Our Saviour speaks to this twice as it 's mentioned by the Evangelist Matthew Chap. 5. 30 18. 3. It is better saith he to go halt and blind into life than with two hands and eyes to be cast into everlasting fire Think then whether will be more burdensom to leave the pleasures of sinne here or hereafter to be tormented to all eternity Thirdly Original sinne may be called a Body To shew the reality of it that it is not a meer fancy or humane figment as some call it or a non ens as the late Writer D. J. T. Answ to a letter We know the Scripture and so our use of speech opposeth a body to a shadow The Legal Rites are called a shadow and Christ the body Thus original sinne it is not the shadow or the notion of a sinne it liveth and moveth as well as actual it provoketh God it curseth and damneth as well as actual sins So that we are not to flight it or to be fearless of it but rather to tremble under it as the fountain of all our evil and calamity The word Body is sometimes taken for that which is substantial and real in which sense some have excused Tertullian and others that attributed a body to God and Angels as if they intended nothing but a real substance as the aâ—iome of the Stoicks was Omne quod est est corpus Hence they made Virtues and the Arts Bodies But whatsoever their intentions might be the expression is dangerous for God is a Spirit but there is no danger to call original sinne a Body thereby to express the full and real nature of it and thus farre Illyricus his intention was good though his opinion was absurd to amplifie those terms the Scripture giveth to original sinne in opposition to Popery wherein they speak so coldly and formally of it only that he should therefore make it to be more than an accident even the substance of a man in a theological consideration hence he did overthrow all Philosophy and Divinity So that properly the Lutheran Poet cannot be excused when he saith Ipse Deo eoram sine Christo culpa scelumque Ipse ego peccatum sum proprieque vocer In a figurative expression it may pass but he intended Flaccianism hence Contzen speaks of Illyricus by scorn Cujus vel substantia est peccatum Yet thus much we must take notice of That the Scripture doth not in vain use such substantive names about our natural defilement for hereby it doth aggravate it and would have us also know the greatness and vileness of it For how few are there till sanctified and enlightned by the Spirit of God that do bewail this as an heavy burden They can complain of the pains the aches the troubles of their natural body but do not at all regard this body of sin whereas to a spiritual tender heart this body of sinne is farre more grievous than any bodily diseases or death it self yea death is therefore welcome to them because that alone will free from this body of sinne so that they shall never be molested with it more Fourthly Original sinne is called the Body of sinne Because it is a mass of sin a lump of all evil It is not one sinne but all sinne seminally And this seemeth to be the most formal and express reason why the Apostle giveth it this name calling it a Body and attributing members to it for as a body is not one member or one part but the whole compounded of all Thus is original sinne it is not the defilement or pollution in one part of the soul but it diffuseth it self through all It is a body of sinne and herein it doth exceed all actual transgressions and for this reason we ought the more to grieve and mourn under it The body is heavier than one part why are actual sins a load upon thee but this which is the cause of all and comprehends all thou art never affected with O pray more for the Spirit of conviction by the Word Look oftner into the pure glass of the Law Compare thy universal deformity with that exact purity It is for want of this the pharisaical and the natural man is so self-confident trusteth so much in his own heart doth so easily perswade himself of Gods love whereas if we come to a Christian like Paul complaining of this Law of sinne within him finding it captivating and haling of him whither he would not then we have much a do to comfort such an one all our work is to make him have any hope in Christ he thinketh none are so bad as he that the very devils have not worse in them than he feeleth in himself and all this is because original sinne is such a loathsom dunghill in his brest that as those who have putrified arms or other parts of their body they cannot endure themselves they would flie from themselves Thus it is with them because of this original pollution Fifthly Original sinne may be called a Body Because it inclineth onely to carnal earthly and bodily things not at all savouring the things of God and his Spirit Hence it is called so often the flesh because it only carrieth a man to fleshly things being contrary to God and full of enmity to his will as Rom. 8. And doth not experience confirm this Take any man till renewed by grace and all the bent and impulse of his soul are to such things alone that are earthy and sensual Jam. 3. 17. The Apostle James doth there excellently describe the nature of all natural wisdom It is earthy sensual and devilish Every one by nature is both beastly and devillish This body of sinne presseth him down to the earth and hell Insomuch that you may as soon see a worm flying in the air like a bird as a man abiding in this natural pollution having his conversation in heaven So that being made thus bodily and carnal all the spiritual things of God are both above our apprehension and contrary to our affections Now this very particular if there were no more is as deep as the Sea and containeth unspeakable matter of humiliation viz. That by this natural pollution we are destitute of Gods Spirit Spiritual things are no more apprehended by us than melody by the deaf ear Do ye not see wise men learned men yea great Scholars when you come to discourse with them about spiritual things they are very fools and are as blind as moles that live wholly in the earth But of this more in the effects of original sin Lastly In the Scripture Body is used sometimes for the strength and power of a thing And thus original sinne is the body as that which giveth life and motion to all actual sins Let the Use be greatly to humble thee under this notion Gods word gives original sinne This sinfull body It troubleth thee thou hast a mortal body a corruptible body but above all this body of sinne should be a burden to
to prove the Creation of the soul shall be from Eccl. 12. 7. Then shall dust returne to the earth as it was and the spirit shall returne to God who gave it This seemeth to be very clear for he speaketh of every man that dieth he considers the two essential parts of man his body which he calleth dust because it was made of dust and then his soul which he cals a spirit because of its simple and incorporeal nature again which strengthens the Argument he compareth these two in their contrary or divers originals The body returneth to the earth the Spirit unto God that gave it Though we would think this might satisfie yet Austin of old and those that are Traducians they say God indeed giveth the soul by propagation as well as by Creation God giveth two wayes by Creation or by Propagation as saith Austin God is said 1 Cor. 15. 38. to give every several grain its body yet it is by seminal propagation and God is often in the Scripture said to give us our eyes and our ears and our bodies yet they are by natural generation or if this will not serve then they say This is true onely of Adam not his posterity because Adam's body was only made of the dust not ours and God did breath a soul into him at first But every one may see these are weak exceptions as for the later it 's plain he doth not speak of Adam but every man that dieth For having advised the young man to improve his youth for God he tels him old-age is coming and then death then shall he return How can this be applied to Adam who had returned to the earth many hundreds of years before that was spoken And whereas it is said That only Adam's body was made of dust The answer is easie That though our bodies be of flesh and bone immediately yet the remote principle is dust and therefore Abraham though his body was not made as Adams yet he said 〈◊〉 was but dust and ashes Thus this Text stands firm for the immediate Creation of the soul Though let me by the way give you rightly to understand that later clause The spirit returneth to him that gave it The meaning is not as if the soul of every man was saved but that it goeth into the hands of God as a Judge to dispose of it according to what hath been done in the flesh As for the next exception that will be answered in the following Argument only in the general this may be said That if God gave the soul onely mediately by propagation then the body might be said to return to him as well as the soul SECT II. WE will proceed to a second and that is from Zech. 12. 1. The Lord which stretcheth forth the Heavens and layeth the foundation of the earth and formeth the spirit of man within him Here we see the Lords power described by a three-fold effect the making of the Heavens the laying of the earths foundation and making the spirit of man Now it is plain that the two former were by Gods immediate Creation therefore the later must be So that the Context doth evidently shew That Gods making of the soul of a man within him is no lesse wonderfull then the making Heaven and earth This Text was also of old agitated by Austin in this controversie and to answer it he runneth to his old refuge of forming a thing immediately and by natural propagation God is not to be excluded saith he from having a special hand in giving being to the soul yet it doth not follow that therefore it must be by creation out of nothing To this purpose they bring that of Job Chap. 10. 10 11. where Job attributeth the making and forming of his body to God Hast thou not poured me out like milk c Thou hast cloathed me with skin and flesh So Psal 139. 13 14 15. where David acknowledgeth the wonderfull wisdom and power of God in making his body Then hast curiously wrought me As the curious needle-woman doth some choice piece now we cannot from hence prove that therefore the body is of God by immediate Creation But this cannot weaken the Text for we told you That the Argument is not meerly from that expressing of forming the spirit of man within him but from the upper two Attributes Besides the Scripture tels us plainly of what materials the body is formed of whereas they who hold the propagation of the soul are extreamly streightned and difficultated to say what the soul is made of They say it is not ex animâ but ab animâ not of the soul but from the soul of the Parent but then are divided amongst themselves when they go to explicate how the soul hath its being if not from Creation Some say it hath its being by a corporal seminal manner but then it must be a body which Austin would constantly deny for he dissents from Tertullian in that though both held the natural Traduction of the soul Austin I mean only suppositively but Tertullian positively yet he professeth his dissent from Tertullian who made it a body This therefore being thought absurd others they tell us of an incorporeal and immaterial seed from the soul of the Parents which causeth the soul of the child To this purpose Tertullian in his book de animâ distinguisheth of semen animale which cometh from the soul and semen corporeum which cometh from the body But this may easily be judged as absurd as the former If therefore the Scripture when it speaketh of the forming of mans spirit within him had discovered the materials of which it is formed as well as when it speaketh of the forming of the body there would have been some pretence for the Argument But calling it a spirit and as you see in the Text comparing the forming of it with the making of the Heavens and the Earth this makes the creation of the soul more than probable Tarnavius the Lutheran would likewise avoid this place Comment in loc by saying the Hebrew word Jahac doth most commonly signifie not an immediate creation out of nothing for so the Hebrew word Barah doth for the most but a mediate out of some prejacent matter yet indisposed but this Rule being not universal it hath no strength in it Besides the Hebrew word is in the Present tense who formeth so that it cannot relate to the making of Adam's soul at first Indeed the fore-named Tarnavius doth from the participle Benani draw an Argument against us saying It doth not alwayes signifie actum secundum but habitum and potentiam and so maketh the sense to be God who hath this power immediately to create the soul if he will but all will confess this to be forced That is more considerable when he saith As God in stretching out the Heavens and laying the foundation of the earth is not thereby declared to create new Heavens and a new earth every day so neither is it
the very first yeeld themselves up to the Devil but they did repell the Devils temptations awbile neither was it the inordinate desire of the forbidden fruit that was his first sinne but pride and unbelief not believing the threatnings of God and affecting to be like God and such sinnes do quickly and easily penetrate into the best and noblest subjects as you see in the Angels themselves those sublime and admirable spiritual substances yet how quickly did such kind of sinnes enter into them and defile them all over So that we are to look to those spiritual secret sinnes which did induce Adam to eat of the forbidden fruit Lastly It 's objected by them and the same Argument also is improved by Bellarmine That man consisting of a soul a spiritual substance and of a body which is a sensible corporeal substance when these two are united in one person it 's impossible but the spiritual part should incline one way and the sensitive another The rational part that desireth a spiritual good and the sensitive part that which is sensible and these are contrary But the answer is that though these inclinations are divers yet they are not contrary but where sin hath made an Ataxy As God at first ordained the will which is appetitus rationalis to follow the understanding so he did also our affections to follow both of them so that there was an essential subordination of the affectionate part to the rational even as we see the members of the body do readily move at the command of the soul or as in perfect mixt bodies though there be contrary qualities yet by the temperament of that body their contrariety is removed and certainly the Angels sinned who yet had not any sensitive appetite to rebell against the rational therefore it was not from this necessarily that Adam did sinne Thus in Christ there was no repugnancy between grace and nature for when he said Father if it be possible let this Cup passe away This was not an absolute desire of his humane nature but a conditional one and still with submission therefore he addeth Neverthelesse thy will be done and the Saints in Heaven when they shall have re-assumed their bodies will not find any contrariety between the rational and sensitive appetite And thus you see that Adam was created in this holy estate Lastly This holiness and righteousness in a well explained sense was not supernatural but natural The Remonstrants they make this dispute about original righteousnesse inepta absurda absurd and foolish Therefore they deny any infused or concreated habits also and say The rectitude of the faculties was enough But the Orthodox say Adam could not be created without such habits or principles of holinesse within him because he was created for the enjoyment of God and therefore they call it natural not as flowing from the principles of nature but as a moral condition necessary to qualifie him for his end and therefore it was given to whole mankind in Adam and would have been naturally propagated and whereas the Remonstrants ask To what purpose or use is such original righteousnesse For if it did not necessarily and immutably determine Adams will to good than this original righteousnesse did need another and so in infinitum or if it did then How came it about that Adam did sinne To this subtilty it is answered That this original righteousnesse was not to determine the will of Adam necessarily but to incline and sortifie Adams will the more strongly and easily to do what was good So that although it did not absolutely take away Adams mutability and liberty yet it did heighten and raise up the faculties of his soul to what was good yet this was not a superadded grace to Adam as actual confirmation in holines would have been but a natural and due qualification preparing him for communion with God So that the discourse about man in his pure naturals without this original righteousnesse is an house that hath not so much as a sandy foundation it being without any foundation at all God having put his Image into man as Phydias did his into Minerva's shield that none could take that out but he must also destroy that shield Thus the Devil could not prevail with Adam to sinne but by the losse of Gods Image CHAP. XII A further Consideration of the Image of God which Man was created in Shewing what particular Graces Adam's Soul was adorn'd with SECT I. WE are discovering the Nature of that Image God created us in at first that so we may see how great our losse is The last particular was The naturality and supernaturality of it in divers respects And this is the more to be observed because while the Orthodox oppose the Socinians who affirm Nothing but a natural and simple innocency in Adam without any infused or concreated habits of holinesse or any thing supernatural in him You would think they joyn with the Papists who dogmatize That all the holinesse Adam had was supernatural Again while the same Orthodox oppose Papists because of this opinion one would think they joyned with the Socinians who say Adam had nothing in him but what was natural whereas the truth consists between these and therefore original righteousnesse was supernatural to Adam if you respect the principle from whence it did flow it was immediately from God not from principles of nature and this opposeth the Socinian yet if you do consider Adam the subject of this righteousnesse and the end for which he was created so it was a perfection due to him and in that respect called natural otherwise had not God invested mans nature with this and concreated this perfection with him the noblest of visible creatures had been dealt worst with SECT II. YEt in the second place Though this Image of God was natural to Adam yet we must not say that he had nothing supernatural that there was nothing by way of superadded grace to him Even as in Adam although we deny that he was created in pure naturals yet we say that Adam in some respect may be said in Paradise to live an animal life as well as he was created immortal Adam was made free from death he had not any proxim or immediate cause of death yet he was not made immortal as the glorified Saints in Heaven shall be for their bodies are made then spiritual not animal as the Apostle distinguisheth whereas Adam's body was in this sense animal that it did need meat and drink as also it was for generation to procreate and propagate a posterity which argued the animality of Adams body but not the mortality of it as the Socinians say unless we mean such an immortality as our bodies shall have in Heaven Thus though Adam was created immortal upon supposition of his obedience yet that doth not exclude wholly an animal life or natural as the Apostle expresly saith 1 Cor. 15 46. That was not first which is spiritual but that
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
