Cor. 11. This is not to eat the Lords Supper yea unworthy receivers eat and drink their own salvation Thus the Scripture when it attends to mens either resting upon them as if they could save or the sinful abuse of them by not attending to the grace signified doth speak in an undervaluing way of them But then at other times when it doth respect the institution of Christ and the effects thereof then glorious and great things are spoken of them yet though the Scripture commends and commandeth them as the institution of Christ for supernatural effects notwithstanding that old Rule is to be received that not the privation but the contempt of Sacraments doth damn so that the after ages of the Church which came to idolize Baptisme and to put so much vertue even in the very external act done can no wayes be justified yea so greatly did superstition grow in this kind that they thought Baptisme did also work some wonderfull temporal effects for whereas there is a traditon though it be justly reckoned among the vulgar errours that the Jewes have by way of punishment an offensive smell or stink inflicted upon their body they instance in Jewes baptized that therby were cleansed from this filthiness The Poet Fortunatus said Sanct. Comment in Jer. 31. 29. Abluitur Judeus odor Baptismate divo Thus absurd did many grow in their thoughts about the efficacy of Baptisme but the truth is That although Baptism be an Ordinance appointed by God for the sealing of the remission of original sinne yet it hath not this effect in all neither is the benefit of Baptisme to be limited to that time only but it extendeth it self to our whole life so that we are daily to make an improvement of it both for duty and comfort And thus much may suffice for the deciding of this Question with sobriety and modesty Now if any shall say upon the hearing of this damnable estate that we are plunged into by sinne as the Disciples in another case It is good not to marry yea that it is good to have no children it is good to be no Parents because our Infants do thus come into the world upon worse terms then the young ones of bruit beasts because they are the children of Gods wrath whereas the creatures are not the creatures of Gods wrath To such as shall thus conclude I shall propound these ensuing particulars First That it is just and righteous with God to continue the propagation of mankind though man hath thus corrupted his nature Because Adam fell and so all his postcrity would be propagated in a damnable estate shall he therefore destroy the whele species of men and raze out every individuum Seeing then its Gods will that men should increase and multiply that there should be parents and children for which end he hath instituted marriage we are to regard the will of God in this way more than the adherent corruption and the rather because this damnable guilt doth adhere to our natures not from Gods primitive Institution but by Adam's voluntary transgression It being then a duty to some to marry it being by God appointed a remedy against sinne for thee to abstain from that way and to desire no children under pretence of original sinne is a meer delusion Secondly You are to know That though children be born in this defiled and cursed estate yet they are in themselves mercies and comforts which mace our Saviour say That a woman because of the joy that a man child is born she forgetteth all her sorrow and pangs that she was in John 16. 21. So that at the same time they may be by nature children of wrath and yet in another respect comforts and mercies in themselves for which end God promiseth children as a mercy and threatneth it as a punishment to be barren and childless Thirdly Thou that art a believing parent and hast thy child dying in its infancy thou hast cause to assure thy self of the mercy of God to thy child because he taketh parents and children into the same promise Oh but I know not that God hath elected him So neither canst thou thy own à priori I you must begin at the lower round of the ladder in Gods Election The effects and fruits thereof And now what greater pledge and argument canst thou have of his salvation then being born under the Covenant of grace You cannot expect actual expressions of regeneration and grace from a dying Infant therefore thou must runne to the Covenant of grace whereby God doth receive such as his members yea thou hast cause to admire the goodness of God to thy child and his mercy when so many thousands and thousands of Pagans children dying have no visible way of salvation we cannot by the Scripture as you heard see any Ark provided for them as God in mercy hath done for thee Fourthly The consideration of Gods just and severe proceedings against Pagans and their children may make thee the more admire the grace of God in saving of thee For how many Heathens perish in hell who it may be never committed such gross and soul sins in their life time as thou hast done To be sure their Infants never committed such actual inquities as thou hast done yet they appear according to Gods ordinary way of proceedings to be left in that lost estate of nature And therefore that is a good quickning meditation which Vedâ—lius 〈◊〉 Hilar. cap 3. pag. 119. To make a godly man thankfull for Gods grace seeing by nature we deserve otherwise Ah quot sunt erunt in inferno miselli infantuli c. Ah how many little Infants are and shall be in hell who never had the knowledge of good and evil and might not God have left thee in the same misery This I say is a pious meditation Though that scoffing Remonstrant prefix this expression amongst others in the front of his Book as if it were no lesse then blasphemy Vedel Rhapsod Fifthly Thou who art a parent exercised with this temptation about thy children it grieveth thee to think thou bringest them forth to be Gods enemies and the Devils children Let not this discourage thee but provoke thee the more earnestly to be much in prayer for them and to be more carefull in their education Let them be the children of thy prayers and tears the children of thy care and godly discipline and thou mayest comfort thy self that such shall not perish however thou hast done thy duty and so art to leave all to the wise and righteous God who is not accountable to man for any of his proceedings That the encouragement and hopes of parents are great in the faithfull discharge of their duties notwithstanding the guilt of original sinne may further appear as to the woman in that famous and noble Text 1 Tim. 2. 14 15. But the woman being deceived was in the transgression Notwithstanding she shall be saved in child-bearing if they continue in the faith c.
of it or like one Intellectus agens as some Philosophers dreamed but it is in every man that cometh in the world every one that is born hath his birth-corruption Therefore David doth not speak of that iniquity as it is in all mankind but as it was his case and as he was born in it So that it is not enough for you to say It is true it cannot be denied but that all are sinfull by nature but you must come home to your own heart you must take notice of the dung-hill and hell that is in your own hearts Thus the Apostle Paul as you heard Ephes 2. 3. to humble them and to lay them low that they might see all the unworthiness and guilt that was upon them before the grace of God was effectual in them he informeth them not onely of those grosse actual impieties they had walked in but that they were by nature the children of wrath But you may see this duty of bitter and deep humiliation because of original sinne notably expressed in Paul Rom. 7. most of that Chapter is spent in sad groans and complaints because of its still working and acting in him It was the sense of this made him cry out Oh miserable man that I am Dost thou therefore flatter thy self as if there were no such law of sinne prevailing upon thee when thou shalt see Paul thus sadly afflicted because of it Therefore it is that I added in the Doctrine We are to bewail and acknowledge it all our lives For Paul speaks here whatsoever Papists and Arminians say to the contrary in the person of a regenerate man Who did delight in the Law of God in the inward man and yet these thorns were in his side Original sinne in the lusts thereof was too active whereby he could not do the good he would and when he did he did it not so purely and perfectly as he ought So that you see the work you are to do as long as you live Though regenerated though sanctified you are to bewail this sinne yea none but the truly godly do lay it seriously to heart Natural men they either do not believe such a thing or they have not the sense of it which would wound them at the very heart Therefore we read only of regenerate men as David Job and Paul who because of this birth-pollution do humble themselves so low under Gods hand But let us search into this truth SECT V. Which needed not to have been if Adam had stood FIrst Take notice That had Adam stood in the integrity God made him in had he preserved the Image of God for himself and for his posterity then there had been no occasion no just cause for such self-abhorrency as doth now necessarily lie upon us Adam did not hide himself and runne from God neither was he ashamed of himself till sinne had made this dreadfull breach In that happy time of mans innocency there was no place for tears or repentance There was no complaining or grieving because of a Law of sinne hurrying them whither they would not then Adam's heart was in his own power he could joy and delight in God as he pleased but since that first transgression there hath become that grievous ataxy and sad disorder and confusion under which we are to mourn and groan as long as we live for as we necessarily have corruptible bodies which will be pained and diseased as long as we are on the earth so we have also defiled and depraved soules which will alwaies be matter of grief and sorrow to every gracious heart so that they must necessarily cry out Oh Lord I would fain be better I desire to be better but this corrupted heart and nature of mine will not let me The Socinians who affirm That Adam even in the first Creation had such a repugnancy planted in him and a contrariety between the mind and the sensible part that this prevailing made him thereby to commit that transgression do reproach God the maker of man and make him the Author of sinne So then this necessity of confession and acknowledgment of our native pollution was not from the beginning but upon Adam's transgression SECT VI. We must be humbled for a two-fold Original sinne and seek from Christ a two-fold Righteousness SEcondly When we say That original sinne is to be matter of our humiliation and sorrow we must understand that two-fold Original sinne heretofore mentioned viz. Adam 's actual sin imputed to us and that inherent or in-dwelling sin we are born in For seeing the guilt of both doth redound upon our persons accordingly ought our humiliation and debasement to be Yea Piscator thinketh David confesseth both these in this verse In the first place In iniquity was I shapen or born as he interprets it viz. in Adam's iniquity And in the second place in or with for so some render it sinne did my mother conceive me which is to be understood of that imbred pollution howsoever it be here it is plain Rom. 5. that the Apostle debaseth and humbleth us under this two-fold consideration first That we all sinned in him there is the imputed sinne And secondly That by his disobedience we are made sinners there is our birth-sin So that those who would hunger and thirst after Christ finding a need of him must seek for a two-fold benefit by Christ answering this two-fold evil First the grace of Justification to take away the guilt of all sinne and then of Sanctification in some measure to overcome the power of it that as we have by the first Adam imputed and inherent sinne so by the second Adam imputed and inherent righteousness SECT VII The Different Opinions of Men about Humiliation for Original Sinne. THirdly There are those who make such an humiliation and debasement as David here professeth altogether needless and superfluous but they go upon different grounds For First All such who do absolutely deny any such thing they must needs acknowledge all such confessions to be lies and falshoods that it is but taking of Gods name in vain when we confess such a thing by our selves if it be not indeed in us For if Adam should have said Behold God created me in iniquity and formed me in sinne would not this have been horrible lying to God and blaspheming of his Name No less is it If their Position be true That we are born in the same condition and estate that Adam was created in derogatory to God and a bold presumptuous lie for men in their prayers to acknowledge such a sinne dwelling in them when indeed it doth not So then if this be true That we are not born in original sinne then David doth in this penitential Psalm fearfully abuse the Name of God speaking that which is a lie and a most abominable untruth But whose fore-head is so hardned as to affirm this Yet all such who deny there is any birth-sinne they must also say there is no confession to be made
would not have been any privation of such light as was necessary but it would have been meer nesciency and so no sinne and therefore such a nesciency was in Christs humane nature while and Infant Luk. 2. 52. He encreased in wisdome and stature as also Isa 7. 15. Butter and honey shall be eat that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good that is he should eat on childrens usuall food till he did encrease in knowledge but all this was without sinne This Proposition may satisfie that Infants cannot have any actual sinne while meerly so because the want of use of reason in them is no sinfull imperfection neither are they under the commands of God to beleive and know him as also to love him with all their soul Therefore it is absurd in the Lutherans to say that these commands of actual knowledge fear or love do bind them while thus under a natural nesciency that floweth from their very nature as nature not as vitiated and defiled Prop. 3. The reason why Infants have not the actual use of reason as soon as they are born ariseth not from their soult but the constitution of their bodies As in natural fools mad men or men in sleep there is no defect in their souls but in the body which is the organical instrument of the soul Therefore when Infants die as soon as ever their souls are seperated from the body they have perfect knowledge and reason but the want of the use of reason ariseth from the abundance and overflowing of humours whereby the sensitive powers of the soul are make indisposed for their operations Prop. 4. Seeing therefore that the soul cometh to work rationally by the successive alteration of the complexion of the body as the organs are disposed which in some is sooner in some later it is impossible to give not only the metaphysical indivisible instant but even the moral time wherein a child doth first begin to have an actual sinne As we cannot observe it in our selves when we first had any use of reason so neither can we in another and therefore the limiting of the works of understanding to the fourth sixth or seven years is altogether uncertain only we are to conclude That children sinne long before they know what sinne is or can understand what it is to offend God for those peevish 〈◊〉 vexations which are in little ones even while sucking are not to be freed 〈◊〉 some kind of guilt for such things would not have been in the state of innocent◠And if you say Why should we think those are sins seeing they do not flew from the use of reason and free-will Therefore The fifth Proposition is That contrariety to the Law of God is of the essence of a sinne not voluntariness in actu secundo as they say as if immediately elicited by the will For habitual sins are not voluntary in that but because they are the effect produced by voluntary acts of sinning that did precede therefore they have as much voluntariness as is required to make an habitual sinne and thus original sinne with the immediate effects that flow thence have as much voluntarness as is required to make them sinnes for as habitual sinnes are therefore sins because contracted by our own personal will so original sinne is voluntary because descending upon as by his will who was our Head both quoad esse naturale and morale as it is in time more to be explained Therefore that Position of Socinians and others That nothing can be a sinne which is not committed by the voluntary consent of our own personal will is to be rejected as that false foundation upon which they build so many erroneous Doctrines The sixth Proposition is That even young children very early have imperfect workings of understanding and will So that those obscure actings of a rational soul begin farre sooner to put themselves forth then many do think Hence it is that they know and love those that give them suck we must then consider that there are imperfect workings of reason and perfect formed ones These later indeed are not so soon but the former are very early Lapide in Psal 25. speaketh out of Gregory of a child but five year old guilty of blasphemy And certainly Austin in his Confessions doth much bewail his sins while he was a child he was but tantillus puer yet tantus peccator a little boy but a great sinner This truth is very usefull not only to confute Pelagiant and Socinians who make in a child an indifferency to good or evil or with Aristotle a blank table to receive any impression but especially to quicken up Parents to their duty in diligent admonition and institution of them For Solamon wiser than any Pelagian saith Prov. 22. 15. Folly is bound up in the heart of a child The word signifieth is close bound to his soul as if it were with ropes Now if besides this natural folly there be wicked education and evil example this will be such a three-fold cord that will not easily be broken Oh then do not think it is no matter what children do their sins are but sports and jests you will not have them displeased or corrected for this is contrary also to Solomon's counsel Prov. 22. 5. Train up a child in the way he should go c. Some render it dedicate some instruct it cometh all to one sense but who must be thus trained Even a child in the Hebrew it is Gnal pene super es viae which causeth divers Interpretations Some understand it of the very first beginnings of a childs course when he in bivio whether he shall take to virtue or vice Some for the very time that any entrance can be made upon them for children are to learn many things by meer memory before they have understanding neither is that though in holy things a taking of Gods name in vain but a serving of God according to their capacity Some understand it according to the capacity of the child as a vessel with a narrow mouth must have liquour poured into it by degrees all these senses tend to the same purpose viz. that Parents should not put off the instruction of their children or to think because they are children therefore their sins are not to be much regarded for you have Job sharply bewailing these Job 13. 23. What were those iniquities for which God did so severely chastice Job Why did God write such bitter things against him it was because of the sins of his youth the same word in the Text And Psal 25. 7. David in great affection prayeth God would not remember the sins of his youth the same word also in the original as is in my Text And certainly we have a dreadfull example of Gods anger even against the sins of little children 2 King 2. 23. for such came out of the City and mocked the Prophet saying Go up thou bald head and there presently came two she-bears
The Apostle having strictly charged That women should not usurp authority over the man for two reasons 1. From the primitive Creation even before sinne Adam was first formed then Eve So that in the state of integrity the wife was to have been subject to her husband even as children to parents but it would have been without that difficulty and reluctancy which sinne hath now brought upon mankind The other reason is Because the woman was first in the transgression and thereby through her original sinne infected all Now lest this should afflict women too much and they conceive their estate desperate the Apostle mingleth honey with this gall he informeth them of comfortable considerations even from that very particular wherein they see the evident displeasure and wrath of God and that is the sorrows and pangs they bring forth children with She shall be saved in child-bearing How this is to be understood seemeth difficult For may not maids or such married persons that never have children be saved How shall they do that have no children if the woman be saved in child-bearing To this it is easily answered That the Apostle doth not speak of the meritorious cause of salvation which is Christ for in him all believers are one there is neither male or female Jew or Gentile married or unmarried that do differ as to justification and salvation through him Therefore the Apostle speaketh here only of such women as are married and have children Now because such might be discouraged because of the curse laid upon the woman at first in bringing forth of children he addeth That notwithstanding this she shall be saved Those pangs and sorrows do not exclude her from salvation therefore the Greek Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Rom. 2. 27. compared with 29. it doth not signifie she is saved by that as a cause For how many women are there who through their impenitency in wicked wayes will be damned though they be the mothers of many children It signifieth only the way and means wherein she may obtain salvation So that what was at first in it self a curse may now be sanctified and so prove no impediment to their salvation It is true some would have this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be meant of the Virgins bearing of Christ as if the meaning were She shall be saved by Christ born of a woman Erasmus on the place saith Theophilact mentioneth this but rejecteth it The late Annotatour mentioneth it with approbation but the Context doth no wise agree with this for he speaketh of every woman in the Church bearing her children therefore addeth If they abide in faith and charity neither can any argument be put upon the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if the Apostle meant that signal and eminent bearing of a child when Christ was born for if this were so none but the Virgin Mary and no other woman could take comfort from this palce Heinsius by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 understandeth marriage She shall be saved in the way of marriage which is called so saith he from the end of marriage which is to have children for as he affirmeth the Grecians have not one word to expresse marriage by and therefore in stead thereof they use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but this hath no probability We adhere therefore to the former Exposition the sense whereof is That notwithstanding Eve did through original sinne bring a sad curse upon child-bearing yet to those women that are godly the curse is taken off yea and doth become a sanctified meanes of their salvation not of it self to every one for then no child-bearing woman could be damned but if they do walk in those wayes God hath commanded Therefore it followeth If they abide c. which denoteth the necessity of abiding and continuing in all holy duties Some indeed referre this to the children If the children continue in what is good And if it be said When a godly mother doth her duty she may have notwithstanding wicked and ungodly children and shall that prejudice her salvation To this they answer That for the most part the wickedness of children is laid upon the parents neglect but if it be not then God will accept of the mother faithfully discharging her duty though the children do wickedly miscarry but it is farre more probable to referre it to the woman And though the number be changed into the plural If they abide yet that is ordinary in Scripture especially when the word is a collective as in the 5th Chapter of this Epistle vers 4. where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the singular number and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the plural relateth to it The qualification then that is necessary to all women that would find the curse in child-bearing taken away and original guilt accompanying that sorrow removed is to abound in all saving graces and to continue therein and then that woman who is a wife and a mother of many children let her not torment her self about the state of her children and the condition they are born in but quiet her soul with this Text of Scripture The last particular that may satisfie the souls of such parents who may be exercised in these particulars about original sinne is to remind themselves That the whole matter about original sinne in reference to Adam and all his posterity is not without the wise and holy appointment of God who would never have suffered this evil to be could he not have raised out thereby a greater good For although it be true That Adam did sinne from his meer internal liberty there being no decrees or execution thereof that did necessitate him to do so yet all this could not be without the Decree of God permitting as also wisely ordering all things for his own glory No doubt but God could have confirmed Adam in his holiness yea he might have so ordered it that every man and woman should stand or fall upon their personal account as the Angels did yet such was his will and Covenant that in Adam all his posterity should be involved and the same issue should attend both them and him This then being the appointment of a just wise and mercifull God we ought wholly to acquiesce knowing that the business of mans life and death his salvation and damnation could not have been ordered better otherwise though all the wisdome of men and Angels had been put together And therefore when thou who art a parent but tempted about the state of thy children thou hast brought forth art turmoiling thy self in these disputes shake off these vipers and conclude That God regardeth his own glory and honor more then thou canst do he hath taken that way wherein he will magnifie his own glorious Attributes And truly this should presently silence all thy disputations For wouldst thou have God lose part of his glory Wouldst thou have his honour in any
Bondage is It s being carried out unto sinne voluntarily and with delight ¶ 9. Thirdly It is evident by its utter impotency to any thing that is spiritual Here is shewed wherein that inability consists ¶ 10. That man naturally loves his thraldom to sin and contradicts the means of Deliverance ¶ 11. It s Bondage is seen in its Concupiscential Affection to some creature or other never being able to lift it self up to God ¶ 12. That when it doth endeavour to overcome any sinne it is by falling into another ¶ 13. The more means of grace to free us the more our slavery appears ¶ 14. The Necessity of a Redeemer demonstrates our thraldome to sinne ¶ 15. An Examination of the Descriptions and Definitions of Freedom or Liberty of Will which many Writers give it Shewing That none of them are any wayes agreeing to the Will unsanctified CHAP. V. Of the Pollution of the Affections Col. 3. 2. Set your Affections upon things above not on things on the earth SECT I. The Text opened SECT II. Of the Nature of the Affections SECT III. How the Affections are treated of severally by the Philosopher the Physician the Oratour and the Divine SECT IV. The Natural Pollution of the Affections is manifested 1. In the Dominion and Tyranny they have over the Understanding and Will ¶ 2. Secondly In regard of the first motions and risings of them ¶ 3. Thirdly In respect of their Progress and Degrees ¶ 4. Fourthly In respect of the Continuance or Duration of them SECT V. They are wholly displaced from their right Object SECT VI. Their sinfulness is discovered in respect of the End and Use for which God ingraffed them in our Natures SECT VII And in their Motion and Tendency thereunto SECT VIII In respect of the Contrariety and Opposition of them one to another SECT IX The Pollution of the Affections in respect of the Conflict between the natural Conscience and them SECT X. In respect of the great Distractions they fill us with in holy Duties SECT XI Their Deformity and Contrariety to the Rule and Exemplary Patern SECT XII Their Dulness and senslesness though the Understanding declare the good to be imbraced SECT XIII The Affections being drawn out in holy Duties from corrupt Motiveâ— shews the Pollution of them SECT XIV That they are more zealously carried out to any false way than to the Truths of God SECT XV. They are for the most part in-lets to all sinne in the Soul SECT XVI The Privacy of them SECT XVII Their hurtfull Effects upon a mans Body SECT XVIII The sad Effects they have upon others SECT XIX And how readily they receive the Devils Temptations CHAP. VI. The Sinfulness of the Imaginative Power of the Soul Gen. 6. 5. And God saw that every Imagination of the thoughts of mans heart was only evil and that continually SECT 1. The Text explained and vindicated against D. J. Taylor Grotius the Papists and Socinians SECT II. Of the Nature of the Imagination in a man SECT III. 1. The Natural Sinfulnesse of the Imagination appears in its making Idols Supports and vain Conceits whereby it pleaseth it self SECT IV. 2. In respect of its Defect from that end and use which God did intend in the Creation of man with such a power SECT V. 3. Restlesnesse SECT VI. 4. Universality Multitude and Disorder of the Imaginations SECT VII 5. Their Roving and Wandring up and down without any fixed way SECT VIII 6. Their Impertinency and Unreasonableness SECT IX 7. The Imagination eclypseth and for the most part keeps out the Understanding SECT IX In the Imaginations for the most part are conceived all actual impieties SECT X. That many times Sinne is acted by the Imagination with Delight and Content without any relation at all to the external actings of Sinne. SECT XI It s Propensity to all evil both towards God and man SECT XII It continually invents new sins or occasions of sins SECT XIII The Sinfulness of the Imagination manifesteth it self in reference to the Word of God and the ministerial preaching thereof SECT XIV It is more affected with Appearances then Realities SECT XV. It s Sinfulness in respect of fear and the workings of Conscience SECT XVI Of the Actings of the Imagination in Dreams SECT XVII The Imagination is not in that orderly Subordination to the rational part of man as it was in the Primitive Condition SECT XVIII It is according to Austin's Judgement the great instrument of conveying Original Sinne to the Child SECT XIX How prone it is to receive the Devils Impressions and Suggestions SECT XX. Some Corollaries from the Premisses CHAP. VII Of the last Subject of Inhesion or seat of Original Sinne viz. the Body of a man 1 Thess 5. 23. And the very God of peace sanctifie you wholly and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and Body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ SECT II. The Text explained SECT III. Scripture-proofs of the sinfull Pollution of the Body SECT IV. The sinfulness of the Body discovered in particulars ¶ 1. It is not now instrumental and serviceable to the Soul in holy Approaches to God but on the contrary a clog and burden ¶ 2. It doth positively affect and defile the Soul ¶ 3. A man acts more according to the Body and the Inclinations thereof then the mind with the Dictates thereof ¶ 4. The Body by Original Sinne is made a Tempter and a Seducer ¶ 5. It doth objectively occasion much sinne to the Soul ¶ 6. It s indisposition to any service of God ¶ 7. How easily the Body is moved and stirred by the passions and affections thereof ¶ 8. The Body when sanctified is become no lesse glorious then the Temple of the holy Ghost CHAP. VIII Of the Subject of Predication Shewing that every one of mankind Christ only excepted is involved in this sinne and misery Luk. 1. 35 Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God SECT I. The Text explained SECT II. The Aggravations of Original Sinne. ¶ 1. The Aggravation of Adam's Actual Transgression ¶ 2. The Aggravation of Original Sinne inherent ¶ 3. An Objection Answered SECT III. That every one by Nature hath his peculiar Original Sinne. SECT IV. That Original Sinne in every one doth vent it self betimes SECT V. How soon a Child may commit Actual Sinne. SECT VI. Whether Original Sinne be alike in all CHAP. X. A Justification of Gods shutting up all under Sinne for the Sinne of Adam in the sense of the Reformed Churches against the Exceptions of D. J. Taylor and others Gal. 3. 24. But the Scripture hath concluded all under sinne that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe SECT I. The Text explained SECT II. Prâ—positions to direct us in this great Point of Gods Proceedings as to the matter of Original Sinne. SECT III. Objections Answered The Contents of the
is the cause that most people are still such sots and sensless men about regeneration Yea learned and knowing men are as blind and bruitish in this as the simple and poor people are doth not all arise from this That they feel not neither do perceive that original sin like a leprosie hath run over the whole man both soul and body especially there would not be these three mistakes about the work of grace which are very common As 1. A Philosophical Reformation by the Dictates and Principles of Moralists such as Plutarch and Seneca give would not be taken for Regeneration For although their sayings and directions are admired and there may be some good use of them yet they do not go to the root of the matter they are not an antidote against original sinne that defileth the nature and therefore cannot promote Regeneration which doth properly cure that in some degree Aristotles way to make a man a virtuous man viz. by frequent and constant actions at lest to acquire an habit is absurd and repugnant to Scripture for by that the tree must be made good and a man must be born again ere he can do any thing holily Hence God promiseth to give a new heart to take away the heart of stone and then to cause us to walk in all holiness Ezek. 11. 19. These divine principles must be infused before there can be holy actions So 2. Civility and an ingenuous temperate disposition will be but a glistering dunghill a painted sepulchre when original sinne is known He will presently see for all his civil and inoffensive life his heart is full of all noisomness Therefore civil men of all men do most need this light to shine into their brests we are ready to think of our selves because so harmless and innocent as was said of Bonaventure In hoc homine non peccavit Adam such were born without sinne and brought better natures into the world than others but if you search into the Scriptures it will appear that all are born children of wrath and are equally destitute of that image of God and then as when the pillars of an house are removed the house it self must fall into its own rubbidge Thus when that primitive righteousness was lost man is prone to runne into all evil and every man would be like a Judas or a Cain even the most civil man that is did not God restrain original sin 3. Gifts and abilities which many have in religious exercises will presently be seen not to be Regeneration Though we should preach with the tongue of Angels though admirable in prayer and other holy duties yet these and original sin in the power of it may stand together and so many looking to the flowers but not the dead corpse they are upon conclude themselves to be alive when indeed they are dead SECT IV. I Shall mention some few more spiritual Advantages that come by the full and undoubted perswasion of this original corruption for so of old we are advised Firmissimè texe nullatenus dubita c. Believe most firmly and doubt not in the least manner but that by Adam's sinne all his posterity becomes sinfull and obnoxious to Gods wrath And First upon the Knowledg of originall sinne we evidently see our impossibility to keep the Law of God That when the Law requireth a love of God with all our heart mind and strength and also doth prohibit all kind of lust and sinfull concupiscence even in the very first motions and stirrings of it The Law I say requiring such universal perfection and we being wholly dead in sinne upon the comparing of the Law with our condition we cannot but conclude That we fail in all things That the Law is spiritual but we are carnal And if he be cursed that doth not continue in all things the Law requireth how accursed must he be that is not able to perform any one thing All those opinions that diminish original sinne do also plead for a possibility of keeping Gods Commandments Now this self-flattery is imbred in all Do not most of our common people think they keep the Commandments of God Do they believe that the curses of the Law do belong to them every hour Oh if such convictions were upon them how greatly would it humble them and make them debased before God but they trust in this they readily and confidently say with that young man All these have I kept from my youth up Mat. 9 20. Oh then inform thy self more about this natural defilement and loathsomness that is upon thee and then thou wilt find the Law to accuse and condemn thee in all things Secondly The right knowledge of this will make even the godly and regenerate though in some measure delivered from the power and dominion of it yet to see that because of its stirrings and actings in them there is imperfection in every thing they do And truly this is one of the most profitable effects of true knowledge herein for hereby a godly man is made to go out of all his graces and his duties hereby he is afraid of the iniquity of his holy things and cals his very righteousness a menstruous ragge This is clear in Paul Rom. 7. How sadly doth he complain of the vigorous actings of this original sinne in him For the present I take it as granted that that part of the Chapter must be understood of a regenerate person though vehemently denied by some as is in time to be shewed That Law of sinne was alwayes moving when he set himself to any thing that was holy he desired to obey the Law perfectly to love God compleatly but this Law of sinne would not let him So that because of this natural defilement evil is mixed with all the good we do insomuch that there would be a woe and a curse to all our gracious acts if strictly examined Thus it is with a godly man in this life as those Hetruscan-robbers reported of by Aristotle and mentioned by Austin who would take some live men and bind them to the dead men which was a miserable way of perishing Even thus it is here original corruption is constantly adhering and inseparably to him who is alive in holiness and by this means there is unbelief in his faith coldness in his zeal dulness in his fervency Insomuch that the Apostle crieth out of himself Oh wretched man that I am And that because of this very thing the Papists though they hold original sinne yet maintaining That after Baptism it 's quite taken away and that though there be some languor and difficulty in a man in respect of what is good yet if we do not consent to these motions of lusts within us they are not truly and properly sins do consequentially conclude that there is not necessarily dross and sinne in every holy duty we do but the evidence of Rom. 7. is too great to be contradicted So that preaching of original sinne is not only necessary
