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
then it hath another act which is to Reason and Discourse and that is properly of Conclusions to be deduced from those principles So what principles are in respect of conclusions to the Understanding the same the end is in respect of the means to the will And therefore as the understanding doth necessarily erre when it doth not discourse suitably to the first principles So the will which is the appetitive part of a man must necessarily sinne when it doth not chuse means with a due order to the end Now God being the chief end of all our actions how impossible is it for the will corrupted as it is to will riches health learning or any creature in reference to God as the end Lastly If liberty consist as Gibieuf would have it in an amplitude of spirit and independency upon the creature so that it is above every created object with an eminent magnanimity of spirit adhering to God alone and resting in him as the chiefest good then it is plain also That by nature the will of man is utterly impotent to this thing for the love of the creature is so predominant that we live and doe all things in reference to that So that whereas grace maketh us to doe all things of God and through God and to God Now the creature doth so reigne in our hearts that we move only in all the workings of our soul to it Aristotle observeth That some are slaves by nature and such have no reason of their owne to guide them that doe Sentire rationem magìs quà m habere Feele Reason rather then make use of it And if we speak in a spiritual sense we are all thus borne slaves and vassals not being able to put forth the actings of true and right reason but do follow the lusts of our own soul and are taken captive by the Devil at his will Thus we have at large discovered the bonds and chaines of sinne our wils are fastened in Oh that in the reading of this God would breathe into the souls of such wretched sinners strong desires and ardent groans to be redeemed from this thraldome Shall the ungodly say Psal 2. concerning Christ Let us break his bonds when yet they are bonds of love which are for our eternal happiness And wilt not thou rather cry out concerning these bonds and these yokes which are for thy eternal damnation Let us break them and rend them asunder Doth not the senslesnesse and stupidity of men while they hear these things too sadly evidence the state of thraldom we are in to sinne CHAP. V. Of the Pollution of the Affections SECT I. This Text opened COL 3. 2. Set your Affections upon things above not on things on the earth THe exceeding great pollution of the Will by original sinne being largely discovered both in the acts of it as also in its state We now proceed to the Affections which are seated in the sensitive appetite of a man For as sense is a kind of imperfect understanding so the affections are a kind of an imperfect will and the defilement of these is so palpably and experimentally discerned that Heathens have complained of God the Author of Nature for implanting such things in us which are for the most part the cause of all our ruine and calamity Now it is not my intent to declare the depravation of every affection in a man for that would make the work to swell too big but I shall speak in the general of them instancing in particulars as occasion offereth The Scripture doth not speak of the several parts of the soul according to that Philosophical division as is generally received and therefore that which Philosophers call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 affections or passions as distinguished from the understanding and will that is most commonly called the heart and the soul Thus love fear hope and anger are attributed to the heart of a man It is true the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used in the New Testament three times where the word Affection is not barely intended but an horrible depravation of it even to unnatural uncleanness as Rom. 1. 26. God gave them up to vile affections and how unnatural they were is immediately subjoyned Col. 3. 5. The Apostle there reckoning up several sinnes to be mortified fornication uncleanness addeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some understand the same kind of uncleanness the Apostle mentioneth to the Romans So doing or that mutum percatum a sinne that they say Socrates was guilty of though so admired for his wisdome and morality Hence those that have given themselves up to this dreadfull pollution are called Pathici from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we render it inordinate affection in the general and therefore some do understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here for those sinnes which arise from the irascible appetite and so take the word though generally spoken in an ill sense Even as the Stoicks held all passions and affections to be sinne and the affections which are placed in the concupiscible appetite the Apostle meaneth say they by the next expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 evil concupiscence If this be so as Grotius expounds it then we have here the Apostle speaking of affections according to philosophical notions but I will not determine this to be the meaning The last place is 1 Thess 4. 5. where the Apostle shewing God hath called us to holinesse he addeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not in the lust or affection of concupiscence Here it seemeth to be taken strictly for those lustfull affections which flow from the sinfull concupiscence in a man But if the Scripture doth use the word differently to Philosophers to be sure the thing it self is acknowledged as appeareth by my Text where we have a Command directing of us about the Object we are to place them upon and that is set down First Affirmatively and then Negatively The Directive Duty is in that expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Set not your affections we render it in the margin or mind so that the Greek word doth signifie the acts of the mind but not them onely it comprehendeth also the affectionate part of a man It includeth the mind and affections also because commonly the intense actings of the mind excite and stirre up proportionably the intense actions of the affections Therefore it 's sometimes translated savouring Matth. 16. 23. So Rom. 8. the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not onely comprehend the mind but chiefly the affectionate workings of the flesh against the Spirit of God We shall treat of it as relating to the affections therefore we have the Object prescribed them they are to be upon things above heavenly things This implieth naturally they are placed other where then they should be upon earthly and sading objects The Serpents seed and so we are all by nature cannot but lick up the dust of the earth and live upon that So that there is for more emphasis added the Negative also
even as Rebeckah when her twinnes did strive in the womb this was an extraordinary prognostick caused in a supernatural way by God And although Calvin on the place saith That it is natural to the fruit of the womb to leap or move when the mother is moved with joy yet he acknowledgeth that Luke doth here note some extraordinary thing and that this leaping was by the secret motion of the Spirit of God which doth detect the horrible impudence and slander of Maldonate who is not ashamed to say That Calvin doth own nothing besides what is natural in this for which in derision he calleth him pius autor we see by this how little we may trust such men We must then conclude even the babe at that time was affected with joy upon the Virgin Mary's coming to his mother and this supposeth that the child also was filled with the Holy Ghost yea v. 15. it is expresly said of John That he should be filled with the holy Ghost from the womb But if this be granted then it is greatly controverted Whether the babe did this with sense and knowledge that Christ was present or whether it was by the motion of the Spirit of God in the child that knowing nothing at all There are probable arguments on both sides The Lutherans they do greedily imbrace that opinion that maketh the child while in the womb to have actual faith and knowledge of Christ and from thence they do peremptorily conclude That Infants have actual sinnes and that they may have actual faith and other graces but this is against experience and if we do grant that John had such actual knowledge of Christ yet this was extraordinary and miraculous and must no more be attributed to all children then speaking to all Asses because Balaam's once did Many Authors conclude that John did rejoyce with some sense and apprehension and for this reason he is said to be filled with the Holy Ghost and joy must arise from some knowledge and apprehension neither say they will it follow from hence that he did not loose this actual knowledge afterwards but had it alwayes while an Infant for we see the Prophets though men grown up yet had not the spirit of prophecy at all times But come we to our business Let it be granted that John had actual faith that he was filled with the Holy Ghost that doth not hinder but that by nature he was a child of wrath and full of sinne for this grace is bestowed upon him when by nature sinfull and doth no more argue he had no sinne in him before then persons grown up have not when the Holy Ghost was poured on them And although it be said He was filled with the Holy Ghost that doth not imply that all sinne was wholly taken out of him no more then the Apostles and all others were quite purged from sinne when they are said to be filled with the Holy Ghost Besides the Scripture as Calvin considereth well doth not say John was filled with the Holy Ghost in the womb but from his mothers womb which he thus expounds That John the Baptist did betimes even from his Infancy manifest what an excellent Prophet he was like to be because the Spirit of God did even then give many Demonstrations thereof and thus though not so extraordinarily God sometimes doth give to some his sanctifying Spirit even from the cradle almost they begin betimes to put forth many excellent signs of that grace which will flourish more in their elder yeares Timothy from a child is said to have the knowledg of the Scriptures from a Child 2 Tim. 3. 15. And some have the fear of God planted so early in their hearts that they cannot know any remarkable time of their conversion yea they cannot remember but that alwayes they had such a tenderness about sinne and love to good things yet we must not think for all this they were not born in sinne we must not say of them as was said of Bonaventure for his hopefullness in his youth In hoc homine non peccavit Adam No these have by nature the same seed of all impiety and their younger yeares would have demonstrated this poison as well as it doth in others but the grace of God doth prevent Oh let such Obadiah's that can say They feared God from the youth admire the goodness of God to them he might have suffered that original sinne in thee to make thee wallow in such mire and filthy lusts as other young persons do Oh take heed of thinking thou hast a better nature then they that thou hast not so much original sinne in thee as others but walk humbly lest God sometime or other leave thee to let thee see what is in thy heart that all the sparkes of original sinne are not put out and then though to thy great grief thou be convinced there is a such a thing in thee SECT III. IT is the peculiar and incommunicable prerogative of Christ alone in respect of his humane nature to be exempted from original sinne as you have heard And therefore it 's an inseparable and inevitable property following every one of mankind As it is said of Justification by Christ Bond and free Jew and Grecian all are out Gal. 3. 28. So there is neither rich or poor Christian or Heathen Noble or ignoble civil or prophane male or female but all are one in original sinne because all are of Adam by natural generation and thereby original sin is propagated to all which Doctrine is to be explicated in more propositions And First Though our natural generation from corrupted Parents be the means by which we all are born polluted and depraved yet this doth not exclude the justice of God and his righteous Decree that from a sinfull fountain shall arise such polluted streams from such a bitter root also bitter fruit but doth necessarily presuppose it So that the just judgement of God in punishing of all mankind for Adam's first transgression must alwayes be acknowledged and we must not separate the natural propagation of sinne from the sentence and Decree of God For if this were the only reason that we became guilty of Adam's sinne because in his lions then all Adam's other sinnes should be made ours as well as that first act of disobedience in eating of the foridden fruit and the sinnes of our immediate parents in whose loines we were should be transmitted to us as well as Adam's yea happily if this were so then the longer original sinne hath been propagated it would still grow more evil and thereby men in the later age of the world become more polluted with original sinne then men in the former age but Cain and Abel who were the immediate off-spring of Adam were as deeply plunged in this native defilement as any are now Therefore some learned men though in this Controversie they do allow the phrase of the Propagation of original sinne because commonly used yet would gladly have
