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DISPUTATION XXXI.

ON THE EFFECTS OF THE SIN OF OUR FIRST PARENTS.

I. THE first and immediate effect of the sin which Adam and Eve committed in eating of the forbidden fruit, was the offending of the Deity, and guilt: Offence, which arose from the prohibition imposed: Guilt, from the sanction added to it, through the denunciation of punishment if they neglected the prohibition.

II. From the offending of the Deity arose his wrath on account of the violated commandment. In this violation occur three causes of just anger: (1.) The [derogatio] disparagement of his power or right. (2.) A denial of that towards which God [afficiebatur] had an inclination. (3.) A contempt of the Divine Will intimated by the command.

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III. Punishment was consequent on guilt and the Divine wrath; the equity of this punishment is from guilt, the infliction of it is by wrath. But it is preceded both by [offensa] the wounding of the conscience, and by the fear of an angry God and the dread of punishment: Of these man gave a token by his subsequent flight, and by "hiding himself from the presence of the Lord God, when he heard Him walking in the garden in the cool of the day and calling unto Adam.”

IV. The assistant cause of this flight and hiding [of our first parents] was a consciousness of their own nakedness, and shame on account of that of which they had not been previously ashamed: This seems to have served for racking the conscience, and for exciting or augmenting that fear and dread.

V. The Spirit of grace, whose abode was within man, could not consist with a consciousness of having offended God: And therefore, on the perpetration of sin and the condemnation of their own hearts, the Holy Spirit departed. Wherefore the Good Spirit of God likewise ceased to lead and direct man, and to bear inward testimony to his heart of the favour of God. This circumtance must be considered in the place of a heavy punishment, when the Law, with a depraved conscience, accused, bore its testimony [against them], convicted and condemned them.

VI. Beside this punishment, which was instantly inflicted, they rendered themselves liable to two other punishments; that is, to temporal death, which is the separation of the soul from the body; and to death eternal, which is the separation of the entire man from God his Chief Good.

VII. The indication of both these punishments was the eject

ment of our first parents out of Paradise. It was a token of death temporal; because Paradise was a type and figure of the celestial abode, in which consummate and perfect bliss ever flourishes, with the translucent splendour of the Divine Majesty. It was also a token of death eternal; because in that garden was planted the tree of life, the fruit of which when eaten was suitable for continuing natural life to man without the intervention of death: This tree was both a symbol of the heavenly life of which man was bereft, and of death eternal which was to follow.

VIII. To these may be added the punishment peculiarly inflicted on the man and the woman: On the former,-that he must eat bread through "the sweat of his face," and that "the ground, cursed for his sake, should bring forth to him thorns and thistles." On the latter,-that she should be liable to various pains in conception and child-bearing. The punishment inflicted on the man had regard to [studium] his care to preserve the individuals of the species; and that on the woman, to the perpetuation of the species.

IX. But because the condition of the covenant into which God entered with our first parents was this,-that, if they continued in the favour and grace of God by an observance of this command and of others, the gifts conferred on them should be transmitted to their posterity, by the same divine grace which they had themselves received; but that, if by disobedience they rendered themselves unworthy of those blessings, their posterity likewise [carerent] should not possess them, and should be [obnoxii] liable to the contrary evils. [Hinc accidit ut] This was the reason why all men who were to be propagated from them in a natural way, became obnoxious to death temporal and death eternal, and [vacui] devoid of this gift of the Holy Spirit or original righteousness: This punishment usually receives the appellation of "a privation of the image of God," and "original sin."

X. But we permit this question to be made a subject of discussion: Must some contrary quality, beside [carentiam] the absence of original righteousness, be constituted as another part of original sin?; though we think it much more probable, that this absence of original righteousness only is original sin itself, as being that which alone is sufficient to commit and produce any actual sins whatsoever.*

XI. The discussion, whether original sin be propagated by the soul or by the body, appears to us to be useless; and therefore the other, whether or not the soul be through traduction, seems also scarcely to be necessary to this matter.

* See a note on this subject, in page 187.

DISPUTATION XXXII.

ON THE NECESSITY OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.

I. WITHOUT religion man can have no union with God: And without the command and institution of God, no religion can subsist; which, since it appertains to himself either by the right of creation, or by the additional right [restitutionis] of restoration, He can vary it according to his own pleasure: So that, in whatever manner He may appoint religion, He always obliges man to observe it, and through this obligation imposes on him the necessity of observing it.

II. But the mode of religion is not changed, except with a change of the relation between God and man, who must be united to Him; and when this relation is changed, religion is varied, that is, on the previous supposition that man is yet to be united to God.-—For, as to its substance, (which consists in the knowledge of God, faith, love, &c.,) religion is always the same; except it seem to be referred to the substance, that Christ enters into the Christian religion as its object.