to the unregenerate but even to the most holy and godliest man that liveth Let him desire to know more of it for it may do him also much good and this is the reason why the more godly any are the more they are displeased with themselves and do the more highly esteem of Christ not but that they grow in grace only they grow also in the discoveries of more filth and unworthiness in themselves Thirdly By the true knowledge of this we come to be acquainted with that combate and conflict that is between the flesh and the spirit so much spoken of by Divines who usually say In every godly man there are two men two I's as the Apostle Rom. 7. distinguisheth I Paul carnal sold under sinne doing the things I would not and I Paul spiritual delighting in the Law of God in the inwardman and thanking God the Father through Christ because freed from condemnation That Paul did not speak of this combate while unregenerate as a Legalist as some say but as truly converted will appear if we consider that in another place Gal. 5. 17. the Apostle speaks of all the godly as thus exercised The flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh So that whatsoever is done holily and godlily it is alwayes cum luctâ carnis and therefore grace is the mortifying of the flesh Now our sins will not be put to death without some pain and reluctancy to the carnal part Therefore this is a perpetual concomitant of every godly man he hath a combate and spiritual conflicting within him and this makes him often in so many agonies this makes him so earnestly watching and praying against all temptations now come we to natural people they feel not the least strugling within them all is quiet and at ease because they are wholly in their original sinne they were born in And this makes it plain likewise that all their praying hearing all the religious duties they ever performed were never done in an holy and godly manner because there was no reluctancy or inward combate but they did them in a customary formal way without any spiritual life or motion for flesh will not fight against flesh Indeed there is a combate between conscience in its conviction and corruption even in some unregenerate men as in Aristotle's incontinent man as distinguished from his intemperate and that is known of Medea video meliora proboque deteriora sequor I see and approve better things but follow the worse And some would have Paul's combate to be no other because he cals it The Law of his mind fighting with the Law in his members but that is not cogent as is more largely to be shewed in its time Though therefore there be a reluctancy in some unregenerate men yet that is not like the conflict in the godly because amongst other differences this is one principal The godly man being regenerated in every part of the soul though not perfectly his will is sanctified as well as his mind Hence the combate and opposition in a godly man is between the same faculty sanctified and the flesh still abiding in that part his holy will against his corrupt will so that not only his mind and conscience is against sinne but his will also so farre as sanctified Hence the same Apostle makes the opposition between will and will What I would not that I do and though captivated by lust yet at that very time delighting in the Law of God in the inward man whereas in unregenerate men they have only an opposition between their conscience and their heart The mind suggests one thing but the will and affections wholly incline another way Therefore that light in their consciences is a trouble and vexation to them they do all they can to extinguish it The Doctrine then of original corruption informing us That it abideth still in a man while he liveth upon the earth doth inform the truly godly that they must alwayes expect agonies and conflicts within like fire and water met together so will grace and corruption be Therefore by this very combat we may discern true grace and it 's counterfeit for presumption which would be thought faith is easie we find no opposition to it but faith is put forth with much difficulty so godly sorrow put forth upon pure and spiritual motives is greatly assaulted by the flesh within us but worldly sorrow or mourning though for sinne because of temporal judgments only that is easie we are carried to it from a propensity within from a love to our selves Hence lastly The main and principal effect of the true knowledge of our original defilement is to bring the soul humbled and burdened under it to a true and real esteem of Christ and his Grace So much as we take off from original sinne making it either no sinne or the least sinne or quite abolished after Baptism so much do we take off from the grace of God in Christ Hence the Apostle Rom. 5. when he maketh that famous opposition between the first Adam and the second the gift of grace by one and the condemnation by the other he pitcheth upon that first disobedience by which we are made sinners as the original of all that calamity we are plunged into and therefore the same Paul when he poured out a large complaint about this Law of sinne working in him at the close of all he runneth to Jesus Christ Rom. 7. 35. It is the true knowledge of this only that will make us see the necessity of Christ all the day long and in every duty in every performance As we have none speak so much of Grace and Christ as Paul so none speaks so largely and fully about original sinne In the fifth Chapter of the Romans he asserts the Doctrine of it and in the seventh Chapter he declares the power of it which he felt experimentally in himself though regenerated Do not then think this is a Philosophical dispute or that to erre in this is like erring in those points wherein one Christian is to bear with another but with Austin account it a fundamental and that to deny it is to overthrow that Law whereby we are Christians CHAP. III. Demonstrations of the Naturality of this Sinne That we have it by Naturall Propagation SECT I. BEing then thus informed of the Usefulness and Necessity of true Knowledge in this matter Let us have your ready and diligent attention in prosecuting that matter which relateth to it And so I come to that notion which this Text fastens upon it that it is a Natural sin that we have it by natural Propagation In the Scripture and by the Ancients before Austin's time it had many names The Law of sinne The Old man The Flesh The old stroke of the Serpent an hereditary evil The tradux mali But in his time for better obviating the Hereticks who would allow the former names it was by him called Original sinne and ever since made an
the natural Law which was at first in the Creation of man but that primordial and original Law is the same for substance with the moral though differing in some respects To the Argument therefore we say First That as this original sinne is voluntary voluntate causae which was Adam's will so it is also against a Law which was enjoyned Adam For although Adam had not a Law upon him in respect of the beginning or original of the righteousness he had he being created in that and so was not capable of any Law yet in respect of the preservation and continuation of this for himself and his posterity so he had a Law imposed on him and therefore violating of that Law we in him also did violate it You see then this original sin is a transgression of that Law which Adam was under viz. the continuation of the righteousness he was created in both for himself and his posterity Secondly Even by the moral Law or the Decalogue this original corruption is forbidden The Apostle Rom. 7. sheweth That he had not known lust to be a sinne had not the Law said Theu shalt not lust So that as the Law forbiddeth actual lusting thus it doth also the principle and root of it for the Law is spiritual and in its obligation reacheth to the fountain and root of all sin it doth not only prohibit the sinfull motions of thy soul but the cause of all these Even as when it commands any holy duty to love God for instance it requireth that inward sanctification of the whole man whereby he is inabled to love God upon right and induring grounds otherwise if this were not so the habits of sinne would not be against Gods Law nor the habits of Grace required by it as therefore it was with Adam his actual transgression was directly and immediately forbidden by the Law of God but that habital depravation of the whole man which came thereupon was forbidden remotely and by consequence Thus it is with that native contagion we are born in and this should teach us in every sin we commit to think the Law doth not forbid and condemn this actual sin only but the very inward principle of it say to thy self Alas I should not only be without such vain thoughts such vain affections but without an inclination thereunto Therefore mark the Apostle reasoning Ephes 4. 22 24 25. When he had exhorted them to put off the old man that is original sinne and to put on the new man which is the Image of God immediately opposing that See what he inferreth thereupon Wherefore put away lying they must leave that actual sinne because they have in measure subdued original sinne Thus it holds in all other sins put away pride earthliness prophaneness because the old man is first put away in some degrees But oh how little do men attend to this They think of their actual sins they say This I have done is against Gods Law but go no deeper they do not further consider but God forbids and layeth his axe to the root as well as the branches the fruit Thirdly A sinne doth not therefore cease to be a sin because the Law doth not now forbid it it was enough if it were once forbidden and contrary to Gods Law otherwise we might say That all sins which are past are no sins for the Law doth not require that what hath been done should be undone again or not to be done for that is impossible ex natura rei If therefore ever original sinne hath been under a Law prohibitive of it that is enough to make it a sin though now it cannot be helped Hence Almain the Schoolman hath a distinction of Debitum praecepti and Debitum statuti which other Schoolmen also mention now they apply it thus To be born without sin is not say they Debitum praecepti it doth not become due by any precept or command but it is Debitum statuti that is God had first appointed such an order that whosoever should come of Adam should be born in that righteousness which Adam was created in and was to preserve for himself and his posterity so that though there be no direct Praeceptum divinum yet they say there is Ordinatio divina that we should have been born without sinne Although we need not runne to this because it is now against the moral Law of God as you heard proved SECT VI. ANother Objection is from the Justice Equity and Righteousness of God as also his Mercy and Goodness How can it be thought consonant to any of these attributes that we should be involved in guilt and sinne because of anothers especially they urge that Ezek. 18. 18 19. where God saith The child shall not bear the sins of his father and the Lord doth it to stop their prophane caâ—il against his wayes as if they were not equal because the fathers did eat sour grapes and the childrens teeth were set on edge The Remonstrants are so confident that in their Apology cap. 7. they say Neither Scripture nor Gods Truth nor his Justice nor his Mercy and Equity nor the Nature of sinne will permit this To answer this First It is not my purpose at this time to enter into that great Debate Whether the sins of parents are punished in their children And it so How it stands with the Justice of God It is plain That in the second Commandment it is said That God being a jealous God because of Idolatry he will visit the sins of such persons to the third and fourth generation The same likewise is attributed unto God Exod. 34. 7. when his glorious Properties are described experience also in the destruction of Sedom and Gomorrah as also in the drowning of the world doth abundantly testifie this For no doubt there was in those places as God said of Ninevch many little ones that did not know the right hand from the left and so could not have any consent to the actual iniquities of their Parents To reconcile therefore that place of Ezek. 18. where God saith The child shall not bear the iniquity of his Father with those former places hath exercised the thoughts of the most learned men variously endeavouring to unty that knot Though I find some of late understanding that of Ezekiel only for that particular occasion as it did concern the Jews in their particular judgment of Captivity who complained that for their fathers iniquities they were transported into a strange Land So that they think it not to be extended universally but limited to that people only and at that time and that alone to that Land of Israel because they were driven from their own Countrey But whether this Interpretation will abide firm or no it is certain that the Text doth not militate against our cause in hand For 1. As hath been shewed There is not the same reason of parents since Adam 's fall as of Adam for he was a common person and
uncleannesses We read Levit. 12. That a woman upon her bringing forth a child was guilty of Insomuch that in the legal dispensation every woman that brought forth a child was to be separated so many dayes as unclean to be kept from the publick worship of God and at last to bring an offering for to cleanse her Now it 's disputed why God appointed such a law about a womans uncleanness and purification in bringing forth children Although some as Bonfretius and Grotius make it to no more signification than of other impurities that were legall yet Austin of old and Calvin are very positive that this was to informe them of the cursed and sinnefull estate that the child was brought into the world with The father and mother saith Calvin by this ceremony were taught with what humiliation and sorrow they ought to look upon that natural pollution the infant was born in and in his comment on the place he insinuateth two Answers to those two Objections that are made against the typifying of original sinne thereby as that this uncleanness and so purification did belong to the child as well as the mother For the Objectors say It could not denote original sin because it related to the mother only and not to the child but Calvin saith it belongeth to both and that by Luk. 2. 22. it may be proved And Grotius preferreth those Copies which have the plural number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their purification relating to the child as well as the mother But Junius doth more probably think it belonged only to the mother Another Objection is That the mother was longer unclean by a female than a male which if it were for original sinne would argue the female had more of it than the male To this Calvin giveth this conjecture That therefore there might be so much spiritual signification to the female that so the defect in circumcision the females not being to be circumcised might be made up this way But the difference of time is commonly attributed to a physical consideration Howsoever these Answers be yet Junius as well as Calvin doth acknowledge This was done because of original sinne though he had actual sins also As for the Virgin Mary who offered according to the Law when her time of purification was expired Luke 2. 22. if it did relate to the child as well as the mother that did not argue Christ to be born in sinne no more than circumcision argued a duty of putting off the foreskin of the heart in him but it was to fulfill all righteousness he being now made subject to the Law Not that such a ceremonial uncleanness is still under the Gospel-times as some ignorant superstitious women think for all such ceremonial Rites were abolished by Christs coming into the world onely in the general that Ceremony in the Jewish Church did teach us the nature of birth-pollution 3. There is a moral uncleanness and that is sinne which is a pollution of the soul making it abominable and loathsom in the eyes of God and this uncleanness is upon every Infant though but a day or an hour old and of this uncleanness the Text speaketh SECT III. A Comparison between Mans Moral Uncleanness and Levitical Uncleanness TO understand the foulness of it let us first compare our spiritual uncleanness with the worst legal uncleanness in the Law even that of Leprosie and we shall see how fitly they agree For 1. The legal unclean especially the Leper he was to keep aloof off from all men and company even his wife and children only such as were to provide necessaries for them and to cry He was unclean unclean In what a sad and miserable condition did such an unclean person apprehend himself to be no body to come near him none to have any civil commerce with him but to sit pining and mourning alone Thus ought every man in this original pollution for by it he hath deserved to be deprived of every comfort he is now cursed by the Law with all curses thereof so that no creature in the world might give him any creature The whole creation began to groan as soon as man fell Hence it is that though we truly say Every man though in his natural condition hath a civil right to the comforts he enjoyeth yet he hath not an holy and sanctified right being not in Christ so that what is our due by nature as soon as we are born is hell and damnation the wrath and anger of God Though we should beg here as Dives did in hell for a drop of water it might be denied us Oh miserable then and unclean man who is thus to stand aloof off from all creatures and comforts saying Wo unto me for I am unclean 2. The legal unclean person did make unclean every thing that be touched whatsoever he laid his hand upon that was presently made unclean yea as appeareth Hag. 2. If he did touch any holy thing he made that unclean the holy thing did not sanctifie him Now is not this too true in every man who is by nature spiritually unclean The Apostle speaks this with evident conviction to all that will not wilfully shut their eyes Tit. 1. 15. Vnto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure So then what a loathsom Leprosie of sinne is upon every one by nature that he defileth all he medleth with if he eat he makes it unclean eating if he work he makes it unclean working yea if he prayeth if he heareth he makes it unclean and impure praying and hearing to him Oh what a thunder-bolt should this be in our ears What a polluted wretch am I that in all places at all times in every thing I do have this uncleanesse upon me The uncleanness every man is born in hath been partly considered and a comparison made between every man in his natural estate and the ceremonial unclean person in the old legal constitution Now that we may be the more affected with this lamentable and wofull condition we are all born in Let us consider it absolutely in it self The uncleanness in the Text is not a natural or ceremonial but moral uncleanness For although with us in our common speech and sometimes in the Scripture uncleanness is taken more strictly for the pollution of the body in any unlawfull way yet it is here taken largely for sinne in the general and therefore to be righteous is the opposite to it as Job 15. In this sense it is used Zech. 13. 1. where a fountain is said to be set open for sinne and uncleanness Seeing therefore the holy Ghost doth pronounce us all by nature to be unclean yea so unclean that no power either humane or Angelical can make us clean but it is God alone that maketh grapes to grow of these thorns or rather turns thorns into vines Let us examine what is comprehended in this expression unclean SECT IV. What is comprehended in this Expression Uncleanness FIrst There is evidently
some kind of confused knowledge about this as in time may be shewed for they had a custom with them of expiating and cleansing of their Infants as being unclean Fifthly This expression of uncleanness doth denote our unfitness and unworthiness to come into Gods presence or to perform any holy duty no more than a person full of his vomit or loathsomness or a man with the noisom plague fores is fit to come into the presence of a great King As the legal unclean person was not to come into the Temple or to touch any holy things And this was typified in Adam when he was cast out of Paradise and flaming swords set to keep him out all this denoted That God had excommunicated Adam and as it were all mankind in him so that now they have no fitness or decency no worth or suitableness to any holy duty And certainly this should deeply humble us yea at this our hearts should tremble and move out of their places to consider that though none need God more than we do none have more need to pray incessantly to him yet such is our pollution that we are not fit to pray or to draw nigh to God yea our duties while performed by us in this our original condition are a provocation to God and they become new sinnes for if no clean thing can be brought out of an unclean then no clean prayer no clean holy duty can come from thee who art unclean It is true though we are thus polluted it is our duty to pray by our original Apostasie we are not freed from Gods commands we are bound to pray and to pray with as holy and heavenly frame of heart as Adam in his integrity but though it be our duty yet we have lost all power and ability Yea and besides this there is an unfitness and unworthiness even as when the frogs crept into Pharaoh's chamber And to this Bernard aâ—luded when he called himself Ranuncula repens in conspectu Dei How dare such a loathsom frog as he creep into the presence of so holy a God Certainly if the Angels though without any such blemish yea not having the least spot do yet not cover their feet but their faces the noblest part as it were because of the glorious and holy Majesty of God how much more must sinfull and unclean man Isa 6. When the Prophet had beheld God in his glory he crieth out though a regenerated man Woe be unto me for I am of pollutea lips This made him afraid to make mention of God How then may every natural corrupt man cry out Wo be to me for I am not only a man of polluted lips but also of a polluted mind and heart Sixthly This title of being naturally unclean maketh us to be in the most immediate 〈◊〉 to God that can be To say Man that is born of woman had been miserable frail subject to dangers and outward evils would not have denoted any immediate opposition to God but calling him unclean and unholy This sheweth that we are by nature in direct contrariety to what he is for he is by nature pure and holy yea it is that glorious Attribute which makes all others glorious because his Wisdom is holy Wisdom because his Power is holy Power therefore it 's admirable Wisdom and Power Hence those Angels Isa 6. of all the Attributes of God single out that to celebrate when they cry out Holy holy holy Now man is born unclean and unholy being herein directly contrary to God So that though man be indowed with many natural perfections yet this original uncleanness defileth them all he hath reason but it 's unclean reason he hath an understanding but it is an unclean understanding he hath a will but it 's an impure and unclean will So that of all the several Arguments which man hath to humble him he may chuse out this as the chiefest of all crying out unclean unclean unclean why is it that upon the discovery of this contrariety to God we do not more abhor our selves Seventhly This attribute of uncleanness proclaimeth the absolute necessity of Gods grace and of Christs blood for these only can make us clean Did a man truly consider how it is with him in regard of his birth-estate he would tremble to stay an hour in it he would neither eat drink or sleep till he be delivered out of it for being wholly unclean he can never while so enter into the kingdom of Heaven So that as no legal uncleanness was removed but with some sprinkling and washing much less can any moral uncleanness be washed away without Christs bloud therefore that is said to cleanse us from all our sinnes 1 Joh. 1. 7. and without shedding of blood there is no remission of sinne Heb. 9. 22. Oh then this natural uncleanness should teach us highly to esteem Christs blood for we could never weep water enough though our heads were fountains to wash us nothing can get out this spot but Christs blood and this every Infant though but a day old needeth Christs bloud then must purifie us else we perish and with this also there is requisite grace both justifying and sanctifying for these also tend to the cleansing of us Justification that is partly a cleansing and awashing away of our iniquities as God promiseth Zech. 13. 1. He would set open a fountain for sinne and uncleanness a fountain so that there is plenty and fulness of grace to wash away this filthiness Thus also Ezek. 36. 25. I will sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness Besides this there is also grace sanctifying necessary and this is a formal internal cleansing of us so that because of this work of grace we are made clean yet not so but that we need some washing daily as Joh. 13. 10. He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet for this uncleanness will not in this life be quite taken away but is like that of the Leprosie which stuck so to the wals of the house that though it were scraped off yet it would rise again and so could not be removed till the very house was demolished Thus while death lay this house of clay in the grave there will alwayes be some uncleanness adhering to thee Vse Of Instruction Can none bring a clean thing out of an unclean Then this sheweth That those who from the youth up have lived civil ingenuous and chaste lives are not to rest in this for thy nature is foul and loathsom as well as of all others though thy life may be cleaner The Snake hath a glistering skinne though she hath a poisoned body Thus thou hast a defiled soul an heart full of filthiness though thy outward conversation be unblameable Certainly if an Infant but a day old be thus unclean and needeth the bloud of Christ to cleanse it Doest thou flatter thy self with ingenuity and civility Thou hast not lesse sinnefulnesse and guilt in
of it neither are we to humble our selves because of it Secondly Others there are that though they hold it to be a sinne yet they say it was absolutely forgiven in Baptism and if it was then totally forgiven what necessity is thereof confession and acknowledging it afterwards That original sinne was forgiven to all that were baptized was the opinion of Austin who yet did more earnestly propugn this Doctrine of original sinne than any of the Fathers Yea in his time these two seemed to be Catholick Doctrines of the whole Church viz. an universal efficacy of Baptism in all Infants baptized to purge away original sinne as also the necessity of damnation of those Infants which died without it The Papists also they generally conclude That this original sinne is forgiven to all baptized persons and Socinus in his Exposition of this place approveth this Position That it is not to be confessed Yea it cannot be denied but that some learned Protestants adversaries both to Papists and Arminians as Davenant Ward have affirmed also That all baptized persons have their original sinne forgiven them and so dying in their infancy must without doubt be saved Thirdly There are others and such are the Remonstrants who affirm That upon Adam's fall God entring into a new Covenant of Grace with fallen mankind by Christ our Mediator Therefore it is they say that none is damned for original sinne no not Heathens or their children but that by the second Adam viz. Christ there is taken off all that guilt which came by Adam's transgression So that in this respect they make the children of Heathens and believers all alike So that by these mens Positions though going upon several grounds we see it affirmed That original sinne is pardoned and that before there is any confession humiliation and sorrow for it Whether indeed though it be pardoned some of the fore-mentioned Authors will not hold it necessary to confess it and to beg for the pardon of it may well be doubted I say some of them For how prophanely and arrogantly doth a Remonstrant Adolphus Venator in his Apologia contra Ministros Dordracenos speak in this matter as he is cited by Sandaus the Jesuite for I have not the Book it self in his Hydrus Hollanda lib. 2. cap. 20. pag. 268. where when from the diversity of opinions about original sinne he concludeth There is scarce any certainty about it addeth Etiam hinc intelligi potest nihil esse quia nemo in se reperiat morsum conscientiae vel accusationem suiipsius ob peccatum ante quinquies mille quingentos annos in Paradiso comissum Ego saltem non sensi nec credo Derdracenes fratres propter illud vel ingentem conscientiae stimulum persensisse vel copiam lachrymarum profudisse How wretchedly doth this man speak Certainly David and Paul had other apprehensions of this original sinne with the immediate effects thereof For the Orthodox hold against the Antinomians That though our sins be pardoned yet we may yea ought upon special occasions to confess them and to renew our humiliation again for them as David prayeth God would not remember the sinnes of his youth and here in this Psalm he prayeth to be purged and washed which relateth to all that uncleanness both original and actual he had formerly confessed Thus Paul also doth several times with humiliation and self-debasement make mention of his former persecutions and blasphemies he had been guilty of Fourthly Whatsoever may be the opinions of men about this sinne either denying it wholly or making it universally pardoned to all mankind or at least to some when baptized of which more is to be said when we treat of the effects of original sinne Yet from this example of David and from other Texts of Scripture we see It is our duty as long as we live in this world to groan under it and bewail our miserable condition because of it SECT VIII Repentance may be taken either largely or strictly LEt therefore David's example here in the Text be more to thee than what ten thousand cavillers may say unto thee onely you must know that when we speak of sorrow and repentance about this sinne we may take repentance largely or strictly for any kind of holy sorrow and humiliaton of soul and that because God is displeased with us because we have that which is contrary to his holy Law and so is offensive to him and damnable to us and in this respect we are in a deep measure to humble our selves for original sinne as being a most grievous and hainous sinne the guilt whereof would press us into the lowest hell did not Gods grace interpose or else it may be strictly taken for a change of our mind or an alteration of that purpose and will we once had Now in this strict sense though it be our duty with sorrow to be humbled for original sinne yet we cannot be properly said to repent of it because it was not a sinne ever committed by us personally or through our own actual will So that although we may not so properly it may be exhort men to repent of this original sinne yet we must press them to a deep and daily humiliation under it and that not as a punishment or an affliction only but as a true and proper sin So that as without confession and sorrow no actual sinne will be forgiven unto a man so neither will original sinne and therefore we do by consequence in the Lords Prayer when we say Forgive us our sinnes pray not onely for the pardon of actual sinnes but original also whatsoever the Remonstrants say neither is their Argument against it of any worth when they say then the meaning likewise is in the clause following That we forgive men their trespasses and their original corruption against us for the comparison lieth not in the Nature of the sins but the manner of forgiveness otherwise when the Church prayeth for the pardon of Idolatry or any sinne against the first Table adding As we forgive others the meaning should be As we forgive them their Idolatries or sins against the first Table which would be absurd and blasphemous Besides we are not onely to forgive the actual trespasses of those who wrong us but even their thoughts and inclinations to hate us If therefore original sinne be a sinne and will damn us without Christs bloud and Gods gracious pardon thereby then we pray for the pardon of 〈◊〉 in the Lords Prayer and we are all our life long because of the reliques of it in us to humble ourselves because of it And although because Wallaeus an eminent Divine spake of Reliquiae peccats originalis The Remonstrants call it an absurd phrase For what is meant say they by these reliques of original sinne either actual sinnes or original If original why then are they called the reliques of it Yet we may say The phrase is very proper for it supposeth original sinne not to be wholly extinct
but busie and acting even in the godly and therefore we may truly say Paul Rom. 7. complained of the reliques of it It is our duty we heard from this example of David to humble our selves for the original sinne that is in us as long as we live Hence whatsoever Austin said at other times yet in one place he spake most truly in this point Propter vitium quantum libet praeferimus esse nobis necessarium dicere dimitte nobis debita nostra cum jam omnia in Baptismo dicta facta cogitate dimissa sint Epist 29 Because of original sinne although we have never so much profited yet we are to pray that God would forgive us our sins This truth is the more diligently to be pressed upon us by how much the more doctrinal opinions have risen up against it for those that deny any such thing they must needs make confessions of it to be a lie and a meer mockery And as for the Papist though most of them hold original sinne to be truly a sinne yet they say Baptism is instituted for the remission of that as repentance is for actual sins So that it should seem by their Doctrine Confession and godly sorrow are required only to take away actual sinne but as for original Baptism in the very opere operato doth remove it for no Infant can put an obex to hinder the effect of that Sacrament Hence it is that Almain a rational Schoolman Opus de peccato orig pag. 72. maketh this Objection Suppose an adultus a man grown up be to baptized and at that very time he puts some obex by a gross sinne to hinder the fruit of Baptism How then can that man saith he ever have his original sin pardoned for there is not a second Baptism and repentance is only to take away actual To this he answers That such a man is not indeed either to have attrition or contrition or confession of original sinne for as it was not contracted by our free-will so it doth not require such a nolition whereby I would not have been born in it Therefore such a man in his opinion is to repent of that sinne which was the obex and then when that is repented of original sinne is forgiven by the very receiving of Baptism I bring this instance to shew That according to the Popish Doctrine which yet holds original sinne yet there is to be no sorrow no contrition or confession yea that we are not to have a nolition of it because it was not committed by our free-will Bellarmine likewise lib. 1. de Sacramento Baptismi cap. 9 saith Originale paccatum non est materia poenitentiae nemo enim rectè poenitentiam agit ejus peccati quod ipse non commisit quod in ejus potestate non fuit Although Onuphrius De poenitentia Disp 3. Sect. 1. Quaest 5. brings out of Aquinas that distinction I mentioned before viz. of Repentance taken strictly and largely and in this later he joyneth with Aquinas holding it necessary for original sinne opposing Medina who affirmed That Repentance taken any way though never so largely was not necessary for original sinne But our Doctrine out of this Text will endure as gold and precious stone when that errour will be Conteâ—â—ed as hay and stubble For as actual sinne so neither original sinne will be forgiven to any persons grown up unless they do acknowledge and with true 〈◊〉 of heart bewail it so that many commands which are to confes 〈…〉 to bewail it and to abhorre our selves because of it as also to pray eaâ—â—â—ly and fervently for pardon must extend to original sinne as well as actual neither is Baptism a Seal of the pardon of original sinne onely but of all 〈◊〉 sinns to grown persons which shall by faith make an holy improvement of that Ordinance only it is true as was hinted before there is some difference in our godly sorrow for original sinne and for actual SECT IX The Difference between Godly Sorrow for Original Sinne and Actual FIrst Repentance or change of our minds and wils is not strictly and properly for original sinne because that was not actually committed by us neither was it ever in our own single persons to have prevented it yet in respect of sorrow detestation and self-abomination so we are as much if not more to bewail our selves than for actual sin Secondly Again In actual sins there is this necessity in our repentance That we do so no more he only truly repents that doth not commit those gross sins again at least not habitually or customarily as our Saviour said to one Go thy way and sin no more but this will not hold in original sinne we cannot say we will have it no more within us we cannot say this Jebusite shall abide no longer within our borders for we shall alwayes carry about with us this body of sinne And therefore in the third place Original sinne and actual differ exceedingly in this That actual sinne when pardoned both the sinne itself and it's guilt is removed but in original sinne though the guilt be removed in the godly neither is it imputable to them yet the sinne it self in some measure and power remaineth with us as is more largely to be shewed in time Onely you see some difference there is in our sorrow and humiliation between original and actual yet not such but that in respect of deep confession and humble acknowledgement both are alike so that we cannot have any pardon of either without such contrite hearts as the Scripture speaks of and it is good to consider the grounds why we ought to be greatly debased and to lay our selves so low under this consideration SECT X. Reasons why we must be humbled for Original Sinne. FIrst Because original sinne is in some sense all sinne It is the universal contagion of all the parts of the soul it hath Maculam universalem all actual sins they have only their particular spot or stain and do more immediately pollute that power or faculty of the soul it is immediately subjected in as blindness of mind doth properly infect the understanding not the will or affections so contumacy in the will doth not but by consent or sympathy as it were infect the mind but original sinne doth pollute all over it 's like a Gangrene over the whole body whereas actual sinnes are like so many several sores Thus original sinne is universal subjectively there being no part of a man no not his mind or his conscience but it is all over defiled whereas no actual sinne hath such a general defilement with it Oh then what cause is here why our hearts should bitterly mourn and even roar out for this sinne makes thy soul all over like a Blackmoor Thou mayest behold thy self in the glass of Gods word and not see one fair spot it is a leprosie upon the whole soul so that it leaveth nothing good in thee It 's true the substance and faculties of
