thing or object The object of righteousnesse being the Law it doth follow that the object of sin is the Law also but what Law Both the Law of nature which God had prescribed unto every thing in nature to be observed by them as being unto God most honorable and to themselves most proper and behoofefull Those rules and limitations those orders and prescriptions which the wisdome of God had proposed and imprinted upon all creatures either of the preservation of their being or the destruction of their sexes or the propagation of their kinds or the moderation of their power and manner of working or the manifestation of his own Almighty power wisdome and glory the same are termed Lawes So He made a Law for the rain said Job Job 2.8 And he gave a decree unto the Sea that the waves should not passe his commandment And by this Law it is that heavie bodies move downwards but light bodies ascend upward that the motion of the Heavens are circular and that every thing observes that manner of motion and working which is peculiar and proper unto his kind Now creatures having their several degrees of perfection and Law being as it were the several rules and spurrs thereof it will follow The persecter any creature is the more general and of larger excellency are those Laws by which the same is guided So we see that Minerals are of a perfecter constitution and being then simple bodies as Air or Water or Earth or Plants are perfecter then Stones and Beasts are more perfect then Plants and that Man is more perfect then all So that every one of these in their severall kinds have more or lesse notion motion belonging unto them and accordingly are subject to more or lesse Laws Now men being as it were a compendium or Epitome or abbreviature of all the creatures of God and participating of all the perfections hath so many actions and operations proper unto him as makes him subject to all the lawes not only to the part of natures law that concerns only his reasonable Soul and will and is therefore called the morall Law but likewise unto all the subordinate parts that may any waies concern his inferior parts and faculties so that not only the Soul the understanding but the senses and humors yea the very whole proportion and constitution of the body and every particular therein had their severall prescriptions and motions peculiar unto themselves which both for ability and power and end and all other circumstances they ought to have observed exactly and could not transgresse without sin So that first hearing of the subject of sin namely the law of nature That Law which Almighty God had prescribed universally unto all things in nature to be observed let us proceed unto the farther search thereof And therefore in the second place we say that the form of righteousnesse is the observation of this Law and hence we insert tanquam formale peccati that the transgression of the law is as it were the form of sin For so 1 John 3.8 defineth that sin is the transgression of the Law that it is an aberration and excursion out of the bonds and prescripts of Gods Law 1. John 3.4 3ly The materiall causes of Righteousnesse were the actions and operations faculties and parts of man and therefore we must propose them also tanquam materiale peccati as the matter and subject of sin For look how the parts and faculties both of Soul and body were ordered and framed and beautified and exercised in Righteousnesse So likewise the same parts and faculties both of Soul and body are confused distempered deformed and perverted by iniquity and sin For the efficient cause of righteousnesse being liberum arbitrium hominis the free will of man it must needs follow that the efficient cause of sin must needs be the same or else could not be said to be our sin for that which makes a work to be our work is because it proceeds from our own will for sin in the formes and abstracted nature thereof namely as it is the transgression of the Law may be and is in beasts and other creatures yet cannot be said to be the sin of the creature because it proceeds not from will in the creature for the creature is subject to vanity saith the Apostle Rom. 8.20 Neither is it sufficient to make a work ours unlesse it proceed freely from us without any necessity compelling us unto for then the act would be attributed as much yea principally to the necessity and we should be but as instruments thereof That therefore is the efficient of sin unto man which doth appropriate sin unto man and that doth appropriate sin unto him which is the principal facultie by which he worketh namely Liberum Arbitrium his free will Lastly the finall cause or effect of righteousnesse was joy and peace and comfort and contentation and perfection and all the happinesse which the soul and body of man was capable of So è contrario for rectum est Index sui obliqui we most still measure that which is crooked by that which is streight the final cause and effect of sin is sorrow affliction crosses and destruction and all the miseries in this life and in the life to come For as malum culpae was the privation of bonum morale so malum poenae is the privation of bonum delectabile As sin was the privation of righteousnesse so effect of sin is the privation of happinesse which is the fruit of righteousnesse For all the miseries and pains that hath or shal ever befal man are no positive thing but a meer privation of that goodnesse which was created in him As for example If sharp needles shall be thrust under the nails it is nothing but the violent disorder and disturbance of the frame of nature in those parts If our hands or feet should be dipt in boyling lead it were but the violent distemper of heat in these members and