* But if our consent was in it then either it was included naturally or by an express will of God that made it so It can no way be imagined how our will can be naturally included for we had no natural being We had no life and therefore no action and therefore no consent For it is impossible there should be an act of will in any sense when there is an act of understanding in no sense * But if by a Divine act or decree it became so and not by our act then we onely are said to consent because God would have it so which if we speak intelligibly is to charge God with making us guilty when we were not to say we consented when we did not 8. In pursuance of which argument I consider that whatsoever can be said to consent must have a being either in or out of its causes But our will was not in being or actual existence when Adam sinned it was then in its causes But the soul and so the will of man hath no cause but God it being with the soul immediately created If therefore we sinned we could not sin in our selves for we were not born nor could we sin in Adam for he was not the cause of our will it must therefore be that we sinn'd in God for as was our being so must our action be but our being was then onely in God our will and our soul was in him onely tanquam in suâ causâ therefore in him was our action or consent or what we please to call it Which affirmative what sense or what piety or what probability it can have in it I suppose needs not much inquiry 9. To condemn Infants to hell for the fault of another is to deal worse with them then God did to the very Devils who did not perish but for an act of their own most perfect choice 10. This besides the formality of injustice and cruelty does adde and suppose a circumstance of a strange ungentle contrivance For because it cannot be supposed that God should damn Infants or Innocents without cause it findes out this way that God to bring his purposes to pass should create a guilt for them or bring them into an inevitable condition of being guilty by a way of his inventing For if he did make any such agreement with Adam he beforehand knew that Adam would forfeit all and therefore that unavoidably all his posterity should be surpris'd This is to make pretences and to invent justifications and reasons of his proceedings which indeed are all one as if they were not For he that can make a reason for an action otherwise unjust Qui vult aliquid in causâ vult effectum ex istá causâ profluentem can do it without any reason especially when the reason it self makes the misery as fatal as a decree without a reason And if God cannot be supposed to damn infants without just cause and therefore he so order'd it that a cause should not be wanting but he infallibly and irresistibly made them guilty of Adms sin is not this to resolve to make them miserable and then with scorn to triumph in their sad condition For if they could not deserve to perish without a fault of their own how could they deserve to have such a fault put upon them If it be unjust to damn them without cause is it not also unjust to make a cause for them whether they will or no 11. It is suppos'd and generally taught that before the fall Adam had Original righteousness that is not onely that he was innocent as children new born are of actual sin which seems to be that which Divines call Original righteousness there being no other either taught or reasonable but a rare rectitude of the inner man a just subordination of the inferior faculties to the superior an excellent knowledge and clear light and therefore that he would sin had so little excuse that well it might deserve such a punishment so great as himself suffered Indeed if he had no such rare perfections and rectitude I can say nothing to the particular but to the Question this that if Adam had it not then he could not lose it nor his posterity after him as it is fiercely and mightily pretended that they did But if he had this rectitude and rare endowments what equity is it that his posterity who had no such helps to resist the sin and were so farre from having any helps at all to resist it that they had no notice of it neither of the law nor the danger nor the temptation nor the action till it was past I say what equity is it that his posterity should in the midst of all these imperfections be equally punished with him who sinned against so great a light and so mighty helps 12. Infants cannot justly perish for Adams sin unless it be just that their wills should be included in his will and his will justly become theirs by interpretation Now if so I ask Whether before that sin of Adam were our wills free or not free For if we had any will at all it must be free or not free If we had none at all how could it be involv'd in his Now if our wills were free why are they without our act and whether we will or no involv'd in the will of another If they were not free how could we be guilty * If they were free then they could also dissent If they were not free then they could not consent and so either they never had or else before Adams fall they lost their liberty 13. But if it be inquired seriously I cannot imagine what can be answered Could we prevent the sin of Adam could we hinder it were we ever ask'd Could we if we had been ask'd after we were born a moneth have given our negative Or could we do more before we were born then after were we or could we be tied to prevent that sin Did not God know that we could not in that case dissent And why then shall our consent be taken in by interpretation when our dissent could not be really acted But if at that time we could not dissent really could we have dissented from Adams sin by interpretation If not then we could dissent no way and then it was inevitably decreed that we should be ruin'd for neither really nor by interpretation could we have dissented But if we could by interpretation have dissented it were certainly more agreeable to Gods goodnesse to have interpreted for us in the better sense rather then in the worse being we did neither really and actually and if God had so pleased he rather might with his goodnesse have interpreted us to have dissented then he could with justice have interpreted us to have consented and therefore certainly he did so or would have done if there had been need 14. Lastly the Consequent of these is this That because God is true and just and wise and good and