depriving us of all spiritual sense and feeling So that by it we are put into this sad perpiexity for none need or are bound more to bewail this sinne than an unregenerate man and yet he cannot send forth the least sigh and groan because of it So that hereby we have contracted such an unavoidable exigency upon us that we cannot turn our selves any way mourn and cry we must for this pollution yet mourn and cry we cannot because this is one inseparable effect of it to take away all tendernesse and mourning Hence the stony heart mentioned by Ezekiel Chap. 11. 18. is in a great measure original sinne Till therefore we are regenerated as we see in David Job and Paul we cannot truly mourn under it Lastly This is a work to do as long as we live Because it 's inseparable from our natures while we live in this world God indeed could in our life time wholly free us from it as well as at death but he lets these reliques continue that our tryumph at the Day of Judgement may be the greater Vivum captivum reservantur ad tryumphum Captives are preserved alive for the greater trymph And the rather God doth this that so even his very Pauls his most eminent and choicest servants may have matter of debasement within themselves and more earnestly groan for a day of Redemption A TREATISE OF Original Sin The Second Part. SHEWING VVhat ORIGINAL SINNE is AND How it is Communicated By Anthony Burgess ANCHORA SPEI LONDON Printed in the Year 1658. A TREATISE OF Original Sinne. PART II. CHAP. I. Of the Name Old-man given to Original Sinne SECT I. ROM 6. 6. Knowing this that our Old-man is crucified with Christ c. IN the beginning of the Chapter the Apostle informeth us That no Gospel priviledges or Evangelical grace amplified to the highest may encourage to sinne for the Apostle maketh an Objection himself from the Doctrine he delivered If grace abound where sinne doth abound then why may not we sinne more that grace may abound more Thus there have alwayes been some who have turned bread into stones and fish into serpents making the grace of God to exclude our duty and a tender care against sinne But the Apostle as if blasphemy were in this Objection tryeth out God forbid You see with what indignation and detestation we should look upon all those Doctrines which under pretence of advancing Grace do cry down Duties and an holy life making it a legal and a servile thing Now the Apostle bringeth an Argument against indulgence in sinne notwithstanding Gods grace Because we are dead to it and then how can we live to it Would it not be a monstrous and an afrighting sight to see dead men come out of their graves to live and walk amongst us Thus also it ought to be no less wonderfull yea terrible to see a Christian give himself to any evil way And that we are dead to sinne he proveth by our Baptism concerning which he speaks admirable and sublime matter So that if we consider what great things are here spoken of it we may wonder to see how cold and rare our meditations are about it for he makes it to be that Sacrament in the right use whereof we put on Christ yea that thereby we are ingraffed and implanted into him Hence ver 5. he useth that word of being planted into him a metaphor from the Husbandman who by planting his Science into another stock doth thereby make it partake of the life or death of the Tree if the Tree liveth that liveth if the Tree dieth that dieth so it is with us and Christ By the phrase then is intended no more than our communion with and interest in Christ and that both in his death and his resurrection For you must know that the Scripture doth not only make Christs death and resurrection to be the cause of the death of our sins and of our spiritual resurrection to holiness but also makes them types and resemblances of such things in us That as Christ died in his passible body so we should die to sinne and as Christ after his death did rise again to glory and immortality thus we should rise out of sinne to walk in newness of life and both these are signified in Baptism 1. Our Communion with Christ in the efficacy of his death and resurrection 2. The Representation of this that what was corporally done to Christ should be spiritually fulfilled in us and therefore some think that the Apostle doth allude to that primitive Rite and Custom which was in baptizing when the baptized party was first put under the water for a little season which represented Christs burial and our death to sinne 2. There was the emersion or rising again out of the waters which signified Christs Resurrection and also our rising again to holiness and godliness This is the Summe of the Apostles discourse concerning Baptism in its sacramental signification which he amplifieth further in my Text and that as a reason why we should not live to sinne who were baptized into Christ viz. Because our Old man is crucified with Christ Both because Christ in being crucified did subdue thereby the dominion of sinne and also we are to do to the body of sinne within us what was done to Christs body to crucifie it and thereby to destroy it There is nothing more to be enquired into in the Text but what is meant by our Oldman They limit it too much that understand it only of the habit or acquired custom of sinne which we live in before Regeneration as Grotius seemeth to understand But we are to take it as both Popish and Protestant Commentators do interpret it for that vicious and corrupt nature which we all derive from Adam putting it self forth into several lusts and ungodly actions wherby there is an habituated inveterated custom at last in sin so that although we may understand lusts and actual impieties with long custom therin under the phrase of the Old man yet principally and chiefly we are to interpret it of that polluted nature we have from Adam and this will easily appear to be so if you consider the other two places where this expression is used Ephes 4. 22. That ye put off the Old man c. and that ye put on the New man Col. 3. 9 10. Ye have put off the Old man with his deeds and have put on the New man Where 1. You see the Old man is distinguished from the effects and deeds of it which are actual sins And then 2. Old man and New man are made two immediate opposites now the New man is plainly expressed by the Apostle what it is viz. not so much actual holiness as the Image of God repaired in us so that as the New man is the Image of God and that holy nature repaired in us so the Old man is the contrary to this viz. a deprivation of that Image of God and and an universal
of sinne is expresly said to be in the members And whereas the Apostle in that verse saith He seeth a Law in his members bringing him into captivity to the Law of sinne that doth not argue a distinction between these but according to the use of the Scripture the Antecedent is repeated for the Relative the sense being That the Law of his members did bring Paul into captivity to it notwithstanding the Law of the mind with in him as Gen. 9. 16. I will remember saith God himself the everlasting Covenant between God that is my self and every living creature We see then in these words that the Apostle giveth another name to that original sinne which dwelleth in him he calleth it very emphatically The Law of sinne in him Original corruption is even in Paul though converted how much more in all unregenerate persons by way of a Law From whence observe That the Scripture cals original sin the Law of sin Within us SECT II. TO understand this take notice of these things First The Apostle in his Epistles doth delight to use the word Law and that when speaking of contrary things The Law of God the Law of Works This he mentioneth properly but then he cals it The Law of faith because the Hebrew word for Law signifieth no more than Doctrine for Torath either comes they say from a word that signifieth to appoint or teach or from a word that signifieth to rain because saith Chemnitius as the raine is gathered together in the clouds not to be kept there but to be emptied on the earth that so it may be made fruitfull Thus the Law of God was appointed by God not meerly to be written in the Bible but also to be implanted in our hearts The word then in the Hebrew signifying Doctrine in the general no wonder if the Gospel be called The Law of Faith So Regeneration Rom. 8. is called The Law of the Spirit of life as in other places it is The Law of God written in our hearts but the Apostle doth not only apply it to these things but especially in this Chapter he cals it The Law of sinne not sin only but the Law of sinne and the Law in our members why the Apostle doth so you shall hear anon Only In the second place you must consider when the Apostle cals it The Law of sinne it is in an improper and abusive or allusive sense for a Law properly is only of that which is good the matter of a Law must be honest and just because a Law is pars juris and Jus is à justo Therefore Aquinas saith That unjust Laws are rather violentia than leges Yea Tully saith Such Decrees are neither Leges nor ne appellandae quidem yet the Scripture speaks of some who make iniquity a Law Psal 99. 20. or who frame mischief for a Law Tacitus complaineth of the multitude of Laws in his time and saith The Commonwealth groaned ut flagitiis ita legibus So that although the properties of a Law are to be good and profitable yet by allusion all unjust and hurtfull Decrees are called Laws and thus the Apostle cals it the Law of sinne alluding to those properties or effects which a Law hath What the Law of God doth in a regenerate man the contrary doth the Law of sinne in a natural man SECT III. Original Sinne compared to a Law in five respects ORiginal sinne therefore may be compared to a Law in these respects First A Law doth teach and direct Lex est lux It informeth and teacheth what is to be done Thus the Schoolmen they make Direction the first thing necessary to a Law The work of grace in a godly man is called by the Apostle The Law of the mind in this Chapter Because grace within a man doth teach and direct him what to do Hence 1 John 2. 27. the godly man is said to have an anointing within him The Law of God is written in his inward parts and so from within as well as by the Word without they are taught what to do Thus on the contrary the Law of sinne in a natural man doth teach and prompt him to all kind of evil This Law of sinne doth not indeed teach what we ought to do but it doth wonderfully suggest all kind of wickedness to us and from this cause it is that you see children no sooner able to act but they can with all readiness runne into evil sinnes that they have not seen committed before their eyes they can with much dexterity accomplish What a deal of instruction and admonition is requisite to nurture your young ones in the fear of the Lord And all is little enough And why is this The Law of God is not in their hearts they have not that in them which would direct and teach holiness But on the other side children need not to be taught wickedness you need not instruct them how to sinne they have much artifice and cunning in an evil way And why so The Law of sinne is in them this is that they are bred with So that as the young ones of Foxes and Serpents though they have no teacher yet from the Law of nature within them they grow subtil and crafty in their mischievous wayes Thus the Law of sinne doth in every man he is ingenious and wise to do evil As the ground ere it will bring forth corn doth need much labour and tillage but of it self bringeth forth bryars and thorns Thus all by nature are so foolish and blind that without heavenly education and institution you cannot bring them to that which is holy but of their own selves men have subtilty and abilities to frame mischievous things And why is all this They have a Law of sinne within them which directs suggests and informeth to do much evil So that we are not to put all upon the Devil to say He put it into my minde he suggested such thoughts to me No the Law of sinne within thee can sufficiently prompt thee to all evil Secondly A Law doth not onely teach but it doth instigate and incline it presseth and provoketh to the things commanded by it Thus the Law of the mind in a godly man doth greatly instigate and provoke him to what is good It is like a goad in his side it is like fire in his bowels he must do that which is good else he cannot have any rest within him You read when David refrained for a while from speaking good at last he could hold no longer but the fire did break out So Paul 2 Cor. 5. The love of Christ constraineth us Thus the true believer he hath a principle of grace within him which is like a Law upon him he cannot do otherwise he must obey it Thus on the contrary Original sinne in a natural man is like a Law within him it provoketh him it enflameth him to all evil Whensoever any holy duty is pressed upon him this Law of sinne stirreth him
is flesh as well as spirit in the best performances This close subtil insinuating nature of original sinne is the cause why a godly man can never know the bottom of his heart This makes so many hypocrites and apostates This is it that makes a man so uncertain about himself for when he hath done all that we would think there were no danger yet some embers or other may lie as it were under the ashes and set all on flame Lastly When it saith Evil is present with us that denoteth the molesting and retarding nature of it stopping us in all the good we would do This is that especially for which Paul makes this sad complaint so that he cannot step one step but sinne puls him back again This is the milstone about the neck This is the clog and burden upon every man Oh Lord I would even flie up into heaven but this burden doth press me down When we would runne our spiritual race this makes us halt Vse Of Instruction to abhorre all such Doctrines as teach a perfection that holdeth We may attain to be without sin in this life Some Anabaptists and Papists though so extreamly contrary yet have understood that place Ephes 5. 27. Not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing to be fulfilled in this life forgetting the words before that he might present it to himself a glorious Church so that till this be done it is not without spot And near to these are such who though sinne be every way present in them yet because of their pharisaical and doubled minds as Paul once was they do not discover or feel any such thing But let the tender enlightned heart go into Gods presence and sadly bewail himself saying O Lord How ill is it with me What shall I think or say of my self How unspeakable is my misery I might have thought all sin within me even dead and buried But oh how it stirreth Oh how ready is it to put forth it self Lord I know not how to live with this burden and yet I cannot live without it I should utterly faint but that thy grace is sufficient for me CHAP. V. Of that Name The Sinne that doth so easily beset us given to Original Sinne. SECT I. HEB. 12. 1. And the Sinne which doth so easily beset us THe Apostle from those several Examples of many Worthies recorded in the former Chapter which he cals A Cloud of Witnesses partly for the multitude of them and partly for Direction As the Israelites had a Cloud to guide them in the wilderderness doth inferre a conclusion by way of Incouragement to go on constantly in the way of Christianity which he doth here as in other places compare to a running in the race This similitude sheweth the Difficulty in the race the Earnestness the Fortitude and Patience that ought to be in such who will be saved What an antidote should the meditation of this expression be against all dulness slothfulness and negligence whose life is like a running in a race to Heaven Now the Apostle following this Metaphor exhorts to lay aside all those burdens that may hinder us in this work It would be 〈◊〉 in him who is to runne a race to put burdens upon his back and lay as many heavy weights upon himself as he can No lesse absurd are they who give way to sinne in the lusts thereof and yet hope to arrive at Heaven Now the burden we are to lay aside is expressed in two words 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 weight by this is meant all actual sinne especially love and cares about the world for the earth is an element that descends downward and so he who hath an earthly heart cannot but have his soul presse downward 2. There is the Root and cause of this expressed in that phrase The sinne that doth so easily beset us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word is but once used and that in this place it 's a two fold compound and so the more emphatical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much here as easie and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that it is a sinne which besetteth and compasseth us about and that very easily it finds no resistance neither have we any power to withstand it Some understand this of actual sinnes but not only Protestant Interpreters but even some Papists also Ribera and others understand it of Concupiscence within us The word is made a Metaphor several wayes Erasmus renders it Tenaciter adhaerentem That sinne which doth so tenaciously adhere to us making it an Allâ—sion to Ezekiel Chap. 24. where there is a Pot set on the fire yet all the fire and burning cannot get off the rust and filth that cleaveth to it Gretius makes it to respect Lament 1. 14. where there are yokes and bands mentioned about the neck which are impediments to the beast in his going Others they make the Metaphor from a Wall or an hedge that stops the passenger in his way Yea Lapide following others makes it to be the outward temptations or the dangers that are in the way by enemies and adversaries to the Truth but the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not well agree to that Hesichius rendereth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Varinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If we compare this expression with what Paul saith of himself Rom. 7 concerning original sinne keeping and pressing him down we may well with Beza put a procul dubto upon that exposition which doth apply it to original sinne for that indeed is the onely weight that doth constantly and perpetually beset us and hinder us in our way to Heaven and that with all ease and facility Observe then That original sinne is the sinne which doth so easily beset us That doth circumcingere as Beza saith bind us up strait and close that our limbs are not expedite and free to runne our holy race So that it is with us as a racer that hath his arms or legs bound his garments so strait-laced to him that he cannot have that liberty and freedom to runne as he doth desire Some consider the word as it did allude to a milstone about the neck plunging us down into the Sea SECT II. What is implied in that Expression So easily beset us LEt us take notice What is contained in this excellent and emphatical word And First There is implied our utmost impotency and inability to shake off the power of it For although the Apostle exhorteth us to lay it aside yet that must be understood as a duty alwayes in doing that we are neverable to compleatfully and perfectly You see though they are godly to whom he writeth and they are already in the race yet it is their work daily to be unburdenning of themselves When therefore it 's called The sinne so easily besetting us hereby is taught us our inability and insufficiency to withstand it Insomuch that all those Doctrines which teach Free-will and a power to do what is good are justly to be
abandoned John 15. when separated from Christ we cannot do any thing and therefore are said to be not asleep but even dead in sinne so that no Infant new born is more unable to help it self than we are to promote the good of our own souls This therefore must be laid as a foundation without this our humiliation doth not goe deep enough We are to lie bemoaning our selves as that poor Cripple which had no power to put himself into the water And indeed till we be sensible of this impotency we cannot expect that Christ will help us When that Cripple said He had no man than our Saviour relieved him Oh then bewail the strait and misery thou art in If it were a temporal calamity thou wert in and such as neither thou thy self or any man in the world could help thee How greatly would it afflict thee But now though neither men or Angels can deliver thee out of this spiritual evil yet thou doest not lay it to heart Secondly As it densteth that our power to good is lost by this original sinne So also our will and desire For why should it be said to beset us so easily But because we have neither power or will against it so that till the principle of Regeneration be infused into us sinne hath defiled our will as well as our power as we cannot so neither we will not gain say the lusts thereof We must not then conceive of man as indeed miserably polluted and such as cannot help himself but is very willing and heartily desireth to be freed from this bondage but his will is as grosly polluted as any thing He willeth not the things of God he loveth not yea he hateth every thing that is spiritual and holy Insomuch that we may truly say That the actual wickednesse in mens lives doth not onely arise from weaknesse and impotency to what is holy but from an unwillingnesse and an aversnesse to it Though they be allured with the glorious promises of Gods favour and eternal glory Though the terrors of God and the everlasting flames of hell be set before them yet they will not Though their consciences be convicted though the word of God be plain against their lusts so that they cannot tell what to say yet they will not So that herein lieth the sad and dreadfull efficacy of original sinne that it hath corrupted the will all over so that whereas we will the lusts of the flesh the pleasures of sinne the comforts of the world we have no will to what is good If then the will which is the appetitus universalis and like the primum mobile that doth carry all the inferiour orbs with it be thus infected with sinne no wonder if we be easily beset by it This is to bribe the Commander in Chief that ruleth all and so it is no wonder if all be at last betrayed into the hands of sinne and Satan Thirdly When original sinne is said thus to beset us and compasse us about hereby is denoted What an impediment and hinderance it is to us in our way to Heaven that were it not for this clog upon us we should with all chearfulness and alacrity runne the way of Gods Commandments It is this that makes the Chariot-wheels of the soul move so slowly It is this that stops us in the way that makes us draw back SECT III. How many wayes Original Sinne is a Burden and an Hinderance unto us NOw because this property is chiefly aimed at by the Apostle in this expression viz. that it is a burden an hinderance a stop to us while we are in our race Let us consider How many wayes original sinne is a burden and hinderance so that if this were removed there would be no complaints of the difficulty that we find to what is good yea the more perfect and spiritual any duty is the more pleasing and acceptable it would be to an heart eased of this burden And First Original sinne is a burden incurvando By bowing down and pressing to the soul to these creatures here below So that now by nature the creature with the comforts thereof is the center of a mans heart is the ultimate object his soul is placed upon God indeed made man after his own image and then his heart his affections they did all ascend upwards to God then he could not satiate or fully delight himself in any thing but God but through this original sinne a man is habitually averse to God and converted to the creatures So that God is not in all his thoughts yea Ephes 2. 2. they are said to be without God in the world Even as the body of a man when deprived of its sense falleth prostrate presently upon the ground so when that original righteousness was removed which was the soul of the soul presently we fall downwards to the creatures knowing no better good nor desiring any better comforts but what are in them No marvel then if this make the godly go stooping and bowing down because it depresseth and leaneth to the creature leaving God That as you see the body is a burden to the soul especially if diseased which made Plato say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very grave and sepulchre of the soul Thus original sin is a spiritual burden to it that there cannot be those ascensions and elevations of the mind to God as ought to be Secondly It 's an impediment in our race Obnitendo by a plain opposing and contrary thwarting of any good that the Spirit of God either externally offers or internally operates Thus this native sinne doth with all violence oppose and thwart whatsoever is spiritual Therefore you see the Apostle expressing this resistance by military words that it doth warre against him and sometimes lead him into captivity Thus even a Paul is like a poor captive or prisoner carried up and down whether he would not Now this obnitency and reluctancy of original sinne is seen two wayes against what is good 1. There is a good published and tendered by the preaching of the Gospel God doth by that proffer unto us everlasting and eternal life but this original sinne stirreth up a man to reject it and to refuse it it 's no sutable or acceptable offer to our natures no more than pearls or sweet flowers are to the beastly Swine Indeed when a people have lived long under the preaching of the Gospel yet do reject it and oppose it loving darkness rather than light these have a double blindness and hardness upon them The natural one by original sinne and the habitual contracted one which they are justly delivered up into by God for the contempt of the light they do enjoy but I speak here only of the natural blindness and natural hardness upon our hearts So that upon the very first offers and tenders of grace the first Sermon that ever we hear the first time that the Gospel doth sound in our ears we
live where you have the duty supposed to mortifie that implieth it is not enough to forbear from the actings of sinne but they must kill it Sinne may be left upon many considerations yet not mortified Look therefore that sinne be dead in thee and not asleepy or onely restrained for a season Again To mortifie signifieth the pain and renitency that is in the unregenerate part against this Duty A wicked man had almost as willingly be killed as leave his lusts This sheweth how fast sinne is rooted in us more than a tooth in the jaw or the soul in the body and if any of these are not taken away without much pain and trouble no wonder if the leaving of our corruptions be so troublesom to us Lastly This word supposeth It 's a constant work we are alwayes mortifying alwayes crucifying This is spoken to comfort the godly that they should not wholly be dejected if they find some actings and stirrings of sinne still within them SECT III. SEcondly There is the Object of this Duty and that is The deeds of the body Many translate it The deeds of the flesh for that which was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before is here called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now this body is not only sinne putting it self forth in bodily actions but it is the same with flesh which is original corruption defiling the whole man So that the body here as Beza doth well observe is The whole man in soul and body while unregenerate for the flesh the body here spoken of by the Apostle is in the soul as well as body it is every thing that is opposite to God in a man whether it be in his mind or in his flesh So that Austin said The Epicurean he saith Frui carne meâ est bonum to enjoy the flesh is good The Stock he saith Frui mente meâ est bonum to enjoy my mind is good but both are deceived for to enjoy God only is good and both the body and the mind are all over defiled with sin SECT IV. LAstly There is the Efficient Cause by which we mortifie the deeds of the body and that is the Spirit It 's not our power but Gods Spirit that conquereth these lusts for us Observe That original sinne is a body in us It is a body both in our soul and body it 's called a body not properly as if it were a substance but metaphorically and allusively So Rom. 6. 6. it 's called The body of sinne and certainly it may as well be called so as flesh and the old man SECT V. Why Original Sinne is called a Body BUt let us consider Why it hath such a name given to it And First It is to shew That original sinne doth not lie latent in our breasts but putteth it self forth visibly in all the operations of the body That as the Godhead is said to dwell in Christ boaâ—ly and the Word was made flesh because the Divine Nature which is immaterial and invisible did through the body become as it were visible Thus we may say Original sinne dwelleth in us bodily and that it is made our flesh because in and through all bodily actions it doth manifest it self both to our selves and others It is then the body of sinne because it makes it self outward visible and doth as it were incarnate sinne hence it is called the outward man Indeed it is disputed whether 2 Cor. 4. 16. where the Apostle saith Though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed daily By outward man there is meant the body only or original sinne in the bodily deeds thereof Most do interpret it of the body only yet Paraeus understands it of original sinne with the body That as the body and original corruptions with the effects thereof are constantly dying being mortified by the Spirit of God so the inward man which is the work of grace is daily more confirmed Howsoever this be yet it is plain Rom. 7. 22. That the work of grace within us being called the inward man that by opposition original corruption must be the outward man and therefore called The Law in our members It is thought by Nerimbergius that the Apostle taketh this distinction of an outward and inward man from Plato out of whom he quoteth a place with some vicinity to Paul's expression This is certain That original sinne may well be called a body and the Law in our members because by these it doth so palpably put forth its self Insomuch that we may wonder any will not believe there is original sinne for it is obvious to the sense they may behold the effects of it that as you may know a man hath a soul because he speaketh and laugheth though you cannot see the soul Thus though you cannot see original sinne yet because as soon as ever the child can speak or do any thing you see vanity and sinne put forth it self therefore you may conclude there is original sinne Thou then that wilt not be convinced of it by Scripture by reasons and several Authorities we send thee to experience You cannot go from house to house from Town to Town from company to company but you may see the effects and actings of original sinne If you say It 's mens actual sins and custom therein that makes them so vile It is true But still we ask Whence came the custom Whence came they to have those actings Certainly those streams could not have been polluted if the fountain had not been and if original sinne did not infect our natures why should not men generally as well act that which is good and obtain a custom in that which is commendable Therefore experience thy eyes thy ears may convince thee of this bodily sinne Secondly The Apostle calleth it a Body to answer those other expressions that he useth about it for he often calleth upon us to mortifie to kill to crucifie this original sinne Now to mortifie and crucifie are properly relating to a Body we do not say properly accidents or qualities are crucified To make therefore the expression harmonious he calleth it a Body Howsoever therefore it is with our natural body that no man ever yet hated his own flesh we are to nourish and cherish that and it would be murder to mortifie that body yet this Body of sinne is to be kept under we are not to spare it but by the Spirit of God to be constantly crucifying of it neither let that discourage thee because as you heard this will be painfull and grievous to flesh and blood for you must conclude upon this That the way to Heaven is narrow and straight there must be constant violence and opposition to all natural inclinations Every godly man may well be called a Martyr for though he may feel no pain in the killing of his natural body yet he must and will feel much exercise in killing the body of sinne but better endure some grief here than eternal torments hereafter
Pharisee to boast saying He was not a prophane grosse sinner like a Publican he did not wallow in bodily sinnes of the flesh for he was dangerously diseased with soul sinnes The flesh there made him abominable in the eyes of God for that which they did so highly exalt it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before God What an heavy and sad deceit will this prove when thou shalâ— find that wherein thou blessest thy self and applaudest thy self in will be thy condemnation as Christ told the Pharisees Moses in whom ye trust he will condemn you Oh that this Truth might be like a sword piercing into the secrets of your heart How wilt thou be overwhelmed when that which thou hopest will save thee that will damn thee There is a carnal Religion there is a fleshly devotion in which men putting their confidence may thereby be condemned as well as by grosse prophanenesse Certainly this confidence in what religious duties we perform as some at the last day will plead Have not we prophesied and wrought miracles in thy Name doth insensibly and incurably damn the greatest part of formal Christians and it is very hard to make them discern or judge themselves carnal in this To trust in the arm of flesh they will acknowledge quickly to be a sinne but to trust and rest in the holy duties they have performed out of this sinne no sonnes of Boanerges can awaken them Fourthly A man is naturally carnal in all his religious performances Because when he dâ—h them it is not out of any love to God to exalt and honour him but out of love to himself thinking thereby to aveiâ— some judgement or other It is true we deny not but it's lawfull to serve God to be humbled for sinne with respect to our own good that we may escape temporal evil but yet we are not to do it principally and chiefly for this we are not to uti Deo and frui Creaturis to enjoy the creatures for themselves as the utmost end and make use of God only for our outward help as John 6. 26. our Saviour told the multitude that followed him That they did seek him only because they did eat of the loaves and were siled This is a fundamental principle of flesh in every man by nature not to love himself subordinately to God but God subordinately to himself which is a sinne of a very high nature and immediately opposing the great majesty of God They worship God upon no other reason then what some Heathens did sacrifice to the Devils Tantùm ne noceant That they might do them no hurt I 〈◊〉 not then out of any love to God or desire to magnifie him but wholly for their own ends and hence it is that they alter and change the worship and wayes of God as they please and as it serveth for any political interest as you see in Jeroboam and other wicked Kings Whence is all this but because they make themselves the Alpha and Omega Et Deus non erit Dens nisi homini placuerit How could men thus break the statutes and ordinances of God but because they make their own advantages the supreme Law as if God were for them and they not for him Hence it is also that the Scripture complaineth so much of men Walking in their own Imaginations And Jeroboam 1 King 12. 33. is branded for this that he set up such a worship and Ministry that he had devised of his own heart This then is a sure demonstration of our fleshly minds that in our worship and duties we regard not divine Institutions and Gods Rule but attend only to what is subservient to our purpose Now the foundation of all this is because we do not look upon God as supreme to whom all our senses should bow but referre him and his glory to our selves The Apostle 2 Cor. 5. 16. speaketh of knowing Christ after the flesh and so there is also a knowing of God after the flesh which is when we doe not things purely and sincerely out of respect to his Name but for our own profit and benefit Take heed then of this fleshly frame in thy approaches to God Fifthly The fleshly mind of a man is seen in his spiritual transactions between God and himself In that he doth wholly conceive and imagine such a God and Christ not as the Scripture represents but as he would have and doth most suit with his carnal disposition This is greatly to be observed for because of this though they hear never so much of God and Christ yet because they think them to be such as they would have a God of their own making a Christ of their own making therefore they never truly repent or turn unto God for concerning God they conceive him as altogether mercifull They never think he is a just and holy God They attend not to the sury and vengeance which the Scripture saith is in him against obstinate and impenitent sinners but apprehend him to be one that loveth them and will save them though they go on in all rebellious wayes against him The Psalmist doth notably speak to this purpose Psal 50. 21. where having spoken of such hypocrites that will come and worship God though they retain their old lusts and live in all impurity he addeth Thou thoughtest I was altogether such an one as thy self They thought God was not provoked with such abominations they thought God would not be angry with them as if he were like themselves And doth not this still continue true in most prophane men Why is it that they do not tremble under the name and thoughts of God Why is it that they roar not out with fear lest God should damn them Is it not because they make a God like themselves They love themselves and acquit themselves they easily think well of themselvs and therefore they think God will do so also and thus they do likewise with Christ They represent him to be a Saviour and a Saviour only They consider not that he died to conquer the Devil to make us a peculiar people zealous of good works They attend not to the purifying and cleansing power of Christs death from the strength and power of lusts within as well as from the guilt and damnation by it which being so they can trust in Christ and put their whole hope in Christ although they live in all disobedience at the same time and therefore whereas we might wonder how prophane men can live as they do Where are their thoughts of God and Christ Why are they not stricken with astonishment when they hear of them Alas you may cease to wonder for the Scripture God the Scripture-Christ in the Scripture-way they do not think of but a God and a Christ which is a meer Idol in their own hearts set up by themselves Sixthly The fleshly mind of a man is seen in running into extreams and so never submitting themselves to Gods word which is alwayes the same So