so of other torments which are all privations Neither did the eye see nor hath ear heard nor did ever possibly enter into the heart of man the joyes that are prepared for the righteous All things in the world are too low to expresse them So on the contrary it will follow that neither eye nor ear or heart hath either seen or can imagine those pains that are prepared for sinners all things in this world are too short to resemble them For as the choice and pretious stones mentioned Rev. 2. are there used to represent the new Jerusalem and the beauty and joyes thereof which are far more excellent and of an higher and transcendent qualitie So under reformation of better judgment I suppose that the fire which the spirit of God in the Scripture makes choice of to expresse the torments of Hel is not material fire but being the most violent and consuming element is used only as the fittest thing to represent those unconceivable pains For I conceive those
convert some of his posteritie and to give them inward holiness so that here is meant not any inherent internal qualitative personall holinesse but an external relative faederal holinesse Hence is that of Grotius Non loquitur Apostolus de sanctitate naturali et naturae liberorum inhaerente sed de sanctitate adhaerente its extrinsice i. e. de sanctitate faederis credentium liberi faedere gratiae comprehensi sunt et eatenus sancti adeo censentur This Text shews that children are stil in covenant with their parents but proves nothing at all that they are freed from original sin R. 2. Because this sin proceeds causally from the flesh though subjectively and formally it is in the Soul as sicknesse comes of corrupt meats as the cause yet not the meats but the body is the subject of sicknesse They that live in a smoakie house must needs be smuâ—ched and contract some of the blacknesse if you put the whitest wool into the Die-fat of Oade it will come out blew So here a pure soul in an impure body cannot but infect it with impuritie this then is an hereditary disease as a leprous father begets a leprous son the disease being in the blood runs through the whole progenie which verifies that of Isa 18.2 The Fathers have eaten sour grapes and the childrens teeth are set on edge And therefore saies the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.46 That was not first which was spiritual but that which was natural and afterwards that which was spiritual The first man was of the earth earthy and so begat children like himselfe sinful and corrupt which was the ground of this original contagion which was sprung in our parents by their offence and so by the same it is conveyed to posteritie Obj. If sin be conveyed by the parents to the children it passeth to them either by the body or by the soul but by neither it cannot be in the body till the soul come and in the soul it is not because that is immediately created pure of God Ergo unlesse the soul be traduced from the parents where place you original sin Ans The consequence and coherence of the major is to be denyed because in it there is not a sufficient numeration of the parts by which original sin passeth for it passeth neither by the body nor by the Soul but by the offence of our parents in regard whereof God whilst he createth men souls bereaves it of originall righteousnesse which he gave on that condition to our first parents that they should continue or lose them to posteritie according as themselves either kept or lost them which privation of righteousnesse in respect of God for mans offence is not a sin but a just punishment though in respect of the parents which draw it unto themselves and their posteritie it be a sin which through the conjunction of both is conveyed from the parents unto their children so neither the body alone nor the soul is to be respected but as they joyntly make one man Vse 1. This may meet with the proud hearts of men who are ready to advance themselves in respect of their birth and parentage which if they did truly consider this Doctrine would rather humble them seeing nothing is derived from them but basenesse and corruption their natures being vile contaminats their posteritie and instead of making them honourable doth make them odious in the pure eyes of God yea and most miserable for ever if they be not born again Iohn 3.3 if we got not a better birth then that which we had from our parents it may be said of us as it was said of Iudas it had been better for us that we had never been born Mat. 26.24 It is reported of Diogenes that he told Alexander the great that he could know no difference betwixt the bones of King Philip and other men what he spake of dead men lying in the ground holds true of all men living so long as they lie in the grave of sin there is no difference betwixt the greatest and the meanest for all are by nature sinful and this sin of our nature is conveyed from the fathers to the children so that here is no cause of boasting but rather matter of abasement whereby the best may be humbled upon the sense of this their condition The greatnesse of birth through thy corruption makes thee more uncapable of grace then those of meaner degree You see your calling brethren saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 1.26 and surely so may we now how that not many great men not many noble are called Even greatnesse of birth nobility is a bar oftentimes to keep men from salvation and life eternal though blessed be God some great men are called yet there are but few not many saies the Apostle O what madnesse then is it to rest and glory in our birth in that we were born of such parents and never seek to be born of God This is that which makes men truly honorable