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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Original Letters from the ' Baxter'Manuscripts inDr . Wittiamtfs Library . 579
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proper sense , but I seeme to my selfe to have good arguments to prove y contrary . K Because not properly voluntary . You say * p . 79 and 218 , y it was repiitatively voluntary $ therefore it is reputatively a sinne , say I , And Adam ' s sinne was reputatively punished , i . e . not in a proper sense .
2 . Because Adam and Eve saw y * the fruit was desireable , before they did eat it , and had some inclination , or they had not both so sudd ainly fallen , now magis et minus non variant speciem .
I admitted of no other curse than a graduated inclination to turne to y creature rather than to the
Creatour in the present circumstances , I ineane not an habitual love of y creature more than of y Creatour , but an intense and dangerous inclination to such a thing ; I doubt not but that if Adam had not sinned , there
would have been thornes and thistles , but not so many as to make y ground cursed , and y woman might have had some paines , for the text sayth , / will multiplie thy sorrows ; so I thinke men are cursed with
multiplied inclinations , besides objects , examples and tempters , so * that facilis descensus Averni : you , calling this sinne in a lesse proper sense
analogically , page 192 , come neare y matter . 3 . Sinne is against law , but y law is not Thou shalt not be inclined to eat 9 but Thou shalt not eat ; nor , Thou shait be inclined to love y Lord thy God , &c ., but Thou shalt love ; nor ,
Thou shalt not be inclined to covet thy neighbour ' s , &c , but Thou shalt not covet . We are to repent of breaking y law , but no man can repent of such inclinations as he was borne with and could never helpe . I doe not thinke y * you will say y man ' s
nature is so weakened by Adam ' s fall as to make any one sinne necessary to him ; else I see not how he could be blamed or called to repentance for
that sinne . 4 . This vitious inclination is judicially inflicted as a punishment of Adam ' s sinne , as many divines hold , nor is it likely y * one act of y understanding and will by deception should of itself not only abolish a habit of original righteousnesss in such perfection as hath troubled some to con-
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ceive how Adam could sinne at all , bujt also physically alter the constitution so much as to propagate a vicious quality b y seminal traouction to all his posteritie . And if judicially inflicted it can be no sinne , else God would be the author of sinne . Your
selfe say , p . 169 , Y * God by way of penalty should create y soul immediately sinful , seems plainly to make him the author of sinne : 'tis true God punisheth sinne with sinne , by delivering men up to temptation proponendo
objecta , &c , but not by mfuseing or creating sinfull qualities . But it is not unreasonable to say , y * God may be the authour of an eviil thing as a curse per modum pcence , yet so as not to necessitate man to sinne if he will
watch and strive against it : and why may not God put his creature upon terms of striveing ^ to please him , and difficult terms , especially upon proposeall of a great reward and no other punishment but such as might be materially inflicted ex vi domini ,
viz ., eternal death m a proper sense ? therefore quere if two might be made defectible , whether two millions might not ? And then suppose more occasions and tempters , would it not be probable y * y much greater part would not only have done amisse , but so much atnisse as to deserve
positive punishment , or at least some of the most extravagant men ? And I am inclineable to thinke it is no other wise now ; I am farre from thinkeinge of every little sinne , as some speake r ( what good master punisheth his servant so ?) or y * every sinne w ** - is materially as great as y * first sinne of Adam is also of like
influence . The apostle , Rom . v . 13 , plainely admits y men before y law did sinne , but denies y like influence ; see also ver . 16 , of y * one sinne . 5 . How came so many of y angels
to fall if they had not some considerable degree of inclination w they took not one from the other ; and so suddainely as Placaeus intimates and most believe ! PJac . Sub . Arg « 21 , 0 X 076 ^ , p . 243 .
6 . In your way y embryo but as bigge as a beane , yea y very seed should have in it a quality properly sinneful , and so must be raised ag ^ aine and come to judgement , as you say infapts must , for there is no other way Qf propagation but that .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1824, page 579, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2529/page/3/
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