there is no love and also no hatred So that if we do not know how loathsom and vile this sinne is we are never able to bewail it and to humble our selves under it There are many Descriptions of it given by several Authors but that we may in a large and popular way comprehend all things in one Description that is necessary to understand the full nature of it we may take this delineation of it SECT II. ORiginal sinne is an horrid depravation and defilement of the whole man caused by the Devils temptation and our first Parents obedience thereunto and from them descending by propagation to all his Posterity being stript of Gods glorious Image whereby they are prone to all evil and so are under the bondage of the Devil and obnoxious to eternal wrath It is not my purpose in making this draught of it to attend unto the exact rules of Logick but so to compose it that every thing considerable to give the true knowledge of it may be comprized therein And First We say It 's a depravation and defilement which implieth the sinfulness of it that it is truly and properly a sinne And therefore sinne is truly and univocally divided into original and actual so that they who make it onely to be guilt without any inward contagion they do wholly erre from the Scripture they say not enough It is true Adam's sinne in the guilt of it is imputed unto us which made Ambrose of old say as Austin alledgeth him against the â—elagians Morinus sum in Adamo ejectus sum in Paradiso in Adamo c. I am dead in Adam I am cast out of Paradise in Adam But we are not disputing of original imputed sinne but original inhering Therefore original inherent sinne is truly and properly a defilement upon us against the Law of God and this sinfull estate of all by nature should be farre more terrible unto us then our miserable and mortal estate Again When we call it a defilement we oppose their opinion who make it only morbus and not truly a sinne As also those who say It is the substance of a man for if so then Christ could not have taken our nature without sinne neither could there be glorified bodies in Heaven without sinne for all these have the humane nature of a man Further we say It 's an horrid depravation This Epithete is necessary to be added to awaken pharisaical and self-righteous persons it being so dreadfull an evil that we are never able to go to the depth of it Never therefore think of speak of original sinne but let thy heart tremble and let horrour and amazement take hold of thee because of it and this is put in the Description to obviate those opinions that make it the least of all sinnes Some complain That we are too severe and tragical in the aggravation of it but enough hath been already spoken out of Scripture to shew that neither heart can conceive or tongue express the foulness of it This is the general part of the Description Secondly You have the Subject of it and because the Subject thereof is twofold of Inhesion and of Predication In this part we have the Subject wherein it is and that is totus homo and totum hominis the whole man and the whole of man there being no part free from this contagion so that it 's repletively and diffusively in all the parts of soul and body though eminently and principally in the mind and will and the whole heart It 's true sinne is not properly seated in the body the eyes or hand or in the sensitive part yet participatively and subordinately as they are instruments to the soul in its actings so they are said to be sinfull Thus there are lustfull eyes cursing tongues unclean bodies There are sinfull imaginations and fancies because these are the organs by which the soul putteth forth its wickedness So that the body is like a broken spoiled instrument of musick and the soul like an unskilfull Artificer playing on it which causeth horrid and harsh sounds for pleasant melody But as God is every where yet in Heaven after a more glorious and signal manifestation of himself So on the contrary though original sinne be a Leprosie infecting the whole man yet it 's most principally in the intellectual and immaterial parts of the soul It 's horrible darknesse in the mind aversnesse in the will to all that is good and contumacy in the heart to whatsoever is holy And this part doth directly oppose all those who grant indeed original sinne but yet grant it wholly in the inferiour and sensitive part as if our reason and mind were like the Heavens of a quintessential frame in respect of any unholy contagion whereas indeed because these eyes of the soul are dark therefore is the whole body dark Because the Sunne and Moon and Starres as it were of this little world of man are turned into bloud therefore every part else is also become blood defiled and loathsom and this is the reason why so few do either believe or know this natural corruption because it benummeth us yea it taketh away all spiritual life so that we cannot discern of it The declaration of the cause of it followeth in this description where we have the external efficient cause and the internal The external was the Devil after his all and apostasie he endeavoured being a murderer from the beginning to destroy man also and accordingly he did prevail and thus by the Devil sinne came into the world yet he is the external cause onely he could not force or compel our first parents to sinne he did onely perswade and entice them Therefore the internal cause was the freedom of their will God created them in whereby they might either imbrace good or chuse evil which mutability was the cause of their apostasie It is true the dispute is very curious How Adam being created perfect could yeeld to sinne Whether did the defect arise in his will or understanding first But seeing it 's clear by Scripture that he did sinne and we feel the wofull effect of it Let us not busie our heads in metaphysical curiosities although I see the soundest Authors make the beginning of his sinne to be in inadvertency for his soul being finite while he earnestly intended to one thing he did not attend to another and so sinne was inchoatively first in his understanding not by errour or ignorance for Adam's understanding was free from that but by not attendency to all considerations and arguments as he ought to do Although it must be confest that the root and foundation of his sin was the vertibility of his will for as he might not sin so also he might sin he had then a posse peccare in him and so a defectibility from the Rule Thus although efficient causes use not to be put into exact definitions neither hath sin so properly efficient as deficient causes yet in large descriptions it is
be destroyed how can the building be established Let then your attention your thoughts and affections be greatly quickned while we anatomize all the evil of the will This is the most grievous and most dreadfull instance of all the pollution original sinne infecteth us with In the 7th place When we speak of the pollution of the will The wera will may be take ambigously for sometimes therby is denoted the power to will someomes again the very act of willing and somtimes the object that we do will is often called our will Thus when the Scripture speaketh of Gods will it doth sometimes mean the object willed and this is often called Gods will sometimes the act of willing thus if God will and sometimes that power whereby he doth will not that there is Potenis volendi properly in God for all power is Perfectibilis per actum whereas every thing in God is actum purus only we speak so of God according to our capacity Some indeed have questioned Whether we may porperly attribute the word will to God or metaphorically only but seeing that simply to will is Perfectio simpliciter simplex and absolute and most simple perfection therefore it is not to be denied to God for as the Psalmist saith He that maketh man know shall not be know Thus he that maketh man will shall not he will only will is not in God as it is in man for mans will is carried out to a good desired or not enjoyed In our will there is convenientia and indigentia First A convenience or sutebleness between the faculty and the object and therefore we will it And then there is an indigency or want of it Now Gods will being the same with his Essence is absolutely perfect and sufficient but the created will in man is otherwise and this will since mans fall whether taken for the power to will or the act of willing or the object willâ—d is altogether a corrupt and a diseased will there is nothing found or good in it Although our purpose is to speak of the will as a power in the soul yet prone to put it self immediately into actings In the eighth place The will having this great dominion over the whole soul and being the universal appetite of a man therefore it is that in it is seated obedience or disobedience to God Obedience or disobedience to God is not properly at least not primarily or radically in any part but in the will It is true all the other parts of the soul in regeneration are made holy and sanctified and thereby in their way conformable to the will of God yet obedience and disobedience are primarily acts of the will so that as the will is qualified so is a man said to be obedient to God A good will is the good tree that maketh the fruit good and a bad will is the bad tree that maketh the fruit bad As then all the evil or good of a tree cometh from the root so doth all the evil or good of a man come from his will For till this be sanctified till this be renewed nothing can be good in a man Therefore if you examine what is the cause of all the impiety and all the wickedness that most commit it is because their wills are corrupt their wils are rebellious Their minds their consciences many times tell them they ought to do otherwise only their wils are slubborn and contumacious Joh. 5. 40. Ye will not come unto me that ye may have life So in the Parable Mat. 21. 29. when the sonne was commanded to go and work in the vineyard he saith I will not It is then the will of man that is the desperate and implacable enemy to all the things of God men may delude themselves with reasons and fair glosses but it is their will and only their unsanctified will that maketh them continue in such opposition to God now the will is therefore the root of all obedience of disobedience in a man because that is like the Centurion in a mans soul whatsoever it biddeth this or that power of the soul do it doth what it bids the mind think it thinketh what it bids love to love it loveth what it bids the hand move to it moveth to for there are two acts of the will wherein it demonstrateth its dominion The Elicite acts and the Imperate Elicite are those which the will doth immediately produce as election intention consent c. and herein it hath full power yet so as that it 's in subordination to God The Imperate acts are those which are produced by other parts of a man yet from the command of the will so when we move our hands or our feet these are imperate acts of the will Thus when we turn our mind from one object and place it upon another this is an imperate act of the will The affections also they are in some measure under the command of the will but not so absolutely as the body and the motions thereof are By which you see that all things in a man are reduced to his will and therefore the more active and universal this is the greater is the defilement thereof In the ninth place The will in regard of its constitution at first hath for its object that which is good And in the state of integrity it was alwaies a true real good but in this state of revolt from God the will cannot indeed be carried out to any thing but what is good only it 's but an apparent good a disguised good it is a true and real evil As the object of the understanding is truth and it cannot give its assent to that which doth appear to be false so the object of the will is good neither can the will have any motion or tendency to any object which hath not the colour at least of some good As the Devil appeared in Samuel's cloaths and so was believed to be Samuel Thus doth all the evil in the world which doth at any time seduce and draw the will aside it hath the mantle and covering of good It being impossible that the will should desire evil as it is evil It is true some deny that bonnus is the object adiquate and general of the will but they say good is the object of the will as it is prosequntiva prosecuting and desiring but maluâ—â— is the object of the will as it is persequntiva and aversiva as it doth repel and dislike so evil is the object of the will For displicency and hatred are acts of the will and the objects of these is evil But we speak of the will now as it is a rational desiring appetite satisfying it self with love of some object and if this be not good either real or apparent the will can no more tend to it then the eye to musick or the car to colours onely by original sinne herein ariseth our unspeakable miserey that the good which the will doth now imbrace is
