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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
a vanity upon mans mind To be pleased with stories and merry tales more then a powerfull and divine Sermon Is not this because mans mind is vain Since mans fall as the will though a noble part of the soul yet doth act dependently and slavishly to the sensitive appetite we will not what is good and the acceptable will of God but what our sinful affections suggest to us so the understanding though the satred faculty as it were of the soul yet acts dependently on the fancie and so what tickleth and pleaseth that the mind also is most affected with Austin did much confess and bewail this vanity of his mind whereby he did disdain the simplicity of the Scripture and desired to hear that eloquent Ambrose not out of love to matter but to words This is a childish vanity like Children that delight in a Book for the pictures that are in it not the matter contained therein This vain mind hath sometimes affected both Preacher and Hearer what applauded Sermons have there been and yet nothing in them but descanting upon words and affecting a verbal pomp being like the Nightingale Vox preterea nihil like Puppets stuft with bumbast having no life at all within them and all was accounted prating that was not such a wordy preaching And truely this vanity hath much infected the mind of hearers men coming to the Word preached not as to hear the Oracles of God with fear and trembling but as to the Schooles of oratory looking to the powdring of their words and the dressing of the language as much as to the setting and ordering of their own hair Is not this a great evil and vanity thus to regard the healing of the finger when the heart is deadly sick If thy mind be renewed in this it will also appear and for that vanity there will be solid gravity Fifthly Original sinne filleth the mind with exceeding great folly So that no man born a natural fool is more to be pitied then every man who by nature is a spiritual fool Those conceited wise ones of the world who condemne the godly for a company of fools they are fools in the highest degree as may easily be evinced If so be Job 4. 18. God is said To charge his Angels with folly and that as some expound even the good Angels themselves because that wisedome they have comparatively to Gods is but folly how much more is this true of man fallen who hath lost that wisedome God once bestowed upon him If you ask Wherein doth a natural mans folly appear Truly in every thing he doth Eccl. 10. 3 His wisdom faileth him and he saith to every one he is a fool Every oath every lie every drunken fit proclaimeth a man to be but a fool If he had the wisedome of Gods Word he could never do so especially the folly of man by nature is seen these waies 1. In making himself merry with sinne It is jollity and sport to him to be fullfilling the lusts of the flesh and is not this folly to be playing with the flames of hell as you see fools go laughing to the stocks so do they to hell Prov. 10. 23 It is a sport to a fool to do mischief herein then thy foolish mind is seen that thou canst laugh and sport it so in the actings of sinne which are the preparatoryes to those everlasting burnings in hell 2. Thy folly by nature is seen In preferring a creature before God what is this but the fools bable before the Tower of London as the Proverb is yet this folly is bound up in every man till grace make him wiser he loveth the creature more then God he had rather have a drop then the ocean earth then heaven dirt then gold Is not this greater folly then can be expressed yet till regenerated such a fool thou art though thou art never so wise in thy own conceit 3. We are naturally foolish In that we attend only to those things that are for the present and never at all look to eternity becoming herein like bruit beasts that regard only what is before them Moses doth in the name of God wish Oh that my people were wise Deut. 32. 29. that they would understand their latter end It is wisdome to look to the future hence they say Prudens is qussi porro videns he seeth a farre off but take any natural man doth all the wisdome he hath ever make him to attend to eternity what will become of him at the day of judgement now he is at ease and in good liking but what shall he do when that great day shall come he is farre from Hierem's temper thinking he heard alwaies that terrible noise sounding in his eares Arise and come to judgement Oh thy folly then who dost in effect say Give me that which is sweet here though hereafter I be tormented to all eternity 4. Thy folly is abundantly discovered in this that thou takest no paines to know the best things the chiefest things the things that most concerne thee Naturally thou knowest nothing of God or Christ or the way to heaven which yet is the proper end for which God made thee if folly did not reign in thy understanding thou wouldst not be so careless herein Thou art carefull to know how to live in this world but not how to live eternally in the world to come Thou knowest how to buy and sell how to plough and sow but knowest not the principles of Religion which must save thee Doth not this proclaim thy folly 5. Original sinne is discovered in our foolish