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.
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
strengthen and inable it to be more vigorous and operative we may put more wood to this fire and so make it more dreadfull Even as these Pharisees though they were by nature the Serpents seed yet because of their voluntary and contracted malicious disposition in them superadded to the former our Saviour calleth them Generation of vipers Now although the Pharisees had this two-fold evil heart naturally and voluntarily yet I shall of the former onely and so handle it not as relating to the Pharisees but as it is a general Truth to be affirmed of every one till renewed by grace that he hath an evil treasure an evil heart within him And from thence observe That original sinne is the evil treasure that is in a mans heart Sometimes the heart it self is said to be evil to be desperately wicked but then it 's not taken physically as it 's a corpulent substance in a man but morally or theologically as it is the seat and principle of all evil For as the Sea hath all the Rivers in it from which they come and to which they return again so the heart is the fountain of all evil and all evil is seated in it coming from the heart and going back again to it But let us open this treasure which is not like the opening of that Alablaster Box which perfumed the whole house but like the opening of a noisom Sepulchre or dunghil from whence cometh only what is loathsome Therefore it 's not called a treasure in a good sense as commonly the word is used for we do not use to treasure up vile and loathsom things but because in a treasure there is plenty and fulness therefore is this evil heart this original pollution called a treasure and that very properly for these resemblances SECT II. How Original Sinne resembles a Treasure FIrst A treasure hath fulness and abundance A poor man that hath only money enough to discharge his daily expences is not said to have a treasure for that denoteth abundance more than enough Thus is original sinne deservedly called a treasure because it 's a fulness of wickedness As in Christ the treasures of wisdom are said to be in him Col. 2. 3. So in every man there is a treasure of folly and wickedness so that every man is rich enough to sinne let him be never so poor never so straitned not a morsel of meat to eat not a farthing to buy any thing with yet he hath a rich heart a full heart to sinne he is never destitute of plenty and power to do that which consideration should greatly humble thee to think in stead of that good treasure which God once put into my heart being throughly furnished with every grace now there is a treasure of evil now darkness is where all that light was evil and nothing but evil where all that good was Though thou art a rich man and a great man glorying in thy treasures of wealth yet the treasures of evil in thy heart may make thee fear and tremble Secondly Here is denoted in this expression That all sinne is potentially and seminally in our hearts For it 's not said to be an evil heart in some respect and as to some actings but indefinitely and generally an evil treasure of the heart Hence Rom. 3. 14 15. There are in man by nature crimson actual sins of the greatest guilt viz. The poison of Asps is under their tongues their mouth is full of cursing their feet are swift to shed blood c. These sins which some few of mankind only and those the worst of men do ordinarily commit yet they are attributed to every man by nature And why because there is the treasure of these in his heart you cannot name the vilest actions that are though for the present like Hazael thou wouldst defie such things saying Am I a dog a devil that I should do them yet did not God bind up this treasure of evil in thee as he doth the clouds that are his treasures of rain thou wouldst quickly be overwhelmed with them what trembling should this make in a mans heart when he shall consider there is not the vilest and most prophane atheistical man breathing but thy heart would carry thee out to do the like did not God say to this sea of corruption within thee Hitherto thou shalt go and no further It is because of this that David and other eminent godly men have fallen into such gross and loathsom sins that you would have thought they had not been in the least danger of that they were as farre from as the East from the West yet how quickly could these materials for sinne in their hearts ripen and break out into a flame How quickly did even the green Tree burn What then would the dry Tree do Look then upon thy self as the vilest sinner in the world in respect of thy principles and propencity to all sin Say it is not because I have a better nature I have less original sin in me but because God is pleased to put a restraint upon me Certainly if this will not make us like Job abhorre our selves as it were upon the dunghill what will Thirdly In that original sinne is compared to a treasure there is denoted the inexhausted nature of it though we sinne never so much yet the stock of sin is not quite spent As God because he hath a treasure of mercy and therefore said to be rich in grace though he sheweth never so much mercy and vouchsafeth never so much grace yet his treasure is not impoverished thereby he is as fully able to bestow fresh grace and new mercy to thee as if this were the first time that ever he began to be mercifull Thus though with great disproportion it is with a man that hath this evil treasure in his heart Though he sinne all the day long though from this abundance his mind thinketh his tongue speaketh his hand acteth that which is evil yet still his corruption is not abated yea it is the more strenghned and increased As it is with poisonous creatures though they vent never so much poison yet they cannot cast out the root and cause of it as long as they live So though a natural man be all the day long sending forth nothing but sinne and folly yet his heart is as full as ever this fountain is not dried up Therefore although it may fall out that many bodily sinnes cannot be any longer committed because the body groweth old and infirm yet this original sin is never weakned while a man is unregenerated but in a natural man though an hundred years old yet it is as vigorous and active as in youthfull sins It is reported of a liberal Emperour who was much in free munificence that he would say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Draw from me as from the River Nilus meaning that he would never be weary that he was like a fountain of which all travellers might drink yet he be as
superiority and preheminency the mind is now debased and this light is put now not under a bushel but a dunghill God indowed man with understanding that it might be like a Queen in the soul directing and ordering all actions to true happiness Though the will be chief in power and efficacy yet the understanding is in direction and counsel Insomuch That the will is called caeca potentia a blind power of the soul being essentially subordinated to follow the dictates of the understanding and if the will be thus subordinate that is called a rational power participativè though not formaliter no wonder then if the sensitive and affectionate part of a man his love his grief his anger these were not to rise or stirre but as the understanding did give orders to them Thus was the understanding of a man placed in him as the Sunne in the Firmament to give light to all the powers of the soul but now by original corruption it 's dethroned it 's ejected out of its power and is made a servant to every lust that reigneth in the will and the affections hence it cometh about That whatsoever a mans corrupt heart carryeth him unto presently the mind of man being like a bribed advocate pleadeth for the lawfullness and the necessity of it It is true indeed we have a rule in Divinity Nemâ— potest credere quia vult No man can believe a thing to be true meerly because he will but yet the will and affections can so divert the understanding or put mists and pretences before it that now it 's become like the Sunne in a foggy misty day that cannot put forth its light so that if you do ask What is the true original cause of all heretical opinions and corrupt practises you may say It 's because the mind doth not keep up its primitive power As the reason given in the Judges why so much Idolatry and other wickednesse was committed was because there was no King no Governour in Israel every one did that which was right in his own eyes Thus if you aske Whence is that confusion in a mans opinion in a mans practices It 's because the mind of a man is degraded the will is carried out to what it listeth every sinfull affection and passion doth what it pleaseth So that whereas all our affections and actions should have their first rise from the guidance of the minde Now our lusts and affections doe first move and then the understanding is imployed to defend and excuse the lawfulnesse of them Oh then bewail this sad desolation come upon thee Thy minde and judgement are become slaves and vassals to every unlawfull way to plead for that to defend that to excuse that Thus as the Scripture when it speaketh of a civil desolation making a confusion upon the Governours thereof saith The heavens are turned into blacknesse or The Sunne and Moon into blood so it is now upon the face of a mans soul if reason and judgement were strong enough to doe their office there would not be that insolency of the affections and rebellion in our wils which doth now wholly overpour us The second thing in this particular is The subordination of it to God and to his Rule The mind of a man did then wholly follow the Rule God had prescribed it To believe to think to judge as the Rule was but now it 's become heretical It 's prone to choose an opinion of its own a Doctrine of its own Although the word Heresie in it self signifie neither good or evil and therefore in Eusebius Constantine applieth it to the Christian Religion calling it heresie as Tertullian doth the Christian Religion Secta a Sect yet in Ecclesiastical Writers if not constantly in the Scripture it is used in an ill sense and signifieth an election or adhering to a way of our own devising and not that which is commanded by God Tertullian cals Adam's sinne heresin because committed of his own choice against Gods will Insomuch that though there may be many particular causes of heresies as ignorance pride discontent covetousness and such carnal principles yet the main is that proneness in the mind to lift up it self against God and his Rule having lost its primitive subordination to God This want of subordination to God and the Scriptures is notably seen in Heretiques who when they perceive Scripture against them rather then submit they will be guilty of Scripture-slaughter as Tertullian called it Marcion saith he cometh not with Stilo sed Machara draweth his sword and detruncateth a great part of Scripture Others though not so audacious yet because they will not submit do not Materiam ad Scripturas but Scripturas and Materiam accommodare not submit their opinions to the Scripture but the Scripture to their opinions Valentinus openly professed He did amend the Gospel Seventhly Herein is original corruption greatly depriving the mind of a man In that it maketh a man proâ—e to deceive and cosen himself so that sinne is presented as sweet or profitable and good to be imbraced holy things are presented as difficult and irksom Especially this self-deceiving is seen in the judging of our selves good and right when indeed we are abominable and loathing to God Whence is it that every mans ways are clean in his own eyes Whence is it that every man is a Pagmalion in love with himself or rather a Pharisee to justifie himself Yea as it is Psal 50. 21. They judge of God like themselves loving what they love pleased with what they please As the Ethiopians though Christians yet worshipping the Virgin Mary paint her like a Blackmore because they are black Now what a fearfull pollution is this to deceive our selves about God about sin about godliness our own souls So that when we can have a pretence or a colour to justifie our selves then we rejoyce This self-deceiving is often taken notice of by the Scripture 2. Pet. 2. 13. Gal. 6. 3. 1 Cor. 6. 9. Jam. 1. 22. it's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deceiving your own selves putting a fallacy or a false syllogisme upon our selves And indeed it might be easily shewed how many false syllogismes a man imposeth upon himself Doth not Presumption argue à divisis ad conjuncta from the means divided yet to obtain the end Yea in every prayer in every religious duty the natural man taketh Non causam pro causâ because he performeth these duties he thinketh he serveth God whereas it is not an holy principle or gracious motive putteth him upon them but formality customarinesse or some other inferiour motive Thus every natural man deceiveth himself by false causes he thinketh he repents he loveth God he hath a good heart he shall be saved when alas all this while thou art deceived and deceiving of thy self Mourne then under this native-pollution that thou art so deceived in all things about thy self about the work of grace about what is flesh and what is spirit that thou art
deluded in all things and takest counterfeit for that which is true and genuine Under this head we may comprehend all that craft and subtilty in men as in the Jesuites to maintain Idolatry or Heresie For the Devil as at first so still he delights to use Serpents because they are more crafty then others The craft also in man naturally to do mischief for which they are compared in Scripture to Foxes doth declare how original sinne hath all over infected the mind Eighthly The great pollution of original sinne upon our minds is seen In the pronenesse to vain idle sinfull and â—oving thoughts so that these do discover an unclean fountain of the heart more then any thing Whence do these sparks arise but from that furnace of sinne within thee The Air is not fuller of Flies Aegypt was not fuller of Frogs then every mans heart is naturally of idle vain foolish and impertinent thoughts Thoughts they are the immediate product and issue of original sinne The first born they are streams that come immediately from the fountain Now certainly if a man had by nature an holy sanctified mind he would also have holy and sanctified thoughts Think you that Adam in integrity or the good Angels are troubled with thoughts as we are For all the while a man is natural he never had a good thought in him he might have a thought of good but not a good thought For as every Cogitatio mali is not Cogitatio malâ We may think of evil to abhorre and detest and this thought of evil is good So in a natural man though he may have a thought about good yet it is not in a good manner and therefore evil though the object matter be good What then will prostrate thee and make thee lie grovelling upon the ground loathing thy self if this do not Amongst the millions and millions of thoughts which thou hast there is not one but it is either vain proud idle or impertinent yea our thoughts are not in our own power no more then the birds that flie in the air but they arise antecedently to our own will and deliberation And certainly if vain thoughts be such a burden to a regenerate man if they do captivate and inthrall him which made one cry out Libenter Domine bonus esse vellem sed cogitationes meae non patiuntur I would gladly be good but my thoughts will not suffer me No wonder if to the natural man who is under the power of original sinne that sinfull thoughts hurry him away without any resistance Ninthly Original pollution doth greatly defile the mind of a man in the mutability and instability of it Insomuch that the judgement of every natural man destitute of true light and faith which doth onely consolidate the soul is like a reed shaken with every wind he is mutable and various ready every day or every year to have a new Faith and a new Religion This maketh the Apostle inform us That one end of the Ministry Ephes 4. 14. is That we be not carried away with every wind of Doctrine Such empty straws and feathers are we that any new opinion doth presently seduce us and therefore the Scripture doth press a sound mind and an heart established with grace which is the special preservative against such instability Aquinas maketh this the reason of the good Angels confirmation in grace and that they cannot now sinne because such is the perfection and immutability of their natures that what their understanding doth once adhere unto they cannot change Indeed it is thus with God that his knowledge is unchangeable but there is no reason to attribute this to Angels and therefore their confirmation in good is not so much to be attributed to any intrinsecal cause in themselves as to the grace of God establishing them But how farre short was man newly created of such immutability How much more then man fallen From this pollution it is that we have so many apostates that there are Seekers that there are so many Neutrals that there are so many who think any in any Religion may be saved It is true there may be a just cause of changing our minds in Religion as when educated in Popery or when we have received any heretical opinions but I speak here of that instability which is naturally in the mind of a man that though he be in the truth yet there is a proneness to desert it and to discover much lenity in the matters of Religion The Remonstrants go too farre this way commending this sinfulnesse under the name of modesty and humility and therefore though in Fundamentals they will grant we may say This our faith is This we doe believe yet in other points which though not fundamentals yet the errors about them may greatly derogate from the glory of Christ and his grace as also much prejudice the consolations of those who truly fear God as their opinions do They commend those expressions Ita nobis videtur and Salvo meliorum judicio It is our sententia not our fides Now if this were said only in some points disputed amongst the Orthodox that are at a great distance from Fundamentals it might be received but they extend this further if not to the foundation-stones yet to those that immediately joyn to them and so do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 remove such things that will in time endanger the whole structure of Christianity and so from Remonstrantisme proceed to Socinianisme which is adificari and ruinam as Tertullian expresseth it De praesc Such an edification many unsetled spirits meet with Tenthly Original sinne doth pollute the mind of a man with pride and vain-glory so that he is easily puffed up with his own conceits and altogether ignorant of his ignorance The Apostle Col. 2. 18. saith of some Vainly puffed up with a fleshly mind This Tumor this Tympany in the mind hath been the cause of most heresies in the Church The Gnosticks boasted in their knowledge and had their name from it The Eunomians did vainly and blasphemously brag That they knew God as well as he knew himself And some in these later dayes have not been afraid to compare themselves above the Apostles for gifts and illuminations So that whereas every one should with wise Augur say humbly I have not the understanding of a man I am more bruitish then any man Or with Austin when one admiring his learning used this expression Nihil te latet he answered again Nihil tristius legi because he knew the falshood of it because of his ignorance even in innumerable places of Scripture They equalize themselves to Angels yea to God himself This pride this self-conceit is a worm bred in the rose and the more parts men have the more doth this disease increase Matthew Paris relateth of a great Scholar much admired for his learning who in his Lectures once in the Schools proving the Divine Nature and also Incarnation of Christ with mighty applause did
remember what our hearts are set upon what our affections are earnest for whereas our memory should precede and go before them for the intellective memory is the same with the mind and understanding of a man for although to remember be not properly an act of knowledge yet this intellective memory we make the same with the mind of a man as it extends to things that are past The memory then is to make way for the heart and the affections to be directive to them whereas now for the most part it is made a slave to the corrupt heart for if the understanding in it all 's hegemonical and primary actions hath lost its power how much more is this true in the memory For the most part therefore the badness of the heart makes a bad memory and a good heart a good memory men complain they cannot remember when indeed they will not remember their hearts are so possessed and inslaved to earthly things that they remember nothing but what tendeth thereunto This is the ground of that saying Omnia quae curant senes meminerunt Old men remember all things their hearts are let upon all things they do earnestly regard They can remember their bonds the place where their money lieth because their hearts are fixed upon these things but no holy or good things can lodge in their memories The rule is Frigus est mater obiivionis Coldness is the mother of oblivion as is partly seen in old men and thus it is even in old and young their hearts are cold earthly lumpish even like stones about holy things and therefore it is no wonder if they remember them no better so that we may generally conclude That the cause of all they blockishness and forgetfullness about divine things is thy sinfull and corrupt heart if that were better thy memory would be better We have a notable place Jer. 2. 32. Can a maid forget her ornaments or a bride her attire yet my people have forgotten me daies without number Can a bride forget her attire and ornament it is impossible because her delight and affections are upon it but saith God My people have forgotten me daies without number Why so because I am not that to them which ornaments are to a bride saith God if they delight in me rejoyce in me if they did account me their glory then they would never forget me By this you see that therefore we forget God and his wayes because our hearts are not in love with him Can he that is powerfully conquered by love of a friend forget his friend Doth he not alwaies remember him Is not a friend alter ego Is not the lovers soul more where it loveth then where it animateth Thus it would be also with us in reference unto God therefore we have bad memories because bad hearts It is true some natural causes may either deprive us wholly of or greatly enervate the memory Thus Messalla that famous Orator judged to be more elaborate then Tully two yeares before his death forgot all things even his own name Hermogenes also that famous Rhetorician who wrote those Rhetorical institutions which are read with admiration of all and this he did when he was but eighteen years old and some six yeares after grew meerly stupid and sensless without any evident cause of whom it was said that he was Inter pueros senex inter senes puer Thucidides as Vostius reporteth Orat. institut lib. 6. speaketh of such an horrible pestilence that those who did recover of it grew so forgetfull that they did not know their friends neither remembred what kind of life or profession they once followed So that natural causes may much weaken the memory but if we speak in a moral sense then nothing doth so much corrupt the memory about holy things as a sinfull and polluted heart Fifthly The pollution of the memory is seen In that it is not now subject in the exercise of it to our will and power We cannot remember when we would and when it doth most concern us whereas in the state of integrity Adam had such an universal Dominion over all the powers of his soul that they acted at what time and in what measure he pleased Thus his affections were subject to him in respect of their rise progress and degree and so for his memory he had all things in his mind as he would Some indeed question Whether Adam did then Intelligere per Phantasmata But that seemeth inseparable from the nature of man while upon the earth and living an animal life though without sinne No doubt his soul being the form of the whole man did act dependently upon the instrumentality of the body though such was the admirable constitution of his body that nothing could make the operations thereof irregular Adam then had nothing which could either Physically or Morally hinder the memory but all was under his voluntary command whereas such an impotency is upon us that if we would give a world we cannot remember the things we would Hence we are force to compel our selves by one thing after another to bring to our minds what is forgotten for in remembring there is some dependance of one thing upon another as rings if tied together are more easily taken hold of then when they lie singly and loosly And this Austin lib. 10. confes maketh to be the Etimology of the word Cogito Cogito à cogo as Agito ab ago Factito à facio as if to cogitate were to force and compell things into our minds Let us then mourn and humble our selves under this great pollution of nature that those things which are of such infinite consequence which are as much as our salvation and eternal happiness are worth yet we do not we cannot remember Hence in the sixth place The memory being not under our command it falleth out that things come into our minds When we would not have them yea when it is a sinne to receive them How often in holy duties in religious performances do we remember things which happily we could not do when the fit season and opportunity was for them Do not many worldly businesses come into our minds when we are in heavenly approaches to God that as Job 1. when the sonnes of God came and appeared before God then Satan came also and stood with them Thus when thou art busie to remember all those Scripture-arguments which should humble thee in Gods presence which should exalt and life up thy soul to God How many heterogeneous and distracting thoughts do croud in also so that this worldly business and that earthly imploiment cometh into thy remembrance Insomuch that the people of God though their memories are sanctified and so cleansed in much measure from original filth in the dominion of it yet do much groan under this importante and unseasonable remembring of things for hereby our duties have not that united force and power as they should have neither is God so
deliberate and to consider about the sinfulness and wickedness of them how much God is offended how loathsom and abominable they are in his eyes and yet we suffer them to lodge there the greater is our condemnation Lastly The Intention and end of such thoughts is to be considered for alwayes cogitatio mali is not mala cogitatio the thought of evil is not an evil thought When men think of sinne to repent of it to detest it to reform it sinne is in their mind then but because there are no delightfull motions to it therefore it is not evil So if a Minister preach against adultery or any other sinne he cannot but think of the nature of it and what it is yet because his intention in thinking of it is to make men abhorre and leave it therefore it is good and lawfull So that meer thoughts about sinne are not alwayes sinne but when accompanied with some affections and inclinations thereunto Onely it is good to inform you That such is our deceitfulness of heart that many times we think it lawfull to rejoyce and delight in some profit and emolument that may come by another mans sinne or some evil upon him when indeed we are glad of the sin or evil it self If a man by telling a lie should save thy estate or life How hard is it not to delight in the sinne because thou hast profit by it Thus unnatural children may rejoyce in the death of their parents whereby they come to inherit their estates and yet please themselves that they not rejoyce in their death but the profit that cometh thereby to them There are many practical instances in this case and therefore we must look our hearts do not deceive us therein For it is very difficult to have any advantage by another mans sinne or evil and not to have a secret and tacit will thereof And thus much for the Rules about delightfull motions to sin We proceed to a third particular whereby we may sinne against God by these motions of sinne within us and that is When we are carelesse and negligent about them they trouble us not they grieve us not How many are there that regard the thoughts and motions of their soul no more then the fowls that flie over their heads It argueth an unregenerate heart an heart not acquainted with the power of godliness that doth not mourn and grieve under them How greatly was the Apostle Paul Rom. 7. afflicted by them This made him long for Christ and Heaven where he should be annoyed with them no more This negligence about them is that which maketh thee also careless to repress and conquer them They may lodge whole dayes and nights in thy soul and thou never seekest to expel them out Thus thy heart is like the sluggards field full of bryars and thorns Oh that God would give you seeing eyes and tender hearts then you would find that even an hair hath its shadow even the least motion to sinne hath its sting and bitterness with it and above all sinfull motions look to those that arise in thee because good things are urged and commanded to thee For this is the desperate incurable evil our souls that good things stirre up sinfull lusts within us not indeed properly and directly but occasionally and by accident Thus the Apostle bewaileth the motions of lusts within him from this account Rom. 7. 8. Sinne taking occasion by the commandment wrought all manner of concupiscence within him Thus the good and spiritual Law made him more carnal and sinfull And what is more often then to have powerfull preaching godly and wholsome reproofs stirre up the evil motions of men against them Thus the more remedies are applied to us the more corrupt we grow We might be voluminous in this soul-searching point but we must conclude Let the Use be Seeing that a man is thus tempted from his own lust within him we cannot lay the cause on the Devil himself though he be a Tempter then it 's our duty to look to what is within Those embers within us will quickly set all on fire Say not this or that moved me blame not this or that estate but thy corrupt lust within This is as Luther said in Genes Chap. 13. to be like the fool that stood in the Sunne bowed down and then complained his shadow was crooked It is not thy riches nor thy poverty not thy health or sickness no condition or temptation whatsoever but the true proper cause is this maternal lust which lieth in our bosoms How little is this truth attendeth unto with the Pharisees we more regard to cleanse the outside than the inside Mat. 23. 25. The mistake herein brought those many rigid and ausiere disciplinary wayes in Popery as if from the externals we must cure the heart and not by curing the heart thereby cleanse the outwards The Franciscan will not so much as touch silver The Carthusians will not eat a bit of flesh though their lives depend upon it What folly is this Meat and money are the good creatures of God if we do abuse them they are not to be blamed but our corrupt lusts within If a whorish woman wear gold and precious stones to allure others they are in themselves good though she abuse them to an ill end And thus all the comforts and mercies we enjoy are Gods good gifts and it is not the actual abdication of the use of them but the mortifying of our lust within that will make us please God CHAP. III. Of the Combate between the Flesh and the Spirit as the Effect of Original Sinne so that the Godliest man cannot do any holy Duty perfectly in this life SECT I. The Text explained and vindicated from corrupt Interpretations GAL. 5. 17. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would THe Apostle in the verses before admonished them about the use of their liberty that it should not be turned into licentiousness but that they make love the Rule thereof For though in respect of the right of my Christian liberty my conscience is to regard none but God yet the use and exercise of it must be regulated by love and prudence according as the edification of our brother doth require As a remedy therefore to refrain from all excess therein he giveth us an excellent precept with an emphatical Introduction thereunto This I say then that is This is the summe the main the all in all in these cases Then you have the Antidote it self Walk in the Spirit The only way to prevent all those importunate temptations of the flesh is to give up your selves to the Spirit to obtain the direction and illumination thereof as also the inclination and powerfull operation of it whereby we may be established in that which is good To know what is good and then to be inabled to do it
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
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
the repugnancy and rebellion of the sensitive appetite to the reason ariseth from the very internal constitution of a man And therefore the Papists they make original righteousness to be the bridle only to curb this appetite or an antidore to prevent this infection And as for the Socinian he denieth that Adam had any such righteousness at all and therefore they say he sinned Because his sensitive appetite did prevail against the rational Thus they make man even while he was in honour and before his fall to be like the beast that perisheth and to have no understanding comparatively even in that place of Paradise But this errour is so dangerous that we are not to give place to it no not for a moment In that holy estate the soul commanded the body and all the affections They did goe when he bade them goe and stood still when they were commanded Oh but now in what a warre in what a confusion and distraction are we plunged now we cannot be angry but we sinne now we cannot grieve or love but we sinne Thou that deniest original sinne let the exorbitancy of thy passions the inordinacy of thy affections convince thee Is thy heart in thy own power Canst thou have every thing stirre and move in thy soul how and when thou pleasest Canst thou say in respect of thy heart and all the stirrings of thy soul as the Centurion did of his servants that were at his command How is experience a mistress of us fools in this particular Wherein doth our weakness our sinfulness more appear than in our passions and affections As Alexander when his flatterers exalted him as a God he derided at it when he saw blood come from his body Thus when men cry up free-will power to do what is good deny original sinne and make us in our birth free from all evil With what indignation mayest thou reject it when thou seest the Chaos and confusion that is in thy soul when thou findest not any affection moving in thee but it overfloweth it's banks presently Whereas original righteousness gave Adam as much power over those as he had over all the beasts of the field but as the ground hath now thorns and thistles in stead of those pleasant herbs and plants it would have produced of its own self Thus also man now hath all his heart and affections grown wild and luxuriant so that Solomons observation in other things in here made true Servants ride on hors-back and Princes go on foot Fifthly This Image of God was partly in respect of the glory honour and immortality God created him in Adam was made after the Image of God not only in holiness but also in happiness he was not subject to any fears or tears nothing from within or from without could cause pain and grief to him Hence death by which is meant all kind of evil and misery was threatned unto him as a reward of his disobedience but Adam did not beget Seth after this Image we are now made dust and in a necessity of dying which is the effect of our original sin Lastly The Image of God doth consist by way of consequence in dominion and superiority The Socinians indeed because when it 's said God made man after his own Image Gen. 1. 26. it 's added And let him have dominion over the beasts of the field c. make it the only thing wherein it doth consist But we are to believe the Apostle Ephes 4. Col. 3. expounding this Image of God more than they who applieth it to righteousness and true holiness yet it cannot be denied but from this Image of God did flow that Dominion and Sovereignty which the woman also was created in for though she was made in subjection to her husband and so is called The Image of her husband as the husband is the Image of God yet in respect of the creatures so she had power over them and they were subject to Eve as well as to Adam Thus you see what this Image of God in a brief manner is the next work is to amplifie our losse of it is taken away both meritoriously and efficiently meritoriously our Apostasie deserved that God of a Father and a friend should become a Judge and an Adversary to us it deserved that we should be children of wrath by nauture who were children of love by Creation What tongue of men and Angels can express the dreadfulness of this condition viz. of coming into the world under Gods wrath and vengeance God is not to us what he was in the state of integrity not that any change is in God but in us Again This friendship and love of God is expelled efficiently for fallen man hath no suitableness and fitness no proportion or ability to have communion with God Darkness cannot delight in light neither bitterness in sweetness The swine cannot love pearl and precious flowers man corrupt cannot love or delight in the enjoyment of God so that the guilt of sinne did presently make Adam afraid of God so as to runne from him SECT IV. 4. THis privation of Gods Image is more than like the spoiling of a man of his cloaths or like the taking of a bridle from the horses mouth or removing the bonds and chains a man might be in Which when taken off he can walk well enough For the Popish party though they grant Man fallen hath much hurt by Adam yet they make the privation of original righteousnesse to be no more than the spoiling of a man of his garments so that as a man without his cloaths is a man still though naked and exposed to many difficulties Thus they say man still hath his naturals though he hath lost his supernaturals Original righteousness was like an antidote or a bridle against the inferiour parts of the soul they say so that what man is deprived of is only what was supernatural and meerly superadded to humane nature By these subtilties of theirs a mans losse is made to be far lesse than indeed it is Hence they do so often apply that Parable of the man going to Jericho that was wounded and left half dead to Adam fallen to all mankind in him as if we were but dangerously wounded and not throughly dead But the scope of that Parable is wholly to a different purpose Original righteousness is not to be conceived as a supernatural excellency bestowed upon man after his Creation but as a concreated perfection in all the parts of his soul So that the losing of this is not like the losing of some accidental glory and ornaments but even those concreated perfections in the soul are also lost The misunderstanding of this breedeth a dangerous errour as if by original sinne we onely had lost these superadded ornaments but did retain our pure naturals still as they call it which are indeed altogether impute Eccl. 7. God made man right Even as all other creatures were exceeding good Now God had made man the more
