it Is Sanctification a Condition of Justification because they are inseparable one from another That distinction of Faith justifying quae viva but not quâ viva which IS lively and working but not AS lively and working is not trifling as the Remonstrants say nor is there any cheat in it Most of the Fundamentals of Religion are distinguished from confining errours by such distinctions If a man say Christus qui Deus mortuus est saith true but if he should say Quâ Deus would he not speak blasphemy And this I bring in the rather because there are some who affect and glory in a moderating way thinking the Papists and Protestants do not so Fundamentally differ in the Point of Justification but that they may be reconciled whereas our learned Worthies at first declared that if the Romanists and we differed in no other point but this this were enough to have no Communion with them Spalatensis one of the unhappy Catholique Moderators writing of the Protestants who affirm that Faith alone Justifieth yet such a Faith as is lively and worketh by love so that although Faith Justifieth yet other graces are present though not proximely attingent of Justification Ecce saith he Formalitates Theologicas adding that the Romanists may grant to the Reformed that the dispositions to Justification are not merits And again the Reformed grant to the Romanists that by these dispositions being joyned with Faith Justification is acquired not from merit but Divine mercy alone It is true he declareth his own notion how Faith Justifieth alone viz. Absque necessitate ullius alterius humanae positivae actionis non tamen absque negativâ illa dispositione non faciendi quicquam quod sit á Deo vetitum But in the protract of his Discourse he maketh our differences herein to be pura quaedam metaphysicalia ad salutem nihil necessaria sed Galaticamur planè fratres as Tertullian of old There is a propensity in all to Galatize to joyn Faith and Works under some notion or other as to our Justification whereas the Apostle maketh an immediatie opposition between them not in the person Justified but as to the manner of Justification The learned Brother alledgeth a place out of Doctor Twisse in the title page with a signall accent upon it The words are Verum in diverso genere ad justitiam Dei refertur Christi satisfactio fides nostra Christi satisfactio ad eandem refertur per modum meriti condignitatis nostra verò fides ad eandem refertur per modum congruae dispositionis Who would not think by this passage thus barely quoted that the Doctor was speaking of Justification that Christs satisfaction is meritorious of it and our Faith a congruous disposition to it But my Brothers oversight is very great in this allegation for the learned Twisse is there speaking of Gods Justice and Mercy tempered together in Election taken terminativè as it effectually comprehends Salvation Therefore he said before Electionem ad salutem non fieri sine intuitu miseriae nostrae satisfactionis Christi fidei nostrae resipiscentiae c. So that his words oppose Doctor Hammond and Mr Pierce with others who odiously charge the Calvinists as if they held irrespective Decrees in Election and Reprobation either to sinne or holiness Whereas the excellent Doctor sheweth that Salvation the terminus of Election is not accomplished without the satisfaction of Christ and our Faith and Repentance as fit dispositions to Salvation he doth not say to Justification The Doctrine of Justification hath been greatly polluted of old by Platonicall and Aristoteticall Philosophy and we must take heed we do not defile it in a new way by running to the Civil Law and deductions from it What are Bartolus and Baldus in this point As Justification is a mercy wholly revealed in Scripture and supernaturally vouchsafed so the Words and Phrases are observed by the Learned to be peculiar as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So that the Scripture expressions being compared together will best discover the manner how we are justified for it is wholly at Gods appointment what way he will take therein and from them we shall only discover a righteousness of Faith not of Love or any other particular grace It was the ruine of Socinus to conclude of the Truths of Divinity according to principles of the Civil Law this made him deny Christs satisfaction The Discourse of the Apostle James concerning Justification by Works doth not at all patrocinate the Reverend Brothers Opinion For first It is to be observed that the Apostle doth not mention any particular grace but Works in the generall as externally and visibly practised Had the Apostle said Abraham was justified not only by Faith but love then there had been some colour for his Assertion And secondly The expressions used by the Apostle concerning Justification by Works comply not with a conditio sine quâ non For ver 26. he saith As the body without the spirit is dead so is faith without Works Is the soul a conditio sine quâ non of life Again ver 22. By Abrahams Works his Faith was made perfect and his Works did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with his Faith Doth a condition sine quâ non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I urge not this as owning the Papists Expositions of Causality of Works and Merit only they make not for a conditio sine quâ non We must take Justification and Faith in another sense then the Papists do When the learned Brother explicateth that passage of the Apostle Faith is dead being alone after this manner That Faith is dead as to the use and purpose of Justifying for in it self it hath life according to its quality still Adding afterwards that Works make Faith alive as to the attainment of its end of Justification Can this be applyed to a conditio sine quâ non But the Discourse swelleth too big I have done what I thought sufficient in this matter The good Spirit of the Lord so lead us into his Truth that we may serve him with one heart and one way and wherein we have not yet attained reveal such Truths unto us A CATALOGUE Of the Chiefest of those Books as are Printed FOR THOMAS UNDERHILL By Col. Edw. Leigh Esquire A Treatise of the Divine Promises in Five Books The Saints Encouragement in Evil Times Critica Sacra or Observations on all the Radiees or Primitive Hebrew words of the old Testament in order Alphabetical Critica Sacra or Philological and Theological Observations upon all Greek words of the New-Testament in order Alphabetical By Samuel Gott Esquire Nova Solymae Librisex Sive Institutio Christiani 1. De Pueritia 2. De Creatione Mundi 3. De Juventute 4. De Peccato 5. De Virili Aetate 6. De Redemptione Hominis Essayes concerning Mans true Happiness Parabolae Evangelicae Litinè redditae Carmine Paraphrastico varii generis Morton His Touchstone of
if nothing aâ—led them many yeares after when they were in anguish of mind by Joseph's severe carriage towards them Gen. 42. 21. Then they said one to another We are very guilty concerning our brother in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us and we would not hear therefore is this distress come upon us so that some unexpected calamity may be to us as the hand-writing on the will to Belshazzar making conscience to tremble within us 3. God as a just Judge can command these Hornets and Bees to arise in thy conscience It is plain Cain when he set himselfe to build Townes thought to remove that trembling which was upon him but he could not do it how many have set themselves with all the might they could to be delivered from this anguish of conscience and could not because God is greater then our conscience if he command terror and trembling none can expell it This troubled conscience is threatned as a curse to such who did break the Law of God Deut. 29. 65 67. The Lord shall give thee a trembling heart and sorrow of mind In the morning thou shalt say would God it were day for the fear of thy heart Here we may observe that God can when he pleaseth strike the heart of the most jolly and prophane sinner with such a trembling conscience that he shall not have rest day or night and when God after much patience abused doth smite the soul with such horror and astonishment many times This never tendeth to a gracious and Evangelical humiliation but as in Cain and Judas is the beginning even of hell it self in this life So fearfull a thing is it to fall into the hands of the living God when provoked Heb. 10. 31. For in such as ver 27. there is a certain fearfull looking for the indignation and wrath of God which will devour the adversaries 4. This troubled conscience may and doth often come by the Spirit of God convincing and reprooving by the Word especially the law discovered in the exactness and condemning power of it Joh. 16. 8. The Spirit of God doth reproove or convince the world of sinne Now conviction belongs to the conscience principally and indeed this is the ordinary way for the conversion of any Gods Spirit doth by the Law convince and awaken conscience making it unquiet and restless finding no bottome to stand upon it hath nothing but sinne no righteousness to be justified by the law condemneth justice arraigneth and he is overwhelmed not knowing what to doe This is the worke of Gods Spirit and of this some do expound that place Rom. 8. 15. Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but of adoption It is the same spirit which is called the spirit of bondage and of Adoption onely it 's called so from different operations It 's the spirit of bondage while by the Law it humbleth us filleth the conscience with fear and trembling not that the sinfulnesse or slavishnesse of these fears opposing the way of faith are of the Spirit but the tremblings themselves and it is the Spirit of Adoption when it rebuketh all tormenting fears giving Evangelical principles of Faith Love and Assurance Now these fears thus wrought by the Spirit of God in the Ministry of the Word though they be not alwaies necessary antecedents of conversion yet are sometimes ordained by God to be as it were a John Baptist to make way for Christ Lastly These troubles of conscience may arise through Gods permission from the Devil For when God leaveth thee to Satan's kingdome as it was the case of the incestuous person to be buffeted by him tempted by him you see he did so farre prevail with him that he was almost swallowed up with too much grief Therefore when God will evangelically compose the conscience by faith in Christs bloud he taketh off Satan again and suffereth him not to cast his fiery darts into us any longer The false wayes that the wounded Conscience is prone to take THese things explained Let us return to consider the pollution of natural conscience in the two particulars mentioned whereof The first is That the wounded conscience for sinne is very ready to use false remedies for its cure These stings he seeleth are intollerable he cannot live and be thus he taketh no pleasure in any thing he hath but he cometh not to true peace for either they go to carnal and sinfull wayes of pleasure so to remove their troubles or to superstitions and uncommanded wayes of devotion thinking thereby to be healed The former too many take who when troubled for sinne their hearts frequently smite them they call this Melancholly and Pusillanimity Tush they will not give way to such checks of conscience but they will go to their merry company they will drink it away they will rant it away or else they will goe to their merry pastimes and sports Thus as Herod sought to kill Jesus as soon as he was borne so do these strive to suffocate and stifle the very beginnings and risings of conscience within them Oh wretched men prepared for hell torments Though now thou stoppest the mouth of conscience yet hereafter it will be the gnawing worme It 's this troubled conscience that makes hell to be chiefly hell It 's not the flaming fire it 's not the torments of the body that are the chiefest of hels misery but the griping and torturing of conscience to all eternity This is the hell of hels Others when none of these means will rebuke the stormes and waves of their soul but they think they must perish then they set themselves upon some superstitious austere waies as in Popery to go on Pilgrimage to enter into some Monastery to undertake some bodily affliction and penalty and by these means they think to get peace of conscience but Luther found by experience the insufficiency of all these courses That all their Casuists were unwise Physicians and that they gave gall to drinke in stead of honey In the next place therefore This pollution of a troubled conscience is seen In it's opposition to Christ to an Evangelical Righteousnesse and the sway of believing Conscience is farre more polluted about Christ and receiving of him then about the commands and obedience thereunto for naturally there is something in conscience to do the things of the Law but the Gospel and the Doctrine about Christ is wholly supernatural and by revelation Hence although it is clear That the conscience truly humbled for sinne ought to believe in Christ for expiation thereof Yet how long doth the broken heart continue ignorant of this duty Their conscience troubleth them accuseth them for other sins but not for this of not particularly applying Christ to thy self for comfort whereas thou art bound in conscience to believe in Christ as well as repent of sinne I say thou art bound in conscience and if thou doest not by particular acts of faith receive Christ in
