man consider'd the one Interior Ingraffed into Christ assisted and agitated by the holy spirit which searcheth every chinke cranny of the heart watering her barren furrowes and sending showies into the little vallies thereof making it fruitfull with the drops of raine Psal 65.11 suppling and mollifying that stone like flesh According to this man which is Inward he wills that which is Good approues the law of God serves it delights in it magnifies it The other Exterior which is not yet totally renewed but remaines in part carnall still retaining the corruptions of mans nature and as a prisoner to the flesh hath not yet knock'd off his Gives and Fetters This man being still outward to the world followeth the law in his members And hence is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that contrary warre in the same man in the one part or wing of him we see the law of the members fighting and strugling for the law of sinne leading man captive through the infirmities of the flesh On the other side is the law of God to which in a holy correspondency the minde or will being renewed assent Betweene these is the whole man placed Aret. in cap. 7. ad Rom. v. 23. quasi communis praeda as a common booty or prey expos'd unto the assaults of both And in this encoūter it speeds with him as with the two opposite armies in the valley of Rephidim Exod 17. sometimes Israell prevaileth sometimes Amaleck the minde sometimes sometimes the flesh As long as the hands be held up whiles the thoughts be elevated the minde soring there is a great shout heard in the Hebrew Campe the Israelite hath the day the inward man prevaileth and then the Hosannah goes for the Law of God but when the hands be let downe when his devotions are a drooping when he begins to flag and grovell towards the Flesh straight there is a noyse of victory in the Heathen troops the Amalekite gives the chase the outward man prevaileth and so the cry runnes for the Law of sinne In this case the regenerate man must doe as Moses there did rest upon the stone the Corner-stone Christ Iesus and his hands being wearie with lifting up his mentall parts overburdened with the waight of the flesh Faith and Prayer like another Hur and Aaron must pillar and support them then he shall be steady till the going downe of the Sun till hee set in death when Amalek shall be discomfited all his spirituall enemies put to the sword and he in peace goe in and possesse the land promised to his Fore-fathers the caelestiall Land the Canaan above where he shall raigne with Abraham Isaac and Iacob for ever and ever Thus in a double ranke I have shewed you the double man inward and outward the one under the colours of the flesh marching for the Law of sinne the other under the Ensigne of the spirit fighting for the Law of God It remaines now that in the Reare we bring up the Ego ipse the Apostle himselfe ready arm'd for the conflict and viewing him dividing these Ranks observe how with the Minde he serves the Law of God but with the Flesh the Law of sinne PARS III. Ego ipse servio I my selfe serve SOme ancient Hereticks taking occasion by the errour of Origen S. Chrys Theo. Basil whom many of the Greeke interpreters followed and some of the Latine make here a Prosopopeia or fictio pèrsonae as if by this Ego ipse I my selfe Saint Paul himselfe had not beene understood S. Amb. Icrome but some other by him personated some unregenerate or carnall man or if himselfe himselfe as he was formerly under the Law and not yet under Grace D. Aug. ad Simplicium lib. 1. q. 1. D. Aug. lib. 6. cont Iulian. c. 11. In which opinion the great Saint Augustine confesseth that he sometimes wandred but afterwards tooke up with his Prius aliter intellexeram vel potius non intellexeram in the first of his Retractations 23. chapter And upon this tide many scruples of the Church then were after wasted to posteritie The Pelagians of old and their way-ward Proselites have scattered two pestilent Epistles to this purpose the one written by Iulian to Boniface at Rome the other by eighteene Bishops Ring-leaders of that Faction to the See of Thessalonica both which quoted and confuted by the learned Father in his Anti-pelagian controversies principally against Iulian the Muster-master if I may so stile him of that dangerous Sect who contended that under this Ego ipse Saint Paul either described Vid. fusius Par. in cap. 7. ad Rom. v. 25. hominem aliquem libidinosum some one that was luxurious or incontinent not yet wash'd from the grosser corruptions of the Flesh or else discover'd the nature of man after the Fall when and how farre he might prevaile without grace and upon this misconjecture they strooke at the heart of originall sinne strangled that in the wombe of our first Parents gave sucke to new fancies of the times cocker'd an upstart of their owne begetting shoulder'd up nature with grace engag'd freewill in matters of the Spirit contrary to the Apostles Peccatum in me habitans and his quod non vellem hoc ago in the 15. and 17. verses of this chapter But it is more than probable that this Ego ipse reacheth Saint Paul himselfe he continuing his complaint in the first person through the whole body of this chapter Ego sum carnalis ego agnosco ego consentio ego delector ego