when they become truly gratious Hence 1 Sam. 2.30 They that honor God them will God honor As they of Berea Acts 17.11 were more noble then they of Thessalonica shewing the fruits of grace in receiving the word with all readinesse of mind And thus if our nobilitie appears we may take comfort in our estate otherwise we may be abased for the sadnesse of our condition Be not then like the bigger the better hills the higher the barrener but like unto a Diamond Use 2. This may serve to humble all parents in the consideration of those sins that break forth in their childrens lives their pride and stubbornnesse their aversenesse from God and prophannesse all which is by them the cause of great sorrow and humiliation Hence is that of Solomon Prov. 10.1 A foolish Son is the heavinesse of his mother And 17.25 A foolish Son is a grief to his father and bitternesse to her heart that bare him For the root from whence all this evill springeth they had from their Parents the plague-sore of sin was conveighed by them and this they were infected with from their very birth In the time of the plague we count it a great affliction to bring the infection into our houses and set it upon our children and yet we have all done worse to our children then this we have set upon them a farre more dangerous and deadly disease which doth not only slay the body but overthrow the Soul and that everlastingly if God look not in mercy upon them 1 If the Lord was angry with the Serpent and had laid a curse upon it because it was but an instrument used by the Devil for the corrupting of our first parents though it were no cause of it Gen. 3.14 how much more reason hath he to be angry with us that have not only been instruments to convey this cursed contagion of nature into our children but the principall agents and causes of it Oh consider then this you that forget God that have
the irregularitie and disorder of the desire and act is sin either we eat too much or are not contented with that which will suffice nature or desire that which is unwholsome or loath that which would best nourish us or in some measure and degree or other of gluttony the law that is those rules and limitations which God had prescribed in nature unto that facultie is transgressed So thirst becomes drunkennesse and that same cupiditas venerea is changed into lust and so by excesse is made sloth and so of the rest Secondly consider the faculties called Irascibiles and there we see that joy by excesse is turned into voluptuousnesse and sorrow into anxiety that fear becomes horror and anger is turned into fury â—nd hatred into malice 3. Proceed we unto the reasonable faculties and see how hope exceeds by presumption how mercy becomes foolish pitty how zeal runs into superstition and knowledge into heresie and so of all the faculties of man Neither do these only transgresse the law of God by exceeding their limits and prescriptions but also being defective in the measure and intention thereof so fear offends by security and anger by stupidity so hope oftentimes becomes despair and mercy is turned into crueltie so the defect of zeal is dulnesse of spirit and the defect of knowledge is ignorance so of all the rest which I may not now enumerate their inordinate motion is the transgression of the law either on the right hand or on the left either in excesse or defect of their functions and operations so vertue consists in medio as it is in the mean between them of the moderation of these excesses and the supplies of these desires are called vertues or graces by their several effidients vertues by moralists in so much as by education and by the light and strength of nature they are in some measure corrected and graces by Divines because by the power of Gods gratious spirit they are reformed So that to draw all into a sum we may reduce Original sin unto these three hâ—â—d 1. Reatus inobedient to guiltinesse of disobedience against Gods law 2. Defectus boni a defect or wâ—nâ— of all goodnesse in our selves 3. Proclivitas ad malum an inclination unto wickednesse in all things we go about to do The first in respect of the time past the second or the time present and the third of the time to come The one by imputation the other by inhaesion the last by inclination Being in the first place made guilty of sin by the just imputation of the willfull disobedience of our first Parents because we were then in their loins as parts of them that now descend from them and sprung out of them 2 Being thereby made deficient and deprived of all righteousnesse which God had created in us and that happinesse that was intended for us Lastly being then wickedly disposed there being in every part of us as well inferior of the body as superior of the soul a disposition or propensity an inclination or proclivity to erre from the rules of Gods Law wherby we our selves every one of us shall effect or bring to perfection our own finall overthrow or destruction unlesse by the mercy of God it be prevented This is the Catastrophe this is the universall Corruption and subversion of man being every way sinfull both in Semine in Embrione and in Homine Sinfull in his Conception and shaping sinfull in his growth and encreasing and also sinfull in his strength and perfection of being and that not in any mean or remisse degree but in every one of these sin being out of measure sinfull All this and much more then this was the sorrowfull and penitent soul of the Prophet strongly possest and afflicted with all in his deep meditation of sin in this place Where he saith I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me And thus having briefly run over the matter and unfolded the scope and sense of the Text as