and his manners are covered and overturn'd In Sophisticâ Homines not urâ sunt mali non possunt induci ut justitiam colant lib. 2 de Rep. And when Plato had fiercely reprov'd the baseness of mens manners by saying that they are even naturally evil he reckons two causes of it which are the diseases of the Soul but contracted he knew not how Ignorance and Improbity which he supposes to have been the remains of that baseness they had before they entred into bodies whither they were sent as to a prison This is our natural uncleanness and imperfection and from such a principle we are to expect proper and proportion'd effects and therefore we may well say with Job What is man that he should be clean Job 15.14 and he which is born of a woman that he should be righteous That is our imperfections are many and we are with unequal strengths call'd to labor for a supernatural purchase and when our spirit is very willing even then our flesh is very weak And yet it is worse if we compare our selves as Job does to the purities and perfections of God in respect of which as he sayes of us men in our imperfect state so he sayes also of the Angels or the holy Ones of God and of the Heaven it self that it is also unclean and impure for the cause and verification of which we must look out something besides Original sin * Adde to this that vice is pregnant and teeming and brings forth new instances numerous as the spawn of fishes such as are inadvertency carelesness tediousness of spirit and these also are causes of very much evil §. 5. Of liberty of Election remaining after Adams fall UPon this account besides that the causes of an universal impiety are apparent without any need of laying Adam in blame for all our follies and miseries or rather without charging them upon God who so order'd all things as we see and feel the universal wickedness of man is no argument to prove our will servile and the powers of election to be quite lost in us excepting onely that we can choose evil For admitting this proposition that there can be no liberty where there is no variety yet that all men choose sin is not any testimony that there is no variety in our choice If there were but one sin in the world and all men did choose that it were a shrewd suspicion that they were naturally determin'd or strongly precipitated But every man does not choose the same sin nor for the same cause neither does he choose it alwayes but frequently declines it hates it and repents of it many men even among the Heathens did so So that the objection hinders not but that choice and election still remains to a man and that he is not naturally sinful as he is naturally heavy or upright apt to laugh or weep For these he is alwayes and unavoidably And indeed the contrary doctrine is a destruction of all laws it takes away reward and punishment and we have nothing whereby we can serve God And precepts of holiness might as well be preached to a Wolf as to a Man if man were naturally and inevitably wicked Improbitas nullo flectitur obsequio There would be no use of reason or of discourse no deliberation or counsel and it were impossible for the wit of man to make sense of thousands of places of Scripture which speak to us as if we could hear and obey or could refuse Why are promises made and threatnings recorded Why are Gods judgements registred to what purpose is our reason above and our affections below if they were not to minister to and attend upon the will But upon this account it is so farre from being true that man after his fall did forfeit his natural power of election that it seems rather to be encreased For as a mans knowledge grows so his will becomes better attended and ministred unto But after his fall his knowledge was more then before he knew what nakedness was and had experience of the difference of things he perceiv'd the evil and mischief of disobedience and the Divine anger he knew fear and flight new apprehensions and the trouble of a guilty conscience by all which and many other things he grew better able and instructed with arguments to obey God and to refuse sin for the time to come And it is every mans case a repenting man is wiser and hath oftentimes more perfect hatred of sin then the innocent and is made more wary by his fall But of this thing God himself is witness Ecce homo tanquam singularis ex se ipso habet scire bonum malum So the Chaldee Paraphrase reades Gen. 3.22 Our Bibles reade thus And the Lord God said Behold the man is become as one of us to know good and evil Now as a consequent of this knowledge God was pleased by ejecting him out of Paradise to prevent his eating of the Tree of Life Ne fortè mittat manum suam in arborem vitae Meaning that now he was grown wise and apt to provide himself and use all such remedies as were before him He knew more after his fall then before therefore ignorance was not the punishment of that sin and he that knows more is better enabled to choose and lest he should choose that which might prevent the sentence of death put upon him God cast him from thence where the remedy did grow Upon the authority of this place Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon hath these words Potest as libera unicuique data est Si vult inclinare se ad bonum esse justus penes ipfum est Sin vult se ad malum inclinare esse impius hoc ipsum penes est Hoc illud est quod in lege scribitur Ecce homo tanquam singularis ex seipso habet scire bonum malum To every man is given a power that he may choose and be inclined to good if he please or else if he please to do evil For this is written in the Law Behold the man is as a single one of himself now he knows good and evil as if he had said Behold mankinde is in the world without its like and can of his own counsel and thought know good and evil in either of these doing what himself shall choose Si lapsus es poteris surgere In utramvis partem habes liberum arbitrium In 50. Psa Hom 2. saith S. Chrysostome If thou hast fallen thou mayest rise again That which thou art commanded to doe thou hast power to doe Thou mayest choose either I might be infinite in this but I shall onely adde this one thing That to deny to the will of man powers of choice and election or the use of it in the actions of our life destroys the immortality of the Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Hierocles Humane Nature is in danger to be lost if it diverts to that which
provokes God to anger but that anger can be as soon rescinded as the act is past if it remains not by something that is habitual Indeed he is called a thief or an adulterer that does one action of those crimes because his consent in such things is great enough to equal a habit in lesser things The effect is notorious the prohibition severe the dangers infinite the reasons of them evident they are peccata vastantia conscientiam quae uno actu perimunt as S. Austin says they kill with one blow and therefore God exacts them highly and men call the criminal by the name of the vice But the action gives denomination but in some cases but the habit in all No man lives without sin and in the state of regeneration our infirmities still press upon us and make our hands shake and our foot to stumble and sometimes the enemy makes an inroad and is presently beaten out again and though the good man resolves against all and contends against all Pauca tamon suberunt priscae vestigia fraudis there will be something for him to be humbled at somthing to contest against to keep him watchful and upon his guard But if he be ebriosus or petulans if he be a drunkard or wanton an extortioner or covetous that is if he have a habit of any sin whatsoever then he is not the son of God but an heir of death and hell That therefore which in all cases denominates a man such both before God and before men when the actions do not that must needs have in it a proper malignity of its own and that 's the habit 4. This we may also see evidently in the matter of smaller sins the trifles of our life which though they be often repeated yet if they be kept asunder by the intercision of the actions of repentance doe not discompose our state of grace but if they be habitual they doe though it may be the single instances by some accident being hindred do not so often return and this is confess'd on all hands But then the consequent of this is that the very being habitual is a special irregularity 5. This also appears by the nature and malignity of the greater sins A vicious habit is a principle of evil naturally and directly And