mind By the inconsiderateness that it is guilty of It 's want of consideration that damneth a man Intellectus cogitabundus est principium omnis boni Psal 50. Oh consider this ye that forget God Did a man consider the majesty of God the dreadfullness of hell â—he shortness of the pleasures of sinne the mortality of the body and the immortality of the soul How could he sinne This foolish inconsiderateness maketh man though mortal to procrastinate his conversion he is alwaies beginning to repent beginning to reforme Inter caetera mala hoc habet stultitia seâ—per incipit vivere 6. Not to inlarge in this Thy folly in thy mind is seen By thy imprudence and injudiciousness Thou dost not judge godliness the favour of God and grace better then the whole world as the child thinketh his nut better then gold Sapiens est cui res sapiunt prout sunt if thou wert wise things would savour to thee as they are earthly as earthly heavenly as heavenly so that the folly of man naturally is seen in this that he savoureth not the things of God he hath no judgement to esteem of the true pearl and therefore will not part with the least thing to obtain it Sixthly The mind hath lost its superiority in respect of the other parts of the soul and its subordination to God both which were the great perfections thereof For
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
Will in its Absolute and Efficacious Willing of a thing COme we then to the next act of the Will which is an absolute and efficacious willing of a thing and here no tongue of men and Angels can expresse the depravation of it For if we do consider the true proper and adequate object of the will it is God only He is the supreme and universal good having in him after an eminent manner all good whatsoever So that no object can fill the capacity of the will but God only The good things of the creature can no more fill up the will then the air can the stomack of an hungry man but if we consider how it standeth with our will as it is now corrupted of all objects it is most averse to God Hence the Scripture describeth every wicked man by this That he hateth God not under the notion as he is good but as he is holy as he is a just Judge who will punish every wicked transgressor Know then and bewail this unspeakable defilement upon thy will that it is most averse to its proper object no stone doth more naturally descend to the center then thy will should tend to God Amor mens pondus meum illuc feror quocunque feror A mans love is his weight now if thy love be spiritual that weigheth thee to God but if thy will be carnal that presseth thee to carnal objects 2. Thy will is corrupted in respect of its object because all the creatures are to be willed by thee no otherwise then they tend to God or lead thee to him whereas naturally we will the creatures for the creatures sake and so make it instead of a God to us As the Sunne being the primum visibile all things are to be seen by the light thereof so God being the primum amabile the first and chiefest thing to be beloved all things are to be loved with a participation from it But who may not groan under our corruption herein Every creature we desire we are apt to terminate our selves upon that and to go no further Do we will health parts and the comforts of this life in reference to the glory of God So that herein we may see the depth of our corruption It was not thus with Adam in his integrity There is not a creature that thy will is pitcht upon but thy soul commits fornication with it Leave not the meditation of this point till thy heart in an holy manner break within thee ¶ 4. The Corruption of the Will in its Act of Fruition THe next Act is that which is called Fruition An operation you heard of the will when it doth possess a thing as its ultimate end end resting in it as a center and desiring no further For as the stone cannot of it self hang in the air but must descend to the earth and there it resteth So the will of man moveth up and down in a restless manner like Noah's Dove till it find out an object wherein it doth acquiesce with fulness of content Now there is no object that we may thus frui enjoy ultimately and for it self's sake but God onely That distinction of frui and uti to enjoy and use only which Austin first excogitated the Schoolmen are large upon To enjoy a thing is to have it for its self sake referring it to no further end for the Rule is Appetitus finis is infinitus The soul never hath enough of that which it ultimately desireth but yet desireth nothing else but that As in Philosophy it is said Materia semper appetit formam the Matter doth constantly desire new forms in sublunary things Hence is that frequent alteration transmutation and generation but in the heavenly bodies the matter they say is satiated desireth no other because of the great activity and perfection of that form Thus it is in moral things the heart of a man while carried out to any earthly thing cannot meet with its complement and fulness of blessedness and therefore like the Horsleech still cryeth Give give Sen caret optatis seu fruitur miser est It is a Sheol that is alwayes craving onely when terminated upon God because he is bonum quo nihil melius there cannot be any good desirable which is not