is the cause that most people are still such sots and sensless men about regeneration Yea learned and knowing men are as blind and bruitish in this as the simple and poor people are doth not all arise from this That they feel not neither do perceive that original sin like a leprosie hath run over the whole man both soul and body especially there would not be these three mistakes about the work of grace which are very common As 1. A Philosophical Reformation by the Dictates and Principles of Moralists such as Plutarch and Seneca give would not be taken for Regeneration For although their sayings and directions are admired and there may be some good use of them yet they do not go to the root of the matter they are not an antidote against original sinne that defileth the nature and therefore cannot promote Regeneration which doth properly cure that in some degree Aristotles way to make a man a virtuous man viz. by frequent and constant actions at lest to acquire an habit is absurd and repugnant to Scripture for by that the tree must be made good and a man must be born again ere he can do any thing holily Hence God promiseth to give a new heart to take away the heart of stone and then to cause us to walk in all holiness Ezek. 11. 19. These divine principles must be infused before there can be holy actions So 2. Civility and an ingenuous temperate disposition will be but a glistering dunghill a painted sepulchre when original sinne is known He will presently see for all his civil and inoffensive life his heart is full of all noisomness Therefore civil men of all men do most need this light to shine into their brests we are ready to think of our selves because so harmless and innocent as was said of Bonaventure In hoc homine non peccavit Adam such were born without sinne and brought better natures into the world than others but if you search into the Scriptures it will appear that all are born children of wrath and are equally destitute of that image of God and then as when the pillars of an house are removed the house it self must fall into its own rubbidge Thus when that primitive righteousness was lost man is prone to runne into all evil and every man would be like a Judas or a Cain even the most civil man that is did not God restrain original sin 3. Gifts and abilities which many have in religious exercises will presently be seen not to be Regeneration Though we should preach with the tongue of Angels though admirable in prayer and other holy duties yet these and original sin in the power of it may stand together and so many looking to the flowers but not the dead corpse they are upon conclude themselves to be alive when indeed they are dead SECT IV. I Shall mention some few more spiritual Advantages that come by the full and undoubted perswasion of this original corruption for so of old we are advised Firmissimè texe nullatenus dubita c. Believe most firmly and doubt not in the least manner but that by Adam's sinne all his posterity becomes sinfull and obnoxious to Gods wrath And First upon the Knowledg of originall sinne we evidently see our impossibility to keep the Law of God That when the Law requireth a love of God with all our heart mind and strength and also doth prohibit all kind of lust and sinfull concupiscence even in the very first motions and stirrings of it The Law I say requiring such universal perfection and we being wholly dead in sinne upon the comparing of the Law with our condition we cannot but conclude That we fail in all things That the Law is spiritual but we are carnal And if he be cursed that doth not continue in all things the Law requireth how accursed must he be that is not able to perform any one thing All those opinions that diminish original sinne do also plead for a possibility of keeping Gods Commandments Now this self-flattery is imbred in all Do not most of our common people think they keep the Commandments of God Do they believe that the curses of the Law do belong to them every hour Oh if such convictions were upon them how greatly would it humble them and make them debased before God but they trust in this they readily and confidently say with that young man All these have I kept from my youth up Mat. 9 20. Oh then inform thy self more about this natural defilement and loathsomness that is upon thee and then thou wilt find the Law to accuse and condemn thee in all things Secondly The right knowledge of this will make even the godly and regenerate though in some measure delivered from the power and dominion of it yet to see that because of its stirrings and actings in them there is imperfection in every thing they do And truly this is one of the most profitable effects of true knowledge herein for hereby a godly man is made to go out of all his graces and his duties hereby he is afraid of the iniquity of his holy things and cals his very righteousness a menstruous ragge This is clear in Paul Rom. 7. How sadly doth he complain of the vigorous actings of this original sinne in him For the present I take it as granted that that part of the Chapter must be understood of a regenerate person though vehemently denied by some as is in time to be shewed That Law of sinne was alwayes moving when he set himself to any thing that was holy he desired to obey the Law perfectly to love God compleatly but this Law of sinne would not let him So that because of this natural defilement evil is mixed with all the good we do insomuch that there would be a woe and a curse to all our gracious acts if strictly examined Thus it is with a godly man in this life as those Hetruscan-robbers reported of by Aristotle and mentioned by Austin who would take some live men and bind them to the dead men which was a miserable way of perishing Even thus it is here original corruption is constantly adhering and inseparably to him who is alive in holiness and by this means there is unbelief in his faith coldness in his zeal dulness in his fervency Insomuch that the Apostle crieth out of himself Oh wretched man that I am And that because of this very thing the Papists though they hold original sinne yet maintaining That after Baptism it 's quite taken away and that though there be some languor and difficulty in a man in respect of what is good yet if we do not consent to these motions of lusts within us they are not truly and properly sins do consequentially conclude that there is not necessarily dross and sinne in every holy duty we do but the evidence of Rom. 7. is too great to be contradicted So that preaching of original sinne is not only necessary
of sinne is expresly said to be in the members And whereas the Apostle in that verse saith He seeth a Law in his members bringing him into captivity to the Law of sinne that doth not argue a distinction between these but according to the use of the Scripture the Antecedent is repeated for the Relative the sense being That the Law of his members did bring Paul into captivity to it notwithstanding the Law of the mind with in him as Gen. 9. 16. I will remember saith God himself the everlasting Covenant between God that is my self and every living creature We see then in these words that the Apostle giveth another name to that original sinne which dwelleth in him he calleth it very emphatically The Law of sinne in him Original corruption is even in Paul though converted how much more in all unregenerate persons by way of a Law From whence observe That the Scripture cals original sin the Law of sin Within us SECT II. TO understand this take notice of these things First The Apostle in his Epistles doth delight to use the word Law and that when speaking of contrary things The Law of God the Law of Works This he mentioneth properly but then he cals it The Law of faith because the Hebrew word for Law signifieth no more than Doctrine for Torath either comes they say from a word that signifieth to appoint or teach or from a word that signifieth to rain because saith Chemnitius as the raine is gathered together in the clouds not to be kept there but to be emptied on the earth that so it may be made fruitfull Thus the Law of God was appointed by God not meerly to be written in the Bible but also to be implanted in our hearts The word then in the Hebrew signifying Doctrine in the general no wonder if the Gospel be called The Law of Faith So Regeneration Rom. 8. is called The Law of the Spirit of life as in other places it is The Law of God written in our hearts but the Apostle doth not only apply it to these things but especially in this Chapter he cals it The Law of sinne not sin only but the Law of sinne and the Law in our members why the Apostle doth so you shall hear anon Only In the second place you must consider when the Apostle cals it The Law of sinne it is in an improper and abusive or allusive sense for a Law properly is only of that which is good the matter of a Law must be honest and just because a Law is pars juris and Jus is à justo Therefore Aquinas saith That unjust Laws are rather violentia than leges Yea Tully saith Such Decrees are neither Leges nor ne appellandae quidem yet the Scripture speaks of some who make iniquity a Law Psal 99. 20. or who frame mischief for a Law Tacitus complaineth of the multitude of Laws in his time and saith The Commonwealth groaned ut flagitiis ita legibus So that although the properties of a Law are to be good and profitable yet by allusion all unjust and hurtfull Decrees are called Laws and thus the Apostle cals it the Law of sinne alluding to those properties or effects which a Law hath What the Law of God doth in a regenerate man the contrary doth the Law of sinne in a natural man SECT III. Original Sinne compared to a Law in five respects ORiginal sinne therefore may be compared to a Law in these respects First A Law doth teach and direct Lex est lux It informeth and teacheth what is to be done Thus the Schoolmen they make Direction the first thing necessary to a Law The work of grace in a godly man is called by the Apostle The Law of the mind in this Chapter Because grace within a man doth teach and direct him what to do Hence 1 John 2. 27. the godly man is said to have an anointing within him The Law of God is written in his inward parts and so from within as well as by the Word without they are taught what to do Thus on the contrary the Law of sinne in a natural man doth teach and prompt him to all kind of evil This Law of sinne doth not indeed teach what we ought to do but it doth wonderfully suggest all kind of wickedness to us and from this cause it is that you see children no sooner able to act but they can with all readiness runne into evil sinnes that they have not seen committed before their eyes they can with much dexterity accomplish What a deal of instruction and admonition is requisite to nurture your young ones in the fear of the Lord And all is little enough And why is this The Law of God is not in their hearts they have not that in them which would direct and teach holiness But on the other side children need not to be taught wickedness you need not instruct them how to sinne they have much artifice and cunning in an evil way And why so The Law of sinne is in them this is that they are bred with So that as the young ones of Foxes and Serpents though they have no teacher yet from the Law of nature within them they grow subtil and crafty in their mischievous wayes Thus the Law of sinne doth in every man he is ingenious and wise to do evil As the ground ere it will bring forth corn doth need much labour and tillage but of it self bringeth forth bryars and thorns Thus all by nature are so foolish and blind that without heavenly education and institution you cannot bring them to that which is holy but of their own selves men have subtilty and abilities to frame mischievous things And why is all this They have a Law of sinne within them which directs suggests and informeth to do much evil So that we are not to put all upon the Devil to say He put it into my minde he suggested such thoughts to me No the Law of sinne within thee can sufficiently prompt thee to all evil Secondly A Law doth not onely teach but it doth instigate and incline it presseth and provoketh to the things commanded by it Thus the Law of the mind in a godly man doth greatly instigate and provoke him to what is good It is like a goad in his side it is like fire in his bowels he must do that which is good else he cannot have any rest within him You read when David refrained for a while from speaking good at last he could hold no longer but the fire did break out So Paul 2 Cor. 5. The love of Christ constraineth us Thus the true believer he hath a principle of grace within him which is like a Law upon him he cannot do otherwise he must obey it Thus on the contrary Original sinne in a natural man is like a Law within him it provoketh him it enflameth him to all evil Whensoever any holy duty is pressed upon him this Law of sinne stirreth him
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
sting into all Lastly This loss is incurable as to any humane or angelicall power The image of God is so lost as that by our own power we are never able to recover it again Insomuch that when God doth repair it in us it 's a new Creation and a spiritual Resurrection we could not further it in the least degree Let the Use then be deeply to humble us to break our hearts far this and yet still to break them more and more When Tamar was defloured she went with ashes upon her head weeping and saying I whither shall I go Oh do thou much rather mourn and sigh and pray We oh wretched we Whither shall we go What shall we do Call to the Angels they cannot help you Cry to the mountains they cannot hide you from Gods wrath Shall Saul seek for his lost Asses the woman for her lost Groat Micha for his lost gods and wilt nor thou bitterly lament the loss of the true God and his Image in thee CHAP. XV. Of the Positive Part of Original Corruption SECT I. JOH 3. 6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh THe Privative Part of original corruption being largely discovered we come now to the Positive Part of it For although many of the Papists deny it laying the whole nature of it in a meer want of original righteousnes yet not only the Protestants generally but Aquinas and some who follow him do plead for this Positive Part in original corruption as well as the Privative and is therefore called Flesh as here in the Text and in other places lust Of which in its due time We are not then to conceive of this birth-sinne as a meer privation of the Image of God but as including also therewith a propensity and inclination to all evil To the discovery of this Truth we shall find this Text pitcht upon will be very subservient and herein we are to take notice That it is part of that famous Colloquy and Conference Christ had with Nicodemus a Master in Israel wherein several things in the general are briefly obserable As First The Mercy that is to the Church in having this Discourse upon Record For by Nicodemus his carnal cavillings we see the necessity of Regeneration our Saviour is the more powerfull in his asseverations Verily verily I say unto you c. that hereby every one may see that though he be great rich wise learned ingenious yet he must be born again Secondly We may take notice of our Saviours wisdom that pitcheth upon this Subject rather than another to treat upon for herein Nicodemus did grosly erre Nicodemus had learning enough knew the Law of God and the Scriptures but was wholly ignorant of Regeneration Thirdly We therefore see That the work of Regeneration is a mystery even to wise and learned men Twice or thrice saith that great Doctor How can this be What poor and childish Objections doth he make against it and all because this is a thing spiritually discerned Lastly The great cause why Nicodemus did not know what Regeneration was or see the necessary of it was Because of his blindnesse about original sinne Had he believed how carnal and sinfull every one was born he would presently have bewailed his condition and said O Lord it is true I am all over polluted I find nothing of thy Spirit in me I am all over flesh and do therefore need thy Spirit to regenerate and quicken me But this was the root of his destruction from hence did arise that gross miscarriage about a new-birth because was so sensless and unacquainted with the pollution he was born in So that the Text is an Argument to prove the Doctrine of Regeneration and the necessity of it which Nicodemus did so carnally cavil against For although our Saviour did so vehemently assert the truth of it in these expressions twice geminated Verily verily I say into thee c. Yet because Nicodemus still asketh How can this be therefore our Saviour discovereth to him the root and fundamental cause of the necessity of this birth and that not of Nicodemus only but of every man Therefore he speaks generally Vnlesse a man be borne again c. The fundamental cause therefore of the necessity of Regeneration is from that universal Proposition laid down in the Text That which is born of the flesh is flesh which is also illustrated by the contrary That which is born of the Spirit is spirit The strength of the Argument lieth in this Every thing resembleth that it is produced of from a Serpent there cometh a Serpent from a Toad a Toad so from a Dove a Dove a Sheep a Lamb There being therefore two contrary effective principles in us The flesh and the Spirit The flesh that produceth what is flesh the Spirit what is spirit In the first Proposition we have the emphatical expression of this defilement 1. In the Vniversality of the Subject of Predication That which is born of the flesh is flesh There 's none exempted great men noble men Even Kings and Emperors they are flesh of flesh 2. There is the Vniversality of the Subject of Inhesion All is flesh that comes of flesh so that not only the body but the soul also is flesh in this sense for by flesh here as in other places is meant The whole man consisting of soul and body as he is unclean and impure and this appeareth by the opposition which is the Spirit of God and the effects thereof Another emphatical expression is In using the abstract for the concrete is flesh that is fleshly is spirit that is spiritual We see then here a Proposition affirmed concerning all mankind born in a natural way which no humane Philosophy could ever inform us in yea to which it is wholly contrary viz. That we all by nature both in soul and body are nothing but flesh for flesh is here put for the vicious and sinfull quality that is in us and so the mind the intellictual and choisest parts of the soul are thus condemned as well as the more gross and sensitive as in time is to be shewed This is a clear Text to prove our universal contagion by sinne yet upon what weak and poor grounds would the Remonstrants oppose it They therefore by flesh understand Man simply as man flesh and blood begotten in a fleshly and bodily manner not as sinfull and corrupted as if our Saviours Argument had been as what is born of man is man so what is born of the Spirit is spiritual But this is very unsound For what Argument would this be to prove Regeneration Must a man be new born meerly because he is a man Certainly had Adam continued in the state of integrity there would have been procreation of children yet then there would not have been a necessity of Regeneration Our Saviour therefore is giving a reason why there must be a new birth and that is from the sinfull pollution every one is born in And