pledge of theirs The second Reason which is pertinent to my matter in hand is from the Collation between Adam and Christ As Adam was the common root and principle of death to all that come from him so is Christ the common Head of Salvation and Life to all who are of him The Apostle Rom. 5. maketh such a Comparison between Adam and Christ as two common Principles and Heads but to another purpose there it is in respect of spiritual death viz. Sinne by one and Righteousnesse by the other but here it is principally in respect of temporal Death and Resurrection by Christ The Apostle having thus cleared this Truth he then enters into a second Debate viz. itâ—â—eth â—â—eth a corruptible body but it shall be raised an incorruptible one It dieth a natural body but it shall be raised a spiritual Last this Distinction of a natural and spiritual body should seem uncouth and very absurd he asserteth and confirmeth it by Scripture And here again in the second place he taketh up a Collation between the first Adam and the second and therein we have them compared 1. In regard of their Condition and State 2. In respect of their Originals And 3. In respect of their Qualities and Properties This illustration the Apostle is large in because the strength of his Argument lieth in this Such as the Principles are such are the Effects Such as the Root is such are the Branches Now all men have from Adam earthly mortal bodies which will die Therefore all that are Christs shall have from him heavenly and spiritual bodies Let us diligently open the particulars wherein we have this Collation between Adam and Christ made for from hence we shall have a fair occasion to examine How from Adam we come thus to have his Image upon us which is the great difficulty in the Doctrine of original sinne SECT II. THe first particular therefore wherein they are compared is Adam's estate is proved from Scripture ver 5. As it is written The first man Adam was made a living soul we have this related Gen. 2. 7. where God is said Adam's body being made out of the dust and formed thencefrom was yet without life and motion therefore God did with him farre otherwise than with bruit beasts for He breathed into him the breath of life This is spoken after the manner of men in a figurative way we are not to think God took on him the form of a man and so breathed life into Adam Neither may we say This was a particle or part of the divine Essence which God communicated to man But the meaning is God inspired into him his soul which gave life and sense and motion to the body by which he becoming a living soul that is a living creature This is Adam's condition But as for Christ who is here called the last Adam Adam because a common Person and last because there is no more to succeed him This last Adam is said To be made a quickening Spirit not but that Christ was man yea and had such an humane Nature as Adam had like to him in all things Sinne onely excepted But this is spoken of Christ principally after his Resurrection For Christ while he lived on earth had an animal body he needed food and rest but after his Resurrection then he had a spiritual body so that it is in reference to this that Christ is called a Spirit but with this Epithete A quickning Spirit that is which giveth life to others He hath not only life in himself but he giveth it also to others and therefore no wonder if he raise those that belong to him But seeing Christ is thus a quickening Spirit it may be said Why then have the people of God their natural bodies still If they be in the second Adam Why are they not as he is To this the Apostle answereth verse 46. That which is natural is first and afterwards that which is spiritual It is the will and appointment of God that the imperfect things should be first and afterwards that which is more perfect In the next place The Comparison is made between the two Adams in respect of their Originals The first was of the earth earthly his body was made of the dust of the earth The Aegyptians had some confused knowledge of this and therefore defined man to be Animal terrenum è limo natum Hence in their Feasts they offered unto their gods an herb that grew in their lakes to signifie what man was But the second man is the Lord from Heaven This place hath an appearance of some difficulty for from this Text did some Anabaptists who revived an old Heresie viz. That Christ had not his body of the Virgin Mary indeavour to prove That Christ had his body from Heaven else say they what opposition could there be made to Adam's body Christs body was in the Virgin Mary but not of her as they affirm But this is grosly to mistake For the Apostle doth not intend to make a comparison in the Materials of which both bodies were compounded but the Originals from whence they are The one is from Earth the other from Heaven being the Lord of Heaven and Earth Some indeed have said That Christ is therefore said to be from Heaven because though it was materially of the Virgin Mary yet because the Conception was in an extraordinary manner by the holy Ghost therefore it might be said to be from Heaven This may have some truth yet Adam was in an extraordinary manner and that in respect of his body formed by God called therefore the Sonne of God yet he cannot be said to be from Heaven So that the most solid Interpretation is to understand it of the Person of Christ and so he is wholly of Heaven being the true and eternal God in which respect John 3. 13. he is said to be The Sonne of man which is in Heaven John 6 38 41. he is said To come from Heaven So that although his body was of the Virgin Mary yet as God in which respect he hath his personality so he is from Heaven The third and last Collation is in respect of their qualities and properties The first man is of the earth earthy in a three fold respect 1. Because his affections are only to earthly things 2. Because the place where he is to be is the earth 3. Because of his mortality he is to return to dust again But the ' second Adam is heavenly in a three-fold contrary respect 1. He is heavenly in regard of his life and conversation 2. In regard of the place where now he is sitting in Heaven at the right hand of God and thus all Christs members shall be heavenly for they likewise shall be in Heaven for ever with the Lord. 3. Heavenly Because of his immortality for he shall never die more SECT III. THus we have the Apostles elegant opposition between the first and second Adam and my Text is a
record this day against you that I have set before you life and eath cursing and blessing therefore choose life Observe what should direct us in choosing viz. That which the servants of God deliver from the Word and so that which the mind of a man enlightned from thence doth declare to us and for defect herein it is that we choose evil and death for how often doth the Minister of the Gospel yea thy own conscience it may be within thee obtest and adjure thy will as herein the Text Moses did the people of Israel I call heaven and earth to witness saith conscience that I have shewed thee the good thou wert to do I have terrified and threatned thee with hell and that vengeance of God which will follow thee upon the commission of such sinnes Therefore look to thy election see again and again what it is that thou choosest But though all this be done yet the will will choose what affections say what sense suggesteth dealing herein like Rehoboam who would not hearken to the advice and direction of the ancient grave and wise counsellors thou plus valet umbrasenis quam gladius juvenus as the expression is in the civil law but he gave his ear to the yong men that flattered him and were brought up with him which proved to his desiruction Thus the will in its choice it maketh listneth not to what the mind doth with deliberation and prudence direct to but what the inferior appetite doth move unto that it followeth And this is the foundation of all those sad and unsuccesfull choices we make in the world this layeth work for that bitter repentance and confusion of soul which many fall into afterward Oh that I had never choosen this way Oh that I had never used such meanes Oh me never wise Oh foolish and wretched man that I am Especially this bitter bewailing and howling about what we have chosen will be discovered in hell what will those eternal yellings and everlasting roarings of soul be but to cry out Oh that I had never chosen to commit such sinnes Oh that I had never chosen such companions to acquaint with Thus the foolish and sinnefull choice thou makest in this life will be the oil as it were poured into those flames of fire in hell to make them burne seven times hotter Secondly The other particular wherein this corrupt frame of the will in election is seen is That in the meanes it doth choose it never considereth how just and lawfull and warrantable the meanes are but how usefull and therefore though God be offended though his Law be broken yet he will choose to do such things whereas we must know that God hath not only required the goodness of an end but also the lawfulness and goodness of the meanes and the sanctified will dareth not use an unlawfull medium to bring about the most desired good that is but the carnal heart taketh up that rule of the Atheistical Politian Quod utile est illud justum est That which is profitable that is just and righteous That famous act of the Athenians being provoked to it by Aristides the Just may shame many Christians when Themistocles had a stratagem in his head against their enemies telling the people he had a matter of great weight in his mind but it was not fit to be communicated to the people The people required him to impart it to Aristides who being acquainted with it declareth it to the people That Themistocle's counsell was utile but injustum profitable but unjust by which meanes the people would not pursue it Here was some restraint upon men by the very principles of a natural conscience but if the will be left to it self and God neither sanctifying or restrayning it it looketh only to the goodness and profitableness in means never to the lawfulness of them Some have disputed Whether it be not lawfull to perswade to use a less evil that a greater may be avoided They instance in Lot offering his daughters to the Sodomites to be abused by them rather then commit a more horrid impiety by abusing themselves with mankind as they thought those strangers to be but the Scripture rule is evident and undeniable We must not do evil that good may come of it Rom. 3. 8. Neither doth a less evil cease to be an evil though compared with a greater and therefore as in a Syllogisme if one of the premises be false there cannot be inferred a true conclusion è falso nil nisi falsum so also è malo nil nisi malum from an evil meanes there can never come but that which is evil though indeed God may by his omnipotent Power work good out of evil know then that it cometh from the pollution of thy will that thou darest make choice of means not because just or righteous but because profitable for that end thou desirest ¶ 8. The Pollution of the Will in its Acts of Consent VVE proceed to another act of the Will as it is exercised about the meanes which is called Consent for though in order of nature this doth precced election yet because I intend not to say much about it at this time because more will be spoken to it when I shall treat of the immediate effects of original sinne I therefore bring it in in this place And for to discover the sinfulness hereof we must know That the will hath a two-fold operation or motion in this respect for there are motus primo primi the immediate and first stirrings of the will antecedently to any deliberation or consent The natural man being wholly carnal cannot feel these no more then a blind man can discern the motes in the air when the Sunne-beames do enlighten it but the godly man as appeareth Rom. 7. he findeth such motions and insurrections of sinne within him and that against his will Now although it be true when there are such motions of the will but resisted and gainsayed they are not such sinnes as shall be imputed unto us and thus far Bernards expression is to be received Non necet sensus rei deest consensus yet they are in themselves truely and properly sinnes The Papists and Protestants are at great difference in this point The Romanists denying all such indeliberate motions antecedent to our consent to be properly sinnes but the Reformed do positively conclude they are and that because the Apostle Rom. 7. calleth them often sinnes and sinnes that are against the law and which ought to be mortified It is true we further adde when the sanctified soul doth withstand them cry out to God for aid against them as the maid in danger to be defloured if she called out for her help the Law of God did then free her so God also will through Christ forgive such sinfull motions of thy soul which appear in thy heart whether thou wilt or no yet for all this these stirrings of the will being inordinate and against the Law of God
Haile thou sonne of Jupiter yea he sends into Greece that by a publique Edict he might be acknowledged for a god which the Lacedemonians in scoff did without scruple admit saying Qundoquidem Alexander vult esse Deus Deus esto Seeing Alexander will be god let him be one But the Athenians being more scrupulous or at least of greater hatred against him punished Demades the Orator for advising them to receive him as god for he had said Look Oye Athenians Nè dum coelum custodies terram amittatis while ye keep heaven ye loose the earth This carnal counsel is admired as infallible policy almost by all the Potentates of the world Thus you see what pride is latent in the will of a man and how farre it may rise by temptations though the experience of humane imbecillities may quickly rebuke such mad insolencies yet some excuse or other they use to put it off as when it thundered one asked Alexander wheather he could do so he put it of and said he would not terrifie his friends if you say this corruption of the will is not in every man by nature I grant it for the degree but it is habitually and radically there Let any man be put in such temptations as Herod and Alexander were and left alone to this inbred pride and original pollution it would break out into as great a flame Original sinne needeth time to conceive and bring forth its loathsome monsters 3. This pride of the will is seen In the presumption and boldness of it to inquire into the consels of his Majesty and to call God himself to account for his administrations Rom. 9. 20 who art thou O man that disputest against God O man that is spoken to humble and debase him Wilt thou call God to an account Shall God be thought unjust because thou canst not comprehend his depths Certainly God hath more power over us then the Potter over his clay for the Potter doth not make the materials of that he only tempreth it wheras God giveth us our very beings and therefore it is intolerable impudency for us to ask God why he made us so yet how proud and presumptousis man to dispute about Gods precedings whereas the great Governors of the world will not allow any Subject to say why dost thou so to them The Psalmist complaineth of this pride in some men Psal 12. 4. Our lips are our own who is Lord over us Thus Pharaoh said to Moses who is the Lord that I should obey him This pride in the will whereby men will audaciously intrude into things they know not hath made these heretiques in judgements the Pelagians and Socinians Their will doth not captivate their understanding to Gods Ipse dixit for us the Schoolemen observe truly in every act of faith there is required pia affectio and inclinatio voluntatis and when that is refractory and unsubmitting it causeth many damnable heresies in the judgement for it is the pertinacy of the will that doth greatly promote the making of an heretique Lastly This pride of the will is seen In raging and rebellious risings up against God in his proceedings against us In this the pride of the will doth sadly discover it self what rage what fretting and discontent do we find in our hearts when Gods will is to chastise or afflict us If we could bind the armes of the Omnipotent to prevent his blowes how ready is presumptuous man to do it It is therefore a great work of regeneration to mollity and soften the will to make it sacile and ductile so as to be in what forme God would have us to be When David had such holy power over his will 2 Sam. 15. 26 that in his miserable flight from Absalom he could say If ye have no delight in me behold here I am let him do to me as seemeth good to him he could abound and want be rich and poor a king and no king all in a day this argued the great work of sanctification upon his will This iron was now in the fire and so could be molleated as God would have it Thus in the fore mentioned instance of Paul when he cryed out Lord what wilt thou have me to do Here was a tender humble resignative of the whole will to God without any conditions or provisoes But oh the pride and unruliness of the will if left to its natural pollution When God shall any wayes bring his judgements upon us how impatiently do we rise against God even as if we would be revenged of his Majesty As it is said of the Thracians when it thundereth and lightneth they shoot against heaven as if they would bring God to order Xerxes scourged the sea and sent a Bill of defiance against the hill of Athos Augustus being beaten with a tempest at sea defied their god Neptune and caused his image to be taken down from the place where the rest of their gods were Yea Charron speaketh of a Christian King who having received a blow from God swore be would be revenged and gave a commandment that for ten yeares no man should pray to him or speak of him I tremble to mention these dreadfull instances but they are usefull to demonstrate what pride and unsubdued contumacy is in the will of man even against God himself when he crosseth us of our wills Yea do not the godly themselves though grace hath much mollified their will and made it in a great measure obsequious to God yet do they not mourne and pray and groane under the pride of their will do they not complain oh they cannot bring their will to Gods will They cannot be content and patient under Gods dispensations they fret they mutter they repine Is not all this because the will is proud the will doth not submit Heavenly skill and art to order thy will would make thee find rest in every estate ¶ 6. The Contumacy and Refractoriness of the Will ANother instance of the native pollution of the will is The contumacy and refrractioness of the will it is obstinate and inpenetrable The Scripture useth the word heart for the mind will and conscience not attending to philosophical distinctions so that the stony heart the uncircumcised heart is the same with a stubborn and disobedient will Thus the Scripture putteth the whole cause of a man 's not conversion of his not repenting upon the resractory will in a man especially Levit. 26. 14. If ye will not hearken to me and will not do these Commandments vers 18. If ye will not for all this hearken to me vers 23. If ye will not be reformed but will walk contrary to me Observe how all is put upon the will so that if their will had been pliable and ready then the whole work of Conversion and Reformation had been accomplished So Matth. 21. 29. The disobedient sonne returneth this answer to his father I will not This contumacy therefore of the will may be called the bad tree
immutabilis constituti And indeed if death were not the effect of sinne but consequent of mans nature it would be no evil whereas the Scripture accounteth it of that nature as Deut. 30. 15. See I have set before thee this day life and good and death and evil SECT IV. Arguments brought to prove that Adam was made mortal answered THe next work to be done is to consider those Arguments which they bring to prove that Adam was made mortal and so had a proxim principle of death in him which would have taken effect if God did not provide some way against it and that which is used by all Adversaries to this truth is Because Adam was created in such a condition that be must necessarily eat and drink yea and was also to propagate children all which actions do contradict immortality For he that eateth and drinketh must by degrees have a decay in nature and our Saviour seemeth to prove immortality from this argument Luk. 20. 35 36. because in heaven they shall not marry so that to procreate children is not consistent with such a blessed estate But these Objections are easily answered if we remember the distinction at first given in this point that there is an immortality absolute and immutable or conditional and changeable upon supposition Now it 's true neither eating or marrying can consist with unchangeable mortality with immortality of glory But it may very well consist with conditional immortality that is in tendency to that which is absolute Eating and drinking in the state of integrity was a means subserving to keep up the state of immortality so farre was it from repugning of it This therefore is the root of his errour that men apprehend no other immortality but what is compleat that unless Adam had been made in the same estate that the glorified Saints are put into he could not be said to be immortal Secondly They say Adam is said to be earthly and of the earth to have a natural body and so opposite to that immortal body we shall have in heaven 1 Cor. 15. 47. But first when the Apostle giveth those names to our bodies of vile corruptible and to be in dishonour this is to be understood of our bodies after the fall they are made so through sinne It would be derogatory to God to say they were made such at first It is true the first man is said to be earthy but that expression denoteth only the original of his body whence it was first made not the state he was created in as appeareth by the opposite the second man is said to be the Lord from Heaven It is one thing then to speak of Adam's body in respect of its original and another to speak of the whole person in respect of his condition Thirdly They say All the internal causes of death were in Adam while standing as well as fallen and therefore he was mortal as well as we To this we answer there were indeed the causes of death in him materially but not formally for the bodily humours were not peccant either in quality or quantity the natural heat would not have consumed the radical moisture so that in that estate there would never have been formally existent the proxim causes of death besides the adequate and principal causes of death are the Devils suggestions and mans transgression as you heard Fourthly They ask If man were not made mortal why should immortality be promised as a reward if he had it already Why should it be promised him upon his obedience The answer is easie Adam 's immortality was inchoate onely the consummation of it was promised as a reward to his obedience Lastly They object If death be the punishment of sinne then Christ hath freed believers from this death which is against experience But 1. The Socinians grant That a necessity of death is the fruit of sinne yet Christ hath not freed us from the necessity of it no more than the naturality of it 2. We must distinguish between an actual abolition of death and the right to do it Christ hath purchased for us a right to immortality yet the actual investing of us into it is to be done in its time Death will be swallowed up in victory and for the present the nature of death is changed as to a godly man it 's no more a curse to him the sting of death is taken away as when a Serpent or Wasp have lost their sting they can do no more hurt Thus to the godly it cannot do any hurt It is like Elijah's fiery chariot to carry them to Heaven It 's like passing through the red Sea into the Land of Canaan thus as the cloud was full of darkness to the Aegyptian but light to the Israelite so is death full of terrour and of curses to an ungodly man but pleasant and lovely to a godly man it is his gain to die To live in this world is his losse and disadvantage SECT V. Q. Whether Adam's sinne was only an occasion of Gods punishing all mankind resolved against D. J. T. I Shall conclude this Text with answering a two-fold Question The full discussing whereof may inform us about the most secret and mysterious truths that are in this point And First It may be demanded That suppose it be granted that by Adam we die may not this be understood any more than occasionally God was so displeased with Adam for his transgression that thereupon he insticts the curse threatned to him upon his posterity Even as we read often in Scripture that God for Magistrates sins or for parents sins doth take an occasion to punish a people or children for their own sinnes Thus it may be thought that God by occasion from Adam's transgression did impose on us for our sinnes the same curse that was denounced to Adam not that we were sinners in him not that we come into the world with any inherent sinne but because of our actual impieties God punisheth us with Adam's curse In this manner the late adversary to original sinne doth explicate himself An Answer to a Letter pag. 30 31 32. as if this were all the evil by Adam that for his sake our sinnes inherit the curse Insomuch saith he that it is not so properly to be called original sinne as an original curse upon our sinne That we may not be deceived in his meaning though it is very difficult to reconcile himself with himself For at another time he saith The dissolution of the soul and holy should have been if Adam had not sinned for the world would have been too little to have entertained the â—yriads of men which would have been born An Answer to a Letter p. 86 87 Now how Adam's sinne should bring in the sentence of death as he saith in another place Vnum Necessar cap. 6. sect 1. pag. 367. and yet he have died though he had not sinned is impossible to reconcile He giveth us two similitudes or parallel expressions which may