hath made thee a child of such special favour and mercy SECT IX Of the state of Infants that die in their Infancy before they are capable of any Actual Transgressions and that die before Baptisme THe next particular in order to be treated upon is concerning the state of those Infants who die in their Infancy before they are capable of any actual transgression These having only original sinne upon them what may we conclude about their final estate for we will take for granted that the Doctrine of the Lutherans is to be exploded who hold that Infants have actual sinnes and that some do partake of actual grace this is repugnant to reason and experience Now to proceed more orderly in this point we are to take notice of these ensuing particulars First That it is one thing to be a child of wrath by nature and another thing to be reprobated for ever by God never to be admitted into his favour When the Apostle calleth us children of wrath the meaning is not as if there were a final and total rejection from all grace for then the meaning would be that all men are damned which is manifestly contradicted by many places in Scripture Though therefore all Infants are by nature the children of wrath yet all are not reprobated though all deserve to be damned yet all are not actually damned Secondly We are to know that those who hold some Infants dying in their original sinne to be damned do yet acknowledge that it is as Austin calleth it mitissima omnium poena the mildest of all punishments because they have no actual sinnes joyned with their original to encrease the torments of hell It is true we told you original sinne in the nature of it is very great and hainous even so great that none are able to express the loathsomness thereof yet because it hath this diminishing circumstance that it is not voluntary personally in an Infant therefore we may conclude that they have lesser torments in hell then Adult persons For that there are degrees of torments in hell some punished more extreamly then others is acknowledged by all though some learned men question whether there be any degrees of glory in heaven Thirdly As for the Doctrine of the learned about the state of Infants dying in their Infancy there are several opinions Some hold that all Infants dying so whether in the Church or out of the Church whether of believing or unbelieving parents are saved They think this opinion doth most suit with the goodness and mercy of God of this opinion are not only the Heterodox Doctors but even learned Junius in his answer to Puccius Zuinglius also is alledged for this Others they make a distinction of Infants dying in their Infancy For either they die without Baptisme or with Baptisme if without Baptisme then they conclude of their damnation and in this rigid way Austin went and many follow him yea Austin thought that if they died without the Sacrament of the Lords Supper also for at that age it was generally held that both the Sacraments were necessary to salvation and therefore both to be applyed to Infants But then for these Infants who die partakers of Baptisme they concluded undoubtedly of their salvation this being their Doctrine that Baptisme doth wash away original sinne The Papists they all agreeing in this likewise that Baptism is necessary necessitate medii to salvation either really or in voto in desire and because an Infant dying without Baptisme cannot have a desire thereunto Hence they conclude of eternal death as a punishment unto such yet Elisius a Papist in his piorum clypeus c. Quest 10. Art 3. is very bold saying that opinion which many Divines and the Church holdeth concerning the state of Infants dying without Baptisme according to the ordinary law est saâ—â—dura onerosa is very hard and burdensome and not conformable to the precepts of Christ which are sweet and easy and therefore he alledgeth Gerson and Cajetan for this opinion which he is so farre from judging heretical that he calls it pietati conformis but generally the Papists go otherwise But then they differ amongst themselves Some of them as Catharinus place Infants so dying in a terrestrial Paradise where they have a natural though not a supernatural happiness Opus de statu parv Others make their condition more miserable viz. that they have the privative part of eternal death though not the positive they have the poena damni the punishment of loss though not of sense they are shut out from enjoying God but yet they say this will not work any sorrow in them because they know that they were not in a capacity for enjoying the face of God as say they a Country Peasant is not grieved because he is not a King because he never was in any probability for such a dignity But as a Popish Writer Flor. Conrius Archip. Thuani observeth confuting his own party and rigidly following Austin in a Tractate joyned to Jansenius his Works These Infants saith he knowing that they are shut from the face of God must needs be exceedingly grieved because in Adam they had a capacity to enjoy God even as a poor man may mourn that he is not a King when his ancestors had a right to it but sinfully lost it and this is the case of all Infants so that it is a meer figment that many Papists have to make an half hell and a semi-damnation as if we might be deprived of Gods favour and not be positively damned It is true here also the Papists are divided Bellarmine maketh five divers opinions concerning the state of dying Infants and he joyneth with those that hold they have inward sorrow in that eternal death but yet not so great as to be called hell fire or the worm of conscience For this end they write and speak so much of a limbus Infantum a border or fringe as it were in hell where Infants are all disposed being without the Vision of God yet not tormented with boddy pain but there is no Scripture for such a place and therefore we leave this limbus to these limbatis pontificiis who love to enlarge their limbos and simbrias as one saith Lastly There are others and they distinguish of Infants dying either they are such as are within the Covenant and are of believing parents and of such they conclude their salvation for they look upon their federation as an external sign of their election but then for all such as die without the Covenant the children of Pagans they say that by the Scripture they cannot conclude of any hope of salvation for them Thus you see into how many divers wayes they go who handle this Question I might adde another opinion mentioned by Vorstius Anti Bellar. in Quâ—rt Tom. Censur ad Thes Duodes of some who affirm Infants do wholly perish as beasts but saith he these are not to be accounted inter Evangelicos amongst the Evangelical Churches
pollution of all the whole man So that whereas sometimes the word Old is used absolutely as the old Serpent there is no new Serpent which is the Devil So here it s used comparatively and called Old in respect of the New man the work of grace succeeding therein SECT II. HAving therefore hitherto shewed the Quod sit of original sinne That there is such a thing maugre all adversaries and that by the mouth of two witnesses out of the New Testament and two out of the Old not but that there are many more only I shall God willing treat on them upon some different notions I now come to inform you of the Quid sit What it is for here is much opposition likewise And because in knowing what a thing is there is the Quid nominis and Quid rei what the name is and what the thing is I shall first beginne with what the Name is for that way Socrates did use to commend from the name to go to the nature of a thing And whereas this native-pollution hath Scripture names Ecclesiastical used by the Fathers and Scholastical used by the Schoolmen yea the Rabbins say it hath seven names in the Old Testament I shall only pitch on the Bible names and that not universally but upon some eminent and chief ones which it hath in the Scripture from which alone we shall be best able to discern the nature of it The first whereof is here in the Text wherein it is called the Old man From whence observe That the natural or birth-pollution we are barn in is called by the Scripture The Old man that is in us Several names indeed the Scripture giveth it and some are applied to it by Divines of which yet some question may be made as when Christ is said to be the Lamb that takes away the sinne of the world John 1. 29. By that they say is meant original sinne for that is not so much my sinne or thy sinne as the sinne of the world and therefore he speaketh in the singular number The sinne not the sins of the world but this is not so probable for Christ came into the world to take away not only original sinne as some Papists have thought but actual also Others apply that of Heb. 10. to it The sinne that doth so easily beset us And indeed that is a very proper word to explain original sinne but whether the Apostles scope be so immediately to point at that may be further enquired into I shall therefore take only some few clear and undoubted Titles that the Scripture giveth to it of which this in the Text is a notable one The old man And before we inform you how comprehensive this is let us remove a twofold mistake or erroneous apprehension that may be about it SECT III. Two Mistakes removed THe first is that of Flaccius Illyricus who because the Scripture useth such concrete and substantive terms about original sinne calling it a man a body therefore he erred in a contrary extremity to the Pelagians and some Pontificians making original sinne not to be an accident but the essence and substance of the soul but of this more when we come to search out the nature of it only you must know that original sinne is not the substance of a man but an universal disease adhering to it as the Leprosie in a Leper it 's not his body it 's not his corpulent essence the body is one thing the Leprosie is another thing and thus in man his soul and body are one thing his original corruption is another thing Though as in an universal Leprosie you cannot touch one part of the body but it is infected so neither can we name one part of the soul but it is polluted we must therefore distinguish between nature and sinne to avoid Flaccianism yet we must not separate or divide one from the other to avoid Pelagianism but of this more in its time Secondly We must not conceive that it 's called the Old man because of any impotency or weakness as if it were not able to put forth into vigorous acts and lively lustings of sinne as old men have all their natural strength and vigour decaying No though it be called the Old man in us yet it 's constantly working drawing aside captivating and enflaming of us yea making warre daily against any thing of God within us These things premised let us consider why the Scripture giveth it such a name for it might seem a very harsh exposition to call that which is an accident or a quality in a man by the name of an Old man SECT IV. Why Original Sinne is called Man THerefore let us see the reason why it 's called Man and then the Old man original sinne may be called a Man First Because that so farre as we are men quanti sumus we are all over polluted So that the old man is the whole man polluted in this sinne before he be regenerated Insomuch that this phrase may sadly and deeply humble us that the Scripture gives the name of man to sinne as if that were all we are Hence as you have heard to walk as a man to speak as a man is to do a thing sinfully as farre as thy humanity reacheth so farre thy pollution reacheth So that the very calling of thee a man may greatly debase thee for though thou art a rich man a great man yet this Old man doth infect thee Secondly In that original sinne is called a Man there is implied the Subject of it to be every man as well as every part of man Totus homo and totum hominis yea ad omnis homo not one exempted that is by natural propagation So that every little Infant hath this Man in it Every one that needeth a Christ that wanteth a Saviour hath this Old man abiding in him Thirdly It 's called Man Because of the heap or collection of all sinne that is in it For as a man is not one part of the body the finger the eye or the hand but the whole Compages and Fabrick of all the parts united together Thus original sinne is not one particular sinne but the mass or spawn of all It 's not a stream but the ocean and therefore this sheweth the horridness also of it that it is the womb wherein all sinne is conceived Let a man be totally cleansed from this as the glorified Saints in Heaven are and then no actual sin can come from him Lastly It 's called a Man Because of the intimate and tenacious adhesion of it to the whole man there being no way to sever our Natures and that while we abide in these mortal bodies So that it supposeth sinne to be in us as fire in the iron when it is red hot though there is some dissimilitude also that we cannot see the colour and substance of the iron for the fire nothing appeareth but fire Iron though of it self black and cold yet by the fire in