powers of the soul must necessarily move sinfully and inordinately The soul of a man is alwayes working one way or other if then it hath lost original righteousnesse it cannot but be hurried on to what is evil as if you take away the pillar on which a stone liethh presently that will fall to the ground If you spoil the strings of musical instruments immediately they make a jarre and ingratefull noise upon every moving of them The soul of a man is a subject immediately susceptible of righteousnesse or corruption and if it lose its righteousnesse then by natural necessity corruption cometh in the room of it and so when the understanding acts it acteth sinfully when the will moveth it moveth sinfully So that we may well say with Austin to the Pelagian demanding How this corruption could come into us for God was good and nature good Quid quaeris latentem rimum cum habes apertam jannam Not a cranny but a gate or door is open for this corruption to seize upon us SECT IV. Application BEfore we come to answer the Objections Let us affect our hearts with it and labour to be humbled under the consideration of this positivenesse and efficacy of it For first Hereby we see that if it be not restrained and stopped by God we know not where we should stay in any sinne What Cain's what Judas's would we not prove Who can say Hitherto I will goe in sinne and no further for there is a fountain within thee that would quickly overflow all This active root of bitternesse this four leaven within thee would quickly make thy life like Job's body full of ulcers and noisome sores If thou art not plunged in the same mire and filth as others are doe not say Thou hast lesse of this corruption than they Thou art borne more innocent than they onely God stops thee as he did Balaam from doing such wickednesse as thy heart is forward enough unto No Serpent is fuller of poyson no Toad of venome than thou art of sinne which thou wouldst be constantly committing were not some stop put in the way Secondly In that sinne is thus positive and inclining thee thou art the more to admire the grace of God if that work a contrary inclination and propensity in thee If thou art brought with Paul To delight in the Law of God in the inward man If thy heart pants after God as the Hart after the waters which once delighted in sinne which once longed after nothing but the satisfying of the flesh Oh admire this gracious miraculous work of God upon thy soul who hath made thee to differ thus from thy selfe The time was once when thou rejoycedst in those sinnes that are now matter of shame and trembling to thee The time was when thy heart was affected with no other good than that of the creature Thou didst know no other desire no other but that but now God hath made iron to swimme he hath made the Blackmoor white Oh blesse God for the least desires and affections which thou hast at any time for that which is good for this cometh not from thee it is put into thee by the grace of God Lastly Consider that this positivenesse of sinne in thee doth not onely manifest it self in an impetuous inclination to all evil but also a violent resistance of whatsoever is good The Apostle Rom. 8. calleth it Enmity against God and Rom. 7. he complaineth of it as warring and fighting against the Law of his minde And certainly this is a very great aggravation not onely to be without what is good but to be a desperate enemy and a violent opposer of it both in others as also to that which the Spirit of God by the Word would worke in our own hearts not onely without the remedy but full of enmity against it Doth not this make our condition unspeakably wretched Certainly this is the highest aggravation in original sinne that we are not onely unable to what is good but we are with anger and rage carried out against it as if good were the onely evil and sweetnesse the onely bitternesse CHAP. XVII Objections against the Positive Part of Original Sinne answered SECT I. Cautions Premised THere remain only some Objections against this Truth but before we answer them take notice First That although we say original sinne is more than a privation of that Righteousnesse which ought to be in man yet We do not make it to be like some infecting corporeal quality in the body that hereby should vitiate the soul and as it were poison that Lombard and some others especially Ariminensis Distinct 30. They seem to deliver their opinion so as rejecting Anselm's definition of original sinne making it to be want of that original righteousnesse which ought to be in us and do declare it to be a morbida qualitas some kinde of pestilential and infecting quality abiding in the body and thereby affecting the soul As when the body is in some phrenetical and mad distempers the soul is thereby disturbed in all its operations so that these make the want of original righteousness to be the effect of original sinne not the nature of it saying upon Adam's sinne Man becoming thus defiled God refused to continue this righteousness to him any longer But if these Schoolmen be further questioned How such a diseased pestilential quality should be in the body Some say it was from the forbidden fruit that that had such a noxious effect with it but that is rejected because that was made of God and all was exceeding good Arimineâ—sis therefore following as he thinketh Austin maketh this venemous quality in a mans body to have its original from the hissing and breath as it were of the Serpent he conceiveth that by their discourse with the Serpent there came from it such an infectious air as might contaminate the whole body and he saith Austin speaks of some who from the very hissing and air from Serpents have been poisoned But the Protestants they do not hold it any positive quality in this sense for this is to make the body the first and chiefest subject of original sinne and so to convey it to the soul whereas indeed the soul is primarily and principally the seat of original sinne We therefore reject this as coming too near Manicheism as if there were some evil and infectious qualities in the very nature and substance of a man Secondly It must be remembred what hath been said before That when we come to give a particular reason why the understanding or will are propense to any evil We can assign only a privative cause viz. Because it wants that rectitude which would regulate it as if a ship it's Anselm's comparison were without Pilot and Governour of tacklings let loose into the whole Ocean it would be violently hurried up and down till it be destroyed Thus man without this Image of God would be tossed up and down by every lust never resting till he had
he saith The Positive inclination to evil must be the effect of the privation of original righteousnesse and so not a part of original because an effect cannot be a part of its cause It 's answered first That sometimes there is a division of a common thing as into two parts when yet one is the effect of the other as when malum is divided into malum culpae and malum poena the evil of punishment is necessarily the effect of the evil of sinne But Secondly Though an inclination to evil may be the effect of the privation of original righteousnesse yet for all that it may be part of original sinne which is the whole consisting of both these Even as according to some learned Divines Remission of sinne is part of Justification although it be an effect of the imputation of Christs Righteousnesse which is also another part of our Justification SECT II. The word Lust expounded HAving therefore considered this Title or Name given to original sinne viz. Flesh which doth denote the Positivenesse of it I come to a second which shall also be the last and that is the word lust or concupiscence which both in the Scripture and in the writings of several Authors is attributed to it For which purpose the Text pitched upon is very usefull To understand which consider that the Apostle having asserted some things which in an outward appearance did seem to dishonour the Law he maketh this Objection to himself Is the Law sinne A cause of sinne and so sinne and God the Law-giver a commander of sinne To which he answers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by defiance God forbid and in the next place giveth a reason why the Law cannot be the cause of sinne because that doth discover and detect sinne that judgeth and damneth it therefore it cannot be the cause of sinne and that the Law is the manifester and reprover of sinne he instanceth in himself and his own experience I had not known lust to be sinne except the Law had said Thou shalt not covet Now ere we can understand this Text we must answer some Questions And First It 's demanded What is meant by the Law here Some say the Law of Nature which is not so probable Others the written Law of Moses and this is most probable by the whole context But yet some though they understand it of the Law of Moses yet they do not mean any particular command but the Law in the general saying the Apostle useth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for all one As if the meaning were The Law in general did not only forbid sinfull actions but also inward lust and motions of the soul thereunto as our Saviour fully expoundeth it Matth. 5. Others they understand this Law of a particular Commandment viz. the tenth and therefore Beza observeth the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by this or by that Commandment in particular And this seemeth most probable because they are the very words of the tenth Commandment But secondly If the Apostle alledge that command Why doth he instance onely in the sinne forbidden not mentioning the objects that are specified in the command Thy neighbours Oxe or his Asse c The Answer is that is not material for the Apostle speaking of lusts in the heart what latent and unknown sins they were without the light of the Law it was enough to name the sinne it self seeing the objects about which they are conversant are of all sorts and can hardly be numbred In the third place It 's doubted how the Apostle could say that he did not know lust to be sinne but by the Law of Moses seeing that by the very Law of nature even Heathens have condemned inward lusts and unjust thoughts and plots though but in the soul and never put into practice Aquinas makes the meaning of it as if Paul's sense was He did not know lust to be sinne as it was an offence to God and a dishonour to him because the Law of Moses represents the sinfulness of these lusts in a more divine and dreadfull way then the Law of nature doth Grotius maketh the sense thus Paul did not know lust but by Gods Law because the Laws of men punish nothing but sinfull actions never at all medling with the thoughts and purposes of the heart Beza expounds the expression comparatively I had not known lust to be sinne viz. so evidently so fully so unquestionably as I did when I understood the Law But the general Interpretation is That the Apostle speaketh here of his thoughts and knowledge while he was a Pharisee and it 's plain by our Saviours correcting of pharisaical glosses about the Law Matth. 5. That they thought the Law did onely require external obedience and whatsoever thoughts or sinfull lusts men had so that they did not break out into the practice of them they were not guilty of sinne He did not then know lust to be sinne following the traditional exposition of his Masters till he came to understand the Law aright Another Question of greater consequence is What is meant by lust Thou shalt not covet for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though in Exod. 20. there be the same Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet Deut. 5. 21. There is another Hebrew expression which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which because in Hithpael and so of a reciprocal signification they translate fecit se concupiscere to stirre up a mans self to desire and thereby say such lusts are only forbidden that a man nourisheth and yeelds himself up unto but that rule is not a general one see Prov. 23. 3. Some limit this Commandment too much as it did only command contentation of spirit and that we should not sinfully desire that which others have But the Apostle doth plainly extend it further than so The Papists they likewise limit it too much making only those lusts andmotions of sinne which we consent to to be forbidden denying that those motions to evil which arise antecedently to our reason and will to be truly sinnes hence is their Rule concerning them Non sensus but consensus is that which doth damn which in a good sense we also will acknowledge to be true But we are not to limit Scripture where it hath not limited it self and therefore we conclude That the command doth forbid a threefold concupiscence or lust First That lust which is actually consented to though not breaking forth into act and if this were all the Law of God would hereby be exlted above all humane Laws which reach no further than external actions And how many are ignorant of at least not affected with the spiriruality of this Law in this particular Would they dare to entertain such heart-sinnes as they doe could they make their souls cages of uncleane unjust and ungodly thoughts as they do Secondly The Law goeth higher and doth not only forbid those lusts in thy heart which thou yeeldest consent unto
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
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