well as my understanding would serve and therein propounded onely matter of Instruction for the information of our understanding teaching us what we are to know It remains in the next place that we collect out of the precedent discourse such morall documents for the reformation of our lives as may direct us what we are to do Out of which though I may observe many yet I will pitch my thoughts onely upon those two 1. That the dearest Saints so well as the greatest sinners are in their Infancy Originally sinfull 2. That the sin which we are from our very infancy stained withall is conveyed by our Parents unto us Concerning the first Truth you have it here confirmed by the confession of one that is recorded to be a man after Gods own heart and thereby reputed to be a most dear Saint yet for all that pleads not immunity from sin in his very infancie but saith that he was shapen in iniquity and in sin did his mother conceive him Of the same mind with David the Father was Solomon the Son Prov. 22.15 where he laies it down as an undeniable Axiome That foolishnesse is bound up in the heart of a child By which phrase is meant nothing but wickednesse and finn which is on a child as a fardle or pack on a horse back which he can never of himself shake off And this is the ground why the Lord himself speaketh of the whole Nation of the Jewes which were then the onely Church hee had in the world Esay 48.8 Thou wast called a transgressor from the womb Though they were a people in Covenant with God yet in their infancy in the womb a transgressor yea out of the womb so visibly before Circumcision transgressors also According to that of Saint Paul Eph. 2.3 We are all by nature the children of wrath as wel as others Though the chosen of God yet herein can plead no more priviledge from the exemption of this inbred pollution then Judas himself could whom our Saviour calls no lesse then a Devill Ioh. 8.44 Have not I chosen twelve and one of them is a Devill Hence is that of Aug. damnati antequam nati And therefore by some Originall sin is concluded to be not onely a privation but a corrupt habit like unto a disease which beside the privation of health hath humores malé dispositos the humors ill disposed whence it cometh to passe that the imagination of mans heart as the Lord speaks Gen. 8.21 vs evill from his very youth there is a nature prone There is in him a naturall pronesse and disposition to every thing that is evill as there is in the youngest whelp of a Lion or Bear or a Woolfe to cruelty or in the very egge of a Cockatrice before it be hatched which is the comparison which the Holy Ghost useth Esay 59.5 whereupon saies Aug. Concupiscentia lex peccati cum parvulis nascitur Concupiscence which is the Law of sinne is even born with Children And
and therefore concludes nothing against this truth but that the Infants of the dearest Saints are originally sinful R. 3. Because Children are deprived of those supernaturall gifts and endowments which otherwise they should thorough Adam have possest if hee had stood firm to his God It 's true at the first when man was created it was no small part of his happinesse in that primary condition to be ignorant of sin though a Quidditative knowledge perchance of the nature of sin he had by reason of the Law writ in his heart yet a practicall experimentall knowledge he had not he could not have the mishapen brat of sin being then unbegot it was a meer Chimaera an imaginarie Monster having no Existence but in Satans braine the shop and forge of Hell But alas this happinesse being but a dream of happinesse of small continuance through mens ambition he is forthwith stript of it and so becomes not onely a spectacle of misery himself but makes his whole posterity miserable also So that what he acted we in him became equally guilty and liable to the same wrath For so saies the Apostle Rom. 5.12.14 In him we are have sinned that is in Adam and are by nature the children of wrath wofull spectacles of wrath stript of al those excellencies and gifts which in him wee might have enjoyed had he proved obedient to the command of his God But being a wretched progenitor begets a miserable progenie whose blood is so stained with his treason as that they have forfeited all supernaturall gifts and endowments through him and though by the grace of Christ restauration in some measure may he made to the Saints yet are their Infants not freed from this inbred maladie but are by nature originally sinfull Obj. Ezek 18 20. The Son shall not bear the iniquity of the Father Ergo Injustice that Adams posterity should suffer for Adams sin Answ It 's true if he falls not into the same and approves it not but disliketh and avoideth it But we justly bear the iniquity of Adam for these reasons 1. Because the fault is so Adams that it also becomes ours For the Apostle witnesseth We all sinned in him and so his sin becomes ours Secondly because Adams wholâ— nature was guilty and we being as part proceeding out of his substance and masse we cannot but be guilty also our selves Thirdly Because Adam received the gifts of God to be imparted unto us on that condition if himself did retain them or lose them unto us if himself lost them whereas then Adam lost them he lost them not onely in himself but in all his posterity also So that hence it came to passe that all those supernaturall gifts and endowments which he had we are deprived of by reason of his falling from God R. 4. Because Originall sin is peccatum hominis a sin of the whole man whereupon this infection is conveyed by conjunction of both they jointly making one man enter into one condition and so are partakers of each others woe or welfare For though the soul comes