to act therein And 3. Of cruelty that God who is so ready to forgive us our own sinnes yet should impute to us Adam's But these are fig leaves only and cannot cover the Objectors nakedness SECT II. FOr First We do not say That the Nature of man as it was created first had this imbred pollution in it No it came out of Gods hands pure and clean Eccles 7. ult God made man upright It was after Gods own Image that he made him he had no experimental knowledge of any evil within him But as it was with the earth after mans fall it brought forth bryars and thorns being cursed which as it is thought it would not have done so before Thus upon Adams transgression then and not till then was his soul cursed spiritually to bring forth nothing but bryars and thorns such lusts as were fit combustible matter for hell fire Therefore every Infant almost may understand this That the maintaining of this Truth doth not at all redound to Gods dishonour for we see the like in the Devils Are not they become wicked spirits Is there not an utter impossibility in a Devil to do any thing that is good Are they not called the spiritual wickednesses in high places Ephes 6. 12. as if they were nothing but all over wickedness yet the Devil though so vile and abominable was made a glorious creature None of this poison was at first infused into him but the Apostle Jude ver 6 layeth it wholly upon themselves That they kept not their first estate but left their own habitation The Devils then though so full of wickedness yet are not a reproach to God their Maker but it was through their own wilfulness they became such Apostates Hence in the second place Adam when he first transgressed that command of God and thereby involved all mankind in darkness and misery did it from a voluntary free principle within there was no internal or external necessity compelling him to sinne for he was made with the image of God in him and that matter wherein he did transgress he might easily have attained from God giving him liberty to eat of all other trees so that it was meerly and solely from Adams own will that he undid himself and all his posterity It is true God if he had pleased could have prevented his sinning he could have confirmed him in such grace as we see he did the other Angels that fell not whereby he would certainly have been preserved from all sinne but God is the supreme Sovereign and is not tied up as men are to inferiour Laws It is true he is an eternal Law of Righteousness to himself whereby he cannot do any thing but what is just and righteous yet he hath also an absolute Dominion over all things and may dispose of his creatures as he pleaseth and from this it was that he created man with power to fall as well as to stand making him mutable and changeable whereas the glorified Saints in Heaven shall be delivered from such mutability and there shall not be in them a posse peccare a power to sinne so greatly shall their souls be perfected in Heaven So that still you see God is freed and mans destruction is of himself Hence also in the third place when Adam sinned at first it was not after the same manner as we sinne for when we sinne this floweth from a corrupted nature within Jam. 1. 17. Every one is tempted and drawn aside with the lust that is within him But in Adam there was no such vicious principle It is therefore a false and dangerous position of the Socinians That we sinne in the same manner that he did That we have no more corrupted Nature in us then he had but as he had a free-will by which he chose either good or evil so it is with us But this speaketh open defiance against the Scripture For was Adam by nature the child of wrath Were the imaginations of his thoughts only evil and that continually Could Adam say He found a Law of sinne in his Members warring against the Law of his mind Adam's sinne therefore came from the meer mutability and changeableness that was in his will there being no antecedent corruption in him Insomuch that it hath greatly exercised learned Divines to shew how Adam could sinne and wherein the imperfection did first break forth he being made after the Image of God but in us our sinfulness ariseth from a necessity contracted by the first voluntary transgression and so have a corrupt nature which inclineth to all corrupt actions Adam was in some sense a good Tree and yet did bring forth bad Fruit a sweet Fountain and yet did send forth bitter Streams Here we might say a Vine brought sorth Thorns and a Fig Thistles but we are bad Trees poisoned Fountains Briars and Thorns only from the paralleling of our selves with Adam we may conclude our incurableness as also the danger we are in by every temptation For if Adam though without any corrupt principle within him though without the least spark of any lust was yet so easily inflamed by a temptation What may we expect who have the seed of all evil within us If the green Ivy shall take fire so soon what will the dry Tree do Oh take heed of coming near any occasion of sinne As our Saviour said Remember Lots wife so do thou Adams wife yea and Adam himself These though created holy though without any lustful inclination yet did presently yeeld to the temptations of sinne What then wilt not thou do If Samson with his strength cannot resist the Philistims much less when that is gone can he withstand them But of this difference between Adam and us in sinning more in its time In the fourth place God is to be justified though we be born full of sinne because we are to distinguish between nature it self and the corruption cleaving to it We say our Nature our Essence and Substance our Souls and Bodies in respect of their natural Being are the work of God and we are with David to admire the curious workmanship of God in respect of our Bodies The excellent composition of all the bodily parts did convince even Galen though otherwise an Heathen God therefore as a Creator is to be praised and glorified by us only as Austin of old we must not so praise Deum Creatorem as to make Superfluum Servatorem We must not so celebrate the name of God as a Creator that thereby we should make a Saviour superfluous and unnecessary Sub laudibus naturae latent inimici gratiae under the praises of Nature the enemies of Grace hide themselves and so under the praises of God as a Creator the enemies of Christ as a Saviour shelter themselves Nature then we say is good our Substance and Being is of God onely the defilement annexed inseparably thereunto is of man Even as in our bodies the substance of them is of God but God did not
have a contrariety to it and why is it that a man should thus naturally be an enemy to his own peace Is it not because of this imbred sin working in us 2. If the Spirit of God go further and doth not outwardly teach onely but inwardly and spiritually also changing even the whole man making it a new creature yet because this corruption is not quite rooted out it doth continually gain say and withstand that Law of the mind within us Whence then is it that such rebellion and opposition is within thee to every good thing Is it not because original sinne hath put thee into this disorder Thirdly It is an impediment alliciendo and inescando It doth ensnare and allure the heart so that while the soul should pursue the race that throweth in the way some alluring objects or others and thereby it is stopt in its course As the Heathens speak of golden Apples cast in the way to hinder one that was swiftly running in the race He that runneth in a race must not step out of the way to gather every flower that groweth by the way-side nor is he to stand still and refresh his eyes with pleasant objects Thus neither ought we in our way to Heaven but this original corruption bewitches and enticeth the heart with many deceitfull and alluring lusts So that by this means we are for the most part in golden sweet dreams promising this and that comfort to our selves till at last with Dives we awaken in hell and see our selves bereaved of all happiness The Apostle James doth fully confirm this secret bewitching way of original sinne within us which he calleth lust Jam. 1. 14. So that marvel not to see thy self drowned in all the pleasures of sinne to be sucking down the comforts of earthly things with all delight for this lust within thee this bewitching Dalilah in thy breast puts thee into a sweet sleep and so heavenly things have no relish no taste to thy appetite but the things of the world are sweeter than the honey-comb Oh why is it that sinne which is indeed full of stings and bitterness should be so sweet Why should it be such a pleasing thing to go in the wayes that lead to hell and damnation that when thou art sinning it is as thou wouldst have it Is not all this because sin hath insnared and inticed thee Lastly Sinne is a burden to the soul in our race debilitando By weakning and debilitating the principles of grace within us So that although we are regenerated and sanctified yet because original sinne doth intimately adhere even to the very habits of grace within us so that they are not perfect and pure Hence it is that their actings are more remisse and languid we cannot love God perfectly we cannot have pure and sinnelesse actions because we have not pure and sinnelesse principles So that whereas some have thought that there is not such a spiritual conflict in a godly man as we speak of because that would make the will to will and nill at the same time two contrary things they do not rightly understand this Assertion for it 's not from contrariety of volitions but because the will being not perfectly healed willeth good things remisly and faintly not with that perfection or freedom and alacrity as it ought to do Vse Of Instruction Every day to bewail this depraved estate of thine more and more We take thee as Ezekiel was in another case and cause thee to see every day more and more abomination Thou hast not heard all the worst nor have we discovered all the worst that is in us yea we are never able to goe to the bottome of it This original sinne is an unsearchable Mystery It is a long while ere we come to know any thing of it and longer ere we come to know the breadth and length of it Know this sufficiently and then be in love with thy self or trust in thy good heart and thy own righteousness if thou canst CHAP. VI. Of the Name Evil Treasure of the Heart given to Original Sinne. SECT I. MAT. 12. 35. And an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth evil things THese words are part of an Apologetical Answer that our Saviour made against the Pharisees who were guilty of blaspheming the holy Ghost because they did maliciously oppose the known truth and what was done by the Spirit of God attributing it to the power of the devil And in this Apology the fervency and zeal of our Saviour doth appear in the compellation he giveth them Generation of vipers Here you see That it is not alwayes railing and indiscreet zeal to call wicked men by such names that their sinnes do deserve In the next place he giveth the reason of this their blasphemy it is no wonder if they speak ill who have ill and naughty hearts which he expresseth emphatically 1. By an interrogation How can ye 2. By the impossibility How can ye 3. From the matter mentioned he doth not say How can ye being evil de good things but speak We might think wicked men might easily forbear evil words though not evil actions but their heart is first set on fire with hell and then the tongue The Physician discovers how the heart is by the tongue and so doth Religion also Now that good words cannot proceed from a bad heart viz. naturally for on purpose and artificially many evil-minded men may speak religiously and men may have butter words whose hearts are like swords our Saviour proveth from the common and even proverbial rule A good man hath a good heart and a good treasure and so of this sweet fountain cannot come bitter streams But a bad man hath an evil treasure in his heart and so from these thorns men cannot gather grapes nor from these thistles figs we see here then a good man and a bad diversified by that which is wholly hidden and secret not known to any but God till he discover it by words or actions Now this evil treasure in every mans heart is two-fold 1. That which is Natural that which he cometh into the world with thus every man hath an inexhausted treasure of wickedness which he spends upon all his life time and yet never cometh to the bottom of it And in this sense our Divines do well prove That no natural or unregenerate man is able to do any thing though never so little that is good because he is a bad Tree and being also of the seed of Serpents there cannot come any honey or sweet thing from him 2. There is an acquired and increased treasure of sinne which a man storeth up by daily custom in sinne so that he becometh to have two treasures of evil in his soul as if one were not enough natural and voluntary innate and voluntarily contracted For you must know That original sinne though it be a full fountain of poison ready of it self to overflow yet custom in sin doth
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
bodily part and the soul part and from the soul doth this poison fall to all the inferiour parts Therefore do not only complain of sinne and lust in thy material and sensitive part but look upon the strength and chief power of it as in thy immaterial and soul part for in all these this original lust this Law of sinne doth constantly dwel The Schoolmen they call this Fomes peccati because it doth fovere it 's like the cinders and ashes that keep alive the fire of sin within a man and the more dangerous and damnable it is by how much the more close and latent it is SECT VIII A Consideration of this Concupiscence in reference to the four-fold Estate of man 5. VVE are to consider this concupiscence or concupiscibili'y for we speak of the principle of lusting not actual lusting according to several states that man may be looked upon in AS First There was his Natura instituta his instituted nature at first and that was right and holy There was concupiscence and desiring of the several powers of his soul but in a good and orderly way It was not then as now the Superiora did not turpiter servire inferioribus or the inferiora contumaciter rebel against the superiour parts as is to be shewed in the next place In Adam there was no concupiscence in this sense The inferiour parts though they did desire a sensible object yet it was wholly in subordination and under the command of the superiour It 's true indeed Eve did look upon the forbidden fruit and saw it was good and pleasant whereupon she was tempted to eat of it but this did not arise from any original lust in her but from the mutability of her will being not confirmed in what was good Even as we see the Angels before their Apostasie had sinfull desires in their will through pride and affectation to be higher than they were yet this did not arise from original lust in them Although therefore both Socinians and some Papists do acknowledge man made with such a repugnancy of the sensitive appetite to the rational yea the former making it to be in Christ himself yet this is highly to dishonour God in the Creation of man Oh happy and blessed estate when there was such an universal harmony and due proportion in all the powers of the soul but miserum est illud verbum snisse may all mankind cry out in this particular Secondly There is Natura infecta and destituta infected Nature stript and denuded of all former holiness and excellency and here concupiscence is not onely in us but it doth reign and predominate over the whole man The harmony is totally dissolved and now the choice and sublime parts of the foul are made prostrate to the affectionate part as loathsom and abominable as when the Law forbiddeth to lie with a beast Now the mind and understanding is wholly set on work to dispute and argue for the carnal part Now the motions of the soule beginne in the carnal part and end in the intellectual whereas in the state of integrity the beginning and rise would first have been in the intellectual and so have descended to the sensitive part The motions thereof antecede all deliberation in the mind and a rectified choice in the will Thus the feet they guide the head and in this little world of man the earth moveth and the Heavens they stand still as some fancied in the great world now lust is by way of a Law ruling and commanding all things This is the unspeakable misery and bondage we are now plunged into Thirdly There is Natura restituta repaired nature by grace which the regenerate attain unto and these though they have not obtained concerning lust ne sit yet that ne regnet in them as Austin expresseth it though they cannot perfectly fulfill that command ne concupiscas yet they obey another post concupiscentias ne â—as hence it is because of the actings and workings of original sinne still in the godly they are in a continual conflict they cannot do any thing perfectly they feel a clogge pressing them down when they are elevating themselves as Paul Rom 7. doth abundantly manifest The good he would do he cannot do Original sinne is like that Tree in Daniel Chap. 4. 23. Though there was a watcher from Heaven coming down to cut it down yet the stumps and root of the Tree were left with a band of iron and brass to denote the firm and immovable abiding of it Thus though the grace of God be still mortifying and subduing the lusts of the flesh yet the stumps seem to be bound with brasse and iron to us we are never able in this life wholly to extinguish it Lastly If you consider the perfected and glorified estate of the godly in Heaven then there will be a full and utter extirpation of this original sin The glorified bodies in Heaven though naked shall not be subject to shame and confusion as Adam and Eve were after their fall And among other reasons therefore doth the Lord suffer these reliques of corruption to abide in the most holy that so we may the more ardently and zealously long after that kingdom of glory when we shall be delivered from this sinfull soul and mortal body Then this command Thou shalt not lust will be perfectly accomplished whereas in this life it is a perpetual hand writing against us The Papists indeed do confess our lusts to be against this command but not ut praecipienti but ut indicanti as if God did not so much command us what we should do as by Doctrine inform what is good and excellent in it self Thus rather than they will be found guilty by this Law they will make it no Law and turn it from a precept into a meer doctrinal information But seeing one end of the Law is to convince us and aggravate our sinfulness to make us see our desperate diseased estate that thereby we may flie to Christ as the malefactor to the City of refuge let it be farre from us to extenuate or to lessen our sinfulness The Pharisees of old and all their successors in endeavouring to establish a righteousness by the Law have split themselves on this rock as if the Law had not holiness enough to command them but they were able to do more than that required But whence doth this Blind presumption arise Even from the ignorance of the power of original siane in us SECT IX 6 FRom these things concluded on we may see that the Scripture giveth us a better discovery of our selves than ever the light of nature or moral Philosophy could acquaint us with Aristotle teacheth us out of his School clean contrary Doctrine to this That we come into the world without virtue or vice Even as Pelagius said of old and the Schoolmen though they hold original sinne yet most of them by cleaving to Aristole's principles and so leaving the Scripture have advanced nature to