transcendently in him therefore the sanctified will doth enjoy him onely Thus David Whom have I in heaven but thee and none in earth in comparison of thee In Heaven David had none but God not Angels nor Arch-angels Heaven would not be Heaven if God were not enjoyed Indeed Divines do commonly call the enjoyment of God in Heaven fruition and that is immediate compleat and perfect fruition but yet even in this life believers partake of God have communion with him and do enjoy him It is indeed by saith not yet by vision but the object of faith is as real and operative in the soul though not to such a full degree as the object seen Thus you see that according to the true order and constitution of things God onely is to be enjoyed he onely is to be loved and desired for his own sake and all things else in reference to him But on the breadth the depth and length of our natural defilement therein What spiritual Geometry can measure the dimensions hereof For doth not every natural man enjoy something or other which is as a God to him Why is Covetousness called Idolatry Why are some said to have their belly a God Is not all this because they love these things and enjoy these things for their own selfe 's sake Whereas we ought only to use them as instruments of Gods glory and advantages of grace not to abide or dwell in them They are to be taken as Physick which is not received for its selfe 's sake but because of health So that were it not for health a man would never use it Thus it ought to be with us in all the comforts we have in this world to use them no further then they are subservient to our spiritual condition we are ex officio discendere not cupiditate ruere such a crucified and circumcised heart the Apostle exhorteth to 1 Cor. 7. The time is short those that marry must be as if they married not those that rejoyce as if they rejoyced not If a man desire a garment he would not have all the cloath in the Countrey but as much as serveth for his garment So neither are we to desire wealth riches honours any comfort without end but as much as will conduce for Heaven The travailer will not burden himself no not with gold and silver who hath a long journey to go Oh then call off thy will again and again Say Why art thou fastned here Why stayest thou here Look further look higher This is not God As the Angel did on a suddain so ravish John that he was ready to worship him but the Angel forbad him saying I am thy fellow-servant worship thou God So these creatures
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
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
that is the cause of all thy bad fruit A regenerated will a sanctified will would make thee prepared for every good work It is for want of this that all preaching is in vain all Gods mercies and all judgements are in vain Why should not the hammer of Gods word break it Why should not the fire of it melt it but because the stubbornness of the will is so great that it will not receive any impression 't is called therefore a stony heart not an iron heart for iron by the fire may be mollified and put into any shape but a stone will never melt it will sooner break into many pieces and flie in the face Thus the will of a man hath naturally that horrible hardness and refractoriness that in stead of loving and imbracing the holy things of God it doth rather rage and hate with all abomination such things ¶ 7. The Enmity and Contrariety of the Will to Gods Will. IN the second place That imbred sinfull propriety of the will which accompanieth it as heat doth fire is The enmity and contrariety of the will to Gods will There is not onely a privative incapacity but a positive contrariety even as between fire and water Gods will is an holy will thine is unholy Gods will is pure thine is impure Gods will is carried out to will his own glory honour and greatness thine is carried out to will the dishonour and reproach of God Thus as Gods will is infinitely good and the cause of all good so in some sense thy will is infinitely evil and the cause of all that evil thou art plunged into Therefore when the Apostle saith That the carnal mind is enmity against God Rom. 8. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comprehends the actings of the will and the affections as well as of the mind It is enmity in the very abstract so that it is neither subject to God nor can be Oh that God would set this truth more powerfully upon our hearts for what tongue can express the misery of this that thy will should naturally have such irreconcilable opposition and implacable enmity to the Law of God that it should be diametrially opposite to Gods will which at first was made so amicable and compliant with Gods will that there was the Idem velle and Idem nolle Besides many other considerations there are two especially that may break and exceedingly humble our souls herein For 1. Gods will and his law which is his will objectively taken are absolutely in themselvs very good and therefore the proper object of thy will So that if thy will be carried out to any thing in the world it should be carried out to Gods Law above any thing This is to be willed above any created good what soever How is it that thou canst will pleasures profits and such created good things