But we that measure times by first and last,
The sight of things successiuely, doe take;
When God on all at once His view doth cast,
And of all times doth but one instant make.
All in Himselfe as in a glasse Hee sees,
For from Him, by Him, through Him, all things bee:
His sight is not discoursiue, by degrees,
But seeing the whole, each single part doth see.[114]
He lookes on Adam, as a root, or well,
And on his heires, as branches, and as streames;
He sees all men as one Man, though they dwell
In sundry cities, and in sundry realmes:
And as the roote and branch are but one tree,
And well and streame doe but one riuer make;
So, if the root and well corrupted bee,
The streame and branch the same corruption take:
So, when the root and fountaine of Mankind
Did draw corruption, and God's curse, by sin;
This was a charge that all his heires did bind,
And all his offspring grew corrupt therein.
And as when the hand doth strike, the Man offends,
(For part from whole, Law seuers not in this)
So Adam's sinne to the whole kind extends;
For all their natures are but part of his.
Therefore this sinne of kind, not personall,
But reall and hereditary was;
The guilt whereof, and punishment to all,
By course of Nature, and of Law doth passe.
For as that easie Law was giuen to all,
To ancestor and heire, to first and last;
So was the first transgression generall,
And all did plucke the fruit and all did tast.
Of this we find some foot-steps in our Law,
Which doth her root from God and Nature take;
Ten thousand men she doth together draw,
And of them all, one Corporation make:
Yet these, and their successors, are but one,
And if they gaine or lose their liberties;
They harme, or profit not themselues alone,
But such as in succeeding times shall rise.