of Salvation but not as a place of Gods glory they desire Salvation as it freeth from Hell torments but not as it is a perfect sanctification of the whole man for the enjoyment of God Here thy intention is sinfull and incompleat when thou intendest Heaven and happiness thou art to desire all of it not some parts of it Again Our intenton is much more corrupted in making the meanes to be the end we make a perfect period and stop at a Comma or a Colon and truly this is the general and universal corruption of every mans natural intention he shooteth his arrow too short he intends no further then an happy pleasant and merry life in this world one intends honours another intends wealth another intends pleasures There is no natural man can intend any higher good then some creature or other That as the bruit beasts have a kind of improper intention as they have of reason whereby they are carried out to those things only that are obvious to sense Thus it is with man in his natural estate destitute of regeneration a worme can as soon fly like a Lark towards Heaven as this man intend any thing that is spiritually good for the natural man hath neither a mind or an heart for such holy things and so is like an Archer that hath neither eyes or hands and thereby can never reach the mark Secondly The intention of the will is corrupted in its error and mistake about its object it shooteth at a wrong mark It 's really and indeed evil which he intendeth though it be apparently good it is in truth poison though it be guilded It is true the rule is Nemo intendens malum operatur No man intendeth evil as evil but it is propounded under the notion of good and that even in those who sinne against the light and dictates of their own conscience But yet the Scripture speaketh constantly of wicked men as those that love evil and will evil and hate good because it is evil which their wills are carried out unto though it hath the outward bait and colour of what is good Herein then we have cause with bitterness of heart to bewail our sinfull intentions thou dost but cosen and delude thy own self Though thou hast many glosses many colours and pretences to deceive thy self with yet that which in deed and truth doth alure and bewitch thy soul is evil in the appearance as it were of some real good a strumpet in Matrones cloaths Thirdly The intention of the will is herein also greatly defiled that when it doth any holy and spiritual duties the true motive and proper reason of their intention is not regarded but false and carnal ones Finis operis and Finis operantis are not the same as they ought to be This is the wickedness of man so great that no heads though fountaines of waters can weep enough because of it The Pharisees they were very constant and busie in prayers in giving of almes but what was their intention all the while It was to be seen of man and therefore in the just judgement of God they had that reward This intention of the will is thought by some to be the eye our Saviour speaketh of If that be darke the whole body is darke Matth. 6. 22. Jebus did many things in a glorious manner as if none were so zealous as he but like the Kite though he soared high yet still his eye was to see what prey lay on the ground that he might devour it it was a kingdome not Gods glory he intended Thus Judas intended a bag and riches in all that seeming love and service he professed to Christ Oh take heed of the intention of thy will in every holy duty This maketh or marreth all To what hath been said may be further added First That we foolishly labour to justify our bad and sinfull actions by our good intentions as if they were able to turne evil unto good and black into white Is not this a continuall plea among natural people that though what they do be unlawfull yet they mean no hurt in it they have good hearts and good intentions Hence it is that when they have done evil in the eyes of God then they study to defend themselves by some intended good or other Thus Judas when he muttered about the ointment powred on our Saviour yet he pretends to good intentions That the ointment might have been sold and given to the poor Saul when he had rebelliously spared the best of the Cattel yet he carrieth it as if his intention had been to keep them for a Sacrifice to the Lord Yea the Pharisees in all their malicious and devilish designs against Christ would be thought that their high and pure intentions for the glory of God did carry them forward in all they did By such instances we see how prone every man is to put a good intention upon a bad action and thereby think to wash himself clean from all guilt but it is against the principles of Divinity that a good intention should justifie that which is a bad action It is true a bad intention will corrupt a good action so vain glory or to do any religious duty to be seen of men This is a worme which will devour the best rose This is a dead Flie in a box of ointment But it doth not hold true on the contrary That a good intention will change the nature of an evil action The reason whereof is that known Rule Malum est è quolibet defectu bonum non est nisi ex integris causis Even as in a Picture one defect is enough to make it uncomely but the beauty of it is not unless every thing be concurrent So in musick any one jarre is enough to spoil the harmony but to make sweet musick there must be the consent of all Do not therefore flie to thy good heart to thy good meanings thou intendest no hurt for if thy action cannot be warranted by the Word if it have not a good and lawfull superscription upon it this will never endure the fiery trial The Apostle maketh all such conclusions full of horrour and blasphemy as it were that argue Let us do evil that good may come of it Rom. 3. 8. Austin said It was not lawfull to lie though it were to save a world Consider then the sinfulnesse of thy will and be more affected with it then hitherto thou hast been When thou art overtaken with any sinne Doest thou not excuse thy selfe with a good intention Doest thou not plead some good or other though aimest at in all such unlawfull wayes But though man cannot judge thee yet the All-seeing eye of God doth pierce into all thy intentions and he knoweth thee better then thou knowest thy self Secondly The intention of the will is greatly corrupted in this particular also That it will adde to the worship of God and accumulate precepts and means of grace as they think in
that is the cause of all thy bad fruit A regenerated will a sanctified will would make thee prepared for every good work It is for want of this that all preaching is in vain all Gods mercies and all judgements are in vain Why should not the hammer of Gods word break it Why should not the fire of it melt it but because the stubbornness of the will is so great that it will not receive any impression 't is called therefore a stony heart not an iron heart for iron by the fire may be mollified and put into any shape but a stone will never melt it will sooner break into many pieces and flie in the face Thus the will of a man hath naturally that horrible hardness and refractoriness that in stead of loving and imbracing the holy things of God it doth rather rage and hate with all abomination such things ¶ 7. The Enmity and Contrariety of the Will to Gods Will. IN the second place That imbred sinfull propriety of the will which accompanieth it as heat doth fire is The enmity and contrariety of the will to Gods will There is not onely a privative incapacity but a positive contrariety even as between fire and water Gods will is an holy will thine is unholy Gods will is pure thine is impure Gods will is carried out to will his own glory honour and greatness thine is carried out to will the dishonour and reproach of God Thus as Gods will is infinitely good and the cause of all good so in some sense thy will is infinitely evil and the cause of all that evil thou art plunged into Therefore when the Apostle saith That the carnal mind is enmity against God Rom. 8. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comprehends the actings of the will and the affections as well as of the mind It is enmity in the very abstract so that it is neither subject to God nor can be Oh that God would set this truth more powerfully upon our hearts for what tongue can express the misery of this that thy will should naturally have such irreconcilable opposition and implacable enmity to the Law of God that it should be diametrially opposite to Gods will which at first was made so amicable and compliant with Gods will that there was the Idem velle and Idem nolle Besides many other considerations there are two especially that may break and exceedingly humble our souls herein For 1. Gods will and his law which is his will objectively taken are absolutely in themselvs very good and therefore the proper object of thy will So that if thy will be carried out to any thing in the world it should be carried out to Gods Law above any thing This is to be willed above any created good what soever How is it that thou canst will pleasures profits and such created good things and art not more ravished and drawn out in thy desires after the chiefest good but to be in a state of opposition to this chiefest good to contradict and withstand it this is the hainous aggravation Could there be a Summum malum it would be in the will because of its direct opposition to the Summum bonum Herein mans will and the Devils will do both agree that they are with hatred and contrariety carried out against Gods will If therefore thou wert to live a thousand and thousands of years upon the earth and thou hadst no other work to do but to consider and meditate about the sinfulness and wretchedness of the will in this particular thou wouldst