whereas the reason they give why by flesh cannot be meant wholly sinfull Because say they then in the opposition by Spirit would be meant wholly spirituall whereas the Orthodox do acknowledge a conflict with the Spirit and the flesh abiding in every regenerate man But to this the Answer is That the abstract is put for the concrete spirit for spiritual so that the Subject in the Proposition Born of the Spirit Spirit is the holy Spirit of God and the Predicate is made spirit Spirit is to be understood of that spiritual and heavenly nature wrought in us by him And although he who is made thus spiritual is not purely and absolutely so yet the Spirit will in time subdue and wholly conquer the flesh in which sense Gal. 5. They that are Christs are said to have crucified the flesh with the lusts thereof Although there be the reliques and remainders of it still in the most holy The Text then being thus vindicated the Observation is That all men born in a natural way are not only without the Image of God but thereby also are positively polluted and made all over flesh and sinfull SECT II. Of the use of the word Flesh in Scripture And why Original Corruption is called by that name TO discover this in the first place It is good to take notice of the use of the word Flesh in Scripture for the mis-understanding or mis-applying of it hath brought in a world of mischief The Papists by Flesh I mean some of them understanding only the bruitish and sensitive part as if sinne were onely resident there and the rational part were free and pure but this is a very great errour For besides the general use of the word Flesh in the Scripture there is two more pertinent to our purpose 1. Flesh is sometimes taken for that which is weak and frail Isa 31. Their horses are flesh and not spirit Psal 78. He remembred they were but flesh And 2. It is often taken for sinfulness and corruption Thus Gal. 5. The works of the flesh are opposite to the works of the Spirit and men who are in the Flesh Rom. 8. cannot please God Gal. 3. Who having begun in the Spirit will ye end in the flesh To be in the flesh and in the Spirit are made two opposite beings by the Apostle Insomuch that we may make it a sure Rule That wheresoever flesh is opposed to the Spirit of God or its spiritual operations that then flesh is used for that which is evil and sinfull and thus it is in the Text. The true notion therefore of the word Flesh being retained Let us consider Why original sinne is thus called Flesh And First It is called so Because of its opposition to what is spiritual Whatsoever the Spirit of God revealeth to be believed or commands to be obeyed it is wholly contradicted by man while abiding in the flesh Thus the Apostle Rom. 8. The wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God You see here is not only a meer privation of what is spiritual but a positive enmity and frowardness against God and therefore we do not speak enough to describe the fulness of our natural evil when we say that we came naked into the world without the Image of God and his Spirit for original sinne hath a contrariety in it against God it puts a man upon hatred of whatsoever is holy therefore the Apostle addeth Rom. 8. 5. It is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be Oh then that God would make our hearts more of flesh in the Prophet Ezekiels sense viz. tender and melting under considerations of how much flesh is in both mind and heart in the Apostles sense Would thy self-righteousness thy self-love thy self-fulness continue any longer if thou didst thus judge and believe concerning thy self Oh what a noisom carkass what a loathsom monster wouldst thou be in thy own eyes if thou didst consider the positive frowardness and opposition which is in thee to what is holy And therefore even in the regenerate Gal. 5. 17. The Flesh is said to lust against the spirit Search then into thy heart and say From whence doth arise these gainsayings and oppositions which are in me to what is holy Why should not heavenly and spiritual things be as welcome pleasing and delightfull to me as sinfull and wordly objects Is not all this because thou art Flesh Certainly there is a thousand times more reason for thee to imbrace spiritual objects than earthly They have more real excellent and enduring good in them then all the pleasures of sinne if put together but it is because thou art flesh that thy heart is naturally so full of enmity against whatsoever is spiritual And although this natural enmity be encreased in thee by voluntary wickedness yet that which cleaveth to thee as soon as thou hast a being is enough to make thee refuse the word of God the Ministry inviting of thee and to slight every Sermon thou hearest or every affliction God layeth upon thee for thy sinne mourn then under this enmity this Law of sinne that rebelleth against the Spirit of God This may sensibly and evidently teach thee that thy natural corruption is more than a meer want of the Image of God Secondly In that original corruption is called flesh is manifested That even the whole intellectual and sublimer parts of a man are become sinfull We see our Saviour saith That which is born of flesh is flesh nothing is excepted so that whereas some would have it the rational part The mind and understanding not to be comprehended under this flesh we say the contrary according to Scripture That in the soul and faculties thereof there is originally sinne chiefly seated There is the spring and fountain from whence issue all the streams of sinne into the lower parts of the soul Thus when the Apostle reckons up the works of the flesh Gal. 5. 19 20. There are Idolatry and Heresies numbered with the rest which must needs be sins of the mind How often doth the Scripture speak of darkness ignorance folly and blindness in the minds of all men by nature Col. 2. 18. There it 's called a fleshly mind and certainly if the mind must be renewed as the Scripture speaks Rom. 12. 2. Col. 3. Eph. 4. 23. it necessarily followeth that it is fleshly and sinfull Behold then what a fountain of evil and misery springs out from us in this respect which may overwhelm us For though the inferior parts of the soul had been throughly infected with this Leprosie yet if the superiour and chief parts had not been contaminated there would have been hopes that those Sun-beams would have dispelled such misty clouds but seeing that the eye is become dark How great is our darkness and salt it self having lost its seasoning all must become loathsom and unprofitable Not only thy eyes thy ears not only thy affections and passions of love fear anger c. which are the
it compell us to think of it as more than a mâ—er bare simple privation for in the Text it is called Flesh in other places Lust the Old man the Body of sinne which emphatical expressions are for this end to make us conceive of the deep and most real pollution it bringeth upon us Insomuch that we are not to extenuate and diminish the nature of it but as the scope of the Scripture is to aggravate it under the most substantial and powerfull names that are so we also are accordingly to judge of it It is true Illyricus out of a vehement opposition to Papists and Synergists did wring the Scripture till bloud came out of it in stead of milk for he would understand these places mentioned about original sinne almost literally as if sinne were our very substance and essence whereas if he had gone no further then to say that the Scripture by these names doth intend not onely the meer privation of good by this original pollution but also a positive pronenese and a continual activity unto all evil than he had hit the mark The Scripture Names then are only considerable for the holy Ghost doth not use them in vain but thereby would startle and amaze us that we may consider that we are without and what evil doth abide in us Secondly This is proved from Scripture-affirmation about the state of all men It doth not onely describe man privatively that he is without God without Christ but also pesitively that he is an enemy to God and cannot be subject to him Rom. 3 10 11. to the 18. verse The holy Apostle applying several passages out of the old Scripture to all men by nature instanceth both in privatives and positives also Privatives There is none that understandeth there is none that seeketh God there is none that doth good there is no fear of God before their eyes But is this all No he addeth Their throat is an open Sepulchre the poison of Aspes is under their lips their feet are swift to shed bloud c. Here you see the nature of every man is abominable loathsome and ready to commit the foulest sinnes if he be not stopt yea the Scripture is more oftener expressing this Positive part of original sinne then the Privative Genes 5. Genes 8. 21. The imagination of a mans heart is said to be onely evil and that from his youth Eliphaz also in Job 15. saith How abominable is man who drinketh down iniquity like water Thus you see the Scripture represents us in a farre more loathsome vile and poisonous nature than we are apt to believe concerning our selves When Austine maintained this Doctrine Pelagius would say This was to accuse mans nature Lib. 1. de Naturâ Gratiâ But this is indeed the onely way to set up the grace of Christ our Physician for the whole need not a Physicias Neither saith Austin are we so to exalt God a Creator as to make a Saviour wholly superfluous It is true therefore which the same Author saith That when we have to do with such who deny the necessity of grace by Christ making free will of it self sufficient to what is holy and all because they deny any such thing as original sinne we are not so much saith he to deal in Disputations with them as prayers for them that their eyes might be opened to know themselves and that the stony heart may be taken from them for if once they had the sense and feeling of this they would quickly confesse both original sinne and Christs grace Thirdly Original sinne is positive Because the Scripture attributes positive and efficatious actions to it which meer and bare privations are not capable of The seventh Chapter of the Romans speaketh fully to this what expressions and that in allusion to military affairs doth the Apostle use concerning this sinne inhabiting in him For vers 23. he complaineth of this Law of sinne that it doth warre against him and bring him into captivity which phrases denote That this original sinne is not a sluggish idle privation but withall it connoteth an impetuous repugnancy to any thing that is holy This also the Apostle confirmeth Gal. 5. 17. where the flesh is said to lust against the Spirit shall we think then that the holy Ghost speaketh of this activity and working of sinne in us that we should apprehend no more than the absence of Gods Image within us Let us then aggravate the hainnousnesse of it as we see the Scripture doth and deeply humble our selves under it Shall it be a small thing to have such an impetuous active principle in us against what is holy That which we should imbrace and close with as the most excellent that we flie from and are most averse to as if it were the greatest evil and would be to our utter undoing Fourthly If vicious habits that are acquired by customary practice of evil are not meer and simple privations but do also include in them a propensity to evil then it followeth that original sinne likewise is not a meer privation For we are to conceive of original sinne as an innate and imbred habit as the other are acquired Now it 's plain That all vicious moral habits they are not a meer negation or absence of such virtues but doâ— also incline and dispose the subject to vicious actions easily and with delight So that we must needs attribute as much Postivenesse if not more to original sinne then to vicious acquired habits And the truth is This is a closer Leprosie infecting of us then such habits for this we have as soon as we are born this is twisted within our bowels this can never be wholly shaken off whereas accustomed sinnes they are perfectly overcome by the work of Regeneration For this is the difference between acquired habits of sinne and original corruption In Regeneration seeing the Image of God is put into us which is the substance of all holy habits the contrary habits are presently excluded and the sinnes the godly afterwords commit are not from their former habits of sinne but from the reliques of original corruption whatsoever the Remonstrants say to the contrary But Regeneration doth not totally exclude original sinne onely diminisheth the strength of it So that this original corruption will abide in some measure in us even while we carry this mortal body about with us And if the Prophet made it such an impossible thing for men habituated in sinne to be converted as when he saith If a Leopard can change his skinne then may you learne to doe well who are accustomed to doe evil Jerem. 13. 23. What then shall he said of us who are borne in evil Customary sinnes are but the Leopards skinne original sinne is like the Leopards nature Lastly This positive inclination doth necessarily follow from the privation of this Image of God if the due summetry and excellent Harmony which was at first in the soul be taken away then all the faculties and
deluded in all things and takest counterfeit for that which is true and genuine Under this head we may comprehend all that craft and subtilty in men as in the Jesuites to maintain Idolatry or Heresie For the Devil as at first so still he delights to use Serpents because they are more crafty then others The craft also in man naturally to do mischief for which they are compared in Scripture to Foxes doth declare how original sinne hath all over infected the mind Eighthly The great pollution of original sinne upon our minds is seen In the pronenesse to vain idle sinfull and â—oving thoughts so that these do discover an unclean fountain of the heart more then any thing Whence do these sparks arise but from that furnace of sinne within thee The Air is not fuller of Flies Aegypt was not fuller of Frogs then every mans heart is naturally of idle vain foolish and impertinent thoughts Thoughts they are the immediate product and issue of original sinne The first born they are streams that come immediately from the fountain Now certainly if a man had by nature an holy sanctified mind he would also have holy and sanctified thoughts Think you that Adam in integrity or the good Angels are troubled with thoughts as we are For all the while a man is natural he never had a good thought in him he might have a thought of good but not a good thought For as every Cogitatio mali is not Cogitatio malâ We may think of evil to abhorre and detest and this thought of evil is good So in a natural man though he may have a thought about good yet it is not in a good manner and therefore evil though the object matter be good What then will prostrate thee and make thee lie grovelling upon the ground loathing thy self if this do not Amongst the millions and millions of thoughts which thou hast there is not one but it is either vain proud idle or impertinent yea our thoughts are not in our own power no more then the birds that flie in the air but they arise antecedently to our own will and deliberation And certainly if vain thoughts be such a burden to a regenerate man if they do captivate and inthrall him which made one cry out Libenter Domine bonus esse vellem sed cogitationes meae non patiuntur I would gladly be good but my thoughts will not suffer me No wonder if to the natural man who is under the power of original sinne that sinfull thoughts hurry him away without any resistance Ninthly Original pollution doth greatly defile the mind of a man in the mutability and instability of it Insomuch that the judgement of every natural man destitute of true light and faith which doth onely consolidate the soul is like a reed shaken with every wind he is mutable and various ready every day or every year to have a new Faith and a new Religion This maketh the Apostle inform us That one end of the Ministry Ephes 4. 