therefore as the capital sins are worse then others because they are an impure root and apt to produce accursed fruits as covetousness is the root of all evil and pride and envy and idolatry so is every habit the mother of evil not accidentally and by chance but by its proper efficacy and natural germination and therefore is worse then single actions 6. If natural concupiscence hath in it the nature of sin and needs a laver of regeneration and the blood of Christ to wash it off much more shall our habitual and acquir'd concupiscence For this is much worse procur'd by our own act introduc'd by our consent brought upon us by the wrath of God which we have deserv'd springing from the baseness of our own manners the consequent of our voluntary disobedience So that if it were unreasonable that our natural concupiscence should be charged upon us as criminal as being involuntary yet for the same reason it is most reasonable that our habitual sins our superinduc'd concupiscence should be imputed to us as criminal because it is voluntary in its cause which is in us and is voluntary in the effect that is it is delighted in seated in the will But however this argument ought to prevail upon all that admit the article of original sin as it is usually taught in Schools Churches For upon the denial of it Pelagius also introduc'd this opinion against which I am now disputing And lest concupiscence might be reckon'd a sin he affirm'd that no habitude no disposition nothing but an act could be a sin But on the other side lest concupiscence should be accounted no sin Lib. de peccat Grig cap. 6. 13. S. Austin disputes earnestly largely affirming and proving that a sinful habit is a special sinfulness distinct from that of evil actions malus thesaurus cordis the evil treasure of the heart out of which proceeds all mischief and a continual defluxion of impurities 7. And therefore as God severely forbids every single action of sin so with greater caution he provides that we be not guilty of a sinful habit Rom. 6.13 20. Let not sin reign in your mortal bodies we must not be servants of sin not sold under sin that sin have no dominion over us That is not onely that we doe not repeat the actions of sin but that we be not enslaved to it under the power of it of such a lost liberty that we cannot resist the temptation For he that is so is guilty before God although no temptation comes Such are they whom S. Peter notes that cannot cease from sin And indeed we cannot but confess the reasonableness of this For all men hate such persons whose minds are habitually averse from them who watch for opportunities to do them evil offices who lose none that are offered who seek for more who delight in our displeasure who oftentimes effect what they maliciously will Saul was Davids enemy even when he was asleep For the evil will and the contradicting minde and the spiteful heart are worse then the crooked or injurious hand And as grace is a principle of good so is this of evil and therefore as the one denominates the subject gracious so the other sinful both of them inherent that given by God this introduc'd by our own unworthiness * He that sins in a single act does an injury to God but he that does it habitually he that cannot do otherwise is his essential enemy The first is like an offending servant who deserves to be thrown away but in a vicious habit there is an antipathy The Man is Gods enemy as a Wolf to the Lamb as the Hyaena to the Dog He that commits a single sin hath stain'd his skin and thrown dirt upon it but an habitual sinner is an Ethiop Jer. 13.23 and must be flayed alive before his blackness will disappear 8. A man is called just or unjust by reason of his disposition to and preparation for an act and therefore much more for the habit Paratum est cor meum Deus O God my heart is ready my heart is ready and S. John had the reward of Martyrdome because he was ready to die for his Lord though he was not permitted and S. Austin affirms De bono conjugat c. 21. that the continency of Abraham was as certainly crown'd as the continence of John it being as acceptable to God to have a chaste spirit as a virgin body that is habitual continence being as pleasing as actual Thus a man may be a Persecutor or a Murtherer if he have a heart ready to do it and if a lustful soul be an Adulteress because the desire is
all spoken against this neither can they unless they also affirm that to arrive at Heaven was the natural end of man For if it be not then neither we nor Adam could by Nature doe things above Nature and if God did concreate Grace with Adam that Grace was nevertheless Grace for being given him as soon as he was made For even the holy Spirit may be given to a Chrysome childe and Christ and S. John Baptist and the Prophet Jeremy are in their several measures and proportions instances of it The result of which is this That the necessity of Grace does not suppose that our Nature is originally corrupted for beyond Adams meer Nature something else was necessary and so it is to us 2. But to the main objection I answer That it is certain there is not onely one but many common principles from which sin derives it self into the manners of all men 1. The first great cause of an universal impiety is that at first God had made no promises of Heaven he had not propounded any glorious rewards to be as an argument to support the superior faculty against the inferior that is to make the will choose the best and leave the worst and to be as a reward for suffering contradiction For if the inferior faculty be pleas'd with its object and that chance to be forbidden as it was in most instances there had need be something to make recompence for the suffering the displeasure of crossing that appetite I use the common manner of speaking and the distinction of superior and inferior faculties though indeed in nature there is no such thing and it is but the same faculty divided between differing objects of which I shall give an account in the Ninth Chapter § 3. But here I take notice of it that it may not with prejudice be taken to the disadvantage of this whole Article For if there be no such difference of faculties founded in Nature then the rebellion of the inferior against the superior is no effect of Adams sin But the inclination to sensual objects being chastis'd by laws and prohibitions hath made that which we call the rebellion of the inferior that is the adherence to sensual objects which was the more certain to remain because they were not at first enabled by great promises of good things to contest against sensual temptations And because there was no such thing in that period of the world therefore almost all flesh corrupted themselves excepting Abel Seth Enos and Enoch we finde not one good man from Adam to Noah and therefore the Apostle calls that world 2 Pet. 2.