noble creature worse than other creatures if he had not created him with such perfect and suitable qualifications as would inable him to obtain true blessedness for every creature else had an implanted ability in it to accomplish his end and why then should God do lesse bountifully with man one of the chiefest instances of his glorious workmanship But of this I must necessarily speak more because of the Socinian who cals this Doctrine of original righteousness Faetida fabula an old stinking fable SECT V. 5. ORiginal sinne is a privation not only of that righteousness which was a natural perfection due to him upon supposition of his Creation for the enjoyment of God but also of whatsoever supernatural and gracious favour Adam had We do not say That Adam had nothing supernatural in him for assisting and co-operating 〈◊〉 supernatural as also that prophetical light he had concerning 〈…〉 God did superadde many glorious ornaments which were 〈…〉 and which he did not absolutely need as means to make him 〈…〉 and such likewise were those consequents of holinesse mentioned before 〈◊〉 to be the Sonne of God and to be the Temple of the holy Ghost Now all these gratuita are lost as well as the naturalia we are no more the children of God or the Temple of God but our souls are possest with Satan and he ruleth in our hearts as in his proper possession Some Divines call original righteousnesse the absolute Image of God and our sonship and filial relation to God for Adam is called the Sonne of God Luke 3. ult the relative Image now whether absolute or relative Image all is lost and therefore that assisting grace which was then ready at hand for Adam to enjoy that thereby he might bâ—â—nabled to do any good action we are naturally without Oh then the 〈◊〉 and undone estate we are in being without inberent grace dwelling in us and assisting grace from God without us without eyes and the light of the Sun also Who can think that God at first made us such sinfull mortal and wretched creatures It would be much against the wisdom and goodness of God he would then have done worse with man than with any flie or worm SECT VI. What are the most excellent and choice parts of that Original Righteousness that we are deprived of BUt because the greatest part of the privative way of original corruption is in losing that Image of God and concreated holinesse and we have onely spokan in the general of that that we may be the more affected with it and the losse thereof may pierce to our very hearts Let us consider what are the most excellent and choice parts of this original righteousnesse that we are deprived of that so we may not only see our losse in the bulk but be able to account of every particular in this and that we have lost And the first particular to be insisted on is that great dignity God put on man making him with a Free will to do what is holy Free-will is a great perfection though the mutability in it as in Adam was a negative Imperfection this was admirable in Adam that he had power if he willed to doe any holy action whatsoever There was not in him any clog any impediment to stop the exercise of this Free will but as he had dominion over all creatures so also over hiâ— whole soul and indeed if God had not created him with this dominion over his actions his obedience had not been so eminent nor his disobedience so culpable But this flower is withered this Crown is fallen to the ground Man hath now no free will no power to do any thing that is holy He hath power to eat and drink he hath power to do civil moral actions he hath power to do actions externally religious to come to the Congregation to hear but for those things that are internally holy to love God to believe on him to repent of sin This the Scripture doth in many places deny to him making him to be dead in sinne and untill born again by the Spirit unable to do any holy duty This Raymundus Theol. Natur. de lapsu hominis doth well urge That the soul as to spiritual actions and in reference to God is wholly dead so that as a dead man is not able to produce any vital actions so neither can any natural man spiritual actions and because man being dead is not sensible of this losse therefore doth the same man compare him to a mad man that knoweth not how it is with him yea he much pursueth that similitude of wine degenerated into vinegar saying That as vinegar retaineth nothing of the sweetnesse or goodnesse it had when it was wine Thus neither doth man retain any thing of that light in his mind or love in his heart which once he had Man saith he is not become of good wine bad which though bad retaineth some taste and hath a little relish of the nature of wine but he is as when Wine is degenerated into vinegar which hath all clean contrary to what is had when once wine This comparison he the rather urgeth Because saith he man doth not or cannot discern in himself the difference between his created condition and his fallen therefore he must see how it is with him in similitude by other things We may adde to this similitude another of the body of man while living and an instrument of the soul with it self when dead and separated from it that body then though formerly never so beautifull and comely never so lively and active now is loathsome and hath the clean contrary qualities Such a thing is man now fallen if compared with his Creation SECT VII A Second instance of a particular in this Image of God which we have lost is Faith and dependance upon God as a Father As God made Adam his son in holinesse so Adam had a filial dependance and belief on him resting alone in Gods protection and preservation and thereby was not subject to any fears grief or troublesom dejections of mind about his soul or body This was an excellent pearl in that Crown of glory which God set on mans head but how totally is this lost Every man by this original sinne may justly go up and down trembling like a Cain fearing that every thing should not only kill him but damn him Yea whence is it that the Sea is not fuller of monsters than thy heart is of unbelieving doubting and diffident thoughts about God Why art thou so fearfull suspicious and despairing about God naturally Is not this because God and thy soul are separated Doth not thy conscience secretly suggest to thee that God is offended with thee Is not this a plain discovery of thy losse of God and his Image that thou hast naturally fears and doubts within thy self Thou thinkest of God and art troubled as Adam when he heard Gods voice ran and hid himself All the natural tremblings and
is the Image of God but as he is the second Person in the Trinity in respect of the Father but that is adequately and essentially so we are not the image of God but in great imperfection because we do not essentially participate of it Christ in respect of the Divine Nature is the Image of God but never said in Scripture to be made after it for that would be an imperfection yet if we speak of the humane nature of Christ we may say that it is created after Gods Image because God filled it with holinesse Hence some Durat de Imag. Dei lib. 1. pag. 7. expound that Ephes 4. of putting on the new man to be meant of Christ Christ say they is the new man paralleling it with Rom. 13. where we are exhorted to put on the Lord Jesus Christ Now howsoever some of the Ancients have made it very dangerous to say Adam and in him all mankind lost the Image of God yet that hath its truth no further than if we limit the Image of God to the essentials of mans soul as endowed with intelligence and immortality for it we take it in respect of gracious qualifications so it cannot be denied but that Adam was not more naked bodily in his Creation than after his fall his soul was made naked of all righteousness only Adam did blush and was ashamed after his sinne at his nakedness running from God because afraid whereas at our soul-poverty and nakedness we have no sad and grievous thoughts thinking with our selves How shall we come in our spiritual nakedness unto the most great and holy God That therefore we may be the more affectionately possessed in our thoughts about this loss Let us consider the several aggravations of it SECT II. The Ends for which God made Man lost by the losse of Original Righteousnesse FIrst The losse of this righteousness doth deprive us of the end for which God made us So that whereas before sinne God looked on Adam and saw he was exceeding good after his fall he seeth him to be exceeding evil and full of sinne Let us instance in some choice ends for which God made man in his own Image thus with righteousness and holiness As 1. Therefore was he made thus holy To have communion with and enjoyment of so holy a God When God had made all the creatures yet he saith There was not a meet help and comfort for him one in his own Image and likeness therefore he makes a woman of the same nature with him yet still among all creatures though we adde Angels to them there was not an adequate and sufficient object to fill his heart with delight therefore God was his utmost end So that although he had Paradise a place of delight to live in Though his state was not capable of any misery or fear from the creature yet that which was Adam's happiness was to enjoy God in these Now who can bewail our loss in this respect We are now propense to the contrary end of our Creation we wholly descend downwards who were made to ascend upwards Adam found the favour of God in all the creatures It was not this or that comfort but God in and by them that did draw out his heart But oh the misery and captivity we are in to self-love to the love of the creature Neither are we able by nature to lift up the heart above them to God in them no more than the worm can flie like an Eagle towards Heaven Oh groan under this and say My heart was not once such a lump of earth such an heavy stone as now I find it There was not then any such complaints heard Lord I can love Paradise I can love my wife but I cannot love thee but the clean contrary I love them because I love thee and I could not love them but because I love thee This Captivity and bondage our souls are in to the creature should make us mourn more grievously than ever the Israelites did under the Egyptians oppression What a shame is it to have a body that looketh upward to Heaven and a soul that looketh downward to earth How doth the constitution of thy body agree with the condition of thy soul Thy face is upward Os homini sublime dedit Coelumque tueri But thy soul that is pressed down in all its propensions and affections to the creatures and how contrary then are we to the end of our Creation which is the enjoying of God Adam had that which Alexander so ambitiously desired viz. the dominion over the whole world and yet he had as great dominion also over his own heart so that God was all in all to him If David though of the corrupted posterity of Adam but regenerated could say Whom have I in haven but thee and there is none in earth in comparison of thee How much more could Adam in that glorious state of integrity 2. Another end in Adam's Creation after the Image of God was to be is the glory and praise of Gods Name For as the Angels who also were made after Gods Image their constant work was to praise and glorifie God Thus Adam being made like another Angel was made full of holiness that upon the Earth he might as the Angels do in Heaven sing holy holy holy unto the Lord As some great Kings of the Earth when they have built some great City or Town they cause their Image or Picture to be set up in some eminent place for the monument of themselves who were such great Benefactors Thus God when he had made this great and glorious world he puts man into it as his Image that thereby his praise and goodness should be constantly declared but since Adam his fall all mankind is now a reproach and dishonour to God Their thoughts their affections their lives are so many dishonourable and reproachfull passages against him God doth not look upon us now as his workmanship but as the devils he feeth not his Image but the Devils in us Moses saith that when God saw how all men had corrupted themselves it repented him that be made man and it grieved him at his heart Gen. 6. 6. What a wonderfull expression is this God cannot repent or grieve at any thing properly but the Scripture speaketh thus after the manner of men to shew how exceedingly displeasing and offensive mans fall was that it had been better he had never been created than prove such an Apostate It is true God knew how to work a greater good out of sinne than sinne could be an evil but this no thank to Adam's sin and disobedience The good wrought thereby cometh wholly from the gracious power of God so that Adam's sinne of it self did disanull the end of his Creation and brought all things into confusion Take every man by nature what a beast and devil is he what an enemy to God what an adversary to every thing of God so that whereas he was made to
it compell us to think of it as more than a mâ—er bare simple privation for in the Text it is called Flesh in other places Lust the Old man the Body of sinne which emphatical expressions are for this end to make us conceive of the deep and most real pollution it bringeth upon us Insomuch that we are not to extenuate and diminish the nature of it but as the scope of the Scripture is to aggravate it under the most substantial and powerfull names that are so we also are accordingly to judge of it It is true Illyricus out of a vehement opposition to Papists and Synergists did wring the Scripture till bloud came out of it in stead of milk for he would understand these places mentioned about original sinne almost literally as if sinne were our very substance and essence whereas if he had gone no further then to say that the Scripture by these names doth intend not onely the meer privation of good by this original pollution but also a positive pronenese and a continual activity unto all evil than he had hit the mark The Scripture Names then are only considerable for the holy Ghost doth not use them in vain but thereby would startle and amaze us that we may consider that we are without and what evil doth abide in us Secondly This is proved from Scripture-affirmation about the state of all men It doth not onely describe man privatively that he is without God without Christ but also pesitively that he is an enemy to God and cannot be subject to him Rom. 3 10 11. to the 18. verse The holy Apostle applying several passages out of the old Scripture to all men by nature instanceth both in privatives and positives also Privatives There is none that understandeth there is none that seeketh God there is none that doth good there is no fear of God before their eyes But is this all No he addeth Their throat is an open Sepulchre the poison of Aspes is under their lips their feet are swift to shed bloud c. Here you see the nature of every man is abominable loathsome and ready to commit the foulest sinnes if he be not stopt yea the Scripture is more oftener expressing this Positive part of original sinne then the Privative Genes 5. Genes 8. 21. The imagination of a mans heart is said to be onely evil and that from his youth Eliphaz also in Job 15. saith How abominable is man who drinketh down iniquity like water Thus you see the Scripture represents us in a farre more loathsome vile and poisonous nature than we are apt to believe concerning our selves When Austine maintained this Doctrine Pelagius would say This was to accuse mans nature Lib. 1. de Naturâ Gratiâ But this is indeed the onely way to set up the grace of Christ our Physician for the whole need not a Physicias Neither saith Austin are we so to exalt God a Creator as to make a Saviour wholly superfluous It is true therefore which the same Author saith That when we have to do with such who deny the necessity of grace by Christ making free will of it self sufficient to what is holy and all because they deny any such thing as original sinne we are not so much saith he to deal in Disputations with them as prayers for them that their eyes might be opened to know themselves and that the stony heart may be taken from them for if once they had the sense and feeling of this they would quickly confesse both original sinne and Christs grace Thirdly Original sinne is positive Because the Scripture attributes positive and efficatious actions to it which meer and bare privations are not capable of The seventh Chapter of the Romans speaketh fully to this what expressions and that in allusion to military affairs doth the Apostle use concerning this sinne inhabiting in him For vers 23. he complaineth of this Law of sinne that it doth warre against him and bring him into captivity which phrases denote That this original sinne is not a sluggish idle privation but withall it connoteth an impetuous repugnancy to any thing that is holy This also the Apostle confirmeth Gal. 5. 17. where the flesh is said to lust against the Spirit shall we think then that the holy Ghost speaketh of this activity and working of sinne in us that we should apprehend no more than the absence of Gods Image within us Let us then aggravate the hainnousnesse of it as we see the Scripture doth and deeply humble our selves under it Shall it be a small thing to have such an impetuous active principle in us against what is holy That which we should imbrace and close with as the most excellent that we flie from and are most averse to as if it were the greatest evil and would be to our utter undoing Fourthly If vicious habits that are acquired by customary practice of evil are not meer and simple privations but do also include in them a propensity to evil then it followeth that original sinne likewise is not a meer privation For we are to conceive of original sinne as an innate and imbred habit as the other are acquired Now it 's plain That all vicious moral habits they are not a meer negation or absence of such virtues but doâ— also incline and dispose the subject to vicious actions easily and with delight So that we must needs attribute as much Postivenesse if not more to original sinne then to vicious acquired habits And the truth is This is a closer Leprosie infecting of us then such habits for this we have as soon as we are born this is twisted within our bowels this can never be wholly shaken off whereas accustomed sinnes they are perfectly overcome by the work of Regeneration For this is the difference between acquired habits of sinne and original corruption In Regeneration seeing the Image of God is put into us which is the substance of all holy habits the contrary habits are presently excluded and the sinnes the godly afterwords commit are not from their former habits of sinne but from the reliques of original corruption whatsoever the Remonstrants say to the contrary But Regeneration doth not totally exclude original sinne onely diminisheth the strength of it So that this original corruption will abide in some measure in us even while we carry this mortal body about with us And if the Prophet made it such an impossible thing for men habituated in sinne to be converted as when he saith If a Leopard can change his skinne then may you learne to doe well who are accustomed to doe evil Jerem. 13. 23. What then shall he said of us who are borne in evil Customary sinnes are but the Leopards skinne original sinne is like the Leopards nature Lastly This positive inclination doth necessarily follow from the privation of this Image of God if the due summetry and excellent Harmony which was at first in the soul be taken away then all the faculties and
powers of the soul must necessarily move sinfully and inordinately The soul of a man is alwayes working one way or other if then it hath lost original righteousnesse it cannot but be hurried on to what is evil as if you take away the pillar on which a stone liethh presently that will fall to the ground If you spoil the strings of musical instruments immediately they make a jarre and ingratefull noise upon every moving of them The soul of a man is a subject immediately susceptible of righteousnesse or corruption and if it lose its righteousnesse then by natural necessity corruption cometh in the room of it and so when the understanding acts it acteth sinfully when the will moveth it moveth sinfully So that we may well say with Austin to the Pelagian demanding How this corruption could come into us for God was good and nature good Quid quaeris latentem rimum cum habes apertam jannam Not a cranny but a gate or door is open for this corruption to seize upon us SECT IV. Application BEfore we come to answer the Objections Let us affect our hearts with it and labour to be humbled under the consideration of this positivenesse and efficacy of it For first Hereby we see that if it be not restrained and stopped by God we know not where we should stay in any sinne What Cain's what Judas's would we not prove Who can say Hitherto I will goe in sinne and no further for there is a fountain within thee that would quickly overflow all This active root of bitternesse this four leaven within thee would quickly make thy life like Job's body full of ulcers and noisome sores If thou art not plunged in the same mire and filth as others are doe not say Thou hast lesse of this corruption than they Thou art borne more innocent than they onely God stops thee as he did Balaam from doing such wickednesse as thy heart is forward enough unto No Serpent is fuller of poyson no Toad of venome than thou art of sinne which thou wouldst be constantly committing were not some stop put in the way Secondly In that sinne is thus positive and inclining thee thou art the more to admire the grace of God if that work a contrary inclination and propensity in thee If thou art brought with Paul To delight in the Law of God in the inward man If thy heart pants after God as the Hart after the waters which once delighted in sinne which once longed after nothing but the satisfying of the flesh Oh admire this gracious miraculous work of God upon thy soul who hath made thee to differ thus from thy selfe The time was once when thou rejoycedst in those sinnes that are now matter of shame and trembling to thee The time was when thy heart was affected with no other good than that of the creature Thou didst know no other desire no other but that but now God hath made iron to swimme he hath made the Blackmoor white Oh blesse God for the least desires and affections which thou hast at any time for that which is good for this cometh not from thee it is put into thee by the grace of God Lastly Consider that this positivenesse of sinne in thee doth not onely manifest it self in an impetuous inclination to all evil but also a violent resistance of whatsoever is good The Apostle Rom. 8. calleth it Enmity against God and Rom. 7. he complaineth of it as warring and fighting against the Law of his minde And certainly this is a very great aggravation not onely to be without what is good but to be a desperate enemy and a violent opposer of it both in others as also to that which the Spirit of God by the Word would worke in our own hearts not onely without the remedy but full of enmity against it Doth not this make our condition unspeakably wretched Certainly this is the highest aggravation in original sinne that we are not onely unable to what is good but we are with anger and rage carried out against it as if good were the onely evil and sweetnesse the onely bitternesse CHAP. XVII Objections against the Positive Part of Original Sinne answered SECT I. Cautions Premised THere remain only some Objections against this Truth but before we answer them take notice First That although we say original sinne is more than a privation of that Righteousnesse which ought to be in man yet We do not make it to be like some infecting corporeal quality in the body that hereby should vitiate the soul and as it were poison that Lombard and some others especially Ariminensis Distinct 30. They seem to deliver their opinion so as rejecting Anselm's definition of original sinne making it to be want of that original righteousnesse which ought to be in us and do declare it to be a morbida qualitas some kinde of pestilential and infecting quality abiding in the body and thereby affecting the soul As when the body is in some phrenetical and mad distempers the soul is thereby disturbed in all its operations so that these make the want of original righteousness to be the effect of original sinne not the nature of it saying upon Adam's sinne Man becoming thus defiled God refused to continue this righteousness to him any longer But if these Schoolmen be further questioned How such a diseased pestilential quality should be in the body Some say it was from the forbidden fruit that that had such a noxious effect with it but that is rejected because that was made of God and all was exceeding good Arimineâ—sis therefore following as he thinketh Austin maketh this venemous quality in a mans body to have its original from the hissing and breath as it were of the Serpent he conceiveth that by their discourse with the Serpent there came from it such an infectious air as might contaminate the whole body and he saith Austin speaks of some who from the very hissing and air from Serpents have been poisoned But the Protestants they do not hold it any positive quality in this sense for this is to make the body the first and chiefest subject of original sinne and so to convey it to the soul whereas indeed the soul is primarily and principally the seat of original sinne We therefore reject this as coming too near Manicheism as if there were some evil and infectious qualities in the very nature and substance of a man Secondly It must be remembred what hath been said before That when we come to give a particular reason why the understanding or will are propense to any evil We can assign only a privative cause viz. Because it wants that rectitude which would regulate it as if a ship it's Anselm's comparison were without Pilot and Governour of tacklings let loose into the whole Ocean it would be violently hurried up and down till it be destroyed Thus man without this Image of God would be tossed up and down by every lust never resting till he had
was on the earth but the top reached to heaven Thus though Adam's inferior part the body was exercised in these earthly things yet his soul the more sublime part that was fixed in heaven But now all our suâ—eableness and communion with heavenly objects is wholly perished we have hearts inlarged with joy we are ravished with delights about wordly things and when brought to any thing that is heavenly there we are weary and neither flesh or spirit is willing to such things yet nature might reach us that man of all creatures only hath hands and those not to embrace the earth but he hath feet to walk and trample upon it We read of Paul and David with other godly ones when recovered in part from the power of this originall corruption what longings and breakings of soul they had after God and his Ordinances These things were accounted for sweetness above the hony and for presciousness above gold now why should not every man be able to say so as well as they but because our tasts are wholly distempered and we are carnall not spirituall Certainly spirituall objects have in themselves infinite more matter of joy and delight then any earthly thing can have who can think there is more sweetness in a drop then in the ocean more light in the starre then in the sun The creature is less then these in comparison of God May not than even blind men see that we are all over-plunged into sinne else why should not God and heavenly objects which do so farre surpass in matter of true delight be more sweet and welcome to us then all the creatures of the world though put together Psal 4 6. Many say who will shew us any good The naturall man finds no delight but in these earthly things oppositely to God There is a Sheâ—ll in his soul that is alwaies craving and asking never satisfied now why can they not with David as well put forth the following petition Lord lift up the light of thy countenance upon us But because the carnall man finds no more pleasure in spirituall things then the swine doth in pearles or pleasant flowres A man that is spirituall having drunk of this water desireth no other As the Philosophers say The matter of the heavens is so fully actuated by the heavenly formes that it desireth no other whereas the matter of these subâ—unary things is never satisfied but though under one forme yet it still desireth another Thus the soul possessed of God and Christ hath so much delight and pleasure that it hath enough it desireth no change but the naturall man is carried out from one thing to another from one object to another first delighting in this and then in that it being impossible that Zacheus his shoe should sit Goliah's foot Thus you see that though a man be restless in his delights yet he can take pleasure in earthly things whereas he finds no sweetness no delight in heavenly things that are infinitely more precious So this may demonstrate the loss of Gods Image and our service to originall sinne in the lusts thereof Thirdly That we are thus originally corrupted appeareth in that utter impotency and inability to do any spirituall good we are not able so much as to think a thought or send forth an hearty groan as to our eternall welfare whereas at first God made Adam right and thereby endowed him with power to do any thing that was holy called therefore the Image of God so happy and blessed was his condition that he could with delight and joy fullfill the Law of God feeling no difficulty nor impediment but now being dead in sinne we are no more able then dead men to move or walk in holy things The Scripture is wonderfully clear in this though Papists Arminians and others have endeavoured to raise a mist and obscure the sun beames Joh. 15. Without me ye can do nothing Rom. 8. The flesh is eumity against God 1 Cor. 2. The naturall man perceiveth not the things of God neither can he where both the act of doing good and the power also is denied to every man by nature If therefore every man by nature be dead in sinne like a stone as in respect of any holy impression from God if he have blind eies deaf eares a foolish heart as to any heavenly thing doth not this plainly tell us that we are all over polluted It 's good for our humiliation to consider how the Scripture describeth a naturall man as wanting all his senses he hath no eies to see no eares to hear no heart to understand but is wholly dead and all this is to shew what a wonderfull impotency is in man to help himself spiritually Now this declareth the necessity of preserving this doctrine of originall corruption clean and sound for if we be orthodox here then also we shall hold the truth of God against foe will and the power of nature in divine things for these two particulars are like Castor and 〈◊〉 they alwaies appear together and what is the design or Secinians Papists and Arminians either in whole or in part to deny or extenuate originall sinne but thereby to make a way to advance their magnificent Diana their free will to holy things for they evidently see if originall sinne be such an universall deep and inward pollution of the whole soul even the will as well as other parts then their doctrine of the power of nature is pulled up by the very root Therefore the more fully assure your souls of this truth by how much the whole body of Divinity depends upon this foundation Indeed the Scripture is so clear in debasing man as to supernaturalls and giving all to the grace of God that we may wonder how this pride should settle it self in mans heart and that he doth not tremble to speak or write any thing whereby the grace of God may be diminished and man exalted he that cannot make a white hair black he that cannot adde one cubit to his stature will yet think to make a polluted soul holy and adde many cubits of grace to his spirituall stature Fourthly Our original corruption will yet further appear If you take notice of that universall ignorance and dullnesse that is upon a mans understanding knowing no saving thing about God or Christ if it be not revealed Insomuch that the necessity of Scripture-light of revealed-light to conduct us to heaven doth without contradiction prove that by nature we are as Paul said Ephes 4 darkeness even darkness it self Look over the generation of mankind that are the wisest and most learned where the light of Gods word hath not shore upon them Rom. 1. 1. The Apostle there informeth us that the doctrine of the Gospel was foolishness to them that professing themselves to be wise they became foolish in their imaginations what Aristotle or Pleto could ever by naturall reason understand any thing of Christ If then we lay this for a sure foundation though
God I answer The Meritorious cause is Adam's disobedience by his transgression he demerited this for all that should come of him And if you say Who putteth the sinne in I answer There is no efficient cause that putteth it in It is enough that God doth justly refuse to give or continue his Image And this being denied the soul because a subject either of holinesse or sinne when wanting one must necessarily fall into the other Thus it is with the souls being polluted as it is with night there is no efficient cause of the night only the withdrawing of the Sunne necessarily maketh it So God doth nothing positively to make the soul sinfull but according to his just appointment at first denieth that righteousnesse which Adam wilfully put away from himself and his posterity So that we may as easily conceive of every childs souls pollution by sinne as of Adam and Eve themselves God made them righteous but upon their transgression they became unclean and sinfull How was this God in justice denied the continuance of this holinesse to them any longer so that they became sinfull not because God infused evil but denied him that righteousnesse to them This may fully satisfie the sober and modest minded man Therefore the last Proposition is That we cannot say the soul being pure in it self cometh into the body and so is insected As if some wine should be put in a poisoned vessel for the soul and the body do mutually infect one another not physically by contact but morally For the soul being destitute of the Image of God in all its operations is sinfull and so all the bodily actions are polluted And then again the body that having lost the properties it had before the fall is a clod and a burden to the soul Thus they doe mutually help to damne one another the soul polluteth the body and the body that again polluteth the soul And thus those two which at first God put together in so near an union to make man happy are now so defiled that both from soul and from body the matter of his damnation doth arise It is true we may say inchoatively Sinne it in the body before enlivened by the soul in which sense David bewailed his being conceived in sinne but explicitely and formally it cannot be and therefore we are not to conceive sinne in the body before the soul be united or in the soul before the body be joyned to it but as soon as they both became man then they are under the just curse of God and the soul being blind and the body same they both fall into that eternal pit of damnation if the grace of God deliver not I may in time shew how many wayes the soul defileth the body and the body againe infecteth the soul viz. in a moral sense and therefore let this suffice for the present Onely from what hath been said let us turn our Disputation into Deploration Let the head busied to argue be now as much exercised to weep Jeremiah wished his head was a fountain of tears for the slain of his people and that was but a temporal death and that of one Nation only How much more may we desir so for the spiritual death and that of all in the world Say unto all Heretical Teachers Get ye behind me Satans you hinder and trouble me in my humiliation Is not the Infant new born swadled and bound up hand and feet and so lieth crying A sad representation that so God might bind every one and send him crying to Hell Thus original sinne opened Hell kindled the fire of Hell there was no Hell till this was committed Oh grievous necessity and unhappy condition we are all born in Antequam peccemus peccato constringimur antequam delinquimus delicto tenemur This even this seriously considered should make us have no rest till we be put into the second Adam in whom we have Justification and Salvation A TREATISE OF Original Sin The Third Part. HANDLING The Subject of ORIGINAL SINN IN What Part it doth reside and what Powers of the Soul are corrupted by it By Anthony Burgess ANCHORA SPEI LONDON Printed in the Year 1658. A TREATISE OF Original Sinne. PART III. CHAP. I. Of the Pollution of the Mind with Original Sinne. SECT I. EPHES. 4. 23. And be ye renewed in the spirit of your mind COncerning our Subject of Original Sinne these particulars have been largely treated on viz. That it is What it is and How it is communicated The next thing therefore in our method to be considered is The Subject of Inhesion wherein it is in what part it doth reside and what powers of the soul are corrupted by it There is indeed made by Divines a two fold Subject of original sinne 1. Of Predication the persons in whom it is affirmed to be and that is in all who naturally come of Adam Christ only is excepted And in this there is not much controversie onely the Francisean Papists opposing the Dominicans do hotly contend that the Virgin Mary was by special priviledge exempted from original sinne Scotus seemeth to be the first that made it received as a kind of an Ecclesiastical opinion whereas formerly it was but thought doubtfull or at most probable It is not worth the while to trouble you with this and I may have occasion ere the subject be dispatched to say what will be necessary to it I shall therefore proceed to that which is more practical and profitable even to search into the seat and bowels of this original sinne that we may be fully informed no part of the soul is free from this pestilence To which truth the Text in hand will contribute great assistance And For the Coherence of it briefly take notice that the Apostle at the 17th verse giveth a short but dreadfull Description of a Gentile conversation or the life of one without the knowledge of Christ wherein you may observe a three-fold ignorance or blindness upon all such so impossible is it that of themselves they should ever come to see There is a natural blindness a voluntary contracted blindness and a Judicial one inflicted on them by God for abuse of natural light These there are mentioned in the 18th verse And in this vers 19. we have the formidable consequence declared That being past feeling no remorse of conscience in them They give up themselves to all wickednesse with greedinesse Oh that this were only among Pagans But how many have this natural voluntary and judicial blindness and obstinacy upon them under the light of the Gospel Yea their eyes are more blinded and hearts more hardned where the means of grace have been contemned then in the places where the name of Christ hath not been known This black condition of Heathens being described he compareth those of Christians with it and so we have darkness and light here set together And this the Apostle declareth vers 20. But ye have not so learned Christ Christ
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