immediately from God and so is a pure substance and the body cannot be sinfull without the soul being a dead masse yet as peccatum hominis the sin of the whole mans infection is conveyed by conjunction of both Neither doth this infringe the Iustice of God whatsoever some may say to the contrary to thrust a poor soul into an unclean body For the soul and body are not of God respected as single substances but as they are joyned together to make one man and therefore there is but one Constitution of both The soul in respect of Gods creation is a pure Creature yet it continueth not in that estate one moment for it is created in the midst of the body in an unclean and polluted place and forthwith being coupled to the body begineth to be unclean As a clear water cast into a muddy place becomes suddenly foul So doth the soul when united to the body becomes suddenly sinfull Or as sweet Oyle powred into a fustie vessell loseth its purenesse So the soul infused into the body becometh impure and sinfull The pure soul is infected with the contagion of impure seed as a fair flower is sullied with unclean hands Hence Originall sin is said to be ex carne Causaliter yet is in the soul subjective formaliter And so becoming peccatum hominis the sin of the whole man The Infants of the best become Originally sinfull Use 1. Seeing Infants are originally sinful this may serve in the first place to confute that opinion of the Pelagians who deny that sin cometh by nature but is learned only by example or imitation which if this could be I would gladly know by what example did Cain learn to play the hypocrite or murther his brother who was his president to imitate I read not at that time of any vile wretch besâ—â—es himselfe in the whole world that was guilty of such horrid crimes surely then it must be somewhat within him that must move him to sin so greatly againg the God of heaven and earth which can be nothing but that seminale principium that inbred in lady that David here confesses he was conceived and born in this every man that knows himself knows to be true I appeal to the conscience especially of a good man whether he finds not in his nature an inclination to the foulest sin in the world he that doth not feel this suggestion of concupiscence 〈◊〉 â—â—aâ—â—â— dead in disobedience Awâ—y then with this horrid opinion of the Pelagians which is both contrary to the truth of God and the Saints experience If Infants were not sinfull then they should need no Saviour Christ dyed in vain for them But God hath concluded all under sin that he might have mercy upon all nay how could Infants die if they were not sinful death could have no power over them Rom. 6. ult which sin cannot proceed by imitation then the faculties of Infants should not be corrupted for they cannot imitate neither good nor evil yet they have sin or they could not die If it were possible to keep any children from hearing a ly or seeing the practise of any filthinesse or crueltie yet their very nature upon occasion offered would carrie them to these sins so that you shall find it is not by imitation but by corruption of nature that Infants becomes originally sinful Use 2. This discovers the great necessity of Infants Baptisme which though I do not hold with Suar. Vt si medicus infirmo dixerit nisi hanc acceperis medicinam non sanaberis c. an intrinsecal necessity as he expresseth it by this similitude As if the Physician should say to his Patient unlesse thou take this remedie thou shalt not be healed implying an absolute necessitie without which there can be no salvation yet I hold a necessity of the precept and means it being that Gospel-ordinance of imitation that doth render them Disciples and doth
torments to be much more then any fire can inflict for the pains afflictions and crosses of this life are not to be spoken of in respect of those endless and infinite â—orrowes in the life to come That we suffer here is but a miserable passage to that we shal feel hereâ—fter and rather to be counted blessings then crosses being forcible means which God useth to humble us and as bridles to check our unruly and headstrong lusts yea as wormwood to wean our appetites from the desire of the worlds vanities For howsoever many doe account themselves happy that live in ease and abundance here on earth yet most certain it is that there can be no greater a curse or crosse befal any man in this life then to prosper in the course of sin and iniquity But to return from whence we digressed The miseries of sin shall be farre greater then any thing in this world can resemble when as by the power and just Iudgment of God there shal be such exact and exquisite distemper and pains inflicted upon every part and parcell of man that if all the most forcible torments that ever were invented by the most cruel Tyrants that ever lived were put together they were as nothing in respect of those infinite pains and tortures which man shal everlastingly suffer in hell where the humors shal be both inflamed benumed with unsufferable heat cold where the senses are infected with most loathsome and abominable stenches and savours their eyes terrified with gastly and fearfull spectacles when the affections shal find no refreshing but endlesse grief and afflictions when every joynt shall be disordered and racked in extensum as possibly it can bear when the glandules the muscles and all the fleshie parts shal frie in scorching heat where the entrals and bowels shall perpetually gnaw with continuall griping yea when these shall be filled with everlasting anguish and horror by being banished for ever from the presence of almighty God and the communion of his blessed Saints and Angels and instead