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the world of the ungodly It was not so much wonder that when Adam had no promises made to enable him to contest his natural concupiscence he should strive to make his condition better by the Devils promises If God had been pleased to have promis'd to him the glories he hath promised to us it is not to be suppos'd he had fallen so easily But he did not and so he fell and all the world followed his example and most upon this account till it pleas'd God after he had tried the world with temporal promises and found them also insufficient to finish the work of his graciousness and to cause us to be born anew by the revelations and promises of Jesus Christ 2. A second cause of the universal iniquity of the world is because our Nature is so hard put to it in many instances not because Nature is originally corrupted but because Gods laws command such things which are a restraint to the indifferent and otherwise lawful inclinations of Nature I instance in the matters of Temperance Abstinence Patience Humility Self-denial and Mortification But more particularly thus A man is naturally inclined to desire the company of a woman whom he fancies This is naturally no sin for the natural desire was put into us by God and therefore could not be evil But then God as an instance and trial of our obedience put fetters upon the indefinite desire and determin'd us to one woman which provision was enough to satisfie our need but not all our possibility This therefore he left as a reserve that by obeying God in the so reasonable restraint of our natural desire we might give him something of our own * But then it is to be considered that our unwillingness to obey in this instance or in any of the other cannot be attributed to Original sin or natural disability deriv'd as a punishment from Adam because the particular instances were postnate a long time to the fall of man and it was for a long time lawful to do some things which now are unlawful But our unwillingness and aversness came by occasion of the law coming cross upon our nature not because our nature is contrary to God but because God was pleas'd to superinduce some Commandements contrary to our nature For if God had commanded us to eat the best meats and drink the richest wines as long as they could please us and were to be had I suppose it will not be thought that Original sin would hinder us from obedience But because we are forbidden to do some things which naturally we desire to do and love therefore our nature is hard put to it and this is the true state of the difficulty Sen. lib. 3. Quaest Natur. c. 3. Citò nequitia subrepit virtus difficilis inventa est Wickedness came in speedily but vertue was hard and difficult 3. But then besides these there are many concurrent causes of evil which have influence upon communities of men such as are Evil examples the similitude of Adams transgression vices of Princes wars impunity ignorance error false principles flattery interest fear partiality authority evil laws heresie schisme spite and ambition natural inclination and other principiant causes which proceeding from the natural weakness of humane constitution are the fountain and proper causes of many consequent evils Quis dabit mundum ab immundo Job 14.14 saith Job How can a clean thing come from an unclean We all naturally have great weaknesses and an imperfect constitution apt to be weary loving variety ignorantly making false measures of good and evil made up with two appetites that is with inclination to several objects serving to contrary interests a thing between Angel and Beast and the later in this life is the bigger ingredient Hominem à Naturâ noverca in lucem edi corpore nudo fragili atque infirmo animo anxio ad molestias humili ad timores debili ad labores proclivi ad libidines in quo Divinus ignis sit obrutus ingenium mores Lib. 4. contra Julianum So Cicero as S. Austin quotes him Nature hath like a stepmother sent man into the world with a naked body a frail and infirm minde vex'd with troubles dejected with fears weak for labours prone to lusts in whom the Divine fire and his wit
well done are great advantages to our state and yet we are hardly brought to them and love not to stay at them and wander while we are saying them and say them without minding and are glad when they are done or when we have a reasonable excuse to omit them A passion does quite overturn all our purposes and all our principles and there are certain times of weakness in which any temptation may prevail if it comes in that unlucky minute This is a little representment of the state of man whereof a great part is a natural impotency and the other is brought in by our own folly Concerning the first when we discourse it is as if one describes the condition of a Mole or a Bat an Oyster or a Mushrome concerning whose imperfections no other cause is to be inquired of but the will of God who gives his gifts as he please and is unjust to no man by giving or not giving any certain proportion of good things And supposing this loss was brought first upon Adam and so descended upon us yet we have no cause to complain for we lost nothing that was ours Praeposterum est said Paulus the Lawyer antè nos locupletes dici quà m acquisierimus We cannot be said to lose what we never had and our fathers goods were not to descend upon us unless they were his at his death If therefore they be confiscated before his death ours indeed is the inconvenience too but his alone is the punishment and to neither of us is the wrong But concerning the second I mean that which is superinduc'd it is not his fault alone nor ours alone and neither of us is innocent we all put in our accursed Symbol for the debauching of our spirits for the besotting our souls for the spoiling our bodies Ille initium induxit debiti S. Chrys in cap. 6. Ephes nos foenus auximus posterioribus peccatis c. He began the principal and we have increas'd the interest This we also finde well expressed by Justin Martyr for the Fathers of the first ages spake prudently and temperately in this Article as in other things Christ was not born or crucified because himself had need of these things but for the sake of mankinde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dial. cum Tryph. which from Adam fell into death and the deception of the Serpent besides the evil which every one addes upon his own account And it appears in the greatest instance of all even in that of natural death which though it was natural yet from Adam it began to be a curse just as the motion of a Serpent upon his belly which was concreated with him yet upon this story was changed into a malediction and an evil adjunct But though Adam was the gate and brought in the head of death yet our sins brought him in further we brought in the body of death Our life was left by Adam a thousand years long almost but the iniquity of man brought it quickly to 500 years from thence to 250 from thence to 120 and at last to seventy and then God would no more strike all mankinde in the same manner but individuals and single sinners smart for it and are cut off in their youth and do not live out half their dayes And so it is in the matters of the soul and the spirit Every sin leaves an evil upon the soul and every age grows worse and addes some iniquity of its own to the former examples And therefore Tertullian calls Adam mali traducem he transmitted the original and exemplar and we write after his copy Infirmitatis ingenitae vitium so Arnobius calls our natural baseness we are naturally weak and this weakness is a vice or defect of Nature and our evil usages make our natures worse like Butchers being us'd to kill beasts their natures grow more savage and unmerciful so it is with us all If our parents be good yet we often prove bad as the wilde olive comes from the branch of a natural olive or as corn with the chaff come from clean grain and the uncircumcised from the circumcised But if our parents be bad it is the less wonder if their children are so a Blackamore begets a Blackamore