servio it is I that am carnall at the 14. verse and I allow not at the 15. and I will not at the 16 and I delight at the 22. and I serve here at the 25. I I my selfe I Saint Paul I the Apostle I the great Doctour I the chosen vessoll hee gives not the least hint or touch of any other Ego nescio quid sit Scr. pturas penitus pervertere si hoc non sit Beza Annot. in cap. 7. Rom. v. 25. And therefore it is a bold Fiction and a manifest depravation of the Text to wire-draw Scripture to mens private purposes interpreting here Ego by Alter as if I Saint Paul were not carnall not sold under sinne not captivated by the Law of it but some other some Iew or Gentile not yet converted when the maine bent of the great Doctour driveth another way he speaking of himselfe in the state of his Apostleship the conflicts and sikrmishes hee then had betweene the Minde and the Flesh not of his old Pharisaicall condition as some dreame for the words are of the present Ego servio not Ego servivi not I did but I doe serve and not barely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither I but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I my selfe I and no other which excludeth all figurative interpretation whatsoever And therefore doubtlesse the Apostle here even as * Sed hoc forte aliquis non Apostolus certe Apostolus
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Clemens Alexandrinus calls them Against which we are to take up our Sword and Buckler and not onely oppose De Sacrament Mat. cap. 7. but murther them if we can And therefore in this warre of the Flesh the learned Parisiensis would have the prima acies cut off the first Motions slaine propter iniquitatem Rebellionis for their rebellious attempts against the Spirit as being not onely bellowes and fuell but Fire also to our daily and dangerous mis-treadings And yet the Church of Rome is so hot here for the immaculatenesse of the Saint that she altogether dis-inherits him of flesh cuts off the Intaile of his primitive corruption washes cleane away his originall Taint in the Laver of Baptisme And so doth the conduit of our Church too quoad Reatum but not quoad Actum The guilt of sinne is expung'd but the act and existency remaines still even in the Regenerate there being found in them not onely poenas quasdam aut sequelas peceati Certaine sequels or punishments of sinne but also really and in their owne Nature damnabiles * Reveren dissimus Davenantues de justitia habit cap. 1. Reliquias remainders enough to damne them but that the dominion of sinne being Bankrupt as it were and broken and the bond cancell'd above they make not to the condemnation of his person that is atton'd and reconcil'd by Christ And therefore the Cardinall may forbeare to traduce us for Messalians and Origenists Bell. de sacr Bapt. l. 1. c. 13. because we allow not a totall eradication of sin by the power of that Sacrament for as much as some of his owne Tang denying concupiscence after Baptisme to be Peceatum yet they say that it is Radix peccati and so takes hold in the very child of God which Root though it be crush'd a little and bruiz'd yet it sticks fast still in the Nature notwithstanding the guilt be absolutely remov'd from the person of the regenerate And this much their owne * Lib. 2. dist 32. lit B. Lombard in circumstance will tell us who granteth that by the vertue of Baptisme there is a full absolution of originall sin in respect of the Guilt of it but a Debilitation only and an Extenuation of the vice no totall Extirpation And therefore the Gratianists sticke not to glosse here that it is not so dismissed nè sit that it be not at all But it remaines debilitatum sopitum languishing and slumbring not dead it seemes Nay Aâ—not ad Rom. cap. 5. Hugo de sancto victore comes on more fully Manet secundum culpam dimittitur secundum solum aeternae dan nationis debitum Whence I gather with that learned * Episcopus Sarisburiensis de justitia habit cap. 20. Prelate that concupiscence after Baptisme is no lesse than Culpa even in the Regenerate And that That Justice which is conferr'd on them consists rather in the participation of Christs merits who cut the score than in any perfection of Vertues or Qualities infus'd So that the Vis damnatoria as they call it The condemning power in this Sinne is taken off by vertue of that Sacrament but the contagion or deordination of it still dwells in man which is so rivited in his nature and as it were nature it selfe ut tolli non possit sine destructione naturae we may assoone destroy nature herselfe as It And if we beleeve the Scholeman Non est medici summi illum tollere In this case God himselfe cannot doe it so Alexander Halensis de Sacramento Baptismi 4. part 8. quaest 2. Articl Let others then vaunt at their pleasure in the riches and ornaments of their inward man ruffle in the gawdy plumes of their conceiv'd perfections decke their minds in their white robes of purity file and whet and sharpen the very point of the spirit they talke of yet if wee knock a little at the doores of their hearts Enter into them with a Candle and a snuffer as Charron speakes wee shall finde Concupiscence there sitting in her chaire of state commaunding or at least drawingon the motions of the flesh which they can no