Henry Pinnell

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Sin & the Sovereignty of God

Objection - The Cause of the Cause is the cause also of the effect, therefore if Adam had but the seeds and Principles of sin in him, at his Creation, though he were not actually a sinner, yet you make God the author of sin. Assertion - First; what if I say, that God was the cause without which Adam had not fallen, is there any hurt in that? God might have made Adam in such an Immutable condition that he could not have fallen, and then certainly you would have said, God was the cause of his standing. Secondly; a blind child is not in so good a condition as one that hath his eyes; yet the blindness of the child is neither his fault, nor his fathers, though it be the cause of the child’s stumbling and falling. Adam is called the son of God; this Adam was created blind, as to the spiritual understanding of divine things; yet neither did this man {Adam} or {God} his parent sin, in that he was born blind; but that the Workmanship of God in Christ might be manifested in him. {Jn.9:2,3,} It was not the fault, but the Wisdom and pleasure of God to make Adam so, that he might make way for the exaltation of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the magnifying of the riches of his grace and love in Christ. Thirdly; once more take it thus; a virgin not yet deflowered, but retaining still her chastity as in the day she was born, you will not say, but this chaste and pure virgin hath the Seeds and Principles of propagation, and a desire too of natural issue; yet this damsel cannot be reproved of fornication as an harlot, nor hath she sinned if she marry and have children; she is not to be accused of folly, unless she give up herself to a stranger in an illegitimate and meretricious way. Who more chaste and innocent than Adam? Yet did he violate that primitive and created purity, when he turned aside to couple and close with the allurements of the Serpent. He had not offended, if he had betrothed his soul to God in the Sacrament of the tree of life; yea, it had been more honor, happiness and safety for him so to have done. The Devil is called the father of murder and lies; {Jn.8:44;} indeed he is the father of all that is evil; and therefore it is said, that the whole world {all that is of the world in opposition to God} lieth in the Wicked one; {I Jn.5:19;} every wicked and sinful act lieth in the loins of the Devil, as the father thereof; but except Satan had gendered with the heart of Adam, there had been no such bare born brat as sin ever brought into the World, there was first lust in Adam, which by the injections of Satan, conceived and brought forth sin; {James 1:13-15;} when he had completely finished his sin in the actual eating of the forbidden fruit, then he died and not before, {Gen.2:17,} though he was mortal at first. Satan is the father, man’s heart the mother of all evil. Henry Pinnell {Word of Prophesy, 1648}

Death in Adam – Life in Christ

There is therefore a two-fold image of God. 1. Of Life: In this Adam was formed, when he was made a living soul. This life, and the righteousness, perfection and glory thereof, though it be but natural, is so precious unto man, that skin for skin, and all that he hath will he give for it. {Job.2:4} It is the master-piece of Satan’s temptations, and the last plot usually, that he hath on man to set upon him as he did on Christ. {Matt.4:8,9} The Devil will carry a man to the highest pitch of the first Adam, as to the top of an exceeding high mountain {for Adam’s created state was far more exceedingly high than any present, natural and worldly condition of man now} and there show him all the dominion that Adam had over all that earthly creation, and what a glorious state he was in; and then this old serpent tempted and enticed man to look upon this golden ball of vanity, and accept of it, tells him he shall be {as} God. But the spiritual man discerns and foresees the danger, espies the serpent under the herbs, knows there is death in the apple, and therefore despises all the pompous vanity of the first creation. When Satan, by despair, cannot break a man’s neck from the fall of Adam, he will bring him to the brink and brow of his created state, and from thence endeavor to call him down {as the Jews did to Christ} and make him run headlong to his flattering ruin. {Lk.4:29, 5–6} When the Devil cannot drive a man away from God by the corrupt Adam, he will draw him to himself by the pure Adam, and there hold him as a close prisoner, in fetters of Gold, as he did before in shackles of Iron. The Kingdom, Power, Glory of this creation is delivered to the god of this world. The Serpent took away man’s excellency and glory; the Serpent offers it him again upon terms. Surely that cannot be worth the taking up, which the Devil proffers, and if Satan have dominion, and be lord over man’s riches, to give and take at his pleasure, I can hardly be persuaded that it is spiritual. The enemy of man hath laid his earthy honor in the dust, and trod his life to the ground. I wonder that we should so much dote upon the painted beauty of man! Tis a sign our eyes are weak, and that we are dim-sighted, not able to behold the beauties of holiness in God. Besides, what hope is there for us to recover Adams State? For if there was a total privation, {as doubtless there was of Adams life,} there can be no more regress to it. Adam is not said to swoon or faint, but to die in the day he did eat; not the death of the body, for he lived many hundred years after; but the death of that State, to which he was not to return again. And therefore we are bid to mortify the old man, not labor to recover him to his health and strength. Nor will it serve the turn to say, that as we died in Adam, so we are made alive by Christ; as though our reviving by Christ were no more than a restitution to the life or the first Adam; for our life which we have by Christ, is by Resurrection not by regression; not a returning to the same life, but a raising to another life. There is also the image of God as it consists in knowledge. {Col.3:10} And this image I do not find attributed to Adam; but is peculiarly appropriated to Christ, and those that are his. Not Adam, but Christ hath the spirit of Wisdom and Knowledge; and in Christ not in Adam, are hid all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge. {Col.2:3} If Adam had received a true Spiritual and Divine knowledge of God and Christ in the Tree of Life, he had been immortal and could not have died, for the seed of that Knowledge is Eternal, and so is the fruit too. {Jn. 17:3, I Jn.3:9} Every man is brutish in his knowledge, saith the Prophet. {Jer.10:14} Yea, he is become brutish by his knowledge. {Jer.51:17} Not only in his low, base and fallen state; but even in his high and honorable state; man {in honor} is but as a beast, for want of understanding. {Ps.49:20} Henry Pinnell {Word of Prophesy, 1648}

 

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Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle
and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus. Hebrews 3:1