as an Epileptick son does often come from an Epileptick father and hereditary diseases are transmitted by generation so it is in that viciousness that is radicated in the body for a lustful father oftentimes begets a lustful son and so it is in all those instances where the soul follows the temperature of the body And thus not onely Adam but every father may transmit an Original sin or rather an Original viciousness of his own For a vicious nature or a natural improbity when it is not consented to is not a sin but an ill disposition Philosophy and the Grace of God must cure it but it often causes us to sin before our reason our higher principles are well attended to But when we consent to and actuate our evil inclinations we spoil our natures and make them worse making evil still more natural For it is as much in our nature to be pleased with our artificial delights as with our natural And this is the doctrine of S. Austin speaking of Concupiscence Lib. 1. de nupt conâ—â—p c. 23. Modo quodam loquendi vocatur peccatum quòd peccato facta est peccati si vicerit facit reum Concupiscence or the viciousness of our Nature is after a certain manner of speaking called sin because it is made worse by sin and makes us guilty of sin when it is consented to It hath the nature of sin so the Article of the Church of England expresses it that is it is in eâdem materiâ it comes from a weak principle à naturae vitio from the imperfect and defective nature of man and inclines to sin But that I may again use S. Austins words Quantum ad nos attinet Lib 2. ad Julian sine peccato semper essemus donec sanaretur hoc malum si ei nunquam consentiremus ad malum Although we all have concupiscence yet none of us all should have any sin if we did not consent to this concupiscence unto evil Concupiscence is Naturae vitium but not peccatum a defect or fault of nature but not formally a sin which distinction we learn from S. Austin Ibid. Non enim talia sunt vitia quae jam peccata dicenda sunt Concupiscence is an evil as a weak eye is but not a sin if we speak properly till it be consented to and then indeed it is the parent of sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so S. James it brings forth sin This is the vile state of our natural viciousness and improbity and misery in which Adam had some but truly not the biggest share and let this consideration sink as deep as it will in us to make us humble and careful but let us not use it as an excuse to lessen
answered 272 51 Objections against the repentance of Clinicks 281 57. 277 56. 284 64 Heathens newly baptised if they die immediately need not repentance 284 64 The objection concerning the thief on the Cross answered 288 289 Testimonies of the Ancients against death bed repentance 292 66 The manner of repentance in habitual sinners who begin repentance betimes 305 1 The manner of repentance which habitual sins must be cured by in them who return not till old age 317 12 The usage of sinners who repent not till their death-bed 325 25 Considerations shewing how dangerous it is to delay repentance 325 25 Considerations to be opposed against the despair of penitent Clinicks 329 29 What hopes penitent Clinicks have taken out of the writings of the Fathers of the Church 330 30 The manner how the ancient Church treated penitent Clinicks 3â—7 5 The particular acts and parts of repentance that are fittest for a dying man 339 32 The penitent in the opinion of the Jewish Doctors preferred above the just and innocent 530 5 The practice of the Primitive Fathers about penitent Clinicks 539 the practice of the ancient Fathers excluding from repentance murderers adulterers and idolaters 540 Penitential sorrow is rather in the understanding then the affections 586 12 penitential sorrow is not to be estimated by the measures of sense 588 15 590 17 a double solemne imposition of hands in repentance 633 as our repentance is so is our pardon 649 a man must not judge of his repentance by his tears nor by any one manner of expression 658 1 He that suspects his repentance should use that suspicion as a means to improve his repentance 660 Meditations that will dispose the heart to repentance ibid. No man can be said truly to have grieved for sins which at any time after he remembers with pleasure 662 7 the repentance of Clinicks 667 13 sorrow for sin is but a sign or instrument of repentance 668 14 Restitution considered as a part of repentance 656 84 Romans 7.14 exp 261 40 6.7 exp 266 44 7.7 exp 311 5 5.12 exp 363 7 5.13 14. exp 365 11 7.23 exp 400 50 455 8 7.15 19. exp 454 6 456 9 S. Aug. restrained the words of the Apostle R m 7.15 to the matter of desires and concupiscence and excluded all evil actions from the meaning of that text 463 17 reasons against the interpretation of that Father 465 18 7.9 exp 468 23 8.7 exp 478 29 7.22 23. exp 480 29 5.10 exp 576 77 Revelation 19.9 exp 284 62 Religion if it be seated onely in the understanding not accepted to salvation 476 28 S SAcrament Church of God used to deny the Sacrament to no dying penitent that desired it 330 29 Of confeshon to a Minister in preparation to the Sacrament 678 25 1 Sam 2.25 exp 561 51 Satisfaction what it signified in the sense of the Ancients 644 72 606 34 645 the Ancients did not beleeve satisfactions simply necessary to the procuring of pardon from God 651 78 Sins are not equal 104 5 How they are made greater or less ibid. No sin is ven al 110 9 the smallest sins are destructive of our friendship with God 111 12 the Doctors of the Roman Church doe not rightly define venial sins ibid. the smallest is against charity 123 24 and is turning from God 125 26 the smaller the sin the less excusable if done with observation 127 27 Venial sins distinguished into such as are venial by the imperfection of the agent by the smalness of the matter or venial in the whole kinde 128 28 that no sins are venial in their nature or whole kinde 129 31 sins differ in degree but not in their essential order to punishment 132 33 No sins are venial but by repentance 134 34 The absurdity of the Romane doctrines concerning venial sins 138 39 the inconveniences following from the doctrine of venial sins 137 35 c. Among the ancients the distinction of sins into mortal and venial means not a distinction of kinde but degree 142 44 some sins destroy not holiness 144 45 the distinction of sins into mortal and venial cannot have influence on us to any good purposes 145 46 What sins are venial cannot be known to us 147 47 we should have judged some sins venial if it had not been otherwise revealed in Scripture 148 48 sins that we account in their nature venial may by their multitude become damnable 152 52 the means of expiating venial sins appointed by some Romane Doctors 157 57 Whether every single deliberate act of sin put the sinner out of Gods favour 182 22 single acts of sin without a habit give a denomination 185 25 sins are damnable that cannot be habitual 184 24 single acts of mortal sin displease God and are forbidden but are not a state of death 188 29 what repentance single acts of sin require 198 43 how a single act of sin sometimes is habitual 202 49 sin often in Scripture used for the punishment of sin 368 15 leaving of fin the best sign of hatred of it 603 7 How sin can be consistent with the regenerate estate 485 33 he that leaves a sin out of fear may be accepted 491 the violence of a temptation doth not in the whole excuse sin 511 58 Of the pardon of sins after Baptism 