there is no love and also no hatred So that if we do not know how loathsom and vile this sinne is we are never able to bewail it and to humble our selves under it There are many Descriptions of it given by several Authors but that we may in a large and popular way comprehend all things in one Description that is necessary to understand the full nature of it we may take this delineation of it SECT II. ORiginal sinne is an horrid depravation and defilement of the whole man caused by the Devils temptation and our first Parents obedience thereunto and from them descending by propagation to all his Posterity being stript of Gods glorious Image whereby they are prone to all evil and so are under the bondage of the Devil and obnoxious to eternal wrath It is not my purpose in making this draught of it to attend unto the exact rules of Logick but so to compose it that every thing considerable to give the true knowledge of it may be comprized therein And First We say It 's a depravation and defilement which implieth the sinfulness of it that it is truly and properly a sinne And therefore sinne is truly and univocally divided into original and actual so that they who make it onely to be guilt without any inward contagion they do wholly erre from the Scripture they say not enough It is true Adam's sinne in the guilt of it is imputed unto us which made Ambrose of old say as Austin alledgeth him against the â—elagians Morinus sum in Adamo ejectus sum in Paradiso in Adamo c. I am dead in Adam I am cast out of Paradise in Adam But we are not disputing of original imputed sinne but original inhering Therefore original inherent sinne is truly and properly a defilement upon us against the Law of God and this sinfull estate of all by nature should be farre more terrible unto us then our miserable and mortal estate Again When we call it a defilement we oppose their opinion who make it only morbus and not truly a sinne As also those who say It is the substance of a man for if so then Christ could not have taken our nature without sinne neither could there be glorified bodies in Heaven without sinne for all these have the humane nature of a man Further we say It 's an horrid depravation This Epithete is necessary to be added to awaken pharisaical and self-righteous persons it being so dreadfull an evil that we are never able to go to the depth of it Never therefore think of speak of original sinne but let thy heart tremble and let horrour and amazement take hold of thee because of it and this is put in the Description to obviate those opinions that make it the least of all sinnes Some complain That we are too severe and tragical in the aggravation of it but enough hath been already spoken out of Scripture to shew that neither heart can conceive or tongue express the foulness of it This is the general part of the Description Secondly You have the Subject of it and because the Subject thereof is twofold of Inhesion and of Predication In this part we have the Subject wherein it is and that is totus homo and totum hominis the whole man and the whole of man there being no part free from this contagion so that it 's repletively and diffusively in all the parts of soul and body though eminently and principally in the mind and will and the whole heart It 's true sinne is not properly seated in the body the eyes or hand or in the sensitive part yet participatively and subordinately as they are instruments to the soul in its actings so they are said to be sinfull Thus there are lustfull eyes cursing tongues unclean bodies There are sinfull imaginations and fancies because these are the organs by which the soul putteth forth its wickedness So that the body is like a broken spoiled instrument of musick and the soul like an unskilfull Artificer playing on it which causeth horrid and harsh sounds for pleasant melody But as God is every where yet in Heaven after a more glorious and signal manifestation of himself So on the contrary though original sinne be a Leprosie infecting the whole man yet it 's most principally in the intellectual and immaterial parts of the soul It 's horrible darknesse in the mind aversnesse in the will to all that is good and contumacy in the heart to whatsoever is holy And this part doth directly oppose all those who grant indeed original sinne but yet grant it wholly in the inferiour and sensitive part as if our reason and mind were like the Heavens of a quintessential frame in respect of any unholy contagion whereas indeed because these eyes of the soul are dark therefore is the whole body dark Because the Sunne and Moon and Starres as it were of this little world of man are turned into bloud therefore every part else is also become blood defiled and loathsom and this is the reason why so few do either believe or know this natural corruption because it benummeth us yea it taketh away all spiritual life so that we cannot discern of it The declaration of the cause of it followeth in this description where we have the external efficient cause and the internal The external was the Devil after his all and apostasie he endeavoured being a murderer from the beginning to destroy man also and accordingly he did prevail and thus by the Devil sinne came into the world yet he is the external cause onely he could not force or compel our first parents to sinne he did onely perswade and entice them Therefore the internal cause was the freedom of their will God created them in whereby they might either imbrace good or chuse evil which mutability was the cause of their apostasie It is true the dispute is very curious How Adam being created perfect could yeeld to sinne Whether did the defect arise in his will or understanding first But seeing it 's clear by Scripture that he did sinne and we feel the wofull effect of it Let us not busie our heads in metaphysical curiosities although I see the soundest Authors make the beginning of his sinne to be in inadvertency for his soul being finite while he earnestly intended to one thing he did not attend to another and so sinne was inchoatively first in his understanding not by errour or ignorance for Adam's understanding was free from that but by not attendency to all considerations and arguments as he ought to do Although it must be confest that the root and foundation of his sin was the vertibility of his will for as he might not sin so also he might sin he had then a posse peccare in him and so a defectibility from the Rule Thus although efficient causes use not to be put into exact definitions neither hath sin so properly efficient as deficient causes yet in large descriptions it is
of men had committed some crimes for which they were adjudged to bodies as unto prisons and dungeons How comes it about that the rational part of a man which was made to be the guide and called by Philosophers the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it should follow after the inferiour lusts of the soul That this candle should be put not under a bushel but a dunghill That the elder should serve the younger That the tail should lead the head we are not carried out to what reason by the word of God commands but by what every sinfull affection doth suggest Those that say this rebellion between the mind and affections was from the Creation that God made man with this contrariety in himself must needs make God the author of sin but God saw every thing that he had made and it was exceeding good If then thou doubtest whether this universal pollution be upon thee look into thy self observe the rebellion the repugnancy there unto all light whether natural or supernatural and this will make thee readily confess it SECT VI. 6. THe incurvation of the soul unto all earthly and worldly objects this also makes it plain we came with original sin into the world The very making of the body different from other creatures who look downwards doth denote that therfore God created us that both soul and body should look upwards But is not every mans soul till rectified by grace bowed down to these earthly vanities no more able to soar up to Heaven than the worm can flie Now this is a plain sign of thy sinful apostate condition It is one of Hippocrates his rules That when a sick man catcheth inordinatly at the feathers of his pillow or at straws and any such light matter it is a sign of death and truly to see men by nature so immoderatly snatching and catching at these worldly things argue thou art a dying a perishing man unless Gods grace doth interpose As the Sun though with its beams it shine upon the earth yet it is not thereby defiled So man ought though he meddle in all outward affairs though he marry though he buy and sell and use this world yet he ought not in the least manner to soil and pollute his soul thereby But as the body deprived of the soul fals prostrate on the ground thus doth man deprived of Gods Image so that he is never able to get above the creatures but is vassaliz'd to them SECT VII THe work remaining is to give further reasons the Scripture being first laid as a foundation to demonstrate this truth That we are by nature originally defiled For though man be unwilling to be found thus a sinner and the entertaining of this truth seemeth to strike down all the hopes and comforts that a naturall man hath Believe this and all men as in respect of defect are so many damned men so that flesh and blood must needs deny cavill distinguish and turn it self into a thousand shapes ere it will acknowledge it yet look we into our selves diligently and compare our selves with the glass of Gods Word we cannot but say That all we have heard by the Ministers all that Sermons and Books tell us come not up to what we feel in our selves So that as the Apostle when he said This corruption shall put on incorruption he did cutem tangere did lay his hand upon his body as Tertullian thought so do thou strike upon thy thigh and smite upon thy breast and say within this body lieth a soul covered all over with sinne and damnable guilt To assure us more herein these further discoveries may be added First That spirituall death in sinne which we are all plunged into whereby we do become altogether senseless and stupid as to any spirituall concernement The death threatned upon Adam's trangression was spirituall as well as corporall and therefore Ephes 2. We are said to be dead in sinnes till Christ quicken us by his power Now this is a full discovery that we have lost Gods Image and all spiritual life otherwise why should not spirituall life be as quick active and moving towards spirituall objects as our naturall and corporall life is to corporall things Why is it that when any do threaten corporall death and outward misery we are afraid and will give all we have for this corporall life But when the Devil tempts and the world tempts so that we are in danger of loosing eternal life we have no trembling or horror taking hold upon us Nebuchadnezzar made a law that whosoever would not worship his Image should be cast into a fiery furnace and unless the three Worthies none refused so great a matter is the fear of a naturall death But hath not God threatned hell which is ten thousand times more dreadfull then that fiery fornace to every one that goeth on wickedly yet none trembleth because of this Is not this plain then that thou art a dead man in sinne Further concerning our corporall life how sollicitous are we about the preserving of it what carking and caring for meat and raiment what labour for the back and the belly Is not the greatest imployment in the world for these two things and all this is that our frail perishing life may yet be continued But do men naturally manifest any such thoughts and diligence about the meanes of a spirituall life The preaching of the Word the Ordinances these God hath appointed to be spirituall food by these our heavenly life is maintained these are the oyl to keep that lamp burning But do not all men by nature loath these are they not a burden to them do they ever pant and thirst or hunger after these things as men do for meat or drink now why is all this but because we have no spirituall life in us So that if you do consider the insensibleness and stupidity of every naturall man as to things of an heavenly aspect you need no more to perswade you that Gods Image is lost and we are dead in sinne When the body needeth food needeth raiment all is supplyed but so thy soul needeth Christ needeth grace and there is not the least thought to have a supply yea we are not only dead in sinne but have been a long while thus dead and if she said of Lazarus Joh. 11. 39. Lord by this time he stinketh for he hath been dead four dayes How much more may we say this in a spirituall sense of thee who it may be hast been dead fourty or fifty years Secondly This may be further inlarged by a consectary from the former will not this abundantly declare we are all over sinfull Because heavenly things are not such objects of delight and pleasure to us as carnall and worldly things are This is a palpable demonstration of our wretched pollution That we cannot feel any sweetness any pleasure or joy in those things which immediately concern God Adam in his state of integrity was like Jacob's ladder the foot whereof
some would absurdly question it That without the knowledge of Christ and faith in him none can be saved And that none by nature can come to this knowledge then it followeth undeniably that damnable ignorance doth cover the face of our souls as darkness did the deep at first That there is a very Chaos in our souls Oh then that we had knowledge to know our ignorance Oh that the dark dungeon we are shut up in might not be so pleasing to us In that the Gospel is called a mystery In that flesh and blood doth not reveal the things of Christ to us this sheweth our wretched estate in sin Adam had knowledge about the meanes rending to everlasting happiness otherwise God would have made him imperfect but now we are ignorant of Christ the way All that live in the Church had it not been for revealed light would have groped in darkness as we see all Heathens and Pagans do If therefore you would see what our natures are of themselves consider the Sanages the Indians the Pagans of the world who as to any right knowledge of God have little more then bruit beasts we cannot so well see what mans nature is of it self who live in the Church because there is the light of the Gospel and many times godly education and Christian institution of us while young doth restrain sinne otherwise if there were not this planting and watering of us we should not know any more about Christ then the most rude Barbarian that is Take off then those ornaments those supernaturall additaments that God hath put upon us who live under the Gospel and then our nakedness and deformity will plainly appear Fifthly The wofull captivity and bondage we are in to Satan by nature doth also manifest our originall defilement For were we not cast off by God did not sinne make us like hell why could so many legious of Devils dwell in us Eph 2 The prince of darkness the god of this world is said to rule in the hearts of the disobedient and such we are all by nature yea we are till regenerated in the snares of the Devil and taken captive at his will Therefore when Christ sent his Disciples to preach he said He saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven Thus the Devil hath his throne in all mens hearts till Christ who is stronger cast him out It is trne by wicked and ungodly customes in sinne The Devil taketh further possession as we see in Ananias and in Judas The Devil is said to enter into him after the eating of the sop not but that he was before in him only he had more power and strength over him Thus he doth possess the souls of all that are born till regenerated and by frequent actings of sinne he setleth his kingdome more firmely Lastly This may fully discover our originall pollution In that even in respect of naturall things we are much weakened and debilitated our understandings are not able to find out even naturall truths Insomuch that there was a famous sect of the Academicks who held That nihil scitur we know nothing at all Even Aristotle who is prophanely made to be by some the same in naturalls which Christ was in supernaturall yea Scaliger calls him Vltimus Musarum conatus as if nature her self could not send forth a greater Artist yet his known saying That our understandings in respect of the celestiall bodies especially are but noctuae ad solem owles to the Sunne makes it appear that we are ignorant of more things then we know yea and which is greatly to be bewailed The more learning and parts men have had they have been more mischiefed by them insomuch that meer Ideots and naturall fooles have been less wicked then they so that humane abilities when polished by arts have been like wine to a feavourish man like a sword in a mad mans hand neither did God ever choose many of the wise men of the world Austin being filled with humane eloquence this was a great prejudice to him in imbracing Christianity he contemned the simplicity of the Scripture dedignabar esse parvulus as he confessed And Scotus who for his acute understanding was called Doctor subtilis yet the great Historian Jovius giveth this censure of him That he was ad ludibrium Theologiae natus born to make Religion a scorn and a reproach because he could dispute every point probably on all sides And memorable is that of profound Bradwardine who before he was cordially affected with the grace of God confesseth That when he heard Paul's Epistles read he did dispise them because Paul had not metaphisicum ingenium a metaphysicall head Thus you see that even those poor abilities that with much labour are attained make us the worse for them CHAP. XXII A Comparison and Opposition between the first and second Adam as introductory to this Question How this Corruption is propagated SECT I. 1 COR. 15. 49. And as we have born the Image of the earthy we shall also bear the Image of the heavenly THe Apostles chief scope in this Chapter is to corroborate and establish one main Fundamental Article and Principle in Religion which is the Resurrection of the dead This Truth as it is Fiducia Christianorum the very confidence and life of believers so it hath been opposed and denied by many as most absurd and fabulous Insomuch that what Tertullian said concerning Christ who is God becoming man and crucified for us Prorsus credibile quia impossibile the same may be applied to this Truth Therefore it is the Object of Faith because reason cannot comprehend it Now among many other Arguments by which the Apostle statuminateth this Doctrine Christ's Resurrection is most palmarious For although to Heathens this Argument would not be valid yet to the Corinthians who either doubted of or denied the Resurrection but did not wholly abandon the Christian Faith this reason would be very cogent So that the Corinthians either doubt or infidelity in this Point hath made this Doctrine the more unquestionably true so that doubts and heresies have been over-ruled by God to make Truth more orient like the file to rusty iron and like the shaking of the Tree which maketh the root faster and deeper But whereas the Doubt may be Wherein lieth the strength of this Argument Christ is risen therefore his members or all that are his shall rise For you must know the Apostle's Arguments doe principally prove the blessed and happy Resurrection of the Just the Wicked they shall rise but by the power of Christ as a Judge not as members united to him their Head At the twentieth verse he giveth us a two-fold reason of that connexion First Christ is the first-fruits now the first fruits sanctified the whole crop of Corn and although they were taken before the rest yet this did assure that all would be taken in its time Thus Christ being the first fruits did sanctifie all his people and his Resurrection was an assured
