατον. + the fruit Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste Paradise Lost, I. 1. 5 The divine denunciation is interpreted in the same sense in Paradise Lost: my sole command Transgress'd, inevitably thou shalt die, From that day mortal; and this happy state VIIL 329. |