Concerning the Condition of Man in the Fall.
All Adam’s Posterity, or Mankind, both Jews and Gentiles, as to the first Adam, or Earthly Man, is fallen, degenerated, and dead; deprived of the Sensation or Feeling of this Inward Testimony or Seed of God; [49]and is subject unto the Power, Nature, and Seed of the Serpent, which he soweth in Men’s Hearts, while they abide in this natural and corrupted Estate: From whence it comes, that not only their Words and Deeds, but all their Imaginations, are Evil perpetually in the Sight of God, as proceeding from this depraved and wicked Seed. Man therefore, as he is in this State, can know Nothing aright; yea, his Thoughts and Conceptions concerning God and Things Spiritual, until he be disjoined from this Evil Seed, and united to the Divine Light, are unprofitable both to himself and others. Hence are rejected the Socinian and Pelagian Errors, in exalting a Natural Light; as also of the Papists, and most Protestants, who affirm, That Man, without the true Grace of God, may be a true Minister of the Gospel. Nevertheless, this Seed is not imputed to Infants, until by Transgression they actually join themselves therewith; [50]for they are by Nature the Children of Wrath, who walk according to the Power of the Prince of the Air, the Spirit that now worketh in the Children of Disobedience, having their Conversation in the Lusts of the Flesh, fulfilling the Desires of the Flesh, and of the Mind.
[49] Rom. 5. 12, 15.
[50] Ephes. 2.
§. I.
We come now to examine the State and Condition of Man as he stands in the Fall; what his Capacity and Power is; and how far he is able, as of himself, to advance in Relation to the Things of God. Of this we touched a little in the Beginning of the second Proposition; but the full, right, and thorough Understanding of it is of great Use and Service; because from the Ignorance and Altercations that have been about it, there have arisen great and dangerous Errors, both on the one Hand and on the other. While some do so far exalt the Light of Nature, or the Faculty of the Natural Man, as capable of himself, by Virtue of the inward Will, Faculty, Light and Power, that pertains to his Nature, to follow that which is good, and make real Progress towards Heaven. And of these are the Pelagians, and Semi-Pelagians of Old; and of late the Socinians, and divers others among the Papists. Others again will needs run into another Extreme, Augustine’s Zeal against Pelagius.(to whom Augustine, among the Ancients, first made Way in his declining Age, through the Heat of his Zeal against Pelagius) not only confessing Man uncapable of himself to do Good, and prone to Evil; but that in his very Mother’s Womb, and before he commits any actual Transgression, he is contaminate with a real Guilt, whereby he deserves eternal Death: In which Respect they are not afraid to affirm, That many poor Infants are Eternally Damned, and for ever endure the Torments of Hell. Therefore the God of Truth, having now again revealed his Truth (that good and even Way) by his own Spirit, hath taught us to avoid both these Extremes.
That then which our Proposition leads to treat of is,
I.First, What the Condition of Man is in the Fall; and how far uncapable to meddle in the Things of God.
II.And Secondly, That God doth not impute this Evil to Infants, until they actually join with it: That so, by Establishing the Truth, we may overturn the Errors on both Parts.