desired to number the people though Joab withstood it 2 Sam. 24. which might exceedingly have shamed David that a meer mortal man should see that sinfullness which he did not yet he will proceed and the people are numbered but assoon as David had done it then his heare smote him when it was done it smote him not while it was a doing the nine moneths were spent in numbring of the people Why not before then it had prevented the deaths of many thousands But thus it is conscience will not seasonably and opportunely bear witness against sinne Consider then the deceitfullness and falseness of thy conscience herein all the while thou art contriving sinne purposing yea and acting of sinne nothing doth trouble thee but at last when sinne is committed then it ariseth with horror and terror And do we not see this constant pollution of conscience in most dying persons when summoned by God and arraigned by death when the sentence of death is upon them Then their conscience flyeth in their faces taketh them by the throat oh send for the Minister let him pray for me let all that come to me pray for me Thus conscience is stirring now oh but how much better were it if in thy health time if in thy strength and power then conscience had been operative To have heard thee then cry out oh my sinnes oh I am wounded at the heart oh pray for me then there had been better grounds to hope thy conscience was awakened upon true and enduring considerations such as would continue alwaies living and dying whereas such are but sick-suddain fits of conscience and commonly turn into greater hardness of heart and obstinancy afterwards Secondly Conscience troubled doth naturally discover its pollution By the slavish servile and tormenting feares which do accompany it So that whereas the proper work of conscience is By Scripture-light to direct to Christ so that the troubles thereof should be like the Angels troubling of the pool of Bethesda and then immediately to communicate healing Now it is the clean contrary These wounds do fester and corrode more The conscience by feeling guilt runneth into more guilt so that whereas we would think and say Now there are hopes now conscience stirreth now he begins to feel his sinnes we see often the contrary an obortive or a monstrous birth after such travailles of the soul and wherein doth it manifest it self more then by tormenting teares about God So that if it were possible the conscience troubled would make a man runne from the presence and sight of God never to be seen by him Thus you see it was with Adam when he had sinned his conscience was awakened he knew what he had done and therefore was afraid at Gods voice and runne to hide himself such a slavish servile temper doth follow the conscience when wounded for sinne Now all such tormenting feares are so many manifest reproaches unto the goodness of God and his mercy revealed The hard thoughts the accusing imaginations that there is no hope for thee that thy sinnes are greater then thou canst bear or that God will forgive these dishonour the goodness of God these oppose his grace and mercy which he intendeth to exalt in the pardon of sinne Insomuch that the Atheist who denieth the Essence of God is in this respect less hainous then thou who deniest the good Essence of God He denieth his natural goodness thou his moral goodness as it were Is not the great scope of God in the Word to advance this attribute of his mercy especially in Christ he hath made it so illustrious and amiable that it may ravish the heart of a poor humbled sinner but a slavish conscience about sinne rob God of this glory So that although it may be the Spirit of God by the Word that convinceth thee of thy sinne and affecteth thy conscience yet the slavishness and servility of it that is the rust and moth which breedeth in thy own nature that is not of Gods Spirit Thirdly The troubled conscience discovereth its natural pollution By the proneness and readiness in it to receive all the impressions and impulses of the Devil That as in the secure conscience the Devil kept all quiet and would by no means molest So on the contrary in the troubled consience there be endeavours to heighten the trouble to increase the flame and he that before tempted thee to presumption that God was ready to pardon that sinne would easily be forgiven now he useth contrary engines provoketh to despair represents God as severe and one who will never forgive such trangressions that there is no hope for him that he is shut out of the Ark and so must necessarily perish Thus you see he wrought upon the troubled conscience of Judas and of Cain one goeth trembling up and down and cannot cast off the terrors and horrors which were upon him The other is so greatly tormented with anguish of soul that he hangeth himself In what whirlepooles of despair In what self-murders and other sad events hath a troubled conscience agitated and moved by the Devil cast many into Now all this ariseth because the wounded conscience being not as yet regenerated doth hearken more unto the Devil then unto Gods Spirit The Spirit of God through the Word of the Gospel speaks peace to the broken in heart offereth oil to be poured into such wounds holdeth out the scepter of grace but the troubled conscience heareth not this believeth not this but what the Devil that soul-murderer and Prince of darkness doth suggest and dart into the thoughts that is received and followed Hence it is that so many have been under troubles of conscience under terrors of spirit for sinnes for a season but all this pain in travel was only to bring forth wind and emptiness all hath either ended in tragical and unbelieving actions or in a bold and more hardened obstinacy and the great cause of this hath been the Devils moving in these troubled waters he hath presently interposed to marre this vessel while upon the wheel Know then that when thy conscience is awakened and grieved then is the Devil very busie then he tempteth he suggesteth but keep close to the Word see what the Spirit of God calleth upon thee to do get out of the crowd of those Satanical injections and compose thy self in a ferene and quiet manner to receive the commands of God in his Word for the Spirit of God that calleth to believe to come in and make peace with God but the Devil he presseth a final departure from God Fourthly The troubled conscience is internally polluted By that ignorance and incapacity in knowing of what is the true christian-liberty purchased by Christ I speak not as yet of that main and chief liberty which is freedome from the curse of the law through the bloud of Christ but in many doctrinal and practical things The Apostle Rom. 14. speaketh much of the weak conscience which hath not attained to
not be convinced because the will applieth to other objects But of this more in its time SECT IV. The Defilement of the Will in its Affections and Properties or the sinfull Adjuncts inseparably cleaving unto it ROM 9. 16. So then it is not of him that willeth or of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy HItherto we have been declaring the native pollution of the noble faculty of the Will in the several operations thereof but we have not as yet manifested the least of all that filthiness which adhereth to it You have seen but a drop in respect of the Ocean We proceed therefore to a further discovery of the original contagion thereof and that in its Affections and Properties The sinfull Adjuncts inseparably cleaving to it proclaim it to be a defiled subject ¶ 1. This Scripture opened vindicated and improved against the Doctrine of Free-will THis truth cannot be superstructed better then upon this foundation in the Text which is a noble ingredient into that famous portion of Scripture wherein the Doctrine of those sublime mysteries about Election and Reprobation are professedly handled and those Objections which the presumption of humane reason is ready to produce are fully answered So that whereas in other places that Doctrine is only occasionally or incidentially handled here the Apostle doth industriously treat of the nature of it Thus it hath of old been interpreted and of late by the Orthodox Onely Arminius following Suecanus in part and the Remonstrants after Arminius they have excogitated a new Analysis of this Chapter full of absurdity and impertinencies for they would not have the Apostle at all to treat of Election and Reprobation of persons they turn themselves and the Scripture into all shapes and forms to evade that but they interpret it of a two-fold Purpose or Decree of God The one whereof they say is That whosoever doth believe shall obtain Justification Adoption and Salvation The other That whosoever seek for righteousnesse by the works of the Law shall be rejected from all these This they say is the scope of the Apostle But who seeth not what forcing and wresting this is of Scripture So that we may wonder how such an interpretation could come into their mind for the Apostle doth not speak of Conditions but of Persons his scope is not to shew that they are believers who are received and workers who are rejected The Apostle had abundantly confirmed this in the fourth Chapter but he intends to shew the Dominion and Sovereignty of God in the eternal disposing of mens persons and that upon the occasion of Gods rejecting the Jews and calling in the Gentiles Therefore he saith To whom he will he sheweth mercy and whom he will he hardeneth whom he will He puts the discrimination upon Gods will not upon any internal qualification in the subject Also he instanceth in Esau and Jacob before they had done good or evil whereas if Jacob were considered as a believer then God did look upon him as having good in him Further he bringeth in Pharaoh for an example how that God did reject him and whether the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 17. be rendred I have raised thee up or I have kept thee alive in those judgments and not destroyed thee as the Remonstrants and others vehemently contend yea some Orthodox do yeeld it will all come to the sense that he was an object on whom God would demonstrate his power and justice or kept by God for a while as some Anatomists do a dead body before they bury it to gather profitable observations for the good of others not that God infused any evil in Pharaoh's heart though the Scripture useth three words concerning Pharaoh the one is to confirm or corroborate his heart and that is ascribed to God seven times The other is to harden and that is once though we render the word to corroborate to harden The last is To aggravate or make heavy which is once likewise ascribed to God which is also rendered by our Interpreters to harden not I say that this expression denoteth God did put any sinfull frame into Pharaoh's heart nor yet on the other side is it to be understood of a meer bare permission of God as if he did no more then suffer him by his patience to be hardened but God as a just Judge did for Pharaoh's sinne antecedent justly deny him any molifying grace leaving him to his lusts which in such occasions as he had did break out into a more violent flame So that the whole blame lay upon Pharaoh himself not on God Hence it is that he is so often said To harden his own heart Now this example of Pharaoh could not make at all to Paul's purpose if his intent was to prove that God would reject all such who seek for righteousness by the works of the Law for Pharaoh was an Heathen he was ignorant of Gods Law and could not seek for Justification by the works thereof Besides if the Apostle did not intend to shew Gods purpose absolutely and inconditionately in a well explained sense about persons but only his Decree about their qualifications what occasion was there for Paul to make such an Objection Is there unrighteousnesse with God And then first to objurgate the Objector Who art thou O man that disputest against God And then returneth a full answer to the Objection from the lesse to the greater from the Potter who hath power over the same clay to make a vessel of honour or dishonour These Objections and Answers could have no place in the Remonstrantical Analysis and Interpretation For who would argue it injustice in God to reject such who did not believe in Christ but sought for Justification by the Law If the Apostle did prove only two such Decrees about the wayes to salvation and damnation here was no such mystery transcending humane expectation This is certain the Remonstrants commend their way of common Election making the determinate event to be by man himself in a most plausible and colourable manner as being most agreeable to humane reason and equity There is no man would dispute against God in this whereas the other exposition strongly pursued by Austin and for the dreadfulness of it to flesh and bloud which is ready to call God to an account for his administrations was greatly disliked by many and a scandal to them Even as at this day it still meeteth with the same unkind entertainment from Lutherans Socinians and Arminians who make an Universal Conditional Election whereby they say God would have all to be saved even the Calvinists themselves as they are pleased to instance by derision Well if this part of Scripture will not convince I know not what light will and they must needs be prepossessed who can let their judgements assent to such a remote and forced explication Not to adde that the Decree which they make about Gods rejection of such who seek for Justification by works is
that is the cause of all thy bad fruit A regenerated will a sanctified will would make thee prepared for every good work It is for want of this that all preaching is in vain all Gods mercies and all judgements are in vain Why should not the hammer of Gods word break it Why should not the fire of it melt it but because the stubbornness of the will is so great that it will not receive any impression 't is called therefore a stony heart not an iron heart for iron by the fire may be mollified and put into any shape but a stone will never melt it will sooner break into many pieces and flie in the face Thus the will of a man hath naturally that horrible hardness and refractoriness that in stead of loving and imbracing the holy things of God it doth rather rage and hate with all abomination such things ¶ 7. The Enmity and Contrariety of the Will to Gods Will. IN the second place That imbred sinfull propriety of the will which accompanieth it as heat doth fire is The enmity and contrariety of the will to Gods will There is not onely a privative incapacity but a positive contrariety even as between fire and water Gods will is an holy will thine is unholy Gods will is pure thine is impure Gods will is carried out to will his own glory honour and greatness thine is carried out to will the dishonour and reproach of God Thus as Gods will is infinitely good and the cause of all good so in some sense thy will is infinitely evil and the cause of all that evil thou art plunged into Therefore when the Apostle saith That the carnal mind is enmity against God Rom. 8. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comprehends the actings of the will and the affections as well as of the mind It is enmity in the very abstract so that it is neither subject to God nor can be Oh that God would set this truth more powerfully upon our hearts for what tongue can express the misery of this that thy will should naturally have such irreconcilable opposition and implacable enmity to the Law of God that it should be diametrially opposite to Gods will which at first was made so amicable and compliant with Gods will that there was the Idem velle and Idem nolle Besides many other considerations there are two especially that may break and exceedingly humble our souls herein For 1. Gods will and his law which is his will objectively taken are absolutely in themselvs very good and therefore the proper object of thy will So that if thy will be carried out to any thing in the world it should be carried out to Gods Law above any thing This is to be willed above any created good what soever How is it that thou canst will pleasures profits and such created good things and art not more ravished and drawn out in thy desires after the chiefest good but to be in a state of opposition to this chiefest good to contradict and withstand it this is the hainous aggravation Could there be a Summum malum it would be in the will because of its direct opposition to the Summum bonum Herein mans will and the Devils will do both agree that they are with hatred and contrariety carried out against Gods will If therefore thou wert to live a thousand and thousands of years upon the earth and thou hadst no other work to do but to consider and meditate about the sinfulness and wretchedness of the will in this particular thou wouldst even then take up but drops in respect of the Ocean and little crums in respect of the sand upon the sea-shore But Secondly This contrariety of thy will is not only against that which absolutely in it self is the chiefest good but relatively it would be so to thee and therefore thy contrariety to it is the more unjustifiable What to be carried out with unspeakable hatred to that which would be thy blessedness and happiness who can bewail this enough To have a delight and a connaturality with those things that will be thy eternal damnation with much readiness and joy to will them and then to be horrible averse and contrapugnant to those things which if willed and imbraced would make thee happy to all eternity Oh miserable and wretched man thy condition is farre more lamentable then that of the beasts for they have a natural instinct to preserve themselves and to desire such things as are wholsom to them but thou art naturally inclining to will and imbrace all those things which will be thy eternal woe and misery What is the cause that thy will cannot imbrace the Law of God Why art thou so contrary to it Alas there is no just reason can be given but original sinne is like an occult quality in thy will making an Antipathy in it against the same so that thou doest not love what is holy neither art thou able to say Why only thou dost not love it yea there is the greatest reason in the world and all the word of God requireth it likewise that thy will should be subordinate and commensurated unto it but there is no other cause of this evil will then the evil of it It is evil and therefore cannot abide that which is good ¶ 8. The Rebellion of the Will against the light of the mind and 〈◊〉 slavery of it to the sensitive part in a man THirdly The original pollution of the will is seen in the rebellion of it against the light of the mind and the slavery of it to the sensitive part in a man to the carnal and sinfull affections therein Both which do sadly proclaim how the will is by nature out of all holy order and fallen from its primitive integrity For in the former respect therefore did God give us reason that by the light and guidance thereof the will should proceed to its operations So that for the will to move it self before it hath direction from the mind is like the servant that would set upon business before his master commands him like an unnatured dog that runneth before his master do set him on To will a thing first and afterwards to exercise the mind about it is to set the earth where Heaven should be But oh the unspeakable desolation that is brought upon the soul in this very particular The will staieth for no guidance expecteth no direction but willeth because it will what is suteable and agreeable to the corrupt nature thereof that it imbraceth be it never so destructive and damning God made the mind at first that it could say like the Centurion I bid the will go and it goeth the affections move and they move but now the inferior souldier biddeth the Centurion go and he goeth This then is the great condemnation of the will that though light come in upon it yet it loveth not the light but rebelleth against it and this sinfulness of the will is more palpably
discovered under the means of grace and the light of the Gospel then under the light of nature meerly for such are said comparatively to sit in darkness and to have no light The more then the light of the Gospel doth appear the more any beams of truth do gloriously shine into thy breast and thou for all this gain-sayest them livest against them the more is thy will in a sinne This then doth greatly aggravate the polluted nature of the will that it can contradict the powerfull arguments of the soul when it was made subordinate to knowledge then to become tyrannical and usurping over it this argueth the will hath a peculiar infection in it insomuch that if it had never so much light yet that would be evil because it will be evil I know there are many learned men that say The will cannot but follow the practical dictate of the understanding There is say they a natural connexion between them so that if the will at any time offend it is because the light and conviction of the mind is faint and inefficacious But this opinion doth greatly retract from the nature of grace and the nature of our original sinne from grace as if that did sanctifie the understanding and affections only and from original sinne as if that were not seated in the will but in the other parts only whereas the will of a man may be called the throne of wickedness because from it properly all sinnes have their rise and being Do we not see this plainly in the Devils who are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 greatly knowing and understanding yet no Devil is able to will what is good but willeth to sinne alwayes and cannot resrain it How cometh this about They do not want knowledge they are not capable of sinnes of ignorance and yet with what irreconcilable enmity is the Devil set against that which is good insomuch that he cannot all the day long but will those things that are offensive to God Although they know this is to their eternal torment By which you see how depraved and poisoned without Christ the will is though the understanding meet it like an Angel to stop this Balaam in wicked and unjust wayes Never then plead ignorance or plead passions for it is the defect and wickedness of the will that makes thee so vile But as the will in the upper region as it were is so much polluted so in the lower region also for if we consider it as bordering upon the affections there we shall find as horrible a sinne daily committed as when Gods Law sorbids a woman to fall down before a beast for when the will which is in it self a rational appetite shall make it self like one of the vile affections and passions what is this but a spiritual and unclean lust with a beast Lay then this more to heart than thou doest Think how horrid a sight it would be if thy body should become like a beasts and thou go on the ground as that doth what would then become of that Os sublime And is not this as bad when thy will is made a vassal to every inordinate affection Thou willest what thy passions call for yet thus it is with every one till grace doth elevate the will and set it in its proper throne ¶ 9. The Mutability and Inconstancy of the Will FOurthly The mutability and inconstancy of the will about what is holy is a great part of the original desolation upon it It is true Adam's will was mutable at the first Creation though he had full power and perfection to stand yet because his will was changeable therefore he fell from his holy estate and no wonder that Adam's will was mutable for the will of the Angels so greatly transcending man in glory was also vertible and changeable so that to have the will confirmed in what is good that it cannot fall into the contrary condition is a blessed and gracious priviledge vouchsafed by God alone Therefore there are no men though never so much sanctified but their wils would make them fall off from God did not God outwardly support him This natural mutability is in the will because it 's the will of a creature onely the will of God is immutable and unchangeable and this is onely a negative imperfection it is not a sinne but the inconstancy and changeablenesse that I now mention is a sinfull and corrupt one This mutability of the will and instability discovers it self in these particulars 1. In some great fears or judgements of God upon a man then though he hath no more but nature yet his will doth sometimes seem to yeeld and to melt before God Thus Pharaob's will Ahab's will did abate of their contumacy while the heavy rod of God was upon them but how quickly did they lick up their vomit again When the iron was taken out of the fire it grew as cold as ever And is not this inconstant will the ruine of many Oh that thou hadst such a will alwayes as thou hadst in such straits in such extremities then how happy wouldst thou be 2. This inconstancy of thy will appeareth to thy undoing When in some Ordinance the Word preached the Sacrament administred or reproof applied to thee then thou beginnest to yeeld then thou sayest I will do it I will be so no more I will become new but these April showrs hold for a season the winter will come when all will be frost and snow Mat. 21. 29. One of those sons who said to his father I go sir seeming to be very willing whereas on the other side I will not did quickly falsifie his Word So that he who refused at first proved better then he that seemed so forward and thus truly it falleth out sometimes that the later end is farre better of some who for a long while say they will not that are stubborn and rebellious but God afterwards maketh them to will then of such who give many fair promises now they will and then they will in such sickness they will in such a powerfull motion they will but afterwards they will not 3. The sinfull inconstancy of the will about holy things is When after a ready and willing profession of Christ in times of temptation and great extremities then they fall off and their fall is great This is because the will was not resolved and fixed that whatsoever should fall out yet they would not treacherously depart from God Act. 11. 23. Barnabas exhorted the Disciples That with purpose of heart they should cleave to God otherwise if the will be not stedfast and resolved every temptation is able to drive it back Lastly The lazy sluggish and half-desires of the will about good things manifest the inconstancy of it Jam. 1. A double-minded man and so a double-willed man is inconstant in all his wayes when the will is divided between the creature and the Creator or when like the sluggard he desireth meat but will not put forth his
furnace and house of bondage did cry and groan for a Redeemer but this is the unspeakable evil of this soul-bondage that we delight in it that we rejoyce in it all our indeavour and care is that we may not be set at liberty and have these chains taken off us From this explication observe That no man hath any liberty or freedom of will to what is good till Christ by his grace hath made him free We do not by freedom of will obtain grace but by grace we obtain freedom of will So that by the Scripture we have not any true ground for a liberum arbitrium but a liberatum in spiritual things There is no such thing as a free-will but a freed will in a passive sense and tunc est liberum when it is liberatum as Austin Then it 's actively free when it is first passively made free Rom. 6. 16. Being made free from sinne He doth not say you have made your selves free but ye are made frre by the grace of Christ And again vers 22. Ye are now made free from sinne and Rom. 8. 2. The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of sinne and death By which expressions is implied 1. That all men till sanctified are in an absolute vassalage and thraldom to sinne And 2. That it is onely the grace of Christ that doth deliver from this bondage It is Christ not our own will that maketh us free ¶ 3 Of the several Kinds of Freedome which the Scripture speaketh of TO enter into the depths of this Doctrine Consider What kinds of freedome the Scripture speaketh of and which is applicable to our purpose The Schooles have vast disputes about liberty and free-will What it is whether a compounded faculty or a simple one and whether a faculty or habit or act especially they digladiate about the definition of free-will what it is but if any thing shall be thought necessary to be said in this point it may be pertinently brought in when we shall answer such Objections as the Patrons of nature do use to bring in the behalf of Free-will only it is good to know that in the Scripture we find a civil liberty and a spiritual liberty spoken of a civil liberty Thus bond and free are often opposed Ephes 6. 8. Col. 3. 11. 1 Cor. 7. 22. But this is not to the Text nor to our purpose Therefore the Scripture speaketh much of a spiritual freedome and that is First In the translating of us out from the dominion of sinne and Satan into a gracious state of holiness and this is called by Divines Libertas gratia or as Austin libertas à peccato The freedome of grace of which those Texts speak that we mentioned before Secondly There is the Evangelical and Christian liberty whereby we are freed from many things of the law not only the curse of the moral law and the spirit of bondage which did accompany the legal administration thereof but also from the obligation unto and exercise of the ceremanial This Evangelical liberty is often commended in the Scripture as the glorious priviledge of the Christian Church which the legal Church wanted of this legal servitude and Evangelical freedome the Apostle Gal. 4 doth largely and most divinely treat This Christian liberty also from Jewish rites The Apostle Gal. 5. 1. â—â—horteth us to stand fast in as being purchased for us by the death of Christ as a glorious priveledge only the Apostle Peter 1 Pet. 2. 16 giveth good advice That we turn not our liberty into licentiousness It is true the Apostle doth once use the word free abusively and improperly Rom. 6. 20 where the servants of sinne are said to be free from righteousness or to righteousness now this is improperly called a freedome for as the service of God is the truest freedome so freedome from holiness is the greatest slavery Although Austin doth from this Text make a division of liberty into two kinds which he maketh perpetual use of Libertas à peccate and Libertas a justitiâ The godly man hath the former liberty the sinner hath the latter but this latter is improperly called liberty Lastly There is a spiritual freedome mentioned by the Scripture as the utlimte and complete perfection of all when the soul shall be freed not only from the dominion of sinne but the presence of it all the reliques and remainders of it and the body shall be freed from death pain and all corroptibility Rom. 8. 2. This is called the glorious liberty of the sons of God and for this every godly man is to groan and mourn even as the woman in travel to be delivered This is called by Divines libertas gloriae and libertas à miserià But we are to speak of the liberty of grace and herein we are not to admire the Free-will of man but the free grace of God man hath no free-will to do that which is spiritual and holy Free-will is an Idol which the corrupt heart of man is apt to advance he is unwilling to be brought out of himself to be beholding to the grace of Christ only therefore Austin observed well That this truth is to be found out by prayer and supplication sooner then by disputation Did men commune with their own hearts did they observe the Abyss and depth of all evil that is in their corrupt will how intangled and in slaved to the creature they would quickly fall from disputation to humiliation and turne arguments into prayers ¶ 4. The Names which the Scripture expresseth that by which we call Free-Will THe next thing in our method that will be explicating of the Doctrine is to take notice of What names the Scripture useth to express this thing by that we call Free-will for free-will is not a Scripture name but Ecclesialsical yet the sence of it is in the Scripture for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is often used in the Scripture to will and that in such things wherein freedome is necessarily supposed Luk. 22. 9. Where wilt thou that we prepare a place Joh. 9. 27. Wherefore would ye hear it again will ye also be his Disciple Act 7. 28 wilt thou kill me also c. and in many other places hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used for the free-will of a man 1 Cor. 7. 37 and indeed it is disputed whether to do a thing voluntariè and liberè voluntarily and freely be not all one and so libertas and voluntas only voluntas denoteth the power and liberty the qualification of it in its working Jansenius is most consident that in Austin's constant dispute with the Pelagians liberum arbitrium is no more then voluntas and that to do a thing freely is no more then to do it voluntarily this he maintaineth against the Jesuites and withall wonders at a late Writer of their own whom he nameth not which writeth that the word servum arbitrium was not heard in the Church of God
in his undertakings to be present with him and to direct him whereas his adversaries could not do so And indeed how can an Arminian or a Pelagian with any of those Naturists cordially pray for the grace of God to assist them while they write against grace and patronize free-will Let them sacrifice to their own nets to their own parts and abilities It 's from their will that grace is efficacious This arrogancy is like that of the Heathens whose saying was Ignavis opus est auxilio Dei It is only the sluggish that need the help of God Yea Tully argueth the case That we are not beholding to God for our vertue therefore saith he our ancestors have praised the gods for their success and outward advantages but never for their vertues Happily it is awe and reverence that men bear to the Christian Religion that keepeth them from such blasphemous expressions yet even in Christian Writers pleading for the power of nature instances might be given of proud and swelling expressions Thirdly It is good to observe That even in all those whose end avour hath been to advance the free-will of a man to what is truly good there hath appeared some guiltiness as it were in them therefore they have often changed if not their minds yet their words thus they have removed from the mountaines to the valleys The Pelagians did incrustate their opinions often and the Papists speak sometimes so plausibly that you would think Bellarmine and Calvin did imbrace each other Pelagius did at last come to use the word grace yea did anathematize such as should not hold the grace of God requisite to every good act by which crafty guiles he did deceive the Eastern Bishops and still in the serpents-skin do the Jesuites and Arminians appear They think it the greatest calumny that can be cast upon them to say they are against the grace of God hence they use the word of grace often as well as of free-will but all this ariseth from guilt they do use the word grace ad frangendam invidiam to decline envy to insinuate more into the hearts of credulous hearers so that men sacrilegiously advance the will of man ' make man to have the greatest praise in converting himself in saving himself and whereas Paul said Not I but the grace of God with me They will on the contrary affirm Not the grace of God but I yet for all this they would be thought to advance the grace of Christ but that is a true rule of Austins Gratia non est gratia ullo modo nisi sit gratuita omni modo Grace is not grace any way unless it be free and graâ—uitous every way Therefore the inconstancy the changes and shifts all such are put to who plead for this liberty of the will argue they are not in the Truth but like thieves do hate the light and change their garments often that they may not be discovered They are afraid of the Scripture and would more gladly have the controversie ended by Aristotle then by Paul so that this Pelagian error hath had Cain's curse as it were upon it a trembling lest every place of Scripture it does meet with should kill it Fourthly To maintain the slavery of the will to sinne and to deny any liberty to that which is holy and godly is a truth so unpleasing to flesh and blood doth so reproach as it 's thought mankind that it hath alwayes in the Church of God by some heretical persons or others been spoken against It hath been judged very scandalous and offensive as that which did lay the axe to the root of all Religion and holiness But yet experience hath taught us that none have expressed so much holiness in their lives as those who have had this truth of Christs grace incorporated into them and on the other side the Pelagian Doctrine hath left upon mens spirits like leaven à cornu tumorem a sowreness and bitterness as also a tumor and vaunting confidence in themselves So that if the denying of free-will and exalting the grace of God be so prophane an opinion in its genius and inclination as some calumniate it 's a miracle that from such a poisoned fountain such sweet streames should flow and from such thornes so pleasant grapes should grow But the reason of this offence to flesh and blood is the self-love and self-fullness that is in every man by nature spiritual pride and self-confidence do reign in all men by nature hence it is that though they be naked yet they are not ashamed of it which in Adam while innocent did come from his integrity but in corrupt man from his senslesness and stupidity No wonder then if this Doctrine of grace be not justified cordially and as it ought to be but by the sonnes of grace who have felt the power and efficacy of it upon their hearts who have experimentally found the grace of God freeing their will from all that bondage it was in to sinne and Sataen Fifthly From this it is that a gracious heart is required to study this point as well as a learned head Experience of regeneration of being made a new creature of the conflict between the flesh and the spirit will excellently direct in this controversie I wonder not to see a man though come out of Egypt loaden with Egyptian gold to make a molten-calf for a god and to worship it men of great learning and it may be of great external civility as they say of Pelagius if not humbled by the grace of God and throughlyu emptied of themselves how can they stoop and yeeld all up to Christ It was therefore Austin's wish That the Pelagians would turne their disputations into prayers for it is the heart as well as the head that is usefull in this point Though all Divinity be practical and practice is the end of knowledge yea in Scripture language Tantum scimus quantum operamur we are said to know no more then we do yet some truths have a more immediate influence into practice then others whereas some opinions do stand in the Court as it were others enter into the holiest of holiest Now this truth about the grace of God and free-will is practice practice as I may say what some do of the ultimate dictate of the understanding This truth lieth in the vitals of Religion and therefore the experience of all the godly is justly brought after Scripture arguments to confirme this great truth Therefore humble your selves more commune with your own hearts be much in prayer and self-emptiness and you will quickly find the light of this truth shining into your hearts Come and tast Come and see what you hear with your eares pray that God would grant you an experimental knowledge of grace and then you will quickly confess not unto your own free-will but to the free grace of God all praise and glory doth belong Sixthly This truth therefore being so contrary to flesh and blood It
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