14. is That we be not carried away with every wind of Doctrine Such empty straws and feathers are we that any new opinion doth presently seduce us and therefore the Scripture doth press a sound mind and an heart established with grace which is the special preservative against such instability Aquinas maketh this the reason of the good Angels confirmation in grace and that they cannot now sinne because such is the perfection and immutability of their natures that what their understanding doth once adhere unto they cannot change Indeed it is thus with God that his knowledge is unchangeable but there is no reason to attribute this to Angels and therefore their confirmation in good is not so much to be attributed to any intrinsecal cause in themselves as to the grace of God establishing them But how farre short was man newly created of such immutability How much more then man fallen From this pollution it is that we have so many apostates that there are Seekers that there are so many Neutrals that there are so many who think any in any Religion may be saved It is true there may be a just cause of changing our minds in Religion as when educated in Popery or when we have received any heretical opinions but I speak here of that instability which is naturally in the mind of a man that though he be in the truth yet there is a proneness to desert it and to discover much lenity in the matters of Religion The Remonstrants go too farre this way commending this sinfulnesse under the name of modesty and humility and therefore though in Fundamentals they will grant we may say This our faith is This we doe believe yet in other points which though not fundamentals yet the errors about them may greatly derogate from the glory of Christ and his grace as also much prejudice the consolations of those who truly fear God as their opinions do They commend those expressions Ita nobis videtur and Salvo meliorum judicio It is our sententia not our fides Now if this were said only in some points disputed amongst the Orthodox that are at a great distance from Fundamentals it might be received but they extend this further if not to the foundation-stones yet to those that immediately joyn to them and so do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 remove such things that will in time endanger the whole structure of Christianity and so from Remonstrantisme proceed to Socinianisme which is adificari and ruinam as Tertullian expresseth it De praesc Such an edification many unsetled spirits meet with Tenthly Original sinne doth pollute the mind of a man with pride and vain-glory so that he is easily puffed up with his own conceits and altogether ignorant of his ignorance The Apostle Col. 2. 18. saith of some Vainly puffed up with a fleshly mind This Tumor this Tympany in the mind hath been the cause of most heresies in the Church The Gnosticks boasted in their knowledge and had their name from it The Eunomians did vainly and blasphemously brag That they knew God as well as he knew himself And some in these later dayes have not been afraid to compare themselves above the Apostles for gifts and illuminations So that whereas every one should with wise Augur say humbly I have not the understanding of a man I am more bruitish then any man Or with Austin when one admiring his learning used this expression Nihil te latet he answered again Nihil tristius legi because he knew the falshood of it because of his ignorance even in innumerable places of Scripture They equalize themselves to Angels yea to God himself This pride this self-conceit is a worm bred in the rose and the more parts men have the more doth this disease increase Matthew Paris relateth of a great Scholar much admired for his learning who in his Lectures once in the Schools proving the Divine Nature and also Incarnation of Christ with mighty applause did
remember then they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hence they say that sometimes a man thinketh he remembreth when he doth not yea he cannot tell whether he remembreth such a thing or no because say they the Phantasma is thus absolutely presented and not as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Even as a man may look upon a picture either absolutely as having such lineaments and colour or relatively as an Image whereby we come to remember such an one But these Philosophical notions about Phantasmata and Species are so obscure that it is better with Austin to acknowledge our ignorance of this noble and admirable power in the soul whereby it doth remember things whatsoever it be though given us as an admirable and usefull gift yet now it is grosly polluted and is the conserver of all evil and vanity SECT VII Demonstrations of the Pollution of the Memory THat the memory is thus polluted will appear 1. By several discoveries thereof And 2. By the particulars wherein In the former way herein we have a full demonstration of the depraved nature of our memory In that we need the Spirit of God to sanctifie and help it So that one work or office of the Spirit of God is to be a remembrancer unto us about holy things It 's the gift of Gods Spirit to give thee a good memory to make thee able to remember holy things This is clearly and unquestionably affirmed John 14. 26. The comforter which is the holy Ghost I will send in my name and he will teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you Here we see the Spirit of God hath a twofold office or work to do 1. To teach us holy things We are blind and unbelieving not knowing spiritual objects till Gods Spirit doth teach us But this is not all suppose we be taught and instructed is all done then Do we need the Spirit of God no more Yea. Therefore 2. The Spirit of God putteth it self forth in a further work which is to bring the things thus taught to our remembrance As then the mind in respect of understanding and knowing cannot do any thing about what is spiritual without the Spirit of God so neither can the mind about remembring Certainly if the memory of it self could do these things the Spirit of God would be in vain If the Moon and Starres could give so much light as to make a day the Sun would be in vain Hence the children of God do evidently find and feel the work of Gods Spirit upon their memories as well as their understandings for in their temptations how ready to be overwhelmed how ready to be swallowed up with such thoughts and then the Spirit of God doth seasonably re-mind the soul of such Promises of such comfortable Arguments So also upon the temptation to any sinne the Spirit of God doth interpose and prevent it by making them to remember such a threatning such a place of Scripture and this stoppeth them from the evil they were ready to do for they are the Disciples themselves though sanctified and made so eminent to whom this Spirit of remembrancing is promised as usefull and necessary If then the Spirits presence and assistance be thus necessary even to a regenerate mans memory this argueth the natural defilement and impotency of it to any good thing for where nature is able there the Spirit of God is not necessarily required A second Discovery of the pollution of the memory may be from the end of the Scripture why God would have it written so as to be a perpetual monument to his Church Among other ends this is one to be a memorial to us to put us in continual mind of the duties required of us Thus the Apostle Peter indeavoureth to make believers alwaies remembring of the Gospel by those Epistles he did write to them It is true the Orthodox do justly refuse that of Bellarmine who will make the Scripture to be onely utile communitorium as if that were the chief end why the Scriptures were written viz. to serve for our memory only and not to be a rule of our faith for he himself doth acknowledge it to be a partial rule But the principal and chief end why the Scriptures are delivered to the Church is to be a Canon and Rule to it so that the Church must not believe worship or live otherwise then the Scripture commands This is not a partial but a total Rule neither may any thing be added to it or detracted from it But yet we grant also That the Scripture may have other secondary and subservient ends whereof this is not the meanest to be usefull to our memory And certainly one great cause of so much evil committed by thee is forgetfulnesse of the Scripture The Apostle James Chap. 1. 25. doth notably instance to this purpose for he compareth a forgetfull hearer of the Word to one that looketh in the glasse and going away straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was If therefore we did abide and continue looking in this glasse take notice what we are by the direction of the Word how quickly would we reform He that doth make a practical use of remembring the Scripture so as to regulate and order his life accordingly can never miscarry To have the word of God in thy memory against such and such a temptation would prevent all the evil thou fallest into John 15. 20. when our Saviour would encourage his Disciples against the hatred of the world he saith Remember the Word that I said unto you the servant is not greater then his master Remember this truth and that will make thee suffer more willingly So John 16 4. These things have I told you that when the time shall come ye may remember that I told you of them To remember Scripture in the season to have the Word of God in thy mind when a temptation like Joseph's Mistress is soliciting of thee this will cause that no deadly thing shall hurt thee for the word of God is a two edged sword it 's an hammer it 's fire it 's the sword of the Spirit by it both the Devil and all temptations are subdued Christ overcame the Devil by Scripture Now if that be not in thy memory then it cannot be any waies serviceable to thee in the time of need Exercise your memories therefore in the Scripture and that not for memories sake much lesse for ostentation to shew what a good memory you have above others but for a practical and holy use Treasure up such a place against thy drunkennesse thy whoredoms Treasure up such a place against pride earthlinesse and covetous desires What a precious and excellent memory is that which is like a mine of gold or an Apothecaries shop that can from the Scripture presently fetch what Antidotes against sinne or cordials to revive that he pleaseth And truly our memory should be filled up only with Scripture considerations
God implying That the Sunne and the night can no more stand together then the remembring of God and carnal confidence can the ambitious man the voluptuous man remembring God would find it to be like thunder and lightning upon the soul This would immediately stop him in his waies of iniquities Thus 2 Sam. 14 11. that suborned woman of Tekoah in her disguised Parable to David complaining of some that would rise up against her to destroy her sonne she desireth the King to stop the revengers wrath by this Argument Let the King remember the Lord thy God Thus when thou art sollicited inticed to any evil way Remember thou God the infinite God the just God the omniscient God the dreadfull and terrible God in all his wayes of anger Nehemiah also maketh use of this Argument to quicken up the Jews against sinfull fear and cowardise in Gods work Nehem. 4. 14. 1 said to the Nobles and Rulers of the people be ye not afraid of them but remember the Lord which is great and terrible This God complaineth of Isa 57. 11. Thou hast not remembred me nor laid it to thy heart and therefore were they so propense to all their abominations These Texts may suffice to inform that our memories ought constantly to be fixed upon God and no sooner do we let him out of our mind but immediately some sinne or other is committed But how unspeakably is the memory of every man naturally polluted herein When is God in their thoughts Amongst those millions and millions of objects which thou dost remember when is the great God the just God the holy God thought on May you not see it by the bold impiety and undaunted wickednesse of all unregenerate men that they remember not God Yea the godly themselves finde in part this pollution upon their memory Whence arise those carnal feares those dejected thoughts Is it not because you forget the greatnesse and goodnesse of God Bewail thy memory-sinfulnesse as well as other sins 2. As the Scripture prescribes the object of our memory viz God himself so it doth instance in one time more then at another Though at all times God is to be remembred yet in one time of our age though there be greatest cause yet our lusts and desire after other things do greatly hebetate our memory We have the injunction from Solomon himself Eccl 12. 1. Remember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth Here you see who is to be remembred when he is to be remembred God is to be remembred and that in the time of our youth But do not the strong effects of original sin heightned also by actual sins discover herein most palpable impiety in young persons they remember their lusts their pleasures in the dayes of their youth and God is never in all their thoughts Oh where may we find a young Timothy that was acquainted with the Scripturee from his infancy Where an Obadiah That feared God from the youth Do not most young persons live so negligently about holy things as if they were allowed to be dissolute as if the things of Heaven and eternity did not belong to them as if Solomon had said the contrary Do not remember God in the dayes of thy youth be not so strict and precise but follow thy pastimes and pleasures Thus the very memory of God and holy things is a burden to young persons They think Solimon spake farre better Chap. 11. 