the Sacrament what endlesse controversies hath it begotten And therefore it was the King of Navarr's counsel to the Divines when the Lutherans and Calvinists were upon pacification about the Sacrament that they should not De modo ultra modum disputare Now although this be good counsel yet when heretical and erroneous opinions have invaded the Modus then it is our duty to maintain not onely the truth of a thing but the manner of it also What is a greater mystery then the Sonne of God having his being from the Father He that will touch this mystery with meer natural reason doth as if the Smith should handle his live-coals with his hands and not the Tongs saith Chrysostome yet because of the Socinians who say He is onely a made God in time and hath his Deity by donation We are forced not to be content onely to believe that he is the Sonne of God but also how viz. By eternal Generation So in the great Controversie with the Arminians about the conversion of man It is not enough to say we are converted by grace but are necessitated also to expresse the manner How not by a moral suasion or per modum sapientiae onely but by invincible efficacy and power also Thus the manner of Christs presence in the Sacrament was necessarily to be determined against the Lutherans Thus it is in our point in hand we might well enough sit down with this Truth That original sinne is communicated to every sonne of Adam and enquire no further as the primitive Church did till Austin's time in a great measure But when Heretiques will deny the true Doctrine because the manner is difficult to expresse or when men will deny the Creation of the soul then it 's our duty in a sober manner to search into the way how we partake of it Neither doth the fore mentioned Text contradict this For though we know not how the bones grow in the womb exactly and punctually yet we know in the general that they do by virtue of generation So although we know not particularly how the soul cometh to have its being in the body yet in the general that it is by Creation we have had Scripture light fully to convince us therein This then premised Let us proceed to clear the Doctrine of the Propagation of original sinne and that by several Propositions which will be as so many steps and degrees to the main Truth SECT VII Propositions to clear the Doctrine of the Propagation of Original Sinne by the Souls Creation FIrst We lay this for a foundation That God doth create the soul of every man a spiritual substance This Proposition must be the foundation-stone to build upon That God doth create the soul immediately you have heard several Texts attesting thereunto So that Bellarmine was too dissident when moved it seemed by Austin doth wave all Texts of Scripture for the creation of the soul and so proceedeth to other Arguments Perierius on 2 Chap. of Genes vers 7. giveth a better censure of Austin for having produced some Texts for the Creation of the soul he saith Conatur Augustinus sed frustra hos locos elidere I shall adde one more fit for that purpose also The Text is 1 Pet. 4. 19. Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls unto God as to a faithfull Creator Here the afflicted children of God are required as Christ did to commend their souls to God and the reason is Because he is a faithfull Creator of them So that Gods Creation of them is here made an engagement to God to keep them they being now sanctified and made holy Our souls then are created In the next place I say they are created Substances This is to obviate those that make the soul onely an accident or the crasis and temperament of the humours Galen as Cerda on Tertull de animâ alledgeth him in his second Book of prediction by the pulses hath this passage Hitherto I have doubted what should be the substance of the soul but by age and experience being made wiser I dare be bold to affirm it is no other thing then the temperament He was not made wiser but more absurd and foolish in this thing Yea there is one Dicaearchus much spoken of that said The soul was nothing it was but an opinion And the Mortalists they directly joyn with Galen's opinion Who would think that when we have the Scripture speaking so plainly about the soul that it is a spirit that it removeth when the body is killed that any should be delivered up to such licentious and abominable Doctrines Again I adde God createth it a spiritual substance This opposeth the Sadduces who denied any spirits It is plaine by Scripture that they are substances and spiritual ones because they subsist without the body Tertullian though he doth so acutely perstringe the Philosophers about the soul yet some of them were more sound then he Men saith he have thought about the soul either as Platonis honor Zenonis vigor Aristotelis tenor Epicuri stupor Heracliti maestor Empedoclis furor persuaserint It is true some of these thought the souls to be bodies and so doth Tertullian and happily he might have been excused by taking body largely for that which is not nihil in which sense he attributeth a body to God but that he saith the soul is not only a body but effigiated and shaped also yea that the souls differ in sex which is very irrational We may then conclude this with a saying of Numertus That if any souls are corporeal it is of those who say souls are corporeal A second Proposition is That though God doth create immediately the souls of all men spiritual substances yet they are not compleat and perfect substances as Angles are but the essential parts of men Upon this Proposition depends much weight of this Truth about the communicating of original sinne for we are apt to think God createth our souls like Angels perfect and having subsistency of themselves whereas they are created as parts of a man neither do they come from God any otherwise If God should create a soul to subsist of it self and not to be united to the body to constitute a man that soul would not be polluted But because every soul is created as an essential part of man and so hath its being Hence it is That it cometh into the world part of Adam and so obnoxious to that curse which he had deserved whatsoever then in its first being is part of man that is partaker of Adam's sinne and curse But the soul in its first instant of being is part of man therefore no wonder if it became polluted and cursed The example of that miraculous Resurrection of Lazarus and others may something clear this they were fully dead their souls and bodies union dissolved yet because their souls were not made perfect and pure without sinne and translated into Heaven but
inferior Judge God and the Scripture are superior to it so that when conscience prescribeth any thing and we come to know it is against Gods Word then we are to reject it as the inferior Magistrates command is made void when the superior doth countermand but while the practical dictate of conscience doth abide and we know not that God doth forbid it then we must not go against it and the reason is because it witnesseth to our apprehension with God and therefore to go against it though it may not be materially a sinne because in an error and in a delusion yet formally it is because we contemne God and his Authority over us The very Heathen could say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conscience is a God to every man It is true that Atheistical Writer lib de Cive As he doth most prophanely determine That it is a seditious opinion to hold faith and holiness are supernaturally infused and inspired so also to hold that to discern between good and bad just and unjust is a duty belonging to the conscience of private men in what they are to act What is this but to reach men Atheism by art and precepts As Logick and Philosophy are taught and doth it not condemne the whole Doctrine of the Gospel as being incompatible with obedience to Magistrates Seeing then that conscience is thus left in a man with so great power and authority seeing by it good is to be done and sinne avoided the pollution of it will be the more dreadfull and lamentable what hope is there of mans power to convert himself to God when the conscience is thus wasted by sinne If the watchman be blind if the witness be dumb if the judge be corrupted How can any saying reformation be upon us If the falt be unsavoury which is to season other things what is it good for but to be cast away this shipwrack of a good conscience which all made in Adam will undo us for ever were not grace interposing SECT II. A more particular Discovery of the Pollution of every Mans Conscience by Original Sinne. THe work next in order is to discover the pollution of every mans conscience by original sinne And First There is naturally a blindness and a veil upon it whereby it horribly misjudgeth and so deserveth the Prophets woe calling evil good and good evil light darkness and darkness light Take the conscience of an Heathen not inlightned by Gods Word and what darkness covereth the face of it how inthralled to Idols as if they were a god that could either damne of save yea the consciences of some Hereticks have had such Aegyptian darkness upon them that they have thought they have served God by doing most abominable and unnatural things Insomuch that had not some of the Ancients worthy of credit delivered such things about them we could never have believed that the conscience of a man could be so farre blinded as to think such things lawful much less a worship of God The Gnosticks taught That fornications and uncleaness were frequently to be exercised so as to avoid all conception and if a child did follow they would draw it from the womb beat it in a â—â—rter season it with honey and pepper and so eat it saying That in this manner they did celebrate the great Passover The Carpocratians also affirmed That every one was bound to commit sinne and that the soules were put into the bodies till they did fullfill the measure of their iniquities applying that in the parable to this purpose Thou shalt not go out till thou hast paid the last farthing So the Montonists made a sacrifice of the bloud of an infant a year old which they did with needles in a most cruel manner prick to death These also said That it was as great a sinne to pull a leaf off the tree as to kill a man The Donatists would throw themselves from steep mountaines and drown themselves in waters to make themselves Martyrs what horrid blindness was here upon their consciences It is true indeed these were not suddenly made thus abominable Therefore here was a voluntary contracted blindness upon their conscience and a judicial one inflicted upon them God giving them up to blindness yet had there not been such imbred error upon the conscience such natural blindness upon it it could never be improved to such height of impiety Oh then groan under this blindness that is naturally upon thy conscience That which should be the Pilot to guid the ship of thy soul and body to an eternal haven that knoweth no Compass beholdeth no Starre but being practically blinded carryeth thee to hell while thou art thinking thou art failing to heaven That which should be the rule to thy actions is all over crooked and perverted Thus every mans conscience is naturally in the dark and maketh us fall into every ditch because the blind leadeth us so that while the foundation is thus destroyed there is no hope either of conversion or salvation Thou that wallowest in thy sinnes thou that art upon the brinks of hell and yet rejoycest and makest thy self blessed Oh that thy conscience were inlightened Oh that the Lords candle within thee did give any light what a terrour and an amazement wouldst thou be to thy self thou art no better then a bruit till this conscience in thee is able to informe and direct thee Secondly Conscience is naturally polluted not only by the blindness but also by the senselessness and stupidity that is upon it This is the evil polluted conscience lying in every mans breast fast asleep so that though one sinne be committed after another Though lusts as so many thieves come to steal thy soul away yet this dog doth not so much as give one bark Doth not experience abundantly confirme this see you not most men going on in all evil and wickedness so that you would think they dare neither eat or drink or sleep lest so many Devils should come and carry them quick to hell yet they have a stupified conscience it never giveth them one blow or a check for it how cometh this serpent in thy breast to be thus benummed that it doth not give one hiss The expression you heard of an evil conscience was a feared one That is as some expound it a senseless hardened one like any part of the body that by burning is made insensible Others say That as a putrified part of the member of the body by incision is cut off so they say it 's a conscience cut off from a man that he hath none at all Others they allude thus it 's a conscience that is branded and noted by all whereby he is made infamous and a reproach where he liveth All these explications may well be taken in and although the Apostle speaketh there of some enormous wicked men more vile then ordinary yet as Paul Rom. 3. doth apply to all men by nature what the Psalmist had spoken of some
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
and fading things before that which is eternal and will continue ever And wherein can the wils sinfulness be proclaimed more then in this Is it not a rule commended by all wise men Tene certum demitte incertum Hold that which is certain and let go that which is uncertain All men have such a will in worldly things they would chuse a certain estate rather then what is meer arbitrary and may be lost the next day but if we bring these men unto spiritual objects and temporal objects lay one in the one side and the other on the other side yet they will chuse the temporals and let go the spirituals Though the temporals are transitory and fleeing away whereas spiritual things would be eternal they would continue thine for ever Oh foolish and unwise men who make such a choice And yet this is the state of every unregenerate man What doth he say Give me the good things of this world though I lose Heaven and eternal Glory Let me have a day pleasure a moments profit though I have an eternity of loss and torments Consider then with thy self what a foolish choise thy will doth make all the day long Thou chusest that which will leave thee which is here to day and like the grass to morrow is thrown into the Oven and in the mean while there is that good which will abide though Heaven and Earth should fall and this thou art willing to pass by Was not Dives called a fool upon this account This night thy soul shall be taken away and then whose shall all these things be The sinfulnesse of thy will herein will never be enough lamented till with Dives thy eyes be opened in Hell and then thou behold what a choice thou hast made Christ giveth Mary this commendation That she had chosen the better part Luke 10. 42. and that should never be taken from her Oh that this also could be said of thee truly thou hast chosen the good part Though the wicked and ungodly of the world think it is the worse part and they would never take it yet it is the good part and that because it will never be taken from thee Thy grace thy good workes will never leave thee but they will goe to the grave with thee to Heaven with thee Thirdly This sinfulness of thy Will in chusing is seen when thou hadst rather sinne then become afflicted and yet this is naturally adhering to every one he will rather chuse to wound conscience to goe against light rather than be brought into trouble Doth not every man naturally judge this the best and so chuse it Hence he never mattereth what God requireth what may damn his soul hereafter only he is resolved he will not put himself upon any hardship for Christ but will launch no further in this deep then he can safely retire back again Every man would naturally get an Ark to save himself in when any publick water do overflow so they escape danger they regard not Gods glory or the Churches good Job's friends did fasten this upon him but falsly Job 36. 21. Take heed regard not iniquity for this hast thou chosen rather then affliction They thought Job desired to sinne and would chuse that rather then to be afflicted by God though Job being sanctified was free from this charge yet it is too true of every man by nature Oh what power of grace is necessary to make a man chuse to do his duty rather then have all the advantages of the world It was Anselm's expression That if sinne were on one side and hell flames on the other he would chuse rather to go through them rather then sinne Even Aristotle could say A virtuous man would die rather then do any dishonest thing But the Scripture giveth an admirable commendation of Moses worthy all our imitation Heb. 11. 25. Chusing rather to suffer for Christ then the pleasures of Aegypt Moses that might have had all the pleasure and honours of Aegypt yet because he could not have them without sinne he rather chuseth the poor and despised estate that his brethren were in So that Moses doth in this case something like Hiram 1 King 9. 13. to whom Solomon gave many Cities but Hiram did not like them and called that place Cabul that is displeasing or dirty Thus Moses called Pharaoh's Court and all his honours Cabul in respect of Christs favour and his love Did not all the holy Martyrs likewise do the same things Were not many of them offered life liberty yea great places of honour if they would renounce Christ if they would forsake his way But they did not stand deliberating and doubting what they should do they immediately chuse to be imprisoned burnt at the stake rather then not confess Christ and his way but the will naturally cannot make such a choice ¶ 7. The Wils loss of that Aptitude and readiness it should have to follow the deliberation and advise of the Understanding THe sinfulnesse of the Will in its noble and famous operation of Election or chusing hath been in a great measure considered I shall adde two particulars more and what is further to be taken notice of in this point will seasonably come in when we are to treat of the Will in its freedome or rather servitude The first of these two to be mentioned is The losse of that aptitude and readinesse it should have to follow the deliberation and prudent advise of the understanding For this is the privitive Institution and nature of the soul in its operations The understanding when the end is pitched upon doth consult and deliberate in a prudential way about the means which may conduce to that end and when prudence doth direct about those things which are to be done then the will is to imbrace and elect that medium rather then any other which reason doth thus wisely suggest Thus it ought to be now the will being wholly corrupt doth not chuse according to the dictates of prudence but the suggestions of sense and the carnal affections within us So that naturally a man chuseth an object not because reason or prudence saith This is good this is according to Gods will but because sense or affection saith this is pleasant and delightfull This sad perverting of the order of the will in its operations if rightly considered would throw us upon the ground and make us with great amazement and astonishment cry out of our selves For what can be more absurd and grievous then the will which is so essentially subordinated in its chusing to the guidance of the understanding should now be so debased that like Samson without eyes it is made to grind in evey mill that any carnal affection shall command we may see the good method and rule the will should walk by in its choice by that which Moses said Deut. 30. 15. 19. See I have set before thee this day life and death good and evil I call heaven and earth to