the cup of gold in Benjamin's sack and therefore this must greatly debase us Thirdly We are not able of our selves to have the least desire or longing after grace and a state of holinesse Not only Pelagianism but Semi-pelagianism is a dangerous rock to be avoided The later made our desires to begin and then Gods grace to succeed and accomplish But there is not so much as the least groan the least desire can arise in thy heart Oh that God would change me Oh that I were in the state of those that do truly fear God! And the reason is because the Scripture describeth us by nature to be dead in sinne and compareth the work of grace to a spiritual resurrection Oh how great is thy bondage which doth so farre oppress thee that thou canst not so much as long for any freedom Oh hopeless and wretched man if left to himself Fourthly From this followeth the next demonstration of our vassalage and spiritual impotency That we cannot pray to God that he would deliver us out of this misery No natural man can pray it is the grace of God that doth inable thereunto he may utter the words of prayer he may repeat the expressions but alas he doth not he cannot pray as God requireth and so as he will accept of it The Apostle is clear for this Rom. 8. 26. The Spirit helpeth our infirmities for we know not what to pray for as we ought Is not this unspeakable misery who needeth to pray more then thou and yet thou canst not pray Thou art sinning thou art dying thou are damning and yet canst not pray Is not thy heart like an adamant if this break thee not Fifthly Such is our impotency and bondage That we are not able to affect our selves with the fear and terrour of the Law thereby to be convinced and humbled in our selves If we cannot do the preparatories for grace much lesse grace it self if we cannot do the lesse How shall we do the greater Now one great preparatory work is To have a divine and powerfull fear in our souls by reason of the Law whereby we are afraid of hell of the day of Judgement and cannot have any rest in our spirits because of this Now this is wrought by the Spirit of God in a preparatory way Rom. 8. 15. It is called The Spirit of bondage And Joh. 14. The Spirit doth convince the world of sinne So that in and through the preaching of the Law and discovery of sinne the Spirit of God doth awaken and terrifie the conscience of a man maketh him afraid that he cannot eat or drink or take the delight he used to do It is true the slavish sinfulness of this fear the Spirit of God doth not work but the heart being like a mudded pool when it is moved such slavish fears will arise likewise But how farre is every natural man from this he is secure and jolly blessing and applauding himself crying peace peace all is at quiet within him because the strong man doth keep the house It is the voice of the Lord only that can make these mountains to quake and melt Sixthly Such is our weakness That we cannot barden or soften our hearts in the least manner but they remain obdurate and like brasse and iron Thy heart is like a stone within thee and thou art no wayes able to mollifie it Therefore God maketh it his work and he graciously promiseth I will take away the heart of stone Ezek. 11. 19. and give an heart of flesh As if God had said I know this work is above you you are not able to do it And certainly if the godly themselves because of the remainders of original corruption doe complain of the hardnesse of their hearts cannot mollifie or soften them as they desire Is it any wonder if the wicked man be not able to remove the stone from him Seventhly A man cannot by the power of nature believe no not so much as with an historical faith till grace prepare the heart therein Now faith is the first foundation-stone Heb. 11. He that cometh to God must believe he is and so he must believe the truth about Christ But we see by the Pharisees who heard Christ preach saw the wonderfull miracles he did yet in stead of believing in him did deride and oppose him so that all the acts of faith whether dogmatical or saving we are enabled unto only by the grace of God Matth. 13. 11. To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven but not to them Thus Act. 18. 27. the Disciples are said to believe through grace faith then is the gift of God not the work of mans free-will And if he cannot do this it is plain he cannot move one foot of himself towards Heaven Lastly Such is our impotency That when grace is offered and tendered to us the will of it self hath no power to consent to it or make improvement of it It can and oft doth resist and refuse grace but of it self it cannot imbrace it It is true Papists and Arminians plead hard for this power of the will but this is to give more to mans will then to Gods grace this is to make man to differ himself from others It might be thought that the will indeed cannot chuse Christ or receive him as a Lord because there is no revelation or manifestation of a Christ They are a people happily who sit in darkness and have no light and therefore though they may have an inward power to see yet for want of light to actuate the medium they cannot so that the defect ariseth not from the power within but the manifestation of the object without And this indeed is gratly to be considered whether an Infidel or Pagan for example doth not believe because there is no proposition of the object in the Ministry otherwise if he enjoyed that then he had power over his own to assent to it Now even the Pelagians themselves and their followers yea even all that give not grace its full due yet thus farre they do acknowledge there must be a doctrinal revelation by the Spirit of God of the truths to be acknowledged and when this light is set as it were upon the Candlestick then a man of his own self is able to see but such is the corruption of man that not only grace must bring in the light but it must also give the eye to see So that the work of Gods grace is both objective and subjective objective in revealing the object and subjective in preparing and fitting the subject It being the Lord who doth give the seeing eye and the hearing ear Prov. 20. 12. Yea the Arminians go further acknowledging that grace doth irresistibly work upon the understanding of a man for it being a passive faculty it cannot withstand its illumination but the will that retaineth its indifferency when grace hath done all it will do This therfore is granted That without the
grace of God enlightning and revealing we are not able to believe the mysteries of Christ Kingdom but though all this be granted yet we say That without further grace even grace regenerating and sanctifying the will we are not able to cleave to that which is good You must not then conceive as if God only offered grace in the Ministry and then the will of man by its own self doth love and delight in it No the heart of stone is first to be removed we are to be new born and made new creatures before we can put forth any spiritual life at all Not that a man is converted without his will or that he doth not believe or repent but the grace of God only God changeth the will he quickneth it and enliveneth it so that whereas it was like Sarah's dead womb before now it was made fruitfull The grace of God doth not compel the will but change it As if water which naturally descendeth be turned into air then it doth as naturally ascend Indeed this is a physical change but the moral change by grace in the will is as notable to its operations To consent therefore to grace is the work of grace It is grace that maketh us to will and receive grace Hence we see by experience of those many who enjoy the means of grace how few do effectually and powerfully improve them Whence is this difference Is it because one doth use his free-will better then another Surely this would attribute farre more to free-will then to Gods grace for it 's the will of man that maketh grace effectual not grace that maketh the will of man pliable By this Peter should be no more beholding to the grace of God then Judas nor David then Saul seeing ex parte Dei all had grace alike onely one used this grace of God by his own power better then another and thus we shall have something that we did not receive and we shall make our selves to differ from other How derogatory and injurious is this to the grace of God ¶ 10. That man naturally loves his Thraldome to Sinne and contradicts the Means of Deliverance from it is a great Aggravation of the Bondage and Servitude of the Will SEcondly The miserable bondage of the will to sinne is the more to be aggravated In that it loveth this thraldome delights to be in this drudgery even as the Swine doth in its mire yea it doth vehemently oppose and contradict all the means of deliverance from it Austin complained Velle meum inimicus captivum tenebat Our will is kept captive So that if the grace of God come to set us free we love our bondage better then liberty we had rather be in our prison with chains upon us then abide in Gods palace So that this vassalage of the will to sinne is not like a bodily one which is troublesome and very grievous to those that are detained therein as we see it was to the Israelites groaning under the yoke but naturally we delight in this slavery and look upon that freedom which grace would procure for us as the greatest misery and this maketh us unspeakably miserable according to that known Rule Quid miserius misero non miserante seipsum What is more miserable then that wretched man who doth not who cannot pity himself You must not therefore conceive of the will of man thus captivated to sin as if it were against its inclination as if of it self it did endeavour to cast off this yoke as it is with some people who being over-powered are forced to submit but yet they wait for and long for an opportunity to set themselves at liberty No but the will doth delight and rejoyce in this servitude A man doth willingly give his ears to be boared by his lusts resolving never to go from this Master unless grace change him and make him a new creature all over ¶ 11. The Bondage of the Will is seen in its Concupiscential Affection to some Creature or other never being able to lift its selfe up to God THis want of freedom to any thing that is good is seen In the concupiscential affection to some creature or other never being able to lift it self up to God And certainly if you ask Wherein doth the bondage of the will to sin consist We may in the general say in its creature affection so that the will which while entire and sound did love God as the chiefest good and all creatures in reference and with subordination to him is now so debased that it creepeth upon the ground and is not able at all to love any thing but it self and the creature So that now every one taketh up that request Psal 4 Who will shew us any good Any temporal good they desire the Devils offer So that if he would shew them the glory of the world and bestow it on them they would presently fall down and worship Oh the unhappy and miserable change that sinne hath now made upon the will being in absolute subjection to every thing that he was made lord over God put all things under his feet and now all things have put man under their feet It 's the love of the world and the things of the world that is the Iron chain about the will as that about Nebuchadnezzar's stump of the Tree so that it can never lift it self up to what is Heaven This maketh the will like that woman who was bowed down with her infirmity and could not look up till Christ healed her and made her straight This maketh the necessity of a spiritual resurrection that so we may set our affections upon things above This love of the world and the things thereof is the Summe of all those particular wayes whereby we are thus wretchedly enslaved Therefore grace when it cometh doth loosen these bonds and make us free by working in us a contrary love and a contrary sweetness and delight So that now all the world with the dainties thereof are but as so many husks in comparison of that manna he now feedeth upon And as he that stedfastly beholds the Sunne for a while his eyes are so dazeled that he cannot for a season behold any thing else Thus when grace hath so sanctified and affected the will that it findeth no greater sweetness and delight then in holy things this presently maketh him throw away all those bonds that were upon him ¶ 12. Herein is the Bondage of the Will seen That when it doth indeavour to overcome any sinne it is by falling into another FOurthly Herein is the bondage of the will seen also That when it doth endeavour to overcome any sinne it is by falling into another So that the Argument usually brought to prove that the will hath some freedome to what is good doth indeed more confirm the servitude of it to sinne For it is often objected That if the will be thus in absolute bondage to sinne How cometh it about that even Heathens have
by their own strength reformed their lives and have abounded in justice fortitude and chastity even to admiration Is not that instance of Polemon famous who though a drunkard yet coming to hear Xenocrates his Lecture about temperance was so immediately perswaded thereby that he presently forsook that beastly sinne In this Argument Julian the Pelagian did often triumph But Austin's answer was good and justifiable by Scripture That when they left one sinne they fell into another they did cure one lust by another lust a carnal one by a spiritual one for when they did abstain from such sinnes it was not in reference to God and from faith in Christ but it was either from vain glory or to be sure a sinfull confidence and resting upon themselves and therefore even the Stoicks who pretended the highest viz. That we were to do virtuous actions for virtues sake yet they came too short of the right mark for virtue is not to be loved ultimately for virtues sake but that thereby we might draw nearer to God and be made happy in enjoying of him Therefore the Stoicks opinion did teach a man nothing but self-confidence and self fulness which sinnes are forbidden by the Word of God as well as Epicurean and grosse sinnes Oh then the unspeakable bondage of the will to sinne That as the bird in a net the more she striveth to get out the more she intangleth her self Thus it is with the natural man the more he striveth of himself to come out of this mire the faster he sticketh in Thou then who art a natural man though such a sinne and such a sinne be left yet see if when the Devil was cast out a worse did not come in the room thereof See if it be not with thee as in that representation to the Prophet Thou hast broken a woodden yoke and an iron one is made in stead thereof Thou hast cured a carnal sinne by a spiritual one For you must know That not onely grace doth expell sinne but sometimes one lust may expel another as the Pharisees spiritual pride and self-righteousness did make them abhorre the Publicans sinnes so that even then the natural man cannot but sinne while he is casting off sinne Therefore though unregenerate persons may do that which is materially good and for the substance of the act yet they can never do that which is formally so or as Austin expressed it of old we must distinguish between the Officium the Duty it self and Finis the end of the Duty Now the end of all till regenerated can never be right or pure it never ascends high enough even to God himself because they want faith So that though Aristides was just yet he was not the Scriptures just man that liveth by faith None of the renowned Heathens were chaste by faith charitable by faith temperate by faith and therefore their glorious actions were only splendid glistering sinnes they had a pompous appearance but were indeed real vices which were so farre from profiting them as to eternal happiness that they were an hinderance to them for hereby they trusted in themselves The Epicurean he said It is good for me frui carne To enjoy the body The Stoick he said It was good for me frui mente But David he said It was good for him to draw nigh to God ¶ 13. The more Means of Grace to free us the more our Slavery appears FIfthly Herein is our miserable bondage to sinne manifested That the more we have the means of grace to set us at liberty the more doth our slavery discover it self So that whatsoever good and holy thing we meet with it draweth out our corruption the more This the Apostle complaineth of as part of that captivity he groaned under Rom 7. That the Law which was for good wrought in him all manner of evil Thus the Gospel yea Christ preached is the occasion of more wickedness and impiety in unregenerate men then otherwise they would be guilty of And if this be so though our heads were fountains of water yet we could not weep enough for the guilt and wretchedness we are in by this means for our remedies make our diseases greater light increaseth our darkness life causeth death Insomuch that did not God work by his own power mightily in the use of these means they might be no longer the means of grace but of anger and judgement and the preaching of the Gospel because of the sad effects which it hath through the wilfull indisposition of many who hear it might be as much trouble to us as the presence of the Ark was to the Philistims Therefore the clearer light the more powerfull means of salvation a people do enjoy the more is the impiety and wickedness of such whom grace doth not convert daily increased insomuch that the Gospel shining upon such men is like the Sunne shining upon a noisome dunghill which maketh it the more loathsome How then can there be free-will in a man to good when if left to himself all helps are an hindrance to him and all remedies are more destructive Hence the Scripture calleth it making of the heart fat Isa 6. an allusion to beasts which are prepared to destruction by their best pastures ¶ 14. The Necessity of a Redeemer demonstrates our thraldome to sinne LAstly That the will is inthralled irrecoverably unto sinne appeareth In the necessity of Grace and of Christ as a Redeemer if we were not in bondage what need we have a Redeemer Let not then the common expression in the Schooles be liberum arbitrium but liberatum which is a phrase we seldome meet within them It is good to know the full latitude of that glorious title of our Saviour viz. a Redeemer he is so called not only because he redeemeth us from the curse of the law and the guilt of sinne but also because we were under the power and dominion of sinne and Satan daily fulfilling the works of the flesh so that his death was not only to obtain remission of sinnes but to make us a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 1. 14. And hence also he is said to offer himself a sacrifice that he might present to God a Church without spot or wrinckle Eph. 5. 27 which will be compleatly perfected in heaven To set up free-will then is to pull down our Redeemer as much as we give to that we deny to Christ we make him but a half-Saviour and an half-Redeemer while we maintain that we set our selves at liberty from the power of Satan Oh then let the name of a Redeemer for ever make thee blush and ashamed to speak of a free-will ¶ 15. An Examination of the Descriptions and Definitions of Freedome or Liberty of Will which many give it Shewing that none of them are any wayes competent to the Will unsanctified WE proceed therefore to make a further discovery of the bondage of the will to sinne and that it hath no liberty no power or
practical and operative means whereby he doth communicate life unto us And lastly Therefore God doth use Commands Because this way is suitable to man who is a rational Agent For although the work of grace is more than meerly swasive it is efficacious and really changing the heart so that the Spirit of God doth farre more in converting of a sinner then the Devil doth in tempting to sinne yet God dealeth suitably to the nature of a man We are not like stocks and stones to whom it is ridiculous to preach there being not in them a passive capacity of receiving the worke of grace Hence it is that the Word is preached Miracles are wrought powerfull Arguments are used to draw off the heart So that grace doth worke Ethicophysically as some expresse it Commands then and Threatnings are used because grace is wrought in us after a rational manner in an attempered manner to our constitution The understanding being first wrought upon that so the will and affections may more readily give up themselves Thirdly If liberty be the same with voluntariness and no more as many learned men do contend making voluntas and liberum arbitrium all one as that which is opposed to coaction and natural necessity yea if we adde Aurtelus his opinion to this that libertas was nothing but complacentia liberty is the complacency and delight of the will in its object then in this sense if rightly understood a man hath no freedom to what is holy It is true indeed the learned to shew that grace in converting doth not destroy the liberty of the will viz. the natural liberty no more then the will it self Grace doth not compel the will or put an inherent natural necessity upon it for if there could be coaction the velle would be nolle which is a contradiction and if a natural necessity could be imposed upon it it would not be appetitus rationalis a rational appetite so that though grace in converting of man doth insuperably and invincibly change the will making it of unwilling willing so that there is a necessity not natural but of immutability and unchangeableness The will doth most certainly give it self up to the grace of God mollifying and fashioning of it for that purpose This Iron as it were is put into the fire and then it is made pliable to receive any form or impression yet the essential liberty is not destroyed For the Question about Free-will is not An sit but Quid possit And herein lieth the difficult knot in this whole point about grace and the will of man How to assert the irresistible as many call it but others reject that expression though the sense of those who use it is very sound and significant enough work of grace insuperably determining the will to that which is good and yet to be free from coaction or such a necessity as is destructive to liberty The Quomodo How these two are to be reconciled is that which in all ages hath exercised the most learned and judicious insomuch that some have advised to rest in it by faith as in a mystery above our understanding even as we doe in many other Doctrines to be believed by us But I am not to ascend this mountain at this time This is enough for our purpose to shew That if liberty be said to consist in willing a thing freely from coaction and necessity even in this respect we have not thus farre liberty to good because it is God that worketh in us to will Indeed when we doe will we are not compelled by the Grace of God onely we cannot will till the Grace of God enable us thereto It is not of him that willeth but of God that sheweth mercy Neither are we born of the will of man but of God It is grace then onely that maketh us to will the good things tendered to us though the will in eliciting of this is not compelled but doth it freely yea grace giveth this freedome to it so that grace doth not destroy but give liberty And therefore Austin of old urged That they denied Liberum arbitrium who would not have it Liberatum They cannot hold free-will in a true sense that doe not hold free and efficacious grace which giveth the will all the strength it hath to what is good Thus liberty if it be the same with willingness we have it not of our selves till the grace of God bestow it upon us Fourthly If liberty consist in having dominion and power over our actions then also the will cannot be said to be free as to doe holy things For although the will when it doth will is the subordinate cause under God of its own action and as a cause so also may be said to have dominion over it yet because the actual willing of what is good doth not arise or exist by the strength of the will but by the grace of God therefore it is that in respect of good things the will cannot be said to have the dominion over them This Definition of liberty viz. to have a dominion over our own actions is by Jansenius asserted to be the true and proper meaning of Augustine that his judgement is then the will is said to be free when it hath dominion and power over what it doth and if so no wonder then the will be so often said to be captivated and enslaved that it hath no freedom to what is holy For what power can the will have over holy actions when it is corrupted and defiled that no holy thought or holy motion is under the power of it It was Ambrose his complaint of old That Cor nostrum non est in nostrâ potestate Our heart is not in our power but sinnefull and evil workings of soul rise up in us which we are no wayes able to extinguish Fifthly If liberty be as Anselme of old defined it to which some Neotericks doe adhere viz Facultas servandi rectitudinem propter rectitudinem ipsam That it is a power to observe that which is right for righteousnesse sake then this doth evidently proclaime That man hath no Free-will for to observe that which is holy and righteous for holinesse sake which must needs argue a man regenerated and borne again And indeed liberty in this sense is nothing but the Image of God repaired in a man and so is no more then to be like God himself And now that every man by nature hath lost this Image of God is so plain that the experience of every man concerning his distance from God may fully confirme it If to this be added Aquinas his Description That it is Vis electiva mediorum servato ordine ad finem A power to chuse means with a due order and respect to the end yet still freedome in the will to what is good cannot be found For as saith he The understanding which is an apprehensive faculty hath its simple and bare apprehension of a thing viz. of the first principles And
then it hath another act which is to Reason and Discourse and that is properly of Conclusions to be deduced from those principles So what principles are in respect of conclusions to the Understanding the same the end is in respect of the means to the will And therefore as the understanding doth necessarily erre when it doth not discourse suitably to the first principles So the will which is the appetitive part of a man must necessarily sinne when it doth not chuse means with a due order to the end Now God being the chief end of all our actions how impossible is it for the will corrupted as it is to will riches health learning or any creature in reference to God as the end Lastly If liberty consist as Gibieuf would have it in an amplitude of spirit and independency upon the creature so that it is above every created object with an eminent magnanimity of spirit adhering to God alone and resting in him as the chiefest good then it is plain also That by nature the will of man is utterly impotent to this thing for the love of the creature is so predominant that we live and doe all things in reference to that So that whereas grace maketh us to doe all things of God and through God and to God Now the creature doth so reigne in our hearts that we move only in all the workings of our soul to it Aristotle observeth That some are slaves by nature and such have no reason of their owne to guide them that doe Sentire rationem magìs quà m habere Feele Reason rather then make use of it And if we speak in a spiritual sense we are all thus borne slaves and vassals not being able to put forth the actings of true and right reason but do follow the lusts of our own soul and are taken captive by the Devil at his will Thus we have at large discovered the bonds and chaines of sinne our wils are fastened in Oh that in the reading of this God would breathe into the souls of such wretched sinners strong desires and ardent groans to be redeemed from this thraldome Shall the ungodly say Psal 2. concerning Christ Let us break his bonds when yet they are bonds of love which are for our eternal happiness And wilt not thou rather cry out concerning these bonds and these yokes which are for thy eternal damnation Let us break them and rend them asunder Doth not the senslesnesse and stupidity of men while they hear these things too sadly evidence the state of thraldom we are in to sinne CHAP. V. Of the Pollution of the Affections SECT I. This Text opened COL 3. 2. Set your Affections upon things above not on things on the earth THe exceeding great pollution of the Will by original sinne being largely discovered both in the acts of it as also in its state We now proceed to the Affections which are seated in the sensitive appetite of a man For as sense is a kind of imperfect understanding so the affections are a kind of an imperfect will and the defilement of these is so palpably and experimentally discerned that Heathens have complained of God the Author of Nature for implanting such things in us which are for the most part the cause of all our ruine and calamity Now it is not my intent to declare the depravation of every affection in a man for that would make the work to swell too big but I shall speak in the general of them instancing in particulars as occasion offereth The Scripture doth not speak of the several parts of the soul according to that Philosophical division as is generally received and therefore that which Philosophers call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 affections or passions as distinguished from the understanding and will that is most commonly called the heart and the soul Thus love fear hope and anger are attributed to the heart of a man It is true the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used in the New Testament three times where the word Affection is not barely intended but an horrible depravation of it even to unnatural uncleanness as Rom. 1. 26. God gave them up to vile affections and how unnatural they were is immediately subjoyned Col. 3. 5. The Apostle there reckoning up several sinnes to be mortified fornication uncleanness addeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some understand the same kind of uncleanness the Apostle mentioneth to the Romans So doing or that mutum percatum a sinne that they say Socrates was guilty of though so admired for his wisdome and morality Hence those that have given themselves up to this dreadfull pollution are called Pathici from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we render it inordinate affection in the general and therefore some do understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here for those sinnes which arise from the irascible appetite and so take the word though generally spoken in an ill sense Even as the Stoicks held all passions and affections to be sinne and the affections which are placed in the concupiscible appetite the Apostle meaneth say they by the next expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 evil concupiscence If this be so as Grotius expounds it then we have here the Apostle speaking of affections according to philosophical notions but I will not determine this to be the meaning The last place is 1 Thess 4. 5. where the Apostle shewing God hath called us to holinesse he addeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not in the lust or affection of concupiscence Here it seemeth to be taken strictly for those lustfull affections which flow from the sinfull concupiscence in a man But if the Scripture doth use the word differently to Philosophers to be sure the thing it self is acknowledged as appeareth by my Text where we have a Command directing of us about the Object we are to place them upon and that is set down First Affirmatively and then Negatively The Directive Duty is in that expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Set not your affections we render it in the margin or mind so that the Greek word doth signifie the acts of the mind but not them onely it comprehendeth also the affectionate part of a man It includeth the mind and affections also because commonly the intense actings of the mind excite and stirre up proportionably the intense actions of the affections Therefore it 's sometimes translated savouring Matth. 16. 23. So Rom. 8. the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not onely comprehend the mind but chiefly the affectionate workings of the flesh against the Spirit of God We shall treat of it as relating to the affections therefore we have the Object prescribed them they are to be upon things above heavenly things This implieth naturally they are placed other where then they should be upon earthly and sading objects The Serpents seed and so we are all by nature cannot but lick up the dust of the earth and live upon that So that there is for more emphasis added the Negative also
Not on things on the earth By these some mean those humane and superstitious Ordinances that the Apostle mentioned before for these were not of the Fathers heavenly planting and indeed it is true the more a man is made spiritual and hath had the experience of that wonderfull resurrection of his soul from the state of sinne in which it was dead the more doth he nauseate and reject all superstition and humane wayes of devotion rejoycing in the purity and simplicity of Christs Institutions as those alone by which he can obtain any spiritual proficiency But the Context seemeth to extend this Object further to all sinfull objects yea and to lawfull objects that we are not in an immoderate and inordinate manner to let our hearts runne out upon them So then we have in the Text a most divine Injunction imposed on us To set our affections upon things above alwayes to put in practice that Exhortation Sursum corda but such is the horrible corruption of these affections by nature that they can no more ascend up to them then a worm can flie upwards like a Lark Therefore the Apostle supposeth that ere this be done there must be the foundation laid of a spiritual Resurrection If ye be risen with Christ seek those things that be above Our spiritual Regeneration and Resurrection is both a cause of our heavenly affections and also it is a motive and obligation it being contrary to the nature of such things that ascend upwards that they should descend downwards How can fire fall like a stone to the center From the Text then we may observe That such is the corruption of the affections of man by nature that till the grace of regeneration come they are placed only on earthly objects and cannot move towards heavenly SECT II. Of the Nature of the Affections BEfore we come to anatomize their evil and sinfulness let us take notice a little of The Nature of these Affections And First You must know that in man besides his understanding and will which are either the same with the rational soul or powers seated in it there is also a sensitive appetite placed in the body from whence arise those motions of the soul which we call affections and passions such as anger love joy fear and sorrow c. It is true indeed many learned men place affections in the will also they say The will hath these affections of joy and sorrow and so Angels also have onely they say these are spiritual and incorporeal and this must necessarily be acknowledged But then in men besides those affections in the will there are also material ones seated in the sensitive appetite for man being compounded of soul and body hereupon it is that as in his rational part he doth agree with Angels so in his sensitive part with the bruits Therefore in man there are three principles of actions that are internal his Vnderstanding Will and Affections these later are implanted in us only to be servants and helps but through our corruption they are become tryants and usurpers over the more noble powers of the soul so that man is not now as reason much lesse as grace but as affections do predominate The Scripture you heard calleth these affections by the name of the heart though sometime that comprehendeth the mind and will also The common Greek word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is rendered passions and they are so called because of the effect of them for when put forth they make a corporeal transmutation and change in a man Some make this difference between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word that Quintilian saith there is no proper Latine expression for Vide Voss de institut Orat. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they make passions to be when in a mild and moderate motion of the soul without any violence or excess and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when they are turbulent and troublesome but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth rather signifie the manners of men then their affections These passions have several names sometimes they are called perturbations but that is most properly when they have cast off the dominion of reason Sometimes the motions and commotions of the soul sometimes passions which expression is disliked by some That which seemeth to be most proper and full is to call them affections because the soul of a man is affected in the exercise of them So that by these we mean no more then that whereby a man about good or evil is carried out with some affection and commotion of his soul onely you must know that when we call them passions it is not to be understood formally but causally In their nature they are not passions but motions and actings of the soul onely they cause a passion and suffering by some alteration in the body Secondly These affections in the soul are of a various nature yet by Philosophers they are reduced into two heads according to the subject they are seated viz. The appetite concupiscible and the appetite irascible not that this is a two-fold distinct appetite onely the same appetite is distinguished according to its diversity of objects The appetite concupiscible doth contain those affections that relate to good or evil absolutely considered For if it be good that is propounded then there is first the affection of love if this good be not enjoyed then there is the affection of desire if it be obtained and enjoyed then it is the affection of joy if it be evil that is presented then there is the affection of hatred whereby we distast it and hereupon we flie from it This is called Fuga or abomination but if we cannot escape it then there is the affection of sorrow Thus there are six affections in the concupiscible part The object of the irasible appetite is good as difficult or evil as hardly to be avoided good if it be possible to be obtained then there followeth the affection of hope if it be not possible then of despair and as for the evil that is difficulty overcome if we can master it then there ariseth the affection of boldness or confidence if we cannot then of fear if the evil presse us hard that we cannot obtain what we would have then ariseth the affection of anger Thus there are five affections in the irascible appetite so that in all there are eleven passions although from these come many other affections of the soul that we may call mixt ones as Errour Zeal Pity c. in which many and several affections are ingredient If then there be so great a number of these in man and they all corrupted yea predominating over a man what sea is more troubled and tossed up and down with storms and tempests then the heart of a man What a miserable wretched creature is man who hath every one of these passions tyrannizing over him if God leave thee to an inordinate love of any thing What unspeakable bondage doth it put thee into if