532 7 some sins styled unpardonable but in a limited sense 542 21 God punishes not one sin with another 682 One sin may cause or procure another ibid. Sin Original cap 6 362 whether we from Adam derive Original ignorance 373 22 Adams sin made us not heirs of damnation 375 22 nor makes us necessarily vicious 383 37 Adams sin did not corrupt our nature by a physical efficiency 383 39 nor because we were in the loyns of Adam 384 40 nor because of the will and decree of God 386 41 the principles by which sin pollutes the manners of men 413 66 Sins of Infirmity cap. 7 per tot That which some men call a state of infirmity is a state of sin and death 473 25 Sinner how every sinner is Gods enemy 81.11 God is ready to forgive all and the greatest sinners 530. Sorrow as a fruit of repentance 647 Rules concerning sorrow that is a part of repentance 663 A caution to those that minister comfort to such as are afflicted with immoderate sorrow for their sins 665 10 sorrow for sin is but a sign or instrument of repentance 668 14 cautions concerning the measures of this sorrow 686 30 penitential sorrow is rather in the understanding then the affections 586 12 Scripture the manner of it is to include the consequents in the antecedents 284 62 Spirit the rule of the spirit in us 481 to have received the spirit is not an inseparable propriety of the regenerate 493 39 what the spirit of God doth in us 494 the regenerate man hath not onely received the spirit of God but is wholly led by him 498 42 Supererogation what it is 49 17 T TEars A man by them must not judge of his repentance nor by any other one way of expression 658 1 Temptation every temptation to sin if overcome increases not the reward 234 7 No man is tempted of God 437 10 the violence of a temptation doth not in the whole excuse sin 511 58 Thief on the Cross why his repentance was accepted 289 65 1 Timoth. 5.22 exp 548 31 Titus 3.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exp 477 28 V VErtue The difference of vertue is in relation to their objects 206 56 Theology findeth a medium between vertue and vice 268 47 Vnderstanding Religion if it be seated onely in the understanding not accepted to salvation 476 28 Voluntary whether disobedience that is voluntary in the cause but not in the effect is to be punished 388 43 389 390 unwilingness unto sin no sign of regeneration 486 W WIll Of Freewill 418 a mans will hath no infirmity 512 60 the will is not moved necessarily by the understanding ibid. Works covenant of works when it began 1. reasons shewing the justice of that dispensation of Gods beginning his entercourse with man by the covenant of works 6. the Law of works imposed on Adam only 39 1 Y YOung Sins of infirmity not accounted to young men as to others 510 57 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 178 14 The End
used in Polybius Suidas and Varâ—nu◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is eâ condition for that cause or condition and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad quid ades are the words of the Gospel as Suidas quotes them 3. Although 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in whom or in him yet it is so very seldome or infrequent that it were intolerable to do violence to this place to force it to an unnatural signification 4. If it did alwayes signifie the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or in him which it does not yet we might very well follow the same reading we now do and which the Apostles discourse does infer for even 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does divers times signifie forasmuch or for that as is to be seen in Rom. 8.3 and Heb. 2.18 But 5. supposing all that can be and that it did signifie in whom yet the sense were fair enough as to the whole article for by him or in him we are made sinners that is brought to an evil state of things usually consequent to sinners we are us'd like sinners by him or in him just as when a sinner is justified he is treated like a righteous person as if he had never sinned though he really did sin oftentimes and this for his sake who is made righteousness to us so in Adam we are made sinners that is treated ill and afflicted though our selves be innocent of that sin which was the occasion of our being us'd so severely for other sins of which we were not innocent But how this came to pass is told in the following words For untill the law sin was in the world V. 13 14. but sin is not imputed when there is no law Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression who is the figure of him that was to come By which discourse it appears that S. Paul does not speak of all mankinde as if the evil occasion'd by Adams sin did descend for ever upon that account but it had a limited effect and reach'd onely to those who were in the interval between Adam and Moses This death was brought upon them by Adam that is death which was threatned to Adam onely went forth upon them also who indeed were sinners but not after the similitude of Adams transgression that is who sinn'd not so capitally as he did For to sin like Adam is used as a Tragical and a high expression Hos 6.7 So it is in the Prophet They like men have transgressed so we reade it but in the Hebrew it is They like Adam have transgressed and yet death pass'd upon them that did not sin after the similitude of Adam for Abel and Seth and Abraham and all the Patriarchs died Enoch onely excepted and therefore it was no wonder that upon the sin of Adam death entred upon the world who generally sinn'd like Adam since it passed on and reigned upon less sinners * It reigned upon them whose sins therefore would not be so imputed as Adams was because there was no law with an express threatning given to them as was to Adam but although it was not wholly imputed upon their own account yet it was imputed upon theirs and Adams For God was so exasperated with Mankinde that being angry he would still continue that punishment even to the lesser sins and sinners which he onely had first threatned to Adam and so Adam brought it upon them They indeed in rigour did themselves deserve it but if it had not been for that provocation by Adam they who sinn'd not so bad and had not been so severely and expresly threatned had not suffer'd so severely * The case is this Jonathan and Michal were Sauls children it came to pass that seven of Sauls issue were to be hanged all equally innocent equally culpable David took the five sons of Michal for she had left him unhandsomely Jonathan was his friend and therefore he spar'd his son Mephibosheth Here it was indifferent as to the guilt of the persons whether David should take the sons of Michal or of Jonathan but it is likely that as upon the kindeness which David had to Jonathan he spar'd his son so upon the just provocation of Michal he made that evil to fall upon them of which they were otherwise capable which it may be they should not have suffered if their Mother had been kinde Adam was to God as Michal to David But there was in it a further design for by this dispensation of death Adam was made a figure of Christ So the Apostle expresly affirms who is the figure of him that was to come that as death pass'd upon the posterity of Adam though they sinn'd less then Adam so life should be given to the followers of Christ though they were imperfectly righteous that is not after the similitude of Christs perfection But for the further clearing the Article depending