ability to do any thing that is truly godly If we take notice of all those wayes wherein learned men do place liberty or freedome of will we shall find evidently that none of these descriptions or definitions are any wayes competent to the will while it is unsanctified For First if that opinion be received which Bellarmine and others follow That liberty is radically in the understanding though formally in the will that is the reason of the wils liberty is from the understanding which doth propound several objects and thereupon the will is indeterminate whereas in beasts their appetite is plainly limited because they want reason as it is arbitrium so they say it is in intellectu as liberum so in voluntate Now I say let this be received for I do not dispute the truth of it then we must say The will hath no liberty to what is good because it faileth in the root The streame cannot runne when the spring is dried up for if we take the understanding in respect of spiritual and heavenly things so it is altogether darkened and blinded Therefore there is the grace of illumination required that it may know and believe the things of God without which men love and delight in darkness rather then light The things of God are said to be foolishness to a natural man so that all the while a man hath no more then nature in him he is like those birds that can see in the night but are blind in the day They have quick and sharp apprehensions in worldly and earthly matters but are altogether stupid and sensless in regard of heavenly How then can the will be free when the mind is altogether dark for God in conversion when he will set the will and affections at liberty from sinne begins first in the understanding light in the mind is first created there are holy thoughts and spiritual convictions wrought in the soul and by this light the other parts of the soul they come to be sanctified now then if there be not so much as this antecedaneous work upon the mind the will is as yet very farre from the Kingdom of heaven Wonder not then if ye see unregenerate men walking and stumbling in the dark that you see them so captivated unto every lust you may as soon remove a mountain out of its place as take them off from their iniquities For how can it be otherwise while the will hath no guid to lead it none to informe it concerning the evil and danger of those wayes it is going in If there be no light in the mind there is no liberty in the will so that hereby both horse and rider are as it were thrown into the sea Secondly If to be that liberty doth consist in an active indifferency to good or evil then the will is not free because the former part of this description upon Scripture-grounds can no wayes be accommodated to the will This description is generally received and applauded by Arminians and Jesuites as the best though Gibieus saith it is the worst making the very formal nature of liberty to consist herein that when all requisites to an action are supposed yet the will can do or not do and this they extend even to spiritual objects to that great work of conversion affirming when grace doth assist and help all it can so that Ex parte Dei all things are ready that do concurre to our conversion yet the will because it is free retaineth an active indifferency either to accept of this grace offered or to reject it This description we do no wayes acknowledge as that which depriveth God Christ and the glorified Saints from liberty and besides liberty being perfection and so in the most perfect manner in the most perfect subjects this doth debase it making a defect part of this perfection It is wholly absurd to make a power to sinne part of liberty Indeed this was a concomitant of Adam's liberty but not because liberty but because his will was mutable and changeable so that if he had been corroborated and confirmed in grace he had not put forth any such experience of his liberty well though we cannot assent to it yet let it be supposed to be true The Scripture is very clear and pregnant That a man hath no such indifferent power in him to good or evil Indeed to evil that he is carried out unto with all delight he can of himself kill himself but he cannot of himself give life to himself But as for the other part to be able to love what is good to believe and to turn himself unto God this is above his power for the order of nature and of grace differ as much as the order of sense and reason so that as the sensitive faculty cannot put forth acts of reason the eie cannot discourse and reason so neither can the rational faculties put forth the acts of grace which come from a divine nature and that which is borne from above All these places which describe man in a spiritual sense to be blind in mind deaf in eares and hardned in understanding yea which say he is dead in sinne and therefore the work of conversion is compared to regeneration and to a resurrection all these do plainly declare that the will hath no activity at all as to the first beginnings of grace It is true indeed there are commands to repent to be converted yea we are bid to choose life and death but there are none of these duties commanded which in other places are not made the gracious gifts of God so that to repent to be converted they are promised by God as the workings of his grace whereby they are both duties and gifts Although the Arminian thinketh that impossible They are duties because we are the people who do believe and do repent and are commanded thereunto They are also gifts because it is the grace of God alone that doth enable thereunto when therefore you read of such commands you must not think that they imply our power and ability for then grace would be wholly excluded seeing these Texts speak absolutely as if a good work were wholly done by our own power whereas the Arminian and Papist will not wholly exclude grace and so these Texts would prove more then they contend for But such commands are still imposed upon us by God to shew what doth belong to him what he may justly expect from us for seeing he created man with full power and ability to keep these commands if man wilfully cast himself into an utter impotency God hath not thereby lost the right of commanding though we have the power of obeying Besides by these Commands as we are to know our duty so thereby also we are provoked to be deeply humbled under our great inability seeing our selves treasuring up wrath every day and preparing more torments for our selves unlesse the grace of God doth deliver us Yea by these commands God doth work grace they are
to remove SECT V. They are wholly displaced from their right Objects THirdly The great sinfulness of the affections is seen In that they are wholly displaced from their right Objects The objects for which they were made and on which they were to settle is God himself and all other things in reference to him our love God onely challengeth in that command Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy heart and soul c. Our hatred that is properly to be against sin because it dishonours God our sorrow it is principally to be because of our offences to him so that there is not any affection we have but it doth either primarily or secondarily relate to God but who can bewail the great desolation that is now fallen upon us Every affection is now taken off its proper center In stead of loving of God we love the world we love our pleasures rather then God Instead of hating of sinne we hate God and cannot abide his pure and holy Law and Nature Thus we fear not whom we ought to fear viz. God That can destroy both soul and body in hell and what we ought not to fear there we are afraid as the frowns and displeasure of men when we are to do our duties Our sorrow likewise is not that also corrupted How melting and grieved are we in any temporal loss in any worldly evil but then for the loss of God and his favour by our iniquities there our bowels never move within us Thus our affections out of all order to their proper objects ought to be groaned under more than if all our bones were out of joynt for that is only a bodily evil hindring a natural motion this is a spiritual one depriving us of our enjoyment of God This particular pollution it is that the Text doth immediately drive at when it commands us To set our affections above it plainly sheweth where they are naturally viz. upon things of the earth and therefore as it was Christs divine power that made the woman bowed down with her infirmity for so many years to be strait Thus it must also be the mighty and gracious power of God to raise up these affections that are crawling on the ground to heavenly things Possess then thy soul throughly with this great evil that thou hast not one affection within thee that can go to its proper object but some thing moveth it from Go to the vain and fading creatures If these affections be the pedes animae the feet of the soul then with Asa thou hast a sad disease in thy feet and if thy whole body else were clean these feet would need a daily purifying SECT VI. The sinfulness of the Affections is discovered in respect of the End and Use for which God ingraffed them in our Natures FOurthly Their sinfulness is discovered in respect of the object about which So also in respect of the end and use for which God first ingraffed them into our Natures They were given at first to be like the wheels to the Chariots like wings to the bird To facilitate and make easie our approaches to God the soul had these to be like Elijah's fiery chariot to mount to Heaven and therefore we see where the affections of men are vehement and hot they conquer all difficulties that Adam might in body and soul draw nigh to God that God might be glorified in both therefore had he these bodily affections And we see David though restored to this holy Image but in part yet he could say His soul and his flesh did rejoyce in the Lord his flesh desired God as well as his soul that is his affections were exceedingly moved after God as Psal 84. 2. For the soul being the form of the body whatsoever that doth intensly desire by way of a sympathy or subordination there is a proportionable effect wrought in the inferiour sensitive part As Aaron's oyl poured on his head did descend to his skirts Thus by way of redundancy what the superiour part of the soul is affected with the inferiour also doth receive and by this means the work of grace in the superiour part is more confirmed and strengthned and the heat below doth encrease the heat above Thus you see that these affections had by their primitive nature a great serviceablenesse to promote the glory of God to prepare and raise up men to that duty But now these affections are the great impediments and clogs to the soul that if at any time it would sâ—ar up to Heaven if light within doth instigate to draw nigh to God These affections do immediately contradict and interpose and the reason is because they are ingaged to contrary objects so that when we would love God love to the world that presently stoppeth and hinders it when we should delight and rejoyce in holy things worldly and earthly delights they do immediately like the string to the birds feet pull down to the ground again Hence it is that you many times see men have great light in their minds great convictions upon their consciences they know they live in sinfull wayes they know they do what they ought not to do yea they will sometimes complain and grieve bitterly because they are thus captivated to those lusts which they are convinced will damn them at last but what is the snare that holdeth them so fast What are the chains upon them that bind them thus hand and soot even their sinfull and inordinate affections their carnal love their carnal delight keepeth conscience prisoner and will not let it do its duty Oh that we could humble our selves under this that what was wine is now become poison that what we had to further us to Heaven doth hurry us to hell that our affections should carry us to sinne that were for God that they should drive us to hell which were to further us to Heaven Oh think of this consider it and bewail it Many things lose their use and they only become unprofitable they do not hurt by that degeneration as salt when it hath lost its seasoning but now these affections are not onely unprofitable they will not help to what is good but are pernicious and damnable we that were of our selves falling into hell they thrust us and move us headlong to it so that they seem to be in us what the Devils were in the herd of Swine These are the wild horses that tare thy soul in so many pieces Thus our gold is become dross SECT VII When the Affections are set upon inferiour objects that are lawfull yet they are greatly corrupted in their Motion and Tendency thereunto IN the next place If the inferiour objects they are placed upon be lawfull and allowable yet they are greatly corrupted in their motion and tendency thereunto For they are carried out excessively and immederately They do unlawfully move to lawful things As man â—ands corrupted by nature his affections are defiled two wayes in respect of the objects For sometimes
these earthly things therefore it is that as we have inordinate delight in the possessing of them so immoderate sorrow in the losing of them For that is a true Rule about all these things Non est earendo difficultas nisi cum in habendo est cupiditas Now all this trouble and perplexing grief ariseth from the pollution of the soul being destitute of that glorious Image Sixthly Man having lost the Image of God thus in his soul hence it is that he liveth a wretched instable and unquiet life for being off in his heart from God he therefore is tossed up and down according to the mutability of every creature Hence no man having no more then what he hath by Adam can live any quiet secure and peaceable life but is tossed up and down with contrary winds sometimes fears sometimes hope sometimes joy sometimes sorrow so that he is never in the Haven but alwayes floting upon the waters Thus miserable is a mans life till the Image of God be repaired in him Lastly From this universal pollution upon a man it followeth That be abuseth every good thing he hath that he sinneth in all things and by all things That whether he eateth or drinketh whether he buyeth or selleth he cannot refer any one of these to the ultimate end which is Gods glory but to inferiour and self-respects Oh wretched and miserable estate wherein thou hast abused every mercy God hath given thee to his dishonour and thy damnation Thou hast turned all thy honey into gall and poison thou wast never able to fulfill that command 1 Cor. 7. So to use the world as not to abuse it Thy meat thy raiment thy health thy wealth they have all been abused neither hath God been glorified or the salvation of thy soul promoted thereby CHAP. VII Of the last Subject of Inhesion or Seat of Original Sinne viz. the Body of a Man SECT I. 1 THES 5. 23. And the very God of peace sanctifie you wholly and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ HItherto we have been discovering the universal pollution of the soul by original sinne and that both in the upper and lower region the rational and sensitive part thereof Our method now requireth that we should manifest the defilement and contagion that is upon the Body also For as it was in the deluge that did overflow the world the cause did precede both from above and beneath Gen. 7. 11. The fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of Heaven were opened from above and below did come the overflowing of waters Thus it is in that spiritual deluge of sinne which doth overflow all mankind There is corruption in the superiour parts of the soul and there is also in the body the lowest and meanest part of man So that whatsoever goeth to the making of man is all over defiled There is nothing in soul or body but is become thus polluted we therefore proceed to the last subject of Inhesion or seat of original sinne and that is the body of man which will be declared from the Text we are to insist upon SECT II. The Text explained FOr the Coherence of it observe that the Apostle having in the former verses enjoyned many excellent and choice duties In this verse he betaketh himself to prayer to God in their behalf that God would sanctifie them and inable them thereunto for in vain did Paul water by this Doctrinal Information unless God did give the increase and withall we see that is a true Rule That precepts are not a measure of our power They declare indeed our duty but they do not argue our power otherwise prayer thus to God would have been needless In the prayer it self we may consider the matter it self prayed for and that is set down 1. Summarily and in the General And then 2. Distributively in several particulars The General is That they may be sanctified wholly or throughout 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Thessalonians were supposed to be sanctified already but yet the Apostle doth here pray for their further sanctification which doth evidence That the Doctrine of perfection in this life is a proud and presumptuous errour If they had attained to the highest pitch of sanctification already why should they still grow in it Thus the Apostle doth often press Gospel-duties upon such as attain to them already but because they have not perfection therefore they are to be urged forward Thus the Apostle writing to those that were reconciled 2 Cor. 5. 20. saith We pray you be reconciled to God So to the Ephes 4. 23 24. Be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new man c. He speaketh as if the work were now to begin as if they had not as yet been partakers of this new-creature Not but that they were so onely there was much behind still to be perfected much leaven was to be purged out they were still imperfect and therefore are to forget what is behind pressing forward to the mark In the second place you have the Distribution of this whole in its parts This Sanctification is to be exercised in a three-fold subject your Spirit Soul and Body It is not Sanctification simply he prayeth for but growing and increasing that it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in the Original that it have all that the lot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a lot what the condition of them doth require what holiness is the spirits portion the souls condition to have that they are to partake of but because this will never be gradually perfect in this life though integrally it is therefore he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without blame Though the godly are not preserved without sinne yet they may without fals such as may make them notoriously culpable and faulty before men but because it is not enough for a time to be preserved and then afterwards to be left to our selves for then we should quickly lick up our old vomit again he therefore addeth that this preservation should be even to the coming of Christ Now that which I intend chiefly out of these words is the Subject to be sanctified and that not the two former viz. Spirit and Soul of whose uncleanness we have largely treated already but of the Body which is last of all Only it is necessary to speak a little to the explication of these three parts of man how they differ for commonly when the Scripture speaketh of man it enumerateth but two parts the Soul and the Body as Eccles 12. 7. and in the creation of man we have only two parts instanced in which are his Soul and his Body Because of this there have been various conjectures upon this place for some have hence made three parts of man his Body his Soul which they make to be the sensitive part of man and his Spirit which they make to be some
not naturally offer up our bodies a sacrifice to sinne and to the Devil For meerly a natural man serveth sinne and the Devil with all the parts of his body Therefore the Apostle speaking to persons converted Rom. 7. 19. saith As ye have yeelded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity so now yeeld your members servants to righteousness Thy eye was once the Devils and sinnes thy tongue was thy ear was by all these sinne was constantly committed so now have a sanctified body an holy eye a godly ear an heavenly tongue a pure body And indeed we need not runne for Texts of Scripture experience doth abundantly confirm the preparedness and readiness of the body to all suitable and pleasing iniquity Consider likewise that pregnant place Heb. 10. 22. Let us draw near with a pure heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water As the heart must be cleansed from all sinnes that our consciences may condemn us for so our bodies likewise must be washed with pure water it is an allusive expression to the legal custom which was for all before they drew nigh to the service of God to sprinkle themselves with pure water to take off the legal uncleanness of the body And thus we must still in a spiritual way that so the body may be fitted for Gods service As it is said of Christ Heb. 10. 5. A body thou hast prepared for me because the Spirit of God did so purifie that corpulent mass of which Christs body was made that being without all sinne he was thereby fitted for the work of a Mediator For as for the Socinian Interpretation who would apply it to Christs body made immortal and glorious as if it were to be understood of Christ entring into Heaven the Context doth evidently confute it that which the Apostle following the Septuaginnt in the original calleth Preparing the body out of which it is alledged Ps 40. 6. It is my ears hast thou opened aliuding to the Jewish custom who when a servant would not leave his Master his ears were to be boared and so he was to continue for ever with him The ears were boared because they are the instrument of hearing and obedience and thereby was signified that he would diligently hearken to his Masters commands Thus it was with Christ his ears were opened his whole body prepared to do the will of God Now as it was thus with Christ so in some respect it must be with us God must prepare and fit a body for us till grace sanctifie and polish it there is no readiness to any holy duty The seeing eye and the hearing ear God is said to make both Prov. 20. 12. By these instances out of Scripture you see what a Leprosie of sin hath spread over the body as well as the soul Oh that therefore we were sensible of these sinfull bodies that are such clogs to us such burdens to us in the way to Heaven But let us proceed to shew the sinfulness thereof in particulars SECT IV. The Sinfulness of the Body discovered in particulars ¶ 1. It is not now Instrumental and serviceable to the Soul in holy Approches to God but is a clog and burden FIrst The Body is not now instrumental and serviceable to the soul in holy approaches to God but is a clog and burden whereas to Adam abiding in the state of innocency the body was exceeding usefull to glorifie God with The body was as wings to the soul or as wheels to the chariot though weighty in themselves yet they do ableviate and help to motion They are both Onera and adjumenta oneranda exonerant Thus did the body to Adam's soul but now such is the usefulness yet the hinderance of the body to the souls operations that the very Heathens have complained of it calling it Carcer animae and Sepulchrum animae the prison of the soul the very grave of the soul as if the soul were buried in the body How much more may Christianity complain of this weight of the body while it is to runne its race to Heaven Mezenius is noted for a cruel fact of binding dead bodies to live men that so by the noisom stink of those carkasses the men tied to them might at last die a miserable death Truly by this may be represented original sinne not fully purged away by sanctification The godly do complain of this body of sinne as a noisom carkass joyned to them and with Paul cry out Wretched men that we are who shall deliver us from this bondage ¶ 2. It doth positively affect and defile the Soul SEcondly The bodies sinfulness doth not only appear thus privatively in being not subservient and helpfull to the soul But it doth also positively affect and defile the soul not by way of any phisical contact for so a body cannot work upon a spirit but by way of sympathy for seeing the soul and body are two constituent part essentially of man and the soul doth inform the body by an immediate union hence it is that there is a mutual fellowship one with another there is a mutual and reciprocal acting as it were upon one another the soul greatly affected doth make a great change upon the body and the body greatly distempered doth also make a wonderfull change upon the mind and if thereby man fall into madness and distractions why not also into sinne and pollutions of the mind Thus the corrupt soul maketh the body more vile and the corrupt body maketh the soul more sinful and so they do advance sinne in a mutual circle of causality Even as vapours cause clouds and clouds again dislolving do make vapours Thy sinful soul makes thy body more wicked and thy sinful body heightens the impiety of thy soul ¶ 3. A man acts more according to the body and the inclinations thereof then the mind with the Dictates thereof THirdly Herein is the pollution of the body manifested In that a man doth act more according to the body and the inclinations thereof then the mind with the dictates thereof He is body rather then soul for whereas in mans Creation the soul had the dominion and the body was made only for the use of the soul now this order is inverted by original sinne the body prevaileth over the soul and the soul is enslaved to the propensities thereof Even Aristotle said that homo was magis sensus quam intellectus more sence then understanding and so more corporeal then spiritual man is compounded of two parts which do in their nature extraemly differ from each other the body that is of dust and vile matter and such materials God would have man formed of even at first he did not make mans body of some admirable quintessential matter as Philosophers say the heavens are made of but of that which was most vile and contemptible to teach man humility even in his very original and most absolute