they are carried out to those things that are absolutely prohibited that are no more to be imbraced then absolute poison is to be eaten such are the pleasures of sinne and the lusts of the flesh when the affections doth entertain these they imbrace present destruction here is no moderation or stint allowed in these but there is an absolute prohibition to give these any entertainment yet poor wretched and corrupt man is hurried to these things and drinketh down iniquity as a thirsty man water so that it can never enough be bewailed to see what a grievous change sinne hath made in the affections that they are now most propense and inclining to those things which are to be most abhorred by them even as the corrupt appetite in some persons delighteth to feed on trash and most offensive matter to a found stomack But In the second place there are other objects which the Scripture doth allow us to let our affections runne out about and these are not evil in themselves no more then to have affections is a sinne love in it self is not a sinne neither is love of husband health and such comforts but when we go beyond our bounds when these are loved more then God or the love to them doth hinder and dead the heart to holy things then doth love become sinfull and damnable Now such is the original depravation of all the affections That they cannot in a moderate and well-regulated way with subordination to God move to any lawful object but they do exceedingly transgress and that many wayes For 1. Whereas they should be carried out to these lawful things only with reference to God as the cheifest end to love them to desire them no otherwise then thereby to be brought nearer to the end we are apt to make them the end to stay there to make a full stop at a Colon or Comma Even as the children of Reuben who desired to take up their rest in a country on this side Cannan because it was a fruitfull place and fit for cattel Thus we who should let our affections stirre to these things only as a way to heaven or meanes to bring us nearer to God we center in them desiring them for their own sakes It is a rule That the desire of the end is a rule to the desire of meanes we desire drink to satisfie thirst we desire garments to cloath us and we desire no more then is commensurate to such an end and indeed thus it ought to be with us in our affections to all things upon the earth not to be affected with wealth health learning or any advantage any otherwise then to be more enabled to do God service and thereby to enjoy him but as the dark night cannot be dispelled till the Sunne doth arise so neither can the regulating and ordering of the affections with subordination to God in lawful things ever be accomplished till sanctifying grace doth interpose 2. We are apt in the affecting of these things to find more sweetness and delight in a sensible manner then when our heart is turned unto God The objects of sence do more affect us sensibly then Christ laid hold on by faith and the Apostle John supposeth such a proneness in us when he saith He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how shall he love God whom he hath not seen 1 Joh. 4. 20 Hence it is that the Schooles have a distinction about the love of God appretiative and intentive The former is when in our judgement we do more highly esteem of God then all the things of the world and therefore are ready to part with all even life it self to please him But the other they make to be a sensible passionate moving of the sensitive part which is they say very variable according to the complexion and constitution of the body and therefore such do advise That believers should not be discouraged if they cannot find such sensible affections of love to God as they do to their freinds or such sensible sorrow about sinne as they do about the loss of a dear freind and this distinction may be received in some sence yet there are learned men that do greatly dislike it and do positively affirm That appretiatively and intentively both intellectually and affectionately we are to love God and to delight in him Certainly we find David acknowledging That God had put more joy and gladness in his heart then they had whose wine and oil encreased Psal 4. And when God doth require us to love him with all our heart mind and strength there is both the intellectual and sensitive part of a man understood No doubt but Adam in the state of integrity would have found his very affectionate part carried out to God preemiently to all creatures seeing the affections were implanted only as Handmaids to wait on those noble parts of the soul yea David you heard profeffing that his flesh as well as his soul did long for the living God Besides seeing the soul is the forme of a man thereby becometh such a natural and essential union between the soul and body that what the spiritual part doth strongly and ardently close with the sensitive part by its essential subordination doth find a proportionable intensitiveness in the affections threof even the waters from the hils do overflow the valleys though therefore the sensible part of a man be not absolutely subject to his will hence those who have desired sensible sweetness or melting teares in a bodily manner could not enjoy them though they would give a world for them yet this we may conclude of That whensoever thy want of sensitive affections doth arise from the want of powerfull impressions upon thy spiritual part and therefore thou canst not find such joy or sorrow because the mind and will are not powerfully quickned by grace this is alwaies a sinne if thy mind were more enlightned thy will more sanctified thy affections would be more enflamed 3. Not to enlarge in this more The affections are sinful when carried out even to lawful things Because thereby is retarded or stopt the current of them after heavenly things We see the Apostle 1 Cor. 7 admirably prescribing a diet to our affections Those that marry must be as if they married not Those that weep as if they wept not and so those that rejoyce as if they rejoyced not Thus whatsoever affections we are allowed to have they must not in the least manner distract or dull the motions of our soules to heavenly things but such is our corruption that our affections though to lawful things put quite out or at least exceedingly hinder our affections to heavenly things SECT VIII Our Affections are corrupted in respect of the Contrariety and Opposition of them one to another AGain Our affections are greatly corrupted in respect of the contrariety and opposition of them one to another They hinder one another operation so that the irascible part was given us to make
Why is not our conversation in Heaven Why do we not pray without distraction hear without distraction Is it not because these affections hurry the soul otherwayes In Heaven when we shall enjoy God face to face and the affections be fully sanctified then the heart will not for one moment to all eternity be taken off from God but now because our affections are not spiritualized neither are we fully conquerours over them Hence they presse down continually the creature for where a mans affections are there is his heart there is his treasure The godly they do exceedingly groan under this exercise of distractions in holy duties Oh how it grieveth them that their hearts are not united they cannot hoc agere they cannot be with God alone but some thoughts or importunate suggestions do molest them like so many croaking frogs many flies fall upon their Sacrifice Now whence is all this Our unmortified affections are the cause of this if they were more spiritual and heavenly there would be more union and accord in holy duties SECT XI Their Deformity and Contrariety to the Rule and exemplary Patterne IN the next place Herein doth their depravation appear Because they are so full of deformity and contrariety to their rule and exemplary pattern which is in God himself for we are to love as God loveth to be angry as God is angry It is disputed by the learned Whether affections be properly in God Now it must be As affections do denote any passions or imperfections intermixed with them so they cannot be attributed to him who is the fountain of perfection yet because the Scripture doth generally attribute these affections unto God he is said to love to grieve to hope to be angry Hence it is that Divines do in their Theological Tractates besides the attributes of God handle also of those things which are as some expresse it analogical affections in him They treat of his love his mercy his anger which are not so properly Attributes in God as analogical affections As when the Scripture saith God hath eyes and hands these are expressions to our capacity and we must conceive of God by those words according to the supream excellency that is in him Thus it is also in affections There is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the former and an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the later It was of old disputed by Lactantius Whether anger was truly and properly in God Some denied it some affirmed it But certainly the difference did arise from the different use of the Word for take anger as it signifieth an humane imperfection so it cannot be said to be in God but as it is a Will to revenge an impenitent sinner so it is in God Hence these things are said to be in God per modum effectus rather than affectus And some learned men like this expression better than of analogal affections saying that metaphorical speech applied to God viz. about desire hope c. is rather equivocal then analogical concerning desire hope and fear in God Some Arminianizing or Vorstizing have spoken dangerously Yea some Socinians as Crellius Vide Horndeeck Socin Confut. lib. 2. doe positively maintain affections to be properly in God And although to mollifie their opinion they sometimes have fair explications of themselves yet they grant the things themselves to be in God which we call affections Hence they call them often The commotions of Gods will which are sometimes more sometimes lesse Yea they are so impudent as to say the denial of such affections in God is to overthrow all Religion But this opinion is contrary to the pure simplicity and immutability of Gods Nature as also to his perfect blessednesse and by the way observe the wickednesse of these Heretiques who take from the Divine Nature the persons thereof as also some glorious Attributes such as Omniscience c. and yet will give to the same such things as necessarily imply imperfection To return Affections are not in God as they imply any defect yet we are by Scripture to conceive of some transcendent perfection in God eminently containing them and this being laid for a foundation we may then bewail the great deformity that is upon our affections the unlovelinesse of them if compâ—â—ed to the Rule Do we love as God loveth He doth infinitely love himself and all things in subordination to his own glory But the love of our selves and all things in reference to our own selves is that which doth most formally exclude and oppose the love of God The poison and sinfulnesse of all the affections doth arise from the sinfulnesse of our love It is corrupt love that causeth corrupt anger corrupt hatred corrupt sorrow and therefore the way to crucifie all other affections is to begin with love But oh the irreconcilable and immediate opposition that is between our love and his love our love is to be copied out after his We are to imitate God in our love but we place our selves in Gods room and are carried out to love our selves not rationally but according to a bruitish appetite as it were hence whereas in the love of others we require some presupposed goodnesse in the love of our selves we look for none at all The vilest and most prophane sinner who ought to judge himself worthy of the hatred of God and all creatures yet he doth intensively love himself even to the hatred of God Had we infinite holinesse infinite purity and perfection as God hath then we might love our selves principally but because the goodnesse we have is a rivolet from that Ocean a beam-line from that Sun therefore we are to love our selves in reference to God Our love to God should make us love our selves but how impossible and paradoxal is this to our corrupt natures As our love is thus distantial from Gods love so our hatred and anger also is for the hatred of God is only against sinne It 's sinne he punisheth it is sinne that he hath decreed to be avenged of to all eternity Wicked men and Devils are damned because of sinne in them could that be taken out of their natures they would be the good and acceptable creatures of God But oh the vast difference between Gods hatred and ours for that is not against sinne but that which is truly godly and holy so desperately and incurablely are we corrupted herein SECT XII Their dulness and senslesness though the Understanding declare the good to be imbraced SEcondly The native defilement of the Affections is greatly demonstrated in that dulnesse and senslesnesse which is in them even though the understanding doth powerfully and evidently declare the good they ar to imbrace And this can never enough be lamented that when we have much light in our mind we find no heat in our affections Indeed the Question is put How the affectious though in regenerate persons can be affected with any thing that is spiritual for they being of a material and corporeal nature
The word signifieth more then ordinary affections even such as to make them trepidate and leap for joy yet this was but for a season So Mat. 13. there are some hearers who yet had not root enough that did receive the Word with joy By these instances it is plain That our affections are full of deceit full of falshood we know not when to trust them It is hard to tell what it is that draweth them out even in our holy duties and if the godly though in some measure regenerated find the power of this deceit upon their affections certainly the natural man he is all over cosened his affections are altogether a lie to him he saith he loves God with all his heart he saith he is grieved for all his sins when all the while his affections are moved from other respects SECT XIV Also they are more zealously carried out to any false and erroneous way then to the Truths of God FOurthly Herein also is manifested the great pollution of our affections That they are more earnestly and zealously carried out to any false and erroneous way then to the truths of God Let a man be in an heretical way in a superstitious way in any deluded way of Religion and you will find such to be more affectionate in their way then the godly can be in a true way and the reason is because our affections have more sutablenesse with what is corrupt and false then with what is true and of God Observe all the false religions that are in the world may you not admire at the zeal at the pains they take for the propagation of their opinions how restlesse they are Which certainly may exceedingly shame the children of the truth that men should be more active for the Devil then they can be for God Our Saviour observed it of the Pharisees how they compassed sea and land to make proselytes And Paul speaking of the Jews Rom. 10 2. He beareth them record that they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge The more affection in a wrong way the more dangerous it is It is good to be zealously affected saith the Apostle in a good thing Gal. 4 18. This he speaketh because the false apostles did appear with a great deal of affection none seemed to manifest such passionate bowels to people as they did but saith Paul they zealously affect you but not well It is not from spiritual and heavenly motives that they are thus affectionate towards you Well then this is sadly to be bewailed that our affections will vehemently runne like a torrent down any false or erroneous way whereas to that which is truth indeed we can hardly raise them up Wonder not then if you see the Papist in his superstitious way the erroneous person in his false way to be so full of affections and devotion in his perswasions for alas it is easie falling down the hill error and supersition is agreeable with the corrupt nature of man When we read what some Monks and Hermites have done in solitary places afflicting themselves macerating their bodies we may admire how their affections in that way could hold out so long but mans heart like the earth will bring forth nettles and weeds of it self but it cannot corn or flowers without diligent managing of it Let us then mourn for this evil that is come upon our affections look upon all the superstitious and false wayes in the world See with what greedinesse and vehemency they are carried out to them but as for thee whom God preserveth in the truth and keepeth in his wayes thou art quickly weary in well-doing Oh be afraid lest all the pains and diligence of man in false wayes do not rise up to condemn thee for thy slothfulnesse in Gods wayes SECT XV. They are for the most part inlets to all sinne in the Soul HErein are these motions of the soul greatly depraved In that they are inlets for the most part of all sinne into the soul They are the weakest part of the wall and therefore Satan doth commonly begin his batteries there this is as it were the thatcht part of the building and so any spark of lusts falling upon it doth immediately set the whole building on fire It is true the senses they are the out-works and porches as it were of the soul and therefore temptations begin there but then the affections are the second Court as it were so that for the most part the mind and the will are carried on to sinne because the affections are first corrupted these lye as Saul's men did all asleep while his enemies had the opportunity to take away not only his spear but his life Now it is good to know that the order and method of the souls motions to any outward objects in its first creation was very rational and commensurate to the true rule for then the understanding did first apprehend and take notice of the objects to be loved which it did consider without any ignorance or error upon this clear proposition of the object The will did readily receive and imbrace it and when this was all done then the affections were subsubsequent they immediately followed without any delay so that Adam had this perfect method in all his actions before his apostacy reason did begin and affections did end but what confusion and disorder is now brought upon us affections do now begin not the eies but the feet do lead the Devil and sinne get their first entrance into the soul by the affections so that as the Philosophers say in a natural way Quicquid est in intellectâ— prius fuit in sensu whatsoever is in the understanding was first in the sence so may we say morally Quicquid est in voluntate prius fuit in appetitu sensitivo whatsoever is in the will was in the affections and no wonder it is so now seeing that the Devil did bring sinne into the world by beseiging the affections at first and thereby corrupting the understanding for as Satan did first tempt Eve the weaker vessel and so beguiled Adam whereupon the woman is said to be first in the transgression so even in man he did first begin with the affectionate part the Eve as it were and by that did overcome the rational part which was like the Adam Eve then was tempted to sinne although she had no corrupt principles within her meerly because the bait laid for her was sutable to her sense and affections how much more then do affections like so many thieves open all the doors and let iniquity come in every where when reason and grace have no command over them Sit down then and well consider this particular That thy affections do first beatray thee Thy ruin doth begin in them and therefore whosoever would keep any sinne from taking the Castle of the soul he must watch over his affections he must be sure to put out every spark of their fire as it were Job made a
covenant with his eyes because they would quickly carry sinne to the affections Vt vidi perii said he from seeing he came to perish but that was from seeing he came to be affected with the object and so perished This is notably expressed Jos 7. 20. 21 When Achan was tempted to steal the Babylonish garment he acknowledged that when he saw them that he coveted them and coveting of them made him steal them we may then conclude that there is scarce any sinne committed by thee but thy corrupt affections do begin it the frame as it were is first laid there all bodily sinnes of drunkenness and uncleaness It is plain that they are the product of sinful affections sinful love sinful desires sinful joyes and pleasures are the puddle as it were wherein these vermin are bred That as in muddy lakes frogs and toads are produced thus it is in these gross and polluted affections and it is no wonder that these come out from the affections seeing the sinnes of the more noble rational part are also procreated by these corrupt affections Heresies and Idolatry these are sinnes of the understanding yet they arise from sinful and inordinate affections The rushes grow in such miry places men seek after profit applause or other carnal advantages and thus these are like a bribe to blind the eies of wisdome so that it behooveth every one in the way of Religion that he professeth to consider whether they be pure conscientious grounds or corrupt affections that instigate therein There are very few that have the Scripture lay the first stone in the building of their faith their affections have first closed with an opinion their affections have secretly imbraced such a religious way and then they go to Scripture to confirme it Thus they bring Scripture to their affections not affections to Scripture thus as any little dust doth quickly hinder the eie in seeing so the least corrupting of the affections doth obnubilate the understanding and what the Sun and the Earth are in the great world the same is the sensitive part in man the little world and as their constant vapours and exhalations from the earth do frequently cloud the Sunne and deprive us of the comfortable light thereof so here our affections do continually ascend like so many smoaking vapours whereby we runne into dangerous wayes It is therefore a rare and a most blessed thing when a man is able to say O Lord it was no affection no passion no corrupt interest hath prevailed with me to take up this way to forsake my former opinions but the powerful light of the Scripture shining into my heart But these precious flowers are hardly to be found as affections corrupted do generally corrupt the understanding in matters of faith so also in matters of publique administration What is the reason of unjust Magistrates of unjust Officers that righteousness in places of judicatory is so often perverted is it not because affections do judge affections do determine how many times doth the Law say one thing conscience and righteousness say one thing but affections they cry another thing They were sinful and wicked affections that put the High Preist and Elders upon the condemning of Christ Pilate saw that they did it for envy and that is a compounded affection hence are those frequently commands to all that are concerned in righteous administrations to have covetousness to accept of no mens persons to do nothing for fear or favour what doth this signifie but that all justice and righteousness is perverted by sinful affections sinne is not punished offenders are not restrained wholesome Lawes are not put in execution because men are carried by sinneful affections Therefore in the Aereopagite Court which was so famous for integrity and their Decrees were reverenced like Oracles all causes were pleaded in the night in the dark that the Judge might not know who pleaded lest his affection might be pre-possessed and here all their pleadings were to be without any Preface or affectionate expressions all which shew how hardly it is to be a righteous man in his place while affections are not conquered SECT XVI The Privacy of the Affections ANother particular is The privacy of them they do inordinately impropriate all things to a mans self so that they are self-affections not affections for Gods glory or the publique good they are private affections not publique affections so that herein they are greatly distempered in that they are not carried out to the most common and universal good but to what is selfish and particular whereas if our affections did retain their primitive integrity they would have been in the first and most principal manner carried out to what is the chiefest and most principal object whereas naturally every man is a Nero and will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let Heaven and Earth be mingled together when I am dead And thus though God have no glory though the publique be ruined so as he have his self-affections promoted he mattereth not This is that which you have heard that man in his Apostasie from God did cadere à Deo in seipsum he fell from God into himself and hereupon referreth the whole world even God himself to his own welfare as if God were for him and he not made for God It was not thus from the beginning but as we see in natural things they all deny their particular motions to serve the publique or as Philosophers say about the Orbs they are carried on by the motion of the primum mobile even contrary to their particular motions Thus it was also in the first constitution of man yea better for the affections had no private particular propensity to any object which the rational part did not direct unto But oh the sad change that now sinne hath made upon our affections in this particular making them to monopolize all things and to preferre our selves more then the honour of God himself especially in two particulars we may greatly lament the sinne of our private affections in opposition to publique First The glory and honour of God is to be esteemed by us as infinitely more worthy then all the world then all Angels and men and therefore not to be affected to our selves more then that It will easily be granted That an infinite good is to be preferred before a finite one an univesal illimited one before what is particular and limited an ocean before a drop Now such is God comparatively to man yea to all the Nations of the world Isa 40. If then God be thus infinitely transcending us in goodnesse and our love is to be drawn out according to the goodnesse of the object if a greater good then a greater love if the greatest good then the greatest love then it followeth that our affections are to be carried out infinitely more to the honour of God then to our own glory If the people of Israel could say to their King because a publique person Thou art worth ten
thousand of us How much more may we say to God his glory his honour his truth is worth all our estates all our lives yea such ought to be our affections to Gods honour that we ought to preferre it above our own salvation so although through the goodnesse of God his honour and our salvation are so inseparably joyned together that one cannot be parted from the other yet in our mindes we are to esteem of one above the other Gods glory above our own happinesse But the highest degree of grace in this life doth hardly carry a man to this much lesse can nature elevate him thus high The second particular wherein the privacy of our affections is to be lamented is in respect of the publique good we are not onely to preferre the glory of God above our selves but also The publique good of the Church yea the publique good of the Commonwealth above our particular advantages What a notable demonstration of this publique affection do we find in Moses and Paul which may make us ashamed of all our self-affections We have Moses his self-denial mentioned Exod. 32. 32. where he desireth to be blotted out of the book of life then that the sins of the people should destroy them he had rather be undone in his own particular then have the general ruined and when God profered to make him a great name by consuming the Israelites he would not accept of it It was Tullie's boast That he would not accept of immortality it self to the hurt of the publique but this was breath and sound of words only Moses is real and cordial in what he saith As for Paul's publique affections to the salvation of others viz. his kinsmen after the flesh Rom. 9. 3. they break out into such flaming expressions that great are the disputes of the learned about the lawfulness of Paul's wish herein however we find it recorded as a duty that we ought to love our brethren so much that we are to lay down our lives for them 1 Joh. 3. 16. Now how can this ever be performed while these selfish-affections like Pharaoh's lean kine devour all things else Groan then under these streightned and narrow affections of thine thou canst never preferre Jerusalem above all the joy while it is thus with thee SECT XVII The hurtfull Effects of the Affections upon a mans body THirdly The sinfulnesse of our affections naturally is perceived by the hurtfull and destructive effects which they make upon a man Therefore you heard they were called passions These affections immoderately put forth do greatly hasten death and much indispose the body about a comfortable life 2 Cor. 7. 10. The sorrow of the world is said to work death Thus also doth all worldly love all worldly fear and anger they work death in those where they do prevail If Adam had stood they would not have been to his soul as they are to us nor to the body like storms and tempests upon the Sea They would not have been passions or at least not made any corruptive alteration upon a man whereas now they make violent impressions upon the body so that thereby we sinne not onely against our own souls but our own bodies also which the Apostle maketh an aggravation in the guilt of fornication 1 Cor. 6. 18. Instances might be given of the sad and dreadfull effects which inordinate passions have put men upon and never plead that this is the case onely of some few we cannot charge all with this for its only the sanctifying or restraining grace of God that keepeth in these passions of thine should God leave thee to any one affection as well tempered as thou thinkest thy self to be it would be like fire let alone in combustible matter which would presently consume all to ashes of thy own self having nomore strength than thy own and meeting with such temptations as would be like a tempestuous wind to the fire thou wouldst quickly be overwhelmed thereby SECT XVIII The sad Effects they have upon others FOurthly The sinfulness of these affections are seen not only in the sad effect they have upon our selves but what they produce upon others also They are like a thron in the hedge to prick all others that passe by Violent affections do not only disturb those that are led away with them but they do greatly annoy the comfort and peace of others The Prophet complained of living among scorpions and briars and truly such are our affections if not sanctified they are like honey in our gall they imbitter all our comforts all our relations They disturb families Towns yea sometimes whole Nations so unruly are our affections naturally Why is it that the tongue Jam. 2. is such an unruly member that there is a World of evil in it It is because sinfull affections make sinfull tongues SECT XIX They readily receive the Devils Temptations LAstly In that they are so readily receptive of the Devils temptations Herein doth appear the pollution of them The Devil did not more powerfully possess the bodies of some men then he doth the affections of men by nature Are not all those delusions in religious wayes and in superstitious wayes because the Devil is in the affections Hath not the Devil exalted much error and much fals-worship by such who have been very affectionate Many eminent persons for a while in Religion as Tertullian have greatly apostatized from the truth by being too credulous to such women who have great affections in Religion So that it is very sad to consider how greatly our very affections in religious things may be abused how busie the Devil is to tempt such above all into errour because they will do him the more service affections being among other powers of the soul like fire among the elements They are the Chariot-wheels of the soul and therefore the more danger of them if running into a false way The Devil hath his false joy his false sorrow and by these he doth detain many in false and damnable wayes Hence the Scripture observeth the subtilty of the Devils instruments false teachers how busie they are to pervert women as being more affectionate and so the easilier seduced Matth 23. 14. The Pharisees devoured widows houses by their seeming devotions Thus false teachers 1 Tim. 3. 6. did lead captive filly women by which it appeareth how dangerous our affections are what strong impressions Satan can make upon them So that it is hard to say whether the Devils kingdome be more promoted by the subtilty of learned men or the affections of weak men CHAP. VI. The Sinfullnesse of the Imaginative Power of the Soul SECT I. This Text explained and vindicated against D. J. Taylor Grotius the Papists and Socinians GEN. 6. 5. And God saw that every imagination of the thoughts of mans heart was only evil and that continually WE have at large discovered the universal pollution of the Affections which we have by nature and handled them in this order though the
learned men have said all they can they must confess their ignorance of onely you must know that as the affections are very potent in a man to turn him this way or that way so also is the imagination and fancy of a man Insomuch that it is a great happiness to have a sanctified fancy that is commonly in men the womb wherein much iniquity is conceived It is greatly disputed in Philosophy What the power and strength of imagination is Some have gone so farre as to attribute all miracles whether Divine or Diabolical to the strength of imagination Yea Abilardus his position was That fides was estimatio Faith was nothing but a strong fancy but these are absurd Onely it is granted that some strong impressions it may make on the party himself as also on the fruit of the womb in conception As for Jacob's art of laying parti-coloured sticks before sheep when they came to be watered that in the time of gendring they might bring such coloured lambs though imagination might be something conducible thereunto yet rather ascribe this with some learned men to a miracle and the peculiar blessing and power of God towards Jacob. But I shall not hold you any longer here let us proceed to the discovery of the natural sinfulness thereof SECT III. The Natural Sinfulnesse of the Imagination appeares in making Idols daily Supports and vain Conceits whereby it pleaseth it self FIrst The metaphorical expression in the Text doth fully declare it For as the Potter doth make vessels upon the wheel daily or as some explain it as the Artificer doth of his wood and other materials make Idols which he worshippeth as gods though they be vanities Thus the imagination of man doth daily fabricate such fancies and Idols to it self making gods of them and putting confidence therein And if you observe what riseth daily in the heart of a man devoid of grace you shall find That it is a continual Idol-maker it maketh daily puppets and vain conceits whereby it pleaseth it self and accounteth it self happy therein Thus we see what shops as it were our hearts are The imagination having that sinfull artifice as to make and erect Idols all the day long Even as children naturally delight to make babies and then to play with them so do all men by nature How many vain Idols do the ambitious men the unclean men of the world daily build up in their fancies Hence it is that the glorious things the pleasant things they please themselves with are more in the imagination then in any real possession as is more to be dilated upon In the mean while let us sadly mourn under this horrible corruption of the imaginative part of a man that it should be daily making new gods continually erecting Idols in which we are apt to put our confidence Lapide on the 8th Chapter and Verse 21. where we have the like expression and metaphor doth offer ntollerable ' violence to the sacred Text for whereas it saith The imagination is only set to evil he would make two shops as it were wherein this imagination doth work a shop of sinne wherein it only fabricateth evil and a shop of vertue wherein it imagineth good things but what can be directly to confront a Text and to put the lie upon it if this be not Let us then be willing to be found out in all this evil Let us acknowledge that our imagination doth continually set up vanities Idols we make to our selves gods and so leave the only true God We have made some entrance already upon the discovery of that wound and deadly blow the imaginative power of man hath received by original sinne and wonder not if in the managing of this point we often mention thoughts discourse invention and apprehensions attributing these to the Imagination for although the understanding be properly the power of the soul from whence these operations do proceed yet because as you have heard the imaginative faculty is so near to the inteliectual that in all is operations it hath some dependance on it so that it is hard to know or perceive when some internal parts of the soul are the operations of the fancy or of the mind Though indeed sometimes reason doth correct our imaginations even as they do sense Yea Divines and Philosophers do commonly attribute some kind of opinion and judgement yea imperfect discourse unto it and this difference is given between the common internal sense and the imagination The common sense doth receive the simple impressions of things as of a stone of bread as the wax receiving the impression of a seal not the seal it self but the image of it Thus doth the common sense receive the species of things and retaineth them But the fancy doth go higher it doth compound these single species together witness those many dreames and also Chimeraes which many do Imagine that never had any existence in the world Therefore by this office it hath we see how near it is to the understanding yea Suidas saith That Aristotle calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it hath in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it is with formes and species that it doth apprehend things and therefore saith Suidas it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make those forms and appearances to consist however this be we may conclude because of the immediate subserviency to the understanding and conjunction with it we may without any absurdity say The thoughts the opinion the judgement thereof And so I proceed to the further manifestation of its pollution SECT IV. In respect of its Defect from that end and use which God did intend in the Creation of man by making him with this Imaginative Power SEcondly In respect of its defect from that end and use which God did intend in the Creation of man by making him with this imaginative power We must readily yeeld that as God did shew his wonderfull wisdome and power in making of man which the Scripture often observeth comparing the workmanship of our body to the curious needle work of some skilfull woman Psal 139. 15. so all these powers and parts of the soul were made for singular and admirable use and therefore the imagination as well as the rest yea we are to know that in all those visions and dreames by which God did appear to the Prophets and others it was by exciting and working upon their imagination so that God hath exceedingly honoured that part of the soul in this way The use of this imaginative power is two-fold as of the other senses The one proxime and immediate which is to performe their operations for which they were given to men The other remote and more general which is to be instrumental to the salvation of the soul and also to the glorifying of God For by the imagination we are