even then take up but drops in respect of the Ocean and little crums in respect of the sand upon the sea-shore But Secondly This contrariety of thy will is not only against that which absolutely in it self is the chiefest good but relatively it would be so to thee and therefore thy contrariety to it is the more unjustifiable What to be carried out with unspeakable hatred to that which would be thy blessedness and happiness who can bewail this enough To have a delight and a connaturality with those things that will be thy eternal damnation with much readiness and joy to will them and then to be horrible averse and contrapugnant to those things which if willed and imbraced would make thee happy to all eternity Oh miserable and wretched man thy condition is farre more lamentable then that of the beasts for they have a natural instinct to preserve themselves and to desire such things as are wholsom to them but thou art naturally inclining to will and imbrace all those things which will be thy eternal woe and misery What is the cause that thy will cannot imbrace the Law of God Why art thou so contrary to it Alas there is no just reason can be given but original sinne is like an occult quality in thy will making an Antipathy in it against the same so that thou doest not love what is holy neither art thou able to say Why only thou dost not love it yea there is the greatest reason in the world and all the word of God requireth it likewise that thy will should be subordinate and commensurated unto it but there is no other cause of this evil will then the evil of it It is evil and therefore cannot abide that which is good ¶ 8. The Rebellion of the Will against the light of the mind and 〈◊〉 slavery of it to the sensitive part in a man THirdly The original pollution of the will is seen in the rebellion of it against the light of the mind and the slavery of it to the sensitive part in a man to the carnal and sinfull affections therein Both which do sadly proclaim how the will is by nature out of all holy order and fallen from its primitive integrity For in the former respect therefore did God give us reason that by the light and guidance thereof the will should proceed to its operations So that for the will to move it self before it hath direction from the mind is like the servant that would set upon business before his master commands him like an unnatured dog that runneth before his master do set him on To will a thing first and afterwards to exercise the mind about it is to set the earth where Heaven should be But oh the unspeakable desolation that is brought upon the soul in this very particular The will staieth for no guidance expecteth no direction but willeth because it will what is suteable and agreeable to the corrupt nature thereof that it imbraceth be it never so destructive and damning God made the mind at first that it could say like the Centurion I bid the will go and it goeth the affections move and they move but now the inferior souldier biddeth the Centurion go and he goeth This then is the great condemnation of the will that though light come in upon it yet it loveth not the light but rebelleth against it and this sinfulness of the will is more palpably
second place there is the Universality 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is more emphatical then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All things not all men This expression is used to shew that not only all men but all their actions studies endeavours every thing belonging to them as it were is thus sinfull and damnable although Grotius maketh the Substantive understood to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the third place we have the Cause appointing and declaring of this and that is the Scripture It is usual to attribute those things which belong to God unto the Scripture because that is the sentence of God that declareth the will of God Thus Gal. 3. 8. The Scripture fore-seeing that God would justifie the Heathen c. that is God by his Word fore-telling what he would do Thus Rom. 9. 17. The Scripture saith unto Pharaoh For this same purpose have I raised thee up c. that is God by the Scripture manifested his will and purpose concerning Pharaoh So that in this place we are to conceive of God wisely and righteously ordering this way that all mankind shall fall into a stat of sin condemnation that so a way may be made open for the advancement of the grace of the Gospel Not that God did necessitate Adam to sinne or did infuse any evil into him but be falling by his own voluntary transgression and thereby plunging all his posterity into this wretched estate God who could have prevented this fall of Adam did not because not bound to it give him that grace which would actually have confirmed him although he bestowed on him grace sufficient enough to inable him to stand God I say did righteously and wisely permit this fall of his thereby to work out a greater good then the sinne of Adam could be an evil Thus God may be called the cause appointing and ordering of all this evil of mankind partly permissivè by leaving Adam to his own will and partly directivè and ordinativè being not a bare spectator or sufferer of this apostasie but also a righteous director and ordainer of it to blessed and heavenly ends Though therefore God is here said to shut up all mankind into this prison yet he is no more cause of the evil which brought this desolation then a Magistrate is of the wickedness of such a Malefactor whom he throweth into prison Yea Gods ordering of this fall of Adam unto such righteous ends doth therein demonstrate his Mercy and his Justice So that although sinne be evil yet the punishing of this is good as also the working of a better good then the evil is evil is a demonstration of the infinite wisdom of God As God doth it thus as the chief cause so the Scripture is said to shut us up under sinne instrumentally because that declareth the curse of God due unto us And that upon a two-fold account both because of the actual impieties all do commit as also because of that original filthiness and pollution we are born in Now it is my purpose to treat of Gods righteous dispensation towards mankind in this particular only because some do rise up with great zeal for the righteousness honour and glory of God in this point as if the Doctrine delivered by the Orthodox herein were altogether injurious and derogatory to him Hence the late known Adversary to this fundamental Truth about original sinne delivers himself thus Answer to a Letter pag. 23 24 To say that for Adam's sinne it is just in God to condemn Infants to the eternal flames of hell and to say that concupiscence or natural inclinations before they passe unto act could bring eternal condemnation c. are two such horrid propositions that if any Church in the world would expresly affirme them I for my part should think it unlawfull to communicate with her in the defence or profession of either and think it would be the greatest temptation in the world to make men not to love God of whom they speak such horrid things Thus he most horribly Now although these two Propositions are set down by him odiously and captiously not fully expressing the Doctrine of the Reformed Churches yet it is plain that he striketh at those Positions which are for the substance of them maintained by all Protestant Churches and doth thereby publiquely professe his separation from and non-communion with all Protestant Churches and particularly with the Church of England in that 9th Article which he doth so cruelly tear and mangle that it may not appear to be what indeed it is Our work therefore shall be from this Text to declare from Scripture-ground the holiness wisdome and righteousness of God in his proceedings thus with mankind for Adam's sinne For although all grown persons are shut up under actual sins as well as original yet here is comprehended both seeing it doth extend to all that may have salvation by Christ out of which number Infants are not to be excluded Therefore Bellarmine bringeth this Text amongst others to prove that there is an original sinne that all are born in And so we observe That God for righteous and wise ends manifested in the Scripture hath shut up all mankind in a state of sinne and damnation That God who could have preserved Adam in the state of happinesse and continued it to all his posterity so that thereby no sinne or condemnation would have come upon any one man for there would then none have done evil no not one hath ordered the contrary way suffering man to fall and thereby all mankind to be in a state of condemnation whereby also sin is so predominant that now there is none that doth good no not one The Scripture doth in other places with much exactnesse and diligence take notice of the proceeding of God in this way as Rom. 3. 9. The Apostle dividing all mankind into Jews and Gentiles sheweth that though there may be many differences in several respects yet as to a state of sin by nature and so a necessity of justification by Christ all were alike Therefore saith he We have before proved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word is very emphatical some make it to charge complain and in an heavy manner to accuse So that to be by nature of our selves in a state of wrath not being able without the grace of Christ to avoid this condemnation is the greatest guilt that we can be charged with It ought not to seem a light and contemptible thing that we come thus cursed in the world But because men may be accused falsly and the Pelagians charge us with laying a false curse upon mankind hence the Greek word signifieth more viz. so to charge a thing upon a man as by strong reasons to prove it to shew clearly the causes and grounds of it therefore our Translators render it We have before proved So that the Apostles meaning is We have not only said thus but we have proved A Metaphor say some from those who have cast up