false for did not many Jews following the righteousness of the Law at last believe in Christ Was not Paul once zealous for the works of the Law Yet afterwards an affectionate admirer of the righteousness by faith But we leave these bold Interpreters who do assume more to themselves in turning the sense of these words this way and that way then do allow God in the disposing of mankind as if the Text were like the Potters clay that they might make a sense of honour and a sense of dishonour Come we therefore more particularly to the words in hand and as appeareth by the illation So then they are an inference from Paul's preceding Discourse As for those though men of great Antiquity who suppose these words spoken not by Paul himself as in his own person but in the person of some opponent it is so weak that it is not worth the resuting For the Apostle in the beginning of the Chapter useth great asseveration and atteslation even with a solemn oath concerning his great affection to the Jews and their salvation to whom also he attributeth great Church priviledges and spiritual prerogatives and this he doth because he was to deliver most dreadfull matter which would be exceeding displeasing to that Nation and which might seem to come from hatred to them But this Preface is to mollifie them And whereas it might be objected If a greater part of the Jews who were once Gods people and to whom the promises did belong were rejected how could Gods word be true The Apostle dishtinguisheth of the Israelites and sheweth that the promise in regard of the spiritual efficacy did belong only to Abraham's seed after the promise or who were the children of Abraham in a supernatural way imitaâ—ing him and walking in his slept The other were Abraham's sonnes after the flesh not but that they were children of the promise also in respect of the Covenant externally administred they were circumcised as well as the other and called Act. 3. The children of the promise and if this were not so the Apostle should in the same breath almost have contradicted himself for he said of the Nation in the general That to them did belong the Covenants and the Promises Hence that whole Nation is sometimes called his sonne yea his siest born and sonne of delights But though Abraham's children thus after the flesh and in some sense of the promise also yet not in that sense as the Apostle meaneth here so as to be the blessed seed and elected by God in Christ Hence Paul sheweth That the promises in respect of the efficacy and gracious benefits flewing from them did belong onely to the elect And this he proveth first from Ishmael and Isaac And whereas it might be said Ishmael for his actual impiety deriding of and persecuting Isaac was rejected and also that he was born of Hagar a bond-woman then he further exemplifieth in Esau and Jacob born both of the same father and of the same mother and at the same time and yet before they had done good or evil The one even the younger was loved of God and the Elder to whom the birth-right did belong was hated Whether these instances be propounded as types only so that for all this both Ishmael and Esau might be elected as some have charitably thought of Elau that he repented of his cruel intentions to his brother changing his mind to him and so as they think dying a converted man or whether they be propounded as Examples also as well as Types viz. as those persons whom God had excluded from grace and therefore the Scripture giveth this Character of Esau that he was a profane man is not much material This is enough that the Discourse of Paul is carried on with great strength And whereas it might be objected That God was unrighteous in making such a difference between those that were equal the Apostle answereth from a Text of Scripture Exod. 33. 19. where Moses desiring to see the glory of God God grants his request giving this reason I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and mercifull to whom I will be mercifull Thus even Moses hath that great glory put upon him even to speak to God face to face and that not for any worth or dignity in himself but the meer gracious will of God Therefore there is no unrighteousnesse in this act whereby God receiveth one and leaveth another because this Assumption is an act of grace and savour and in things of favour and liberality there is no injustice If I meet two poor men equally indigent and I relieve one passing by the other there is no injustice in not relieving of him Now from this expression of God to Moses the Apostle maketh this inference in my Text removing all causes and merits of the grace of God from man and attributing it wholly to God In the negation we have a distribution It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth It is not Here is much dispute what is meant by that But the Context maketh it evident that election is not nor the blessed effects of Election Conversion Justification and Salvation Some also adde The act of volition It is not of him that willeth to will for God worketh in us to will So that all is to be given to God for Voluntas bons is one of Gods good gifts to us Nelentem pravenit ut velit volentem subsequitur ne finstra velit A good will cannot precede Gods gifts seeing that it selfe is one of Gods gifts Not of him that willeth Here we see plainly the will of man so importent yea so polluted by sinne that it cannot put it self forth to any good Again It is not of him that runneth The Remonstrants limit this too much as if it were an allusion to Esau who neither by running when he wearied himself in hunting for venision nor by willing when with tears he so earnestly desired the blessing could obtain it for the Scripture doth usually compare Christianity to a race and our conversation to a running So that it is neither our inward willing or outward performing of duties though with much industry that make us obtain this grace from God Not that we are to sit still and to be idle but we are to wait on the means onely it 's Gods grace not our wils which do make us holy and happy Therefore you have the positive cause of all But it is of God that sheweth mercy It is then the meer mercy and compassion of God which maketh a diffrence between men lying in the same sin and misery he speaketh not of justifying mercy adopting mercy but of electing mercy converting and calling mercy This discriminating power and grace of God doth evidently appear every where there being two in a family one taken the other left Two hearing a Sermon one humbled and converted the other remaining blind and obdurate If to this it be replied that the meaning
the cup of gold in Benjamin's sack and therefore this must greatly debase us Thirdly We are not able of our selves to have the least desire or longing after grace and a state of holinesse Not only Pelagianism but Semi-pelagianism is a dangerous rock to be avoided The later made our desires to begin and then Gods grace to succeed and accomplish But there is not so much as the least groan the least desire can arise in thy heart Oh that God would change me Oh that I were in the state of those that do truly fear God! And the reason is because the Scripture describeth us by nature to be dead in sinne and compareth the work of grace to a spiritual resurrection Oh how great is thy bondage which doth so farre oppress thee that thou canst not so much as long for any freedom Oh hopeless and wretched man if left to himself Fourthly From this followeth the next demonstration of our vassalage and spiritual impotency That we cannot pray to God that he would deliver us out of this misery No natural man can pray it is the grace of God that doth inable thereunto he may utter the words of prayer he may repeat the expressions but alas he doth not he cannot pray as God requireth and so as he will accept of it The Apostle is clear for this Rom. 8. 26. The Spirit helpeth our infirmities for we know not what to pray for as we ought Is not this unspeakable misery who needeth to pray more then thou and yet thou canst not pray Thou art sinning thou art dying thou are damning and yet canst not pray Is not thy heart like an adamant if this break thee not Fifthly Such is our impotency and bondage That we are not able to affect our selves with the fear and terrour of the Law thereby to be convinced and humbled in our selves If we cannot do the preparatories for grace much lesse grace it self if we cannot do the lesse How shall we do the greater Now one great preparatory work is To have a divine and powerfull fear in our souls by reason of the Law whereby we are afraid of hell of the day of Judgement and cannot have any rest in our spirits because of this Now this is wrought by the Spirit of God in a preparatory way Rom. 8. 15. It is called The Spirit of bondage And Joh. 14. The Spirit doth convince the world of sinne So that in and through the preaching of the Law and discovery of sinne the Spirit of God doth awaken and terrifie the conscience of a man maketh him afraid that he cannot eat or drink or take the delight he used to do It is true the slavish sinfulness of this fear the Spirit of God doth not work but the heart being like a mudded pool when it is moved such slavish fears will arise likewise But how farre is every natural man from this he is secure and jolly blessing and applauding himself crying peace peace all is at quiet within him because the strong man doth keep the house It is the voice of the Lord only that can make these mountains to quake and melt Sixthly Such is our weakness That we cannot barden or soften our hearts in the least manner but they remain obdurate and like brasse and iron Thy heart is like a stone within thee and thou art no wayes able to mollifie it Therefore God maketh it his work and he graciously promiseth I will take away the heart of stone Ezek. 11. 19. and give an heart of flesh As if God had said I know this work is above you you are not able to do it And certainly if the godly themselves because of the remainders of original corruption doe complain of the hardnesse of their hearts cannot mollifie or soften them as they desire Is it any wonder if the wicked man be not able to remove the stone from him Seventhly A man cannot by the power of nature believe no not so much as with an historical faith till grace prepare the heart therein Now faith is the first foundation-stone Heb. 11. He that cometh to God must believe he is and so he must believe the truth about Christ But we see by the Pharisees who heard Christ preach saw the wonderfull miracles he did yet in stead of believing in him did deride and oppose him so that all the acts of faith whether dogmatical or saving we are enabled unto only by the grace of God Matth. 13. 11. To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven but not to them Thus Act. 18. 27. the Disciples are said to believe through grace faith then is the gift of God not the work of mans free-will And if he cannot do this it is plain he cannot move one foot of himself towards Heaven Lastly Such is our impotency That when grace is offered and tendered to us the will of it self hath no power to consent to it or make improvement of it It can and oft doth resist and refuse grace but of it self it cannot imbrace it It is true Papists and Arminians plead hard for this power of the will but this is to give more to mans will then to Gods grace this is to make man to differ himself from others It might be thought that the will indeed cannot chuse Christ or receive him as a Lord because there is no revelation or manifestation of a Christ They are a people happily who sit in darkness and have no light and therefore though they may have an inward power to see yet for want of light to actuate the medium they cannot so that the defect ariseth not from the power within but the manifestation of the object without And this indeed is gratly to be considered whether an Infidel or Pagan for example doth not believe because there is no proposition of the object in the Ministry otherwise if he enjoyed that then he had power over his own to assent to it Now even the Pelagians themselves and their followers yea even all that give not grace its full due yet thus farre they do acknowledge there must be a doctrinal revelation by the Spirit of God of the truths to be acknowledged and when this light is set as it were upon the Candlestick then a man of his own self is able to see but such is the corruption of man that not only grace must bring in the light but it must also give the eye to see So that the work of Gods grace is both objective and subjective objective in revealing the object and subjective in preparing and fitting the subject It being the Lord who doth give the seeing eye and the hearing ear Prov. 20. 12. Yea the Arminians go further acknowledging that grace doth irresistibly work upon the understanding of a man for it being a passive faculty it cannot withstand its illumination but the will that retaineth its indifferency when grace hath done all it will do This therfore is granted That without the
by their own strength reformed their lives and have abounded in justice fortitude and chastity even to admiration Is not that instance of Polemon famous who though a drunkard yet coming to hear Xenocrates his Lecture about temperance was so immediately perswaded thereby that he presently forsook that beastly sinne In this Argument Julian the Pelagian did often triumph But Austin's answer was good and justifiable by Scripture That when they left one sinne they fell into another they did cure one lust by another lust a carnal one by a spiritual one for when they did abstain from such sinnes it was not in reference to God and from faith in Christ but it was either from vain glory or to be sure a sinfull confidence and resting upon themselves and therefore even the Stoicks who pretended the highest viz. That we were to do virtuous actions for virtues sake yet they came too short of the right mark for virtue is not to be loved ultimately for virtues sake but that thereby we might draw nearer to God and be made happy in enjoying of him Therefore the Stoicks opinion did teach a man nothing but self-confidence and self fulness which sinnes are forbidden by the Word of God as well as Epicurean and grosse sinnes Oh then the unspeakable bondage of the will to sinne That as the bird in a net the more she striveth to get out the more she intangleth her self Thus it is with the natural man the more he striveth of himself to come out of this mire the faster he sticketh in Thou then who art a natural man though such a sinne and such a sinne be left yet see if when the Devil was cast out a worse did not come in the room thereof See if it be not with thee as in that representation to the Prophet Thou hast broken a woodden yoke and an iron one is made in stead thereof Thou hast cured a carnal sinne by a spiritual one For you must know That not onely grace doth expell sinne but sometimes one lust may expel another as the Pharisees spiritual pride and self-righteousness did make them abhorre the Publicans sinnes so that even then the natural man cannot but sinne while he is casting off sinne Therefore though unregenerate persons may do that which is materially good and for the substance of the act yet they can never do that which is formally so or as Austin expressed it of old we must distinguish between the Officium the Duty it self and Finis the end of the Duty Now the end of all till regenerated can never be right or pure it never ascends high enough even to God himself because they want faith So that though Aristides was just yet he was not the Scriptures just man that liveth by faith None of the renowned Heathens were chaste by faith charitable by faith temperate by faith and therefore their glorious actions were only splendid glistering sinnes they had a pompous appearance but were indeed real vices which were so farre from profiting them as to eternal happiness that they were an hinderance to them for hereby they trusted in themselves The Epicurean he said It is good for me frui carne To enjoy the body The Stoick he said It was good for me frui mente But David he said It was good for him to draw nigh to God ¶ 13. The more Means of Grace to free us the more our Slavery appears FIfthly Herein is our miserable bondage to sinne manifested That the more we have the means of grace to set us at liberty the more doth our slavery discover it self So that whatsoever good and holy thing we meet with it draweth out our corruption the more This the Apostle complaineth of as part of that captivity he groaned under Rom 7. That the Law which was for good wrought in him all manner of evil Thus the Gospel yea Christ preached is the occasion of more wickedness and impiety in unregenerate men then otherwise they would be guilty of And if this be so though our heads were fountains of water yet we could not weep enough for the guilt and wretchedness we are in by this means for our remedies make our diseases greater light increaseth our darkness life causeth death Insomuch that did not God work by his own power mightily in the use of these means they might be no longer the means of grace but of anger and judgement and the preaching of the Gospel because of the sad effects which it hath through the wilfull indisposition of many who hear it might be as much trouble to us as the presence of the Ark was to the Philistims Therefore the clearer light the more powerfull means of salvation a people do enjoy the more is the impiety and wickedness of such whom grace doth not convert daily increased insomuch that the Gospel shining upon such men is like the Sunne shining upon a noisome dunghill which maketh it the more loathsome How then can there be free-will in a man to good when if left to himself all helps are an hindrance to him and all remedies are more destructive Hence the Scripture calleth it making of the heart fat Isa 6. an allusion to beasts which are prepared to destruction by their best pastures ¶ 14. The Necessity of a Redeemer demonstrates our thraldome to sinne LAstly That the will is inthralled irrecoverably unto sinne appeareth In the necessity of Grace and of Christ as a Redeemer if we were not in bondage what need we have a Redeemer Let not then the common expression in the Schooles be liberum arbitrium but liberatum which is a phrase we seldome meet within them It is good to know the full latitude of that glorious title of our Saviour viz. a Redeemer he is so called not only because he redeemeth us from the curse of the law and the guilt of sinne but also because we were under the power and dominion of sinne and Satan daily fulfilling the works of the flesh so that his death was not only to obtain remission of sinnes but to make us a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 1. 