former particular our bodies had some kind of efficiency and working in those sinnes but here it is passive as it were an object that doth allure and draw out the soul inordinately to it so that we mind the body look to the body provide for the body more than the soul so that whereas the soul is farre more excellent and worthy than the body so that our thoughts and studies should be infinitely more zealous to save that then the body yet till grace doth sanctifie and life us up to the enjoyment of God who doth not look after his body more than his soul which yet is as if saith Chrysostom a man should look to his house to see that be repaired and that be in good order but neglect his own self The soul that is properly a man the body is but his house and a vile one also is an house of clay it is but a garment to the soul and a ragged tottered one Now it is good to take notice in what particulars our bodies are thus objectively a cause of sinne to us And First It is evident in that diligent and thoughtfull way of car we have about the feeding and cloathing of it Doth not our Saviour even to his very Disciples prohibit this perplexing care Matth. 6. 25. Take no thought for your life what ye shall eat nor for your body what ye shall put on but how faulty are we here comparatively to our souls we that have so many thoughts to provide for the body how few have we about the soul Is not the body well fed when the soul is starved Is not the body well cloathed when the soul is naked How justly may thy soul cry out murder murder for thou art destroying and damning that every day Will not thy soul witness against thee at the day of judgement the body was taken care for the body was looked to but I was neglected Will it not cry out in hell Oh if I had been as diligently attended unto as the body I had not been roaring in these eternal torments The second particular wherein the body doth objectively and occasionally tempt the soul to sinne is about the adorning and trimming of it not only the care to provide for it but the curiosity to adorn it doth provoke the soul to much sinni And whereas our very garments should put us in constant mind of our original pollution for there was no shame uponnakedness till that first transgression and thereby greatly humble us we now grow proud and vain from the very effect of the first disobedience Every morning we put on our garments we should remember our original sinne The body before sinne was not exposed to any danger by cold and other damages neither was the nakedness thereof any cause of blushing but all this and more also is the fruit of the first sinne and if so how inexcusable is it to be curious and diligent in trimming up and adorning our bodies by those very garments the thoughts whereof should greatly debase us but this is not all The great attendance to the glory of the body doth wholly take off from the care of the soul How happy were it if persons did take as much pains to have their souls cloathed with the robes of righteousness to have them washed and cleansed from all filth as they do about their bodies one spot one wrinkle in the garment is presently spied out when the soul at the same time though full of loathsomness is altogether neglected as if our souls were for our bodies and not our bodies for our souls The Platonists indeed had such high thoughts of the soul and so low of the body that their opinion was Anima est homo the soul is the man they made the body but a meer instrument as the Ship is to the Pilate or musical instruments to an Artificer This is not true in Philosophy though in a moral sense it may have some affinity with truth but if we do regard the affections and actions of all by nature we may rather say The body 〈◊〉 man Yea the Apostle goeth higher he maketh it some mens God Phil. 3. 19. Whose belly is their God Why their God Because all they look at in Religion all they mind is only to satisfie that The Monks belly in Luther's time was their god When then a man liveth his natural civil and religious life onely to have his belly satisfied this man maketh his belly his god And again there are persons whose backs are their god For never did Heathens or Papists bestow more cost upon their Idols and Images to make them glorious then they do on their backs little remembring that we came naked into the world and that we shall not carry any thing out with us If this care were for soul-ornaments if thou didst spend as much time in prayer to God and reading the Scriptures whereby thy soul might be made comely and beautifull as thou doest about thy body this would prove more comfortable If thou didst as often look into the glass of Gods word to find out every sinne thou doest commit and to reform it as thou doest into the material glasse to behold thy countenance and to amend the defilements there thou wouldst find that the hours and day so spent will never grieve thee whereas upon the review of thy life spent in this world thou wilt at the day of judgement cry out of and bewail all those hours all that time in unnecessary adorning of the body The Apostle giveth an excellent exhortation 1 Pet. 3. 3 Whose adorning let it not be of plating the hair or of wearing of gold but let it be the hidden men of the heart in that which is not corruptible The Apostle doth not there simply and absolutely forbid the wearing of gold in such who by their places and calling may do it for Isaac gave Rebâ—ccah earings of gold but he speaketh comparatively rather look to the adorning of the soul then of the body spend more time about one then the other It is a known History of that Pambo who seeing a woman very industriously trimming her self to please that man with whom she intended naughtinesse wept thereupon because he could not be as carefull to dresse up his soul in such a posture as to please God Oh then look to thy body hereafter Let it not steal so much time from thee as thereby to neglect thy soul and to lose those opportunities thou mayest have of humbling thy self before God! Thirdly The body doth objectively draw out sinne from the soul In that the fear of any danger to that especially the death thereof will make us damne our soules and greatly offend God which doth plainly discover that our bodies are more to us then God or heaven or our soules are Therefore we have our Saviour pressing his Disciples against this fear if fear about hurt to the body may insnare the godly and keep them from their duty no wonder if
second particular is the consequent and event thereof which is expressed 1. By note of Inference 2. The Subject And 3. The Predicate The Subject is That holy thing which shall be born of thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Present for the Future though some apply it not so properly to the conceiving 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Christ is called the Neuter gender is emphatical for though it be sometimes put for the Masculine as 1 John 5. 4. yet here it is emphatical to shew the extensiveness of Christs holiness that he is all over holy having not the least spot of sinne and that not only as God for so he is essentially and infinitely holy nor only by the personal Union with the Godhead but in his humane Nature both originally having no natural sinne in him and habitually and also actually in which sense he is every way holy The Predicate is He shall be called the Sonne of God that is he shall be indeed so and also famously and publiquely declared to be so And Lastly There is the note of Inference 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore also At this the Socinians greatly catch for they denying Christ to be the Sonne of God by eternal generation say That he is called the Sonne of God for many other Reasons whereof one is gradual to another so that he was not compleatly the Sonne of God till after his Resurrection when he was indowed with that glorious power God had given him sitting down at the right hand of God Now the first reason why Christ is called the Sonne of God is say they not because of any eternal generation from the Father as if he had been God before he was man from all eternity but from this miraculous and wonderfull production in time And they affirm Nothing can be plainer because when he had said The holy Ghost should over shadow her then is added Therefore he should be called the Sonne of God The Remonstrants they do or at least seem to do hold Christ to be the Sonne of God by eternal generation and also to be called so for other causes also as viz. by this miraculous production And it may not be denied but Maldonate the Papist doth plead for this as the reason in the Text why he should be called the Sonne of God So that saith he if Christ had been a pure man yet by this miraculous production he would have been made the Sonne of God But Gontzen his fellow Jesuite doth answer his reason Zanchy also is too liberal in this point acknowledging that Christ is here to be called the Sonne of God because of this miraculous communication of an humane being to him But his is no wayes to be received for the note of inference is not from the holy Ghosts overshadowing as a cause of his filiation but as from the sign It is I say an argument not from the cause but the sign so that the meaning is This extraordinary way of conceiving without a man is a sign that he is the true God who was before promised by the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 9. That a Virgin should conceive and his Name should be called Immanuel God with us For that there is a respect to that Prophecy appeareth plainly by Mat. 1. 23. And indeed it must needs be so for Christ is never called the Son of God because born of a woman though in a miraculous manner but the Sonne of man alwayes And if this Exposition should be granted Christ would have two filiations one as whereby he was made the Sonne of God and another as whereby he was made the Sonne of man It is also absurd to say Christ may be called the Sonne of God for several causes when there is one true and proper one he that is a Sonne by natural generation cannot be by Adoption or any other adventitious cause Again That particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is urged both of old and late That also which is born of thee c. implying that he had no other being though now he assumed this Thus you have the Text vindicated only one thing more is to be observed the expression used by the Angel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which shall be born of thee doth fully demonstrate That Christ had a body framed by the holy Ghost of the substance of the Virgin Mary that he had not a phantastical body neither did he bring a body from Heaven and so passe through the Virgin Mary as some of old and late have dreamed Therefore Marcion who denied the true body of Christ and thereby also his Conception and Nativity did wholly evade this Chapter of Luke and would not receive it as Canonical being called by Tertullian Mus ponticus because of his corroding and gnawing out of Scripture as he pleased when he saw any place make against him The words thus explained Observe That Christ onely is born holy and that all the rest of mankind is polluted with sinne It is a saying Exceptio format regulam if then Christ be exempted so that it is his peculiar priviledge then certainly all the rest are included As there are some who make all men pure by nature So some have blasphemously vented That Christ had original sinne Yea a Remonstrant writeth That the humane nature of Christ had that fight and conflict in it which is between the reason and the appetite which we say must necessarly be sinne The Socinians they affirm That Christ had a holy of sinne but then by sinne they mean onely infirmities and weaknesses not that which is truly so for this alledging Heb. 7. 27. Heb. 9. 28. The true meaning whereof we shall give anon But with Christians we need not long to insist upon the proof of this That Christ was without all sinne either original or actual typified therein by the High Priest in the Law who had this written upon him Holinesse to the Lord and therefore he is not onely holy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that sanctifieth and maketh us holy by his bloud And therefore the Apostle demonstrateth his preheminency above all the Priests of the Law That they were to offer for their own sinnes as well as for the sinnes of the people but so it was not with him if he had had sinne in him he could not have been our Saviour but he would have needed a Saviour himself yea Dan. 9. 24. he is called Sanctum sanctorum the Holy of holies or most holy And to this truth the Scripture speaketh clearly not onely when it saith That be knew no sinne and that no guile was found in his mouth which happily might be thought to be limited only to actual sinne but also as to the original and radical evil of mans nature that though he be a man of like nature with us yet sinne is still exempted Rom. 8. 3. He sent his own Sonne in the likenesse of sinfull flesh not in the likeness of the flesh
presumptuous opinion I may insist upon one for all Psal 14. 2. The Lord locked down from Heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand And vers 3. There is none that doth good no not one Think not that this is spoken of the Jews only it is spoken of all mankind God looked down upon the children of men and not on Judea only So that this sext is too true and all ages can give in their witness to it The Doctrinal Truth we are treating of is That man being by nature filthy and sinfull is thereby carried out with all inclination and delight to sinne Sinne is as sweet and as pleasant to a man by nature as water to a man scorched with thirst This expression is very emphatical it is usual with the Scripture to apply the Metaphor from corporeal hunger and thirst to the soul Hence Christ is compared both to bread and water and wine and saith in the workings thereof is compared to eating and drinking of him yea the graces of the soul whereby we are carried out intensively to holy things is compared to hunger and thirst Matth. 5. 6 Hence our Saviour to expresse his delight in doing of Gods will saith It is his meat to do the will of him that sent him John 4. 34. Thus then as the godly have a principle of grace within them whereby they hunger and thirst after more enjoyment of God so there is in a natural man a constant vehement appetite to sinne never being satisfied but in obeying the lusts thereof This propensity to sinne is here expressed by thirst provoking a man to drink with delight and abundantly you have the like expression used Job 34. 7. What man is like Job who drinketh scorning like water that is he delighteth in it he doth it easily he findeth no reluctancy nor remorse upon his coâ—â—â—â—ence SECT II. How much is implied in this Metaphor Man drinketh iniquity like water TO illustrate this Let us consider first how much is implied in the Metaphor that the Text here useth Man drinketh iniquity like water And First Here is denoted a vehement and violent appetite to sinne Thirst if extream is intollerable some say worse then hunger Hence Samson cried out of his thirst though so strong a man he was not able to bear it and Christ himself while upon the Crosse complained of no pain only said I thirst which denoteth the impetuousness of this appetite It is usually defined to be appetitus humidi frigidi an appetite of that which is moist and cold as hunger is calidi sicci of that which is hot and dry But the learned Vossius De Theol. Genili lib. 3. pag. 104. thinketh this definition though given by Aristrotle ought to be corrected because hungry men sometimes desire cold things to eat and thirstly sometimes hot things to drink Therefore he thinketh it more exact to define hunger an appetite humidi pinguis of that which is moist but nourishing and thirst humids aquei of that which is moist but meerly so For by satisfying of our thirst we are not properly nourished only thereby the meat we eat is disposed better to nourishment so that thereby the parts of the body which were dried are watered and the food more easily conveyed to its proper places yea he will not have hunger or thirst to be an appetite but a grief or dolor arising from the sense of feeling which is in the stomack though he granteth an appetite to follow this grief Howsoever this be in Philosophy yet we see thirst is an appetite or hath it necessarily following it There is also a kind of pain and grief whereby every part that is needy calleth for relief and thus it is in man by nature he being destitute of the Image of God and finding no happiness in him doth earnestly crave for some relief from the creatures he thirsteth after the pleasures and profits which are for bidden by Gods Words and thereupon his whole endeavour and study is to fulfill the lusts of this sinfull inclination within him That which is said of some particular sinners as to some lusts only Ephes 4. 19. They have given themselves to work at uncleanesse with greedinesse As also Jer. 8. 6. Every one turneth to his course viz. of wickednesse as the horse rusheth into the battel is true of all men naturally in respect of some sinne or other It is true those mentioned in these Texts had besides their natural inclination superadded inveterate and habituated customs in impiety and so they had their first and second nature also hurrying them away but yet the pollution of our nature alone is enough thus to precipitate us headlong into every evil way Do thou then consider thy self more and be acquainted with this pollution upon thee Oh what a drought is upon thy soul What vehement provocations from within to be continually doing that which is evil Secodly From this vehement inclination thus to sinne there is a restlesnesse and disquietnesse in us till we be satisfied we rage and oppose all those who will not give us to drink of this water How discontented are men at those means and wayes which God hath appointed to prevent sinne They love not the Law of God they love not the Word of God because it is holy and threatneth sinne They love not a faithfull and powerfull Ministry because 〈◊〉 work is against sinne They cannot endure the holy Orders and Disciplâ—◠〈◊〉 hath appointed in his Church because against sinne And why is all this but because there is a thirst within a scorching heat after it and therefore cannot endure to be hinred from the satisfying of it Thus by this means a man is put into a miserable perplexity if he doth not sinne he is mad and rageth and if he doth sinne he is miserable and undone As one in a Dropsie if he doth not drink he cannot bear it and if he doth he thereby increaseth his danger Thus every man is a miserable restlesse creature by nature wretched if he doth not sinne and wretched much more if he doth sinne what misery it is to have a scorching heat within a man and to have nothing to cool is parabolically represented by our Saviour in Divies while in hell Luke 16. 24. who desired Abraham to send Lazarus that he might dip his finger in water and cool his tongue though it were but a drop of water he was glad of it Thus it is proportionably with every man by nature having a vehement appetite to sinne and therefore much disquieted till they do accomplish it We read of a terrible judgement God brought upon the Isralites while in the wilderness Deut. 8. 15 which was by fiery Serpents that did sling them The Hebrew word for a Serpent signifieth thirst to which also the Greek name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth answer they are called so because upon the stinging of a man he hath immediately such an inflammation
