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Righteoufnefs, that Habitude or Pronenefs of the Will is alfo called Original Sin(which that, and how, it proceeds by means of natural Generation was fhown in Par. 1. 2.) And it is fo in all manner of Vice, that the irregular Act or Habit is not Vice formally taken; but the Privation of the oppofite Virtue, which enfues upon that irregular Act or Habit, and yet nevertheless the irre gular Act and Habit are both called ViceMetonimically, because it is a neceffary Refult of each. For inftance, an intemperate Actor Habit is faid to be a Vice,and yet the formal Reafon of their Vitiounefs confifts in this, that the one (at leaft) weakens, the other destroys the Virtue of Tempe, rance, (or in cafe a Man be intemperate before, they render it more difficult for him to become Temperate, by ftrengthening or encreafing his Intemperance) for it is impoffible that any thing fhould be morally evil, but as it deprives of fome moral Good, or weakens it, or puts a Man farther from its for if by Intemperance à Man were notTM a whit the lefs Virtuous, he would not be one jot the more Vitious, than if he were not Intemperate at all. And the like may be as truly faid of any other irregular Act or Habit of the Will. If it be urged, that

in cafe Original Sin defcend in the manner before defcribed; by propagation, it would rather be derived to us from our immediate Parents, than from our Firft, fince another Temper of Body is communicated by them to us, then what was derived from Adam to his own Children, (as is evident from the manifold different natural Difpofitions we meet with in young Children) and yet Original Sin is folely fixed to the eating of the forbidden Fruit; my Answer is, that though it be very true that Infants receive another Difpofition from their more immediate Progenitor, than what has been perpetually derived from Adam, and confequently that fome of them alfo have a greater propenfity to Vice through the perfonal Faults of their nearer Ancestors and Parents; yet in that the whole Stock of Mankind, ever fince Adam, has had a proneness from their Conception, to the Creature, in room of the Creator, by reafon of the first Tranfgreffion Original Sin is rightly imputed to the eating of the forbidden Fruit, it being certain that from that Fault alone (though there had never been any other) therewould have enfued a Want of Origi nal Righteoufhefs in all Mankind.

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Object. 2. If Original Sin proceed from a Pronenefs in the fenfitive Appetite towards the Creature, and that from the unequal Temper or male Difpofition of the body; unlefs the Body be restored to its primitive Conftitution, (which is not to be expected) no Man shall ever be quit or clear from Original Sin in this Life.

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Solat. Although Concupifcence be never totally rooted out of the fenfitive Faculty in this Life, yet it doth not always (as it does Infants who have not the ufe of Reafon) neceffarily fo influence the Will, as it does the fenfitive Appetites (and the Will is the only proper Seat of Sin) but may through a virtuous Courfe of Life, be fo far mastered and fubjugated to the Power and Command of the Will, that it fhall be able to give but fmall and ineffectual di fturbance to the Rational Faculties; which actually falls out, fo often as the Soul ac quires the Habit of Virtue, whereby it ob tains a fincere Affection to God as its Sovereign Good; for fuch Affection or Charity (as fhall be shown afterward, Sect. 11.) not only frees the Soul from Original, but all other mortal Sin likewife, whilft it is thereby formally justified and put into a State of Grace and Salvation.

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4. The mentioned Difficulties about Original Sin removed, I go forward to fhew, that as Original Sin proceeds from our first Parents eating of the Tree of the Knowledg of Good and Evil; fo doth Actual Sin from Original, as the Source and Spring from whence it flows. For Original Sin being a Want of Original Righteousness by reafon of an Habitude or Proneness to the Love of the Creature, in the Soul; that Habitude or Proneness, when the Intellect is once capable of actually apprehending an Object of fenfual Delight, will be apt to proceed to an actual Defire, which is actual Sin; unless fome rational Motive be offered by the Understanding, which fhall prevail with the Will to prefer the Spiritual Joy of the Mind before the fenfual Pleasure of the Body; which, for caufe that shall be fhewn Sect. 9. cannot generally (if at all) be, but by virtue of fupernatural Helps from God.

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5. And not only Sin both Actual and Original, but all forts of Miferies likewife which befall Mankind, proceed from eating of the forbidden Fruit. For as for Infirmities, Difeafes, Sicknefs, and. Death, they, at first fight almoft, fhew whofe ugly Brats they be. For what is Death but a

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feparation of Soul and Body, and whence comes this, but from fome either excess or defect of Humors in the Body? and neither of thefe had been found in the World, if the fame Conftitution of Body had still continued in all Mankind, which was in our first Parents, till they were induced to eat of the forbidden Fruit. For fince in thefe words, Duft thou art, and to Dust shalt thon return, Gen. 3. 19. is contained part of Adams Doom, it appears, that if he had not finned, he had not died; that is, if he had not eaten of the Tree of the Knowledg of Good and Evil, he had not been deprived of that Conftitution of Body, which would always have preferved him alive. And for Difeafes and Sickness, what elfe are they, but Male-difpofitions of the Body, arifing from an undue Mixture of Humors, or from fome Obstruction (both which the State of Innocency was clear and free from) tending to Death? So that a Disease or Sicknefs as fuch, may be rightly. faid to be Death or a Diffolution begun; which verifies in a literal fenfe (over and above the mystical) the words fpoken by God to Adam, On the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt furely die; for the juft Temper of his Body was then corrupted when the

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