14. And hence also he is said to offer himself a sacrifice that he might present to God a Church without spot or wrinckle Eph. 5. 27 which will be compleatly perfected in heaven To set up free-will then is to pull down our Redeemer as much as we give to that we deny to Christ we make him but a half-Saviour and an half-Redeemer while we maintain that we set our selves at liberty from the power of Satan Oh then let the name of a Redeemer for ever make thee blush and ashamed to speak of a free-will ¶ 15. An Examination of the Descriptions and Definitions of Freedome or Liberty of Will which many give it Shewing that none of them are any wayes competent to the Will unsanctified WE proceed therefore to make a further discovery of the bondage of the will to sinne and that it hath no liberty no power or
thee see the dunghill in thy heart the general pollution of thy soul thou wilt cry out Oh how blind was I till now how sensless till this time Oh I am a damned man an undone man if God do not recover by his grace Therefore that of Austin though formerly mentioned can never enough be inculcated That in their controversie with Pelagians there is more need of prayer then syllogismes The truth of this Doctrine as it is primarily discovered by the Scripture so secondarily by the experience of the regenerated who as Paul said were alive once secure and blessed according to their own thoughts in the state they were in but when once convinced of the spirituality of the Law and their own carnality and contrariety therunto then sinne becometh out of measure sinfull and they die and are undone in their own thoughts Therefore concerning the Writers in this Controversie we are not only to enquire what acquired learning they have but what inspired grace what experimental workings of Gods Spirit in the humbling of them and to make them renounce all their own righteousness and fullness that Christ may be all in all Thus Austin who of all the Fathers hath most orthodoxly propugned this truth so none of them discover such an experimental conversion to God and a gracious change upon their hearts as he doth in his Books of Confessions I do not detract from the piety of the other Ancients only it is plain Austin discovereth a more peculiar and higher degree of an experimental knowledge of his own unworthiness and Gods gracious power in bringing him out of darkness into light and no question but the efficacy and power of this experience made him so orthodox and couragious in maintaining that truth which political and phylosophical principles did much gainsay but this is the wofull effect of original sinne that it taketh away all power to discover it self and as those deseases are most dangerous which take away the sense of them so is original sinne to be aggravated in this respect that it maketh a man insensible of it Fifthly The aggravation of this sinne is seen That it is the habituall aversion of the soul from God and conversion to the creature It is true original sinne is not an habitual acquired sinne but yet it is per modum habitus as Aquinas expresseth it That is the soul of every Infant born into the world cometh with an innate and habitual averseness to God and what is holy as also a concupiscential conversion to the creature so that the two parts expressed in an actual sinne of commission mentioned by the Prophet Jermiah Chap. 2. 13. My people have committed two evils they have forsaken me the fountain of life there is the aversio à Creatore and have hewed to themselves broken cisterns there is the conversio ad creaturam the same hath some representation in original sinne for every man by this hereditary pollution stands with his back upon God and his face to the creature Even as the child cometh bodily into the world with his face downwards and his back upon the heavens so it is with the soul of a man and this maketh our sinne of native pollution to be out of measure sinfull in that a man standing thus at a distance yea at enmity against God can never turn his face again towards God but by a supervenient grace from above Sixthly The great heightening of this sinne is In the deep radication of it It is so intimately and deeply rooted in all the powers of the soul that while a man is in this life he can never be freed from it hence it is that the ordinary determination of the Protestant Writers concerning original sinne even in regenerate persons is That it is taken away Quoad reatum though not Quoad actum There is original sinne in every man living yea in the most holy only it is removed from them Quoad reatum the guilt shall not be imputed and Quoad Dominum though it be in them yet it doth not reign in them only it is in some degree present there and therefore called by the same Divines Reliquiae peccati which expression though scorned by Corvinus yet both Scripture and some experience doth justly confirme such a phrase And although the late Adversary against original sinne Tayl. a further Explication of the Doct. of Orig. pag. 501. doth positively and magisterially according to his custome dogmatize that it is a contradiction to say sinne remaineth and the guilt is taken away and that in the justified no sinne can be inherent yet herein he betrayeth his symbolizing with Papists for all our learned Protestants have maintained this Position against Papists Bishops and others distinguishing between reatus simplex that is inseperable from sinne or the merit of damnation and Reatus redundans in personam which is when this is imputed There is therefore alwayes abiding in every man though justified original sinne in some measure it is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sinne dwelling in us as the Apostle calleth it Rom 7. and therefore in regard of the immobility and inseperability of it from mans nature while here on the earth it is more to be aggravated then all actual and habitual sins For though in Regeneration there is an infusion of gracious habits whereby the habits of sinne are expelled yet this original depravation is not totally conquered by it And thus much may suffice for the aggravating of it because something hath already been spoken to this Point ¶ 3. An Objection Answered THere remaineth one great Objection against the hainousness of this sinne That it is wholly involuntary and therefore we are traduced in this particular that we charge our sinnes hereby upon Adam or God himself freeing our selves Thus we accuse others and excuse our selves Is not this to do as Adam who put off all to the woman whom God had given him so we to clear our selves put all upon Adam's score Therefore many Papists and others complain of us as aggravating it too much whereas one of them saith Rundus Tappor Disp de peccato origin that it is minus minimo peccato veniali lesse then the most least venial sinne But to answer this First As this Doctrine about original sinne is wholly by revelation so we are to judge of the hainousness of it according to Scripture-principles It is true as hath been said formerly the Heathens did complain of the effects of this original sinne but they did not know the cause so that as by the Word we come to know that from our descendency from Adam we do contract this original pollution thus also by the Word we are to passe sentence about the greatness of the sinne If the Scripture saith We are by nature the children of wrath If God in destroying of the world doth not simply look to actual sins but as they flow from such a polluted principle If by this we are in bondage to Satan and are
that did tare in pieces two and fourty of them They were but little children and you would think none would regard what they said but behold the heavy judgement of God upon them Therefore let Parents be more deeply affected with the lies and sinfulness of their children then commonly they are The wicked man is said Job 20. 11. to have his bones full of his puerilities or as we translate it the sinne of his youth because sinne acted in the youth doth cleave more inseperably then other sins even as he who had been possessed with a Devil from his youth was more difficultly cured therefore the Text addeth Those sins lie down in the dust with him Thy youth-sins will go to the grave with thee if grace make not a powerfull change SECT VI. Whether Original Sinne be alike in All. THe last thing to be treated on is to answer that Question Whether original sinne be alike in all Do we not see some even from the very womb more propense to iniquities then others And if it be equal in all Why should not all be carried out to the same sins alike Why is not every one a Cain a Judas To this we answer these things 1. If we take original sinne for the privative part of it viz. the want of Gods Image so all are alike Every one hath equally lost this glorious Image of God none hath any more left of it in them then another Even as it is concerning those that are damned in hell They are all equal in their punishment in respect of the poena damni they lose the presence of the same God and are all alike cast out from his presence but there is a difference in respect of the poena sensus some have greater torments then others 2. Original sinne is alike in all in the positive part if you do respect the remote power of sinne that is there is in all equally an habitual conversion to the creature Even as all have the same remote power of dying alike though for the proxim power some die sooner and some later The seed then of all evil is alike in all all are equal in respect of the remote power of sinning 3. By original depravation all are alike in respect of the necessity of sinning There is no man in this lost estate but he doth necessarily sinne quoad specificationem as they say whatsoever he doth he sinneth though not quoad exercitium this sinne or that sinne one is more ingaged unto then another Neither is this necessity of sinning like the necessity of hunger and thirst for these are meer natural and not culpable but this necessity of sinning is voluntarily brought upon us and though it be necessary yet is voluntary and with delight also As Bernard expresseth it The voluntariness taketh not off from the necessity nor the necessity from the voluntariness and delight Lastly Original sinne is equal in all in respect of the merit and desert it deserveth death it deserveth hell There is none cometh into the world thus polluted but he is obnoxious to death and an heir of Gods wrath For although some are freed from hell yea and one or two have been preserved from death yet is wholly by the grace of God The desert of original sin is equal in all But then you will say How cometh it about that some are more viciously given then others some more propense to one sinne then another I answer 1. From the different complexions and constitutions of the body with their different temptations and external occasions of sinne as they meet with Though the remote power be equal in all yet the immediate and proxim disposition is the bodies complexion and other concurring circumstances For original righteousness being removed then a man is carried out to sinne violently according as his particular torrent may drive him Even as if the pillars or supporters of an house should fall to the ground every piece of wood would fall to the ground more heavily or lightly as the weight is or as you heard Aquinas his similitude when the mixt body is dissolved every element hath his proper motion the air ascends upward the earth downwards and this is the cause of the divers sins in the world and some mens particular inclinations to one sinne more than another And then 2. The grace of God either sanctifying or restraining doth also make a great difference It is God that saith to the sea of that corruption within thee Hitherto thou shalt go and no further Think not that thou hadst a better nature or lesse original sinne than Judas or Cain but God doth either change thy nature or else he doth several wayes restrain thee that thou canst not accomplish all that actual wickedness thy heart would carry thee unto CHAP. X. A Justification of Gods shutting up all under Sinne for the Sinne of Adam in the sense of all the Reformed Churches against the Exceptions of Dr J. T. and others SECT I. GAL. 3. 24. But the Scripture hath concluded all under sinne that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe THe Apostle having made an Objection against himself vers 21. Is the Law then against the promises of God He answereth it 1. With a detestation God forbid 2. He sheweth wherein the Law is so farre from being contrary that it is subservient to the Gospel Only we must distinguish of the use of the Law which is per se and which is per accidens The use of the Law per se is to give eternal life to such who have a perfect conformity thereunto but per accidens when it meeteth with lapsed man who must needs be cursed by it because he is so farre from continuing in all the duties thereof that he is not able to fulfill perfectly one iota or tittle thereof therefore it provoketh us to seek out for a Saviour as a man arrested for debt enquireth for some friend or surety to deliver him Now this subservient use of the Law is expressed in the Text mentioned wherein you have the condition of mankind declared viz. That they are shut up under sinne 2. The Universality All. 3. The Cause appointing and declaring of this The Scripture 4. The final Cause That the promise c. Let us briefly open the particulars And First The Condition of man is said to be shut up under sinne or concluded it is a Metaphor from those malefactors that are shut up in a prison and cannot come forth So that the word implieth partly the condemnation that is upon all mankind and partly the impossibility to escape it and then whereas it is said under sinne that denoteth both the guilt of it and the dominion of it and that both original sinne and actual for both are comprehended herein else Infants would be excluded from having an interest in Christ for whosoever are brought to Christ are necessarily supposed to be in a state of sinne Hence In the