upon the right understanding of these words these two things are observable 1. That the evil of death descending upon Adams posterity for his sake went no further then till Moses For after the giving of Moses law death passed no further upon the account of Adams transgression but by the sanction of Moses law where death was anew distinctly and expresly threatned as it was to Adam and so went forward upon a new score but introduc'd first by Adam that is he was the cause at first and till Moses also he was in some sense the author and for ever after the precedent and therefore the Apostle said well In Adam we all die his sin brought in the sentence in him it began and from him it passed upon all the world though by several dispensations 2. In the discourse of the Apostle those that were nam'd were not consider'd simply as born from Adam and therefore it did not come upon the account of Natural or Original corruption but they were consider'd as Sinners just as they who have life by Christ are not consider'd as meerly children by title or spiritual birth and adoption but as just and faithful But then this is the proportion and purpose of the Apostle as God gives to these life by Christ which is a greater thing then their imperfect righteousness without Christ could have expected so here also this part of Adams posterity was punish'd with death for their own sin but this death was brought upon them by Adam that is the rather for his provocation of God by his great transgression There is now remaining no difficulty but in the words of the 19 verse By one mans disobedience many were made sinners Concerning which I need not make use of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or many whom sometimes S. Paul calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all and many that is all from Adam to Moses but they are but many and not all in respect of
Cyril adv Anthrop He was mortal of himself and we are mortal from him Dial. adv Tryph. Peccando Adam posteros morti subjecit universos huic delicto obnoxios reddit said Justin Martyr Adam by his sin made all his posterity liable to the sin and subjected them to death One explicates the other Lib. 3. Ep. 8. and therefore S. Cyprian calls Original sin Malum domesticum contagium mortis antiquae primâ nativitate contractum His sin infected us with death and this infection we derive in our birth that is we are born mortal Adams sin was imputed to us unto a natural death in him we are sinners as in him we die But this sin is not real and inherent but imputed onely to such a degree So S. Cypriam affirms most expresly .... infans recens natus nihil peccavit nisi quòd secundum Adam carnalitèr natus contagium mortis antiquae primâ nativitate contraxit An infant hath not sinn'd save onely that being carnally born of Adam in his first birth he hath contracted the contagion of the old death This evil which is the condition of all our natures viz. to die was to some a punishment but to others not so It was a punishment to all that sinn'd both before Moses and since upon the first it fell as a consequent of Gods anger upon Adam as I before discours'd upon the latter it fell as a consequent of that anger which was threatned in Moses law But to those who sinned not at all as Infants and Innocents it was meerly a condition of their nature and no more a punishment then to be a childe is It was a punishment of Adams sin because by his sin humane Nature became disrob'd of their preternatural immortality and therefore upon that account they die but as it related to the persons it was not a punishment not an evil afflicted for their sin or any guiltiness of their own properly so called We finde nothing else in Scripture express'd to be the effect of Adams sin and beyond this without authority we must not go Other things are said but I finde no warrant for them in that sense they are usually suppos'd and some of them in no sense at all The particulars commonly reckoned are that from Adam we derive an Original ignorance a proneness to sin a natural malice a fomes or nest of sin imprinted and plac'd in our souls a loss of our wills liberty and nothing is left but a liberty to sin which liberty upon the summe of affairs is expounded to be a necessity to sin and the effect of all is we are born heirs of damnation Concerning Original or Natural ignorance it is true we derive it from our Parents I mean we are born with it but I do not know that any man thinks that if Adam had not sinn'd that sin Cain should have been wise as soon as his Navel had been cut Neither can we guess at what degree of knowledge Adam had before his fall Certainly if he had had so great a knowledge it is not likely he would so cheaply have sold himself and all his hopes out of a greedy appetite to get some knowledge But concerning his posterity indeed it is true a childe cannot speak at first nor understand and if as Plato said all our knowledge is nothing but memory it is no wonder a child is born without knowledge But so it is in the wisest men in the world they also when they see or hear a thing first think it strange and could not know it till they saw or heard it Now this state of ignorance we derive from Adam as we do our Nature which is a state of ignorance and all manner of imperfection but whether it was not imperfect and apt to fall into forbidden instances even before his fall we may best guess at by the event for if he had not had a rebellious appetite and an inclination to forbidden things by what could he have been tempted and how could it have come to pass that he should sin Indeed this Nature was made worse by sin and became devested of whatsoever it had extraordinary and was left naked and meer and therefore it is not onely an Original imperfection which we inherit but in the sense now explicated it is also an Original corruption And this is all As natural death by his sin became a curse so our natural imperfection became natural corruption and that is Original sin Death and imperfection we derive from Adam but both were natural to us but by him they became actual and penal and by him they became worse as by every evil act every principle of evil is improv'd And in this sense this Article is affirmed by all the Doctors of the ancient Church We are miserable really sinners in account or effect that properly this improperly and are faln into so sad a state of things which we also every day make worse that we did need a Saviour to redeem us from it For in Original sin we are to consider the principle and the effects The principle is the actual sin of Adam This being to certain purposes by Gods absolute dominion imputed to us hath brought upon us a necessity of dying and all the affections of mortality which although they were natural yet would by grace have been hindred Another evil there is upon us and that is Concupiscence this also is natural but it was actual before the fall it was in Adam and tempted him This also from him is derived to us and is by many causes made worse by him and by our selves And this is the whole state of Original sin so far as is fairly warrantable But for the other particulars the case is wholly differing The sin of Adam neither made us 1. Heirs of damnation Nor 2. Naturally and necessarily vicious 1. It could not make us Heirs of damnation This I shall the less need to insist upon because of it self it seems so horrid to impute to the goodness and justice of God to be author of so great a calamity to Innocents that S. Austins followers have generally left him in that point and have descended to this lesser proportion that Original sin damns onely to the eternal loss of the sight of Gods glorious face But to this I say these things 1. That there are many Divine which beleeve this alone to be the worm that never dies and the fire that never goeth out that is in effect this and the anguish for this is all the hell of the damned And unless infants remain infants in the resurrection too which no man that I know affirms or unless they be sensless and inapprehensive it is not to be imagined but that all that know they are by way of punishment depriv'd of the glorious face of God must needs have a horrible anguish of soul to eternal ages And this argument besides the reasonableness of the thing Lib. 6. in Julian c. 4. hath