yet because as you heard the mind acteth dependently upon the imagination therefore we conjoyn them together How polluted then must that fountain be which sends forth so many polluted streams Sinne as we told you may be a long while breeding here before it be compleatly formed and actuated yea and God beholdeth and taketh notice of thy sinnes thus prepared in thy imagination long before the commission of them We have a notable instance for this Deut. 31. 21. where Moses in the name of God testifying against the people of Israel that when they come into Canaan they do not fall off from God useth this expression For I know their imagination which they go about even now before I have brought them into the Land which I sware unto them God did before they come into Aegypt see what was working in their imaginations what they were making and fashioning in their hearts in which sense some expound that place of the Psalmist Thou knowest my thoughts afarre off Psal 139. 2. And this is good and profitable for us to consider we many times wonder to see how such gross and loathsom sinnes can come even from the godly themselves Alas marvel not at it these Serpents and Toads were a long while breeding in the imagination The pleasure or profit of such a sinne was often fancied before It was again and again committed in thy thoughts before it was expressed in thy life so that a man can never live unblameably in his life that doth not keep his imagination pure and clean Hence you have so often evil thoughts complained of as the root of all bitterness Jer. 4. 14. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge in thee Mark 15. 19. Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts As exhalations and vapours ascending from the earth which are scarce perceptible yet at last are congealed into thick and dismal clouds so those sins which while in the thoughts and imagination were scarce taken notice of do at last grow into soul and enormous transgressions 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 THirdly The sinfulness of the Imagination is further to be amplified In that many times sinne is acted with delight and content there without any relation at all to the external actings of sinne So that a man while unblameable in his life may yet have his imagination like a cage of unclean birds and this is commonly done when there are external impediments or some hinderances of committing the sinne outwardly The fear of mens laws outward reproach and shame want of opportunity may keep men off from the outward committing of some lust when yet at the same time their imaginations have the strong impressions of sinne upon them and so in their souls they become guilty before God The Adulterous man Is not his imagination full of uncleanness The proud man Is not his fancy lifted with high and towring conceits As the Apostle Peter speaketh of some whose eyes were full of adultery and that cannot cease from sinne 2 Pet. 2. 14. or as some read it according to the original Adulteresse imagination made them have her in their eyes continually though absent for if their eyes were their imaginations also must necessarily be because of the immediate natural connexion between them so then when there are no outward sores or ulcers to be seen upon a mans life yet his imagination may be a noisom dunghill what uncleanness fancied what high honours imagined that whereas thou art restrained from the actings of sinne yet thy heart burneth like an oven with lusts inwardly It is the emphatical similitude that the holy Ghost useth Hos 7. 8. They have made ready their heart like an oven The meaning is that as the oven heated is ready to bake any thing put therein so was the heart of those evil men prepared for any kind of naughtiness Some understand it of the adultery of the body only as if that were the sinne intended by the Prophet Others of the spiritual adultery of the soul by which name Idolatry is often called in Scripture Others referre it to both we may take it to be a proverbial expression denoting the readiness of a mans heart to commit any sinne that it lieth in the heart and the imagination day and night men highly sinning against God inwardly when outwardly they are restrained Know then that when the grace of sanctification shall renew thy spirit soul and body thou wilt then be very carefull to look to thy very imagination that no tickling fancies or conceits of any lust do defile thee thou wilt keep thy imagination as a precious Cabinet wherein precious pearls shall be treasured up not dirt and filth As we fitly use an expression concerning delight in sinne that it is the rolling of honey under the tongue so there is a rolling of sinne in the imagination with great titillation and pleasure when sinne cannot be committed in action we do it in our imagination Hence it is that by the imagination old men become guilty of their youthfull lusts when they have not bodies to be as instrumental to filthiness as they have been yet in their imaginations they can revive their by-past sinnes many years ago committed Thus men became as it were perpetual sinners in their imaginations Consider of this more seriously and pray for an holy chaste and pure imagination knowing thou hast to do with an omniscient God that knoweth what is working therein though it be hid from the world besides think not sinfull imaginations will escape the vengeance of God though no sutable operations of impiety do accompany them SECT XI It s Propensity to all evil both towards God and towards man NInthly Our Imagination is naturally corrupted Because of its propensity to all evil both towards God and towards man And First Towards God Let us take up that which was but glanced at before and that is How prone we are to provoke God in his worship declining from the true Rule and meerly because of our Imaginations The pleasing of them hath been the cause of all that displeasure which God ever had in his Church concerning the worshipping of him No sinne doth more provoke God then the corrupting of his worship to adulterate this is to meddle with the apple of his eye God beareth other sinnes a long while till his worship become to be corrupted and then he will endure no longer Now the original of all sinfulness in this kind hath been our imagination we have not attended to what God hath commanded we regard not his institutions but our own fancies the pleasing of them Hence when God promiseth a restauration to the people of Israel and a reformation from their former Idolatries he saith Neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart Jer. 3. 17. It was this Imagination carried them out to Idolatry whence came those goodly
but since original sinne hath made this violent breach upon the whole man the body is become the foaming and unquiet sea while tempests and storms blow upon it How quickly do these passions of love anger fear and grief put the whole body out of all order So that it is not fit to hear to pray to do any service for God when we are to pray we are to life up our hands without wrath 1. Tim. 6. 8. and so without any other inordinate motion for these make an earthquake as it were in the body These are like a rushing wind and fire but not such as the holy Ghost will appear in We may therefore lie down and roll our selves upon the ground with shame and confusion considering what an unquiet restless and disturbed instrument to the soul our body is now become sometimes anger that set it on fire sometimes sorrow that is ready to drown it Even as we read Matth. 17. 15. the poor lunatique person vexed with the Devil he did ofttimes fall into the fire and oft into the water two contrary elements but dangerous Thus where passions do reign in the body They oft fall into the fire of anger and then as oft into the water of grief and sorrow so that thy body is moulded according to thy passion even as iron heated appeareth no longer iron but fire Surely the experience of this should grieve thee and break thy very heart How many tempests and storms do arise in thy body daily What whirlwinds of passions do carry thee away violently from reason and grace Oh remember this was not in the state of innocency neither will it be in the state of glory Therefore be so farre from being proud of the beauty or strength of thy body that the very thoughts of thy body as now vitiated by original sinne may justly humble thee and though Plotinus the Platonist as you heard was justly to be reproved for the hatred of his body proceeding upon evil principles yet Austin commendeth the modesty and humility of Paulinus for when Sulpictius Severus sent to him to have his Image or Picture Paulinus refused it and that because of the pollution upon it by original sinne and that the Image of God was now lost Erube copingere quod sum non audeo pingere quod non sum Durat enim mihi illud prime Adam virus paternum quo universitatem generis sui pater praevaricatus infecit Thus he being ashamed to give the picture of his body because contamnated by original pollution ¶ 8. The Body when sanctified is become no less glorious then the Temple of the holy Ghost FIfthly Even the very body of a man when sanctified it become no lesse glorious then to be the Temple of the holy Ghost which doth demonstrate that till a man be regenerated it is not such a Temple but a dunghill or stie wherein swinish lusts yea and the Devils themselves do reside as in their proper habitation It is necessary to take notice of several things relating to the body which the Apostle mentioneth 1 Cor. 6. 13 15 19. For having there spoken briefly to the disputes that were then very prevalent about meats the using or not using of our liberty therein he giveth this remarkable reason against too much servency in debate thereof because God shall destroy both belly and meats These were corruptible things and were but for a temporary use and therefore their hearts should be more attentive to those things which are of eternal consequence A necessary truth to moderate our spirits in disputes of that nature Having done this being to aggravate the sinne of fornication which was then generally thought either no sinne or very venial he bringeth in some arguments that being general make against any sinfulness of the body as well as uncleanness As 1. The body is for the Lord that is Christ and the Lord for the body our body is intentionally not for any sinne but the Lord Christ and he demands it as a body dedicated to him How powerfull should this reason be to make us watch against any bodily pollution whatsoever 2. He argueth Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ Know ye not He supposeth that this ought to be If it were an undoubted received truth That our bodies when regenerated do become members to Christ their Head and if so Shall I take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot God forbid He apprehendeth matter of trembling and abomination at such a thing and this holds of every bodily sinne Shall I take the eye of Christ the ear of Christ the tongue of Christ and imploy it in any lusts or passions God forbid And at the 19th verse he goeth yet higher with a Know ye not again that your bodies are the temple of the holy Ghost which is in you and which ye have of God This doth denote an holy dedication of the body to God So that every sinne committed in the body hath a sacriledge in it with what purity reverence and sobriety should we use our bodies thus it ought to be but take a man in his natural condition there is his whole body set apart to the Devils work all the parts thereof are to fulfill the lusts of the flesh but when a man is regenerated there doth become an intimate and unspeakable conjunction not only of our souls but our bodies also with Christs body so that he doth say We are bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh but the body naturally is farre from any such mystical conjunction with Christ Lastly The pollution of the body from the womb is seen in regard of the senses of the body which are the most noble parts thereof They are the windows or gates to let in all wickedness The greatest part of our impiety entereth into the heart by the bodily senses The subordinate end of the senses were to be a preservation to the body and to maintain the natural life thereof but the principal and chief end was to be instrumental to the salvation of the soul God gave us eyes and ears chiefly thereby to glorifie him and to help forward the salvation of our selves but how greatly are the bodily sences fallen from this principal end Rev. 2. 7. and in many other places we have that expression He that hath an ear to hear let him hear no man hath an ear to hear till God open it and by that phrase is denoted that the ear is principally for this use to hearken to what God saith and therefore Rom. 10. Faith is said to come by hearing Thy ear is not given thee to hear stories and merry jests chiefly for commerce with men but to hearken what God out of his Word saith to thee And so for the eyes they are not to behold wanton objects or to take delight in sights but to behold the creatures that thereby God may be glorified Therefore our eyes our ears need Gods
an humane way hath brought in several errours into the Church for it was because of this in part that the Marcionists denied Christ to have a true real body they thought it ignominious to him to be born as other children are and so in Popery there are marvellous legends and wonderfull miracles feigned about Christ while an Infant The surest way then to honour Christ is to keep close to his Word and we see how one error begetteth another for from the opinion that she was without original sinne they have proceeded to horrible Idolatry attributing that which is proper to Christ unto her she is called the Mediatrix she is called their hope There is a Roman Psaltery full of blasphemy in this kind turning Dominus into Domina what is said of the Lordunto her the Lady It is true we do as she fore-told acknowledge her blessed among women There was an high dignity bestowed upon her in being the mother of Christ but she was more happy in having Christ in her heart by faith then conceiving him bodily in her womb It is well observed by Cartwright in his Harmony That whereas the parents of John the Baptist are highly commended as righteous before God walking in all the Commandments of the Lord Luk. 1. 6. there is nothing recorded of the holiness of the Virgin Mary that hereby she rather then other women had this priviledge vouchsafed to her as if thereby the holy Ghost would prevent that horrible Idolatry which he foresaw would creep into the Church concerning her As the Papists so the Turks they do fondly and foolishly boast of the impeccability of their Mahomet insomuch that one of their learned men was forced to flie for his life because he held Mahomet might have sinned a venial sinne if he would Vide Hornbeek summa cent de Mahumedisme And although they do not say Mahomet was born without sinne yet they have a prodigious fable concerning him That when he was a child of four years old some Angels laid hold on him and carried him into a mountain where they diffected him washed his guts clean took out a black drop which they say is in every man as the seed of the Devil and all this without any grief and by this meant he was freed from sinne It is most dreadfull to consider what impieties and impostures are in that Mahumetan Religion and yet how greatly the propugners thereof have prevailed and that where Christian Churches were plantâ—â— They have also their religious persons which they call Nefesogli that they held are without sinne yea that they are not born in an humane way of generation of whose extasies they do relate very stupendious things by which we see how greatly the Devil can prevail by bodily devotions and such extatical raptures as well as by traditional superstitions The Devil doth not only by heresi and Idolatry but also by devotions and strange bodily raptures prevail and inlarge his Kingdom But these are so fabulous they are not worth insisting on Theodoret as Sixtus Senensis relateth Annot. in c. 5. Rom speaketh as if Seth Euceh Noah and such eminent men were free from original sinne as the Rabbins of Beaz and others that they were without evil concupiscence But though these had the grace of God regenerating them yet they were by nature full of sinne and although when it is said That the imaginations of mans heart were only evil from the youth it is said of Noah But he was a righteous man and feared God and so found favour with him This doth not inferre that by nature his imaginations were not as evil as others but only by the grace of God he had obtained a mighty change and translation from that natural condition SECT V. How absurd it is to exempt any from this Natural Pollution upon any ground whatsoever THirdly Original sinne being thus a sinne of the nature as it is absurd to exempt any from it upon Theological considerations so likewise from any Philosophical niceties For there are some that bring forth strange and paradoxal opinions about the nature of man and these will not have all men involved in Adam's sinne for there is an anonimous Author truly nullius nominis hath a written book De praeadomitis his whole scope is to shew that there were men before Adam though the Scripture doth not mention them and he saith A negative argument in matter of fact doth not hold There were none because the Scripture doth not name them no more then we can say Melchizedech had no father or mother indeed because they are not mentioned But Moses relateth what was in the beginning and thereby doth exclude any before Adam yea in the Scripture Adam is expresly called the first man 1 Cor. 15. 45. There are others and they would from Philosophy prove That all men are not of the same kind no more then birds and beasts and therefore they did not all come from Adam They instance in the Antipodes in those that are in the other world or Hemisphere The ancient Clement in his Epistle to the Corinthiant pag. 29. speaketh of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worlds beyond the sea But these all come from Adam for Act. 17. 26. it is expresly said That God hath made of one blend all Nations of men that dwell on the earth Therefore we need not matter these fancies no more then those that hold a world in the Moon and men there Paracelsus that gloried he would reform Luther as Luther had the Pope Vidâ— Ludev Crec Syntag. cap. 28. pag. 811. telleth us of men found in mines and that there are Marini homines and Satyrs who are capable of blessedness and that Christ died for them as a certain Satyr is said to the famous Ermit Anthony Some also speak of men begotten in that unnatural way with beasts that are beasts and men have these original sinnes But we are to despise all these niceties Neither are fancies to be minded against the clear Doctrine of the Scripture wheresoever there is the nature of man in a natural way there the Scripture pronounceth all obnoxious to this sinne The last Proposition is That this original sinne is communicated to all mankind although they have not sinned after the similitude of Adam 's transgression For you may happily think it is indeed just with God to punish all such who sinne like Adam that imitate him in his wickedness But as for others how doth that appear becoming the righteousness and mercy of God Now for this we have a clear attestation Rom. 5. 14. Death reigned over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression But what is meant by this description is controverted Those that leave out the negative making it to runne affirmatively viz. Who sinned after the transgression of Adam and also those who read it thus Death reigned after the similitude of Adams transgression upon those who did not sinne As Verstius following Erasmus and Chrysostom are not to be
of them plead hard that it doth not deserve hell and eternal damnation But no wonder this is done in Babylon seeing in Jerusalem there are such oppugnators and extenuators of it vs if the Welsh Pelagius had not been enough there is now a new English one started up who what with some absurd opinions from the Socinians some from the most Heterodox of the Papists as Durand Pigbius Catharinus c. and many things from the old Pelagian hath stuffed his late writings with much glory and pomp of words especially against this original sinne what with his Hyperbolyes and Metonymyes it is made no sinne but an original curse rather then original sinne Answ to the Letter of Rom. so pleasing it is to be Pigmilions and to fall in love with our own purity unwilling to be shut up under sinne that the gracious mercy of God may be alone exalted And as the Socinians plead their reverence and zeal of honour to the Father while they deny the Deity of the Son so here is pleaded much reverence and tender regard to the Justice Mercy and Goodness of God much zeal to holiness and piety as if the Doctrine of original sinne did undermine all these But of these cavills in time for the present let us not judge of sinne and the guilt thereof by humane principles and phylosophical Arguments but by the Word of God And First The hainousness of it doth appear as heretofore hath been hinted In that it is not like any actual sinne that hath its proper specifical guilt and so is opposite to one vertue only and thereby doth contaminate but one power of the soul but it is the universal dissolution and deordination of all the parts of the soul Vncleanness hath the guilt of that sinne only and is opposed to that particular grace of chastity and so of every sinne else but now this hereditary defilement is contrary to that original righteousness God created man in and as that was not one single habit of grace but the systeme of all Thus original sinne is not one particular sinne but the comprehension of all It is the sinne of the mind of the will of the affection of the body of the whole man so that as when we would aggravate the goodness of God we say all the particular respective goodnesses in the creatures are eminently contained in God so we may say all the particular pollutions and guilt which is in respective sinnes is eminently contained in this so that if there could be a summum malum in man though that is impossible because malum moris fundatur in bono naturae this original sinne would be it Look upon this original sinne then as the deordination of the whole man as that which maketh every part of thee sinfull and cursed as that which maketh thee to bear the image of a Devil who once hadst the glorious and holy Image of God Secondly This sinne is greatly to be aggravated Because it is the root and cause of all actual sinnes Some question Whether all our actual sinnes proceed from this fountain or no And certainly we may conclude that all kind of actual sinne whether internal or external soul sinnes or body-sinnes do either mediately or immediately flow from it This is the evil treasure of the heart Mat. 12. 35. Hence one of the Names that original sinne hath is Fomes peccati because that is the womb in which all sinnes are conceived The Apostle James fully confirmeth this Chap. 1. 14. Every man is tempted and drawn aside by his own lust neither is it any wonder that many sinnes being in their particular nature opposite to one another that yet they should all come from one common principle seeing they all have the same generical nature of filthiness and the particularization of them is according to several temptations Even as out of the same dunghill several kinds of vermine which are produced out of putrid matter may be brought forth so that all the streames of iniquity do meet in this ocean they all come from this root even as all men do from Adam Not that the most flagitious crimes are instantly committed but by degrees they do at last biggen into such enormities if then that Rule be true That there is more in the cause then in the effect and what is causa causae is causa causati then certainly may all our iniquities be reduced to this as the fountain hence David Psal 51. in his humiliation for his murder doth go up to the cause of all even that he was born in iniquity Thirdly It is to be aggravated In the incurableness of it for though Adam had power to cast himself into this defiled condition yet he had no power to recover himself out of it as Austin expresseth it A living man may kill himself but when dead he cannot recover himself to life This you heard is made part of the reason why God would not proceed to destroy the world again although mans corrupt heart is so corrupt even because there was no hope that any judgments would cure them They would proceed still further in impieties all that water did not wash the Blackmore nature of man hence it is that the grace of God whereby we are quickened out of this death is wholly supernatural It 's no wonder that they who are doting to set up the Idol of free-will do begin to lay their foundation in this that there is no such thing as this natural pravity in man But there was no more in man to recover him out of this original filth then is in the Devils to restore them to their pristine felicity So that thy actual sinnes are not alone to be humbled for were it possible for thee to live with this sinne alone thou didst need the grace of Christ to redeem thee from this bondage Fourthly Herein also it is unspeakably to be aggravated That it taketh away all spiritual sense and feeling It 's the spiritual death of the soul we are dead men by nature in respect of spiritual things and therefore though exposed to all the curses in the Law yet we feel nothing we do not tremble and cry out for help The Physitian seeketh us not we him grace finds us out not we grace and hence it is that we think we have no such thing as original sinne in us Oh it is an heavy temptation to be given up unto to think there is no such thing as original sinne that we have no such enmity against God naturally in our hearts Wo be to that man who begineth to think this thing little or none at all What can we pray for such a man but that which the Prophet did for the Syrians when they were brought into the midst of their enemies Lord open their eyes saith he which when done they saw themselves in the midst of their adversaries and so looked upon themselvet but as so many dead men Thus if the Spirit of God by the Word make
thee see the dunghill in thy heart the general pollution of thy soul thou wilt cry out Oh how blind was I till now how sensless till this time Oh I am a damned man an undone man if God do not recover by his grace Therefore that of Austin though formerly mentioned can never enough be inculcated That in their controversie with Pelagians there is more need of prayer then syllogismes The truth of this Doctrine as it is primarily discovered by the Scripture so secondarily by the experience of the regenerated who as Paul said were alive once secure and blessed according to their own thoughts in the state they were in but when once convinced of the spirituality of the Law and their own carnality and contrariety therunto then sinne becometh out of measure sinfull and they die and are undone in their own thoughts Therefore concerning the Writers in this Controversie we are not only to enquire what acquired learning they have but what inspired grace what experimental workings of Gods Spirit in the humbling of them and to make them renounce all their own righteousness and fullness that Christ may be all in all Thus Austin who of all the Fathers hath most orthodoxly propugned this truth so none of them discover such an experimental conversion to God and a gracious change upon their hearts as he doth in his Books of Confessions I do not detract from the piety of the other Ancients only it is plain Austin discovereth a more peculiar and higher degree of an experimental knowledge of his own unworthiness and Gods gracious power in bringing him out of darkness into light and no question but the efficacy and power of this experience made him so orthodox and couragious in maintaining that truth which political and phylosophical principles did much gainsay but this is the wofull effect of original sinne that it taketh away all power to discover it self and as those deseases are most dangerous which take away the sense of them so is original sinne to be aggravated in this respect that it maketh a man insensible of it Fifthly The aggravation of this sinne is seen That it is the habituall aversion of the soul from God and conversion to the creature It is true original sinne is not an habitual acquired sinne but yet it is per modum habitus as Aquinas expresseth it That is the soul of every Infant born into the world cometh with an innate and habitual averseness to God and what is holy as also a concupiscential conversion to the creature so that the two parts expressed in an actual sinne of commission mentioned by the Prophet Jermiah Chap. 2. 13. My people have committed two evils they have forsaken me the fountain of life there is the aversio à Creatore and have hewed to themselves broken cisterns there is the conversio ad creaturam the same hath some representation in original sinne for every man by this hereditary pollution stands with his back upon God and his face to the creature Even as the child cometh bodily into the world with his face downwards and his back upon the heavens so it is with the soul of a man and this maketh our sinne of native pollution to be out of measure sinfull in that a man standing thus at a distance yea at enmity against God can never turn his face again towards God but by a supervenient grace from above Sixthly The great heightening of this sinne is In the deep radication of it It is so intimately and deeply rooted in all the powers of the soul that while a man is in this life he can never be freed from it hence it is that the ordinary determination of the Protestant Writers concerning original sinne even in regenerate persons is That it is taken away Quoad reatum though not Quoad actum There is original sinne in every man living yea in the most holy only it is removed from them Quoad reatum the guilt shall not be imputed and Quoad Dominum though it be in them yet it doth not reign in them only it is in some degree present there and therefore called by the same Divines Reliquiae peccati which expression though scorned by Corvinus yet both Scripture and some experience doth justly confirme such a phrase And although the late Adversary against original sinne Tayl. a further Explication of the Doct. of Orig. pag. 501. doth positively and magisterially according to his custome dogmatize that it is a contradiction to say sinne remaineth and the guilt is taken away and that in the justified no sinne can be inherent yet herein he betrayeth his symbolizing with Papists for all our learned Protestants have maintained this Position against Papists Bishops and others distinguishing between reatus simplex that is inseperable from sinne or the merit of damnation and Reatus redundans in personam which is when this is imputed There is therefore alwayes abiding in every man though justified original sinne in some measure it is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sinne dwelling in us as the Apostle calleth it Rom 7. and therefore in regard of the immobility and inseperability of it from mans nature while here on the earth it is more to be aggravated then all actual and habitual sins For though in Regeneration there is an infusion of gracious habits whereby the habits of sinne are expelled yet this original depravation is not totally conquered by it And thus much may suffice for the aggravating of it because something hath already been spoken to this Point ¶ 3. An Objection Answered THere remaineth one great Objection against the hainousness of this sinne That it is wholly involuntary and therefore we are traduced in this particular that we charge our sinnes hereby upon Adam or God himself freeing our selves Thus we accuse others and excuse our selves Is not this to do as Adam who put off all to the woman whom God had given him so we to clear our selves put all upon Adam's score Therefore many Papists and others complain of us as aggravating it too much whereas one of them saith Rundus Tappor Disp de peccato origin that it is minus minimo peccato veniali lesse then the most least venial sinne But to answer this First As this Doctrine about original sinne is wholly by revelation so we are to judge of the hainousness of it according to Scripture-principles It is true as hath been said formerly the Heathens did complain of the effects of this original sinne but they did not know the cause so that as by the Word we come to know that from our descendency from Adam we do contract this original pollution thus also by the Word we are to passe sentence about the greatness of the sinne If the Scripture saith We are by nature the children of wrath If God in destroying of the world doth not simply look to actual sins but as they flow from such a polluted principle If by this we are in bondage to Satan and are
in he had nothing within him that might concupiscentially draw away his heart from God It was not with Adam as with us who though we have grace by Christ to help us yet there is within us a repugnant principle thereunto There is a root of rebellion within us to this grace of God but all things in Adam were quiet and harmonious when the Devil did cast in his fiery darts there was not so much as the least prepared materials to receive them as it is with us when the Devil doth tempt without we have something within that is treacherous that is ready like a little thief to let in the great one but in Adam every thing was right all lay in the meer determination of his will if he would stand he might there was nothing within or without that was an impediment to him whereas the great misery that is brought upon man by this original corruption is that though grace doth many times excise and stirre up the will yet we cannot do what we would as Paul doth most sadly complain Rom. 7. Adam while in the state of integrity did resemble God though with infinite disproportion in whom potestas and voluntas are all one Thus in Adam his posse was his velle let him will what was good and he did it there was no innate corruption to make the execution of it difficult but alas man in his lapsed estate doth need that grace which doth not only give the posse but the velle also Hence he is said to work in us both to will and to do Phil. 2. 13. and that of his good pleasure not of our good will and pleasure as some would pervert that Text. SECT III. Objections Answered WE are vindicating the righteousness of God in his proceedings with mankind about original sinne being presumptuously accused by those who harden themselves against this truth I proceed therefore to lay down one Proposition only more thereby answering their particular Objections which will help us to much light in this point that it may seem no new or strange thing that Radix damnata should proferre ramos damnatos a condemned root should bring forth condemned branches or a poisoned fountain invenomed streams The Proposition is this God who made man thus perfect and exactly qualified every way to attain that glorious and for which he was made did not appoint him as a meer single person to stand and fall for himself but as a publique person in whom we were all represented and whose will should be as the will of all mankind and therefore Rom. 5. we are not only said to be made sinners by him which denoteth our inherent corruption but also to sinne in him which supposeth that our persons were represented in him not in this sense as if we had appointed Adam our delegate as it were and so had passed over our wils to him for how could that be when we had no existency or being at all Therefore this was wholly by the appointment of God that it should be so who is the supream Lord over all mankind Even as Christ was Surety for all those who were given him of the Father not as if believers did delegate him as some have absurdly and odiously stated the Question but he was designed to that office by the appointment of God Adam then was made the common Trustee and Treasurer for all mankind though he did prove as it were the Phaeton involving all his posterity in utter destruction so that Adam was the head of mankind two wayes 1. He was the caput naturale the natural head from which his off spring was to descend and so original sinne is communicated unto us because of our natural propagation from him This maketh Austin call it therefore so great a sinne that we are never able to judge enough of the hainousness of it because hereby the whole mass and lump of mankind is soured with it but this is not all Therefore In the second place He was made caput morale God did appoint him to be our moral head covenanting with him that if he perservered the good promised should redound to him and to all his posterity but if he did apostatize then he and all his off-spring shall be plunged into the evil threatned and this Covenant was made known to Adam that so he might be the more carefull to look to his duty Neither was it requisite that God should expect Adam's consent or ours to this agreement seeing God is the absolute Sovereign and Lord of all and herein did consult for our good better then if he had taken any other way as is more to be insisted on But against this Covenant many rise up with open mouth Soto the Papist he derides it the late Writer so often mentioned saith he knoweth of no such thing and which is the greater pity Jausenius more orthodox though a Papist then many who call themselves Protestants in the Pelagian Controversies he following Austin too rigidly calleth it Novum pacti mysterium c. the new mystery of a Covenant founded upon no Scripture Tradition or solid Reason but exeogitated by meer humane Authority De Stat. Nat. lap lib. 1. cap. 16. But though this Covenant with Adam be not expressed yet evident and inseparable consequences from the Scripture will compel us to believe it For was the commination of death only to him as a singular person was he only interessed in the punishment of death if he did disobey The event demonstrateth the clean contrary for do not all die upon his voluntary transgression Is not this then plainly to say that God made a Covenant with him as a publique person And if Austin were not of that mind how could he say Omnes homines fuernnt ille unus homo We were not all that one man physically and naturally therefore morally and by Covenant in Gods estimation per jurisfictionem as they say though we must not think this was a meer fiction or imaginary thing as the Remonstrants call it only a dispensative Covenant not as if God were really angry with mankind for this transgression Again If there were not this Covenant the Apostle could not lay it still upon one man Rom. 5. and 1 Cor. 15. but if it were only because the root is defiled then our parents sins would be accounted to us as well as Adam's which compelled Austin to incline to that opinion also Lastly For I have proved this before Adam is called Rom. 5. 14. The figure of his who was to come that is Christ The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Type that is by way of contrariety that as Christ was the head of all believers to justification and eternal life so Adam was the head of all his posterity to sinne and eternal death Therefore Christ is called the second Adam whereby it is plain That God did appoint these two as two contrary heads and publique persons for two contrary ends which doth necessarily imply a Covenant