onely a counterfeit specious guilded good no true real good They are but seeming goods and real evils Like the Glow-worm that shineth in the night and is nothing but an earthly worm Like a rotten Post or Tree that in the night seemeth to be glorious but in the day we know what it is Thus if we could take off the visor the painting from those objects we place our wils upon we shall see nothing but damnable guilt and real abominable evils which will at last damne our souls Per falsa mala itur ad vera bona per falsa bona itur ad vera mala by that which is speciously good we come indeed to that which is truely evil and by that which is apparently evil we come to what is substantially good Lastly In the will according to those that are exercised in School-Divinity We are to conceive in it sutable and proportionable affections to those we call passions in the sensitive part Thus in the will as it is a rational appetite there are love joy desire fear and hatred This is plain because in Angels there are such affections so also in the soul separated there is love and joy earnest desire for the coming of Christ and its reunion to the body by which it appeareth evidently that besides those passions in a man which work by a corporal transmutation there are these spiritual and immaterial affections or rather actions and operations of the will So that the will loveth the will rejoyceth the will desireth c. This is the more to be attended unto because hereby this pollution of original sinne will appear the more extensive and diffusive The love of the will the desire of the will the joy of the will are become abominable SECT III. ¶ 1. The Corruption of the Will in all its several Operations THese Doctrinal introductions thus substracted Let us proceed to open this noisom Sepulchre this dead and defiled will which hath been spiritually dead not as Lazarus four dayes but ever since Adam's fall and therefore must needs be stinking and unsavoury to a spiritual discerning And let us First Take notice of its defilement in all its several operations which the will aboundeth with And we find them out of the Schoolmen thus marshalled The will say they may be carried out to good simply and absolutely as good and then it is only a bare volition which is either inefficacious and conditional called velleity or efficacious and absolute then it is volition in the general or else it may be carried out to good relatively as it is finis an end and then either this end is enjoyed and possessed which maketh the act of the will called fruition or else it is desired and purposed to be obtained which maketh another act of the will called intention In the next place The will may be considered as it operates about the means to its intended end And 1. There is a yeelding unto and imbracing of such a mean propounded to that end and this act in the will is called consent for the understanding that doth properly assent and the will consent This act of the will to consent unto a thing is of great importance in Casnistical Divinity for there may be suggestions and fiery injections of diabolical temptations but if the will doth not consent as you see Christs holy will did not in his combate with the Devil they do not become our sins Of this consent more in its time 2. If there be several means conducible to such an end then cometh another act of the will called Election or a choosing of one thing rather than another that which consulation is in the understanding Election is in the will Lastly When the Will hath thus intended the end and chosen efficaciously its means then is there the last act of the will which is called usus the use or the application of all the other powers of the soul to bring this end about It useth the understanding it useth the affections it useth the whole body to accomplish it Thus you see what are the several operations of the will It is now necessary to take all these singly by themselves to shew how grosly the will is disordered and by that you will be convinced that the corruption of the will is indeed the corruption of the whole man which made Austin frequently define sinne by a mala volunt as and that which is good by a bona volunt as because of the dominion the will hath in the whole man ¶ 2. The Corruption of the Will in its general Act which is called Volition FIrst therefore Let us begin with the general act which is called Volition the bare willing of a thing which you heard was either conditional and imperfect or efficacious for the former kind How much corruption is there in the will and that both about sin and also about good About sinne What secret wishes and wouldings are there in a man naturally that sinne were not sinne Vtinaâ—n hoc non esset peccare said he that thy pleasures were not sinnes that thy unlawfull profits were not sinnes there is this secret corruption in the will whereby it would have the nature of things changed vice to be virtue and virtue to be vice Some indeed dispute Whether there be any such actings of the will as may be called velleities and not volitions But experience teacheth there are so the Apostle Rom 9. 3. I could wish my self accursed there is an incompleat act of the will When the Psalmist saith The fool hath said in his heart there is no God Psa 14. 4. that is in his wish in his incompleat will for absolutely a man cannot will that which is impossible If then we do but observe the motions of the will in this respect we shall find the number of these sinnes to be like the sand upon the sea shore Oh the many secret ungodly wishes that do by swarms rise up in thy will which though thou takest no notice of yet God doth and will accordingly judge thee As thus the will is sinfull in one way by its incompeat acts so also when it cometh to what is good when it should in a powerful lively and efficacious manner be carried out to it it is very remiss and languid insomuch that they are but velleities they are the sluggards wishes that desireth and yet starveth himself because he never putteth out his hands to work Is not this half and faint willing of the things that are good the root and cause of most mens destruction Preach to them presse them about repentance about conversion to God and they promise you they will do it and God give us his grace to do it and no more is done whereas thou shouldst will what is good with all thy might and strength above gold and silver above life it self These wishers and woulders in Religion never make true converts But of this more in its time ¶ 3. The Corruption of the
practical and operative means whereby he doth communicate life unto us And lastly Therefore God doth use Commands Because this way is suitable to man who is a rational Agent For although the work of grace is more than meerly swasive it is efficacious and really changing the heart so that the Spirit of God doth farre more in converting of a sinner then the Devil doth in tempting to sinne yet God dealeth suitably to the nature of a man We are not like stocks and stones to whom it is ridiculous to preach there being not in them a passive capacity of receiving the worke of grace Hence it is that the Word is preached Miracles are wrought powerfull Arguments are used to draw off the heart So that grace doth worke Ethicophysically as some expresse it Commands then and Threatnings are used because grace is wrought in us after a rational manner in an attempered manner to our constitution The understanding being first wrought upon that so the will and affections may more readily give up themselves Thirdly If liberty be the same with voluntariness and no more as many learned men do contend making voluntas and liberum arbitrium all one as that which is opposed to coaction and natural necessity yea if we adde Aurtelus his opinion to this that libertas was nothing but complacentia liberty is the complacency and delight of the will in its object then in this sense if rightly understood a man hath no freedom to what is holy It is true indeed the learned to shew that grace in converting doth not destroy the liberty of the will viz. the natural liberty no more then the will it self Grace doth not compel the will or put an inherent natural necessity upon it for if there could be coaction the velle would be nolle which is a contradiction and if a natural necessity could be imposed upon it it would not be appetitus rationalis a rational appetite so that though grace in converting of man doth insuperably and invincibly change the will making it of unwilling willing so that there is a necessity not natural but of immutability and unchangeableness The will doth most certainly give it self up to the grace of God mollifying and fashioning of it for that purpose This Iron as it were is put into the fire and then it is made pliable to receive any form or impression yet the essential liberty is not destroyed For the Question about Free-will is not An sit but Quid possit And herein lieth the difficult knot in this whole point about grace and the will of man How to assert the irresistible as many call it but others reject that expression though the sense of those who use it is very sound and significant enough work of grace insuperably determining the will to that which is good and yet to be free from coaction or such a necessity as is destructive to liberty The Quomodo How these two are to be reconciled is that which in all ages hath exercised the most learned and judicious insomuch that some have advised to rest in it by faith as in a mystery above our understanding even as we doe in many other Doctrines to be believed by us But I am not to ascend this mountain at this time This is enough for our purpose to shew That if liberty be said to consist in willing a thing freely from coaction and necessity even in this respect we have not thus farre liberty to good because it is God that worketh in us to will Indeed when we doe will we are not compelled by the Grace of God onely we cannot will till the Grace of God enable us thereto It is not of him that willeth but of God that sheweth mercy Neither are we born of the will of man but of God It is grace then onely that maketh us to will the good things tendered to us though the will in eliciting of this is not compelled but doth it freely yea grace giveth this freedome to it so that grace doth not destroy but give liberty And therefore Austin of old urged That they denied Liberum arbitrium who would not have it Liberatum They cannot hold free-will in a true sense that doe not hold free and efficacious grace which giveth the will all the strength it hath to what is good Thus liberty if it be the same with willingness we have it not of our selves till the grace of God bestow it upon us Fourthly If liberty consist in having dominion and power over our actions then also the will cannot be said to be free as to doe holy things For although the will when it doth will is the subordinate cause under God of its own action and as a cause so also may be said to have dominion over it yet because the actual willing of what is good doth not arise or exist by the strength of the will but by the grace of God therefore it is that in respect of good things the will cannot be said to have the dominion over them This Definition of liberty viz. to have a dominion over our own actions is by Jansenius asserted to be the true and proper meaning of Augustine that his judgement is then the will is said to be free when it hath dominion and power over what it doth and if so no wonder then the will be so often said to be captivated and enslaved that it hath no freedom to what is holy For what power can the will have over holy actions when it is corrupted and defiled that no holy thought or holy motion is under the power of it It was Ambrose his complaint of old That Cor nostrum non est in nostrâ potestate Our heart is not in our power but sinnefull and evil workings of soul rise up in us which we are no wayes able to extinguish Fifthly If liberty be as Anselme of old defined it to which some Neotericks doe adhere viz Facultas servandi rectitudinem propter rectitudinem ipsam That it is a power to observe that which is right for righteousnesse sake then this doth evidently proclaime That man hath no Free-will for to observe that which is holy and righteous for holinesse sake which must needs argue a man regenerated and borne again And indeed liberty in this sense is nothing but the Image of God repaired in a man and so is no more then to be like God himself And now that every man by nature hath lost this Image of God is so plain that the experience of every man concerning his distance from God may fully confirme it If to this be added Aquinas his Description That it is Vis electiva mediorum servato ordine ad finem A power to chuse means with a due order and respect to the end yet still freedome in the will to what is good cannot be found For as saith he The understanding which is an apprehensive faculty hath its simple and bare apprehension of a thing viz. of the first principles And