more restraine then the beating of their pulses which still keepe centinell in the body and are the watch words of nature that the heart liveth Serm. 58. super Cant. Erras si vitia putes emortua et non magis suppressa Hee is in an error saith S. Bernard that thinks his corrupt inclinations to be absolutely dead and not rather supprest or smothered Velis nolis intra sines tuos habitat Cananaeus let the Israclite doe what he can this Canaanite will be still skulking about his coasts subjugari potest exterminarinon potest made tributary perhaps hee may bee exil'd he will not And indeed those untamed lusts and affections of ours which are nothing else but the waves and stormes of our soules rais'd by every litle blast of the flesh as long as we are inviron'd with these walls of frailty this rotten tabernacle of the body Moder ari et regere possumus S. Ier. Reg. Monach c. 22. amputare non possumus master perhaps or qualify for a time wee may totally subdue wee cannot The mind no doubt may put in her plea with a Video meliora I see that the law of God is the better I see and approve it too and therfore I serve it But then comes the flesh with a Deteriora sequer 't is true the other is the right way but it is troublesome and slippery and like a sandy hill to the feete of the aged The way the flesh walkes is smooth and even pleasing to him that treads it and therfore I follow that I follow That were more tolerable but I serve I am in subjection to it though my minde have a desire and more then a desire an act of serving the law of God yet there is another Master I must serve too my flesh invites mee invites nay commaunds and hurryes me and that is to the law of sinne Certum est Orig. Homil. 21. in Ios etiam Iebuzoeos habitare cum filiis Iudoe in Ierusalem saies the Allegoricall Father nothing more certaine then the deepe remainders of corruptioneven in Gods peculiar Israel These Iebusites will be still dwelling with the sonnes of Iudah in Ierusalem the flesh will bee serving the law of sinne even in the sanctified and chosen vessell S. Paul himselfe and the reason is 't is a church militant wee live in Cant. 2. an Army saith Solomon terrible with her banners no lying idle then in tents and garrisons but a daily marching on against the enemy a continuall skirmishing with the flesh which though by the daily sallyes and excursions of the spirit it be somtimes repell'd and driven back as if it had received the foyle or the defeate yet gathering new strength and forces it comes on againe with her fresh and restlesse assaults so that there is no expectation of a totall triumph and
sed Caro Not us but the Flesh the Flesh that must be are the blame whatsoever the Sinne be Their minde they pretend is prone enough to matters of Religion but the flesh as a violent Tide or Torrent drives them another way and no sinne so capitall but findes S. Paul's evasion Non nos sed peccatum in nobis 'T is no more we that doe it but Sinne that dwelleth in us Lyes and Oathes and Blasphemies and Prophanations are at length but a businesse of the Flesh to wallow in Surfets and Vomitings and Excesse of Riots till the wine inflame and the eyes looke red and startle a toy of the flesh too Raylings and Envies and Scandalls and Back bitings the Cut-throates of neighbourhood and amity but a frailty of the flesh neither Chambering and watonnesse and a lustfull neighing after thy neighbours wife nay the ranke sweat of an Incestuous Bed a tricke of the flesh also and that 's a tricke of the flesh indeed to grinde a poore man or steece a Tenant or pillage a Church cheate God himselfe of his dues imbeazle his tithes and offerings Imbrue our hands in the bloud of his Sacrifices but a trifle of the Flesh neither In a word be their Sinnes dyed in Graine never of so sanguine and deepe a Tincture so mighty so hainous so inexpiable the Flesh shall be their excuse still and the words of the Apostle are ever ready to plead for them Rom. 7.25 With the mind I serve the Law of God but with the Flesh the Law of Sinne. But let such corrupt Glossers on the Text consider who S. Paul was that us'd those words and of what sins for let the Pelagian bray what he list the words are S. Paul's S. Pauls of himselfe and of himselfe as an Apostle Vide D. Aug. Ser. 5. de verbis Apost not as a Pharisee not of publike and scandalous and notorious sinnes from which even his Pharisaisme was exempt but of bosome and inward infirmities whereby he felt his sanctified intentions strangled by the counter-plots of the Flesh Moreover the Text properly belongs to those that struggle not to them that lye soaking and weltring in their sinnes the Spirit must be still lusting against the Flesh and the Flesh still lusting against the Spirit This Sea of Ours never lying calme unruffled without some storme So that those which tugge not and beare up stiffe Saile against this Tide but plunging themselves headlong in all manner of Vices yet still pretending a rectitude of their mind and will have nothing to doe with this prerogative of the Saints For as a grave Neoterick of ours strictly observes None can say The mystery of selfe deceiving by D. D. cap. 14. that sins are not Theirs but the Fleshes but such have the Spirit besides the Flesh contending with the