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
and heat upon him that he doth thirst inordinately and yet if he do drink he dieth irrecoverably so that a man then bitten was in a miserable condition for if he did not drink the heat within him did burn him up and if he did drink he was sure to die Original sinne is like this fiery Serpent it hath poisoned mankind with its sting so that a man hath an inordinate thirst to sinne if he do not sinne he finds no rest no comfort if he do sinne he damneth himself and there is no way to cure this till spiritual thirst put out this natural thirst till our hearts be carried out with delight and complacency in heavenly things then this sinfull tormenting drought that is upon the soul will quickly be abated As the disease called Bulimy or Dogs-hunger doth bring with it tormenting pains in the inward parts so doth this impetuous propensity unto evil till it be accomplished It is like the wolf in the breast that consumeth continually The Wiseman doth fully expresse this disquietnesse of soul till the lusts of sinne be fullfilled Prov. 4. 16. They sleep not except they have done mischief and their sleep is taken away unless they have caused some to fall Thirdly This similitude of drinking down iniquity like water doth suppose the sweetnesse and delight that is in sinning For although water as such hath no savournesse and therefore is not like wine or beer yet because it is cooling it doth with much delight refresh and refrigerate the hot thirsty appetite within Hence Solomen expresseth desirable news by this similitude As cold waters to a thirsty soul so is good news from a farre Countrey Prov. 25. 25. So that by this expression is denoted the great delight and content that naturally is found in any evil way when a man is sinning it is as he would have it This is sutable and agreeable with that corrupt inclination that is within David cannot expresse greater joy and delight in the Law of God and in fulfilling of his will then they do in obeying the lusts of the flesh and this is that which maketh conversion so difficult This is that which doth so strongly hold men in their sinful wayes Neither the words of God or the works of God are able to separate a man and his sinnes till God put forth his conquering and all subduing grace because sinne is thus sweet to a man Zophar the Naamathite doth excellently inform us how sweet sinne is to an evil man and how much he delighte in the sweetnesse of it Job 20. 12 13. Though wickednesse be sweet in his mouth though he hide it under his tongue though he spirit and for sake not but keep it still withiâ—â—â—outh c. By this we see that sine to a natural man is like some 〈◊〉 the mouth which we roll up and down being unwilling to swallow 〈◊〉 that so we may the longer enjoy the sweetnesse thereof Certainly it would be an high degree of blasphemy to say God made man with such a corrupt inclination at first that sinne should be so connatural and sutable to him It was therefore by Adam's apostasie when we lost the Image of God then no wonder if every part and power of the soul were carried out inordinately and violently to what is evil By this also we see that a necessity in sinning and a delight and voluntariness in sinning may very well consist together one doth not destroy another A corrupt man like a corrupt tree cannot but bring forth corrupt fruit yet all this is done with inward delight and content as he cannot so he will not do otherwise This is much to be observed because many do tragically exclaim against this Doctrine of original sinne as that whereby we are necessitated and captivated unto evil not at all remembring that this is a delightsome captivity a pleasant necessity insomuch that when converting grace doth make a change upon a man it doth not only subdue the power of sinne but taketh away the sweetness of it putting a contrary delight and sweetness in the soul Now they delight in God in holy Ordinances now their souls break with longing after those heavenly object which once they did so much abhorre That which was honey to them is now gall The very thoughts of their former lusts are bitter and full of wormwood to them Thus David being made heavenly professeth often His soul thirsteth after God Psalm 46. 2. Psalm 63. 1. Psalm 143. 6 Fourthly This expression of drinking iniquity like water doth suppose as the delight so the easinesse and facility thereof Pineda observeth he compareth it not to eating of pleasant meet though that be sweet because there is some labour in the chewing of it but that is too argute onely the easinesse and facility in sinning may be declared herein and truly if we apply it to the manner of a natural mans sinning it will be very well accommodated For doth a man by nature find any difficulty in sinning Doth he find checks and gripes within him Doth he find it an hard thing to obey the losts of sinne yea they swallow down a Camel as easily as water It is true when a natural mans conscience is awakened and enlightned when under conviction by Gods Word then fear and guilt possesseth his soul then he sinneth indeed but horrible pangs and throbs of conscience do many times accompany their iniquities they bring forth in sorrow and pain but we are now speaking of a natural man meerly as so left in that estate he was born in and such a man followeth the lusts of his soul without any pain or trouble at all There are no conflict and combats within crying out How can I do this and sinne against God Do we not see this peaceable secure disposition upon most men Though they have the Word of God to awaken their conscience and so throughly to convince them that you would think they should be as much afraid of sinne as of hell it self But as the Rule is Elementa non gravitant in suo loca the elements are not heavy in their proper place So a man in sinning being in his proper way findeth no molestation no grief at all but such are to be more pitied by how much they cannot pity themselves Fifthly This similitude doth inform us of the frequency and plenty also insinning It is not one vain thought one evil action that will satisfie this corrupt principle within but it emptieth it self into abundance To drink iniquity like water denoteth abundance and plenty be doth not sip of it or tast of it as some are said to tast of the good Word of God Heb. 6. or as Jonathan tasted of honey but they drink it down fully and plentifully never satisfying themselves therein Hence if they were to live alwayes upon the earâ—◠〈◊〉 would never be weary thereof Original sinne like the horsleech Prodâ—â— 15. hath two daughters crying Give give which are never satisfied these
nature of the flesh and Spirit thus to oppose one another for this is say they against the nature of habits seeing it is the property of habits to make the will readily and willingly will and do those things which formerly were grievous and troublesome but the Scripture speaketh of the actual reluctancy it doth not say it may or it can but it doth lust and as for habits though we grant when these supernatural habits of grace are infused into the soul we are carried out with readiness delight and willingness in those holy duties which formerly were tedious and grievous unto us yet because neither the habits of grace are perfect within us nor the acts that flow from them therefore it is that there is a mixture of our dross with the spirits gold For although the habits of grace are immediately inspired or infused from God and so as they come from him are perfect yet because that is a true rule Quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis whatsoever is received is received according to the capacity and qualification of the subject Hence it is that these habits of grace are imperfect as received and seated in us and whereas again they reply that suppose this Text be understood of actual reluctancy yet it is not generally to be extended to all but limited to the Galathians who were but new converts but beginners and therefore had this fight within them that is also false The Apostle saith the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh in the general It is an universal Proposition neither is it any more to be limited to the Galathians then the duty enjoyned which is to walk in the Spirit so that as the duty belongeth to every godly man the reason likewise must and therefore the Apostle doth not say the flesh lusteth against the Spirit in you they put in vobis into the Text but speaketh universally of all that have the Spirit of God Besides this Text opposeth them for grant these Galathians were new converts yet the cause of the combate within them is not attributed to their former custome of impiety as they would have it but to the flesh which is original sinne within them when therefore a man is truly converted that difficulty to leave his former lusts doth not arise because the habits of sinne do still abide in him but because original sinne is still living in us and therefore according to the greater or lesser measure of grace healing and sanctifying of us so we find the greater opposition in parting with the sinnes we formerly committed ¶ 3. WE are to lay it down for a certain foundation to build upon as hath formerly been delivered That this spiritual conflict was not in the state of integrity Adam before his fall could not find such a rebellion in him for if so this would greatly have interrupted all his blessedness and withall such a duell within him and that necessarily flowing from his creation would have redounded to the great dishonour of God his Maker Now the Adversaries of original sinne whether Papists Remonstrants or Socinians who do usually traduce the orthodox Doctrine about it as if horribly injurious to God do in this particular farre transcend all such supposed reflections either upon the justice or mercy of God For they do boldly affirm That by the very natural constitution of man there is a necessary conflict between the rational and sensitive part only say the Papists original righteousness which the Socinian derideth as much as original sinne did keep down this repugnancy so that Adam had not any actual rebellion within though it was there potentially and radically Thus Soto though Stapleton fluctuateth and seemeth to be his Adversary therin expresly affirmeth Lib. de Naturâ Gratiâ c. 3. that the conflict mentioned by the Apostle Gal. 5. 17. is Homini â naturâ ingenita inbred in the very nature of a man which he would prove from a philosophical Discourse out of Aristotle who divideth man into two parts his rational and sensitive adding that the sensitive part obeyeth the rational not despotically as servants who have no right of their own do to their masters for so the members of the body only do serve the mind but politically and civilly as a Citizen doth his Prince in whose power it is to disobey But as Aristotle knew nothing of mans creation or the Image of God put upon him nor of his fall and the utter depravation of mans soul thereby so it would be absurd to runne to his darkness to fetch light about these things Hence also it is that the same Author Cap. 13. in another place compareth man fallen with man standing to some weighty piece that hangeth on high but is hindred that it cannot fall and the same piece when the impediment is removed For as such a piece of timber had the same proneness to fall to the ground while it was hindred as when the obstacle was removed only it did not actually fall Thus man abiding in his state of integrity had this principle within to carry him more affectionately to sensible things then spiritual only original righteousness did stop and hinder the actual motions thereof It is true that all Papists do not assert this repugnancy from our primitive constitution For Cajetan upon the place doth note truly Sermo est c. saith he The speech is of the flesh as infected with original sinne for thence the flesh lusteth against the Spirit not from the primary Creation Yea their admired Thomas a Kempis Pag. 77. for his practical devotion confesseth that Adam in the state of innocency had not this conflict And no wonder that Papists thus dogmatize when Arminius who useth to be very wary being he was the first that was to broach those dangerous errours the Devil delighting to use a Serpent not an Ass because he was more subtil then other beasts of the field yet asserteth that the inclination to sinne was in Adam before his fall Licet non ita vehemens inordinata ut nunc est although not so vehement and inordinate as now it is It is true the whole Paragraph is put by way of question but in the procedure thereof this is spoken affirmatively Articul perpendendi cap. de peccato originis And with the Socinians nothing is more ordinary then to affirm such a rebellion in man and that so peremptorily that from this they conclude Adam did sinne it was from his concupiscence that he did break the Law of God Yea some are not afraid to attribute this repugnancy and conflict to Christ as if when he prayed Father if it be possible let this Cup passe away that this came from the Agony between the rational and sensitive part within him It is wonder that these do not also hold that it will continue in Heaven also so that as long as man hath a soul and a body this opposition cannot be removed but surely the naming