and art not more ravished and drawn out in thy desires after the chiefest good but to be in a state of opposition to this chiefest good to contradict and withstand it this is the hainous aggravation Could there be a Summum malum it would be in the will because of its direct opposition to the Summum bonum Herein mans will and the Devils will do both agree that they are with hatred and contrariety carried out against Gods will If therefore thou wert to live a thousand and thousands of years upon the earth and thou hadst no other work to do but to consider and meditate about the sinfulness and wretchedness of the will in this particular thou wouldst even then take up but drops in respect of the Ocean and little crums in respect of the sand upon the sea-shore But Secondly This contrariety of thy will is not only against that which absolutely in it self is the chiefest good but relatively it would be so to thee and therefore thy contrariety to it is the more unjustifiable What to be carried out with unspeakable hatred to that which would be thy blessedness and happiness who can bewail this enough To have a delight and a connaturality with those things that will be thy eternal damnation with much readiness and joy to will them and then to be horrible averse and contrapugnant to those things which if willed and imbraced would make thee happy to all eternity Oh miserable and wretched man thy condition is farre more lamentable then that of the beasts for they have a natural instinct to preserve themselves and to desire such things as are wholsom to them but thou art naturally inclining to will and imbrace all those things which will be thy eternal woe and misery What is the cause that thy will cannot imbrace the Law of God Why art thou so contrary to it Alas there is no just reason can be given but original sinne is like an occult quality in thy will making an Antipathy in it against the same so that thou doest not love what is holy neither art thou able to say Why only thou dost not love it yea there is the greatest reason in the world and all the word of God requireth it likewise that thy will should be subordinate and commensurated unto it but there is no other cause of this evil will then the evil of it It is evil and therefore cannot abide that which is good ¶ 8. The Rebellion of the Will against the light of the mind and 〈◊〉 slavery of it to the sensitive part in a man THirdly The original pollution of the will is seen in the rebellion of it against the light of the mind and the slavery of it to the sensitive part in a man to the carnal and sinfull affections therein Both which do sadly proclaim how the will is by nature out of all holy order and fallen from its primitive integrity For in the former respect therefore did God give us reason that by the light and guidance thereof the will should proceed to its operations So that for the will to move it self before it hath direction from the mind is like the servant that would set upon business before his master commands him like an unnatured dog that runneth before his master do set him on To will a thing first and afterwards to exercise the mind about it is to set the earth where Heaven should be But oh the unspeakable desolation that is brought upon the soul in this very particular The will staieth for no guidance expecteth no direction but willeth because it will what is suteable and agreeable to the corrupt nature thereof that it imbraceth be it never so destructive and damning God made the mind at first that it could say like the Centurion I bid the will go and it goeth the affections move and they move but now the inferior souldier biddeth the Centurion go and he goeth This then is the great condemnation of the will that though light come in upon it yet it loveth not the light but rebelleth against it and this sinfulness of the will is more palpably
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
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
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
necessary that he should create souls daily but conserve the order appointed as he doth about the Heavens The Answer is easie therefore do the words relate to the Creation at first with the conservation of them because new Heavens and new earths are not every day made but both they and we do acknowledge new souls are every day produced as often as a man is born and God at first making Adam's soul by breathing into it the same order is still to be conserved This Text thus cleared we may adde as proofs also of the like kind Isa 42. 5. Though Austin thought by spirit there might be meant the sanctifying Spirit of God But that hath no probability Psal 33. 15. the Psalmist saith God hath fashioned the hearts of men alike or wholly throughout By which is meant the soul of a man in all its thoughts and workings because the soul puts forth its vital actions in the heart That also is remarkable which yet I find not mentioned by any in this Controversie Jer. 38. 16. where Zedekiah maketh an oath to Jeremiah that he will not kill him after this manner Thus saith the Lord who made us this soul not this body but this soul he putteth that into the oath intimating what an heavy sinne it would be to kill a man that is innocent seeing he hath his soul from God I shall mention but one Text more and that is in the New Testament which seemeth clearly to demonstrate the creation of the soul Heb. 12 9. We have had fathers of our flesh that corrected us c. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of Spirits I think this Text may put us out of all doubt God is opposed as a Father to our natural parents God is called a Father of Spirits natural parents father of our flesh Now if our souls did come from our parents they might be called fathers of our spirits as well as of our flesh The Apostles Argument would have no force if the Creation of the soul by God alone and the generation of the flesh only by natural parents be not asserted Thus Numb 16. 20. as also Chap. 27. 16. God is there styled The God of the spirit of all flesh in a peculiar manner It may be wondered that though Austin busied himself so much in finding out of this Truth diligently attending to the Scripture yet he never mentioned this place Certainly this Text might have removed his doubt and made him wholly positive in affirming the creation of the soul That which I find later Writers reply to it is That God is called the Father of Spirits in respect of Regeneration because he sanctifieth and maketh holy But the opposition to our fathers of the flesh evidently confuteth this and withall they can never shew that God is called a Father of Spirits or a God of Spirits but in respect of Creation not Regeneration It is true the word spirit may sometimes be used for a man as regenerate as flesh is for a man wholly corrupt but they can never shew that the word spirits in the plural number is taken for men regenerate Vse Of Exhortation To quicken up your attention to this Truth do not think this is unprofitable and uselesse that this Question is like those of which Paul complaineth some doted foolish and endlesse No it is very profitable for in knowing the original of thy soul how it cometh even from God himself may it not shame thee to make thy self like a beast as if thou hadst no better soul then they have Prophanenesse and sottish ignorance do greatly oppose the nature of thy soul Why do men say in effect Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die but as if they and beasts were all alike And why is it that you see so many have no understanding but that they are like the horse and the mule Why doth the Scripture compare wicked men to so many kind of beasts but because they live as if God had put no rational soul into them That though in the making of their bodies they differ from beasts yet in their souls they do greatly agree SECT III. THus you see we are examining Whether that Doctrine of the Propagation of souls from parents be a sure foundation to build upon in clearing the conveyance of original sinne to Adam's posterity And we have evidently proved That the soul hath its immediate creation from God So that to runne to the Sanctuary of the Souls Traduction would be to implore a dangerous errour to assist the Truth As God needeth not a lie so neither doth his Truth any error And indeed Although I shall not call the Doctrine of the Creation of the soul an article of faith because so many learned men have hesitated therein So that it would be an high breach of charity to commaculate such with the note of heresie yet we may with Hierom call it Ecclesiasticum dogma a Doctrine that the most Orthodox have alwayes received So that the contrary opinion seemeth to be absurd as Whitaker well saith Although Vorstius would make this dispute to be meerly philosophical in his Antibellarm Having therefore laid down those Texts which are a sure pillar of this Truth we shall adde some further reasons and then make use of this point which is very fruitfull SECT IV. Arguments from Scripture to prove the Souls Creation THe first Reason which may appear in the defence of the Souls immediate Creation from God is From the historical Narration which Moses makes of the beginning and original of Adam 's soul For as God when he was to create man did it in a more transcendent and glorious way then when he made beasts or the other creatures For then he said Let there be light and Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creatures that have life Gen. 1. 20. And so Let the earth bring forth the living creatures the beasts after their kind But when he comes to make man then the expression is altered Let us make man in our Image and Gen. 2. 7. where we have the manner of the execution of this counsel it is said He formed the body of Adam out of the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life No such thing was done to other creatures So that you see Adam's soul was from God immediately though his body was from the earth This breathing of life into Adam was infusing of the rational soul Some Ancients thought that it was the bestowing of the holy Ghost upon Adam and that he had his rational soul before They compare it with Christs breathing on his Disciples whereby was communicated the holy Ghost Now it is plain they had their rational souls before This is vain because by the breathing of this life it 's said Adam became a living soul so that he was but a dead lump of earth as it were before And indeed this Text is so clear that I know