time of the cause of such evil customs and examples How came they at first Whence did they arise but from polluted originals This will not answer the Text in hand for that speaketh of the first age before the drowning of the world which yet is called the world of the ungodly 2 Pet. 2. 5. It was the world of ungodly in the first age and still in the later ages it is the world of ungodly Yea this is still applied to that remnant of mankind which escaped the deluge when there were but eight persons Gen. 8. It 's there said That the imagination of mans heart was 〈◊〉 his youth It is strange therefore that if good seed was naturally sown in 〈◊〉 that nothing but tares should come up every where in stead thereof But let us take notice of another place of Scripture confirming the universal overslowing of iniquity and that is David's complaint which he so sadly poureth forth calling upon God to help and to redress it Psal 12. 1. Help Lord for the godlyman ceaseth the faithfull fail from among the children of man They speak vanity every one with his neighbour It is true here are some supposed to be godly and faithfull but they are few comparatively to the ungodly as flowers to the weeds as jewels to the sand on the seashore and those that were so it was not from nature but the grace of God that sanctified and prepared them But if you do regard the general the Psalmist is so affectionately moved with the overflowing of evil that he seeth no help but in God himself and this is the more to be aggravated because the people of Israel were the Church of God they had the Prophets of God they had Gods wonderfull presence amongst them and yet for all that this garden so planted and dressed by God did become a wildernesse If then where there are many external and powerfull means to subdue and conquer that innate corruption yet it break out so violently What if man were left to himself How abominable and vile would he prove And was not this the perpetual complaint of all the Prophets successively that every one did turn aside to their evil wayes that they did preach in vain that there was no soundnesse amongst them a sinfull Nation a seed of evil-doers The more they were stricken the more they revolted The whole head was sick and the whole heart faint as Isaiah most affectionately bewalleth it Chap. 1. 4 5. What a strong demonstration then is this of the imbred corruption of mankind that under all the means of grace doth yet overflow in impicties I shall not mention any more Texts for this purpose The whole scope of the Scripture being to declare mans sinfulness and extoll Gods grace Secondly This universal propensity to sinne in all mankind is likewise attested unto even by the very Heathens It 's true they knew nothing of Adams tall nor of the propagation of this hereditary pollution yet the sinfulness it self they perceived and groaned under it Even Grotius himself who would elude the pregnant Texts of Scripture for original sinne by the Rhetoricians trope of Hyperbole yet doth bring in many passages out of the Heathens acknowledging such a depravation of mans nature out of Heriocles the Philosopher Jamblichus that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it 's implanted and ingraffed in us to sinne Comment in Luc. cap. 2. ver 22. as also De Jure botli as paci lib. 2. Yea out of Aristotle who held this indifferency in mans nature he brings that expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is imbred in a man to gain-say reason Thus the very Heathens though they knew not the cause yet could not but confess that vitium ingenita infirmitatis the vitious imbred infirmity that is in every man Yea their Poets have acknowledged better Divinity then some later writers in the Church witness those sayings Quantuns mortalia peceatora coecae noctis habent and another Vitiis neme sine nascitur A third Terras Astraeae reliquit fergning our originals to be of stones Inde genus duri sumus Homines suâ naturâ sunt malis as Plato We might be large also in bringing the witnesses of others Nihil homine miserius superbius said Pliny simul atque ediâ—i sumus and Tully In omni continuò pravitate versamur c. And what is that saying Humanum est errare but according to Divinity Humanum est peccare Thus the light of nature though but like that of the Owl to the Sunne could perceive something in this kind Now this testimony is the more to be regarded because it is so imbred a desire in us to make our selves as lovely as may be and to hide every thing that is deformed Thirdly 〈◊〉 principle also in all Nations to have Magistrates and Laws to have prisonâ—â—â—gibbets whereby punishment may be inflicted upon offenders doth palpably demonstrate what a pronenesse there is in man to sinne For those provisoes do suppose that man doth restrain himself from evil only for fear of punishment If so be that there were such a natural purity in man Why should there be such jealousies such fears of man Homo homini lupus Why are there provided such severe punishments to awe wicked men but that mans nature is out of credit it is supposed to do all the evil it can if it have any impunity Certainly it is not for good that Mastives are tied up that Bears and Lions are kept up in grates This argueth how cruel they would be if let loose Thus also it is with mankind all the severe Laws and punishments which are in all estates established do demonstrate how wild and outragious man is if left alone to himself In his younger yeares he hath the rod when growne up prisons and gallows and in his old age death and hell to awe him against sinne Fourthly The necessary of Education and Chastisement to young children doth also declare that they are prone to vice It cannot be denied but supposing Adam had continued in integrity and procreated children they would have needed instruction and information but then withall it must be granted that this was a meer innocent nesciency in them and therefore as the body had been prepared so the soul without any difficulty would with all aptnesse and readinesse have received all the good seed sown into it whereas now in young ones there is a difficulty to understand holy things they are unteachable and untractable yea there is also a contrariety and an aversnesse to that which is good Now if they were in a meer purity of nature as the Adversaries suggest it they were in such an equal indifferency and capacity of virtue or vice Why should not they need education and Masters to teach them evil as well as good Yea why should they not be more ready to good then evil seeing they say there are igniculi virtutum sparks of virtue lying
to be confuted most properly when we come to speak of that immediate effect of original sinne which is to make a conflict and rebellion in man between the mind and sensitive appetite in natural men and between the flesh and spirit in regenerate men Fifthly That which the Orthodox following the light of the Scripture assign as a cause of that deluge of impiety amongst mankind is the original depravation of every mans nature through Adam 's transgression From this unclean principle none can bring forth that which is clean and truly the Scripture is so evident going alwayes to this head making the lust within a man a cause of all impiety flowing from us that they seem to deny the Sunne at noon-day who will not acknowledge this But let us in the next place examine What causes ef this universall propensity in mankind to sinne are given by the late Heterodox Writer for the weight of this Objection presseth him and therefore he doth industriously set himself to answer it Vnum Necessar Chap. 6. Sect. 4. It is certain saith he that there are many common principles from which sinne deriveth it self into the manners of all men The first mentioned is That at first God made no promises of heaven he had propounded not glorious rewards to be as an Argument to support the superiour faculty against the inferiour because there was no such thing in that period of the world therefore almost all flesh had corrupted themselves for want of this Adam fell and all the world followed his example and most upon this account till it pleased God after he had tryed the world with temporal promises and found them also insufficient to finish the work of his graciousness and to cause us to be born anew by the revelations and promises of Jesus Christ Thus he but I had almost said Oh monstrum horrendum cui lumen ademptum Now the Socinian appeareth in his own ugly and deformed colours let us see whether there be any validity in this reason or no. And First It is very frivolous ridiculous and absurd for we are asking for a reason of the general inclination of all men in all ages to evil and he would assign one for that speciall age of the world before Christ Is it not still true even since Christs coming that the heart of a man is desperately and incurably set upon evil till the grace of God doth sanctifie it So that though in the New Testament the glory of heaven and the torments of hell are evidently and powerfully demonstrated yet still there is the same torrent of impiety in the manners of men Secondly This reason cannot be acquitted from blasphemy in some sense against God for the cause of overflowing impiety in the Old Testament times is reduced hereby to God himself May not all the prophane ones in that age of the world take up this mans Argument to defend themselves O Lord it is from thee we are thus universally wicked Had the joyes of heaven been promised to us in wel-doing had the torments of hell been manifested unto us we had then been awakened so that we are now wicked because we wanted such efficacious meanes to prevent our impiety that afterwards were vouchsafed to the world so that the Israelites might have replyed to the Prophet Hosea Chap. 13. 9. that he spake falsly their destruction is not of themselves but of God who did not give them sufficient incouragements Had the Asserters of original sinne affirmed any such thing that might so hainously have redounded to the dishonour of Gods justice his mercy and goodness what tragical exclamations would have been raised up immediately But thus it falleth out alwayes that those who out of a preposterous fear sometimes to hold such things that have but an apparent tendency to dishonour God do fall into such abominable positions that do really reproach God and his wayes as may more be shewed in this point Lastly The very inward part of this reason is very wickedness and falshood it self for this Proposition That heaven and hell were not used as Arguments in the Old Testament but that temporall mercies and jugements were the only spurres and curbes in their conversation is being reserved as the peculiar and proper glory of Christ to reveal the promises of eternal life is that notorious pure impure Socinianisns which our learned Writers do so evidently profligate This saith Smalcius De Div Jes Christi c. 7. is so clear a truth that they want no little thing to the true knowledge of Christ and his Office who are ignorant of it or doubt of it yea he addeth Vnde appareat c. from whence it may appear that our Congregations though they are said to blaspheme Christ yet do more rightly acknowledge Christ in this particular Quam omnes alios Christiani nominis professores then all other professors of Christs name Thus they tryumph in this enormious error as their greatest glory because they make it peculiar to Christ to reveal and promise eternal glory It is not my intent to enlarge on this point That eternal life was promised to Adam as also to those who lived in the Old Testamentary dispensation That the tree of life was a Sacramental symbole of eternal life appeareth by that expression Rev 2. 7. And certainly if the Jewes did not discover the resurrection of the dead and eternal life it was because they did not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as our Saviour telleth them Mat. 22. 29 30. and that is remarkable which is said Joh. 5. 39. Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life That same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye think is not spoken as if it were a false perswasion to look for eternal life out of those Scriptures but because they boasted in their own interpretation of them excluding Christ thereby It is therefore a detestable position which Smalcius in the same place hath That the promise of eternal life was wholly hidden from men for those ages which were before Christ neither did it clearly appear to any one that such a thing would be bestowed upon mortal men for doth not Job proclaim the clean contrary Job 19. 25. I know that my Redeemer liveth he shall stand at the later day upon the earth It is true the learned Mercer would apply this to that temporal and blessed restitution of his external happiness which God vouchsafed to him but the Context doth necessitate us to understand it of a more glorious condition We read also Heb. 11. 13 14 15. That the Patriarchs acknowledged themselves pilgrims in this earth and did declare plainly they sought an heavenly country It is not worth the while to examine the suggestions of Schlitingius the Socinian on those Texts who would so miserably wrest them to his own purpose and that the day of judgement was used as an Argument to bridle men from sinne appeareth Eccles 11. 9. as also Chap. 12. 14. The Book concludeth with this
at the beginning endeavoured to clear himself and to charge his sinne upon God The woman thou gavest me And happily some even in the primitive times by mis-understanding some places of Scripture wherein God is said to give men up to their lusts to harden and blind men in their sinnes might occasion such a detestable Position And although the Papists do ordinarily charge this damnable Doctrine upon the Calvinists yet there needeth no more to justifie Calvin in this particular then what he doth most excellently and solidly deliver upon this very Text. The truth is our learned men shew expressions from the Papists yea from Bellarmine himself more harsh and incommodious then I believe can be found in any Protestant Writer But this by the way The Apostle being to inform us of the true cause of all the sinne we do commit and that not God no nor Devils or wicked men are to be blamed comparatively but our own selves sheweth that all this evil cometh from that concupiscential frame of heart we have within us And as for God the Apostle expresly instanceth concerning him prohibiting any one to think or say it is from God that they do sinne Let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God and he giveth two reasons whereof one is the cause of the other If you ask How is it that God is said to tempt no man seeing he tempted Abraham and the Israelites Austin's distinction is made use of that there is a temptation probationis and seductionis of probation or tryal or of deceiving and enticing to sin God indeed doth often tempt his people the former way not but that he knoweth what is in the heart of every man but that hereby a godly mans graces may be the more quickned as also a man have more experimental knowledge of himself As for the other temptation of seduction God doth not thus tempt that is he doth not encline or enrice to sinne It is true we read the Prophet Jeremiah saying O Lord I am deceived and thou hast deceived me Jer. 20. 7. But that is spoken unadvisedly and rashly by the Prophet who thought because what he had prophesied was not as yet fulfilled and therefore his adversaries derided and scorned him that therefore it would not at all be fulfilled and so by consequence that God had deceived him Secondly Divines distinguish temptation into external and internal External are afflictions and troubles called often so in Scripture and these temptations are from God 2. Internal which do immediately incline to sinne and with these God doth not tempt Now although the Apostle had in the former part spoken of external temptations yet now he speaks of internal ones though some think he continueth his discourse of externals because these many times draw out hearts to sinne but this ariseth not from God The reason why God cannot tempt to sinne is from the infinite perfection of holiness which is in God he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He cannot be tempted by evil It is true men are said to tempt God many times and so ex parte hominu there is done what man could do even to make God deviate from his own holy nature and Law but the Apostle meaneth ex parte Dei that God is of such absolute purity and transcendent holiness that there cannot arise any motion in his nature to make him sinne For so we expound the Greek word in a passive sense Estius himself granting that the use of it in an active signification can hardly be found though Popish Interpreters plead for the active sense but then there would be no distinction of this from the following words Neither tempteth he any man The original word is used only here in the New Testament The strength then of the Argument lieth in this God doth not tempt any man to sin because he hath no inward temptation or motion in his own nature to sin for that is the reason why the Devil is so impetuous and forward in tempting us to sin because his nature is first carried out to all evil so there is no man that doth draw on another to sin but because he in his own heart is drawn aside with it before The Apostle having thus justified God and removed all cause of evil from him In my Text he directeth us to the true internal and proper cause of all the sinne that we do commit and therein doth most excellently shew the several steps and degrees of sinne whereby of an Embryo as it were at first it cometh to be a compleated and perfected sinne This Text is much vexed by Bellarmine and Popish Authors to establish their distinction of a venial and mortal sinne though they cannot find any true aid from the Text. Let us consider the particulars of this noble Text The Cause of a mans sinne is said to be lust 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is the same with original sinne the corruption of all the powers of the soul whereby it is inordinately carried out to all things Of which more in the Doctrine This is described from the note of propriety 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His own lust This expression is used that we may not lay all upon the Devil or other men for this is ordinarily brought by men to excuse themselves It is true I was in such a fault I have sinned but the Devil moved me or such wicked companions they enticed me or I did it because men compelled me and terrified me all this will not serve thy turn It is thy own lust within not men without that hath made thee thus to sinne And this sheweth That every man hath his own proper original sinne by way of a lust within him 3. This is further amplified from the Vniversality of the Subject wherein this lust is seated Every man so that no man but Christ who was God and man is freed from this incentive to evil 4. There is the Manner How this lust doth tempt us to sinne and that is expressed in two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Drawn away that is as some from God from heavenly objects because in all sinne there is an aversion from God and a conversion to the creature or else as others Drawn aside form the consideration of hell of the wrath of God of eternal death and damnation For we sinne continually as Eve did at first The Devil perswaded her she should not die and then when this fear was removed she presently falleth into the transgression and thus before men fall into the pit of any sinne they are drawn aside from those serious thoughts This will offend God this will damn me The other word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Metaphor either from birds or fishes which have baits to allure them and thereby are destroyed Thus lust appeareth with a bait but the hook doth not appear In the next place This original sinne is illustrated in the issue of it the Apostle sheweth how sinne Ã
be also the cause of the sins themselves But I see not why we may not call original sinne the remote cause only of some sins because that is the seed and spawn only of all evil there are many temptations and suggestions which do ripen and quicken this monster to bring forth So that although men have lust enough within them to make them so many Cains so many Judasses to be as abominable in wicked wayes as the vilest of men are yet Nemo repente fit turpissimus as the Poet said There is time required to grow up into such foul abominations This is like the Prophets little cloud which at first though no bigger than an hand yet did afterwards biggen till it covered the whole sky The Apostle you heard compareth the production of sinne to the child that is first conceived in the mothers womb and so through the warmth and nourishment thereof doth lust bring forth As it is with the Acorn that is at first but little in quantity yet being great in efficacy doth in time enlarge it self into a great Tree Conclude then all evil even the most enormious impieties which for the present it may be thy heart doth tremble at yet they are seminally and radically in thee there are the sparks of fire which if let alone will quickly set all on a flame Hence The third Proposition is That whosoever would by the grace of God be delivered from any actual sins the best remedy is to endeavour to quench the lust within He that would dry up the streams must look to the fountain to have that dried up He that would destroy the bad fruit of a Tree must lay the axe to the root of it And this is a very necessary Rule to be attended unto in practical Divinity Observe that the same way sinne comes to live the same way thou must take to kill it It beginneth at the heart first before it 's in the eyes or hands and therefore thou must look to crucifie it in the heart first Thus the Wiseman adviseth Prov 4. 23. Keep thy heart for out of it are the issues of life After this then he exhorteth to look to our mouth and lips to our eyes and feet but the foundation must be laid in the heart if the heart be good all is good And this sheweth the preposterous way of the Casuists and Confessionists in Popery from which the late Writer so often mentioned doth not much decline in his Treatise of Ecclesiastical Penance for with such Writers you have scarce one word to the penitent sinner about Regeneration whereas external duties of alms or restitution which in their way are necessary by Gods command must flow from a spiritual and supernatural life within as the foundation of all much lesse have you one icta or tittle about faith laying hold on Christ by whom alone our persons are justified and all our duties are accepted This I say is the great neglect and unskilfulness in such writers that they deal in externals but for faith by which the heart is purified and whereby we please God in Christ that they make no mention of at all But the Scripture is herein different from moral Philosophy and Aristotelical precepts which those Casuists are wholly captivated unto for that requireth yea and promiseth first a tender and holy heart a circumcised heart and then to walk in the wayes of God whereas moral Philosophers first begin with actions and then go to acquired habits Justè agendo sumus justs This then is a golden Rule and of perpetual use in Christianity for a Christian to be mortifying lust within to watch against the treacherous adversary in thy own breast and then when the foundation is destroyed the superstruction must needs fall to the ground Propos 4. Because man is thus tempted and enticed by lust within therefore it is that man fallen doth sinne farre otherwise then Adam did in the state of integrity We do not sinne now as Adam at first we have an internal cause and principle within us whereas Adam did sinne wholly from suggestion without neither was it lust within but his meer will that made him consent to such suggestions This Proposition is the more to be regarded because Pelagian and Socinian Writers they all agree in this That we at first sinne in the same manner as Adam did at first the sensitive part being enticed by sensible objects and so rebelling against the rational part But this is to be wholly ignorant of that holy estate and glorious Image wherein God created Adam at first Adam had all such external and internal helps so freed from all ignorance passion or lust that nothing could destroy him but the liberty and mutability of his will Whereas alas in man destitute of Gods Image there is a lusting principle within him carrying him out inordinately unto every object proposed It is therefore a false and an absurd Position which Molina the Jesuite one of the meer Naturalists affirmeth Quaest 14. Disput. 4. de Concord lib. Arb. where he saith Adam had Innatum appetitum excellentiae ac laudis quo ad intellectum voluntatem c. That he had this temptation within him viz. an innate appetite to his own excellency and praise For how could this consist with that holiness and righteousness God created him in Indeed he saith in another place of the same book Quaest 14. Disp 45. Ex contemplation rei amabilis c from the contemplation of any lovely object and which is of concernment to be obtained there doth naturally rise in the will a certain motion whereby the will is affected to it which motion is not a volition but an affection of the will to that object whose goodness it is allured with And this he maketh to be in men yea in the Angels before they fell But what is this but to say that in men and Angels even before their fall there was a concupiscential inclination to delightsome objects and so Adam and Angels must according to this Text be tempted away and enticed by their own lusts An horrible Position highly derogating from Gods honour who created them holy and righteous Therefore Adam and much more Christ when they were tempted by Satan it was not in the same way with us The temptation was only external not internal there was no inward lust within yea the very external temptation of Adam and Christ was different from ours in a further respect For the Devil had not power by his suggestions to move or disturb their phansie as he doth in us Though the Devil cannot force our wils yet he can make bodily commotions of the phantasie and so thereby man is the more easily carried away to evil But neither Christ or Adam had their imagination so disturbed For although they might understand by phantasmes yet all was at the command of deliberate judgement A mans imagination was then in his own power so that those inferiour faculties in their operation could not
nature worketh and when the Devil doth only assault and annoy us But that is not my business now It is enough to know That even from thy own unsanctified heart may arise vain thoughts blasphemous thoughts So that thy soul seemeth unto thee to be not only like a dunghill but an hell it self To these evil stirrings of sinne in the apprehensive part we may referre our sinful dreames even for them God might damn us Austin bewaileth and confesseth his dreames and yet our understanding and will do not so properly work at that time The other sort of workings of soul are such as are by way of love and desire when there arise in the heart some motions and affections to such an object Our hearts being now wholly destitute of the Image of God and sinne having full dominion over us no sooner doth any sinful object present it self but immediately the heart maketh towards it there is a propensity to embrace it Secondly These motions that do thus stirre in the heart are either such as they call motus primo primi or secundo primi the absolute meer first or first in a secondary order There may be difference in the explaining of these but the summe is this These motions are either such which do rise up in our hearts antecedently to any actings of the reason or will at all It was not in our power to repress them or to prevent them for original sin in a man doth not lie sluggish and bound up it is alwayes acting and moving and the immediate motions or first born of the soul are these first stirrings of heart preventing all deliberation and consultation Such a state indeed Adam was not created in nothing did rise up in him before his will and consent and so it was also with Christ But since we are plunged into this corrupt condition sinne hath got the whole mastery over us we are in a Babel and spiritual confusion Every sinful lust riseth in us before we have time to withstand it although if we had time such is our impotency and corruption now that we neither can or will gainsay the torrent of these motions It is true the Papists say they are no sinnes they are matter of exercise to us but they are not sinnes if not consented unto But the Apostle Rom. 7. doth often call them so and they are such as are contrary to the Law of God they are such as make a godly man groan under them and judge himself miserable thereby they are such as are to be crucified and mortified all which shew they have the true and proper nature of sinne So that it is a wonder those should deny these indeliberate motions to be sinne who hold original sinne to be properly and not equivocally a sinne For as it is enough to make original sinne voluntary because it is voluntarium voluntate ejus à quo not in quo est with the will of Adam from whence it descendeth though not with the will of him in which it inhereth Thus also it may be said of these involuntary motions they are of the same nature with original sinne For though they be actual yet flowing necessarily from the mother sinne and being withall a privation of that righteousness which ought to be in us they must be called sinnes as well as original And thus farre Henricus the Schooleman proceedeth as Vasquez alledgeth him Tom. 10. disput 106. to say That these first motions in persons not baptized are sinnes and that they want not such a voluntariness as is requisite to the nature of sinne partly because of the will of the first parents and partly because of the proper will of the man who hath them not because he doth not hinder these motions because he cannot alwayes do this but because he will not by baptisme be expiated from original sinne and consequently from the guilt of these sinnes This later reason we matter not the former hath good strength and is the same in effect with what we say Oh then that we were rightly considering of these things Those millions of thoughts and stirrings of heart which arise before reason and will are able to do any thing these are all sinnes these are contrary to the holy Law of God Adam had them not neither shall the glorified Saints in heaven be in the least manner molested with them How low and debased must thou be in thy own eyes For this it is that the godly go bowed down for this they mourn and pray these afflict them more then gross loathsome sinnes do prophane men the meer civil and formal man the self-righteous and confident man he knoweth none of these things he feeleth not this evil impure frame of his heart this maketh the way of godliness to be such a mystery such an unknown thing but to those that are believers indeed as they have other joyes other comforts then the world knoweth of so they have other motives of sorrow and humiliation then the natural man can understand But as for the first motions of the second sort they have some imperfect consent and complacency and therefore acknowledged by Gerson Compend Theol. to be sinnes yea the former kind of motions though so suddain are affirmed to be sinnes by several Schoolemn upon different reasons but venial as they call them For Henricus held they were mortal now to us all sinnes in their own nature are mortal Therefore all these motions which arise in the soul whether first or second being contrary to the holy Law of God which requireth pure streames and also a pure fountain and also being opposite to the Image of God we were created in must needs be truly sinnes for which we are to humble our selves and to pray continually for the mortification of them Thirdly These motions though they flow from original sinne as the universal cause yet there are particular causes that do excite and draw them forth And it is good to observe how many wayes original sinne being awakened doth produce these sinful motions thereof And 1. Sometimes they arise from the present sensible object that doth affect us Every object either of the eye or ear or touching doth presently work upon the soul not indeed efficiently as some have thought but only by way of alluring and enticing so that it is almost impossible for us either to hear or see any object and not have the first motions of the soul as suddain so sinful about them Oh the miserable depravation of mankind who hath sinne and hell entring into the soul by evey sense it hath there is not any sensible object but it is a snare to thee it stirreth up some sinful motion or other either love or anger joy or fear and all this before grace can work Hence the great work of Christianity is inward and spiritual it is soul-work to set a watch before eyes eares tongue and all the outward parts of the body that the soul be not sinfully disquieted For every
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
of this to tender hearts and ears is confutation enough For is not this truly and properly to make God the Author of sinne that he put a rebellious thorn in our sides at first and that because we are his creatures made of a soul and a body therefore we must necessarily be divided within our selves Thus those who charge original sinne with Manichism do herein exceed the Manichees themselves for they attribute this evil in a man to an evil principle but these make the good and holy God to be the Author of this rebellion Neither is it any evasion to say This rebellion of the sensitive part is no sinne unless it be consented unto for it is such which is contrary to the Law of God it is to be resisted and fought against And certainly that demonstrateth the evil nature thereof Luther indeed speaks of a Franciscan which maketh this concupiscence to be a natural good in a man as it is in the fire to burn or the Sunne to shine But certainly such qualities or actions are not to be resisted or fought against as these are How can that be good which is confessed to be a sinne if consented unto ¶ 4. VVHen we say the flesh and the Spirit do thus conflict with one another you must not understand it of them as two naked bare qualities in a man but as actuated and quickned from without For the gracious habit in a man is not able to act and put it self forth vigorously without the Spirit of God exciting and quickning of it And although inherent sinne of it self be active and vigorous yet the Devil also he continually is tempting and blowing upon this fire to make it flame the more impetuously So that we are not to look upon these simply as in themselves but as subservient to the Spirit of God and the Devil The Spirit of God by grace in the heart doth promote the Kingdom of God and the Devil by suggestions doth advance the kingdom of Satan in our hearts So that grace and sinne are like the Deputies and Vicegerents in our souls to those Champions that are without us Now because the Spirit of God is stronger and above the Devil therefore it is that the flesh shall at last surely be conquered Nay if the godly at any time fail if sinne at any time overcome it is not because the Spirit of God could not overcome it but because he is a free agent and communicateth his assistance more or lesse as he pleaseth only in this combat the godly are to assure themselves that they shall overcome all at last that the very root of sinne will be wholly taken away never to trouble or imbitter the soul any more ¶ 5. FIfthly In natural and corrupt men there is no sense or feeling of any such conflict They never groan and mourn under such wrestlings and agonies within them and the reason is because they are altogether flesh and flesh doth not oppose flesh neither is Satan set against Satan It is true there is in some natural vicious men sometimes a combate between their conscience and their appetite their hearts carry them on violently to sinne but their consciences do check them and they feel a remorse within them but this is farre different from that spiritual conflict which the Apostle doth here describe and is to be found only in such men who have the Spirit of God No wonderthen if there be so many who look upon this as a figment if so many even learned men write and speak so ignorantly and advisedly about it for this truth is best acknowledged by experience It 's not the Theologia ratiocinativa but experimentalis as Gerson divideth Divinity that will bring us to a full knowledge of this It cannot then but be expected that you should see men live at ease and have much quietness and security in their own breasts thanking God as if their souls hearts and all were good within them all were as they desire it for the strong man the Devil keepeth all quiet flesh would not oppose flesh It is true one sinne may oppose another covetoufness drunkenness and so a man who would commit them both be divided within himself one sinne draweth one way and another sinne the other way but still in the general here is an agreement all is sinne all tendeth one way still and therefore is not like this combate in the Text but of this more in its time ¶ 6. SIxthly In all regenerate persons though never so highly sanctified there is a conflict more or less It is true some are more holy then others some are babes and some are strong men some are spiritual some in a comparative sence are carnal some are weak some are strong and according to the measure of grace they have received so is this conflict more or less Amyraldus a much admired Writer by some neither do I detract from that worth which is due to him doth industriously set himself Constd cap. 7. ad Rom. to expound the 7th of the Romans of a person not regenerated but in a legal state yet disclaiming Arminianisme and Socinianisme which Exposition being offensive and excepted against as justly it might by William Rivet he maketh a replication thereunto wherein he delivereth many novel assertions Among which this may be one That making four ranks or classes of Christians he apprehendeth the first to be such who have attained to so high a degree of sanctification that they consult and deliberate of nothing but from the habit of grace that is within them and that this conflict within a man is rather to be referred to the legal work upon a man then the Evangelical condition we are put into hence he understands this Text not universally but particularly of the Galathians who were then in that state viz. a legal one not Evangelical which he thinketh the next Verse will confirme where the Apostle saith If ye be led of the Spirit ye are not under the law now of this sort who may be apprehended ordinarily to live without such a combate he placeth the Apostles especially when plentifully endowed with the Spirit of God after Christs resurrection and for Paul he is so far ravished with the Idea of godliness represented in his life that he saith Consid in cap. 7. ad Rom. cap. 74. if God had pleased so to adorne Paul with the gifts of the Spirit that in this life he should attain to that perfection which other believers have only in heaven none might find fault herein The general rules he goeth upon and others though disclaimed by him is because there are many places of Scripture which shew that some godly persons are victorious and tryumphing above this conflict as when this Apostle saith afterwards ver 24. They that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof and Rom. 8. 2. The law of the Spirit of life in Jesus Christ hath made me free from the law of sin