and yet give no discovery that he doth not mean it of himself especially when the Adversaries to this Exposition say That to understand it of Paul is so contumelious to the Spirit of God and so destructive to all godliness Certainly if so the Apostle would have manifested something to remove this stumbling block Although I may adde that even that very Text I have in a figure transferred to my self and Apollo c. doth not necessarily allude to that mention made of thâ—â— 1 Cor. 2. 12. where speaking of their factions some said they were of Paul others of Apollo as if the Apostle did by figure use their names intending thereby the false Apostles for say they The Corinthians made their divisions by occasion of the false Apostles glorying in them and exalting them against those that were faithfull But if so what argument could there be in Paul's words Was Paul crucified for you Were you baptized in the name of Paul If he did mean false Apostles and not himself why should he thank God that he had baptized so few Therefore Pareus acknowledgeth that the common Interpretation of that Text as if Paul by a figure use his name and Apollo for the false Apostles is no wayes agreeable with the scope of the place For how could that be an example to teach them humility as he there enlargeth himself Heinsius also doth not like the translation of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for such a transmutation of names and persons but maketh it the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but enough of this 2. A second Argument is In that this person is said to hate evil not to will what is evil not to know or approve of it and then he is said to will that which is good Now this is the Description of godliness to love good and to hate evil It is true that in convinced men who yet retain their lusts as also in legal men they would not do the evil that they do but yet they cannot be said to hate it No they love their lusts therefore when any fear doth abate they presently fall unto those sinnes again but this man doth hate sinne So that in this property two things discover a regenerate person 1. That not only his conscience and his judgement is against sinne but his will his heart and affections also whereas in all unregenerate men their judgements and their consciences being enlightned and terrified maketh them afraid to commit sinne but their will then affections 〈◊〉 not against it And then secondly The Apostle speaketh generally of evil and good he doth not say I do this evil I would not or I do not this good that I would but evil and good indefinitely and this is only proper to the regenerate he only hateth all evil be only loveth all good whereas the unregenerate person doth hate only some evil and it is some good only that he would do though if a man truly hate any sinne he hateth all sin because odium is circa genus Thirdly This person must be a regenerate person because there are two distinct principles in him Sinne and He are made two different things vers 17. It is no more I that do it but sinne that dwelleth in me And ver 18. I know that in me that is my flesh dwelleth no good thing Here then are as it were two distinct persons this person hath two selfs which doth necessarily demonstrate that this is a sanctified person For can a man under legal convictions say It is not I but sinne within me Can he that hath only errors upon his soul say It is not I but sinne within me How absurd and false were that for their hearts are set upon evil only the terrours of the Law restrain them Now a man is what his heart is not what his conviction is It is true the Libertines did abuse this Doctrine and would thereby acquit themselves it was not they but the flesh Yea some blasphemously would attribute it to God himself but till a man be regenerated he hath but one self and that is the flesh But saith Arminius those legal preparatory workings by the Law are the good gift of God and are to be reckoned among the works of the Spirit and therefore the Apostle may oppose them and sinne together To this it is answered Though those legal operations are from Gods Spirit yet because the person is not regenerated he is still in the state of the flesh he is still without Christ and therefore cannot distinguish himself from the flesh within him As long as those good gifts of God are not in a subject regenerated the same person and the flesh are all one Yea though those good effects come from Gods Spirit and so are in themselves spiritual yet as they are in a person unregenerated they are improved carnally they are managed only to self-respects and thus temporary believers though they do enjoy the good and common gifts of Gods Spirit yet as they are in them they are carnally improved spiritual things being prostituted to temporal ends It is plain then that onely a godly man may say It is not I but sinne in me and thus Aquinas on the place saith it may be easily understood of a man in the state of grace and of a sinner it can be only interpreted extortè by violence His reason he goeth upon is because that a man is said to do which his reason doth not which his sensitive appetite inclineth unto because homo est id quod est secundum rationem By reason we must understand sanctified reason otherwise a mans reason is corrupted as well as his sensual part Besides there is a further Argument used by the Apostle in this distinction he maketh It is no more I that do it No more that implieth once it was he that did it formerly he could not make such a distinction as now he doth Fourthly The person here spoken of must needs be a regenerate person Because it is said He delighteth in the Law of God after the inward man ver 22. This is one of the places that compelled Austin to change his former opinion Certainly to delight in the Law of God is an inseparable property of a regenerate person David expresseth his holy and heavenly heart thereby yea the Greek word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I delight with Arminius doth well observe the emphasis of the word for he maketh the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not redundant but significant So that the meaning is he delighteth in the Law of God that is he delighteth in Gods Law and Gods Law delighteth in him there is a mutual sympathy and delight as it were which maketh the reason the stronger for a regenerate person For can any but he delight in Gods Law and Gods Law as it were delight in him again It is true it is 〈◊〉 in the inward man but that is not a diminution but a specification of the cause
is usually objected against this truth And First The command of God requiring we should not lust and that we should love God with all our heart and all our soul and might From hence they argue if these two commands cannot be perfectly fullfilled why are they required of us To this it is answered that it must be granted no man living is able to answer the perfection and exactness of this law who can say he loveth God as much as the command requireth that he never faileth in the least degree who can say that he never finds any sinful motions any irregular workings of heart though he do not consent to them suppose that were alwayes true which is not to be granted yet such motions being in the heart the very having of them maketh us to fall short of the exactness of the law But yet these commands are necessary for the rule must alwayes be perfect not wanting or failing in any thing The command doth represent the perfect Idea of compleat righteousness as Statues that are erected up in high and eminent places are commonly of greater length then the ordinary stature of men is Thus it is one thing the righteousness commanded in the law and the participation of it in the subject that receiveth it according to its proper capacity The law then is perfect but we are imperfect true obedience and imperfect must not be confounded as Castellio most ignorantly doth and therefore abandoneth that opinion De Justificat pag. 46. which maketh imperfection a sinne but he calumniateth the orthodox when he saith we hold nothing a vertue but what is chiefest ibid. pag. 43. neither do we call that imperfection which may have a greater degree Adam was not imperfect because he had not so much holiness as the Angles have In heaven it may be judged that one Saint shall have more grace then another yet every one perfected in their measure and though it be so he that hath not so much holiness as the chiefest shall not be judged sinfully imperfect there is a negative imperfection and a privative this later is when the subiect doth not partake of what degrees it ought to do and then it is alwayes a sinne The starre hath not as much light as the Sunne but this is no privative imperfection because it is not bound to be the Sunne Now the command of God requireth of us the chiefest love that we can by grace put forth not the highest degree of love which is possible but what we are bound to do and any defect herein is a sinne We admit that all graces are not alike no more then all sinnes one may be more holy then another yet he that is the highest attainer doth not reach to the utmost of the command and therefore whatever falleth short of that is damnable deserving wrath of God Secondly When we say no man is able to fullfill the Law of God in this life because the flesh doth still abide in us We mean not as if this were so because God could not subdue it or sinne and the Devil were more potent then Christ but he hath in his Word declared that he will not give such a measure of grace in this life by the righteousness whereof we should be justified So that Castellio's exclamations in this case are ridiculous here is no injury done to the Spirit of God we do not make Christ a semi-Saviour for we readily grant That the Spirit of God could make us absolutely free from sinne in the twinkling of an eye In the hour of death we are immediately purged from all evil So that it 's plain the Spirit of God could make us thus compleat but he will not neither doth this tend to his dishonour no more than that we die that we are â—â—ck and carry about with us corruptible bodies For did not Christ die that we might have glorious bodies that we might be redeemed from this corruption Yet this is not done immediately Seeing then Christ hath assured us that both soul and body shall be made perfectly holy and happy in time though it be not done as soon as we would have it we are not to cavil herein but satisfie our selves with the wisdom of God who doth every thing beautifull in his season It is true Christ when he cured bodily diseases he did perfectly cure them but doth it therefore follow that he must do so in soul-diseases as Castellio urgeth No certainly but rather as Christ though he healed some perfectly of their diseases yet he did not take away their mortality from them So though by the grace of God we have strength to overcome gross sinnes yet we are not made impeccable as the glorified Saints in Heaven are but there remaineth the fuell of sinne still within us not but that God could remove it as he could have inabled the Israelites to have conquered all the Canaanites but because he will not God could have made all the world at once but he proceeded by degrees and thus he doth in our sanctification So that herein we are daily taught to be humble in our selves and to depend alone upon the grace of God It is true if all sinne were removed and we confirmed in a state of grace then there would be no danger of pride as there is not in those who are made glorious in Heaven But were were we made perfect and delivered from all sinne yet abiding still in a mutable condition we should quickly be drunken with the thoughts of our own excellencies so that perfection while we are in the way would not be so advantagious unto us unless to perfection God should also add confirmation and this would be to confound Heaven and earth together And thus much for the first Objection ¶ 6. I Shall onely name a second Objection made in the general against the reliques of original corruption in a man though regenerated and thereby the imperfection of our renovation because this doth more properly belong to another head in Divinity which is much disputed viz. De Perfectione Justitia Of the Perfection of righteousness in this life The Objection which is plausibly and speciously urged against this truth is That this Doctrine is an enemy to a holy life it is pernicious to godlinesse that it is a pleading for sinne and an encouragement to men to content themselves in their formal and sluggish way because they cannot be perfect Thus it is thought we bring up an ill report about the way to Heaven as those Spies did about Canaan we discourage people making their hearts faint because of great Gyants that we say are in the way In this manner Julian the Pelagian old of calumniated Austin that he did in naturae invidiam malae conversationis sordes refundere that he did Peccantibus metum demere quorum obscenitatum Apostolorum sanctorum omnium injuriis he did consolari because he made Paul to speak those words The evil that I hate that I do of his
own person Yea he saith Austin's purpose was ad infereadum virtutibus bellum ad excidium civitatis Dei c. Lib. 3. contra Julianum cap. 26. What a boasting Goliah is here or a railing Rabshaheb as if the holding of this corruption adhering to a man though godly did proclaim war against all godliness and did overthrow the City of God Cassalio also maketh such preaching as this to be to sow thistles that we may reap figs It is to make God accept of blind and same Sactifices saith he Quinque Impedim pag. 11. 12. 19. that we are like children holding a bird whose legs are tied by a thred and letting her flie a little we presently pull her back again Thus we bid people obey 〈◊〉 Law of God and when a man endeavoureth to do it then they tell him he cannot Therefore saith he spend as much time to get perfect obedience as thou doest to get learning the knowledge of the tongue or as thou dost to get wealth and then thou wilt see we are not perfect because we do not spend so much time in this as in other things But this is to speak like a Philosopher rather than a Christian To the Objection we answer There is no injury to godlinesse offered by this truth First Because we say it is every mans sinne that he is not perfect therefore we ought to humble our selves under all our failings As it was the Israelites disobedience that they were not active to destroy every Canaanite whatsoever cometh short of the exact Rule of the Law is sinfull and thereby damnable Hence God is angry not only with gross sinnes but the imperfect graces of his people Revel 3. 2. I have not found thy works perfect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before God I here was much emptiness much vacuity the Church wanted solidity and fulness in her duties For this it is that the godly are subject to many afflictions and temptations they are under divers chastisements because all the drosse of corruption is not yet purged from them So that the godly man is so farre from delighting and contenting himself in these imperfections that he mourneth and groaneth under them Secondly Here is no impediment to godliness because we press it as a duty upon the godly to be pressing forward every day to be perfecting holinesse constantly and that they are to take heed of self-fulness or to rest contented in low principles Hence the Apostle Heb. 5. 11 12 13. and Chap. 6. 1. speaketh very terrible to such as remain in their rudiments as it were and are not carried out to perfection The Corinthians also 2 Cor. 7. 1. are commanded to perfect holinesse in the fear of God It is therefore our duty to endeavour after perfection as Paul professeth he did Phil. 3. though he had not attained unto it but yet when all is done Our perfection will be to bewail our imperfection we shall find absolute purity is Res voti magis quam eveniûs as Ambrose of old Hence the most godly have failed in the exercise of those graces which they have been most eminent in Abraham is called the father of the faithfull whose steps we are to follow yet through fear in his lying or equivocating he manifested unbelief Sarah is noted for obedience to her husband and propounded as a patern to all wives yet in what a sinfull and sad passion did she break out against Abraham when he was innocent and she was in all the fault that was about Hagar The Lord saith she judge between me and thee Gen. 16. 5. Thus David for his sincerity called a man after Gods own heart but how false and hyporitical in the matter of Vriah Here then is no encouragement to stand still we are not come to our races end we are to grow every day there is more to be done then yet we have performed and this striving after further holiness will be while we are in this life ¶ 7. The Objection return'd upon the Perfectionists THirdly Those that plead for perfection they hinder the progress of godliness they perswade men with foolish and ablurd conceits that they â—ay attain to perfection for when men do believe they are perfect What â—â—ed they labour more if they be at the races end What need they runne still Nothing doth more destroy the life and power of godliness than such arrogant and proud conceits So that as Seneca said Many had been learned men if they had not been conceited of their learning so many might profitably proceed in the mortifying of sinne if they were not perswaded it was mortified already Thus these Perfectionists preach men into arrogant perswasions of their own righteousness and thereby hinder them from a true progress in holiness Besides such Doctrine is in an high degree injurious to the grace of the Gospel to our Evangelical Justification if we be whole we do not need the Physician Though God vouchsafe inherent grace to us so farre as to be delivered from the dominion of sin and also to be subduing of it daily yet the grace of God exalted in this life is by imputation The grace without us not the grace within us is that which doth justifie This is the grace so frequently spoken of in the New Testament and to which all the godly make their recourse under the guilt of sinne and the accusations of the Law whereas the Doctrine of Perfection wholly evacuateth this admirable and precious way of Gospel-grace But enough of this ¶ 8. The several Conflicts that may be in a man I Come to another Proposition which is That we may conceive of three conflicts and contrary lustings that may be in a man not at all naming that which is for the most part in every sinner that he would have the profit of a sinne the pleasure of a sinne but not the bitterness of it Such a conflict is in most sinners they would have the advantage by sinne but not the damage by it Thus Arianus Epictetus lib. 2. cap. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every sinne hath division in it self and so goeth on saying That every rational soul is obnoxi us to this fight The thief would not steal as it is a sinne but as it is profitable Hence it is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that what he would that he doth not and what he would not do that he doth which are almost the same words with the Apostle But this I do not insist on The first combate is That which may be in Heathens between their conscience and their appetite The light of nature inclining one way and their lust another way which is notably taken notice of by Aristotle a man in such a conflict is called by him an incontinent person as distinct from an intemperate who having the habit of sinne is carried out to the actings thereof without any remorse or regretings of conscience or reason To clear this he speaketh of