are ignorantis and concupiscentia Ignorance and Concupiscence Ignorance by that we know not God the true and chiefest good but every creature yea every lust is represented as good and lovely as in the dark night a white rotten post or a glow-worm will shine and appear something It is the not knowing of God as revealed in the Scripture which maketh us set up so many Idols in our hearts The other daughter is Concupiscence and this may be called Sheol because it is alwayes asking and craving insomuch that a man is insatibly carried out all his life long to one sinne or other he still cryeth Give give Now what a miserable creature is man that is thus greedy of that which is destructive of him If you should hear a man calling importunately for poison he will eat nothing but poison Is not such an one desperate set to ruine himself Thus is with every natural man he can never sinne enough as if he thought he could never damn himself enough How happy are the creatures comparatively herein to man Their appetites are moderated and they desire nothing that is hurtfull but man never stayeth himself in his lusts and withall he is wholly carried out to such things as will inevitably damn him Sixthly A thirsty man drinking down water doth it to refresh himself never attending whether it be wholsom or destructive to him How many have got their mortal bane by drinking to quench their raging heat within The Hydropical man will call for his drink though thereby he is ruined and this doth fitly resemble that cursed appetite in us to sinne though it damnus We look onely to the bait not to the hook to the pleasures of sinne the sweetness of sinne not at all considering what buterness thus will bring at the later end Is not this the miserable estate of man by nature Doth he look any further then to satisfie this corrupt thirst within him Doth he think will thus be for my good will this be in stead of God and Heaven to me Hence also it is that he is carried out to sinne from a voluntary principle within Even as a thirstly man needeth not to be hired or compelled to drink he hath that within him which will instigate him Thus it is in every man by nature though there should be no Devil to tempt him yet that corrupt frame within would provoke him to all evil It is from this that though hell and damnation be threatned though this sword of Gods anger hang over his head yet he will drink of this water Lastly There is denoted in this similitude That a man by committing of sinne is thereby inclined to sinne the more It doth not satisfie but increase the lust more As a man in distempered heat doth not allay it by drinking but enstameth it the more as a little water thrown on the fire intendeth the heat thereof Thus by drinking in of the water of sinne a man becomes more thirstly after it and so to his corrupt inclination there is added also a corrupt custom and these two cords are not easily broken it must be the grace of God alone that can set us at liberty Hence we have that expression concerning a stubborn obstinate man in his way of sinning Deut. 29. 19. That he addeth drunkennesse to thirst And so again Thirst to drunkennesse thus he is alwayes in vehement motions after sinne and the more he swalloweth it down and is inebriated with it the thirstier still he groweth according to that known Rule Quò plus suxt potae plus siâ—iuntur aquae It is true that proverbial expression used by Moses in the Text named is very obscure and is greatly vexed Delrio upon the place giveth fifteen Interpretations and Bonfrerius offereth one of his own Grotius goeth along with those that â—â—â—erstand the abstracts for concretes and so apply it to two different persâ—â—â— ut that of Calvins seemeth most probable which I have mentioned that it denoteth a man by custom in sinne to be more vehemently inclined thereunto Even as drunkennesse doth not quench the thirst but maketh a man more thirsty afterwards and this agreeth wholly with my purpose SECT III. Some Demonstrations proving that there is such an impetuous inclination in man to sin THat there is such an universal propensity in all manking is confirmed by experience and acknowledged by the adversaris to original sinne Let us bring some few demonstrations à posteriori that they may fully prove the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That there is such an impetuous inclination in man to sinne And First The testimony of the Scripture may be instar omnium in this point that doth sufficiently attest the general pollution of all men by their evil doings Not to bring in that fore-mentioned place Psal 14. 2 3. where God is said to look from Heaven upon the children of men and he could not behold one that did good no not one It was not upon Judea only but upon the children of men and he could not find one good We may take in many other places to confirm this How quickly had all mankind corrupted it self as appeareth Gen. 6. 12. God looked upon the earth and behold it was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted his way before God Here we see not long after the Creation how all the world was quickly become abominable in his eyes All flesh had corrupted his way every man had defiled himself Yea so great it was that vers 5. Every imagination of man was only evil and that continually Now whence should all this evil arise Must not the fountain needs be bitter from which so many bitter streams flow Could so many thorns grow from men if they were grapes If so be there were the seeds of virtue in men by nature as they say or at least man is by nature indifferent either to good or evil yea more inclining to good How cometh it about that alwayes evil should prevail How is it that good doth not sometimes take place Why is there not an age to be recorded wherein we may say all flesh had made their wayes holy and that every imagination of the thoughts of mans heart was onely good continually Why should not there be some ages wherein God might look from Heaven and see none that did evil no not one The pure Naturalists are never able to answer this satisfactorily for if man be by nature as well without vice or virtue ready and capable to receive either as his will shall carry him Why is it that this will of man doth never prevail universally in some age to make all good Why should sinne alwayes get the upper hand and supplant virtue as it were so as to come out first Neither can that be a refuge in this Text which sometimes they runne unto That long custom in sinning for many ages together and evil examples so long confirmed from age to age dâ— cause such a torrent of impiety For not to speak at this
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
posse mori is known by all It is not then an absolute but a conditional immortality we speak of ¶ 3. Propos 3. ALthough we say that God made man immortal yet we grant that his body being made of the dust of the earth and compounded of contrary element it had therefore a remote power of death It was mortal in a remote sense only God making him in such an eminent manner and for so glorious an end there was no proxim and immediate disposition to death God indeed gave Adam his name whereas Adam imposed a name upon all other creatures but not himself and that from the originals he was made of to teach him humility even in that excellent estate yet he was not in an immediate disposition to death When Adam had transgressed Gods Law though he did not actually die upon it yet then he was put into a mortal state having the prepared causes of death within him but it was not so while he stood in the state of integrity then it was an immortal state now it is a mortal one I say state because even now though Adam hath brought sinne and death upon us yet in respect of the soul a man may be said to be immortal but then there was immortality in respect of soul and body the state he was created in did require it So that although death be the King of terrors yet indeed original sinne which is the cause of it should be more terrible unto us Now man by sinne is fallen the beasts could they speak would say Man is become like one of us yea worse for he carrieth about with him a sinfull soul and a mortal body ¶ 4. Distinctions about Mortality and that in several respects Adam may be said to be created mortal and immortal THe fourth Proposition is That from the former premisses it may be deducted that in several respects Adam may be said to be created mortal and immortal yet if we would speak absolutely to the question when demanding how Adam was created we must return Immortall Some indeed because mans mortalilty and immortality depended wholy upon his will as he did will to sinne or not to sinne so they have said he was neither made mortal or immortal but capable of either but that is not to speak consonantly to that excellency of state which Adam was created in for as Adam was created righteous not indifferent as the Socinians say neither good or bad but capacious of either qualification so he was also made immortal not in a neutral or middle state between mortal and immortal so that he had inchoate immortality upon his creation but not consummate or confirmed without respect to perseverance in his obedience for the state of integrity was as it were the beginning of that future state of glory Again Adam might be called mortal in respect of the orginals of his body being taken out of the dust of the earth but that was only in a remote power so God did so adorne him with excellent qualifications in soul and body that the remote power could never be brought into a proxime and immediate disposition much less into an actual death for a thin◠may be said to be mortal 1. In respect of the matter and thus indeed Adams body in a remote sence was corruptible 2. In respect of the forme Thus Philosophers say sublunary things are corruptible because the matter of them hath respect to divers formes whereas they call the heavens incorruptible because the matter is sufficiently actuated by one forme and hath no inclination to another and thus Adam might truly be said to be immortal for it was very congruous that a body should be united to the soul that was sutable to it for that being the form of a man and having an inclination or appetite to the body if man had been made mortal at first the natural appetite would in a great measure have been frustrated it being for a little season only united to the body and perpetually ever afterwards seperated from it Surely as an Artificer doth not use to put a precious Diamond or Pearl into a leaden Ring so neither would God at first joyn such a corruptible body to so glorious and an immortal soul 3. A thing may be said to be mortal in respect of efficiency and thus it is plain Adam was not made mortal for he might through the grace of God assisting have procured immortality to himself that threatening to Adam In the day he should eat of that forbidden fruit he should die the death Gen. 2 17. doth plainly demonstrate that had he not transgressed Gods command he should never have died 4. A thing may be said to be mortal in respect of its end Thus all the beasts of the field whatsoever Puccius thought are mortal because their end was for man to serve him so that it is a wild position to affirm as he doth that there shall be a resurrection of beasts as well as of men for they were made both in respect of matter form and end altogether mortal whereas Adam was made after the Image of God to have communion and fellowship with God and that for ever which could not be without immortality ¶ 5. Prop. 5. THe true causes of death are only revealed in Gods Word All Philosophers and Physitians they searched no further then into the proxim immediate causes of death which are either external or internal they looked no further and knew of no other thing but now by the Word of God we Christians come to know that there are three principal causes of death so that had not they been those intermedious and proxime causes of death had never been The first cause is only by occasion and temptation and that was the Devil he tempted our first parents and thereby was an occasion to let death into the world for this cause the Devil is called Joh. 8. 44. a murderer from the beginning it doth not so much relate to Cain as to Adams transgression yet the Scripture Rom. 5. doth not attribute death to the Devil but to one mans disobedience because Adams will was not forced by Satan he had power to have resisted his temptations only the Devil was the tempting cause The second and most proper cause of death was Adams disobedience so that death is a punishment of that sinne not a natural consequent of mans constitution The History of Adam as related by Moses doth evidently confirme this that there was no footstep of death till he transgressed Gods Law and upon that it was most just that he who had deprived himself of Gods Image which is the life of the soul should also be deprived of his soul which is the life of the body that as when he rebelled against God he presently felt an internal rebellion by lusts within and an external disobedience of all creatures whom he did rule over before by a pacifical dominion so also it was just that he who had deprived himself
degree laid in the dust that thy will and desires may be accomplished Farre be this from thee Surely the great and high thoughts we ought to have of Gods wisdom goodness and holiness ought to keep us from opening our mouths any more in this point saying As I leave my self so my children in the hands of God who disposeth all things according to his own will And as we say of the nature of God he is that Bonum quo nihil melius cogitari potest The same must we apply to all his dispensations likewise Furthermore we are to remember That whatsoever the first Adam hath brought upon mankind the second Adam will totally and fully remove in all that are his members Insomuch that at the last there shall not remain as it were an hoof of any of these calamities That original corruption within thee shall no longer tempt thee incessantly like Joseph's Mistress saying Come and lie with me we shall then in the issue of all have more cause to rejoyce because of Christ and the benefits by him then ever we were cast down and dejected because of the transgression of the first Adam and the unspeakable evil that came by him So that if these particulars be duly considered every believer may with comfort and quietness sit down under this truth while men of pharisaical and self-justifying spirits rage and revile at these things But you will say Grant that there is such a thing as Original Sinne and that we have delivered nothing but Scripture truth in this point yet may we not be too tragical in exclamations about it As there are those who erre in the defect so are there not many that do offend in the excess that make it more hainous then it is This is the last Question wherewith I shall conclude this Subject And First All the Popish Arminian Socinian party with their adherents look upon the Calvinists as excessive in this point hence are there several complaints of them about this matter in all their works But certainly if we do regard the scope of the Scripture it is wholly to debase man and exalt Christ To discover our incurable and sinfull estate that thereby Christ may be the more magnified which is done by nothing so much as to make known that horrid pollution which is upon all by nature And certainly that one Text Genes 6. 5. affirming The thoughts of the imagination of a mans heart to be only evil and that continually speaketh more emphatically the deplored and sinfull estate of man then ever any Calvinist hath yet exprest Yet though this be so we grant that some may go too farre in their opinions and expressions about original sinne though for the most part such is a mans self-fulness and self-righteousness that Pelagianism is likelier to poison the world then Flacciâ—â—ism We must know therefore that one Illyricus a Lutheran in opposition to Victorinus Strigelius a Lutheran also but a Synergist holding the will of man to concurre actively with the grace of God to a mans conversion and thereby extenuating original sinne This Illyricus I say out of a vehement opposition to that party and the School-Doctrine about original sinne making it to be an accident in a man did fall into another extream saying That original sinne was a substantial evil in a man and that the very substantial form of a man was now made sinfull This Illyricus was a man of a very turbulent and unquiet spirit a desperate enemy to Melancthon whose heart it is said he broke Melch. Adam in vita Illyrici At first he was well reputed of by the Orthodox and being sadly tempted in his spirit about sinne and the wrath of God but afterwards delivered from it it was judged so great a mercy that thanks was given to God in the publick Congregation for his behalf but afterwards among other erroneous assertions he maintained That original sinne was a substantial evil in a man We may read his whole opinion with the declaration of himself and his Arguments in his Tractate on purpose concerning this point Clavis Script 2d parte Tractat. 6. de originali peccato wherein he hath many absurd and monstrous expressions Although it must be acknowledged that with that dung and filth he hath there is also some gold Some there are that wholly excuse him saying That his words only were improper but that his sense was orthodox and that out of hatred to that Doctrine which extenuateth original sinne he would pretending the Scripture for his Rule use substantive expressions to declare the nature of it But whatsoever his end may be certainly his sense and opinion as declared in his words is justly to be condemned and exploded For by Adam's fall he maketh a substantial change to be made upon a man That the Image of God is turned into the image of the Devil not accidentally but substantially as when wine is made vinegar or when the parts of a statue or house that were built in some comely harmony representing some glorious thing they should be pulled down and built into another deformed shape As suppose the Image of some comely person should be pulled in pieces and made the image of an horrible Dragon or Serpent He distinguisheth of the material substance of a man and his formal He granteth That the matrial substance of a man still remaineth our body and parts thereof but the formal substance is altered As when a vessel that was once made a vessel of honour is afterwards made a vessel of dishonour the material substance is the same but not the formal He doth no wayes endure that we should call original sinne an accident for he saith This sinne is a transcendent and is in all predicaments it 's sometimes a quality sometimes an action c. sometimes a substance Neither will he distinguish between the substance of a man and his sin adhering thereto between the subject and the privation in it between the abstract and concrete God he saith is angry with concretes punisheth concretes not abstracts and therefore he saith Those that distinguish between the substance of a man and his sinne do as the Alchimists separating from the oyl oleity from a stone lapideity so these from Adam Adameity Thus he and much more But certainly herein he betrayeth horrible ignorance in Philosophy and Theology for both these will necessitate us to distinguish between the substance of a man and the sinfull privation in him otherwise Christ could not have taken the same nature with us upon him sinne only excepted and regeneration would be a substantial change not a qualitative Neither by this opinion could the same substantial bodies be said to be glorified in Heaven So that as the Leprosie in the body is not the body neither is original sinne in man the nature of man and therefore when we read that the flesh and spirit are opposite that opposition must be understood in praedicamento qualitatis not substantiae The greatest support