9. when he saith Rejoyce O young man in thy youth let thy heart cheer thee and walk in the wayes of thy heart remove sorrow and evil away They like this well This is good but there is a sting in that which followeth Know thou that for all these things God will bring thee to judgement This will quickly damp all thy youthfull jollities Let then young persons especially bewail the sinfulnesse and forgetfulnesse of their memory herein This is the best and most flourishing time for your memory now it is put upon to learn either Mechanical Trades or the Liberal Arts your memories are most drawn out in inferiour things but take the advantage to imploy it more about holy things You hear old persons complain they have lost their memory they grow forgetfull therefore fix your memories upon good things while you may 3. The Scripture commends the Word of God likewise as the object of our memory Timothy had learnt the Scripture from his Infancy The word of God was for this end amongst others as you heard committed to writing that so we might the more readily have it in our memories Mal. 4. 4. the Prophet commands them to remember the Law of Moses with the statutes and judgments yea they were to have such a ready and familiar knowledge of the Word of God that when they were rising or walking they were to be speaking of them Deut. 6. 7 8 9. we may there see what care is taken that the Law of God should be alwayes in their mind but do we not evidently behold the cursed and wretched pollution of mans memory in this particular Why is it that little children will remember any Songs sooner then the principles of Religion Why is it that many persons who are not able to remember any thing of the Scripture or the Sermons they have heard yet can remember Ballads and Songs they can remember their youthfull pranks and talk of them with delight but they cannot give any account of the good truths that in their younger years were preached to them When do ye hear such say Such a Sermon wounded me at heart it sticketh still upon me I shall never forget it Now is not the sinfulnesse of the memory greatly to be bewailed in this particular If it were holy and sanctified it would take more delight and joy to remember Scripture-truths then any thing else whereas now thy memory is like a sieve that lets the corn and weighty grain fall through but the light refuse stuff that it retaineth Thus what is solid and would do thy soul good that quickly passeth away Oh that we could not fay our Sermons passe away as a tale that is told for those you do remember and you will carry a long while in your mind empty frothy things those abide long with you Would you not judge it madnesse in the Husbandman if he should pluck up and hinder the growth of his corn and let cockle and tare with other weeds flourish Thus thou dost about thy memory throw away the flours and keep the weeds whereas thy memory should be like the holiest of holies nothing but what is select and sanctified should enter therein 4. That I may not be too long in these instances The works of God whether in his mercy or in his wrath they are to be the object of our memory Thus the Scripture speaketh often of remembring his marvellous works Matth. 16. 19. Christ reproveth his Disciples because they did not remember the miracle of the loaves All the great
many now are led aside with Who would not desire to live the lives and die the deaths of such holy gracious men Thirdly Another object of our memory commended in Scripture is The former works of Gods Spirit which happily have been upon us but we have decayed and revolted This were alone necessary for many a man and especially in these times Remember what love thou didst once bear to the Ordinances Remember what delight and sweetness thou didst once find in them but now thou hast cast them off Thus the Apostle remindeth the Galatians Gal. 4. 15. Where is the blessedness you once spake of Once they did so rejoyce in Paul's Ministry accounted it a blessing of an eminent nature but now began to slight it There are also many who have formerly been zealous and active for good things they manifested their good desires about the things of God to all the world but now they are become like so many clods of earth they have forsaken the better part which with Mary once they did chuse and are either turned dissolute or earthly crawling upon the ground like so many worms Thus these flourishing trees are quite withered having neither fruit or leaves Thus the Church of Ephesus guilty of partial Apostasie Revel 2. 5. is injoyned To remember from whence she is fallen and this counsel is to be given to many persons Remember it was otherwise with thee once Remember it was not so with thee as it is now The time hath been thy heart hath been much affected with the word of God preached The time hath been thou hadst family-duties and daredst not to neglect the family-worship of God But now What is become of all this Religion You that began in the Spirit do you not end in the flesh Especially your memories are often to be stirred up and quickned who have been under many fears and dangers who have been at the point of death Oh what thoughts what resolutions have you made against sinne What bitter thoughts and apprehensions had you about your former evil wayes But alas how quickly are all those agonies of soul forgotten In this your memories are very much polluted that all your vows all your promises to God all your fears and terrors are forgotten Thou that art now imbracing of thy lusts entertaining thy Dalilah's again Oh remember what thou didst think of these things when thou didst look upon thy self as a dying man Oh remember what woes and wounds were upon conscience What confident expressions if ever God did recover thee again if ever thou wert delivered again all the world should see thy repentance and Reformation These things thou shouldest remember and shame thy selfe yea be confounded and never able to open thy mouth to excuse thy self Fourthly The Scripture doth propound to our memory as a special object never to slip out of it The consideration of our later end the day of death the day of Judgement these things are to be constantly in our memory The neglect of this is made by the Prophet Jeremiah a bitter instance in his Lamentations concerning the people of Israel Lam. 1. 9. She remembred not her later end therefore she came down wonderfully Here the forgetting of her later end is made the cause of all those strange and wonderfull judgements which come upon them Thus Isa 47. 7. Babylon is there arraigned for her pride and arrogancy And she did not lay the judgements of God to heart neither did she remember the later end of it And how pathetically is Gods desire expressed Deut. 32 29. Oh that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their later end Here you see the summe of all godliness is expressed in considering our later end No wonder then if men who forget their death and the day of Judgement be violently carried on to all excess of riot For what should stop or stay them in their paths Whereas didst thou remember as Solomon adviseth his young man That for all this thou must die thou must be brought to judgement This would bind him as it were hand and foot Quicken then up thy memory whatsoever thou forgettest do not forget that thou art a mortal dying man that the day of judgement is coming upon thee which thou canst not avoid The memory of this would make thee flie from every enticing sinne as Joseph did from his mistress Lastly The Scripture requireth That we should remember the desolation and troubles that are upon others especially the Church of God So that although it be never so well with us though God give us our hearts desire yet the remembrance of the afflictions and straits of others should make us mourn and pray for them Thus Col. 4. 18. Paul calleth upon them to remember his bonds So Heb. 13. 3. Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them What an hard and great duty is this yet if thou art not a dead member in the body if spiritual life be in thee thou wilt remember the sad condition the afflicted estate of many of Gods children when thou enjoyest all thy soul longeth for It was thus with good Nehemiah he was in the Princes Palaces he wanted nothing for his own advantage yet he mourned and was sad from day to day because he remembred how it was with Jerusalem See how impossible a thing almost David maketh it to forget Jerusalem Psal 137. 5. If I forget thee O Jerusalem let my right hand forget her cunning If I remember thee not let my tongue cleave to the rooff of my mouth If I preferre not Jerusalem above my chief joy here is a gracious worthy spirit see what David resolveth shall be in his memory more then the chiefest good in this world he will forget his own friends his own joyes yea his own self sooner then the Churches good now may not even a godly man bewail his forgetfullness herein Thou mindest thy own estate thy own family seekest thy own self but how little is thy memory about the affaires of the Church Thou dost not remember how many afflicted Joseph's how many impoverished Lazar's there may be in the Church of God how many exiles and banished persons how many desirous to take up the crums that fall from thy table Did we remember the afflictions and straights of others it would put us more upon prayer for them and it would also make us walk more thankfully and humbly for our mercies then we do And thus you see though the memory be a vast treasure though it hath infinite recesses and capacious receptacles yet the Scripture hath prescribed matter enough to fill every corner as it were and if the memory were thus frighted if it were such a good store-house how happy would it be whereas naturally it 's like a cage of unclean birds and a den of thieves I proceed therefore to shew as it was to Ezekiel about the Jewes still more abomination in this memory of ours SECT X. The
not be convinced because the will applieth to other objects But of this more in its time SECT IV. The Defilement of the Will in its Affections and Properties or the sinfull Adjuncts inseparably cleaving unto it ROM 9. 16. So then it is not of him that willeth or of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy HItherto we have been declaring the native pollution of the noble faculty of the Will in the several operations thereof but we have not as yet manifested the least of all that filthiness which adhereth to it You have seen but a drop in respect of the Ocean We proceed therefore to a further discovery of the original contagion thereof and that in its Affections and Properties The sinfull Adjuncts inseparably cleaving to it proclaim it to be a defiled subject ¶ 1. This Scripture opened vindicated and improved against the Doctrine of Free-will THis truth cannot be superstructed better then upon this foundation in the Text which is a noble ingredient into that famous portion of Scripture wherein the Doctrine of those sublime mysteries about Election and Reprobation are professedly handled and those Objections which the presumption of humane reason is ready to produce are fully answered So that whereas in other places that Doctrine is only occasionally or incidentially handled here the Apostle doth industriously treat of the nature of it Thus it hath of old been interpreted and of late by the Orthodox Onely Arminius following Suecanus in part and the Remonstrants after Arminius they have excogitated a new Analysis of this Chapter full of absurdity and impertinencies for they would not have the Apostle at all to treat of Election and Reprobation of persons they turn themselves and the Scripture into all shapes and forms to evade that but they interpret it of a two-fold Purpose or Decree of God The one whereof they say is That whosoever doth believe shall obtain Justification Adoption and Salvation The other That whosoever seek for righteousnesse by the works of the Law shall be rejected from all these This they say is the scope of the Apostle But who seeth not what forcing and wresting this is of Scripture So that we may wonder how such an interpretation could come into their mind for the Apostle doth not speak of Conditions but of Persons his scope is not to shew that they are believers who are received and workers who are rejected The Apostle had abundantly confirmed this in the fourth Chapter but he intends to shew the Dominion and Sovereignty of God in the eternal disposing of mens persons and that upon the occasion of Gods rejecting the Jews and calling in the Gentiles Therefore he saith To whom he will he sheweth mercy and whom he will he hardeneth whom he will He puts the discrimination upon Gods will not upon any internal qualification in the subject Also he instanceth in Esau and Jacob before they had done good or evil whereas if Jacob were considered as a believer then God did look upon him as having good in him Further he bringeth in Pharaoh for an example how that God did reject him and whether the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 17. be rendred I have raised thee up or I have kept thee alive in those judgments and not destroyed thee as the Remonstrants and others vehemently contend yea some Orthodox do yeeld it will all come to the sense that he was an object on whom God would demonstrate his power and justice or kept by God for a while as some Anatomists do a dead body before they bury it to gather profitable observations for the good of others not that God infused any evil in Pharaoh's heart though the Scripture useth three words concerning Pharaoh the one is to confirm or corroborate his heart and that is ascribed to God seven times The other is to harden and that is once though we render the word to corroborate to harden The last is To aggravate or make heavy which is once likewise ascribed to God which is also rendered by our Interpreters to harden not I say that this expression denoteth God did put any sinfull frame into Pharaoh's heart nor yet on the other side is it to be understood of a meer bare permission of God as if he did no more then suffer him by his patience to be hardened but God as a just Judge did for Pharaoh's sinne antecedent justly deny him any molifying grace leaving him to his lusts which in such occasions as he had did break out into a more violent flame So that the whole blame lay upon