sixteen Heat and cold are both our enemies and yet the one always dwels within and the other dwels round about us The chances and contingencies that trouble us are no more to be numbred then the minutes of eternity The Devil often hurts us and men hurt each other oftner and we are perpetually doing mischief to our selves The stars doe in their courses fight against some men and all the elements against every man the heavens send evil influences the very beasts are dangerous and the air we suck in does corrupt our lungs many are deformed and blinde and ill coloured and yet upon the most beauteous face is plac'd one of the worst sinks of the body and we are forc'd to pass that through our mouthes oftentimes which our eye and our stomack hates Pliny did wittily and elegantly represent this state of evil things Lib. 6. Prooem Itaque foelicitèr homo natus jacet manibus pedibúsque devinctis flens animal caeteris imperaturum à suppliciis vitam auspicatur unam tantum ob culpam quia natum est A man is born happily but at first he lies bound hand and foot by impotency and cannot stir the creature weeps that is born to rule over all other creatures and begins his life with punishments for no fault but that he was born In short The body is a region of diseases of sorrow and nastiness and weakness and temptation Here is cause enough of being humbled Neither is it better in the soul of man where ignorance dwells and passion rules 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 After death came in there entred also a swarm of passions And the will obeys every thing but God Fertur equis Auriga neque audit currus habenas Our judgement is often abused in matters of sense and one faculty guesses at truth by confuting another and the error of the eye is corrected by something of reason or a former experience Our fancy is often abus'd and yet creates things of it self by tying disparate things together that can cohere no more then Musick and a Cable then Meat and Syllogisms and yet this alone does many times make credibilities in the understandings Our Memories are so frail that they need instruments of recollection and laborious artifices to help them and in the use of these artifices sometimes we forget the meaning of those instruments and of those millions of sins which we have committed we scarce remember so many as to make us sorrowful or asham'd Our judgements are baffled with every Sophism and we change our opinion with a wind and are confident against truth but in love with error We use to reprove one error by another and lose truth while we contend too earnestly for it Infinite opinions there are in matters of Religion and most men are confident and most are deceived in many things and all in some and those few that are not confident have onely reason enough to suspect their own reason We do not know our own bodies not what is within us nor what ails us when we are sick nor whereof we are made nay we oftentimes cannot tell what we think or believe or love We desire and hate the same thing speak against and run after it We resolve and then consider we binde our selves and then finde causes why we ought noo to be bound and want not some pretences to make our selves believe we were not bound Prejudice and Interest are our two great motives of believing we weigh deeper what is extrinsical to a question then what is in its nature and oftener regard who speaks then what is said The diseases of our soul are infinite Eccles Hier. c. 3. Part. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Dionysius of Athens Mankinde of old fell from those good things which God gave him and now is fallen into a life of passion and a state of death In sum it follows the temper or distemper of the body and sailing by such a Compass and being carried in so rotten a vessell especially being empty or fill'd with lightness and ignorance and mistakes it must needs be exposed to the danger and miseries of every storm which I choose to represent in the words of Cicero In Hortens Ex humanae vitae erroribus aerumnis fit ut verum sit illum quod est apud Aristotelem sic nostros animos cum corporibus copulatos ut vivos cum mortuis esse conjunctos The soul joyned with the body is like the conjunction of the living and the dead the dead are not quickened by it but the living are afflicted and die But then if we consider what our spirit is we have reason to lie down flat upon our faces and confess Gods glory and our own shame When it is at the best it is but willing but can do nothing without the miracle of Grace Our spirit is hindred by the body and cannot rise up whither it properly tends with those great weights upon it It is foolish and improvident large in desires and narrow in abilities naturally curious in trifles and inquisitive after vanities but neither understands deeply nor affectionately relishes the things of God pleas'd with forms cousen'd with pretences satisfi'd with shadows incurious of substances and realities It is quick enough to finde doubts and when the doubts are satisfied it raises scruples that is it is restless after it is put to sleep and will be troubled in despight of all arguments of peace It is incredibly negligent of matters of Religion and most solicitous and troubled in the things of the world We love our selves and despise others judging most unjust sentences and by peevish and cross measures Covetousness and Ambition Gain and Empire are the proportions by which we take account of things We hate to be govern'd by others even when we cannot dress our selves and to be forbidden to do or have a thing is the best art in the world to make us greedy of it The flesh and the spirit perpetually are at * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Macar hom 21. strife the spirit pretending that his ought to be the dominion and the flesh alleaging that this is her state and her day We hate our present condition and know not how to better our selves our changes being but like the tumblings and tossings in a Feaver from trouble to trouble that 's all the variety We are extremely inconstant and alwayes hate our own choice we despair sometimes of Gods mercies and are confident in our own follies as we order things we cannot avoid little sins and doe not avoid great ones We love the present world though it be good for nothing and undervalue infinite treasures if they be not to be had till the day of recompences We are peevish if a servant does but break a glass and patient when we have thrown an ill cast for eternity throwing away the hopes of a glorious Crown for wine and dirty silver We know that our prayers if