Chapter CLXX

“Behold we see Adam set free,
and sav’d from his trespass,
Whose sinful Fall hath split us all,
and brought us to this pass.
Canst thou deny us once to try,
or Grace to us to tender,
When he finds grace before thy face,
who was the chief offender?“

_Their arguments taken off._

CLXXI. [141]

Then answered the Judge most dread:
God doth such doom forbid,
That men should die eternally
for what they never did.
But what you call old Adam’s Fall,
and only his Trespass,
You call amiss to call it his,
both his and yours it was.

CLXXII. [142]

“He was design’d of all Mankind
to be a public Head;
A common Root, whence all should shoot,
and stood in all their stead.
He stood and fell, did ill or well,
not for himself alone.
But for you all, who now his Fall
and trespass would disown.