notorious and most ungodly enemies of the Church because the seed and root of these is in all so we may appropriate this feared conscience to every man naturally whereby a man commits gross and foul sinnes and yet finds not one prick or stab at his heart for it What made David when he had numbered the people to have his heart smite him presently but because his conscience was sanctified and made tender by God whereas thou canst a thousand times fall into the same gross-sinnes and thy conscience giveth thee not one lash for it Is not this because thy conscience is stupified so that it hath made thee in all thy sinnes as Lot was when made drunk by his daughters He knew not in the morning what he had done Thus with the same stupidity and sottishness dost thou act sinne it cometh from thee as excrements from a dying person and thou hast no apprehension of them as in sleep the stomack doth digest that meat which if waking would so molest it that there would be no ease till exonerated Thus while conscience is asleep those things are committed which if it were tender it would with fear and trembling fly from O men bitterly to be lamented and mourned over Conscience which is set as a schoolemaster to direct and reproove thee is become a flatterer or rather lieth stark dead within thee that the Devil and sinne in all the lusts thereof may hurry thee whether they please and conscience doth not contradict so that you may as well offer light to the blind speech to the deaf wisedome to the bruit beast as publish the great truths and commands of God to them while conscience is thus stupified within them Therefore in conversion the first work of grace is to make this tender and sensible even of the least sinne SECT III. The Blindness and Stupidity of Conscience discovered in the several Offices and actings of it THirdly Because this pollution of the conscience is expressed in the general viz. blindness and stupidity Let us examine how this sinfullness is seen in the several offices and actings of conscience for which God hath placed it in the soul And 1. One main work of conscience is to apply what we read in the Scripture as generally spoken conscience is to apply it in particular When it readeth the threatnings and cursings of the law to such sinnes as thou art guilty of then conscience is to say This belongeth to me This curse This burden is my curse it 's my burden Because David did not let his conscience do its duty in application David could condemne sinne in general His wrath is kindled against such sinners as himself in the general Nathan was forced to be in stead of conscience to him saying Thou art the man Thus conscience if not polluted when it heareth any woe denounced against such and such sinnes then that stands up and saith Thou art the man hence God giveth the commands by particular application Thou shalt not commit adultery Thou shalt not steal that conscience may say This Commandment belongs to me As natural bodies they act by a corporal contact so the Scripture worketh upon the soul by a spiritual contact and that is the application of conscience Insomuch that if we do a thousand times read over the Scriptures if we hear Sermons upon Sermons all our life if conscience doth not apply all becomes ineffectual And this may answer that Question How it cometh to pass that a man can commit those sinnes which he knoweth to be sinnes which his conscience tells him are sinnes Who are there so much stupified and besotted by sinne that do not in the general know that the waies they live in are wicked that they provoke God that they ought not to do so How then is it possible that they should close with those sinnes that they know to be so seeing the will cannot will evil as it is evil Now the Answer is This ariseth from the defect of conscience she doth not particularly make such a powerfull application pro hic nunc as it ought to do There is therefore a general knowledge an habitual knowledge of such things to be sinnes yea it may be a particular apprehension that they are now sinning and offending God but this is onely a speculative apprehension it 's not a practical one produced by conscience in thee Oh therefore that all our Auditors were delivered from this original pollution of conscience for therefore we preach in vain and you hear in vain because no application is made to your own hearts None brings the truth the command the threatning to his own soul saying This is my portion none so guilty as I am in this particular and thus as she said to the Prophet Thou hast brought my sinnes to my mind or as the woman of Samaria concerning Christ He had told her of all that she had done Thus faith the applying conscience This Sermon brings my sinnes to my mind This Sermon tels me of the wickednesse at such a time committed by me It was the Prophets complaint of his hearers None said What have I done They did not make a particular application Therefore till the grace of God quicken the conscience making thee to cry out What shall I do I have sinned Gods Word hath found me out It is me the Law condemneth It is me that the curses belong to as if I were mentioned and named as if I had heard a voice from Heaven saying Thou Thomas Thou John here is thy sin here is thy doom Till I say this be done all thy knowledge in the general all the Texts of Scripture in thy memory they have no influence at all Secondly Herein is the corruption of the conscience naturally seen That though it doth apply yet it is in so weak and cold a manner that it hath lost its activity and predominancy over the affections and the will of a man insomuch that though conscience do speak do rebuke do apply yet a man careth not for it The affections and the will are not kept in awe by it Thus although conscience in many doth not so much as stirre it is stark dead yet in many it doth sometimes apply bringing home the Word of God to the heart so that he cannot but confesse if he doth thus and thus he sinneth but then conscience is too weak affections and passions like Amnon to Tamar are too strong and consuperate her whether she will or no Is not this the dreadfull condition of many who frequent our Congregations whose consciences condemn them daily Thou art such a sinner thy wayes are damnable but they slight and despise these applications of conscience as rude Scholars the authority of their Master what care they for the Monitor in their breast Like Balaam they will press forward to their wickedness though conscience stand like an Angel with a sword in his hand to stop in the way Rom. 1. 18. The Apostle speaketh excellently to this
purpose They detain the truth in unrighteousnesse they keep conscience a prisoner gladly would that do its duty but they imprison and shackle it now this weaknesse is come upon conscience by original sinne otherwise Samson like nothing could bind that but it would command the will and affections yea the whole man to obey it Oh the pitifull estate then of such men who are sinners against conscience prophane against conscience whose lusts are stronger then their conscience As it is with some poor prisoners they go up and down with their Keeper Thus do these men they go from place to place from company to company to commit their sins and conscience as their keeper followeth them up and down only they despise and contemn the dictates of it which will be wofull in the later end Thirdly Though conscience may apply Yet as it doth it weakly and faintly so also seldom and not constantly nor daily The Cock crew once or twice before Peter remembred himself Conscience may apply once or twice yet the noise of lusts drown the voice of it Therefore unlesse it speak frequently unless it be applying often as the Prophet did three times to the dead child there will not be any spiritual life procured Thus you have the consciences even of natural men in some fits under the expectations of some great and eminent judgements They finde the power of conscience upon them as Pharaoh Ahab and Felix who trembled under Paul's preaching but then this is a flash only it 's like a sudden clap of Thunder that terrifieth for the present but when past is presently forgotten Thus in fears of death under some powerfull Sermon thy conscience giveth a blow a sharp prick into thy heart for the while thou art in some agony in some terror but because conscience doth it not often never giving thee over till it hath recovered thee hence it is that thou returnest to thy old stupidity again Fourthly As conscience naturally doth not its duty in applying So neither in witnessing in bearing testimony to our actions which yet is one great end why conscience is put into a man It is ordinarily said Conscientia est mille testes conscience is a thousand witnesses and so indeed when it doth bear testimony to a mans action it 's more then a thousand it 's more then all the world yea it is not only mille testes but mille tortores a thousand tormentors but alas it 's so defiled that in many things if not in all things it faileth and giveth at least no true witness at all For if there were not this pollution upon it With what a loud voice would it cry to thee saying I know and God knoweth what are the sinnes that thou daily livest in What little regard this witness hath appeareth That if men can accomplish their impieties and none behold them if there be no witnesses to confirm it before men they matter not at all for the witness that conscience and God can bear against them Oh this vileness of thy heart that thou runnest from the eyes of men but not considerest the eyes of God and of thy own conscience that behold thee Though indeed thy conscience is for the most part mute and speechless le ts thee alone do what thou wilt it will not witness against thee but is bribed rather and speaks for thee and flattereth thee Bewail then the sinfulnesse upon conscience even in this very particular that it doth not bear witnesse to thy evil actions or when it doth it is so coldly and languidly that thou canst hardly hear the voice of it whereas as the Prophet which is like an external conscience in the Church is To lift up his voice like a Trumpet to inform of transgressions and not to spare Thus it should be with conscience in thee And as there is a woe to that people whose Pastor is a dumb dog no lesse is it to those whose conscience also is a dumb dog So that though the witnesses and testimonies of conscience against thy self and actions be troublesom and vexatious thou canst not eat or drink or sleep for them yet this is more hopefull and may be more preparatory to conversion then when thy conscience will say nothing or is corruptly bribed saying to thee in all thy actions as Absolom did to every one that came to him That his cause was good but above all these cold and soft whisperings of conscience as if that were afraid of thee more then thou of it are notoriously discovered in the actings of secret sinne For if thy iniquities be committed secretly though thou livest in secret uncleanness in secret thieving and cosening in thy dealings so that the world doth not know it thou thinkest all is well with thee Now how could this be if conscience did roundly bear witness to these secret sinnes This would as much shame affect and torment thee as if all the world did know what thou hast done in private Oh but this conscience is muzzled Or as was said of Demosthenei when he would not plead for a Clyent but pretended a Quinsie in his throat he did Argentanginam pati Thus thy conscience hath swallowed a Camel into its throat and so spareth thee and lets it alone Otherwise if conscience did his office thou who livest in secret sins wouldst be more molested and disquieted by its continual testimonies against thee then if all the Congregation had been spectators of thy private wickedness Therefore the pollution of the conscience by original sinne is fully proclaimed by all the hidden works of dishonesty by all the close secret sinnes committed in the world For were conscience ready to testifie it would follow thee as close as the shadow to the body as Asahel did Joah Oh then let such clandestine sinners be afraid for though conscience be now stupified yet this will one day be the gnawing worme in thee that will never die SECT IV. The Corruption of Conscience in accusing and excusing THe next particular is That in those actings of conscience which are said to be accusation and excusing even herein will appear wonderfull pollution It is as you heard grosly defiled in application and in bearing witnesse now we may hold it grievously wounded also in regard of these actings Rom. 2. 15. The Apostle speaking of conscience which is even in Heathens themselves he saith It beareth witnesse with them and thereupon their thoughts are accusing or excusing one another But if we do consider how naturally conscience behaveth it self in these workings we shall have cause to be astonished at all the evil which is come upon us For in the duty of accusing is it not wholly silent Do not men runne into all excess of riot Do they not imbrace any wickedness suggested Yet where is that Murmuratio and remorsus as they express it Where is that regreting that smiting of conscience which ought to be Oh how busie is the Devil as when he possessed some bodies to make
God and therefore they cry out to have such usages still and all because custome hath prevailed over them These and such like things may appear like conscience in a man so that our conscience must be greatly polluted when the very subject it self is not known when we cannot discern whether it be conscience or corruption that doth instigate thee when we cannot Sentire illam quae facit nos sentire Conscience that maketh us perceive other things that it self is difficulty perceived for that it is not conscience but some other corrupt principle that moveth a man will easily appear in that it is mutable and changeable according to outward advantages that which was thy conscience one moneth is not the next because there are outward changes When Shechem would be circumcised it was not for conscience but for Dinah's sake whom he loved When Jeroboam erected an Altar it was not for conscience sake but carnal policy So that the mutability of thy soul turning as advantages do this argueth it 's not conscience but some other corrupt principle in thee as when they cried Hosannah to Christ and afterwards Crucifie him SECT VI. The Pollution of Conscience discovered in many more particulars ALthough much hath been said to the discovering of every mans polluted conscience by nature yet because conscience is such an Abyssus a deep Sea wherein are creeping things innumerable many depravations and defilements our work shall be still to make a further searching and diving into it Whereas therefore the last particular mentioned of the natural pollution of conscience was in regard of the multiformity of it and divers resemblances of conscience which yet were not conscience indeed this bringeth in another particular defilement of some affinity with it And that is First Suppose that it be not lust or humour but conscience indeed that putteth thee upon duties and those commanded yet how hardly are they done for conscience sake It 's not any lust but conscience maketh many men pray hear and perform such duties yet it is not conscience that is the motive it is some other sinister and unlawfull reason that insinuateth it self so that the same duties may be done out of conscience to God by some and from corrupt sinfull motives by others The Apostle Rom. 13. 5. pressing obedience to Magistrates because it might be thought that Christian liberty freed them from any such yoke he urgeth it Not onely for fear but for conscience sake So that if it had been onely fear to lose their estates to lose their lives and not out of conscience to Gods Ordinance though they did obey yet it was sinfull and ungodly in them because of their motive thereunto This also the Apostle Peter speaketh of 1 Pet. 2. 19. whence he instanceth in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A conscience of God or as we render it A conscience towards God as 1 Pet. 3. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not to be understood subjectively as if God had a conscience for although God have infinite knowledge and in that sense may be said to be conscious with our hearts of all the evil we have done yea knoweth more sin by us then we do by our selves yet we cannot attribute conscience to God because the notion of that is to denote the sense and aw of some superior who beareth witnes of our evil actions and is able to condemn for them conscience therfore is in Angels because they have a superior they are not to be a rule to themselvs and Christ also had an holy undefiled conscience which yet because of our sins was greatly afflicted with the sense of Gods wrath but God having no Superiour therefore he hath indeed infinite knowledge but not conscience Hence when the Apostle cals it conscience of God that is objectively a conscience which doth respect the will and authority of God that doth not look to men to their applause and praise but unto God So that herein will appear an universal pollution naturally upon the consciences of all men that the good things they do the evil things they abstain from is not from meer conscience to God but because of humane and earthly considerations How many come to our Congregations How many frequent Ordinances Is it because of conscience to God they have a reverential fear of him they dare not displease him No but only the Laws of the Land or some outward constraint maketh them do so it 's not pure conscience Thus also there are many devoted sonnes of Belial to all prophanenesse that would with all their hearts runne into all excesse of rioting into drunkennesse and uncleannesse but they dare not they are kept off as a dog from the bone with a whip All their desire is towards it but the penalty and justice which the Civil Magistrate will inflict upon him this maketh him forbear it 's farre from any conscience towards God that doth restrain them Oh then bewail the corruption of man in this kind never in any duties carried out for conscience sake never abstaining from sin for conscience sake but because of punishment and the judgment of others Therefore in private though God seeth thee as well as if it were at the Market-crosse they can runne into all leudnesse Oh if it were conscience to God thou wouldst â—ake heed of heart-sinnes as well as of bodily thou wouldst be afraid to sinne in secret as well as in publique because God is every where and knoweth all things and thou hast a conscience towards him And no wonder if conscience be thus predominantly polluted in natural men for even in the godly themselves how often do they find proud vain self-seeking thoughts insinuate into them So that it 's not only out of conscience to God they do their best duties Do not some vain-glorious thoughts like so many thieves secretly creep into the heart and are ready to rob thee of thy treasure It is true indeed to the gracious heart these are a burden and therefore with Abraham they drive away these flies from the Sacrifice yet they come again They do Repellendo tenere and tenendo repellere as Tertullian in another case they beat them back and yet they hold them also they strive with them and yet imbrace them Thus many a sinfull motion and vain thought is like Bernard's unclean suggestion which he found Blande onerosa displicendo placens and Placendo displicens kindly troublesom and coming in with a displeasing pleasure Insomuch that the godly themselves find the weight of original corruption upon their consciences in this respect even till their last hour They do not they cannot find their consciences so purely and sincerely drawn out to God in the duties they perform as they do desire Paul indeed 2 Cor. 1. 12. saith Our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdome we had our conversation in the world And again 2 Cor. 2. 17. As of God
in the sight of God we speak in Christ Here was conscience and pure conscience as to any fundamental deficiency yet not perfectly pure for Gal. 5. he saith The flesh lusteth against the Spirit so that wheresoever the Spirit is there the flesh in some measure lusteth against it Oh them let even the most holy bewail original sinne in their consciences even in this respect That councel given by Paul to godly servants Colos 3. 17 18. That what they did they should do it in singlenesse of heart fearing God They should do it heartily as unto God not unto men The same are all the people of God bound to do in their service to God Oh how unworthy is it in religious duties to have an eye to man who will praise or dispraise if conscience were the motive thou wouldst neither care for good or bad report And this pure conscientious working is especially to be attended unto by such who are in publick Office The Civil Magistrate if he punish an offender not because he deserveth it but from malice or other sinister respects Though he cry out and pretend conscience and justice a thousand times over yet God looketh upon him as an unjust Magistrate though the thing he doth is just Thus it is also in the Ministers of the Gospel if they preach the Word diligently and constantly but yet the principal motives are either vain glory or a mereenary respect unto the profit and temporal advantage more then the soules of people and the glory of God here also that is done which conscience requireth but not upon conscientious motives we doe not these things as of God in the sight of God But I must not be too long in this particular although indeed we can never say enough herein it is such a close insinuating sinne into all mens breasts Secondly The natural conscience is grievously polluted by original sinne in regard of the limited and partial conviction or illumination that it is apt to receive Conscience will receive light but at a little cranny or hole it will be convinced to doe some things especially if of no great consequence but the greater and more weighty things they are apt to neglect This dough-baked conscience that is hot on one side and cold on the other is the temper of most men How seemingly religious and zealous in some particulars And then for dutâ—ies of greater concernment they are like clods of earth Our Saviour charged this partial conscience upon the Pharisees Luke 11. 42. They tished mint and rue but the things of mercy and judgement they neglected The Chief-priests also they were afraid of defiling themselves by entring into the common-hall and yet had no scruple about shedding the innocent bloud of our Lord Christ And what is more ordinary then this May ye not observe many persons as much moved with rage upon the removal of any needlesse or superstitious Ceremonies as the Athenians were about their Diana and yet for grosse prophanenesse and all manner of excessive riot they are never moved at that they have no zeal for God's glory though iniquity abound in every place Doth not all this discover the hypocrisie and rottennesse of such a conscience Take heed then thy conscience is not like some creatures begotten of putride matter that in their former part have life but in their later have nothing but earth or slime So in some part thy conscience is alive and in other things it is dead If thy conscience tell thee It 's thy duty to pray to hear to keep up Family-duties and yet withall suffereth thee to do unjust unclean and other dishonest things of impiety This is not right it is not regenerated as yet So on the other side If conscience bid thee Be just and upright in all thy dealings be mercifull and tender to fit objects of charity and herein thou art ready but thy conscience doth not at all presse thee to the duties of the first Table to sanctifie the Sabbath to keep up Family-duties to walk contrary to the sinfull course of the world then it is plain that as yet thy conscience is in the gall of bitternesse it hath but some partial conviction not a total and plenary one Thirdly The conscience of a natural man in this also is greatly polluted In that it is very severe and easily accusing of other mens sinnes but it is blind about its own it seeth no evil in it self while it can aggravate the sinnes of others Thus conscience as in other respects so in this also is like the eye which can see all other things but not it self Matth. 7. 3. Such a corrupt conscience likewise our Saviour chargeth upon the Pharisees when he calleth them Hypocrites and biddeth them Pull out the beam in their own and then the more in other mens The Apostle also Rom. 2. 1. beginneth that Chapter Therefore thou art inexcusable O man who judgest others and doest the same things thy self What is more ordinary then this to be Eagle-eyed to spie out the faults and sinnes of others and as blind as a mole about thy self David was very zealous against that injurious man Nathan represented in a Parable and in the mean while did not think that he was the man that this was his sinne Judah also was severe against Tamar who had played the whore till she sent him the staff and bracelets that he might see he was the man Thus you see even godly men are greatly blinded about themselves no wonder then if the natural man be wholly in darknesse Oh then pray and again pray for light to shine into thy own heart Let conscience turn its eyes inward once more know the worst by thy self Think with Paul I am the greatest of all sinners with Tertullian Peccator sum omnium natorum a sinner with the brand and mark of all sins on me at least in motion and inclination say I see those sins in my self which the world doth not none can judge and condemn me more then I can do my self but the contrary is in every mans natural conscience he thinketh himself better then others he blesseth himself in his good heart and is a severe censurer of other mens sinnes Thus he hath those Lamiae of eyes that he taketh up when he goeth abroad and layeth aside when he cometh home Fourthly The conscience naturally is defiled Because of the ease and security it hath though if it were awakened and could do its duty it would not let thee have any rest day or night And this is one of the main particulars wherein original sinne discovers it self in the conscience all life all spiritual tendernesse and apprehension is taken away that whereas conscience is especially seen in the reflex acts of the soul To know our knowledge to judge the actions of the mind and the heart yea and to judge those judgments now we can no more do these things then very beasts do and by reason of this there is a great
that solid judgement as to know its liberty and its freedome from Judaical rites and all other Commandments of men about the worship of God Indeed the notion of Christian-liberty may quickly be abused to prophane dissoluteness but yet the true Doctrine about that was one of the greatest mercies brought to the Church in the first reformation for there the conscienees of all were grossely intangled and miserably inthralled yea their Casuists who took upon them to resolve and direct conscience they were the greatest tormentors of all insomuch that they then seemed to be in a wilderness or rather under an Aegyptian bondage wherein were many lawes and Canons many Doctrines and opinions that were as Luther expresseth it about one homicidissimae Now to this bondage the conscience of a man is more naturally prone then unto any obedience to the true commands of God Indeed the conscience of man naturally is miserably polluted about the knowledg of those tyes and obligations that are upon it for sometimes it contracteth and limiteth them more then it ought Hence it is that a man yea a godly man may live in the omission of many duties in the commission of many sinnes and yet not know that he doth so and all because we do not study the extent of the obligation of conscience and from this it is that many good men have endeavoured to grow in more knowledge to study the commands of God obliging of them and upon enquiry have found cause to do those things they never did before and also they would not for a world walk in the same paths they once did Thus Melancthon remembring his superstitition while a Papist Quoties cohorrui c. How often doth horror take bold on me when I think with what boldness I went and fell down before Images worshipping of them This is one great pollution of conscience not to know its divine obligations that are upon it But then on the other side the conscience smitten about sinne is many times prone to stretch its obligations beyond the due line they judge sinnes to be where there are none They make duties where God hath not required and all because the troubled conscience is like a troubled fountain a man cannot see clearly the face neither are we then able to judge of any thing truly It is a rule in Philosophy Quicquid per humidum videtur majtu apparet Every object through an humid ormoist medium appeareth greater then it is thus also doth sinne and duties through a grieved wounded conscience therefore for want of the true knowledge of our Christian-liberty there is a scrupulous conscience called so because as little stones in the shoe hinder the feet in going so doth the scrupulousness and timerated thoughts much annoy in a Christian walking These commonly are without end as one circle in the water begets another or as Gerson resembleth it like one Dog that barketh setteth all the Dogs in the Town on barking so doth one scruple beget another and that many more Now although a scrupulous conscience may be for the main tender and good yet the scrupulousness of it ariseth from the infirmity and weakness thereof and maketh the soul paralytical in all its actions These scruples make a man very unserviceable and to live very uncomfortably and although God in great mercy doth many times exercise the truly godly sadly with them thereby to humble them to keep them low to say with Agur they have not the understanding of a man to be kept hereby from gross and foul sinnes yet they are to be prayed against for these scruples are like the Aegyptian Frogs alwaies croaking coming into the chamber and in at every window thereby disturbing thee in thy duty If thy conscience were sound and clear the light thereof would quickly dispell these mists Again From the blindness of a troubled conscience cometh also the sad and great doubtings upon the heart whereby the soul of a man is distracted and divided pulled this way and haled that way Rom 1. 14. The Apostle speaketh at large about a doubting conscience and sheweth how damnable a thing it is to do any thing doubting whether it be a sinne or not A doubting conscience is more then a scrupulous for Divines say a man may go against a a scrupulous conscience because the conscience is for the main resolved that such a thing may lawfully be done only he hath some feares and some jealousies moving in him to the contrary But a doubting conscience is when Arguments are not clear but a man stands as it were at the end of two waies and knoweth not what to do now if conscience were well inlightned and informed out of Gods Word it would not be subject to such distracting doubts but because of its natural blindness therefore it is at a stand so often Hence In the last place it becomes from a scrupulous doubting to a perplexed conscience so insnared that what way soever he taketh he cannot but sinne if he do such a thing he sinneth and if he doth it not he sinneth as in Paul who thought himself bound to set himself against Christians if he did persecute them it is plain he did sinne if he did not he thought he sinned It is true Casuists say Non datur casus perplexus there cannot be any case wherein there is a necessity of sinning because a man is bound to remove the error upon his conscience but yet the ignorance and blindness of man doth bring him often into that perplexed estate There remain two chief particulars wherein the pollution of a natural and troubled conscience is observable which are In the sixth place A proneness to use all unlawfull meanes and to apply false remedies for the removall of this trouble Seventhly A direct and open opposition to what is the true evangelical way appointed by God for to give true peace and tranquillity to such a conscience Before we descend to these particulars It is good to take notice of some general Observations which will greatly conduce to clear the particulars What a blessed Thing it is to come well out of the pain of a troubled Conscience FIrst That it is a most blessed and happy thing to come out of a troubled conscience in a goood safe and soul-establishing way For this womb of conscience when in pain and travail is apt to make many miscarriages yea sometimes it is so farre from having any joy that a man-child is born I mean the true fruit of holiness produced that there is a monster brought forth in the stead thereof Doth not experience and Scripture confirme this that many have come out of their troubles of conscience with more obstinacy and willfullness to sinne again That as the wind blowing upon coales of fire which might seem to extinguish the fire doth indeed encrease it Thus these pangs these gripes of conscience which sometimes they have felt that made godly friends say Now there is hope blessed be God that maketh them