Pharaoh himself not on God Hence it is that he is so often said To harden his own heart Now this example of Pharaoh could not make at all to Paul's purpose if his intent was to prove that God would reject all such who seek for righteousness by the works of the Law for Pharaoh was an Heathen he was ignorant of Gods Law and could not seek for Justification by the works thereof Besides if the Apostle did not intend to shew Gods purpose absolutely and inconditionately in a well explained sense about persons but only his Decree about their qualifications what occasion was there for Paul to make such an Objection Is there unrighteousnesse with God And then first to objurgate the Objector Who art thou O man that disputest against God And then returneth a full answer to the Objection from the lesse to the greater from the Potter who hath power over the same clay to make a vessel of honour or dishonour These Objections and Answers could have no place in the Remonstrantical Analysis and Interpretation For who would argue it injustice in God to reject such who did not believe in Christ but sought for Justification by the Law If the Apostle did prove only two such Decrees about the wayes to salvation and damnation here was no such mystery transcending humane expectation This is certain the Remonstrants commend their way of common Election making the determinate event to be by man himself in a most plausible and colourable manner as being most agreeable to humane reason and equity There is no man would dispute against God in this whereas the other exposition strongly pursued by Austin and for the dreadfulness of it to flesh and bloud which is ready to call God to an account for his administrations was greatly disliked by many and a scandal to them Even as at this day it still meeteth with the same unkind entertainment from Lutherans Socinians and Arminians who make an Universal Conditional Election whereby they say God would have all to be saved even the Calvinists themselves as they are pleased to instance by derision Well if this part of Scripture will not convince I know not what light will and they must needs be prepossessed who can let their judgements assent to such a remote and forced explication Not to adde that the Decree which they make about Gods rejection of such who seek for Justification by works is
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
for fifteen hundred yeares It is Bellarmine that saith so but our Divines had detected this falshood long before Jansenius Howsoever Austin may use the word yet the Scripture expresseth that which we call the will by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A second word to express liberty is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 liberty yet this is not so much applied to the liberty of the will as to the liberty of a man as here in the Text the sonne shall make you free your persons not your wils but because there is an universal bondage in all the powers of the soul to sinne blindness in the mind contumacy in the will for Quid est libertas sine gratiâ nisi contumacia What is liberty in the will without grace but contumacy against God and a wilfull delight in evil wayes Inordinacy in the affections therefore the person is said to be made free not but that the will is principally included in this only the will is not all that is made free 2 Cor 3. 17 where the spirit of the Lord is thereby is liberty It 's from the Spirit of God we obtain liberty from sinne and also from servile slavish feares The Jesuites would have this liberty nothing to the purpose in the controversie de libero arbirio for say they this is a spiritual mistical liberty libertas à peccate and they are treating of libertas naturae which they make to consist in an indifferency to good or evil but by their favour this is a proper liberty and it is this that the Pelagians did most controvert about and still the proper dispute between the orthodox and their adversaries is in this particular Whether there be any liberty or freedome in a mans will without grace to shake off the deminion of sinne so that they keep most properly to the state of the question who are diligent in the opening of the nature of this liberty Another word which the Scripture useth to express this free-will by is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 5. 2 Phil. 1. 4 and this is very proper and full when we do a thing not by constraint or by a natural necessity then we do it freely therein we shew our liberty so that liberty doth oppose coaction and natural necessity It is impossible the will should in its immediate elicite acts be compelled for then it should be voluntas and noluntas at the same time then velle would be nolle which is an high contradiction Therefore liberty doth necessarly oppose constraint but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth also oppose a natural necessity I say a natural necessity for there are other necessities that liberty doth consist with yea and the more necessary the more free as in time is to be shewed Thus though the stone hath an inclination to descend downwards yet because the stones motion is from a natural necessary principle therefore it is not free Beasts likewise though they exceed the inanimate creatures yet they do not agere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 voluntarily They do act spontaneously but not voluntary because a natural principle of sence doth determine them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indeed Heb. 10. 26 is translated wilfully If we sinne wilfully after we have known the truth but there it signifieth an high degree of the obstinacy of the will and a confirmation in evil against great light and knowledge but commonly it signifieth doing a thing so as not to be constrained to it Platonical Philosophers call free-will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too proud a word to be given to a creature and therefore the ancient Greek Fathers being many of them Platonists did greatly obscure the glory of grace by receiving Platonical words of which this is one Indeed they gave to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is too much for a creature which hath a necessity of subordination to God and dependency on him The Stoicks they express free-will by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which is in our own power The Aristotelians express it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the Scripture expression likewise Though the Scripture and Aristotelians differ as much as light and darkness about the nature of liberty As the Ancients by following Platonical Philosophy so the Neotericks especially the Jesuites by following Aristotle have greatly prejudiced the Doctrine of free-grace setting up free-will in the room thereof There is one expression more and the Scripture hath it but once which is the most emphatical in describing of this liberty and that is 1 Cor. 7. 37. Having power over a mans own will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for liberty lieth in some kinds of some dominion to have our own will hence in liberty we may conceive something Negative and something Positive Negative and that is not to be compelled not to be constrained not to be inslaved Positive and that is to have some power and dominion over the actions of our will as the Apostle instanceth in him who had decreed to keep his virgin from marriage This man is said to have power over his own will By these Scripture words we may come to understand in a great measure what liberty and freedome of will is ¶ 5. Some Observations concerning the Promoters of the Doctrine of Free-Will how Unpleasing the contrary Doctrine is to flesh and blood with some advice about it SEcondly take notice That it is the great purpose and design of some to go contrary to the plain intent of the Scripture For many in all ages of the Church have with all their learning and parts endeavoured to set up this Idol of Free-will whereas the great drift of the Scripture is to advance and set up the free grace and free gift of God The Apostles they write to debase man and to exalt the grace of God Erronious persons they dispute and write to exalt the will of man and to take off from the grace of God What a loud trumpet is Paul in his Epistles to sound forth the praises of free grace not only free grace in justification but free grace also in sanctification It 's the grace of God that doth not only pardon the guilt of sinne but conquer the power of it Consider then whether it be better to set up Dagon or the Ark the free-will of man or the free gift and grace of God Truly it is a very uncomfortable task to be disputing against that grace which yet we must wholly rely upon when we come to die It is one thing what men write while they are in health what cobweb-distinctions they please themselves with in their voluminous writings and another thing when they are in the agonies of death and are to appear at the tribunal of a righteous God It was that which that famous Champion for the grace of God Bradwardine comforted himself with when he undertook the cause of God against Pelagians That he could pray for the grace of God to help him
which would have redounded to the dishonour of God his maker neither could it so well be said By one man or by the Devil death came into the world as by God who is supposed to make man in such a mortal and frail estate But I proceed to a second Argument and that may be drawn from the commination made by God to Adam upon his disobedience compared with the execution of this sentence afterward which might be enough to convince any though never so refractory The threatning to Adam we have recorded Gen. 2. 17. where God prohibiting him to eat of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil confirmeth this Law with a penalty viz. That in the day he did eat thereof he should surely die dying thou shalt die The gemination is to shew the certainty as also the continuance or it So that Socinus and others who would not understand corporal death in this place as being from the natural constitution of a man and so would have been had there not been this commination doth joyn too much with the Devil in this business for his endeavour was to perswade the woman that this threatning was false and that she should not die death should not be the punishment of her transgression But what need we any clearer place then this divine commination Doth not this necessarily suppose that if Adam had not transgressed he should not have died and so by consequence have been immortal it being not possible for death to come in at any other door but that of sinne To threaten a mortal man with mortality had been absurd or to make his natral condition a punishment for then it would have been a punishment to be made a man if made mortal The Socinians therefore to elude this would not understand by death the separation of the soul and body but eternal death or as they say at other times a necessity of dying but a necessary death and eternal death are absurdly made parallel by them For beasts are under a necessity of death yet cannot be said to partake of eternal death especially the godly they cannot but die yet they are absolutely delivered from eternal death We must therefore take death for corporal death not but that the death of the soul by sinne here and eternal separation from God hereafter is to be included herein yet this temporal death is also a great part of the penalty here threatned which may be evinced by these three reasons 1. Moses is relating in an historical manner what was done to man in the beginning Now in an historical Narration we are not to go from the literal meaning unless evident necessity compel much lesse may we do so here when we have the Apostle acted by the same Spirit of God as Moses was in being Penman of the Scripture attributing our corporal death to Adam For no doubt when Paul wrote this Text In Adam we all die he had this historical relation made by Moses in his mind 2. The sentence and execution of it must be understood in the same manner Now it 's plain that in the execution of it mentioned Chap. 3. 19. corporal death is meant because Adam is thus told That dust he was and unto dust he should return 3. It must be meant of temporal death because this alone and not eternal death doth belong to all mankind For although at the day of judgement it is said some shall not die yet that suddain change made then upon them will be equivalent to death Thus you see the threatning made to Adam at first doth abundantly confirm this truth There is one doubt only to be answered If death be meant in that sentence how then is it that Adam did not immediately die How is it that he lived many hundred years afterwards To this some say That the restriction of time viz. the day is not to be made to the time of eating as if at that day he should die but to death as if the sense were thou shalt die one day or other thou shalt be in daily fear of death But if this be disliked then we may understand it of a state of death that day he did eat thereof he became mortal for every day is a diminution of our life As a man that hath received a deadly wound we say he is a dead man because though he did linger it out yet all is in a tendency unto death Now this will appear the more cogent if you take notice of the execution of this sentence mentioned Gen. 3. 17 18 19. where the ground is cursed and man also adjudged to labour and wearness all the dayes of his life even till he return to the ground out of which he was made But here the Socinian thinketh he hath an evasion Death saith he is not here made a curse but only it 's the term how long mans curse shall be upon him It is not poena but terminus saith he for it is said he should be under this labour till he did return to the ground but if we consider the sentence before-mentioned it is plain it is a curse So that in this place it is both a curse and a terme putting an end to all the temporal miseries of this life though to the wicked it is the beginning of eternal torments ¶ 3. THe third Argument for our mortality and also actual death by original sinne is taken from those assertory places which do in expresse words say so Not to mention my sext which hath said enough to this truth already We may take notice of other places affirming this And certainly that passage of Pauls Rom. 5 12. may presently come into every mans mind By one man sin entred into the world and death by sinne and so death passed upon all men in whom all have sinned It is true we told you Calvin maketh the Apostle to speak of spiritual death here as in my Text of temporal death which the coherence also doth confirm but though that be principally intended yet not totally Even temporal death is likewise to be understood as being the beginning and introduction to eternal death if the grace of God doth not prevent We have then the Apostle attributing death not to mans creation at first but to his disobedience Neither is this death upon men because of their actual sinnes but because of Adam's disobedience by whom we are made sinners yea in whom we have sinned That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is diversly translated and much contention about it viz. whether it should be rendred in whom or causally for as much It is true the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as learned men observe is used in the New Testament variously sometimes for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 5. 5. sometimes for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 10. 9. sometimes for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 3. 16. and otherwise but for ought I can observe it may very well be understood for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Mark
