Imatges de pàgina
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REFORMATIO LEGUM, &c.

Of Heresies.

Of Original Sin, Free- Will, and Justification. Chap. 7.

With regard to the stain of sin contracted from our birth, which we call Original Sin, in the first place the error of the Pelagians is to be avoided, and then that also of the Anabaptists, whose agreement in this respect is contrary to the truth of Holy Scripture, that original sin affected only Adam, and was not derived to his posterity, nor attaches to our nature any corruption, except on account of the noxious example of sin set by Adam, which incites men to imitate and to practise the same depravity. We are likewise to protest against those who suppose so much strength and power to exist in free-will, as to determine, that by it alone, without the special grace of Christ, men may live rightly.

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PART II.

CHAPTER I.

Of the Covenant of Grace.

SECTION 1.

WHEN Adam and Eve had broken the first Covenant, into which it had pleased their good and wise Creator to admit them, by Sin, which is the transgression of the law; had fallen from their state of innocence and blessedness; and had themselves incurred and entailed upon all mankind, who were to spring from them by natural propagation, the wrath of God, and the punishment due to their disobedience; when placed in this hopeless situation, unable to effect by any means in their power a reconciliation with their offended Maker, or to obtain a mitigation of the doom which they had wilfully and knowingly drawn down upon themselves;-when in the very act of adding to the enormity of their guilt by false excuses and insinuations :-then did the Almighty manifest his tender mercy and providential grace, even before he pronounced sentence on his

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