all those voluminous disputations of this state of pure nature is wholly De non ente there being not the least title in Scripture to establish any such opinion upon it It is true the Author mentioned is often affirming and dictating Magisterially concerning such an estate but never yet hath any Scripture-proof been brought for it some philosophical arguments happily may be Now being this is the foundation upon which many of the Adversaries to original sinne do build I shall in its time and order God assisting raze up this foundation and lay the Axe against the root of the Tree proving that it is both against Scripture and solid reason Lastly That there is such an inclination naturally in a man to sinne and repugnant to what is good a mans own experience may teach him were there no Bible no Orthodox Teachers a mans own heart may convince him of such a perversnesse within him though by natural light he could never discover the spring of it Doth not Paul even while regenerated complain of this Law of sinne within him Rom. 7. Nazianzen maketh sad complaining verses about this constitution of his soul Carmen quartum pag. 69. The conflict with the flesh and spirit which in a most excellent and affectionate manner he doth there bewail And certainly if the Adversaries to this Doctrine find not such a pronenesse in them it is because they are blinded they are benummed within as the Pelagians of old bragged That a man might be without passions and sinfull commotions That they did not pati they felt none of these things but herein they were either horrible hypocrites or stupidly hardened SECT IV. Of the Causes or Fountain of the vehement proneness and inclination to sinne that is in all men by nature and of the false Causes assigned by the Adversaries THus you see this Text hath sufficiently informed us of this Truth That there is in all men by nature a vehement proneness and inclination to sinne To which we have also added many other Demonstrations of this Truth not so much that it is doubtfull and needeth to be proved For the Adversaries do confess it as that thereby we might the more deeply humble our selves under the consideration of it If then there be such constant muddy streames we are to enquire what is the fountain of them And although this Text and many others of the like nature do evidently proclaim it to be that corrupt and unclean heart of a man within that he hath hereditarily and by natural propagation yet because the Adversaries to original sinne will by no meanes assent to this let us consider what are the causes they assign and herein we shall find they do not so much speak falshood as blasphemy against God But before we come to the particular causes specified by them let us in the general consider How many wayes this propensity in mankind may be imagined to proceed for some gave one head or spring to it Others another so that there is not more dispute in Philosophy about the cause of the ebbing and flowing of the sea or about the rise and spring of Nilus that famous river in Egypt then there is about the original of this impetuousness in man to sinne The effect is acknowledged by all but the dispute is about the cause thereof In the first place therefore Some do assign this inclination to sinne to the souls operations before the body was made For they conceit that the soul had a being before the body and according to the evil or good they had they were adjudged to proportionable bodies and thereby it cometh to pass that some have better tempered bodies then others according to that Rule gaudeant bâ—â—è nati They are to rejoyce that have good and kindly constitutions This was the opinion of the Platonists and Origen who was justly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the monstrous opinions he brought into the Church did proâ—â—â— absurd fancy Yea it is thought that this opinion was amongst the Jewes as seemeth to be implyed in that Question propounded by the Disciples to our Saviour concerning the man born blind Did this man sinne or his parents Joh. 9. 2. as also a passage in the Apocryphal Writer inclineth thereunto Wiâ—â— 8. 20. And being good I came into a body undifiled which Grotius understands of the pre-existency of the soul adding that Synesius though made Bishop yet did not retract this errour But this being so gross a figment it 〈◊〉 not any confutation and the rather because it is a wonder that no such pre-existent soules should behave themselves well for which they should have assigned to them undefiled and immaculate bodies for we believe not the 〈◊〉 mentioned Author in that boast he there maketh A second opinion of the Manichees who feigned two principles of good and evil and this evil principle they made the cause of man whereupon they condemned marriage as unlawfull and made man to be opus Diaboli the work of the Devil This Manicheism the Pelagians have alwayes endeavoured to fasten upon such as do affirme original sinne but it is done maliciously and ignorantly for we say this evil came not into man at first by nature but by the free and voluntary consent of Adam and since man is fallen we do not say sinne is his nature or his substance but that it is a vitious quality adhering thereunto as leprosie to the body 3. There are others who may be reduced to the Manichees and they were Heretiques called Materiaris who feigned an eternall matter that was so evil that the wisdome and power of God could not subdue it but that this malignancy did adhere to it whether God will or no. And this they make the cause of that vicious inclination in man It is say they from the evil matter man is made off which is inseperable from it but this doth grosly contradict the History of the Creation as recorded by Moses Wherein it is said God made every thing exceeding good Gen. 1. 31. Fourthly The Pelagian many Papists and the late Socinian Writers all these attribute it to mans Creation and constitution at first at least in part for they tell us of a state of pure naturals that man hath whereby the appetite doth rebell against the mind for man confisting of a soul and a body hereby say they do necessarily arise contrary inclinations The soul enclineth one way and the body another way and this conflict they are not afraid to say was in Adam himself and therefore God gave him grace as a supernatural and superadded ornament yea and as a remedy to keep the inferior appetite in its order now man being fallen he hath lost those superadditionals but continueth in his meer naturals and these being weak and imperfect are easily carried out to sinne wanting the grace of God to elevate them This is the mystery of their iniquity This is the fountain of all their poisonous impieties and therefore God assisting is
in this matter Annotat in cap. 5. of the Romans for in his paraphrase on the 12 Verse he makes death and mortality to come upon all men by Adam's disobedience because all that were born after were sinners that is born after the likeness and image of Adam And again on Verse 14 death came on the world because all men are Adam 's posterity and begotten after the image and similitude of a sinful parent By this we see the cause of death is put upon that image and likeness we are now born in to our sinful parent which is nothing els but our original corruption Let not this consideration of our sinful soules and mortal bodies pass away before it hath wrought some affectionate influence upon our soules Cogita temcrtuum brevi moriturum Every pain every â—ch is a memento to esse hominem That is an effectual expression of Job cap. 17. 14. I said to corruption thou art my father and to the worm thou art my mother and sister You see your alliance and kindred though never so great it is your brother-worm your sister-worm Job giveth the wormes this title because his body was shortly to be consumed by them and thereby a most intimate conjunction with them would follow Post Genesim sequitur Exodui was an elegant allusion of one of the Ancients yea the life that we do live is so full of miseries that Solomon accounteth it better not to have been born and the Heathen said Quem Deus amat moritur juvenis which should humble us under the cause of this sinne SECT VI. Q. Whether Death may not be attributed to mans constitution considered in his meer naturalls I Proceed to the second and last Question which is May not death be attributed to mans constitution considered in his meer naturals Is there not a middle state to be conceived between a state of grace and sinne viz. a state of pure naturals by which death would have come upon mankind though there had been no sinne at all This indeed is the sigment of some Popish Writers who make Adam upon his transgression to be deprived of his supernaturals and so cast into his naturals although generally with the Papists this state of pure naturals is but in the imagination only they dispute of such things as possible but de facto they say man was created in holiness and after his fall he was plunged into original sinne Now the Socinians they do peremptorily dispute for this condition of meer naturals de facto that Adam was created a meer man without either sinne or holiness but in a middle neutral way being capable of either as his free will should determine him This state of meer nature is likewise a very pleasing Doctrine to the late Writer so oftern mentioned it helpeth him in many difficulties Death passed upon all men that is the generality of mankind all that lived in their sinne The others that died before died in their nature not in their sinne neither Adam's nor their own save only that Adam brought it upon them or rather lest it to them himself being disrobed of all that which could hinder it Thus he Answer to a Letter pag. 49. This is consonant to those who say as Bellarmine and others that man fallen and man standing differ as a cloathed and and naked man Adam was cloathed with grace and other supernatural endowments but when sinning he was divested of all these and so left naked in his meer natural Thus they hold this state of meer naturals to be a state of negation not privation God taking from man not that which was a connatural perfection to him but what was meerly gratuitous The late Writer useth this comperison of Moses his face shining and then afterwards the withdrawing of this lustre Now as Moses his face had the natural perfection of a face though the glorious superadditaments were removed thus it is with man though fallen he hath his meer naturals still and so is not in a death of sinne or necessity of transgressing the Law of God but though without the aid of supernaturals he cannot obtain the kingome of heaven yet by these pure naturals he is free in his birth from any sinful pollution saith the known Adversary to this truth Thus he that calleth original sinne a meer non ens he layeth the foundation of his Discourse upon a meer non entity Now if you ask what cometh to man by these meer naturals he will answer death Yea that which is remarkable is the long Catalogue of many sad imperfections containing three or four Pages that is brought in by him Vnum Necessar cap. 6. Sect. 7. a great part whereof he saith is our natural impotency and the