Cor. 15. 56. which Austin expounds in this sense as that by sinne death is caused as that is called Poculum mortis a cup of death which causeth death or as some say The Tree of life is called so because it was the cause of life If then original sinne be a sinne it must have a sting and this sting is everlasting death So that if we attend to what the Scripture speaketh concerning us even in the womb and the cradle that we are in a state of sinne we must conclude because it is a sinne therefore it deserveth damnation Hence you heard the Apostle Rom. 5. expresly saith Judgement came by one to condemnation and Rom. 3. That the whole world is guilty before God Secondly The Scripture doth not only speak of this birth-pollution as a sinne but as an hainous sinne in its effects whereby it doth admis of many terrible aggravations as you have heard It is the Law in our members it 's the flesh tho body of sin the sin that doth so easily beset us the sin that warreth against the mind and the Spirit of God that captivateth even a godly man in some measure which maketh Paul groan under it and cry out of his miserable condition thereby so that it is not meerly a sinne but a sinne to be aggravated in many respects and therefore necessarily causing damnation unlesse God in his mercy prevent Let Bellarmine and others extenuate it making it lesse then the least sinne that is of which more afterwards let them talk of venial sinnes that do not in their own nature deserve hell yet because all sinne is a transgression of Gods Law the curse of God belongeth thereunto therefore it hath an infinite guilt in respect of the Majesty of God against whom it is committed and they who judge sinne little must also judge the Majesty of God to be little also What shall one respect of involuntariness which is in original sinne make it lesse then others when 〈…〉 so many other respects some whereof do more immediately relate to the nature of sinne then voluntariness can do farre exceed other sinnes Thirdly Original sinne must needs deserve damnation because it needeth the bloud of Christ to purge away the guilt of it as well as actual sins Christ is a Saviours to Infants as well as to grown men and if he be a Saviour to them then they are sinners if he save them then they are lost As for that old evasion of the Pelagian Infants need Christ not to save them from sinne but to bring them to the Kingdom of Heaven it 's most absurd and ridiculous for the whole purpose of the Gospel is to shew That Christ came into the world to bring sinners to Heaven through his bloud his death was expiatory and by way of atonement therefore it did suppose sinne hence he is sad to be the Lamb of God that taketh away the sinne of the world John 1. 29. which is both original and actual Fourthly That eternal damnation belongeth to the sinne we are born in appeareth by those remedies of grace and Ordinances of salvation which were appointed by God both in the Old and New Testament for the taking away of this natural guilt Circumcision in the Old Testament did declare that by nature the heart was uncircumcised and that every one was destitute of any inherent righteousnesse hence circumcision is called The seal of the righteousnesse which is by faith Rom. 4. 11. To this Baptism doth answer in the New Testament the external never whereof with the formal Rite of Administration doth abundantly convince us of our spiritual uncleanness as also the need we have of the bloud of Christ and also of his Spirit for our cleansing Now because the known Adversary to this truth affirmly That he knoweth of no Church that in her Rituals doth confesse and bewail original sinne As also that we might see the Judgement of our first Reformers in England about Baptism as relating to original sinne It is good to observe what is set down in the Publique Administration of Baptism as by the Common-Prayer-Book was formerly to be used there the Minister useth this Introductory Forasmuch as all men be conceived and born in sinne adding from hence That none can enter into the kingdom of Heaven unlesse he be born again It is the sinne he is born in not pure Naturals as the Doctor saith that inferreth a necessity of regeneration Again In the Prayer for children to be baptized there is this passage That they coming to thy holy Baptism may receive remission of sins Now what sinnes can children have but their original It is spoken in the plural number because more than one child is supposed to be baptized Again in the same Prayer we meet with this Petition That they being delivered from thy wrath What can more ashame the Doctors opinion then this That which he accounteth so horrid is here plainly asserted That children are born under Gods wrath therefore prayer is made that they may be delivered from it Lastly In another Prayer after the Confession of Faith we have this Petition That the old Adam in these children may be so buried that the new man may be raised up in them Why doth he not seoff at this expression saying as he doth upon another occasion That they change the good old man with these things that he never thought of No doubt but he will force these passages by some violent Interpretation as he doth the 9th Article but certainly it would be more ingenuity in him to flie to his principles of liberty of prophesying rather then to wrest these publick professions of original sinne It is true the Ancients and so the Papists put too much upon Baptism For Austin thought every child dying without Baptism yea and without the participation of the Lords Supper was certainly damned But of this extream more afterwards It is enough for us That Christs Institution of such a Sacrament and that for Infants doth evidently proclaim our sinfulnesse by nature and therein our desert of eternal wrath Fifthly To original sinne there must needs belong eternal wrath because of the nature of it and inseperable effects flowing from it The nature of it is the spiritual death of the soul by this a man is alienated from all life of grace and therefore till the grace of God appear it 's true of all by nature as followeth in the Chapter where this Text is vers 12. Without Christ alient from the Commonwealth of Israel strangers from the Covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world Thus Davenant upon that Text Dead in sinne Col. 2. 13. saith All the sons of Adam are accounted dead first because they lie in a state of spiritual death having lost the Image of God and partly because they are under the guilt of eternal death being obnoxious to the wrath of God for by nature we are the children of wram If then original sinne put
that they have Christ but as Adam's sinne was efficacious in men as men quatenus homines to their condemnation so was Christs obedience efficacious for their justification to all men as men This opinion he proveth by an hundred and twenty Reasons and concludeth with excessive confidence of truth on his side that he hath it by the Spirit of God and that though for the present it seemeth not to be approved yet he is confident the whole world will at last entertain it Insomuch that his boastings and presumptions are such that you would think not much learning but much pride had made him mad This man considering the diversity of Sect and Opinions in Religion for two and twenty years wandered up and down to Jews Manumetans Arians and others that having knowledge of all kind of opinions he might at last judge which was the true Religion but this is not the way to find the truth God rather in just judgement leaveth such to errors In this universal road Jacobus Andraas and Hubeâ—ius are said also to go though with some little variation The man foundation they all build up 〈◊〉 is the comparison made by the Apostle Rom. 5. between the first and second Adam wherein the extent of justification to life by Christ seeme 〈◊〉 to be as universal as that of condemnation by Adam the Apostle using the same words of many and all This opinion saith Puccias is most consonant to that 〈◊〉 of God which the Scripture commends and removeeth from God 〈◊〉 all suspicion of cruelty and injustice By this instance we may see there is no stop or bounds can be put to mens errours when once they will judge of Gods love and mercy according to humane compassionate principles And therefore let such who deny original sinne or extenuate it pleading the awe they have in their hearts respectively to God that men may have no hard thoughts of him Let such I say consider whether Puccius and his followers do not farre transcend them in this kind yea whether by their principles they must not necessarily come off to his way For although he doth assert original sinne yet he maketh it wholly taken away by Christs death and that to all mankind so that now we are not born in a state of wrath and enmity against God Secondly There are others that do not receive this opinion of Gods gracious love in Christ to men as they are men but as they are believers that yet affirm The guilt of original sinne wholly taken away by Christ as to all mankind so that no man lieth under this guilt and thereupon conclude That all Infants though of Heathens and Pegans are certainly saved for having no actual sinne and their original being removed the doore is set open for them to enter into Heaven which is afterwards to be considered Thirdly There are yet some who deservedly are reputed as more honourable for learning and orthodoxy then the former who though they hold original sinne and Gods special election of some persons to eternal glory do yet withall maintain a possibility of salvation to every one lying in the corrupt masse of mankind Thus Crocius Duodâ—c Dissert Dissert 1a. de peccato origin although he denieth the Huberian way of assuming all men into a state of favour so that no man is obnoxious to damnation by original sinne yet affirmeth That none is necessarily damned for it without the accession of new sins and that therefore there is a way of possibility of salvation for every one This opinion hath many learned Abettors but if it be throughly pursued it must either fall into the old known orthodox way or empty it self into the Arminian chanel Yea it seemeth to be of so brittle subtilty that it doth not avoid any of those inconvenâ—ercies which they labour to do neither doth it practically give any comfort to a man rationally doubting in his conscience about his interest in Christs death or stirre up and provoke to obedience unto those Commands and Exhortations that are pressed upon us But this Controversie belongeth not so properly to my subject I shall conclude against the former opinions mentioned That by original sinne we are children of Gods wrath yea and for that as well as their actual sinnes some are eternally condemned which Doctrine hath received witness and testimony to its truth from the most eminent Guides and Pastors in Gods Church in all Ages Insomuch that Fulgentius cometh with his Firmissime tene nullatenus dubita c. Believe most firmly and doubt not in the least manner but that every one by nature is obnoxious to the wrath of God that person cannot be saved It is true he addeth without the Sacrament of Baptism of which opinion in its time De incarnatione ad Petrum Diacon The Synod of Dâ—ri also rejecteth the errour of such who teach All men are assumed into a state of reconciliation so that none is either damned or obnoxous to eternal damnation for original sinne but all are free from its guilt which opinion they adde repugneth the Scripture affirming us to be by nature children of wrath Acta Synod Dordrâ—ct cap. 2 de morte Christi reject Erro 5. But let us consider What Arguments are brought to prove this universal removal of the guilt of original sinne from all mankind by Christs death And First They urge the love of God to mankind so often mentioned in the Scripture Insomuch that they say it doth not stand with the 〈◊〉 and mercy of God when man is plunged thus into an undone estate there to leave him and not deliver him out of it But to this many things may be said As First We grant that notwithstanding our original sinne yet God loveth mankind and demonstrateth much mercy to men even because they are his creatures And it must be granted That the Scripture doth often celebrate this mercy of God to man though in a sinfull condition But then we must distinguish between the general love of God and his special love between his love of benevolence and love of complacency as some express it God doth love all mankind with a general love or love of benevolence so as to do good in a liberal manner to them This love of beneficence is demonstrated both to the good and the bad yet this doth not remove the guilt of sinne we may be children of wrath for all this Therefore there is the other special love and grace of God a love of complacency and acceptance of us in Christ and this is only to some of mankind as the Scripture in many places doth shew And yet we must adde that when any are damned we cannot say it is for any defect of Gods particular love and grace as if the fault were to be laid there but upon the original and actual sinfulness of the person so condemned for every mans perdition is of himself Secondly It is no injustice in God if he let men alone in their lost