Flesh Now those saith he which are so ready with their Non nos sed caro Not us but the flesh are oftentimes themselves nothing else but flesh no Spirit at all to make the least resistance but give up themselves in a voluntary subjection to the lusts and corruptions of the Old man So that this non Nos sed Caro is but a vaine Pretence of Theirs sounding nothing else but us and our selves For in understanding will memory affections soule and body too they are altogether flesh Nature speaking of These as sometimes Adam did of Eve Adest Os ex ossibus meis et Caro de carne mea Here is Bone of my Bone and Flesh of my Flesh Gen. 2.23 Notwithstanding in the committing of some grievous sinne they have no doubt a kinde of inward murmuring and reluctation Pilate will not condemne Christ but hee will first wash his hands pretending that hee is innocent of his bloud Mat. 27.24 Felix will give S. Paul liberty of speaking for himselfe before hee will deliver him mercilesly to the Iewes bound Acts 24.27 There is a grudging and recoyling in the consciences of most men even In and Before the act of their mistreadings but this resistance is not from a minde renewed but enlightned only not from a religious feare of offending God for this or that sin but the fearfull apprehension of punishments which shall follow upon those sins so that they doe it only saith S. Austine timore poenoe non amore justitiae rather to avoide a hovering vengeance Serm. 59. de diversis then for any filiall obedience or respect to God and his commaunds And herein as in a mapp or glasse wee may see the difference of the combat betweene the regenerate and the meere carnall man that of the regenerate is in the same faculties of the soule betweene the will and the will the affections and the affections these faculties even in the renovated soule being partly spiritual and partly carnall whence it followes that when the renewed part of the will which is the spirit invites us to good the unregenerate part which is the flesh swayes us to evill But the combate in the meere carnall man is betweene diverse faculties of the soule betweene the understanding and the will betweene the conscience and the affections hee neither resisting temptations to sin nor the swindge of them when hee is tempted neither hating the sinne forbidden nor loving the law forbidding it but still drawes on cords with cart-roaps vanities with iniquities and these in a full measure drinking them like water untill hee come even to the overflowing of ungodlines Iob. 15.16 so far from holding backe from mischiefe that hee doth it with greedinesse and swiftnesse committing all uncleanes with greedines Ephes 4.19 Et pedes festinanter currentes ad malum his feete are swift in running to mischiefe Pro. 6.18 the regenerate man checkes evill motions when they are offered the carnall man gives them line and liberty of accesse without controule Sinne to the one is like the booke Saint Iohn mentions causing bitternes in the belly Revel 10.9 To the other like Ezekiels scroule 't is to him as honey and sweetnes Ezek 3.3 That doth utterly distast this doth affect and rellish it hee in the temptation of sin strives to avoyde the action to this the action is as ready as the temptation so that insteed of the rayne or the snaffle hee is altogether for the switch and the spurre veloces sunt pedes ejus ad effundendum sanguinem his feete are swift to shed bloud Rom. 3.15 Once more The one keepeth his tongue from evill and his lips that they speake no guile 1. Pet. 3. The others tongue frameth deceit and deviseth mischiefe and the poison of Aspes is under his lips proudly vaunting with those in the Psalmist Quis est Dominus nobis with our tongues we will prevaile wee are they that ought to speake who is Lord over us Psal 12.4 I deny not but the same sin according to the act may bee both in the regenerate and the meere carnall man but not without this qualification in the one for
Nescience not a Privation of knowledge but a Negation of it which was in Adam in his state of Innocence in the good Angells and Christ himselfe as he was man and is no sinne at all neither doth it oppose the knowledge of God either in Generall or Particular A Privative Ignorance is when a man knowes not those things which by nature he may know and by duty he is tyed to know lib. 3. de lib. Arbit cap. 12. haec merito deputatur Animae in Reatum saith Saint Augustine This layes a deserved guilt upon the Soule 't is sinne a dangerous one and not only Peccatum but Paena too as Treading opposite to the knowledge of the true God who is life and without whom there is Death certanely So that now wee cannot but farther conceive a double Blindnesse in respect of things Divine The one affected when through a voluntary Ignorance we know not those things which we cannot not know This is so farre from lessening sin that it aggravates it as being Directè voluntaria and therefore necessarily Sinne And not only so Estius in 2. sent d. 22. sect 11. but a Canopie or Curtaine to sinne with more freedome And this Saint Bernard hath a fling at with his frustra sibi de infirmitate blandiuntur c. Serm. 38. super Cant. infirmity or ignorance is a vaine Plea for those which are contented not to know that they may with