other brought in by our own folly As for that which is our natural impotency man being thereby in body and soul so imperfect it is he saith as if a man should describe the condition of a Mole or a Bat concerning whose imperfections no other cause is to be enquired of but the Will of God who giveth his gifts as he pleaseth and is unjust to no man by giving or not giving any certain proportion of good things To the same purpose he speaketh also in another place further explicat pag. 475. Adam's sinne left us in pure naturals disrobed of such aides extraordinary as Adam had But certainly there are few Readers who shall consider what is by him made to be the natural impotency of man in soul and body but must conclude he is most injurious to the goodness wisdomè and justice of God in making man of such miserable pure naturals yea that it is a position worse then Manicheisme for the Manichees seeing such evils upon mankind attributed them to some evil principle but this man layeth all upon the good and most holy God It is Gods will alone not mans inherent corruption that exposeth him to so many unspeakable imperfections It is well observed by Jansenius who hath one Book only de statu purae nature opposing the Jesuites and old Schoolmen in their sigment upon a state of meer naturals that this opinion was brought into the Church of God out of Aristotle and that it is the principles of his Philosophy which have thus obscured the true Doctrine of original sinne I shall breifly lay down some Arguments against any such supposed condition of meer nature from whence they say we have ignorance in the mind rebellion against the Spirit and also death it self but without sinne And Arg. 1. The first is grounded upon a rule in reason That every subject capable of two immediate contraries must necessarily have one or the other A man must either be sick or well either alive or dead there is no middle estate between them thus it is with man he must either be holy or sinful he must either be in a state of grace or a state of iniquity The Scripture giveth not the least hint of any such pure naturals Indeed a man may in
its nature If you look upon a Cain a Judas though his outside be so detestable yet his inwards are much more abominable so that a mans heart is like Peters great sheet which he saw in a vision Acts 11. 6. which was full of four-footed beasts and wild beasts and creeping things all unclean such a receptacle is mans soul of all impiety A man cannot tell what is in the sea what monsters are in the bottom of it by looking upon the superficies of the water which covers it so neither canst thou tell all that horrid deformity and wretchedness which is in thy heart by beholding thine outward impieties Oh then that you would turn your eyes inward as it were an introversion is necessary Then you will say O Lord before I knew the Nature of original sinne I was not perswaded of my vileness of my foulness Oh now I see that I am beyond all expression sinfull now I see every day I am more and more abominable O Lord formerly I thought all my sinne was in some words in some actions or in some vile thoughts but now I see this was the least part of all that evil that was in me Now I am amazed astonished to see what a sea of corruption is within me now I can never go to the bottom now I find something like hell within me sparks of lust that are unquenchable Fourthly Where there is not a true knowledge of this native corruption there our Humiliation and Repentance can never be deep enough for it 's not enough to be humbled for our actual sinnes unless also we go to the cause and root of all When a godly man would repent of his lusts of his unbelief or any other actual transgression he stayeth not in the confession of and bewailing those particular sins but he goeth to the polluted fountain to the bitter spring from whence those bitter streams flow and commonly this is a difference between an Ahabs Humiliation and a Davids Ahab humbleth himself only for his actual impieties and that because of judgments threatned and impending over him but David even when he heareth God had forgiven his iniquity yet hath great humiliation for his sinnes and Psal 51. thinketh it not enough to bewail his adultery and murder but to confess That in iniquity he was conceived his actual sinnes carried him to the original Thus Paul also Rom. 7 when he miserably complaineth of that impotency in him to do good that he could never do any good as perfectly fully purely and cheerfully as he ought to do presently he goeth to the cause of all this deordination the Law of sinne within him that original sinne which was like a Law within him commanding him to think to desire to do sinfully and obeyed it in all though against his will insomuch that he saith He was carnal and sold under sinne This the Apostle doth complain of as the heaviest burden of all So that an unregenerate man may by the light of nature bewail and complain of his actual impieties he may cry out Oh wretched man that I am for being such a beast such a devil so exorbitant and excessive but whether he can do this for the body of sinne within him as Paul did that may justly be questioned And therefore you see then the troubles and workings of conscience in some men to miscarry greatly They seem to be in pain and travails of soul but all cometh to nothing Oh how many in times of danger and under fear of death do sadly cry out of such sins they have committed Oh the promises and resolutions they make if ever God give them recovery again But all this passeth away even as mans life it self like a vapour like a tale that is told And one cause of the rottenness and defect of this humiliation is because it did not go to the bottom of the soare there was the inward and deep corruption of original sin that such never took any notice of and so in all his sorrow did omit that which is the most aggravating cause of all grief and trembling O Lord I have not only done this wicked thing but I had an heart an inclination of soul to carry me to it and therefore actual sinnes though ten thousands of them they pass away the guilt only remaining but this original pravity continueth in the pollution of it Fifthly Ignorance of original sinne makes us also mistake in the crucifying and mortifying of sinne No man can truly and spiritually leave a sinne unless he doth conquer it and subdue it in some measure in the original and root of it and this is a sure difference between a regenerate and unregenerate man about leaving or forsaking of sinne They both may give over their wonted actual impieties They both may have escaped the pollution of the world and that through the knowledge of the Gospel 2 Pet. 2. 20. but the one leaveth only the acts of sinne the other mortifieth it gradually though not totally in the cause and inclination of the soul Thus Paul Rom. 7. though he complain of those actual stirrings and impetuous motions of sinne yet withall he can truly say I delight in the Law of God in the inner man Now no hypocrite or unregenerate man can say so Though he be outwardly washed yet he hath a swinish nature still his inward parts are as loathsom as noisom as ever before Though there be a fair skinne drawn over the wound yet in the bottom there is as much corruption and putrefaction as ever before Samson's hair is only cut it 's not plucked up by the root so that it 's not enough to have given over thy former profaneness Thou thankest God thou art not the man once thou wert Oh but consider whether sinne in the root of it as well as in the branches of it doth wither and die daily A disease is not cured till the cause of it be in some measure at least removed As long as originall sinne is not in some degree mortified thy old sins or some other will break out as violently as ever here is the fountain and root of all within thee Sixthly He that is ignorant of the nature and extent of this natural defilement he must needs grosly mistake about the nature of conversion and be wholly ignorant of what regeneration is As you see in Nicodemus John 3. 6. though a master in Israel yet grosly mistaking about a new-birth and what was the reason of it That appeareth by our Saviours argument to prove the necessity of it Whatsoever is born of the flesh is flesh implying by this That if Nicodemus had known that by natural generation he was nothing but flesh that is sinne and evil his soul his mind his conscience all was flesh in this sense as well as his body then he would quickly have discerned the necessity of being born again then he would not have continued a day an hour a moment in such a dangerous condition And what
Ecclesiastical word only to call it a natural evil they did not presume for fear of the Marcionites who held That there was an evil Nature as well as the good And the Pelagians accused the Orthodox for Manicheism in this point because they held the propagation of this corruption by Nature Therefore they avoided the term of a Natural evil yet Austin at last did use it and indeed it is a very proper and fit name for it hereby differencing it from all actual voluntary and personal sinnes as also from sinne by imitation and custom for Aristotle makes a distinction of things that are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib Ethic. 2. cap. 1. where he sheweth what is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by nature as the stone to descend and the fire to ascend is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so according to him who knew nothing of original sinne we are neither good or evil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by nature And withall this Text doth fully warrant the expression If we are by Nature sinnefull then there is a natural evil Not that God put it at first into our Natures or that it is our substantial Nature but we have it by Natural Propagation Let us therefore consider How much is implied in this expression SECT II. ANd first It may well be called Natural because it doth infect the whole Nature of Mankind It 's a defilement that followeth our specifical not individual being Even as we call death natural because it followeth all mankind Rich men die and poor men die learned men die and foolish None are exempted from it Thus also it is with this sinne All that are born in a natural way of mankind have this contagion The sonnes of Noblemen and Princes though they glory in their blood and their descent yet they are as full of sin and the children of wrath as well as the children of the basest so that though in civil respects they boast of their birth and are above others yet in a theological and divine respect all are alike yea the children of godly parents though they have a promise to their seed and in that respect their children are said to be holy 1 Cor. 7. yet they come into the world with inherent corruption in them They do not generate their children as godly men but corrupt men as Austin of old expressed it A circumcised man begat a child uncircumcised and the Husbandman though he soweth his seed out of the chaff and husk yet that brings up others with chaff and husk upon it Well therefore may we call it a natural sinne because it doth extend to the whole humane Nature as it is in every one that partaketh of it in a natural way So that as Divines do distinguish of infirmities and evils There are some that are specifical which follow