if nothing aâ—led them many yeares after when they were in anguish of mind by Joseph's severe carriage towards them Gen. 42. 21. Then they said one to another We are very guilty concerning our brother in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us and we would not hear therefore is this distress come upon us so that some unexpected calamity may be to us as the hand-writing on the will to Belshazzar making conscience to tremble within us 3. God as a just Judge can command these Hornets and Bees to arise in thy conscience It is plain Cain when he set himselfe to build Townes thought to remove that trembling which was upon him but he could not do it how many have set themselves with all the might they could to be delivered from this anguish of conscience and could not because God is greater then our conscience if he command terror and trembling none can expell it This troubled conscience is threatned as a curse to such who did break the Law of God Deut. 29. 65 67. The Lord shall give thee a trembling heart and sorrow of mind In the morning thou shalt say would God it were day for the fear of thy heart Here we may observe that God can when he pleaseth strike the heart of the most jolly and prophane sinner with such a trembling conscience that he shall not have rest day or night and when God after much patience abused doth smite the soul with such horror and astonishment many times This never tendeth to a gracious and Evangelical humiliation but as in Cain and Judas is the beginning even of hell it self in this life So fearfull a thing is it to fall into the hands of the living God when provoked Heb. 10. 31. For in such as ver 27. there is a certain fearfull looking for the indignation and wrath of God which will devour the adversaries 4. This troubled conscience may and doth often come by the Spirit of God convincing and reprooving by the Word especially the law discovered in the exactness and condemning power of it Joh. 16. 8. The Spirit of God doth reproove or convince the world of sinne Now conviction belongs to the conscience principally and indeed this is the ordinary way for the conversion of any Gods Spirit doth by the Law convince and awaken conscience making it unquiet and restless finding no bottome to stand upon it hath nothing but sinne no righteousness to be justified by the law condemneth justice arraigneth and he is overwhelmed not knowing what to doe This is the worke of Gods Spirit and of this some do expound that place Rom. 8. 15. Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but of adoption It is the same spirit which is called the spirit of bondage and of Adoption onely it 's called so from different operations It 's the spirit of bondage while by the Law it humbleth us filleth the conscience with fear and trembling not that the sinfulnesse or slavishnesse of these fears opposing the way of faith are of the Spirit but the tremblings themselves and it is the Spirit of Adoption when it rebuketh all tormenting fears giving Evangelical principles of Faith Love and Assurance Now these fears thus wrought by the Spirit of God in the Ministry of the Word though they be not alwaies necessary antecedents of conversion yet are sometimes ordained by God to be as it were a John Baptist to make way for Christ Lastly These troubles of conscience may arise through Gods permission from the Devil For when God leaveth thee to Satan's kingdome as it was the case of the incestuous person to be buffeted by him tempted by him you see he did so farre prevail with him that he was almost swallowed up with too much grief Therefore when God will evangelically compose the conscience by faith in Christs bloud he taketh off Satan again and suffereth him not to cast his fiery darts into us any longer The false wayes that the wounded Conscience is prone to take THese things explained Let us return to consider the pollution of natural conscience in the two particulars mentioned whereof The first is That the wounded conscience for sinne is very ready to use false remedies for its cure These stings he seeleth are intollerable he cannot live and be thus he taketh no pleasure in any thing he hath but he cometh not to true peace for either they go to carnal and sinfull wayes of pleasure so to remove their troubles or to superstitions and uncommanded wayes of devotion thinking thereby to be healed The former too many take who when troubled for sinne their hearts frequently smite them they call this Melancholly and Pusillanimity Tush they will not give way to such checks of conscience but they will go to their merry company they will drink it away they will rant it away or else they will goe to their merry pastimes and sports Thus as Herod sought to kill Jesus as soon as he was borne so do these strive to suffocate and stifle the very beginnings and risings of conscience within them Oh wretched men prepared for hell torments Though now thou stoppest the mouth of conscience yet hereafter it will be the gnawing worme It 's this troubled conscience that makes hell to be chiefly hell It 's not the flaming fire it 's not the torments of the body that are the chiefest of hels misery but the griping and torturing of conscience to all eternity This is the hell of hels Others when none of these means will rebuke the stormes and waves of their soul but they think they must perish then they set themselves upon some superstitious austere waies as in Popery to go on Pilgrimage to enter into some Monastery to undertake some bodily affliction and penalty and by these means they think to get peace of conscience but Luther found by experience the insufficiency of all these courses That all their Casuists were unwise Physicians and that they gave gall to drinke in stead of honey In the next place therefore This pollution of a troubled conscience is seen In it's opposition to Christ to an Evangelical Righteousnesse and the sway of believing Conscience is farre more polluted about Christ and receiving of him then about the commands and obedience thereunto for naturally there is something in conscience to do the things of the Law but the Gospel and the Doctrine about Christ is wholly supernatural and by revelation Hence although it is clear That the conscience truly humbled for sinne ought to believe in Christ for expiation thereof Yet how long doth the broken heart continue ignorant of this duty Their conscience troubleth them accuseth them for other sins but not for this of not particularly applying Christ to thy self for comfort whereas thou art bound in conscience to believe in Christ as well as repent of sinne I say thou art bound in conscience and if thou doest not by particular acts of faith receive Christ in
constitution of the body and unfit temperature of the brain for though the actions of the understanding be immaterial to know and to remember yet they require the body as the Organ and the Instrument So that as the most artificial Musician cannot discover his skill upon an Instrument whose strings are out of order so neither can the understanding of a man put forth its noble actions when the body is out of order Hence we read that some diseases or other events have deprived men of their memory so that they have forgot their own name By this we see That the soul doth act dependently upon the body being the form informing of a man and giving his being and operations to him Now it 's usefull to know this distinction for many good people especially when grown in year do much complain that their memory is gone They cannot carry away so much of a Sermon or from good Books as once they did and this doth much grieve them they look upon themselves as drones and not Bees that carry home honey from every flower but this may support them that this is a natural affect in the memory not a sinfull one For as Aristotle observeth Lib. de Memoriâ Reminiscentiâ neither in children or in old men is there such a capacity for memory in children because of the too much moisture And therefore it is saith he as if a man should imprint a Seal in the water which because of its fluid nature would receive no impression nor in old men is there such a capacity of memory because of their drinesse and siccity as if a man should imprint a seal upon a dry peice of wood it would not receive any forme or character If then in thy old age thy memory faileth know this is a natural imbecillity as sickness and pain is not a sinne Others again they abuse this distinction for when they are urged to holy duties called upon to remember what hath been preached then they excuse themselvs with their bad memory God help them they have an ill memory but if thou hast a memory for other things jests and merry tales or businesses of profit and no memory for holy things This is thy sinne thou hast no memory in the these good things because thou hast no heart no delight about them as is more to be shewed Yea I must adde that though a natural weaknesse in the memory be not a sinne yet it is the fruit of sinne and so ought deeply to humble thee for thy memory would have had no such defects and weaknesses if Adam had not fallen As therefore diseases and death though they be not sinne yet are the effects of sinne and therefore we are to humble our selves under them so thou art to do under thy imperfect memory though sicknesse or old-age hath much impaired it SECT IV. OUr work is to discover the sad and universal pollution of the Memory And by the Memory we mean only the mind as it extends its actions to things that are past And thus the Scripture speaketh 2 Pet. 3. 1. To stirre up your pure minds by remembrance Tit. 3. 1. Put them in mind to be subject c. Mind is there for memory Thus Austin also maketh memory in a man to be either the soul or the power and faculty of the soul Thus the Latine Etymologers make Memini reminiscere to come of Mens yea Minerva made the goddesse of learning is Quasi Mineriva à memini And common speech amongst us maketh mind and memory all one as when we say It was quite out of my mind c. So that both the Scripture and the judgement of the learned yea and the use of the vulgar will allow us to speak of the memory as nothing else but the mind considering of things as past SECT V. The great Usefulnesse of the Memory BUt before we speak to the discovery of this Memory it is good to take notice of what use and consequence it is that so when we shall consider the dignity and serviceablenesse of the memory we may then bewail the sinfulnesse thereof for when that is made sinfull it is as if a fountain were poisoned of which all must drink or as the air pestilential which all must receive in their nostrils if the memory be corrupted then all is corrupted Hence as you heard all wicked men are said to forget God Memory is of so great use as the Heathens made a goddesse of it yea they make it to be the mother of the Muses of all Arts of all Wisdome and Prudence No tongue can either expresse the serviceablenesse of it or the nature of it not the serviceablenesse of it For if there were no memory there could be no discourse no civil society if there were no memory a man could not take heed of any danger or prevent any mischief hence they attribute it to the forgetfulnesse and stupidity of the Flie that when it is flapt off from the meat and was in danger of death yet it will immediately flie to it again Thus would man without memory plunge himself into all misery If there were no memory there could be no learning no humane sciences for memory is made the mother of them Yea if there were no memory there would be no Religion no Worship of God or service of him Thus both the natural civil and religious life of a man would be destroyed were there not a memory So that we are infinitely bound to praise God for this power left in us and as deeply to humble our selves that it is so corrupted that it cannot do its proper acts in a spiritual way at last thereby to promote our happinesse our memory helpeth to damn us not to save us SECT VI. Of the Nature of it ANd as for the Nature of memory though Aristotle and others after him have undertaken to say much about it yet Austin doth much bewail the ignorance and weaknesse of a man in this thing l. 10. conf calling it the unsearchable recesses and vast concavities of the memory saying It is in vain for a man to think to understand the nature of the Heavens when he cannot know what his memory is Under this difficulty he saith he did labour and toil and yet could not come to any sure knowledge This is certain that the things we remember are not in our souls themselves when we remember such a tree or stone the tree or stone is not really in us Hence saith Austin we may Doloris laeti reminisci and Laetitiae dolentes reminisci Remember with joy former sorrow or with sorrow former joy Yea he saith we may Oblivionis reminisci we may remember our forgetfulnesse Now if these things were really in us it could not be but that sorrow remembred would make us sorrowfull or forgetfulnesse remembred make us forgetfull The objects then remembred are in us by way of Species or Images the Phantasmata are there conserved and when by them we come to
alwayes be in our minds Such signal and transcendent expressions of love would be with us rising and waking and going to bed That though the Devil and the world did never so importunately crowd in with their suggestions yet this should alwayes be uppermost in our hearts and affections but Christ by this very institution doth hereby manifest what dull and stupid memories we have and that about the greatest mercies that we are capable of Would it not be strange if a malefactor should forget his pardon or Rahab forget the scarlet threed in the window that was to be the preservative of her life yet our forgetfullness is greater when we do not remember our Saviour and his sufferings for us And for the other Sacrament of Baptism how greatly is our obligation by it forgotten how grosly we do forget that covenant with God and the dedication of us unto God renouncing the Devil and his lusts That was appointed to be a commemorative sign But how sinfull is our memory for we do as it were need another sign to put us in mind of that and so in infinitum what little power hath the memory of these Sacraments upon us Yea how little do they come in our mind thereby to improve our duties and consolations Lastly That our memories are naturally sinfull will appear If we consider how it was with Adam in the state of integrity he was made right Eccl. 7. which doth extend to the spiritual perfection of all the parts of his soul As his mind was indowed with all necessary light and knowledge so his memory also with all strength and vigor so that forgetfullness of any thing that was his duty was no more incident unto him then any other sinne It was not because naturally he had a bad or a forgetfull memory that made him break the Law of God for if God had created him found and perfect in all other parts of his soul only left him to a weak and frail memory he could not have been happy either in temporal or spiritual considerations As his soul was thus perfected so his body was in a found and well tempered constitution having no redundancy of humors thereby to hinder the operations of the soul by memory he was not subject to diseases or old age or any thing else that doth empair the memory of man but now our sun is become a dunghill and our gold dross As original sinne hath pestilentially insected all parts of the soul so the memory hath not escaped this pollution for where it is naturally able there it is spiritually impotent when it might remember if improved and put upon there is it negligent and careless how many say They cannot remember any good thing delivered to them press them about the Scripture and the good truths of God preached to them and they will justify themselves by pleading the badness of their memory whereas it is for want of a good heart and a good will if thy affections were ardent and burning about these things thy memory would be more retentive of good things then they are Besides little do you know what your memory would do if you did put it upon frequent exercise few know what their memories could do if exercised about holy things because few are industrious and active to put it on work Austin lib. 4 to de origine animae relateth of his friend Simplicius how he was desired to repeat verses out of Virgil backwards and forwards and also the Prose of Tully with an inversed order and this he did to their great admiration yet Austin saith That Simplicius did solemnly protest that he never did so before neither had he ever tried whether his memory were able for such an exercise or no. By this example we see that none know what their memories would do if they did more carefully and diligently put them upon it But grant that the memory be naturally impotent though this you heard be not formally a sinne yet it is the fruit of it and so matter of humiliation Learned men say That what fit constitution and temperature is required in the brain for a sound and solid judgement the contrary is for a good and strong memory and therefore they say it is that a strong judgement and a strong memory seldom go together As saith Erasmus the beast Lynx hath a most acute sight but is a most stupid and forgetfull creature Now if this be so then this ariseth from Adam's fall for no doubt Adam had both a perfect judgement and a perfect memory and it cometh through original sinne that the body is so distempered that what helpeth for one faculty of the soul impedeth and hindreth the other The Summe of this particular is That wherein our memories do now come short of that which Adam's memory while perfect was able to do that is either expresly and formally a sinne or the immediate issue and punishment of sinne SECT VIII Wherein the memory of man is polluted THis sure foundation then being said Let us proceed to shew Wherein the memory of man is so greatly polluted And that will appear First Very remarkably If you consider all the several objects which by the Scripture we are daily to have in our memory and we are naturally in a constant and daily forgetfulnesse of them Onely it is good to take notice of a distinction which Vossius De Origine Idolat lib. 1. cap. 11. observeth out of Bonaventure That there is a two-fold forgetfulnesse 1. When the very Species or Images of things are quite obliterated and deleted this may be called a natural forgetfulnesse 2. When though the Species be reteined and we do remember yet through carelesnesse and negligence we do not attend to that duty which should flow from our memory and this may be called a moral forgetfulnesse And indeed we have too much experience of this later kind of forgetfulnesse for how many are there that do remember Sermons that do carry in their minds several Texts of Scripture and that against those very sinnes they do commit daily Now in the Scripture language this is forgetfulnesse such are said not to remember because they do not what they ought to do upon their memory In both these considerations I shall speak of the pollution of the memory The first and most signal object of our memory which the Scripture speaketh of is God himself God is not only the object of our faith and of our love of our minds and wils but also of our memory We should alwaies keep up the remembrance of God in our thoughts and this would be a most potent Antidote against all kind of sinne Therefore is all evil committed because we do not remember God at that time Deut. 8. 18. Moses doth there command the people of Israel to take heed of trusting in their own righteousnesse and goodnesse or of attributing their wealth and riches to their own power But saith he thou shalt remember the Lord thy
mercies to his Church all the severe judgements of God upon those that hate him should be kept in constant remembrance from generation to generation But who seeth not the sinfulnesse of our memory in this particular What liar remembreth Ananias and Saphira's judgement What unclean person Zimri and Cosbi What drunkard Belshazzar's hand-writing on the wall SECT IX Inferiour Objects of Memory WE are discovering the particulars Wherein the memory of man is so greatly polluted we have instanced in the Object of it which is God and the things immediately relating to God These things we constantly forget though God gave us a memory chiefly for these things In the next place there are Objects in the inferiour region as it were which the Scripture commendeth to our memory and about that also we shall finde our minds never exercised therein That I may not be infinite I shall select some few of those Inferiour Objects And First It is a duty often urged in Scripture To exercise cur memory about our sins past to bring them to mind and accordingly to humble our selves and repent But is not every mans memory naturally polluted herein How many sinnes are there committed many years ago How many youth sinnes which thou never hast a bitter remembrance of It is not wormwood and gall to thee to think of thy former vanities Thus the memory well exercised is the introduction to repentance A man can never repent that doth not first remember Can he humble himself for that which he hath forgotten Ezek. 16. 61 63 God there makes a gracious Covenant and promise of pardon and forgivenesse to the Israelites and then he sheweth that this fire of his love shall melt and thaw their hearts though like iron they shall be ashamed and confounded but how is all this done by remembring Then thou shalt remember thy waies and be ashamed so that it is impossible to set upon the work of repentance and conversion to God unlesse first thy memory be excited up unlesse thou look upon thy former life and remember this have I done and thus I have lived such sinnes and follies come into my mind yea in true repentance thy sinnes will alwayes be in thy memory when eating or drinking or walking thou wilt be thinking Oh the wretch that I have been Oh the beast and fool that I was in such and such impieties Thus Joh and David remembred the sinnes of their youth Psa 51. 3. David acknowledging that murder and adultery which he had committed a year before yet he saith My sinne is ever before me Thus you see in repentance the memory is wonderfully quickned bringeth those sinnes to mind that have been committed many years ago and therefore you have the expression 1 King 8. 47. of a people repenting If they shall bring back to their heart so it is in the original we render it If they shall bethink themselves By this we see that in true conversion there is a bringing back again of our sinnes to our hearts that whereas we had forgot this and that sinne which might be charged upon us Now we begin to arraign our selves and bring in a severe indictment against our own souls for such and such transgressions Oh then mourn bitterly for thy evil and wicked memory herein How many sinnes how many iniquities even like the sand on the sea-shore might come into thy mind and amaze thee giving thee no rest till thou hadst obtained the pardon of them But thou art so farre from this that rather thou strivest and labourest to put them out of thy memory If thy sinnes come to thy mind presently thou divertest thy thoughts turnest thy memory to other things and thus as the noise of the Cart-wheel because nearer to us maketh us not bear the noise of thunder at that time so other things more delightsome and pleasing being next in our memory we wholly forget what might turn to our salvation Hence it is that natural men love no good conference no reproof no powerfull preaching that may bring their sinnes to remembrance but say as the woman to Elisha 1 King 17. 18. What have I to do with thee O thou man of God Art thou come unto me to call my sinne to remembrance So that herein our desperate pollution is seen that we bring not our sinnes to our remembrance yea we voluntarily forget them use all the means we can that we may never have them in our minds Secondly The bad or good examples of others we should remember and accordingly imitate or avoid them All the examples of wicked and godly men should be so many Monuments so many Memorials to us The Inscription upon Senacherib his Tomb was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whosoever looks on me let him be godly by remembring the wrath of God upon me for my evil wayes Our Saviour Luke 17. 32. commands us to Remember Lot's wife In her we have such an instance of Gods wrath that it ought never to be forgotten and therefore saith Austin turned into a pillar of falt that she might season us God had delivered her out of Sodom from the fire and brimstone ready to have consumed her and withall he chargeth her not to look back but she either out of curiosity or out of a worldly affection and desire to her goods that were left behind looketh back upon which God doth immediately punish her in this wonderfull and unheard manner Now our Saviour applieth this to every one who taketh upon him the profession of Christ leaveth off his former conversation but afterwards returneth to it again And is not this the condition of too many that do not onely with Lot's wife look back to Sodome but even go back into Sodome again How terrible will the later end of such be Remember this dreadfull instance you who for a while give over your prophanenesse and impiety but afterwards fall to it again such are not fit for the Kingdom of Heaven Thus also we should take notice of all the good examples we meet with in the holy Scripture what good men there were how they lived and how God blessed them Our memories should be a good treasury whereby we should be abundantly furnished to do the good and avoid the evil Lege Historiam ne fias Historia but rather remember Histories and examples lest God make thee an example Thus Heb. 13. 7. they are commanded to remember such who had been guides to them and to follow their faith considering the end of their conversation How holy blessed and comfortable it was the godly Ministers and holy Pastors God hath given to his Church you should diligently remember taking notice how God was with them in their Doctrine in their lives in their deaths This would much prevent that Apostasle of many into errors and following after heretical persons Do but remember how wonderfully God was in the spirits and lives of many holy Pastors in the Church who did bear witness against such errors as
had they a voice would speak when thou art at any time ravished with the excellency of them do not love us love God do not delight in us delight thou in God we are but thy fellow-creatures yea not so much but inferiour and more ignoble then man Jansenius Lib. 2. de statu naturae lapsae following his Austin will not allow us any love to any thing but God we may use it say they but not love it yea he rejects that assertion we may love the creatures but moderately this is saith he as if we should say there is a moderate covetousness a moderate pride and we must grant that the Scripture doth many times speak of the love of the creature as absolutely and intrinsecally a sinne Thus Love not the world nor the things of the world 1 Joh. 2. 15. He doth not say Use not the world but love not the world and thus The love of money is the root of all evil not the having of it or using of it But this seemeth to be too rigid and stoical and it is indeed a meer Question De nomine for take love in the sense they do for the willing of a thing for its own selfe 's sake thus it is intrinsecally a sinne to love any creature it is spiritual Idolatry and a breach of the first command but then the Scripture doth allow us to love the creatures so we do not love them more then God Thus Husbands are commanded to love their wives and we are to love our Neighbours as our selves So that to love the creatures is our duty we should sinne if we did not onely the excesse and inordinacy is sinfull and this we are guilty of when we enjoy any thing but God Now though none will acknowledge themselves guilty of this sinne yet every natural man doth enjoy some creature or other his will is fastened upon something that is not God It is true this sinne is very secret and subtile the godly themselves have much ado to find it out in their own hearts the will of a man is such an unsearchable Abisse of all evil but do not thou crawl on the ground like a worme any longer Set thy affections on things above It is indeed a Question worthy much enquiring into How a man shall know whether he doth enjoy a creature or use it onely when it is a Sarah when an Hagar onely And here the godly themselves are often in great uncertainties The root of things lieth hid under ground The first Letter commonly which beginneth a Book hath so many gaudy flourishes about it that it is hard to know what it is Thus also it is in our hearts and conversations what is the Summum bonum the great wheel that moveth all the ultimate rest of our soul it is very difficult to find out but it is not my work now to dive into this it is enough that we know The will of every man is naturally so polluted that it enjoyeth a creature in stead of God it cannot will love and imbrace him as the chiefest good Proceed we then to the next act of the will about the end and that not as possessed and enjoyned but 〈◊〉 be obtained and acquired and that by some means which we call Intention and we shall find the will horribly corrupted in this respect also ¶ 5. The Pollution of the Will in its Act of Intention THe word Intention is a Metaphor from the Archer who aiming at a mark useth his greatest skill and endeavour to hit The Scripture speaks of the Benjamites as famous in this way Now every thing that man doth as a rational agent is to have some end some mark and aim and what that is the Scripture doth direct unto Gods glory is the aim What ever ye do do all to the glory of God 1 Cor. 10. 31. So then we see what is to be the object of our intention what we are to aim at in all that we do Whence also we must be directed and guided therein viz by the Word of God This being concluded on we see that the will in every sinne it commits doth fail and erre in its intention therefore is all sinne called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an aberration from the scope Every action that is not done for God is like an arrow shot besides the mark that shooting is loâ—â— it was to no purpose and it cannot be recovered again All rational agents intend an end and if that be not obtained there is a miscarriage So that as in natural things when there is some errour a monster is brought forth Thus it is in voluntary and moral things Every sinne is a monster and thou oughtst to be more astonished and trembling under every sinne then a woman would be in seeing a monster come from her So that in every sinne the will is corrupted in its intention But yet more particularly let us consider how the intention of the will is deprived and that in these wayes First When the chief end is not intended but secondary ends intermedious ends Yea when those things which should be but means are intended as ends when we make a wildernesse a Canaan a Tabernacle the Temple the Inne a Dwelling-place A secondary end which a man is to intend is the salvation of his own soul the principal and most noble is the glory of God It is true God hath so inseparably conjoyned his glory and mans salvation together that one cannot be divided from the other Therefore it is too rigid of some who press this as a duty upon Christians to be willing to be damned for Gods glory That we are to will our destruction so that God may be glorified thereby for we are to seek for immortality and glory It would be a sinne to will our damnation only this is a subordinate end Gods glory is the principal Neither is a Christian anxiously to perplex himself with this Question Whether they love Gods glory or their own salvation best Some timorated consciences and tender spirits have been apt to judge themselves hypocrites in this thing thinking they serve God only for Heavens sake for their own ends and safety not for Gods glory which yet is a greater good and more to be preferred then the salvation of the whole world better all men be damned then God not be glorified But it is not good for a Christian to put such Questions to his soul Neither was that a wise wish of one who desired there were neither Heaven or Hell that so he might know whether he served God purely for himself or no. Though these things are to be granted yet on the other we must also yeeld That the glory of God is the ultimate end and our salvation in subordination thereunto Not that they are to be divided or opposed for Subordinata non pugnant onely one is lesse principal and the other more principal But how corrupt is the wils intention herein How many will Heaven as a place
and fading things before that which is eternal and will continue ever And wherein can the wils sinfulness be proclaimed more then in this Is it not a rule commended by all wise men Tene certum demitte incertum Hold that which is certain and let go that which is uncertain All men have such a will in worldly things they would chuse a certain estate rather then what is meer arbitrary and may be lost the next day but if we bring these men unto spiritual objects and temporal objects lay one in the one side and the other on the other side yet they will chuse the temporals and let go the spirituals Though the temporals are transitory and fleeing away whereas spiritual things would be eternal they would continue thine for ever Oh foolish and unwise men who make such a choice And yet this is the state of every unregenerate man What doth he say Give me the good things of this world though I lose Heaven and eternal Glory Let me have a day pleasure a moments profit though I have an eternity of loss and torments Consider then with thy self what a foolish choise thy will doth make all the day long Thou chusest that which will leave thee which is here to day and like the grass to morrow is thrown into the Oven and in the mean while there is that good which will abide though Heaven and Earth should fall and this thou art willing to pass by Was not Dives called a fool upon this account This night thy soul shall be taken away and then whose shall all these things be The sinfulnesse of thy will herein will never be enough lamented till with Dives thy eyes be opened in Hell and then thou behold what a choice thou hast made Christ giveth Mary this commendation That she had chosen the better part Luke 10. 42. and that should never be taken from her Oh that this also could be said of thee truly thou hast chosen the good part Though the wicked and ungodly of the world think it is the worse part and they would never take it yet it is the good part and that because it will never be taken from thee Thy grace thy good workes will never leave thee but they will goe to the grave with thee to Heaven with thee Thirdly This sinfulness of thy Will in chusing is seen when thou hadst rather sinne then become afflicted and yet this is naturally adhering to every one he will rather chuse to wound conscience to goe against light rather than be brought into trouble Doth not every man naturally judge this the best and so chuse it Hence he never mattereth what God requireth what may damn his soul hereafter only he is resolved he will not put himself upon any hardship for Christ but will launch no further in this deep then he can safely retire back again Every man would naturally get an Ark to save himself in when any publick water do overflow so they escape danger they regard not Gods glory or the Churches good Job's friends did fasten this upon him but falsly Job 36. 21. Take heed regard not iniquity for this hast thou chosen rather then affliction They thought Job desired to sinne and would chuse that rather then to be afflicted by God though Job being sanctified was free from this charge yet it is too true of every man by nature Oh what power of grace is necessary to make a man chuse to do his duty rather then have all the advantages of the world It was Anselm's expression That if sinne were on one side and hell flames on the other he would chuse rather to go through them rather then sinne Even Aristotle could say A virtuous man would die rather then do any dishonest thing But the Scripture giveth an admirable commendation of Moses worthy all our imitation Heb. 11. 25. Chusing rather to suffer for Christ then the pleasures of Aegypt Moses that might have had all the pleasure and honours of Aegypt yet because he could not have them without sinne he rather chuseth the poor and despised estate that his brethren were in So that Moses doth in this case something like Hiram 1 King 9. 13. to whom Solomon gave many Cities but Hiram did not like them and called that place Cabul that is displeasing or dirty Thus Moses called Pharaoh's Court and all his honours Cabul in respect of Christs favour and his love Did not all the holy Martyrs likewise do the same things Were not many of them offered life liberty yea great places of honour if they would renounce Christ if they would forsake his way But they did not stand deliberating and doubting what they should do they immediately chuse to be imprisoned burnt at the stake rather then not confess Christ and his way but the will naturally cannot make such a choice ¶ 7. The Wils loss of that Aptitude and readiness it should have to follow the deliberation and advise of the Understanding THe sinfulnesse of the Will in its noble and famous operation of Election or chusing hath been in a great measure considered I shall adde two particulars more and what is further to be taken notice of in this point will seasonably come in when we are to treat of the Will in its freedome or rather servitude The first of these two to be mentioned is The losse of that aptitude and readinesse it should have to follow the deliberation and prudent advise of the understanding For this is the privitive Institution and nature of the soul in its operations The understanding when the end is pitched upon doth consult and deliberate in a prudential way about the means which may conduce to that end and when prudence doth direct about those things which are to be done then the will is to imbrace and elect that medium rather then any other which reason doth thus wisely suggest Thus it ought to be now the will being wholly corrupt doth not chuse according to the dictates of prudence but the suggestions of sense and the carnal affections within us So that naturally a man chuseth an object not because reason or prudence saith This is good this is according to Gods will but because sense or affection saith this is pleasant and delightfull This sad perverting of the order of the will in its operations if rightly considered would throw us upon the ground and make us with great amazement and astonishment cry out of our selves For what can be more absurd and grievous then the will which is so essentially subordinated in its chusing to the guidance of the understanding should now be so debased that like Samson without eyes it is made to grind in evey mill that any carnal affection shall command we may see the good method and rule the will should walk by in its choice by that which Moses said Deut. 30. 15. 19. See I have set before thee this day life and death good and evil I call heaven and earth to