greater liberty offend And these the Prophet scourges with a Noluerunt intelligere Psal 34. And the Apostle with a Sponte ignorant 2. Pet. 3. and Iob too with a Nolumus scientiam Depart from us for wee desire not the knwledge of thy Law Iob 21.14 Such conditions are so farre below man that they are altogether Brutish and as brutish taunted at by the Psalmist Nolite estote sicut Equus Mulus Bee not like the Horse and Mule which have no understanding Psal 32.9 The other not affected when through an Involuntarie Ignorance wee know not those things which are without or beyond our knowledge And this Ignoranee is more pardonable That of Saint Augustine standing in force here Non tibi deputabitur ad culpam D. Aug. lib. de nat grat quod invitus ignoras That shall never be imputed unto thee for sinne which either thy Infirmities tell thee that thou canst not or thy will if not averse that thou doest not know Now put the case that our Ephesian had still persisted in his Olim tenebrae that his Darkenesse without an Apostolicall illumination had overshadowed him unto death that neither Saint Paul nor any Proselite of his had acquainted him with the living God not preach'd unto him Christ Jesus nor his Gospell had not this Ignorance beene invincible and consequently no sin No sin in respect of any law positive but of the law naturall For betweene a law naturall and a law positive there is this difference that the law naturall obligeth every man as farre forth as he partakes of the use of reason and Quatenus so without any farther obligation But a positive law whither it be divine or humane Est in 2 Sent. Dist 22. §. 9. doth not binde Nisi positivè promulgatum except it be positively proclaim'd for it hath not the essence and full vigour of law without promulgation Whence it is manifest that the Ignorance of the law naturall is allwaies a sinne whither it have the accesse of externall instruction or no for the Gentiles which had not the law that is the Law taught had notwithstanding the workes of the law ingraven in their hearts Rom. 2. And if ingraven there V. 15. Ignorance had no plea. But the Ignorance of a law positive though it be divine is not a sinne to those to whom it was not promulgated and taught And therefore that Insidelity by which some beleeve not in Christ to wit to whom Christ hath not beene preach'd who have not heard any thing at all of his Name to them it is no sin which our Saviour himselfe intimates in his Si non venissem loquutus essem If I had not come and spoken unto them they had had no sin Iohn 15.22 What no sinne no not of Infidelity And therefore Saint Augustine expounding that place and speaking of those to whom the preaching of the Gospell had not sounded plainly excuseth them from sinne from that particular sinne of unbeliefe in Christ but withall thrusts them headlong into Hell for other sinnes committed against the law of nature in his 89. Tract upon Iohn and more at large in his 3. booke against the 2. Pelagian Epistles 3. Chapter And here by the way Some without pitty censure I cannot the unhappy condition of those unhappy as they would have them for the present though in their owne condition admiredly happy heretofore which were sometimes such Lights unto the world and their incomparable workes still shining to posterity yet the Law of Nature prompting them there was a God that gave them Light and the world too and they not glorifying that God Romans 1.21 they became thereby inexcusable and are now under the chaines of everlasting darkenesse Aristotle the Rationall and Socrates the wise and Cato the censorious and Aristides the Iust and Seneca the morall and Plato the divine with all their rich Precepts and Principles both of Nature and Morality they severely I say not uncharitably doome to eternall flames where they now burne And yet in this heate of Justice they sprinkle them with this Mercy that for their naturall and morall Excellencies they shall burne the lesse even civill vertues prevailing so farre without true Religion Vt hac additâ as Saint Augustine tells Marcellinus of the Romane Empire If they had had this they had been Citizens Alterius Civitatis Denisons of the new Ierusalem so farre from burning below that they had shin'd as Starres in the Firmament for evermore But as they were they past not Absque mercede They doing something saith S. Ierome not onely Sapienter but also Sanctè God being therefore bountifull unto them in this life prosperitate vitae In Epist ad Gal. cap. 10. and mercifull in that to come levitate paenae And indeed it stands with the strict rules of Justice that small offences should lesse suffer and so minus punietur Fabricius quam Catilina Sanctus Hieron in E zech cap. 29. saith the Father Fabricius shall be lesse punished then Catiline But he will have him punish'd not because he was good but because the other was more evill For Good we cannot call him then he had beene Crown'd but he was lesse impious and therefore punishable the lesse lesse impious How non veras virtutes habendo sed a veris virtutibus non plurimum deviande not that the vertues he had were true indeed but that they digress'd not much from those which others had that were reputed true so Saint Augustine againe in his 4. booke against Julian 3.