thereof astonished with the deceitfull and hideous noise and wailing of wretched souls never to see hope for ease or end of such unspeakable miseries And lastly when those carnifices those damned executioners of Gods judgments the Divels being cast down from the glorious presence of God's Almightie Majesty and suffering the infinite and unsupportable burthen of his justly deserved wrath and anger shal execute their unspeakable malice and furious vengeance upon the miserable bodies and distressed Soules of reprobate and condemned sinners Nay to conclude if all their griefs and diseases all the anguish of mind whereunto the body and soul of men are subject and which all the men from the beginning of the world unto this day have suffered were in the extremity upon any other man and that the soules and bodies by the Almighty power of God were so fastned together and so perpetually conjoyned that there could be no dissolution yet all this must the sinner eternally endure besides infinitely more sorrowes and pains all unspeakable all unconceivable Hence from the causes we define the sin that it is A determinate and wilful transgression of Gods Law depriving all the parts and faculties both of Soule and body of all kind of goodnesse of all kind of righteousnesse in it self of all manner of happinesse which had been the effect and consequent thereof So that having pointed out the disease and considered what it is it remaines in the last place to search out the Original ground whence it springs and proceeds intimated in these words shaping and conceiving Behold I was shapen c. Peccato Originali saith Aug. nihil ad praedicandum notius nihil ad intelligendum secretius There 's nothing more commonly preached and yet nothing more obscurely to be understood then Original sin And iniquitie is a mysterie saies the Scripture neither of which doth imply an impossibilitie but only a difficulty of understanding the depth and secrets thereof and therefore as the search of the knowledge thereof requires deeper speculation so doth the delivery thereof deserve more heedful and serious attention I was shapen in iniquitie I may not now stand to dispute that question which is disputed in the works of some great Divines namely whether propagation and traducing of sin be from the Father or Mother Some collecting and affirming from that Rom. 5. As by one man sin entered into the world c. that sin proceeded only and is derived from the man and if the woman could conceive and bring forth without the man the child be without sin Others again inserting that 1 Tim. 2. That the man was not deceived but the woman was and was in the transgression And also from this of the Prophet in the Text In sin hath my Mother conceived me Inferring I say that it is probable that sin is principally derived from the Mother which question may easily be decided by acknowledging it both waies True that it descends from the man and the woman for under that phrase as by one man may be well implyed both sexes and certain it is that both being Parents and both sinfull they are as well the parents of the sin as of the child But to return to our purpose I was shapen in iniquitie saies the Prophet declaring thereby the original ground and cause of this disease the manner how it became sinful wherein it may be probably objected that in as much as the principal guilt of sin depends upon the efficient cause thereof namely Liberum arbitrium hominis the freewill of man in the wilful disobedience of Gods Law which David never had but was born as all other men captives to their lusts and could not obey the Law if he had been never so willing and which never man had but one Neither was sin in that extense and high nature which the free and malitious a version of the will perpetrated and committed by any one but by that one and that by a transient act many hundred years afore how then can the Prophet be said to be guilty of sin in that kind which onely properly undequaque completly is sin or justly assumâ— the last unto himselfe To which I answer that although the act of our first parents was transient yet the will of that act was permanent and remaineâ— and it is justly reputed unto the Prophet and unto all men that descend from their loyns It standing both with the rule of equitie and righteous judgment justly to attribute and impute that unto us which we as it were did in our progenitors for can any man be more just and equal then to charge every part by that which is committed by the whole for all the generations and successions of men make but one body and every one is member of that body and the whole lease of man is but as one tree whereof our first parents are the root and therefore that sprig which hath but newly sprouted
should live in that perfection and happinesse whereof by nature they were capable There is no imperfection in any creature but man is guilty thereof as being by his sin For cursed is the earth and all things therein for mans sake and why for mans sake but for sin and what is that cursing but the substraction and deprivation of the Lords protection and guidance of the creatures in the lawes and rules of natures law Rightly therefore saies the Prophet I was shapen c. And not only therein doth expresse the whole ground and Original cause of his disease but he adds also that in sin his Mother warmed and cherished him up both root and branches were sinful In consideration whereof it will appear that as the structure and composition of man is most admirable so the corruption of sin in man is most damnable as being a general disturbance of the whole course of nature a pestilent infection universally diffused over all the faculties both of Soul and body