to be confuted most properly when we come to speak of that immediate effect of original sinne which is to make a conflict and rebellion in man between the mind and sensitive appetite in natural men and between the flesh and spirit in regenerate men Fifthly That which the Orthodox following the light of the Scripture assign as a cause of that deluge of impiety amongst mankind is the original depravation of every mans nature through Adam 's transgression From this unclean principle none can bring forth that which is clean and truly the Scripture is so evident going alwayes to this head making the lust within a man a cause of all impiety flowing from us that they seem to deny the Sunne at noon-day who will not acknowledge this But let us in the next place examine What causes ef this universall propensity in mankind to sinne are given by the late Heterodox Writer for the weight of this Objection presseth him and therefore he doth industriously set himself to answer it Vnum Necessar Chap. 6. Sect. 4. It is certain saith he that there are many common principles from which sinne deriveth it self into the manners of all men The first mentioned is That at first God made no promises of heaven he had propounded not glorious rewards to be as an Argument to support the superiour faculty against the inferiour because there was no such thing in that period of the world therefore almost all flesh had corrupted themselves for want of this Adam fell and all the world followed his example and most upon this account till it pleased God after he had tryed the world with temporal promises and found them also insufficient to finish the work of his graciousness and to cause us to be born anew by the revelations and promises of Jesus Christ Thus he but I had almost said Oh monstrum horrendum cui lumen ademptum Now the Socinian appeareth in his own ugly and deformed colours let us see whether there be any validity in this reason or no. And First It is very frivolous ridiculous and absurd for we are asking for a reason of the general inclination of all men in all ages to evil and he would assign one for that speciall age of the world before Christ Is it not still true even since Christs coming that the heart of a man is desperately and incurably set upon evil till the grace of God doth sanctifie it So that though in the New Testament the glory of heaven and the torments of hell are evidently and powerfully demonstrated yet still there is the same torrent of impiety in the manners of men Secondly This reason cannot be acquitted from blasphemy in some sense against God for the cause of overflowing impiety in the Old Testament times is reduced hereby to God himself May not all the prophane ones in that age of the world take up this mans Argument to defend themselves O Lord it is from thee we are thus universally wicked Had the joyes of heaven been promised to us in wel-doing had the torments of hell been manifested unto us we had then been awakened so that we are now wicked because we wanted such efficacious meanes to prevent our impiety that afterwards were vouchsafed to the world so that the Israelites might have replyed to the Prophet Hosea Chap. 13. 9. that he spake falsly their destruction is not of themselves but of God who did not give them sufficient incouragements Had the Asserters of original sinne affirmed any such thing that might so hainously have redounded to the dishonour of Gods justice his mercy and goodness what tragical exclamations would have been raised up immediately But thus it falleth out alwayes that those who out of a preposterous fear sometimes to hold such things that have but an apparent tendency to dishonour God do fall into such abominable positions that do really reproach God and his wayes as may more be shewed in this point Lastly The very inward part of this reason is very wickedness and falshood it self for this Proposition That heaven and hell were not used as Arguments in the Old Testament but that temporall mercies and jugements were the only spurres and curbes in their conversation is being reserved as the peculiar and proper glory of Christ to reveal the promises of eternal life is that notorious pure impure Socinianisns which our learned Writers do so evidently profligate This saith Smalcius De Div Jes Christi c. 7. is so clear a truth that they want no little thing to the true knowledge of Christ and his Office who are ignorant of it or doubt of it yea he addeth Vnde appareat c. from whence it may appear that our Congregations though they are said to blaspheme Christ yet do more rightly acknowledge Christ in this particular Quam omnes alios Christiani nominis professores then all other professors of Christs name Thus they tryumph in this enormious error as their greatest glory because they make it peculiar to Christ to reveal and promise eternal glory It is not my intent to enlarge on this point That eternal life was promised to Adam as also to those who lived in the Old Testamentary dispensation That the tree of life was a Sacramental symbole of eternal life appeareth by that expression Rev 2. 7. And certainly if the Jewes did not discover the resurrection of the dead and eternal life it was because they did not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as our Saviour telleth them Mat. 22. 29 30. and that is remarkable which is said Joh. 5. 39. Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life That same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye think is not spoken as if it were a false perswasion to look for eternal life out of those Scriptures but because they boasted in their own interpretation of them excluding Christ thereby It is therefore a detestable position which Smalcius in the same place hath That the promise of eternal life was wholly hidden from men for those ages which were before Christ neither did it clearly appear to any one that such a thing would be bestowed upon mortal men for doth not Job proclaim the clean contrary Job 19. 25. I know that my Redeemer liveth he shall stand at the later day upon the earth It is true the learned Mercer would apply this to that temporal and blessed restitution of his external happiness which God vouchsafed to him but the Context doth necessitate us to understand it of a more glorious condition We read also Heb. 11. 13 14 15. That the Patriarchs acknowledged themselves pilgrims in this earth and did declare plainly they sought an heavenly country It is not worth the while to examine the suggestions of Schlitingius the Socinian on those Texts who would so miserably wrest them to his own purpose and that the day of judgement was used as an Argument to bridle men from sinne appeareth Eccles 11. 9. as also Chap. 12. 14. The Book concludeth with this
as a truth to stick in our mind alwayes That God will bring every work unto judgement and thus much for his first reason His second reason is no less nocent The cause of iniquity is not because nature is originally corrupted but because Gods Lawes command such things which are a restraint to the indifferent and otherwise lawfull inclinations of nature Idem ibidem pag. 415 so that our unwillingness and averseness cometh by occasion of the law coming cross upon our nature not because our nature is contrary to God but because God was pleased to superinduce some Commandments contrary to our nature if God had commanded as to eat the best meats and drink the richest wines as long as they could please us I suppose original sinne would not be thought to have hindered us from obedience Thus he in a most prophane and unsavoury manner For First Here again God is made the occasion of all the universal impiety in mankind man may plead my nature is good my inclinations are lawfull but God hath superinduced austere commands he maketh those things sinnes which would not have been sinnes Thus this man doth directly teach the world to lay all their wickedness upon God he is an hard master he is too severe otherwise our natures would do well enough But Secondly He betrayeth much ignorance or concealeth his knowledge that he will not distinguish between moral precepts and meer positive ones or as Whitaker out of Hugo Pracepta Naturae and Praecepta Disciplinae De pecato orig lib. 1. cap. 14. commands of Natural Duties and prohibitions of Intrinsecal evils or such as are meerly Positive and for Discipline-sake Some things we grant are indeed meerly evil because prohibited some things are evil and therefore prohibited Although this must be remembred That a man doth never break a positive command but thereby also he doth a moral command likewise Now let this Patron of Nature answer to this Question Why is there in man-kind such inclinations to those sins that are morally and intrinsically evil Is he of that opinion that nothing is good or evil internally But as Mayro the Schoolman saith God might have made a Law that whosoever should praise him should be damned and whosoever should dishonour him should be saved On monstrous Divinity that maketh virtue and vice nothing in it self If God had pleased vices might have been virtues and virtues vices It is from God that maketh such things to be sins that otherwise would be lawfull This symbolizeth with Diagoras the Atheist first called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and afterwards 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for his opinion was That a wise man might as time served give himself to theft or adultery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesych de viris illustribus Titulo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for none of such things were in their nature filthy if you take away popular opinions But I will not charge this opinion on the Author only he should not have spoken so confusedly If this be true it is not a vain wish with him who addicted to a sinne cryed out Vtinam hoc non esset peccare Lastly Even those inclinations that are in men to lawfull things are vitiated and corrupted No man desireth to eat to drink no man desireth health or wealth naturally as he ought to do I doubt this Author as all the Pelagians formerly do not attend to the exactnesse of a good work They forget Austin's old Rule grounded upon Scripture That duties are to be esteemed not by the acts but by their ends Is there any man eateth or drinketh or inclineth to do these things for the glory of God as we are commanded 1 Cor. 9. 31. Lastly He runneth to evil examples the similitude of Adams transgression as if that moved those to sinne who happily never heard of him errour false principles c. And from the enumeration of many particulars applieth that of Job Chap. 14. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean which Text might justly have affrighted him in what he delivereth for there Job speaks of one in his very first birth and as is added Ne infans unius diei not an Infant a day old is free from this uncleannesse What can evil examples and wicked customs do to pollute a child new born It is true the Socinians grant That where parents are habituated in evil customs the children may derive from them an inclination also unto sinne But if so then this very thing will puzzle them as much as they endeavour to perplex the Orthodox with difficulties about the transmission of original sinne For How do Parents accustomed to sinne convey this evil disposition either by the soul or by the body And what they would answer themselves in such an asserted propagation the same we may for all mankind in general But 2. This is no sufficient answer for still the Question is not satisfied Men say they are thus inclinded to evil because of wicked customs and examples But how came these customs Cain had no example before him of murder yet he committeth it These evill examples then and wicked customs seeing they must have an original to come from it cannot be any thing else but the depraved nature of mankind And certainly the Apostle James doth attribute all evil committed to that lust which is within a man Jam. 1. 14. So that if there were no other occasion or temptation this is enough to set the whole course of the soul on fire And this is the next particular to be considered which I shall handle as a second Immediate Effect of original sinne CHAP. II. The second Immediate Effect of Original Sinne is the Causality which it hath in respect of all other Sinnes SECT I. The Text explained setting forth the Generation of Sinne. JAM 1. 14. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed THe next Immediate Effect of Original sinne which cometh under consideration is The Causality that it hath in respect of all other sins This is the dunghill in which the whole serpentine brood of all actual sinnes is conveived and brought forth Insomuch that when you see all the abominable impieties that fill the whole world with irreligion to God and injustice to man If you ask whence ariseth this monster How cometh all this wickedness to be committed The Answer is easie from that original concupiscence that hot Aetna which is in a man that never ceaseth from sending forth such continual flames of iniquity Now this truth will excellently be discovered from the Text in hand for it is the Apostles scope in this and the adjacent verses to take off all men from that wicked way they are so prone unto viz. to lay the blame of their iniquities and to ascribe the cause of them to any yea to God rather than to themselves They will rather make God then themselves the Author of all that evil they do commit We have this from Adam who