yet within a little while after he reproveth Bellarmine for not touching upon all the opinions of others about Infants saying That there are not wanting some amongst Christians who think either some or all Infants are through death wholly abolished as beasts whose Arguments saith he Bellarmine should have answered but herein Vorstius seemeth to manifest his good will to the Socinian party and though he excludeth them from the Evangelici yet he acknowledgeth them Christiani All that I shall speak to it shall be comprehended in these particulars First That concerning Infants there are many difficulties in Divinity for the Scripture speaking for the most part of persons growen up hence it is that we cannot so clearly discover the truth about them as how Infants are justified seeing they have no actual faith to lay hold upon Christ as also how the Spirit of God doth work in them regeneration and make them new creatures for seeing it is plain that of such Infants is the kindome of heaven and Gods promise is to the believer and his seed it necessarily followeth that they are justified and they are sanctified though we know not how the Spirit of God doth this in them Thus in the matter of the Resurrection and the day of Judgment we must necessarily acknowledge that Infants will then be raised with perfect bodies all imperfections being then to be removed from glorified bodies as also that they will be called to Judgement Though the judicial process mentioned by the Evangelist instanceth only in actual sinnes and duties we must then be sober in this inquisition seeing the Scripture speaketh not so expresly of Infants neither is the Question necessarily to be known and therefore if we be over curious in enquiting what God will them Let us 〈…〉 we deserve not Peter's reproof Joh. 20. busily asking about John What is 〈◊〉 to thee follow thou me so God say What is that to thee how I will 〈◊〉 of Infants thou art an adult person do thou follow me Secondly We must necessarily make a distinction between such as 〈…〉 under the Covenant and such whose parents and their seed are strangers 〈◊〉 it and therefore with the Remorstrants to conclude That all Infants 〈◊〉 born of Pagans are surely saved is to put no difference between 〈…〉 Covenant of grace and to be without which yet the Scripture doth 〈◊〉 it saith of the children of unbelievers that they are unclean 1 Cor. 7. and Heathens they are said to be without and therefore according to the Rule of the Scripture we see no more visible way for the children of Heathens then for Heathens themselves to be saved but yet the Orthodox do adde that they leave these things to the judgement of God and content themselves 〈◊〉 that which Paul saith 1 Cor. 5. 12. What have I to do to judge those that are without although the Apostle doth not there speak of a Doctrinal Judgement but a Judgement of Jurisdiction which Church Officers cannot exercise upon those that are without the Church though this be so we must alwayes remember to put a difference between that general love of God to mankind and that special grace of his to his Church and therefore we must needs be injurious to this grace of God if we make children without the Covenant to be partakers of the same special priveledge which others within do receive then the Gospel is no such extrordinary mercy then the Covenant of grace is no such signal favour then believing parents have no such cause to bless God for his mercifull dispensations towards them if Heathens children are in as prepared a way for reconciliation with God as their posterity is 3. Therfore the fountain and spring head of the salvation of children dying in their Infancy is the election of God as well as in grown persons it holdeth in them as well as in adult persons that election doth obtain and he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy election and reprobation is amongst Infants dying so as well as of those that are men though this Doctrine be rejected by Arminians yet believing parents who lose their children while in the blossom are greatly to comfort their souls concerning their children so early deceased for although they are not able to look into the Book of 〈◊〉 which is in heaven and thereby know which childs name is written there and which not yet in that they are externally brought under the Covenant of grace and so in proxime capacity to Church-Communion they may well satisfie themselves in this as an effect of their election and that because God hath chosen them to eternal glory therefore are they in time received into this grace and favour as to be of the reputed members of Christ and in this we must rest not doubting but that God doth internally go along with the Ordinance and that if the child be taken away in its Infancy it is done both in mercy to the child and to the parents Of this subject it is good to peruse Peter Martyr Comment 1 Cor. 7. Lastly Therefore in this great business of the salvation of children dying in Infancy it is election and the Covenant of greace that maketh the difference and not Baptisme This was Austin's mistake of old and the Popish errour in these latter dayes to lay too much upon Baptisme as if that by its very work done opere operato as they say did take away original sinne and put us into a state of grace from which men by actual impietis might afterwards fall away so that the errours about Baptisme are extream either such as think it only a temporary Ordinance for the initiation of the Church at first as the Socinians or else such as make it to be the efficacious instrument of grace and that from the meer work done though there be no good actual motion or stirring of the heart at the time though administred to an adult person Hence it is that by some the Ordinance of Baptisme is exalted too much as if the outward washing would save a man not at all looking to the inward grace represented thereby and by others it is wholly rejected as not being commanded us now in these times or if it be so is only commemorative of our duty not seating and obsignative of any grace of God to us for which cause the Remonstrants say That the Doctrine of the Sacraments as it is now delivered by Protestant Authors is vehemently suspected by them but we are to sail between these two rocks neither giving it too much or too little for we may observe that the Scripture speaketh two wayes of Sacraments First when men do rest on them never at all attending to that grace they signifie then the Scripture doth debase them attributeth no glory at all to them making Sacraments to be no Sacraments if they be not received in a right manner Thus the Apostle saith Circumcision is become uncircumcision to him that keepeth not the Law and 1
Cor. 11. This is not to eat the Lords Supper yea unworthy receivers eat and drink their own salvation Thus the Scripture when it attends to mens either resting upon them as if they could save or the sinful abuse of them by not attending to the grace signified doth speak in an undervaluing way of them But then at other times when it doth respect the institution of Christ and the effects thereof then glorious and great things are spoken of them yet though the Scripture commends and commandeth them as the institution of Christ for supernatural effects notwithstanding that old Rule is to be received that not the privation but the contempt of Sacraments doth damn so that the after ages of the Church which came to idolize Baptisme and to put so much vertue even in the very external act done can no wayes be justified yea so greatly did superstition grow in this kind that they thought Baptisme did also work some wonderfull temporal effects for whereas there is a traditon though it be justly reckoned among the vulgar errours that the Jewes have by way of punishment an offensive smell or stink inflicted upon their body they instance in Jewes baptized that therby were cleansed from this filthiness The Poet Fortunatus said Sanct. Comment in Jer. 31. 29. Abluitur Judeus odor Baptismate divo Thus absurd did many grow in their thoughts about the efficacy of Baptisme but the truth is That although Baptism be an Ordinance appointed by God for the sealing of the remission of original sinne yet it hath not this effect in all neither is the benefit of Baptisme to be limited to that time only but it extendeth it self to our whole life so that we are daily to make an improvement of it both for duty and comfort And thus much may suffice for the deciding of this Question with sobriety and modesty Now if any shall say upon the hearing of this damnable estate that we are plunged into by sinne as the Disciples in another case It is good not to marry yea that it is good to have no children it is good to be no Parents because our Infants do thus come into the world upon worse terms then the young ones of bruit beasts because they are the children of Gods wrath whereas the creatures are not the creatures of Gods wrath To such as shall thus conclude I shall propound these ensuing particulars First That it is just and righteous with God to continue the propagation of mankind though man hath thus corrupted his nature Because Adam fell and so all his postcrity would be propagated in a damnable estate shall he therefore destroy the whele species of men and raze out every individuum Seeing then its Gods will that men should increase and multiply that there should be parents and children for which end he hath instituted marriage we are to regard the will of God in this way more than the adherent corruption and the rather because this damnable guilt doth adhere to our natures not from Gods primitive Institution but by Adam's voluntary transgression It being then a duty to some to marry it being by God appointed a remedy against sinne for thee to abstain from that way and to desire no children under pretence of original sinne is a meer delusion Secondly You are to know That though children be born in this defiled and cursed estate yet they are in themselves mercies and comforts which mace our Saviour say That a woman because of the joy that a man child is born she forgetteth all her sorrow and pangs that she was in John 16. 21. So that at the same time they may be by nature children of wrath and yet in another respect comforts and mercies in themselves for which end God promiseth children as a mercy and threatneth it as a punishment to be barren and childless Thirdly Thou that art a believing parent and hast thy child dying in its infancy thou hast cause to assure thy self of the mercy of God to thy child because he taketh parents and children into the same promise Oh but I know not that God hath elected him So neither canst thou thy own à priori I you must begin at the lower round of the ladder in Gods Election The effects and fruits thereof And now what greater pledge and argument canst thou have of his salvation then being born under the Covenant of grace You cannot expect actual expressions of regeneration and grace from a dying Infant therefore thou must runne to the Covenant of grace whereby God doth receive such as his members yea thou hast cause to admire the goodness of God to thy child and his mercy when so many thousands and thousands of Pagans children dying have no visible way of salvation we cannot by the Scripture as you heard see any Ark provided for them as God in mercy hath done for thee Fourthly The consideration of Gods just and severe proceedings against Pagans and their children may make thee the more admire the grace of God in saving of thee For how many Heathens perish in hell who it may be never committed such gross and soul sins in their life time as thou hast done To be sure their Infants never committed such actual inquities as thou hast done yet they appear according to Gods ordinary way of proceedings to be left in that lost estate of nature And therefore that is a good quickning meditation which Vedâ—lius 〈◊〉 Hilar. cap 3. pag. 119. To make a godly man thankfull for Gods grace seeing by nature we deserve otherwise Ah quot sunt erunt in inferno miselli infantuli c. Ah how many little Infants are and shall be in hell who never had the knowledge of good and evil and might not God have left thee in the same misery This I say is a pious meditation Though that scoffing Remonstrant prefix this expression amongst others in the front of his Book as if it were no lesse then blasphemy Vedel Rhapsod Fifthly Thou who art a parent exercised with this temptation about thy children it grieveth thee to think thou bringest them forth to be Gods enemies and the Devils children Let not this discourage thee but provoke thee the more earnestly to be much in prayer for them and to be more carefull in their education Let them be the children of thy prayers and tears the children of thy care and godly discipline and thou mayest comfort thy self that such shall not perish however thou hast done thy duty and so art to leave all to the wise and righteous God who is not accountable to man for any of his proceedings That the encouragement and hopes of parents are great in the faithfull discharge of their duties notwithstanding the guilt of original sinne may further appear as to the woman in that famous and noble Text 1 Tim. 2. 14 15. But the woman being deceived was in the transgression Notwithstanding she shall be saved in child-bearing if they continue in the faith c.