For as nature hath severall degrees of perfection and still the former is the ground of the latter so also have these degrees their degrees of infection and still the latter is enforced by the former 1. The first degree of natural perfection in man is esse consisting in the constitution and temperature of the body which is the ground of all motions and life 2. The second is Vegetare by receiving nourishment to encrease and grow to perfection in himselfe 3. The third is Sentire an abilitie to discern and know all outward and corporeal objects and their simple qualities 4. The fourth is ratiocinari by discourse of reason in the contemplation of outward things and to draw out such rules and directions for this life as are consonant to that law which God had established in all things 5. Secundum rationem agere to work and frame all his actions according to their destinated ends namely the preservation of natures perfection and the glory of natures God Now as these degrees of naturall perfection have their dependance the one upon the other in their order so likewise in the infection and diffusion of sin upon the natural qualities do the vital faculties depend upon the vital the animal upon the animal the rationall upon the rational the moral c. 1. For the first if there be an intemperate mixture of cold and heat in the natural constitution as hath been declared there is then do the vital faculties fail in the exercise of tâ—eir functions as too much heat doth inflame the blood encrease choler drie the braine too much cold doth beget melancholy augment flegme hinder digestion dul the spirits and such like 2. If the vital faculties be disordered the animal are distempered thereby as the over abundance of ill humors doth send up noysom and unwholesome fumes into the head which do stupifie the sense dul the imagination and hurt the memory so that if the fantasie and memory be any way impaired then in the third place the reasonable soul is greatly disabled in the exercise of her faculties And lastly if reason be absurd and defect in that it is not able to direct how then can the will execute or perform any thing that is agreeable to Gods Law Behold how great a flame a little fire kindleth for the natural temperature of the first qualities heat and cold c. though in mens ordinary imaginations they are things of small moment or respect and nothing so material and worthy as the superior faculties yet are they so necessary and of such force in the whole frame and constitution of man that upon their goodn sse doth the goodnesse of all the rest depend no otherwise then as the spring or poize in a curious clock which seems to be dull and of no great necessity and yet it is of the greatest power as that which moves all the rest of the wheels for the perfection of a clock is to keep its time and due howers but if the spring or poize be disordered all the rest is disordered if it be too strong then the howers are too short and if slack and loose then are they too long So the natural faculties if too cold then all the rest are dâ—stitute and too remiss if tooo hot then are they too violent and redundant for the disposition and perfection of the Soules working dependeth principally upon the bodies temperature For as the eye the intâ—rmedium that which is interposed betwixt the eye and the object be thick as in a mist it is obscured and the sight made imperfect So the Soul if the Organs those instruments by which it works be disordered and distempered is disabled in the exercise and use of its faculties As for example we see in a drunken man when the stomach is oppressed with a thick and strong moisture the heat of the liver by concoction and digestion rarifies the same there riseth such a fume no otherwise then we see in a boyling pot which ascending up into the head doth so stupifie and distemper the brain the Organ of the understanding imagination and discourse that man thereby that distempers himselfe doth quite lose the use of his reason and the chief faculty of his soul and becomes for the time if not worse even a very beast Even so every man by the distempered mixture of corrupted nature is made either more or lesse defective in the use of the soules vigour and power by how much more or lesse the instruments and organs by which the soul worketh are polluted and distempered From hence it is we see that some men are more quick and active of apprehension and conceit others likewise are stupid and of duller capacity which only proceeds from the good or evil disposition of the parts of the body yea the very best and purest that is begotten by the corrupt generation of man is infinitely farre short of that puritie and quicknesse of capacitie which man by his creation naturally was endued withall From hence therefore may appear the vanity of the Pelagians arguments intending to prove that sin is only learned by imitation because the body cannot work upon the Soul which is a Spirit for though the bodie cannot work upon the substance of the soul yet can it hinder and disorder the operations of the Soul which it is to perform in and by the body for by the bodies corruption and disordered distemper there is either irregularity or iniquity in the manner or confusion and ataxie in the order but especially excesse or defect in them sure of every facultie of and action of man As for example if we survey some particulars and first in those faculties which are called concupiscibles as hunger a natural appetite to create for sustenance and preservation of life and being cannot doe it without sin not that the desire of meat or action of eating is sinfull for it is natural and all that is natural is good as being the work of God but