is by the grace of God that we come to acknowledge the grace of God Error in mind is part of our bondage as well as lust in our heart It is therefore by th◠grace of God that we are delivered from both these thraldoms we have a freed mind from ignorance and a freed will from concupiscence It is the Spirit of God that leadeth us into all truth called therefore the Spirit of truth John 14. 17. It is by the grace of God that thou fallest not in this errour of advancing free-will It 's by the grace of God that thou art no Pelagian or Arminian It is this that maketh thee to differ from them Thy judgment thy heart would be self-confident herein did not the Spirit of God teach thee Lastly Consider that the grace of God is necessary to guide us in this point Because this Question hath alwayes seemed very difficult Austin acknowledged it so Hence he saith That when grace is defended we are thought to destroy free-will and when a free-will is acknowledged though in some sense onely we are thought to deny free-grace Indeed the Truth is not so difficult viz. that we have no spiritual liberty to what is good or that grace onely maketh the will free but how to reconcile this with the natural liberty of the will that it shall not be as a stock or stone that hath seemed to some even insoluble and therefore they advise to captivate our understandings in this point as we doe in the Doctrine of the Trinity however whether soluble or insoluble the difficulty argueth the necessity of Gods assistance while we preach and you hear about it ¶ 6. The first Demonstration of the slavery of the Will is from the Necessity of sinning that every man is plunged into SEveral particulars being premised as introductory to our intended matter our next work is to shew Wherein this servitude slavery of the will doth consist Not that you are to conceive of the will as some prisoner who is chained up in a dungeon that hath power to walk and run only those external impediments do hinder him which is Bellarmine's similitude about the inability of a natural man to supernatural good So the will hath some inward power and ability to do that which is holy onely there are lusts which are vincentes and vincientes as Austin expresseth conquering and binding this will that it cannot actually perform what internally it hath a power to do here is no such thing for we must conceive of this habitual depravation and defilement of the will in its state and condition more inward and deeply rooted in it First therefore That the will of man is destitute of any freedome to what is good appeareth In the Necessity of sinning that every man is plunged into that he cannot but sinne in all that he doth That as the Angels and Saints in Heaven have Beata Necessitas a blessed necessity of loving of God and delighting in him so that no temptation in the world can draw them off Thus every man by nature is in an unhappy and wretched necessity of sinning Dura Necessitas as Austin called it Insomuch that though the Scripture doth represent the things of Heaven in a most glorious manner to affect us yet we cannot be taken off from our sinne to love that Hence it is that every man till regenerated is compared to an evil tree and Tit. 1. they are said to be unclean and every thing made unclean to them The person being not accepted neither can any duties be This is our sad and miserable condition by nature But whose heart is throughly affected with it Thy eating thy drinking thy buying and selling yea thy praying and all other duties as they come from a man not sanctified by grace are sinnes in the eyes of God Think then to what an infinite aggravation they will arise and whether thou mayest not truly complain they are more then the sands upon the Sea-shore so that as the Toad and Serpent do necessarily vent what is poison and can never do that which is sweet and wholsom Thus no man in his natural estate can ever do any thing but be sinning and so damning of himself all the day long Onely when we say it is thus naturally necessary to a man to sinne in all things he doth you must know that we do not herein make him absolutely like a bruit beast which is not capable either of vice or virtue for this necessity is voluntarily brought by man upon himself he did wilfully strip himself of all power and ability to do that which is good and so having shut out the light from himself he doth necessarily remain in the dark having chaced away the Spirit and presence of God from his soul which is the life thereof he becometh spiritually dead and so in a necessity of sinning But it is not thus with Serpents and Toads for whether they were at first created solely with such a poisonous nature or whether upon Adam's fall it was inflicted upon those creatures as a curse it is plain that these creatures could not with any will or consent bring themselves into this estate but man did voluntarily at first having no seed of evil or inward propensity to sinne transgress the Commandment whereupon his soul became more shamefully naked then his body This necessity therefore whereby he is determined onely to sinne ariseth from his own free and voluntary impiety As a man that hath wilfully put out his own eyes must blame himself for ever if he cannot see If then this bondage be upon thee that in all things thou sinnest whatsoever thou undertakest evil is presently over ruling of thee blame not God or any providence of his no nor the Devil neither for though he doth tempt yet he doth not necessitate to sinne but thy own self for from thy own bowels this destruction doth arise ¶ 7. That a Necessary Determination may arise several wayes some whereof are very consistent with Liberty yea the more necessary the more free IT is good to observe and it may clear many difficulties in this point That a necessary determination may arise several wayes some whereof are very consistent with liberty yea the more necessary the more free Thus God himself doth necessarily will that which is good and yet freely also And if you ask Whence doth it arise that God is thus determined to what is good I answer It is from the infinite and absolute perfection of his holinesse whereby he is not nor cannot be a God that willeth iniquity Arminius indeed maketh it little lesse than blasphemy to say God is liberè bonus but that is because he cannot part with his Helena or Dalilah viz. That liberty consists in an indifferency to good and evil and in this sense to say God doth so freely will good that he can as freely will evil would be blasphemy but to will evil is no part at all of freedome it is a defect in
a mutable creature as is to be shewed Such a determination to good only was in Christ also from his perfection and is likewise in the Angels confirmed and Saints glorified here is no power to sinne yet have they liberty in an eminent degree though determined to good onely On the contrary the Devils and damned men they are necessarily determined to that which is evil they cannot but hate God they are not able to have one good thought or one good desire to all eternity yet all this is done freely by them Now as the determination to good did arise from perfection from the strong principles of holinesse within so in these their necessary determination to evil doth arise from that power of iniquity and sinne they are delivered up unto In this necessity of sinning are all natural men till regenerated absolutely plunged into and that from the dominion which sinne hath over them Onely herein they differ from the Devils and damned men they are in their termino in their journeys end and so are not in a capacity of being ever freed from this necessity and thraldome to sinne There will never be a converted Devil or a converted man in hell their state is unchangeable and they can never be recovered but with wicked men in this life God hath dealt in many plentifull wayes of mercy so that though for the present determined only to evil all the day long though for the present under the chains and bonds of sinne Yet the grace of God may deliver them out of this prison and set them at liberty but till this be they are as the Devils carried out necessarily in all hatred unto God and this determination to one is from imperfection Lastly There is a determination to one from principles of Nature without reason and judgement and where such is there cannot be any liberty for reason and judgement is the root of liberty though it be formally in the will By this then you see That this necessity of sinning doth not take away the natural freedome that is in the will so that a man and a beast should be both alike Luther De Servo Arbit indeed wished that the word Necessity might be laid aside Neither doth Bradwardine like that expression Necessitas immutabilitatis as applied to man but in the sense all that are Orthodox do agree ¶ 8. The second Argument of the Servitude of the Will is its being carried out unto sinne voluntarily and with delight SEcondly This necessity of sinning doth not at all take off from the voluntarinesse and delight therein but every natural man is carried out so voluntarily and readily unto every sinne suggesting it self as if there were no necessity at all Hence man by nature is said To swallow down iniquity like water Job 15. 16 Even as the feavorish or Hydropical man is never satiated with water Therefore the necessity of sinning is never to be opposed to his willingness and freedom for though a man hath no freedom to good yet he hath to evil Eoque magis libera quo magis Ancilla the more he is subject to sinne the more enslaved to it by his delight therein the freer he is to act it We must not then imagine such a necessity of sinning in a man as if that did compel and force a man against his inclination and desire You must not think that it is thus with a man as if he could say O Lord my will is set against sinne I utterly abhorre and detect it but I am necessitated to do it for the will being corrupted doth with all propensity and delight rejoyce in the accomplishing of that which is evil ¶ 9. 3. The Bondage of the Will is evident by its utter impotency to any thing that is Spiritual And wherein that inability consists THirdly This bondage of the will to sinne is evidently manifested in its utter impotency and inability to any thing that is spiritual It 's like Samson that hath lost its strength God made man right whereby he had an ability to do any thing that was holy there could not be an instance in any duty though in the highest degree which Adam had not a power to do and now he is so greatly polluted that there is not the greatest sinne possibly to be committed by the vilest of men but every man hath the seed and root thereof within him for this reason man by nature is not onely compared to the blind and deaf but also to such who are wholly dead in sinne So that as the dead man hath no power to raise himself so neither hath a man who is spiritually dead in his sinnes That this Truth may greatly humble us Let us consider wherein this absolute impotency to what is holy is in every man for this is a great part of the demonstration of our spiritual bondage to sinne and Satan And First Such is the thraldom of the will That a man by nature cannot resist the least temptation to sinne much lesse the greatest without the special grace of God helping at that time We matter not those Pelagian Doctors who hold a man by his own power may resist lesse temptations yea more grievous ones though not continually for when our Saviour teacheth us to pray That we may not be lead into temptation doth not that imply whatsoever is a temptation whether it be small or great if the Lord leave us thereunto we presently are overcome by it Certainly if Adam while retaining his integrity in a temptation and that about so small a matter comparatively for want of actual corroborating grace was overtaken by it Is it any wonder that we who have no inward spiritual principle of holiness within us but are filled with all evil and corruption that we are reeds shaken with every wind The rotten Apple must fall at every blast Know then that it is either sanctifying or restraining grace that keeps thee from every snare of sinne thou meetest with Thou wouldst every hour fall into the mire did not that uphold These Dalilahs would make thee sleep in their laps and then as Jael to Sicera so would they do to thee Herein is our bondage discovered Secondly Our thraldome is manifested In that we are not able of our selves to have one good thought in reference to our eternal salvation But if any serious apprehension if any godly meditation be in thy soul it is the grace of God that doth breath it into thee The wilderness of thy heart cannot bring forth such roses Thus the Apostle We are not able of our selves 2 Cor. 3. 5. to think any thing as of our selves Though the Apostle speaketh it occasionally in his ministerial imployment yet it holdeth generally true of every one of thy self then thy heart is like a noisome dung-hill nothing but unsavoury thoughts doe arise from it but if at any time any good motion any sad and serious thought stirreth within thee know this cometh from without it is put into thee as
to remove SECT V. They are wholly displaced from their right Objects THirdly The great sinfulness of the affections is seen In that they are wholly displaced from their right Objects The objects for which they were made and on which they were to settle is God himself and all other things in reference to him our love God onely challengeth in that command Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy heart and soul c. Our hatred that is properly to be against sin because it dishonours God our sorrow it is principally to be because of our offences to him so that there is not any affection we have but it doth either primarily or secondarily relate to God but who can bewail the great desolation that is now fallen upon us Every affection is now taken off its proper center In stead of loving of God we love the world we love our pleasures rather then God Instead of hating of sinne we hate God and cannot abide his pure and holy Law and Nature Thus we fear not whom we ought to fear viz. God That can destroy both soul and body in hell and what we ought not to fear there we are afraid as the frowns and displeasure of men when we are to do our duties Our sorrow likewise is not that also corrupted How melting and grieved are we in any temporal loss in any worldly evil but then for the loss of God and his favour by our iniquities there our bowels never move within us Thus our affections out of all order to their proper objects ought to be groaned under more than if all our bones were out of joynt for that is only a bodily evil hindring a natural motion this is a spiritual one depriving us of our enjoyment of God This particular pollution it is that the Text doth immediately drive at when it commands us To set our affections above it plainly sheweth where they are naturally viz. upon things of the earth and therefore as it was Christs divine power that made the woman bowed down with her infirmity for so many years to be strait Thus it must also be the mighty and gracious power of God to raise up these affections that are crawling on the ground to heavenly things Possess then thy soul throughly with this great evil that thou hast not one affection within thee that can go to its proper object but some thing moveth it from Go to the vain and fading creatures If these affections be the pedes animae the feet of the soul then with Asa thou hast a sad disease in thy feet and if thy whole body else were clean these feet would need a daily purifying SECT VI. The sinfulness of the Affections is discovered in respect of the End and Use for which God ingraffed them in our Natures FOurthly Their sinfulness is discovered in respect of the object about which So also in respect of the end and use for which God first ingraffed them into our Natures They were given at first to be like the wheels to the Chariots like wings to the bird To facilitate and make easie our approaches to God the soul had these to be like Elijah's fiery chariot to mount to Heaven and therefore we see where the affections of men are vehement and hot they conquer all difficulties that Adam might in body and soul draw nigh to God that God might be glorified in both therefore had he these bodily affections And we see David though restored to this holy Image but in part yet he could say His soul and his flesh did rejoyce in the Lord his flesh desired God as well as his soul that is his affections were exceedingly moved after God as Psal 84. 2. For the soul being the form of the body whatsoever that doth intensly desire by way of a sympathy or subordination there is a proportionable effect wrought in the inferiour sensitive part As Aaron's oyl poured on his head did descend to his skirts Thus by way of redundancy what the superiour part of the soul is affected with the inferiour also doth receive and by this means the work of grace in the superiour part is more confirmed and strengthned and the heat below doth encrease the heat above Thus you see that these affections had by their primitive nature a great serviceablenesse to promote the glory of God to prepare and raise up men to that duty But now these affections are the great impediments and clogs to the soul that if at any time it would sâ—ar up to Heaven if light within doth instigate to draw nigh to God These affections do immediately contradict and interpose and the reason is because they are ingaged to contrary objects so that when we would love God love to the world that presently stoppeth and hinders it when we should delight and rejoyce in holy things worldly and earthly delights they do immediately like the string to the birds feet pull down to the ground again Hence it is that you many times see men have great light in their minds great convictions upon their consciences they know they live in sinfull wayes they know they do what they ought not to do yea they will sometimes complain and grieve bitterly because they are thus captivated to those lusts which they are convinced will damn them at last but what is the snare that holdeth them so fast What are the chains upon them that bind them thus hand and soot even their sinfull and inordinate affections their carnal love their carnal delight keepeth conscience prisoner and will not let it do its duty Oh that we could humble our selves under this that what was wine is now become poison that what we had to further us to Heaven doth hurry us to hell that our affections should carry us to sinne that were for God that they should drive us to hell which were to further us to Heaven Oh think of this consider it and bewail it Many things lose their use and they only become unprofitable they do not hurt by that degeneration as salt when it hath lost its seasoning but now these affections are not onely unprofitable they will not help to what is good but are pernicious and damnable we that were of our selves falling into hell they thrust us and move us headlong to it so that they seem to be in us what the Devils were in the herd of Swine These are the wild horses that tare thy soul in so many pieces Thus our gold is become dross SECT VII When the Affections are set upon inferiour objects that are lawfull yet they are greatly corrupted in their Motion and Tendency thereunto IN the next place If the inferiour objects they are placed upon be lawfull and allowable yet they are greatly corrupted in their motion and tendency thereunto For they are carried out excessively and immederately They do unlawfully move to lawful things As man â—ands corrupted by nature his affections are defiled two wayes in respect of the objects For sometimes
have no more proportion or sutablenesse with spiritual and supernatural objects then the eye hath with immaterial substances so that as the eye cannot see a spirit neither can material affections terminate upon immaterial objects But the Answer is That the affections being implanted in us as hand maids to the rational parts and subjected to them by an essential subordination therefore it is when those superiour parts of the soul do strongly imbrace any spiritual good the affections also by way of concomitancy are stirred up therein onely as it is with the will though that be made to follow the understanding and as some say doth necessarily yeeld to the ultimate and practical Dictate thereof yet the will doth need a peculiar sanctification of its own nature neither is the illumination of the mind all the grace the will wanteth So it is with these affections although they be appointed to follow the directions and commands of the mind and will yet they must be sanctified and enlivened by the peculiar grace of God else they move no more than a stone Now this necessity of enlivening and quickning grace upon the affections the godly are experimentally convinced of How often doe they complain they know Christ is the chiefest good they know eternal glory is an infinite treasure Oh but how barren are their hearts no affections no cordial stirrings of their soul when they think of these things Doe the children of God complain of any thing more than their want of affections in holy things They have them as hot as fire for the things of the world but are clods of earth in spiritual duties This maketh them cry so often with the Church Draw us and we will runne after thee This maketh them pray Arise O Southwind and blow O North upon the garden of my soul that the flowers thereof may send forth a sweet fragrancy Thus that saying is true Citò prevolat intellectus tardus sequitur affectus If therefore there were no other pollution upon the affections then their dulnesse and senslesnesse as to holy things This may make the godly go bowed down all their life time Their affections are green wood much fire and frequent blowing will hardly inflame them and hence it is that the godly are so well satisfied and do so thankfully acknowledge the goodnesse of God to them when they find their affections stirring in any holy thing Insomuch that they judge that duty not worth the name of a duty which is not an affectionate duty That prayer not worthy the name of prayer which is not an affectionate prayer But how dull and heavy are these till sanctified as to any holy object Yea such is the perverse contrariety that is now come upon the superiour and inferiour parts of the soul that when the more noble parts are intensively carried out to any object the inferiour are thereby debilitated and wholly weakned so that many times the more light the lesse heat the more intellectual and rational the lesse affectionate Now this is contrary to our primitive creation for then the more knowledge of heavenly things the more affections also to them did immediately succeed But now experience doth confirme That those men whose understandings are most deeply ingaged in finding out of truths their affections are at the same time like a barren wildernesse Hence you may often find a poor inconsiderable believer more affectionately transported in love to Christ and holy things than many a great and learned Scholar That as natural fools have a greater stomack to meat and can digest better than wise men whose animal spirits are much tired and wearied out So it is here the lesse disputative the lesse head-work a godly man hath many times he hath the better heart-work Oh then bewail this in thy self as a most degenerating thing from primitive rectitude when thou findest thy knowledge thy controversal Disputes dry up thy affections So that truth is indeed earnestly sought after but the goodnesse of it doth not draw out thy affections When David commended the word of God above the honey and the honey-comb it was evident he found much experimental sweetnesse of the power of it upon his affections SECT XIII The Affections being drawn out to holy Duties from corrupt Motives shews the Pollution of them THirdly Herein also is apparent the original pollution of our affections That when they are moved and stirred up in any holy duties yet it is not a spiritual motive that draweth them out but some corrupt or unlawfull respect Thus there is a world of guile and hypocrisie in our affections we think it is the love of God that affecteth us when it is love to our selves to our own glory to accomplish our own ends Thus in our sorrow we think it is for sinne that we grieve when it is because of temporal evil or some outward calamity Insomuch that this very consideration of the hypocrisie and deceitfulnesse of our affections may be like an Abysse or deep to swallow us up when the heart is said to be so desperately wicked and that none can know it but God by that is meant in a great part our affections none knoweth the depths of his love of his fear of his sorrow How often doth he blesse himself when he finds these things moving in him especially in holy duties Whereas alas it is not any consideration from God any heavenly respect moveth him but some earthly consideration or other You may observe this in Jehu what ardent and burning affections did he shew in the cause of God destroying Idolatry and executing the judgements of God upon his enemies But what moved his affections all this while It was not the glory of God but self-respects self-advancement Oh this is the treacherous deceitfulnesse of our affections we may find them very strong in preaching in publick prayer with others and the fire to them be onely vain-glory Yea our affections may be blown up with our own expressions and delight in them so that as it is a long while ere thou canst get thy affections up to any holy duty so it is as difficult to search out What is the cause of them Why they rise up Those in Mat. 7. 21. that would cry Lord Lord did by the ingemination of the word demonstrate lively affections yet they were such whom God would bid depart as not knowing of them Here therefore is the misery of man that as all the speculative knowledge in the world unlesse it be also accompained with an affectionate frame doth not at all commend us to God so all hot and strong affections do not presently suppose the truth of grace within Experience doth sadly confirm this that many who have had great affections and workings of heart in the profession of godlinesse have yet desperately apostatized and become at last a senslesse and as stupid about heavenly things as any prophane ones are The Jews are said for a while to rejoyce in Johns light Joh. 5. 35.
gloried in humane literature 1 Cor. 1. 23. Though it is true God will by these weak things bring to nought the great admired things of the world Thus 2 Cor. 10. 5. The ministerial weapons of the Gospel are mighty through God to pull down strong holds and to cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self as Cannon-shot doth strong Castles By this of the Apostle you see the imaginations of men raise up strong and mighty opposition against the Word preached though the Word of God set home by his own power overcometh every thing that doth withstand it It is good then especially for men of quick parts and raised fancies to suspect themselves to fear lest from them arise all their destruction lest these be the bolts and barres that keep Christ out from possessing of their hearts SECT XIV It is more affected with Appearances then Realities TWelfthly The sinfulnesse of the Imagination is seen in that it is more affected with the appearance of things then the reality yea we do wholly satisfie our selves with things as they are in our fancy only and never attain to what is really good or happy Our comforts are but imaginary comforts our delights but imaginary delight yea our wealth our honours are but in imagination onely It 's usual with the Scripture to speak of the Nations of the world comparatively to God as a drop as a little dust How often is a mans life compared to a shadow Insomuch that neither our life and delight are worthy of the name All the things of this world are but in imagination What seemeth to be more substantial than wealth which is said to answer all things yet Solomon saith Why doest thou set thy eyes upon that which is not Prov. 23. 5. Wilt thou cause thine eyes to flie upon it is in the original It sheweth our ardent desires after that thing which is not Hence a wicked man in his greatest triumph and glory is compared but to a dream Job 20 8. He shall flee away as a dream and shall not be All the while we pursue riches honours all the while our hearts are hastening after the creatures we are but in a dream What is true riches What is true food What is true glory We misse and imbrace onely a shadow This is notably represented by the Prophet Isa 29. 8. The enemies of the Church that had in their hopes and expectations devoured Zion are compared to an hungry man that dreameth he eateth but when he is awakened his soul is empty Thus it is in all these worldly enjoyments this life is but a dream we are not awaked till we come within the borders of eternity Oh that this were truly considered how greatly would it mortifie that inordinacy in us to these sading things When the child rejoyceth in his bauble it is but his Imagination that is pleased his counters he taketh for money it is but his fancy that contents him and truly no more are all the great things of the world in respect of God and eternal things SECT XV. The sinfulness of the Imagination in respect of fear and the workings of Conscience 13. AS the Imagination makes us rejoyce and account our selves happy when there is no solid foundation for it so on the other side When the conscience is awakened for sinne many times the imagination doth work so terribly and filleth us with such sad apprehensions that we fear where no fear is we flee when none pursueth So that a disturbed imagination doth many times work with the troubles of conscience hindering both the working of our judgement and of faith representing God and Christ to us farre otherwise then they are Job complaineth Chap. 7. 14. that God did scare him with dreams Oh it is very sad and a grievous condition when God shall turn a mans fancy against his own self To have our conscience against us and our imaginations against us is an hell upon an earth and it is just with God to fill these Imaginations that once received nothing but lustfull and pleasant impressions with terrible and dreadfull ones and both these wayes draw from God both joyfull delights and terrible apprehensions That great change which we read made upon Nebuchadnezzar who from a great Monarch of the world is become like a beast living amongst them his haires being growne like Eagles feathers and his nailes like birds clawes was nothing else as many Expositours judge but a judgement brought upon his Reason and Imagination by a deep melancholly So that the terrours of a troubled Imagination especially when joyned with troubles of conscience doe drive from Christ oppose the comfortable way of the Gospel as well as proud and unclean motions do the pure and holy way thereof SECT XVI Of the Actings of the Imagination in Dreams IN the fourteenth place Herein the pollution of it doth manifest it self That when the senses and the rational part are bound up so that they cease from operation even then that is acting and most commonly in a sinfull manner by dreams Dreams are the proper work of the Imagination and Divines do make three sorts of them Natural Dreams which arise from natural causes and these commonly either have much sinfulness in them or great troublesomness Diabolical such as are cast into the imagination by the Devil or Divine such as are caused by God for the Spirit of God hath used the imagination in some operations thereof Thus Joseph and others were warned by God in a dream And Joel 2. the promise is That their young men should dream dreams These Divine dreams Tertullian Lib. 3. de animâ doth divide into Prophetica such as are meerly fore-telling things to come Revelatoria such as reveal something to be done as Peters vision concerning Cornelius Aedificatoria such as build up to any holy duty And Vocatoria that call to some spiritual service as that vision of Paul inviting him to come into Macedonia Concerning Diabolical Dreams they are not a mans sinnes but afflictions unless a man doth directly or indirectly consent thereunto or walk so that he deserveth God should leave him to such unclean or polluted apprehensions But we speak of Natural Dreams and not such as are meerly natural that arise from some natural cause but such as have had some voluntariness antecedent thereunto while waking such now are proud dreames malicious dreams unclean and unjust dreams All these do either expresly or virtually come from a polluted Imagination while we are awake though happily we cannot remember any such thoughts we had The sinfulness then of our dreams we are to be humbled under as coming from sinne the cause and being also sinnes in themselves No doubt but Adam would have dreamed it being common to all mankind onely it is said of Nero That he seldome or never dreamed till after the murder of Agrippina after which he was afrighted with terrible ones As also of the Atalantes that none dream amongst them Though
Tertullian faith Perhaps same did deceive Aristotle in that report yet his dreams had been meerly natural not having the least connexion of any sinne or any disquieting with them But how greatly is confusion brought upon us in this very respect Insomuch that what the Devil cannot tempt to while waking he doth allure unto while dreaming Indeed it is folly and superstition as many people do to regard dreams so as to make conjectures and prophesies thereby but so to observe them as to take notice of the filthiness and sinfulness of them that is a duty for although the reason and the will do not operate at that time yet there is sinne in our dreams because they are the effects of the sinfull motions of thy soul sometimes or other Let it then be thy care to have pure and sanctified imaginations both dreaming and waking and do nothing that may provoke the Spirit of God to leave thee to the defilements thereof SECT XVII It is not in that orderly Subordination to the rational part of man as it was in the Primitive Condition 15. THe imagination is hereby deprived That it is not now in that orderly subordination to the rational part of man as it was in its primitive condition Every thing in Adam was harmonical he was not infested with needless and wandering Imaginations Even the birds of the air as well as the beasts of the field God brought to Adam that he should give names to them The birds though flying in the air yet come and submit to him so it was in his soul Those volatique Imaginations and flying thoughts which might arise in Adam's soul they were all within his power and command neither did any troublesomly interpose in his holy meditation but now how predominant is thy imagination over thee How are good thoughts and bad thoughts conjoyned as there were clean and unclean beasts at the same time in the Ark Especially doest thou not labour and groan under thy wandring imaginations even in thy best duties and when thy heart is in the best frame Is not this the great Question thou propoundest to thy self How may I be freed from wandering thoughts and roving Imaginations in my addresses to God Oh that I were directed how to clip the wings of these birds for they are my burden and my heavy load all the day long Surely the experience of this in thy self may teach thee what a deep and mortal wound original sinne hath given every part of thee Hadst thou the Image of God in the full perfection of it as Adam once had as Christs humane nature had and as we shall have when glorified in Heaven then there would not be one wandring thought one roving imagination left as a thorn in thy side to offend and grieve thee This imagination being of such a subtil and quick motion doth presently flie from one thing to another runneth from one object to another so that hereby a great deal of sinne is committed in the very twinkling of an eye The soul indeed being sinite in his essence cannot think of all things together but not to consider that which it ought to do or to rove to one object when it should be fastned on another This is not a natural but a sinfull infirmity thereof SECT XVIII It is according to Austin's Judgement the great Instrument of conveying Original Sinne to the child 16. THe Imagination is so greatly polluted That according to Austin 's judgement it is the great instrument of conveying original sinne to the child For when he is pressed to shew how original sinne cometh to be propagated how the soul can be infected from the flesh though this be not his chief answer yet he doth in part runne to this viz. the powerfull effect of the imagination The vehement affection and lust in the parent is according to him the cause of a libidinous disposition in the child hereupon he instanceth in the fact of Jacob who by working upon the imagination of the females did by the parti-coloured sticks produce such a colour in their young ones Yea one thinketh that this instance was by a special providence of God chiefly to represent how original sinne might be propagated from parents to children And it cannot be denied but that many solid Philosophers and Phisitians do grant that the imagination hath a special influence upon the body and the child in the womb to make great immutation and change Austin instanceth lib 5. contra Julian cap. 9 in the King of Cyrus who would have a curious picture of exquisite beauty in his chamber for his wife to look upon in the time of her conception Yea Histories report strange and it may be very fabulous things herein therefore we are not to runne to this of the imagination when we would explain the traduction of this sinne It is true some imbre qualities are many times transfused from parents to children parents subject to the Gout and Stone have children also subject to such diseases and blackmores do alwaies beget blackmores and so no doubt but in the conveighing of original sinne there is a seminal influence but how and in what manner it is hard to discover but though the corrupt imagination cannot be the cause yet it may in some sense dispose for the propagating of it SECT XIX How prone it is to receive the Devils Impressions and Suggestions LAstly The imagination is greatly polluted In that it is so ready and prone to receive the Devils impressions and suggestions When we lost original righteousness which is the image of God not only original sinne like an universal leprosie did succeed in the room thereof but the Devil also did thereupon seize upon us as his owne our souls and all the parts and powers thereof are his habitation he reigneth in the hearts of all by nature we are all his captives so that as a man is said to dwell in his own house it is his home he may do what he will such a right and claim hath the Devil to a mans soul by nature he dwells in it he moveth and reigneth in it Now the imagination is that room of the soul wherein he doth often appear Indeed to speak exactly the Devil hath no efficient power over the rational part of a man he cannot change the will he cannot alter the heart of a man neither doth he know the thoughts of a man so that the utmost he can do in tempting of a man to sinne is by swasion and suggestion only but then How doth the Devil do this even by working upon the imagination Learned men make this his method that he observeth the temper and bodily constitution of a man and thereupon suggests to his fancy and injects his fiery darts thereinto by which the mind and will come to be wrought upon for it is Aristotl's rule That Phantasmata movent intellectum sicut sensila sensum so that as the object of sense being present doth presently move the sense so