the Species as death and some are accidental which follow the individual nature Thus there are some sinnes which follow the particular nature of a man and these are actual sinnes Every man is not a drunkard an adulterer but some are defiled one way some another but then there is a sinne which followeth the whole and universal nature of man and this is original sinne though every man be not guilty of such or such a particular sinne yet all are of original sinne And therefore the Schoolmen say Actual sinne doth corrumpere personam but original Naturam actual sins corrupt the person original the nature SECT III. WE are declaring the Naturality of this Original sinne not as if it were ingredient into or constitutive of our nature but an universal and inseparable pollution adhering to it as they say of death as though it be praeter Naturam or contra yet if we do regard the principles of mortality which are in every man so death is natural Come we therefore to a second demonstration of the Naturality of this evil and that is seen In that it is the inward principle of all the sinfull motions of the soul and that perâ—se not per accidens This is a great part of that definition which Aristotle giveth of Nature now we may in a moral sense apply it to our purpose First I say It 's the inward principle of all the sinfull motions and workings of the Soul For as the nature of the stone is the cause of its motion downward as the nature of the fire is the cause of the fires motions and operations Thus is original sinne the intrinsecal cause and root of all the actual evil we are guilty of It is farre from me to justifie Flacius his discourse or opinion of original sin making it the natural substance of a man and not an accident though he so expresseth himself that some think its his Logical and Metaphysical errour rather than Theological Only that which I aim at is to shew That this birth-sinne is naturally ours because from it doth flow all the sinnefull and evil operations of the whole man So that we may say as it is natural to the stone to descend to the sparks to flie upwards so it is natural to man to think evil to speak evil and to do evil Aristotle observeth Lib. 2. Ethic. cap. 1. this as one property of things by nature that there the principles are before the actions A man hath the power to see or hear before he can actually do either but in moral things the actions are before the habits As it is natural to the Toad to vent poison and not honey so when a man sinneth it 's from his own it 's natural to him but when inabled to do any thing that is good this is wholly of grace Now I say It 's an inward principle of all sinne within us to distinguish it from external cause viz. the devil or wicked men who sometimes may tempt and cause to sinne Therefore the devil is called The tempter Mat. 4. 3. Insomuch that it is made a Question Whether there be any sinne a man commits that the Devil hath not tempted unto but that I attend not to at this time This is enough that the Devil is but an outward cause of sinne and therefore were there not that original filth in us his sparks could never kindle a fire he cannot compell or force to sinne In somuch that whatsoever sinne we do commit we are not to lay the fault principally upon the Devil but our own corrupt hearts Though Ananias lied against the holy Ghost because the Devil had filled his heart And Judas betrayed Christ because Satan had entred into his heart yet the devil could not have come into their hearts had they not been of uncleane and corrupt Constitutions before it was an evil heart and therefore the devil took possession of it The Apostle James cap. 1. 14. doth notably discover the true cause and natural fountain of all the evil committed by us and that is The lust and concupiscence that is within
punishment the punishment of another Besides that it is sinne inherent in us and not only imputed appears by David's acknowledgement Psal 51. In sinne was I born and in iniquity did my mother conceive me But of this more in time You see by what hath been said That our original sinne is more than meer guilt or Adam's actual sinne imputed to us it denoteth withall an inherent contagion of the whole man Therefore it is absurdly and falsly said by that late Writer It may be called original guilt rather than original sin SECT V. IN the fourth place there are those yet who draw a more narrow line in this matter than the former For when this Question is put Whether original inherent sin be truly and properly a sin They then distinguish between Peccatum and Vitium It is vitium say they but not peccatum or when it is called peccatum it is in a large sense not strictly and properly For with these nothing is a sinne properly but some action repugning to the word of God and because original sinne cannot be an action therefore say they it 's not properly a sinne In which sense they deny habits of sinne to be peccata but only vitia Though this be to play with words seeing the same thing is intended And although Austin abstaineth much from the word peccatum as if that alwayes did suppose a reatus yet that is a needless scrupulosity men may use words as they please Therefore Hierom thought Vide Whitak de peccato orig lib. 3. cap 6. vitium was more than peccatum contrary to Austins notion when he said Some man might be found without vice but not without sinne They say indeed a thing may repugn the Law of God three wayes Either Efficienter so the Devils and wicked men do yet they are not sinnes 2. Materially and thus the act of every sinne doth 3. Formally and so the obliquity in the act only doth and this they make only truly and properly a sinne But whether this will stand good or no will be examined in the Objections As also that Assertion of a learned man Molinaus vide infra That original sinne is condemned by the Law but not prohibited it being absurd as he thinks to appoint a Law for one grown up that he should have been born without sinne It is true in assigning the proper notion of sinne to it hath some great difficulty Neither doth it become us to be over-curious in this point above what is written remembring that original sinne came in by desiring too much knowledge I shall therefore treat of it so farre as it may tend to edification not to satisfie curiosity For when Austin was puzled with such doubts he brings that known Apologie Epist 29. of one who fell into a deep pit and being ready to be suffocated he crieth out to one passing by to help him out The man asketh him How he came in Do not saith he stand disputing of that but help me out Thus saith he every man being fallen into this deep pit of original sinne it 's not for us to be curiously and tediously inquiting how we came in but speedily seek for the grace of God to deliver us our CHAP. VIII That the inward Contagion which we have from Adam's Disobedience is truly and properly a Sinne. THerefore in the fifth place This sinne whereby we are infected from Adam's disobedience is truly and properly a sinne we are truly and inherently made sinners by Adam A man is not more properly and really made a sinner by any actual transgressions he doth commit then he is by his original sinne he is born in Insomuch that though an Infant knoweth not what he doth nor is capable of acts of reason when he is born yet he is properly and formally a sinner and the discovery of this will make much for our humiliation and Christs Exaltation Now that it is truly and properly a sin appeareth by these Arguments Argum. 1. That the Scipture speaking of it doth constantly call it so and therefore we are not to recede from the proper interpretation unless some weighty reasons compelâ—us What a poor and weak thing is it to deny original sinne to be imputable to us or to have the proper essence of evil because with Aristotle none are blamed for those things they have by nature or are not in their own power For it 's plain Aristotle understood nothing of this original pollution and by his Philosophy we must also quit many fundamental points in our Christian saith It is enough that the Scripture speaking of it and that purposely doth call it sinne as Psal 51. this Chapter of Romans and Chap. 7. often It 's the Law of sinne working in us So that this want of Gods Image and an inclination to evil is not to be considered as a meer punishment or as a spiritual disease and weakness upon nature but no sinne at all For it 's as truly a sinne as an actual sinne yea in some respects it is a more grievous and heavy sinne than actual sinnes as is to be shewed For the cause hath more in it than the effect It is from this evil heart that all actual evils do flow Argum. 2. It 's truly and properly a sin Because thereby a man is made obnoxious to death and eternal condemnation The wages of sinne is death and by nature we are children of wrath If then for this inherent corruption we die we are subject to miseries to Gods wrath and the curse of the Law then it must necessarily follow that this is truly and properly a sin Argum. 3. That which is made opposite to Righteousness that is truly and properly sinne For not punishment and Righteousnesse but sinne and Righteousnesse are two immediate Contraries Now it 's plain That this inherent corruption makes us sinners so that we need to be made righteous by Christ Argum. 4. The Apostle distinguisheth Adam 's imputed sinne and inherent sinne as two sinnes and so they have a two-fold distinct guilt as is to be shewed though some think it hard to say so Thus the Apostle By one mans offence sinne entred into the world Therefore Adam's actual sinne and that sinne which entred thereby are two distinct sinnes and differ as the cause and the effect By imputed sinne we are said to sinne in him actually as it were because his will was our will but by inherent sinne we are made sinners by intrinsecal pollution Argum. 5. This original inherent sinne is truly and properly a sinne Because it is to be mortified to be crucified We are to subdue the reign of it in our hearts which could not be if it were not properly a sin Argum. 6. It is a true and proper sinne Because by this our persons are made unclean so that naturally we cannot please God We are corrupt fountains we are bad trees and all this before we commit any actual sin Argum. 7. If Adam had stood that which would have been