III. The first relation, and that which was the first foundation of the primitive religion, was the relation between God and man; -between God as the Creator, and man as created after the image and [integer] in a state of innocency: Wherefore the religion built upon that relation was that of rigid and strict [justitia] righteousness and legal obedience. But that relation was changed, through the sin of man, who [non jam] after this was no longer innocent and acceptable to God, but a transgressor and [damnabilis] doomed to damnation. Therefore after [the commission of] sin, either man could have had no hope of access to God and to a union with Him, since he had violated and abrogated the divine worship; or a new relation of man to his Creator was to be founded by God, through his gracious restoration of man, and a new religion was to be instituted on that relation : This is that which God has done, to the praise of his own glorious grace.

IV. But as God is not the restorer of a sinner, except in a Mediator, who expiates sins, appeases God, and sanctifies the sinner, I repeat it, except in that "one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;" it was not the will of our most glorious and most gracious God, alone and without this Mediator, either that there should be any foundation between Him and the sinner restored by Him; or that there should be an object to the religion, which, to the honour of the Restorer and to the eternal

felicity of the restored, he would construct upon that relation. For it pleased the Father, through Christ, to reconcile all things to himself, and by Him to restore both those things which are in heaven, and those on earth. It also pleased the Father, "that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father:" So that whosoever does not honour the Son does not honour the Father.

V. Wherefore, after the entrance of sin, there has been no salvation of men by God except through Christ, and no saving worship of God except in the name of Christ, and with regard to Him who is Christus] the Anointed One for sinners, but the Saviour of them who believe on Him: So that whosoever is without God is without Christ, and he that is without Christ is without the faith, the worship and the religion of Christ: And without the faith and hope of this Christ, either promised and shadowed forth in types, or exhibited and clearly announced, neither [antiquitas] were the ancient Patriarchs saved, nor can we be saved.

VI. On this account, as the transgression of the first covenant contains the necessity of constituting another religion, and as this would not have occurred if that first covenant had not been made; it appears that those things upon which the Scriptures treat concerning the first covenant, and its transgression on the part of man, contain the occasion of the restoration which God was to make through Christ; and that they were therefore to be thus treated in the Christian religion: This conclusion is easily drawn from the very form of the narration given by Moses.

VII. God is also the object of the Christian religion, both as Creator, and as Restorer in Christ the Son of his love; and these titles contain the reason why God can demand religion from man, who has been formed by his CREATOR a creature, and by his RESTORER a new creature. In this object also must be considered what [velit esse] is the will of the GLORIFIER of man, who leads him out from the demerit of sin, and from misery, to eternal felicity. These three names, CREATOR, RESTORER, and GLORIFIER, contain the most powerful arguments by which man is persuaded to religion.

VIII. But because it was the good pleasure of God to make this restoration through his Son Jesus Christ, the Mediator; therefore the Son of God, as constituted by the Father CHRIST and LORD, is likewise an object of the Christian religion subordinate to God;-though He on earth, as the Word of his Father, both may be and ought to be considered as existing in the Father from all eternity.

DISPUTATION XXXIII.

ON THE RESTORATION OF MAN.

I. SINCE God is the object of the Christian Religion, not only as the Creator, but also and properly as the Restorer, of the human race; and as we have finished our treatise on the creation; we will now proceed to treat on the restoration of mankind, because it is that which contains in itself another cause why God by deserved right can require religion from a man and a sinner.

II. This restoration is the restitution, and the new or the second creation, of sinful man, obnoxious through sin to death temporal and eternal, and to the dominion of sin.

III. The Antecedent or Inly-moving cause is the gracious mercy of God, by which [voluit] it was his pleasure to pardon sin and to succour the misery of his creature.

IV. The Matter about which [it is exercised] is man, a sinner, and, on account of sin, obnoxious to the wrath of God and the servitude of sin: This matter contains in itself the outwardlymoving cause of his gracious mercy, but accidentally, through this circumstance that God delights in mercy; for [alioquin] in every other respect sin is per se and properly the external and meritorious cause of wrath and damnation.

V. We may indeed conceive the Form, under the general notion of restitution, reparation, or redemption: But we do not venture to give an explanation of it except under two particular acts; the first of which is the remission of sins, or the being received into favour; the other is the renewal or sanctification of sinful man after the image of God, in which is contained his adoption into a son of God.

VI. The first End is the praise of the glorious grace of God, which springs from, and exists at the same time with, the very act of restitution or redemption: The other End is, that, after men have been thus repaired, they "should live soberly, righteously and godly, in this present world," and should attain to a blissful felicity in the world to come.

VII. But it has pleased God not to exercise this mercy in restoring man, without the declaration of his justice, by which He loves righteousness and hates sin: And he has therefore appointed that the mode of transacting this restoration should be through a Mediator intervening between Him and sinful man; and that this restoration should be so performed as to make it certain and evident, that God hates sin and loves righteousness,

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