not naturally offer up our bodies a sacrifice to sinne and to the Devil For meerly a natural man serveth sinne and the Devil with all the parts of his body Therefore the Apostle speaking to persons converted Rom. 7. 19. saith As ye have yeelded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity so now yeeld your members servants to righteousness Thy eye was once the Devils and sinnes thy tongue was thy ear was by all these sinne was constantly committed so now have a sanctified body an holy eye a godly ear an heavenly tongue a pure body And indeed we need not runne for Texts of Scripture experience doth abundantly confirm the preparedness and readiness of the body to all suitable and pleasing iniquity Consider likewise that pregnant place Heb. 10. 22. Let us draw near with a pure heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water As the heart must be cleansed from all sinnes that our consciences may condemn us for so our bodies likewise must be washed with pure water it is an allusive expression to the legal custom which was for all before they drew nigh to the service of God to sprinkle themselves with pure water to take off the legal uncleanness of the body And thus we must still in a spiritual way that so the body may be fitted for Gods service As it is said of Christ Heb. 10. 5. A body thou hast prepared for me because the Spirit of God did so purifie that corpulent mass of which Christs body was made that being without all sinne he was thereby fitted for the work of a Mediator For as for the Socinian Interpretation who would apply it to Christs body made immortal and glorious as if it were to be understood of Christ entring into Heaven the Context doth evidently confute it that which the Apostle following the Septuaginnt in the original calleth Preparing the body out of which it is alledged Ps 40. 6. It is my ears hast thou opened aliuding to the Jewish custom who when a servant would not leave his Master his ears were to be boared and so he was to continue for ever with him The ears were boared because they are the instrument of hearing and obedience and thereby was signified that he would diligently hearken to his Masters commands Thus it was with Christ his ears were opened his whole body prepared to do the will of God Now as it was thus with Christ so in some respect it must be with us God must prepare and fit a body for us till grace sanctifie and polish it there is no readiness to any holy duty The seeing eye and the hearing ear God is said to make both Prov. 20. 12. By these instances out of Scripture you see what a Leprosie of sin hath spread over the body as well as the soul Oh that therefore we were sensible of these sinfull bodies that are such clogs to us such burdens to us in the way to Heaven But let us proceed to shew the sinfulness thereof in particulars SECT IV. The Sinfulness of the Body discovered in particulars ¶ 1. It is not now Instrumental and serviceable to the Soul in holy Approches to God but is a clog and burden FIrst The Body is not now instrumental and serviceable to the soul in holy approaches to God but is a clog and burden whereas to Adam abiding in the state of innocency the body was exceeding usefull to glorifie God with The body was as wings to the soul or as wheels to the chariot though weighty in themselves yet they do ableviate and help to motion They are both Onera and adjumenta oneranda exonerant Thus did the body to Adam's soul but now such is the usefulness yet the hinderance of the body to the souls operations that the very Heathens have complained of it calling it Carcer animae and Sepulchrum animae the prison of the soul the very grave of the soul as if the soul were buried in the body How much more may Christianity complain of this weight of the body while it is to runne its race to Heaven Mezenius is noted for a cruel fact of binding dead bodies to live men that so by the noisom stink of those carkasses the men tied to them might at last die a miserable death Truly by this may be represented original sinne not fully purged away by sanctification The godly do complain of this body of sinne as a noisom carkass joyned to them and with Paul cry out Wretched men that we are who shall deliver us from this bondage ¶ 2. It doth positively affect and defile the Soul SEcondly The bodies sinfulness doth not only appear thus privatively in being not subservient and helpfull to the soul But it doth also positively affect and defile the soul not by way of any phisical contact for so a body cannot work upon a spirit but by way of sympathy for seeing the soul and body are two constituent part essentially of man and the soul doth inform the body by an immediate union hence it is that there is a mutual fellowship one with another there is a mutual and reciprocal acting as it were upon one another the soul greatly affected doth make a great change upon the body and the body greatly distempered doth also make a wonderfull change upon the mind and if thereby man fall into madness and distractions why not also into sinne and pollutions of the mind Thus the corrupt soul maketh the body more vile and the corrupt body maketh the soul more sinful and so they do advance sinne in a mutual circle of causality Even as vapours cause clouds and clouds again dislolving do make vapours Thy sinful soul makes thy body more wicked and thy sinful body heightens the impiety of thy soul ¶ 3. A man acts more according to the body and the inclinations thereof then the mind with the Dictates thereof THirdly Herein is the pollution of the body manifested In that a man doth act more according to the body and the inclinations thereof then the mind with the dictates thereof He is body rather then soul for whereas in mans Creation the soul had the dominion and the body was made only for the use of the soul now this order is inverted by original sinne the body prevaileth over the soul and the soul is enslaved to the propensities thereof Even Aristotle said that homo was magis sensus quam intellectus more sence then understanding and so more corporeal then spiritual man is compounded of two parts which do in their nature extraemly differ from each other the body that is of dust and vile matter and such materials God would have man formed of even at first he did not make mans body of some admirable quintessential matter as Philosophers say the heavens are made of but of that which was most vile and contemptible to teach man humility even in his very original and most absolute
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there alwayes it signifieth the holy Ghost I rather therefore think that by the sinne of the world is meant all sinne any sinne committed and repented of for Christ did not only come to take away original sinne as some would have it but all actual sinne as well So that the expression is here used in the Singular number for the greater emphasis Hence Divines have two Rules first Nomen terminatione singulare saepe significatione est plurale a word that hath a singular termination may have a Plural signification as sinne in the Text signifieth all sinne The other Rule is Quando Scriptura sacra singulari numere utitur pro plurali tum saepe plus singularitate significat quam pluralitate when the holy Scripture useth a singular number for the plural then it often signifieth more in the singular number then if it had used the plural as Exod. 15. 22. He hath cast the horse and rider into the sea that is the great company of Pharaoh's hoast we do not then exclude original sin from this place only we say actual sin is also comprehended in this propitiatory Sacrifice of Christ Propos 3. By this then it appeareth That seeing every one hath his proper peculiar original sinne that the Infants sinne is distinct from the parents original defilement and so our inherent pollution doth differ from Adam 's sinfulnesse inherent in him For you must know that the sinne which is original in us was personal in him he did by his own voluntary transgression offend God and so deprived himself of all that spiritual honour and glory God had crowned him with Immediately upon the deprivation of Gods Image there was an habitual inclination unto all manner of evil and this pollution is transfused from Adam to all his posterity not that the same sinne numerically in Adam is communicated to every one descending from him but the same in kind Therefore that Argument which the Pelagians gloried in in their conflict with Austin fetched out of Aristotle That accidens non migrat de subjecto in subjectem is foolish and absurd For we grant that the same numerical sinne which was in Adam is not propagated to us no more then the same personal humane subsistency but as we have an humane being distinct from his so also an original pollution is in every man distinct from that sinfulness in Adam It 's true some learned men have doubted whether we are to conceive original sinne inherent in us as having a distinct guilt from Adam's transgression they think it more consonant to truth if we say that his sinne and our native pollution do make up the formal guilt of it But as we have heretofore shewed that cannot be therefore though we are alwayes to judge of this original pollution with this respect to Adam's sinne that being the original efficient sinne and this the original formal one yet in it self considered there is a damnable guilt and therefore by it alone we are said to be children of wrath Lastly Although original sinne be but one in every man yet we may call it many in respect of the efficacy of it and the innumerable issue that cometh from it So that we may say it is one and many in several respects for all the sinnes of the world have their rise mediately and immediately from it all these springs come from that Ocean Thus Aquinas and the Schoolmen answer that place Psal 51. 5. Although the proper answer to that place is that in the Hebrew it is in the singular number the plural is only according to the Vulgar Translation and if you say How can all these actual sins which are of a contrary nature come from this one spring How can one sin dispose to many contrary sinnes We answered this before and shall adde one thing more to clear it viz. That though one sinne may not dispose directly and per se to all sinne yet per accidens it may by removing that which did keep off all sinne for original righteousness did incline to all duties and thereby preserved from all sinne now original sinne excluding this thereby all sins are committed as temptations and occasions do intervene Even as if a musical instrument be marred every string maketh a different jarre according to the nature of it or as when a mixed body is dissolved every element goeth to his proper place which is Aquinas his similitude of which when we shall shew how original sinne is equal and inequal in all SECT IV. That Original Sinne which is in every man doth vent it selfe betimes WE proceed to the second part in the Doctrine which is That this original sinne which is in every man doth vent it self betimes his Imagination is evil from his childhood We told you the Papists offer violence to the Text when they limit it to a mans youth excluding his childhood as if that were innocent The Rabbins they say as Mercer relateth this evil figment is in a mans heart till he be thirteen year old and afterwards a good figment cometh into a man It is greatly disputed with the Schoolmen When is the time that a child cometh to discern between good and evil for till then they say the Law of God doth not bind and so he is not capable of actual sinnes Some limit the time of actual sinnes to four or six years of age But certainly here cannot be any fixed or uniform Rule given neither may we deny children to be guilty of actual sins before they come to years of discretion Certainly Austin speaketh of his observation of the envy which one child hath while another sucketh the same breast and therefore although we cannot say with the Lutherans That Infants have either actual sinnes or actual graces yet no doubt but actual sins do very early proceed from them neither is the time of their sinning to be limited to the time of their use of reason in a formal and deliberate manner It is true our Saviour took a little child setting him in the midst of the company saying Vnlesse a man become like this child he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven Mat. 18. 4. not that such a little child had not both original and actual sins in him but because comparatively to grown persons they are innocent having not the pride and other sins as men of age have therefore it is that we are to be converted and become like little children yea there is no parent that desireth the salvation of his children but he may observe that from the very childhood there is a great aversness to what is holy and a natural inclination to evil Insomuch that all do betimes give a discovery of that imbred and sinfull pollution that is in them Solomon saith That folly is bound up in the heart of a child prov 22. 15. And in Job 11. 12 Man is said to be born like a wild Asses-Colt because of the stupidity and unteachableness that is
hid in the soul which by education and instruction are blown up into a flame So that the Schools which are generally provided for youth do declare That the nature of man of it self will bring forth weeds but there must be much plowing and sowing much cost and labour ere any good seed will grow up That known Text of Scripture will for ever bear record against these patrons of nature Folly is bound up in the heart of a child but the rod of correction will drive it away Prov. 22. 15. No lesse powerfull is that counsel Prov. 23. 13. With-hold not correction from the child if thou beat him with the rod he shall not die if thou beat him c. thou shalt deliver his soul from hell Doth not this proclaim that every child is set to damn it self if left alone It is not more prone to runne into the fire then it is to fall into hell and this maketh chastisement so necessary How necessary is it for parents to consider this either education or hell either chastisement or damnation And whence is all this but because of the impetuous nature in every child unto evil As the horse and mule need the bridle being carried out only by sense Thus doth the child need admonition being unteachable and untamable of himself even like the wild Asses colt Job 11. 12. Let parents then take heed of remisness lest their children roaring in hell do continually curse them for their negligence It 's a known example of a young man carried to the place of execution that cried out Non Praetor sed Mater mea duxit ad furcam It was not the Judge but his mother brought him to that shamefull death There was in the Tabernacle Aarons Rod and the Manna which some would have allegorically to signifie the sweetness and benefit of Discipline Iniquity then breedeth within us all the wisest and severest education can no more free a child from its inherent filthiness then Paracelsus could make himself immortal as he fondly boasted if he had had the first ordering and dieting of his body Hence the duty of parents is set down Ephes 6. 4. To bring up their children in the nature and admonition of the Lord. And Solomon who was so tender and onely beloved in the sight of his mother yet his parents were continually distilling wholsome precepts into him as Prov. 4. 3 4 5 implying thereby that none is without ignorance without a proneness to evil therefore is godly instruction so necessary So that the Doctrine of original sinne should greatly provoke fathers and mothers to their duties Every mother should be a Monica to her Austin that we may say It is not possible that Filius tot lachrymarum pereat a sonne of so many prayers and tears should perish Fifthy The difficulty that is acknowledged by ali to do that which is good and holy doth also manifest our propensity to what is evil We cannot apply the Text to that which is good and say Man drinketh down that like water The very Heathens could say Facilis discensus averni and Virtus in arduo sita est Virtue was placed upon an high mountain it was hard climbing up unto it but it was easie to tumble down it is easie to fall down the hill Sinne then being so easily committed and that which is good so hardly performed Doth not this speak plainly that we are corrupted by nature For certainly if the word of God neither in the threatnings or in the promises of it can make us decline from evil and do good when neither hell can terrifie us nor the glorious joyes of Heaven invite us This argueth we are immovably fixed in a way of sinning Is there any command for holy duties Is there any Law enjoyning us to leave our lusts of which we do not say It is an hard saying who can bear it Hence it is that the wisdome of the flesh is said to be enmity in the very abstract against God Rom. 8. 7. the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whatsoever is either in mind or affections is wholly opposite to the pure Law of God So that this is an evident demonstration of mans vehement inclination to sinne that though God hath set so many fiery flaming swords in the way to stop us from sinne Though Heaven in the glory of it be on one side discovered and hell in all the horrible and dreadfull torments of it on the other side Though many Ministers of God meet thee at the Angel did Balaam to stop thee in the way to sinne yet for all this thou doest despirately and obstinately proceed This maketh it appear that there is a more flagrant appetite to sinne then to any thing else like Rachel crying Give me children else I die so let me have my lusts satisfied else no life no condition is comfortable Sixthly The necessity of Gods grace both for the beginnings progresse and consummation in every good work doth evidently prove our polluted nature We need grace to make us new creatures of spiritually dead to quicken us and enliven us we need grace to breath in the very first desires and groans after any thing that is good Now why is there such a necessity of a Physician if we be not sick Christ is in vain grace is in vain if original sinne with the effects thereof be denied And therefore Austia said Pelagians were but nomine tenus Christiani Christians only in name for they do in effect exclude Christ and evacuate grace Indeed the pure Naturalist Vnam Necessarium Chap 6. pag. 413. affirmeth That the necessity of grace doth not suppose our nature to be originally corrupted for beyond Adam's meer nature something else was necessary and so it is in us This Position is bottomed upon that false and absurd Doctrine invented at first by some Philosophers brought into the Church by Pelagions much insisted upon by Papists That there is a middle state a state of pure nature between sinne and grace That Adam was created in such a condition God superadding the glorious ornaments of grace which upon his fall he was deprived of and so fell into his state of pure nature again and in this middle estate every Infant is now born a state indeed they say of imperfection but not of sinne we need grace to carry us to those sublime and high things which are above nature but otherwise there is no sinne is 〈◊〉 So that it 's the Papists expression That Adam standing and Adam fallen 〈◊〉 only as a man that was cloathed and naked or as the late Author as Moses face while the light did shine upon it and when it was removed As Moses face did remain with its naturals though it had not the super-added lustre Thus say they man is in his state of nature not sinfull neither godly But this is a monstrous figment and he that saith Those who dispute of original sinne do dispute De non ente How much rather may we say that
object is to our corrupt hearts one way or other as the forbidden fruit was to Eve not that God doth forbid us to see or hear such things but because the soul cannot be excited by those objects and affected with them but it is in a sinful manner If then thy head were a fountain of teares it could not weep enough for the desolation that is upon thee Thy eye maketh thee sinne thy ear maketh thee sinne Thus thou art compassed about with sinne from evening and morning 2. These suddain motions of sinne sometimes arise from the imagination and fancy of a man And truly how often do displeasing and sinful imaginations disturb the peace and quiet of thy soul Is it not thy fancy thou complainest of how volatique and roving is that It stayeth no where it is not fixed in holy duties It is like a market place where there is a croud of people so that the imagination doth very often help this original lust and sinne to bring forth What a quiet srene and blessed life should a man live if his imagination could be kept in an holy fixed frame if he could bid it go and it goeth do this and it did it 3. The perturbation of the body by distempers that many times causeth this original sinne to be working in us Though the body be corporeal and the soul a spirit and so cannot act physically upon it yet because they are both the essential parts of a man immediately united together there is by sympathy an acting and affecting of one another especially the body being instrumental to the soul in many operations Hence it is when that is disturbed and indisposed the soul also is hindred in its operations and therefore from the distemper of the body we are easily moved to anger to sorrow to fear to lusts So that the motions of the soul are many times according to the motions of the body as Gerson instanceth Compend Theol. in a simile which he saith some use concerning the water when the Sunne-beams are upon it as the water moveth or danceth up and down so do the Sunne-beams which are upon the water Thus as the body is in any commotion so the soul which is more immediately united to the body then the beams of the Sunne are to the water doth work according as it finds this instrument disposed Fourthly This original lust is often stirred up to entice us by the sensitive appetite by the passions and affections that are in us This we told you some did limit lust to in the Text but very unsoundly yet it cannot be denied but because the affectionate part of a man is so prevalent and operative that very often sinne is committed here even without the consent of the will These affections doe suddenly transport us and we can no more command them to be quiet then we are able to compose the waves of the Sea Now though we would withstand and gain-say them yet they are our sinnes for all that as we see Paul sadly complaining herein Rom. 7. Austin delighteth De Trinit lib. 13. to expresse our manner of sinning by allusion to the first sinne When any object doth present it self to allure and affect us then the Serpent saith he sheweth us the forbidden fruit When the sensitive appetite of a man is drawn out to consent unto it then Eve doth eat of this forbidden fruit when the rational part of the soul is enticed likewise to consent to this sinne then Eve giveth of this fruit to Adam and he eateth Thus Reason is like Adam Eve like the sensitive part and as Eve when she did eat the forbidden fruit alone did thereby grow mortal and would have died though Adam had not consented to eat Thus the affectionate part of a man carrying us away to sinne though the superiour part of the soul will not agree thereunto yet this maketh us to be in a state of damnation This maketh the action to be damnable Lastly When none of these wayes doe stirre up original sinne then the thoughts and apprehensions of a man in the intellectual part they may And indeed the former provoking causes were most conspicuous in grosse and carnal sinnes but this is influential in spiritual sinnes from the minde come vain thoughts ambitious proud malicious thoughts from the mind arise blasphemous atheistical and unbelieving thoughts Thus you see how poor and wretched man is become in his soul as Laezarus was in his body all over with ulcers and sores no place is free from sinne Oh that God would deliver us from our blindnesse of minde from our self-fulnesse whereby we are so apt to fall in love with our selves so as to think we want nothing when we are without God without Christ without the Image of God without all holinesse and peace within either of soul or body How should it pity thee to see this glorious building thus lying in its own ruines and rubbidge Now from all these particulars thus joyned together you may observe how sinne carrieth us away in a pleasing enticing manner So that although we cannot but sinne yet this is very delightsome and satisfactory insomuch that man is drawn aside to sinne as he said Trahit sua quemque voluptas And this is more to be observed because the adversaries do so tragically exclaim against us in affirming that we lie under a necessity of sinning we cannot but sin Why then say they Why should God damn us for sinning any more than for being thirsty or hungry which do necessarily affect us But the Answer is two-fold 1. This necessity of sinning is voluntarily contracted and brought upon us it is not as hunger or thirst which were necessary properties of man at his Creation though without that grief and pain which now we feel And 2. This necessity is also voluntary and pleasing it seizeth upon the mind will affections and the whole man and therefore as we cannot help it so neither will we help it We love and delight to eat this poison Lastly There are these three degrees whereby it 's said Lust cometh to be accomplished Though some differ in their expressions herein The first is Suggestion and that is when any lust doth begin to arise in the soul This is very imperceptible and undiscerned but by those who are exact in the spiritual exercises of thier soul It is true some say this word Suggestion is not proper because that doth properly come from without the Devil or the world but this is internal arising of our selves But we need not strive about words The second is Delight From this motion the soul presently findeth some secret pleasure and accordingly thinketh of it with delight receiveth it with delight Lastly There is the consent unto these to will them to be joyned to them And thus when sinne hath made this progresse a man is an adulterer a murderer before God though not actually done in the eyes of men as our Saviour witnesseth Matth. 5. 28. for
there as you see Paul doth Rom. 7. Let it not be thought that thou art freed from all sinne because thou doest withstand them thou doest not own them For although this will keep them from being imputed unto thee yet in themselves they are sinnes they are damnable God might throw thee into hell for the meer having of them God might justly say I sowed good seed in thy soul but how come these tares there These thoughts these motions are none of my planting I created them not Therefore the very having of them in thy soul is a sinne against God though never expressed in action and the reason hereof is from the exact spirituality of the Law of God There is this great difference between God and all political Law-giver these later forbid only the external action they do not prohibit the inward will or desire What Law-giver amongst men was ever so absurd as to say you shall not cover or desire such a thing But if men do outwardly offend then they are obnoxious to punishment But it is otherwise with God in his Laws who is the Father of Spirits and searcheth our hearts therefore his Law doth principally reach to the heart to make that a good treasure to have the tree first good and then to make the fruit answerable thereunto 2. We offend against God not only by having of these motions stirring in us but much more when they delight us when we find a complacency and sweetness in the thinking of them when they affect us so that we roll them like honey under the tongue And truly in this respect the godly soul is even amazed and astonished to see how vile it is and how abominable For what innumerable pleasing delightsome motions do arise in thy soul all the day long either about unlawfull objects or if lawfull in an inordinate and sinfull manner Are not these more then the hairs of thy head in number Now concerning these delightfull pleasing motions of the soul in a sinfull way observe these Rules 1. That a man may be carried out in these delightfull objects either by a meer affection of complacency and pleasure or by an efficacious act and purpose of the will to accomplish such a sinne as in uncleannesse The corrupt heart may delight it self in lascivious apprehensions and defile it self exceedingly in that way but yet have no efficacious will to commit the sinne yea as we told you would not for a world commit it either for shame or for punishment or some other respects For sinne hath then got strong power over us and we are left by God when we are boldly carried on to commit such leudness It is therefore necessary for the spiritual and heart-Christian to observe the former as well as the later Do there not arise contemplative delightsome thoughts about sinfull objects Are they not rolled up and down in thy heart though thou hast no purpose to effect them Oh be ashamed and blush to have such an impure soul Is this soul fit for communion with God Is this the temple of the holy Ghost Rule 2. The object of these delighting pleasing motions may either be the sinnes themselves desired and inclined after or They may be the meer thoughts and apprehensions of them For the soul being a spiritual substance hath power to reflect upon its own acts and operations to know it knoweth to think what it thinketh And therupon because as Aquinas saith Delectatio sequitur operationem Delight followeth operation we may take great pleasure in our thoughts and even be drunken with delight therein This is especially to be seen in heretical and erroneous persons Men who are proud of their opinions their notions their own conceptions and inventions What infinite pleasure and content do such men take in the thoughts about their own thoughts and apprehensions More sometimes then the greatest Monarchs can do in their earthly greatness It behoveth therefore men of parts and gifts men of learning and extraordinary activity of wit to take heed of lust within carrying them out to pride and delight in their own selves Rule 3. These motions of delight and pleasure in the soul are of a large extent We are not to limit them only to bodily lusts or ambitious desires for as large as the command of God is so large is this way of delightsome motions in the soul by contrariety thereunto As the Law of God is divided into two Tables and therein are required all the duties we own to God and man So likewise hereby are forbidden all the pleasing lusts and thoughts of the soul which oppose these duties And if a man be a searcher of his own heart he cannot but take notice how often these sinfull motions of his soul sometimes empty themselves in reference to God and sometimes towards our neighbour Towards God and thus we have delightfull motions in our own self-trusting and confidence in the creature we love and rejoyce in humane comforts to the excluding and shutting out of God himself especially in holy duties in the observance of his own day and Ordinances How many pleasing distracting and wandring motions do then seize upon us so that commonly we never find our selves more molested by them then when we are in a most heavenly and holy manner to approach unto him And for the duties towards our Neighbour there arise many pleasing evil motions of soul to envy at his good to be glad at the evil which befalleth him to have uncharitable and suspitious thoughts towards him Thus where ever any actual sin may be committed either against God or man there may and do pleasing and delightfull thoughts arise before and prepare the way for them Lastly Cajetan giveth a good Rule Summula Tit. Delectatio concerning these motions of delight within us that in them we are to consider the Occasion the Liberty and the Intention about them The occasion Thus if we do put our selves into such companies go to see such sights read such books hear such unsavoury discourse as may stirre up our hearts to these sinfull motions then our sinne is the greater and we shall be found the more guilty before God Such is our corrupt nature that we need not adde oil to that fire within us Even in lawfull and just duties yea in our most holy and heavenly performances these sinfull motions arise to disturb and distract our souls as if mens did come of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Moon as some affirm because of the divers shapes and vicissitude it is often put into We ought therefore to be farre from adding fuel to this fire by going to unlawfull sights to wicked companions thereby to provoke that corruption within us Again We are to consider what Liberty and power we have to subdue them and represse them some rise more suddenly then others and some again appear so that we have time to consider of the danger of them the damnable nature of them Now the more time we have to
having named two contrary principles and their lustings one to another there is no reason to limit it to one but that we understand it thus That even in had things a godly man is not carried out with the full command of the flesh but the Spirit of God doth in a great measure check and prohibit it And also in good things though the Spirit of God doth enlighten and enlarge the soul yet the flesh doth something retard and by its opposition causeth that we cannot do holy things with that fulness purity and perfection as we would do Thus you have this noble Text explained which will afford excellent practical matter concerning that property of original sinne that it remaineth in some measure even in the most holy and that therefore there is no perfection in this life None is all spirit without any flesh at all in them Therefore the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text may have its emphasis The same things ye cannot do that ye would For what godly man doth not feel that it is not the same prayer the same faith the same repentance he desired The duty like Jeremiah's vessel cometh to be marred upon the wheel in the very doing so much deadness distraction lukewarmness and senslesness of spirit appeareth that he wondereth to see how different the duty exercised is from the desire and purpose in his soul From the words thus declared observe That original sinne remaineth in every man though never so godly in some measure whereby there is a combate between the flesh and the Spirit so that we cannot do any holy duty perfectly in this life I limit my Discourse only to the good will in the Text not the bad because that is most homogeneous with my subject And besides The Pelagians calumniated this Doctrine of original sinne as a discouragement unto holiness and that hereby perfection could never be attained because this sinne is said to have some being and working in the most holy though it have not dominion It is from original sinne that the most holy men find a combat within them more or lesse that alwayes in this life they find a need both of pardon of sinne and of the righteousness of Christ which if any deny as the Pelagians did we will not believe them with Austin in that they say but attribute it to their arrogancy and hypocrisie pretending more holiness to the world then they have for their self-advantage or else to their stupidity and senslesness not feeling what doth indeed annoy and oppose the Spirit of God and truly they who have not the Spirit of God abiding in them How can they discern of such a combate That moral conflict which Aristotle speaketh of in the incontinent person he may perceive within himself but this of the Spirit and the flesh He cannot know because it is spiritually discerned SECT II. Several Propositions clearing the truth about the Combat between the Flesh and Spirit in a godly man ¶ 1. The Difference between Original and Actual Sinne. THe only way to comprehend the latitude of this excellent truth about the Conflict between flesh and spirit in the true believer because of original sinne still adhering to him is to lay down several Propositions wherein we may at the same time assert truth and obviate some error First Original sinne doth greatly differ from actual sinne in this particular that when an actual sinne is committed there remaineth no more but the guilt of it which upon repentance by justification is wholly removed away and thus an actual sinne is as if it had never been but in original sinne although the guilt of it be taken away yet the nature of it abideth still though not with such dominion as formerly it did It is true the Schoolmen except Biel and some others say actual sinnes leave a macula a blot or defilement upon the soul as well as a reatus or guilt and what this macula is they are different in their explication of but we must necessarily grant that every actual sinne doth defile the soul depriving it either of the beauty it hath or ought to have but yet still the act of sin is passed away whereas in original sin the sin it self doth still continue by which it is that though to those who are in Christ there is no actual condemnation yet there is that which is damnable in them insomuch as without Christ there is a wo to their most holy and praise-worthy actions It is true the Papists and others look upon this as non-sense or a contradiction that sin should be in a man and not make him guilty as if actual condemnation might not be separated from sinne though indeed the desert of condemnation cannot It cannot be but wheresoever sinne is it doth deserve hell it hath enough in it to provoke God to wrath but yet when humbled for and withstood then through the bloud of Christ this actual guilt though not the potential one is taken away Yea original sinne doth not only differ from actual sinne but also habitual because though habitual sinnes do abide in a man yet when a man is regenerated and made a new creature all the habits of sinne are expelled for if the habits of sinne and grace should abide together then a man might at the same time be holy and unholy the sonne of God and the sonne of the Devil seeing our denomination is from the habits that are within us therefore that cannot be But though in our Regeneration the habits of sinne are removed yet it is not so with original corruption that is not an acquired but an innate habit of sinning within us Thus our original corruption is farre more pertinaciously cleaving unto us then any habits or customs of sinne can be though of never so long continuance ¶ 2. IN the second place That is a false position which the Remonstrants have Exam Censurae cap. 11. pag. 128. that the difficulty which new converts have to leave their former lusts doth arise chiefly from their former custome and exercise in wayes of impiety not from original sinne For they distinguish of godly men such as are incipients new beginners that are but newly converted unto Christ and these they say have a great conflict within them they have much ado to leave their former lusts and impieties they have been accustomed unto and then there are the Adulti such who are proficients and grown up now these they say may arise to such a measure of holiness as to be without any conflict at all between flesh and spirit or to feel it very rarely but that is directly to contradict this Text which speaketh it universally of all that have the Spirit of God in them while in this life they do meet with opposition not only from the devil without but the flesh within Therefore they would elude this Text as if it did not mean an actual reluctancy or lusting against one another but only potential that it is the