and death So that they conclude it injurious and contumelious to Paul reproachfull to the grace of the Gospel and a palpable incouragement to sinne and wickedness to interpret the 7th of the Rom. of a regenerate person But because this is a truth of so special concernement we shall take these things in a more particular consideration for it would be found an heavy sinne lying upon most orthodox Teachers in the Reformed Church if they have constantly preached such a Doctrine as is injurious to Gods grace and an incentive to sinne as also slothfulness and negligence in holy duties for the present this Text will bear us out sufficiently that where ever the Spirit of God is in persons while in the way to heaven they have a contrary principle of the flesh within them whereby they are more humbled in themselves and do the more earnestly make their applications to the throne of grace and that all have such a conflict within them may appear by these following Reasons yea we may with Luther say so farre is it that any do attain to such a measure of grace as to be without this combate that the more holy and spiritual any are the more sensible they are of it for they have more illumination and so discover the exactness and spiritual latitude of the law more then formerly they did and also their hearts are more tender whereby they grow more sensible even of the least weight of any sinful motion though never so transient It is true the godly do grow in grace they get more mastery and power over the lustings of sinne within yet withall they grow in light and discovery about holiness they see it a more exact and perfect thing then they thought of they find the Law of God to be more comprehensive then they were aware of and therefore they are ready to cry out as Ignatius when ready to suffer Nunc incipio esse Christians Oh me never godly but beginning to be godly I believe but how great is my unbelief This Paul declareth Phil. 3. 12. Not as if I had already attained either were already perfect but I follow after c. Thus Paul is farre from owning such commendations which happily others may put upon him It is true indeed Amyraldus denyeth that any are absolutely perfect but yet he goeth beyond the bounds of truth in attributing too much to Paul or other Apostles which will appear First Because the most holy that are have used all meanes to mortifie and keep down the cause of these sinful motions If they did not continually throw water as it were upon those sparks within the most holy man would quickly be in a flame Even this Apostle Paul doth not he confess this of himself 1 Cor. 9. 27. I keep down my body and bring it into subjection c. He doth not mean the body as it is a meer natural substance for the glorified Saints will not keep down their bodyes but as it is corrupted and made a ready instrument to sin for though the Apostle call it not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet these are not opposite but suppose one another as Rom. 6. 12. Let not sinne reign in your mortal body and it is a very frigid and forced Exposition of Amyraldus as if the Apostle did understand it of the exposing his body to hunger and thirst and all dangerous persecutioâ—s for the Gospels sake For this was not Paul's voluntary keeping down of his body those persecutions and hardships to his body were against his will though he submitted to them when by Gods providence he was called thereunto but he speaketh here of that which he did readily and voluntarily lest from within should arise such motions to sinne as might destroy him yea it is plain that even in Paul there was a danger of the breakings forth of such lusts because 2 Cor. 12. God did in a special manner suffer him to be buffetted and exercised by Satan that he might not be lifted up through pride neither is this any excuse to say with Amyraldus That such sinnes are apt to breed in the most excellent dispositions for it is acknowledged by all that such sinnes have more guilt in them then bodily sinnes though not such infamy and disgrace amongst men Luther calleth them the sublimia peccat the sublime and high sins such the Devil was guilty of and they were the cause of his final overthrow and damnation If then the most godly have used all means to mortifie sinne within them it is plain they found a combate and that if sinne were let alone it would quickly get the upper hand Secondly That there is a conflict of sinne appeareth in those duties enjoyned to all the godly that they watch and pray that they put on the whole armour of Christ Yea the Disciples are commanded to take heed of drunkenness and surfetting and the cares of this world Luke 21. 34. and generally Paul's Epistles are full of admonitions and exhortations to give all diligence in the wayes of holinesse especially that command is very observable 2 Cor. 7. 1. Having these promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthinesse of flesh and spirits perfecting holinesse in the fear of God Here you see both flesh and spirit that is the rational and sensitive part have filthiness and that those who are truly godly are to be continually cleansing away this filthiness and to perfect what is out of order What godly man is there that can say This command doth not belong to me I am above it I need it not No lesse considerable is that command of Peter 1 Pet. 2. 11. Dearly beloved I beseech you as pilgrims and strangers abstain from fleshly lusts which warre against the soul Not as if this were wholly parallel with my Text as Carthusian is said to bring it in thereby proving that by flesh is meant the body and by spirit the soul but onely it sheweth that no godly man in this life is freed from a militant condition and that with his own flesh his own self which maketh the combate to be the more dangerous For this cause David though a man after Gods own heart though Gods servant in a special consideration yet prayeth Psal 19. 13. Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins which expression denoteth that even a godly man hath lust within him that would carry him out like an untamed horse to presumptuous sins did not the Lord keep him back But we need not bring more reasons to confirm that which experience doth so sadly testifie SECT III. A Consideration of that part of the seventh Chapter to the Romans which treats of the Conflict within a man Shewing against Amyraldus and others that it must be a regenerate person onely of whom those things are spoken ¶ 1. THe next Proposition that may give light to the weighty truth about the spiritual conflict that is in the most regenerate persons is this That besides the
whereby he doth delight in Gods Law I will not say that the inward man doth alwayes signifie the regenerate man and so is the same with a new-creature For although some understand that place so 2 Cor. 4. 16. The outward man perisheth but the inward man is renewed daily yet happily the context may enforce it another way yet here it must be understood of the mind as regenerated because it is opposite to the flesh and so signifieth the same with the hidden man of the heart in which sense a Jew is called one inwardly because of the work of grace upon his soul Fifthly The sad complaint he maketh concerning his thraldom doth evidently shew that it is a regenerate person O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death If we take body for the material body which is mortal and so sinfull or else for that body of sinne which abideth in the godly it cometh much to one point It argueth that the person here spoken of feeling this weight this burden upon him is in sad agonies of soul judgeth himself miserable and wretched in this respect and thereupon doth earnestly groan for a total redemption he longs to be in heaven where no longer will evil be present with him where he shall do all the good and as perfectly as he would It is true a godly man cannot absolutely be called a wretched and miserable man but respectively quoad hoc and comparatively to that perfect holiness we shall have hereafter So we may justly account our selves miserable not so much from external evils as from the motions and stirrings of sinne within us that do press us down and thereby make our lives more disconsolate Hence it is that Austin calleth this Gemitum saactorum c. the sighs and groans of holy persons fighting against concupiscence within them Sixthly The affectionate rejoycing and assured confidence that he hath about the full deliverance of him from this bondage expressed in those words I thank God through Jesus Christ doth greatly establish this exposition also of a regenerate ate person It is true there is variety about reading of this passage however this plainly cometh from an heart affected with assurance of Gods grace to give him a full redemption though for the present he lie in sad conflicts and agonies This is so palpable a conviction that some of the Dissentients will make Paul here to speak in his own person as if he did give God thanks for that freedome which the person spoken before had not obtained Neither is it any wonder to see such a sudden change in Paul from groaning under misery presently to break forth into thanks and praises of God For we may often observe such ebbings and flowings in David's Psalms that we would hardly think the same Psalm made by the same man at the same time one verse speaking dejection and disconsolateness the next it may be strong confidence and rejoycing in God Lastly The conclusion which Paul maketh from this excellent experimental Discourse is fully to our purpose So then I my self serve the Law of God but with the flesh the law of sin To serve God and to serve the Law of God is all one and this none but a godly man doth Yea to serve him with the mind and the spirit is a choice expression of our grace But because this is not perfect and compleat he addeth He serveth also the flesh and the law of sin It is true None can serve God and mammon Christ and sin but yet where there is not a perfect freedom from thraldom to sin there though in the principal and chief manner we are carried out to serve God yet the flesh retardeth and so snatcheth to it some service you heard contraries might be together while they are in fight Neither is our redemption from sin full and total It is to be done successively and by degrees that so we may be the more humbled and grace exalted Besides that expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is emphatical this is used when Paul expresseth himself in some remarkable manner I the same and no other man as it is used in other places 2 Cor. 10. 1. Now I Paul my self beseech you c. 2 Cor. 12. 13. except it was because I my self was not burdensom to you Rom. 9. 3. I could wish that myself were accursed c. which is enough to convince such as are not refractory ¶ 3. Objections Answered I Shall now consider what is objected against this Interpretation and shall not attend to the general objections such as that That who are Christs and regenerated have higher things attributed to them They have crucified the flesh they have mortifiedeth old man c. As also this seemeth to be injurious to Gods grace it will encourage men in slothfulness and negligence c. for these shall be answered in the general I shall therefore only pitch upon two objections which the Adversaries insist upon The first is That this person here spoken of is said to be once without the Law which say they is the description of a Gentile in Paul 's language therefore he assumeth some other person then his own for Paul alwayes lived under the Law Austin indeed expounds it thus I did live once without the Law that is saith he when he was a child before he had the use of reason This is too harsh Therefore it is better answered The person here spoken of is not said to be without the Law which is indeed the description of a Gentile but that he was alive without the Law once that is he as all the Pharisees understood the Law of God as forbidding only external sins and Paul living unblameably as to that respect thought to have life and righteousness by the Law but when the commandment came in power to him and he was convinced that it did prohibit not only outward sins but inward lustings of heart then he began to find himself a greater sinner than he was aware of then he found the Law to be death to him so that he lived without the Law because he was not affected with the full and exact obligation therof The second thing much insisted upon is That the person here spoken of is said to be carnal and sold under sinne which they say is made by the Scripture a certain property of a wickedman Thus it is said of Ahab Thou hast sold thy self to do wickedly 1 Kin. 21. 10. yea of all the children of Israel 2 Kin. 17. 13. They caused their children to pass through the fire and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord. But first Calvin doth grant that this is spoken of Paul while unregenerate and therefore beginneth his Exposition at the 15th verse of a sanctified person yet that cannot well be because there the Apostle beginneth to alter the tense There he saith I am carnal I am sold under sinne whereas before he had used the
past time We grant it therefore that Paul saith this of himself though regenerated that he was sold under sin But then we say The expressions above named and this is not a like here it is in a passive sense there in an active sense of those wicked men it is said They sold themselves which denoteth their wilfulnes and obstinacy of this he was sold which implieth it to be done against his will as captives are there it is absolutely here it is limited to the flesh And if this phrase did denote a wicked man in an high degree then how can they apply it to a man under legal convictions and in a preparatory way to conversion It would be very hard to say of such men that they sold themselves to do evil Besides there is a two-fold bondage and captivity under sin even as the Israelites had a two-fold one they were born in that of Egypt and another they voluntarily by their sin sell into which was that of Babylon Thus there is a bondage unto sin we are all born in for in Adam we were all sold to sinne and so needed a Christ Redermer And secondly there is a bondage unto sinne by our own voluntary transgressions It is true a regenerate person cannot be sold under sinne in this later sence but he is in the former and so it is no more injurious unto the grace of God as Austin noteth then that he is yet mortal and corruptible Thus you have this great and necessary truth established Paul speaketh here of a regenerate person and that not only of him as he is in the lowest estate and initials of grace as Musculus thinketh but of every godly person while in this life even the most perfect that is though this conflict be more applicable to some then others yea if we do regard the exact purity of the law the most holy do most humble themselves under it ¶ 4. The several Wayes whereby Original Sinne doth hinder the godly in their Religious Progress whereby they are sinful and imperfect THe next Proposition in order is That this flesh this original sinne in a man doth several wayes hinder the godly in their religious progress whereby they are sinful and imperfect whereby every one is forced to cry out as he O me nunquam sapientem so O me nunquam pium Oh me never godly never believing never answering the holy Law of God! This treacherous enemy within us is so multiforme putteth it self Chamelion-like into so many shapes that the most holy men have cause to be alwayes on their guard to keep continual watch lest sometime or other this Daliah betray them into the hands of the Philistines How were it possible that some eminent servants of God as David and Peter have fallen so grievously and committed such sinnes which some Heathens by the light of nature would have abhorred but that there is this fuel and spawn of sinne abiding in every regenerate person It may well be affirmed that the reliquiae peccati originalis the reliques of original sinne are in the most holy for as when an house hath been for the greatest part consumed but at last the fire is quenched yet there remains some little sparks and embers which cause a constant watch lest they kindle and consume whatsoever is left yet undestroyed Such care and fear ought the godly to have lest the remaining corruption break out suddainly and so destroy them I shall instance in some particulars whereby original sinne doth thus hinder and retard the work of grace in us As First This flesh within the godly maketh us imperfect in this life by its strong opposition and contrary thwarting it hath to the grace of God within us These two saith the Text are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are two adversaries daily combating with one another Insomuch that what the Spirit saith do the flesh saith do it not Thus original corruption is like Solomons brawling woman whose contentions are a continual dropping Prov. 19. 13. What rest can such a man have no more then he that lyeth in his bed and hath constant droppings of rain upon him Such a disturber and farre more troublesome inmate is original sinne to a believer grace hath no rest no quietnes but the flesh is alwayes raising up oppositions against it alwayes crossing it what the Spirit would not that the flesh would Therefore Rom. 7. 23. the Apostle expresseth the violent actings thereof by military termes it warreth and it bringeth into captivity In this sence we may say the flesh is Satan for that is an adversary in our way that riseth up and stoppeth us in our spiritual progress It is true the natural and carnal man findeth no such opposition he never cryeth out Oh how hard a thing is it to be heavenly minded to be godly indeed to live a life of faith how difficult to live and die upon Scripture and spiritual grounds for all is flesh within dead men feel no pain they find no opposition Mortuus non belligerat is the Proverb but the godly are in continual exercises no sooner doth grace begin to work but the flesh presently beginneth to counter-work Secondly The flesh doth retard and hinder the work of grace by subtil allurements and enticements Thus as the Devil sometimes appeareth as a roaring Lion and sometimes again as a glistering Serpent and in this latter way is most dangerous so it is with this flesh within us sometimes it grosly and violently opposeth the grace of God at other times it craftily insinuateth It readily interposeth it propounds many sweet baits thus what it cannot do as a Lion it accomplisheth as a Fox so that what counsell is given Mis. 75. Keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lyeth in thy bosome implying there would be treachery in the nearest relations This is much more to be observed against original sinne that lyeth in thy own bosome yea it is thy own self and therefore how easily may it perswade thee yea no temptations without could do thee any hurt did not this flesh within betray all Thus it craftily insinuateth and surprizeth the strongesth holds of the soul before we are aware so you heard from that of James 1. 17. Every man is tempted and drawen aside with his own lust Sweet poison doth more easily destroy white powder that giveth no noise more certainly kills and this is the Reason why the godly may be carried away to sinne of profit and pleasure and not judge them to be so their hearts may not condemne them and all because the flesh can so bewitch us it doth cast such mists before our eyes that we are not able to discern between things that differ Thirdly The flesh within us doth keep off grace from its perfect work by depressing it and weighing it down that when grace would lift up the soul to heaven that is like a milstone about our neck and pulleth us back again it is lime to the birds wings it
yet within a little while after he reproveth Bellarmine for not touching upon all the opinions of others about Infants saying That there are not wanting some amongst Christians who think either some or all Infants are through death wholly abolished as beasts whose Arguments saith he Bellarmine should have answered but herein Vorstius seemeth to manifest his good will to the Socinian party and though he excludeth them from the Evangelici yet he acknowledgeth them Christiani All that I shall speak to it shall be comprehended in these particulars First That concerning Infants there are many difficulties in Divinity for the Scripture speaking for the most part of persons growen up hence it is that we cannot so clearly discover the truth about them as how Infants are justified seeing they have no actual faith to lay hold upon Christ as also how the Spirit of God doth work in them regeneration and make them new creatures for seeing it is plain that of such Infants is the kindome of heaven and Gods promise is to the believer and his seed it necessarily followeth that they are justified and they are sanctified though we know not how the Spirit of God doth this in them Thus in the matter of the Resurrection and the day of Judgment we must necessarily acknowledge that Infants will then be raised with perfect bodies all imperfections being then to be removed from glorified bodies as also that they will be called to Judgement Though the judicial process mentioned by the Evangelist instanceth only in actual sinnes and duties we must then be sober in this inquisition seeing the Scripture speaketh not so expresly of Infants neither is the Question necessarily to be known and therefore if we be over curious in enquiting what God will them Let us 〈…〉 we deserve not Peter's reproof Joh. 20. busily asking about John What is 〈◊〉 to thee follow thou me so God say What is that to thee how I will 〈◊〉 of Infants thou art an adult person do thou follow me Secondly We must necessarily make a distinction between such as 〈…〉 under the Covenant and such whose parents and their seed are strangers 〈◊〉 it and therefore with the Remorstrants to conclude That all Infants 〈◊〉 born of Pagans are surely saved is to put no difference between 〈…〉 Covenant of grace and to be without which yet the Scripture doth 〈◊〉 it saith of the children of unbelievers that they are unclean 1 Cor. 7. and Heathens they are said to be without and therefore according to the Rule of the Scripture we see no more visible way for the children of Heathens then for Heathens themselves to be saved but yet the Orthodox do adde that they leave these things to the judgement of God and content themselves 〈◊〉 that which Paul saith 1 Cor. 5. 12. What have I to do to judge those that are without although the Apostle doth not there speak of a Doctrinal Judgement but a Judgement of Jurisdiction which Church Officers cannot exercise upon those that are without the Church though this be so we must alwayes remember to put a difference between that general love of God to mankind and that special grace of his to his Church and therefore we must needs be injurious to this grace of God if we make children without the Covenant to be partakers of the same special priveledge which others within do receive then the Gospel is no such extrordinary mercy then the Covenant of grace is no such signal favour then believing parents have no such cause to bless God for his mercifull dispensations towards them if Heathens children are in as prepared a way for reconciliation with God as their posterity is 3. Therfore the fountain and spring head of the salvation of children dying in their Infancy is the election of God as well as in grown persons it holdeth in them as well as in adult persons that election doth obtain and he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy election and reprobation is amongst Infants dying so as well as of those that are men though this Doctrine be rejected by Arminians yet believing parents who lose their children while in the blossom are greatly to comfort their souls concerning their children so early deceased for although they are not able to look into the Book of 〈◊〉 which is in heaven and thereby know which childs name is written there and which not yet in that they are externally brought under the Covenant of grace and so in proxime capacity to Church-Communion they may well satisfie themselves in this as an effect of their election and that because God hath chosen them to eternal glory therefore are they in time received into this grace and favour as to be of the reputed members of Christ and in this we must rest not doubting but that God doth internally go along with the Ordinance and that if the child be taken away in its Infancy it is done both in mercy to the child and to the parents Of this subject it is good to peruse Peter Martyr Comment 1 Cor. 7. Lastly Therefore in this great business of the salvation of children dying in Infancy it is election and the Covenant of greace that maketh the difference and not Baptisme This was Austin's mistake of old and the Popish errour in these latter dayes to lay too much upon Baptisme as if that by its very work done opere operato as they say did take away original sinne and put us into a state of grace from which men by actual impietis might afterwards fall away so that the errours about Baptisme are extream either such as think it only a temporary Ordinance for the initiation of the Church at first as the Socinians or else such as make it to be the efficacious instrument of grace and that from the meer work done though there be no good actual motion or stirring of the heart at the time though administred to an adult person Hence it is that by some the Ordinance of Baptisme is exalted too much as if the outward washing would save a man not at all looking to the inward grace represented thereby and by others it is wholly rejected as not being commanded us now in these times or if it be so is only commemorative of our duty not seating and obsignative of any grace of God to us for which cause the Remonstrants say That the Doctrine of the Sacraments as it is now delivered by Protestant Authors is vehemently suspected by them but we are to sail between these two rocks neither giving it too much or too little for we may observe that the Scripture speaketh two wayes of Sacraments First when men do rest on them never at all attending to that grace they signifie then the Scripture doth debase them attributeth no glory at all to them making Sacraments to be no Sacraments if they be not received in a right manner Thus the Apostle saith Circumcision is become uncircumcision to him that keepeth not the Law and 1
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
disease is dangerous It is easie erring but dangerous in this point Hence this Article did so reign in the hearts of those Worthies that they used all diligence to keep this Fountain pure greatly fearing the posterity to come would be negligent herein Now as for the meanes how we are justified they did not only learn it out of the Scriptures which peculiarly appropriate this to Faith and not to any other particular grace but experimentally and practically out of their own hearts God suffering them to be greatly exercised and tempted about his favour and to be often in the deepes not seeing the Sun for many daies that so Justification by Faith alone might be the more confirmed unto them and they have the witness of this Doctrine in themselves And although it be true that the Protestant Writers in this Controversie did chiefly militate against the merit and causality of Works in Justification then asserted by the Papists Yet it is plain that thereby also they did exclude their Conditionality also as to the Act of Justification Hence Perkins quantus vir saith Fides est unicum solum illud instrumentum c. Faith is the alone and only instrument wrought by the Spirit of God in the heart of a man whereby he layeth hold on Christ applying his righteousness to himself which neither Hope or Charity or any other grace can do And whereas he had granted in the ensuing Discourse that these graces were present at Jnstification but doing nothing to it but Faith doth all As the head is present to the eye when it seeth yet it is the eye alone that seeth Bishop his Adversary by scorn calleth this a worthy piece of Philosophy and laboureth to invalidate it but the learned Abbot his Defendant is large in clearing of this Truth distinguishing of a separation Reall and Mental and that again into Negative and Privative declaring that Faith though not negatively considered excluding other graces yet privatively abstracted from the consideration of them is said to justifie I would referre the Reader to those solid and excellent Writers in this point Perkins his Reason for Justification by Faith alone is very pregnant from Joh. 3. 14. where believing in Christ for eternal life is compared to beholding of the Serpent that Moses lifted up in the Wilderness Now as it was meer seeing and no working that did heal the wounded Israelite so it is meer believing and no other grace that maketh us partakers of this Spiritual Priviledge Chemnitius also giving Reasons why the Protestants use the word solâ of Faith in Justification maketh one to be that merits and dignity may be excluded from our works and all attributed to grace only But another ut ostendatur medium seu organon applicationis for not by Works but Faith alone is the Promise received It is clear then that our former Divines though they principally aimed at the excluding of the merit of Works yet did also thereby shut out their conditionality because they make Faith the only applicativum medium and because they deny other graces to have any such receptive power For when the Papists urge other graces as Love c. they answer that these do consist in extramittendo Faith in intus recipiendo And lastly because they make them only qualifications of the subjects and the effects or discoveries of true Faith Insomuch that we never read in Scripture or as I know of in any sound Authour that we are justified by repentance or by love Neither is this Justification by Faith alone excluding the Conditionality of Works to be applyed to our Justification at first only but as continued so that from first to last we are justified all along by Faith Although therefore the learned Brother doth often fly to this Sanctuary and if this fall to the ground all his superstructure tumbleth with it yet it is clear by Scripture Justification begun and continued is by Faith alone Hence the Apostle arguing in this very matter brings that text The just shall live by Faith Gal. 3. 11. which belongs to the whole course of our life respectively to Justification and when the Apostle saith Rom. 5. Being justified by Faith we have peace with God Would it not be irrationall to limit it only to our Justification at first Is not the righteousness of God revealed from Faith to Faith Rom. 1. 17. Not from Faith to Works See Calvin proving non minus Justitiae complementum quam initium fidei tribuendum esse So that our Justification is by Faith to Faith not by Faith to Works If my judgment were for Justification by Works as a condition thereof as well as Faith I should think it my duty both in Preaching and Printing as occasion serveth to perswade the forbearing of the word Sola when we say Faith Justifieth For if God hath appointed Works as well as Faith how dare any man presume to say Faith alone And thus we must receive the moderating advice of Cassander who saith Multis eruditis piis viris satius videtur in concionibus popularibus vox illa Sola praetermittatur I can grant that we are justified by Faith as it is an instrument appointed by God and as it is a condition provided the conditionality of it be limited to the receptive Office of Faith and Gods designment thereunto But it cannot be an instrument applying and a condition in the sense my Reverend Brother contends for When we say Faith Justifieth as an applying meanes then Christ and his Grace is considered as donum oblatum Faith being the hand that receiveth this Treasure But when it Justifieth as a condition in the sense asserted it must be considered ut opus praestitum whereby the Covenant is made good to us which maketh two distinct kindes of Justification which latter differeth from the Popish way only ut magis minus They make Works merits and Causes he Conditions whereas not only causality but conditionality doth overthrow the alone Justification by Faith and introduceth another way of Justification then by application alone Or if the learned Brother will make Works a condition of Justification when Faith alone doth begin and continue it he will be necessarily involved in a contradiction In what a sense I make Faith a Passive Instrument but supernatural I have in my former Treatise clearly explained and so need not repeat it here again It is no Contradiction to exclude Works form a Conditionality as to the Act of Justification and yet to affirm them requisite necessarily in the Subject Justified I wonder at the wilfulness in some who accuse them as a contradiction when Protestant Writers do a thousand times over illustrate this by divers Similitudes Because Repentance is required as well as Faith must their office and work be confounded Must all they be Conditions Certainly it 's not Repentance but Faith that receiveth the pardon Yet Repentance qualifieth the Subject and denoteth it capable of
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. Spiritual Refining the Second Part or A Treatise of Sinne with its Causes Differences Mitigations and Aggravations specially of the Deceitfulness of the Heart of Presumptious and Reigning Sinnes and of Hypocrisie and Formality in Religion All tending to unmask Counterfeit Christians Terrifie the ungodly Comfort doubting Saints Humble man and Exalt the Grace of God His CXLV Sermons upon the whole 17th Chapter of St John being Christs Prayer before his Passion The Difficulty of and Encourageâ—â—â—â— to Reformation a Sermon upon Mark. 1. vers 2 4. before the House of Commons A Sermon before the Court Marshal Psal 106 30 31. 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.
is usually objected against this truth And First The command of God requiring we should not lust and that we should love God with all our heart and all our soul and might From hence they argue if these two commands cannot be perfectly fullfilled why are they required of us To this it is answered that it must be granted no man living is able to answer the perfection and exactness of this law who can say he loveth God as much as the command requireth that he never faileth in the least degree who can say that he never finds any sinful motions any irregular workings of heart though he do not consent to them suppose that were alwayes true which is not to be granted yet such motions being in the heart the very having of them maketh us to fall short of the exactness of the law But yet these commands are necessary for the rule must alwayes be perfect not wanting or failing in any thing The command doth represent the perfect Idea of compleat righteousness as Statues that are erected up in high and eminent places are commonly of greater length then the ordinary stature of men is Thus it is one thing the righteousness commanded in the law and the participation of it in the subject that receiveth it according to its proper capacity The law then is perfect but we are imperfect true obedience and imperfect must not be confounded as Castellio most ignorantly doth and therefore abandoneth that opinion De Justificat pag. 46. which maketh imperfection a sinne but he calumniateth the orthodox when he saith we hold nothing a vertue but what is chiefest ibid. pag. 43. neither do we call that imperfection which may have a greater degree Adam was not imperfect because he had not so much holiness as the Angles have In heaven it may be judged that one Saint shall have more grace then another yet every one perfected in their measure and though it be so he that hath not so much holiness as the chiefest shall not be judged sinfully imperfect there is a negative imperfection and a privative this later is when the subiect doth not partake of what degrees it ought to do and then it is alwayes a sinne The starre hath not as much light as the Sunne but this is no privative imperfection because it is not bound to be the Sunne Now the command of God requireth of us the chiefest love that we can by grace put forth not the highest degree of love which is possible but what we are bound to do and any defect herein is a sinne We admit that all graces are not alike no more then all sinnes one may be more holy then another yet he that is the highest attainer doth not reach to the utmost of the command and therefore whatever falleth short of that is damnable deserving wrath of God Secondly When we say no man is able to fullfill the Law of God in this life because the flesh doth still abide in us We mean not as if this were so because God could not subdue it or sinne and the Devil were more potent then Christ but he hath in his Word declared that he will not give such a measure of grace in this life by the righteousness whereof we should be justified So that Castellio's exclamations in this case are ridiculous here is no injury done to the Spirit of God we do not make Christ a semi-Saviour for we readily grant That the Spirit of God could make us absolutely free from sinne in the twinkling of an eye In the hour of death we are immediately purged from all evil So that it 's plain the Spirit of God could make us thus compleat but he will not neither doth this tend to his dishonour no more than that we die that we are â—â—ck and carry about with us corruptible bodies For did not Christ die that we might have glorious bodies that we might be redeemed from this corruption Yet this is not done immediately Seeing then Christ hath assured us that both soul and body shall be made perfectly holy and happy in time though it be not done as soon as we would have it we are not to cavil herein but satisfie our selves with the wisdom of God who doth every thing beautifull in his season It is true Christ when he cured bodily diseases he did perfectly cure them but doth it therefore follow that he must do so in soul-diseases as Castellio urgeth No certainly but rather as Christ though he healed some perfectly of their diseases yet he did not take away their mortality from them So though by the grace of God we have strength to overcome gross sinnes yet we are not made impeccable as the glorified Saints in Heaven are but there remaineth the fuell of sinne still within us not but that God could remove it as he could have inabled the Israelites to have conquered all the Canaanites but because he will not God could have made all the world at once but he proceeded by degrees and thus he doth in our sanctification So that herein we are daily taught to be humble in our selves and to depend alone upon the grace of God It is true if all sinne were removed and we confirmed in a state of grace then there would be no danger of pride as there is not in those who are made glorious in Heaven But were were we made perfect and delivered from all sinne yet abiding still in a mutable condition we should quickly be drunken with the thoughts of our own excellencies so that perfection while we are in the way would not be so advantagious unto us unless to perfection God should also add confirmation and this would be to confound Heaven and earth together And thus much for the first Objection ¶ 6. I Shall onely name a second Objection made in the general against the reliques of original corruption in a man though regenerated and thereby the imperfection of our renovation because this doth more properly belong to another head in Divinity which is much disputed viz. De Perfectione Justitia Of the Perfection of righteousness in this life The Objection which is plausibly and speciously urged against this truth is That this Doctrine is an enemy to a holy life it is pernicious to godlinesse that it is a pleading for sinne and an encouragement to men to content themselves in their formal and sluggish way because they cannot be perfect Thus it is thought we bring up an ill report about the way to Heaven as those Spies did about Canaan we discourage people making their hearts faint because of great Gyants that we say are in the way In this manner Julian the Pelagian old of calumniated Austin that he did in naturae invidiam malae conversationis sordes refundere that he did Peccantibus metum demere quorum obscenitatum Apostolorum sanctorum omnium injuriis he did consolari because he made Paul to speak those words The evil that I hate that I do of his