is the string to her feet This made Paul cry out of it as a weight lying upon him Rom. 7. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death yea Heb. 12. 1. it is called a weight now as that must needs be an impediment to any who run in a race no less burdensome is original sinne to a godly man in his way to heaven Fourthly It hinders the perfection of grace cooling and remitting the fervour and zeal thereof and herein chiefly the mischievous effect of original sinne is discovered it maketh the soul halt in his progress it allayeth the heat of grace it is like smoak to put out the fire The adversaries to this Truth say it is not intelligible how the Spirit can make us will one thing and the flesh another seeing a man hath but one will and he cannot velle nolle will and nill at the same time about the same object But they may know that by such expressions are chiefly meant That the hearrt of a man through this flesh within him is very faint and remiss in all its actions about that which is good when he doth will it it 's so inefficaciously so slluggishly so imperfectly that it may be called a nilling as well as a willing and this is the sad issue of original sinne it maketh us go halting to the grave it abateth that activity and zeal of spirit which ought to be in holy things Fifthly The flesh hindereth absolute compleatness of grace by soiling debasing and infecting our holy duties It is as some mud cast into a pure stream it is as some poison mingled with wine and for this it is that the most holy have prayed God would not enter into judgement with them because in his sight no flesh could be justified Psal 143. 2. For this the Scripture compareth even our righteous actions to a menstruous cloath Isa 30. 22. This is the frog that is drawen up with the pure water out of the well though our godly duties are not sinnes yet they are sinful they are damnable in themselves and therefore need the mercy of God to forgive the imperfections adhering to them Lastly The flesh is an hindrance in the way of grace by dividing and distracting of the heart In the stare of integrity when there was no such intestine warre then the whole strength of the soul emptied it self one way but now though grace hath for the main setled our hearts upon God yet the flesh interposeth that propoundeth other objects and thus because the pool runneth into divers streams it is not so full and plentifull so that it is impossible there should be any perfection where there is any distraction or division and therefore we may justly expostulate with all those who plead they are without sin Whether they never have so much as one wandring thought in any holy duty they go about If they should say they have not it is our duty to flee from such persons as are puffed up with such self-love and self-confidence that they know not or feel not what they are or do Such are like those distracted persons that conceit themselves Kings and Emperours when at the same time they are miserable and indigent Now by these several actings of the flesh within us the godly man may perceive what little cause he hath to trust in himself thou canst not be secure while in this mortal body the wound original sinne hath given thee is not wholly cured sometime or other this close secret enemy may rob thee of thy Pearls and Jewels if thou art not diligent in praying and watching over thy self In the next place I shall proceed to a second Proposition and therein shall answer such general Objections that may plausibly be urged against the actings of original sinne within us and thereby against the imperfection of regeneration for some have thought it no dangerous errour to plead for a perfection even in this life Therefore Arminius his heires Epistola dedecati ad cap. 7. ad Rom. say that the unseasonable and excessive urging of the constant imperfection of regenerate persons and the impossibility of keeping the Law in this life without adding what the godly might do by faith and the Spirit of Christ such a thought as this might easily enter into the hearts of the hearers that they can do no good at all and they adde the ancient Church thought not the question about the impossibility of the law to be reckoned among capital ones which is apparent say they from Austin which wisheth the Pelagians would acknowledge it might be performed by the grace of Christ and then there would be peace between them But certainly Austin may best explain himself De perfectione justitiae ad Caelestiam ad finem where he saith he knoweth some who hold there either have been or are some that were without sinne Quorum sententiam de bâc re non audeo reprehendere quanquam nec defendere valeam as he dared not reprove it so he could not defend it This is his modest expression but if Austin could not defend it I do not know who in that age could seeing Austin by the gloss in the Canon law hath justly the preheminence above all the Ancients for Disputations as Hierom for the Tongues and Gregory for Morals and certainly the places brought to prove this point do argue that no man is without sinne that none can be justified if God enter into judgement It was also Pelagins boast in that Epistle ad Demetriadem for it 's taken to be his That in the first place he doth enquire what men are able to do how farre their own power extendeth as if this foundation were not laid there could be no exhortation to godliness Hence the Pelagians charged it as a consequence upon the Doctrine of original sinne that it would work in men a despair about perfect righteousness lib secundo coutra Julianum in initio But of late Writers setting aside Papists Castellio for we must not call him Castalio seeing he bewaileth his pride Castel Defens page 356. for assuming that name to him from the fountain of Muses doth with the greatest earnestness propugn the perfection of regenerate persons and immunity from sinne understanding that prayer for pardoning of sinne like as that duty to forgive our enemies viz. when we have them This Writer calleth that question Whether a man may by the Spirit of God perfectly obey the law a very profitable question but addeth that the errour on the right hand viz. that we are able perfectly to fullfill it is farre less dangerous then the contrary for God will never find fault with that man who doth endeavour for a perfect obedience and that by the help of God De obedientiâ Deo praestandâ pag. 227 228. but his arguments are as weak as his affections are strong in this point ¶ 5. Objections against the Reliques of sinne in a regenerate man answered LEt us examine what
that this man hath for this errour is because the Scripture useth substantive expressions it is called an evil heart a stony heart c. But this is because of the corruption adhering to it As we say a rotten tree or a poisoned fountain The heart as it is a fleshly substance is not evil but as it is the principle of our motions and actions not in a physical but moral sense It is true we say That through original sinne man cometh short of his end And so as the hand when its dead cannot do the works of an band or salt when it hath lost its seasoning is good for nothing Thus it is with man in regard of any supernatural actions yet he hath not lost any thing that was substantial and essential Only the power of the soul want the primitive rectitude they once had and therefore whensoever they act it is with deordination Indeed we will grant That Illyricus his adversary Victorinus Strigelius did not fully express original corruption in the Disputation between them who compared a man to a Loadstone of which they say when rubbed with Garlick it will not draw iron but if that be wip'd off by Goats bloud it will be as attractive as before For this similitude is not full enough because original sin doth not only hinder the doing of good actions but infecteth the very powers and principles of them It is true there are those as Contzen in Rom. 5. that say because the Calvinists hold That concupiscence is sinne they cannot avoid Flaccianism but that is a meer calumny We alwayes distinguish between the nature and substance of a man and the ataxy and disorder that doth now accompany it Neither when we call it an accident do we thereby extenuate the nature of original sinne for we do not make it a light superficial one but which is inbred with us and doth diffuse it self over all the parts and powers of the soul Neither do we say it is a transient temporary accident but that which is fixed and permanent in us Thus we see in what sense there may be excessive expressions about original sinne otherwise we cannot say enough to affect our hearts with the loathsomness of it provided we keep close to the Scripture directions herein Thus at last by the good hand of God we are come out of these deeps into the haven we have waded through all the several parts of this vast Subject and are now come to the shore It remaineth as a duty upon every one to hasten out of this captivity and bondage not to stay a day or hour in this damnable estate and above all things to take heed of such opinions that do either lessen or nullifie this sinne for this is to erre in the foundation Christ and grace and regeneration can never be built thereupon This Doctrine hath stood as a firm 〈◊〉 in all ages upon which the contrary errors have dashed and broken themselves and without this we are never able to performe those two necessary duties To know our selves and to know Christ This hath alwayes been the Catholique Doctrine of the Church of God Neither did the Fathers before Austin's time generally speak otherwise as late Writers would make us believe Even as the Socinians say the Ancients affirmed otherwise about Christ than after Athanasius his time and the Council of Nice was usually done in the Church Scripture the Consent of the Church and every mans own experience doth proclaim this truth Quis ante prodigiosum diâ—cipulum Pelagii Coelestium reatu praevaricationis Adae omne genus humanum negavit astrictum Lyr. cont Haeres c. 24. FINIS AN ALPHABETICAL TABLE A Actions MEns best Actions carnal pag. 139 Bad Actions are not justified by good intentions 280 The will hath not power over all its Actions 323 Adam Adam had full power over himself 20 Made upright 23 Yet free and changeable ib. 114 He sinned not after the same manner that we sinne against Socinians ib. A common head 25 His sin was disobedience 27 His sin imputed to all ib. His disobedience makes us sinners by propagation not by imitation 28 He had power to stand 114 And to repent and believe while in innocency transcendently ib. Deprived by his fall of more then was meerly supernatural 118 And of supernaturals also ib. Had free-will to good before his fall not after 119 Had faith 120 128 Loved God above all before his fall ib. And delighted in him 121 Not made in a neutral indifferent state 123 How original righteousnesse was natural to him 125 What was supernatural to Adam 127 Had all graces either actually or habitually 128 129 Had his affections subject to his mind 134 A comparison between the first and second Adam 181 Affections The pollution of them 325 The nature of them 327 How variously they may be considered 328 Their tyranny over the understanding and will 329 Sinfull in their first motions 330 And in their progress and degrees 331 And in their duration and in respect of their objects 332 And in respect of their end and use 333 And in their motion to lawfull objects 334 And in respect of their opposition to one another 336 Affections polluted in respect of the conflict between them and natural conscience 336 And in their distracting us in duties 338 And in their contrariety to the example of God ib. How they are in God 339 Their dulness toward good 340 Drawn to holy duties from corrupt motives 341 Zealously drawn out to false wayes 342 Inlets to all sin 343 The privacy of the Affections 345 The hurtfull effects on our own bodies 346 And others 347 They readily receive temptations ib. All. All sinfull that come of Adam sinfull by nature though the children of the most godly 394 And how absurd to exempt any 400 God justified for shutting up All under sin for the sin of Adam 421 Amyraldus Amyraldus and other sense upon the conflict in Rom. 7. examined 483 Angels Angels not generated 196 Appetite Of the three-fold Appetite in man 158 B Beleeve NO man can Beleeve by the power of nature 315 Blasphemies What devilish Blasphemies have been received 219 Body Body of man defiled with sin 372 Is not serviceable to the soul in holy approaches but a clog 376 Doth positively affect and defile the soul 377 Man acts more according to the inclinations of the Body then the dictates of the mind ib. It s a tempter and seducer 378 Doth objectively occasion much sin to the soul 381 Its indisposition to serve God 392 Easily moved by its passions 384 When sanctified it is the temple of God 385 C Children CHildren suffer for parents sinnes 46 Arminians make the Children of Heathens and believers alike 67 How soon a Child may commit actual sin 416 Christ Whether upon Christ's death there be a universal removal of the guilt of original sinne 539 Combate Combate between the flesh and the spirit 474 Conflict No spiritual Conflict in the state
of integrity 479 Nor is there sense or feeling of any such Conflict in a natural man 480 It 's in all that are sanctified 81 Conflict the several kinds 500 Conscience What Conscience is 223 Whence quietness of Conscience in unregenerate men 90 And whence troubles of Conscience in the regenerate ib. Erroneous Conscience ought to be obeyed 224 Conscience horribly blind and erroneous by nature 225 And senslesse 226 The defect of Conscience in its offices and actings 228 The corruption of Conscience in accusing and excusing 230 Of a counterfeit Conscience 233 Sinfull lust fancy and imagination custome and education mistaken for Conscience ib. Conscience severe against other mens sins blind about its own 236 Security of Conscience 237 The defilement of Conscience when troubled and awakened 238 The difference between a troubled and a regenerate Conscience 243 Causes of trouble of Conscience without regeneration ib. False cure of a wounded Conscience 245 Consent A two-fold Consent of the will expresse and formal or interpretative and virtual 287 Creation Christ had his soul by Creation and so we have ours 195 Creature Mans bondage to the Creature 317 D Damnation DAmnation due to all for original sinne 528 Death Death not natural to Adam before sin 31 115 Death and all other miseries come from sin 173 Devil The Devil cannot compell us to sinne 15 114 Difference Difference between original and actual sins 477 Difficulty Difficulty of turning to God whence 478 Doubtings Doubtings whence 241 Duties Imperfection in the best Duties 11 Of doing Duties for conscience sake 234 E Exorcisms EXorcisms used anciently at the Baptism of Infants 54 F Faculties SOme Faculties and imbred principles left in the soul after the fall 224 Mans best Faculties corrupted by sinne 139 Flesh Flesh and spirit in every godly man 11 How the word Flesh is used in Scripture 139 Flesh and spirit contrary ib. Forgetfulness Forgetfulness natural and moral 257 Forgetfulness of sin 260 Of usefull examples and former workings of Gods Spirit 261 Of our later end the day and death and judgement and the calamities of the Church 262 Freedom Several kinds of Freedom 306 Freedom from the dominion of sin whether it be by suppression or abolishing part of it 503 G Grace WHat sanctifying Grace is 20 Given not so much to curb actual sin as to cure the nature ib. Free Grace exalted by the Apostles 308 The Doctrine of free Grace unpleasing to flesh and bloud 310 The necessity of special Grace to help against temptations 314 H Habits THe Habits of sin forbidden and the Habits of grace required by the Law 45 Heathens Heathens how far ignorant of original sin 168 Condemn the lustings of the heart 169 Heresies Hereticks The Heresies of the Gnosticks Carpocratians Montanists and Donatists 225 The guilt and craft of Heretiques 303 I Jesus Christ JEsus Christ his conception miraculous 388 But framed of the substance of the Virgin 389 Why called the Son of God ib. Had a real body ib. Born holy and without sin 390 How he could be true man and yet free from sin 392 Ignorance A universal Ignorance upon a mans understanding 178 210 Image Gods Image in Adam not an infused habit or habits but a natural rectitude or connatural perfection to his nature 19 Why called Gods Image 21 The Image of God in man Reason and understanding one part of it 113 Holinesse and righteousnesse another part ib. Power to persevere in holinesse another part ib. A regular subordination of the affections to the rule of righteousnes another part 114 Primitive glory honour and immortality another part 115 Dominion and superiority another part yet not the only Image of God as the Socinians falsly ib. How man made in it 131 Imagination Imagination its nature 351 Its sinfulnesse in making Idols and conceits to please it self 352 And in its defect from the end of its being 353 By its restlesnesse 355 By their universality multitude disorder their roving and wandring their impertinency and unseasonablenesse 356 357 It eclipseth and keeps out the understanding 358 Conceiveth for the most part all actual transgressions 359 Acts sin with delight when there are no external actings 360 Its propensity to all evil 361 Is continually inventing new sins or occasions of sin 362 Vents its sinfulnesse in reference to the Word and the preaching of it 364 Mind more affected with appearances than realities 365 And in respect of fear and the workings of conscience 366 And its acting in dreams 367 Is not in subordination to the rational part of man 368 The instrument in Austins judgment of conveying sin to the child 368 Prone to receive the Devils temptations 369 Immortal How many wayes a thing may be said to be Immortal 509 Of Adams Immortality in the state of innocency 513 Impossibility Impossibility of mans loosing himself from the creature and return to God 371 Infants Infants deserve hell 7 Sinners 29 Cannot be saved without Christ 35 55 Infant-holinesse what it is 56 Infants defiled with original sin before born 62 Judgment Whence diversities of Judgment in the things of God 219 Justification Justification by imputed not inherent righteousnesse 29 K Knowing Known CVriosity and affection in all of Knowing what is not to be Known 184 Which comes from original sin 212 L Law THe Law impossible to be kept 10 A Law what 85 The Law requireth habitual holinesse 130 Forbids lust in the heart 156 Liberty Liberty of will nothing but voluntarinesse or complacency 132 Lust What Lust is 155 How distinguished 157 Lust considered according to the four-fold estate of man 160 Sinfull Lust utterly extirpated in heaven 161 M Man MAn by nature out of Gods favour 117 Man made to enjoy and glorifie God 132 133 How sin dissolved the harmony of Mans nature ib. Man unable to help himself out of his lost condition 153 Through sin it is worse with Man than other creatures 174 The nobler part of Man inslaved to the inferiour 175 Man utterly impotent to any spiritual good 177 By his fall became like the devil 183 Memory The pollution of it 247 What it is 250 A two-fold weaknesse of Memory natural and sinfull ib. The use and dignity of it 251 The nature of it 253 Discoveries of its pollution 253 Wherein it is polluted 257 Wherein it fails in respect of the objects ib. Hath much inward vitiosity adhering to it 263 Subservient to our corrupt hearts 265 Mind Whence the vanity and instability of the Mind 217 Ministry One end of the Ministry 255 N Natural EVery Natural man is carnal in the mysteries of Religion in religious worship in religious ordinances in religious performances 140 141 In spiritual transactions and religious deportment 142 143 Necessity What Necessity is consistent with freedom 312 O Original Sinne. THe necessity of knowing it 1 The term ambiguously used and how taken in this Treatise ib. That there is such a natural concontagion on all 2 Why called Original sin 5 Denial of
it the mother of many errors 6 The cause of all miseries 7 Worse than actual 8 Ignorance thereof the cause why men understand not the work of conversion 9 Inseparably adheres to the best 11 A natural evil and how with the several names it hath had 13 The difilement of our specifical being 14 The inward principle of all sinfull motions ib. Flacius his opinion concerning it ib. Is alwayes putting it self forth 16 Neerer to us than actual or habitual sin 18 What it is 19 20 Why compared to death 21 Objections answered 22 Pelagians and Socinians opinion of it 28 Propagated ib. Is an internal and natural depravation of the whole man 32 Adams sin imputed to us is not all our Original sin ib. Of that opinion that Original sinne is vitium but not peccatum 33 Truly and properly a sin 34 Against the Law 35 How voluntary 39 Arminius and the Remonstrants disagree about Original sin 40 Arminius Remorstrants Zuinglius Papists Scotists and Socinians opinions of it 40 A sin a punishment and a cause of sin 41 Original inherent sin and Adams imputed sin are two distinct sins 43 Against the Law and how 44 45 Acknowledged in Old Testament times 48 Remonstrants confess it may be proved by two or three places of Scripture ib. Compared to a leprosie 51 Makes us leathsom to God as soon as born 52 Why called uncleanness ib. Should make us vile in our own eyes ib. Put a man by nature into worse condition than beasts 53 Makes us like the Devils ib. Pollutes our duties and makes us unfit and unworthy to draw nigh to God in duties 54 Makes us to be in the most immediate contrariety to God that can be ib. The denial of it charged upon Calvinists by the Lutherans 56 Acknowledged by the Rabbins and Fathers 62 Meditation thereon wherein advantagious 64 Not one universal thing of general influence but a particular thing in particular men 65 To be bewailed even by those that are regenerate ib. A two-fold Original sin 66 The different opinions of men about humiliation for it 67 In what sense it is to be repented of 68 Papists against sorrow for it 69 Several opinions concerning the pardon of it 67 68 69 Wherein repentance and the pardon of Original and actual sin do differ 70 It is an universal defilement 71 And an universal guilt ib. And the fountain and root of all actual sin ib. And the greatest sin 72 Inseparable from our natures while we live 73 Of the Scripture names of it 79 Not the essence or substance of the soul ib. Why called the old man 80 Improperly called a Law 83 Why called a Law 84 Instructs a man in all evil ib. Inclineth and provoketh to all evil ib. Compelleth to all evil 85 Why called the inherent or in-dwelling sin 90 How it dwels in the regenerate ib. Active and ever stirring 94 Is of an insinuating and contaminating nature 95 Depriveth both of power and will to do good 97 98 Inclines the heart to the creature 98 Resisteth all profers of grace 99 Weakens the principles of grace 100 Why called a treasure 102 An inexhausted stock 103 The cause of all pleasure in sin 104 Called a body and why 105 107 Shews it self outwardly in all our actions 107 Cannot be mortified without pain ib. A reality yet not a substance 108 Not a single sin but a lump of all evil ib. Inclineth only to carnal earthly and bodily things 109 Seth born in Original sinne 110 111 Deprives of more than external happiness and immortality against Socinians 117 Many Papists deny the positive part of it 136 Hath infected all men 137 Positive as well as privative 144 And the reasons thereof 145 Produceth positive sinfull actions 146 Sticks closer then vicious habits ib. Not a pestilential quality in the body 149 Is properly concupiscence or lust 157 And in what sense 159 And why so called 162 It is ignorant also ib. Defined 164 The whole man and the whole of man the subject thereof ib. Propagated and communicated to all Adams posterity 165 Truly known only by Scripture-light 167 How farre Heathens were ignorant thereof 168 The propagation thereof by the souls creation 199 Hath fill'd us with errour 211 And with curiosity 212 And vanity 213 And folly 214 Polluting the conscience how and wherein 221 Polluteth the memory 249 Polluteth the will 268 The affections 325 The imagination 348 The body of a man 392 And every one of mankind 387 Not the children of the most godly or the Virgin Mary excepted but only Christ 387. to 401 Original sin imputed the aggravations of it 405 Inherent the aggravation of it 407 It defiles all the parts of the soul is the root and cause of all actual sin is incurable taketh away all spiritual sense and feeling is habitual radicated in the soul 407. to 410 Objections against the hainousnesse of this sin Every one hath his proper Original sin 412 Vents it self betimes 415 Is alike in all 419 The immediate effects of Original sinne are mans propensity to sin 437. to 455 Is the cause of all other sine 455 Evil motions not consented unto and lusts consented unto 464 The combat between the flesh and spirit 474 Death 505 Eternal damnation 526 P Pray A Natural man cannot Pray 314 Pride Pride the cause of most heresies 218 Propagation Propagation of sin 397 Punishment The same thing may be a Punishment and a sin 41 R Redeemer THe necessity of a Redeemer demonstrates our thraldom to sin 319 Reformation A carnal mans Reformation is but the avoiding of one sin by another 318 Regenerate A sure difference between a Regenerate and unregenerate man 9 Regeneration Three sorts of mistaken Regeneration 10 Reliques Reliques of sin 474 Remember Whence is it that we Remember things when we would not 266 Righteousness Original Righteousness not given to Adam as a curb to the inferiour faculties 25 The difficulty of Rom. 5. 26 Original Righteousness the privation of it a sin 130 We were deprived of it by Adam 131 Vniversally lost 135 The losse of it the cause of all temporal losses ib. The privation of it doth necessarily inferre the presence of all sin in a subject susceptible 202 S Sacraments ONe end of the Sacraments 255 Sanctification Sanctification two fold 391 Satan All by nature in bondage to Satan 370 Scripture Scripture discovers us to our selves better then light of nature or Philosophy 161 168 The end of its being written 253 Self-knowing Self knowing a great duty and the hinderance of it 8 Sensless We are altogether Sensless as to any spiritual concernment 176 Sin A man naturally can do nothing but sin 15 16 The reason why all men do not commit all Sins though inclinable thereto 17 Men lie under a necessity of sinning yet this necessity is consistent with voluntarinesse 18 Sin delightfull to men 21 How Sin is natural to us 24 Christ only born without Sin and how 37. 390 Sin is what
Conversion Mr Hezekiah Woodward Of Education of Youth or The Childs Patrimony The Lives and Acts of the good and bad Kings of Judah A Treatise of Fear A-Thank-offering Mr Samuel Fisher A Love-Token for Mourners being two Funeral Sermons with Meditations preparatory to his own expected Death in a time and place of great Mortality Mr Herbert Palmer and Mr Daniel Cawdry A Treatise of the Sabbath in 4 parts Memorials of Godliness and Christianity in seven Treatises 1. Of making Religion ones Business With an Appendix applied to the Calling of a Minister 2. The Character of a Christian in Paradoxes 3. The Character of visible Godliness 4. Considerations to excite to Watchfulness and to shake of spiritual Drowsiness 5. Remedies against Carelesness 6. The Soul of Fasting 7. Brief Rules for daily Conversation and particular Directions for the Lords-day His Sermon entituled The Glass of Gods Providence toward his faithfull ones His Sermon entituled The duty and Honours of Church-Rest Mr William Barton His Psalms His Catalogue of Sins and Duties implied in each Commandement in verse Mr Vicars Chronicle in four parts Mr Samuel Clark A generall Martyrology or A History of all the great Persecutions that have been in the world to this time Together with the Lives of many eminent Modern Divines His Sermon at the Warwickshire mens Feast entituled Christian God fellowship Mr Kings Marriage of the Lamb. Mr Shorts Theological Poems The French Alphabet Jus Divinum Ministerii by the Provincial-Assemly of London Mr Thomas Blake His Answer to Blackwood of Baptism Birth-Priviledge Mr Cook His Font uncovered Dr John Wallis His explanation of the Assemblies Catechism 〈◊〉 Austin's Catechism 〈◊〉 Vicar's Catechism Mr Pagit's Defence of Church-Government by Presbyterial Classical and Synodal Assemblies Mr Tho Paget A Demonstration of Family-Duties Mr Anthony Burgess Vindiciae Legis or A Vindication of the Law and Covenants from the Errors of Papists Socinians and Antinomians A Treatise of Justification in two Parts Spiritual Refining Part 1. or A Treatise of Grace and Assurance Handâ—ling the Doctrine of Assurance the Use of Signs in Self examination how true Graces may be distinguished from counterfeit several true Signs of Grace and many false ones The Nature of Grace under divers Scripture Notions viz. Regeneration the New Creature the Heart of Flesh Vocation Sanctification c. 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The Magistrates Commission upon Rom. 13. 4. at the Election of a Lord Maior Romes Cruelty and Apostasie upon Revel 19. 2. preached before the House of Commons on the 5th of November The Reformation of the Church to be endeavoured more then the Commonwealth upon Judg. 6. 27. 28 29. preached before the House of Lords Publique Affections pressed upon Numb 11. 12. before the House of Commons Self judging in order to the Sacrament with a Sermon of the Day of Judgment A Treatise of Original Sinne. Mr Richard Baxter Plain Scripture-proof of Infant Baptism The Right Method for getting and keeping Spiritual Peace and Comfort The unreasonableness of Infidelity in four Parts 1. The Spirits Intrinsick witness to the truth of Christianity with a Determination of this Question Whether the Miracles of Christ and hic Apostles do oblige those to believe who never saw them 2. The Spirits Internal witness of the truth of Christianity 3. A Treatise of the Sin against the holy Ghost 4. The Arrogancy of Reason against Divine Revelation repressed The Christian-Concord or The Agreement of the Associated Ministers of Worcestershire with Mr Baxters Explication of it A Defence of the Worcestershire Petition for the Ministry and Maintenace The Quakers Catechism An Apology against Mr Blake Dr Kendal Mr Lodovicus Molineus Mr Aires and Mr Crandon His Confession of Faith The Saints Everlasting Rest The safe Religion a piece against Popery Hiâ—â—â—esent Thoughts about Perseveran◠〈…〉 Practice of Godliness Mr Langly His Catechiâ—◠〈…〉 A Treatise 〈…〉 Dr Teate His 〈…〉 at the Funeral of Sr. Charles Cooâ— Mr Dury The desires of forrain Divines of a Body of Divinity from English Divines with an Essay of a Modell Ford. Three common mistakes about the work of Grace Object Answ Object Answ Object Answ Object Answ Object Answ Object Answ Object Answ Doct. Observ Obj Answ Object Answ Object Answ Object Answ Origen and Plato's opinion The Jews Some Papists Arg. 3. Arg. 4. Arg. 5. Argum. 6. It 's covered over with the veil of Blindness Vid. Cerd iâ— Tert. de presc II. With Senslesness and Stupidity Superiour objects 1. God 3. The Scripture 4. The works of God 1. Sinne past 2. Examples of others 3. The former work of Gods Spirit upon us 4. Our end and the day of Judgement 5. The afflictions of others 〈…〉 Apol. Confes c. de Trin. Propos 2. Quest Answ Prop. 4. Prop. 1. Cathol Refor Controv. 4. Cap. 1. Exam. Concil Trid. de fide Justific Prop. 2. Sex sessiois Antidot Prop. 3. Prop. 4. Prop. 5. Prop. 6. Spalat de Repub. Eccl. lib. 7. cap 11. Vindic. Grat. lib. 1. pars tertia vol. Mai. pag. 218. Prop. 7. Prop. 8. Aphorismes of Justification pag. 300.
to send them to hell they think but what can be spoken more terribly against man in regard of original sinne then God himself here speaks where every word is like so much thunder and lightning as is to be shewed Only for the present purpose observe that he saith Every imagination of the thought of a mans heart is evil Imagination or framing and fashioning the heart of a man is compared to a shop of wickedness and every thing framed or fashioned there is only evil Sinne then is present in a powerfull manner when there cannot so much as rise a motion in thee a stirring of thy soul though never so involuntary and indeliberate but it is only evil Oh it was not thus in the state of integrity then every imagination every motion was good and only good but now our gold is become dross and wine water Let a natural man observe his heart and he shall see what riseth first in his soul is all filth like the muddy fountain it comes from Yea even in a godly man How many thoughts and motions rise up in his heart that he abhorreth and trembleth at It is true sometimes the devil injecteth vile and blasphemous thoughts so that his heart is not at all active in them and therefore are not sinnes but compared to the Cup in Benjamin's sack they knew not how it came there and it is a great dexterity in casuistical Divinity so to direct a Christin that he may know when such motions arise from the devil alone so that they are my afflictions but not sinnes or when they come from my heart and so are truly imputable to me of which in its due time it may be but for the present we may sigh and groan under this consideration That evil is so present with us that nothing riseth up in the heart sooner than sinne Secondly In that evil is said to be present to Paul there is denoted the universal and diffusca presene of it Paul doth not say it 's present in one part in one faculty but to me that is in every part susceptible of sinne Therefore it is called The Law in his members because it putteth forth its efficacy every where sinne is present in the mind by atheism unbelief c. in the will by obstinacy and obdurateness in the affections by inordinacy and confusion yea sinne is present in the eye in the tongue So that the Apostle meaneth this original sinne is of such an universal extent that it is present in every part in him For you must not think as some Papists do That original sinne is only in the inferiour sensitive part of a man but it is principally and chiefly in the intellectual and most noble part the mind and the understanding and indeed because it 's so predominant therefore is conversion so difficult for the Ministry bringing arguments and convictions out of Gods word The sinne that is present in the understanding putteth a man upon atheistical cavils and carnal disputes whereby he shuts himself up voluntarily in his darkness rather than he will receive light Thirdly In that evil is said to be present with us here is denoted the continual assaulting and vigorous acting of it at all times Though original sinne be not an actual sinne yet it is an active sinne Hence Paul attributeth such actions to it as if it were some mighty imperious and conquering tyrant he saith it doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It warreth against him it leadeth him into captivity Do not then think this sinne hath a meer bare sluggish presence is if it lay asleep in thee No it is daily assaulting thee it 's continually pulling thee down As the heart and pulse are in continual motion thus is original sin within thee Therefore our imaginations are not only said to be only evil Gen. 6. 5. but also continually Thy soul never acteth but it acteth sinfully and corruptly It is true while men are in their natural estate They are dead in sinne and so they find not feel not these stirrings neither do they groan under them but there are innumerable Myriads of sinfull motions in thee to sinne though thou doest not apprehend them As a man shut up in a dark dungeon full of Toads and noisom vermin he seeth nothing till light come into the place and then he trembleth being afraid to stay there any longer such a loathsom dungeon is every mans heart naturally Oh the atheism vanity wickedness that is bound up therein but thou dost not know or believe any such thing because dead in sin Fourthly There is implied the facility and easiness in sinning The way to sinne is no narrow or strait way There needeth not much striving to enter therein for it 's ready at hand May not all find if they will search this readiness of sin at all time Why is thy heart so quickly moved and drawn out to any earthly or sinfull pleasure but it 's a long while ere thou canst make any fire or kindle a flame in thy soul to that which is good Thy soul is a dry Tree to the former but a green Tree to the later as the Scripture speaks concerning the righteousness of faith It 's night thee Thou needest not say Who shall go into the deep for it Rom. 10 c. Thus it is true of sin in thee thou needest no instruction no masters thou needest not fetch devils from hell to commit sinne for that is alwayes present with thee Hence Eliphaz compareth it Job 15. to drinking of water when a man is scorched with thirst If you see there are many who by a natural conscience are so convinced that they are difficulty brought to commit some sinnes especially gross ones It is no contradiction for a man to be all over polluted and prone to sinne notwithstanding such dictates of conscience implanted in all men This is plain That sin ss so present that without any difficulty or pain we are carried out to sinne so that the kingdom of hell doth not like the kingdom of Heaven need any violence to take it Fifthly When evil is said to be present there is denoted the subtile and daily insinuation of it into all that we do It 's in a man like leaven that sends forth its fourness into all the meal it leaveth not the least part unleavened This sinne is like a Dalilah in Samson's heart it is alwayes enticing and tempting of thee and therefore it 's called by the name of lust or concupiscence and Jam. 1. 17. there it 's said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to intice by setting baits for us Hence in Jer. 17. the wickedness of the heart is expressed by this That it is deceitfull above all things who can think that the wise holy God made us with such hearts at first No but upon the first transgression came this desolation upon us Because then evil is thus present with us hence every holy duty is contaminated hence there