mind and spirit therefore the Spirit lusteth against it That it is a punishment is manifest by the event for upon Adam's disobedience he lost Gods Image and so hath blindness in mind perversness in his will and a disorder over the whole man in which dreadfull and horrible estate we all succeed him and this the Text in hand speaketh to That it is the cause of sinne is manifest Gen. 6. 5. for from that corrupt heart of man it is That the imaginations of a mans heart are only evil and that continually This is a furnace red hot which alwayes sends forth those sparks Thus you see that original sinne is all these three a sin a punishment and a cause of sin 3. It is very clear and plain by Scripture that God doth punish one sinne by another So that when a man hath committed one sinne he is justly given up by God to commit more Amongst the many instances that may be given I shall pitch on two only 2 Thess 2. 10 11. where you have a sinne mentioned that God will punish viz. They received not the truth of God in love A sinne that is very ordinary But then observe how dreadfully God punisheth this God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lie This is their punishment a spiritual punishment more than any corporal one and that this is a sinne as well as a punishment is plain Because to believe a lie is a sinne to take falshood for truth the delusions of the Devil for the voice of Gods Spirit This is a sinne and a very hainous one The other instance is Rom. 1. 21. where you have the Heathens sinnes mentioned Because that when they knew God they glorified him not c. There you have their punishment to be given up to uncleanness to all vile lusts and sins against nature None can deny but these were sinnes and that they were a punishment for corrupting their natural light implanted in them is plain for the Apostle vers 24 26 28. saith For this cause or therefore God gave them up to these lusts and vers 27. the expression is observable That they received in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet Hearken to this with both ears and tremble all you who live under Gospel light if natural light corrupted bring such heavy soul-judgments no wonder if supernatural And therefore if you see men notwithstanding all the preaching of Gods word yet given up to be beastly sots or obstinate malicious men in their wickedness Wonder not at it for they receive in themselves a just recompence for the abusing of that light God hath vouchsafed to them Many other instances there are wherein it is plain That God makes one sinne a punishment of another Yea it 's said That every sinne since the first is both a sinne and a punishment Therefore the want of Gods Imagine us as soon as we are born with a proneness to all evil may be the punishment of Adam's actual disobedience and yet a sinne in us 4. As for the distinction assigned between sinne and punishment the one voluntary and an action the other involuntary and a passion Though there be learned men both Papists and Protestants viz. Vasquez and Twisse who disprove this by instances yet if it be granted it will not hinder or enervate our Position That original inherent sinne is both a sinne and a punishment also For when the learned say That sinne may be a punishment of a sinne they do not mean sin quâ sinne peccatum quâ peccatum for that is wholly of man but peccatum quâ poena as a judgment it is of God To understand this therefore take notice That in sinne there is the Obliquity and the Action to which this Obliquity is annexed Now sinne in the Obliquity of it so it is not a punishment but in the action or materiale of it to which it doth adhere As for instance Those vile and unclean lusts the Heathens were given up unto were a punishment of their rebellion unto the light Now as they were sinnes in their formality so they were onely permissivè and ordinativè of God but take the Actions substracted to that Obliquity which was in them so they were efficienter of God and he gave them up to their lusts 2. When God doth punish one sinne with another the meaning is not as if he did infuse this wickedness but only he denieth that mollifying and softning grace which if a man had he would resist the temptations of sinne as in this particular of original sinne You must not conceive of God in the Creation of the soul as if a man were pouring poison in a vessel so he did put sinne into our natures but he denieth to give and continue that Righteousness Adam had and then our souls do necessarily receive the clean contrary darkness for light Atheism for faith disorder for order Even as if God should withdraw the Sunne at noon-day continue the light thereof no longer to us it would upon that subduction be immediately dark there needed no other cause to introduce it Thus it is here upon Adam's fall God denying to continue his Image and original righteousness in us original sinne without any other positive cause cometh in the stead thereof and therefore we are not as Austin of old well observed to seek after the causa efficiens but deficiens peccati sin hath no efficient but deficient cause Therefore thirdly In this original sinne we may consider that which is peccatum and so it 's evil and that which is poena and so it 's good For as you look-on it being the deprivation of that rectitude which ought to be in a man so it is a sinne but as you consider it to be the denying of that holiness on Gods part which once we had so it 's poena or rather punitio The denying of this Image o◠God at first was punitio but this loss continued is poena so that the want and loss of that righteousness which once we enjoyed if considered on Gods part who continueth his denial of it is a just punishment and a good thing ordained by God but if you consider it as inherent in man who hath deserved this at Gods hand so it 's an evil and properly a sin in him 4. The same thing may be a sinne and a punishment also in divers respects As it may be a sinne in respect of a sinner but a punishment in respect of others Thus Absolom's sinne was a sinne in respect of himself but a punishment in respect of David So Parents sinnes may be sinnes in respect of themselves but punishments in respect of their children and we are especially to take heed of such sinnes as are not our sinnes onely but others punishments such are passions and unmortified anger this is a sinne to thee and a punishment to others 5. Every sinne is a punishment in this respect That it brings anxiety terror and fear
strengthen and inable it to be more vigorous and operative we may put more wood to this fire and so make it more dreadfull Even as these Pharisees though they were by nature the Serpents seed yet because of their voluntary and contracted malicious disposition in them superadded to the former our Saviour calleth them Generation of vipers Now although the Pharisees had this two-fold evil heart naturally and voluntarily yet I shall of the former onely and so handle it not as relating to the Pharisees but as it is a general Truth to be affirmed of every one till renewed by grace that he hath an evil treasure an evil heart within him And from thence observe That original sinne is the evil treasure that is in a mans heart Sometimes the heart it self is said to be evil to be desperately wicked but then it 's not taken physically as it 's a corpulent substance in a man but morally or theologically as it is the seat and principle of all evil For as the Sea hath all the Rivers in it from which they come and to which they return again so the heart is the fountain of all evil and all evil is seated in it coming from the heart and going back again to it But let us open this treasure which is not like the opening of that Alablaster Box which perfumed the whole house but like the opening of a noisom Sepulchre or dunghil from whence cometh only what is loathsome Therefore it 's not called a treasure in a good sense as commonly the word is used for we do not use to treasure up vile and loathsom things but because in a treasure there is plenty and fulness therefore is this evil heart this original pollution called a treasure and that very properly for these resemblances SECT II. How Original Sinne resembles a Treasure FIrst A treasure hath fulness and abundance A poor man that hath only money enough to discharge his daily expences is not said to have a treasure for that denoteth abundance more than enough Thus is original sinne deservedly called a treasure because it 's a fulness of wickedness As in Christ the treasures of wisdom are said to be in him Col. 2. 3. So in every man there is a treasure of folly and wickedness so that every man is rich enough to sinne let him be never so poor never so straitned not a morsel of meat to eat not a farthing to buy any thing with yet he hath a rich heart a full heart to sinne he is never destitute of plenty and power to do that which consideration should greatly humble thee to think in stead of that good treasure which God once put into my heart being throughly furnished with every grace now there is a treasure of evil now darkness is where all that light was evil and nothing but evil where all that good was Though thou art a rich man and a great man glorying in thy treasures of wealth yet the treasures of evil in thy heart may make thee fear and tremble Secondly Here is denoted in this expression That all sinne is potentially and seminally in our hearts For it 's not said to be an evil heart in some respect and as to some actings but indefinitely and generally an evil treasure of the heart Hence Rom. 3. 14 15. There are in man by nature crimson actual sins of the greatest guilt viz. The poison of Asps is under their tongues their mouth is full of cursing their feet are swift to shed blood c. These sins which some few of mankind only and those the worst of men do ordinarily commit yet they are attributed to every man by nature And why because there is the treasure of these in his heart you cannot name the vilest actions that are though for the present like Hazael thou wouldst defie such things saying Am I a dog a devil that I should do them yet did not God bind up this treasure of evil in thee as he doth the clouds that are his treasures of rain thou wouldst quickly be overwhelmed with them what trembling should this make in a mans heart when he shall consider there is not the vilest and most prophane atheistical man breathing but thy heart would carry thee out to do the like did not God say to this sea of corruption within thee Hitherto thou shalt go and no further It is because of this that David and other eminent godly men have fallen into such gross and loathsom sins that you would have thought they had not been in the least danger of that they were as farre from as the East from the West yet how quickly could these materials for sinne in their hearts ripen and break out into a flame How quickly did even the green Tree burn What then would the dry Tree do Look then upon thy self as the vilest sinner in the world in respect of thy principles and propencity to all sin Say it is not because I have a better nature I have less original sin in me but because God is pleased to put a restraint upon me Certainly if this will not make us like Job abhorre our selves as it were upon the dunghill what will Thirdly In that original sinne is compared to a treasure there is denoted the inexhausted nature of it though we sinne never so much yet the stock of sin is not quite spent As God because he hath a treasure of mercy and therefore said to be rich in grace though he sheweth never so much mercy and vouchsafeth never so much grace yet his treasure is not impoverished thereby he is as fully able to bestow fresh grace and new mercy to thee as if this were the first time that ever he began to be mercifull Thus though with great disproportion it is with a man that hath this evil treasure in his heart Though he sinne all the day long though from this abundance his mind thinketh his tongue speaketh his hand acteth that which is evil yet still his corruption is not abated yea it is the more strenghned and increased As it is with poisonous creatures though they vent never so much poison yet they cannot cast out the root and cause of it as long as they live So though a natural man be all the day long sending forth nothing but sinne and folly yet his heart is as full as ever this fountain is not dried up Therefore although it may fall out that many bodily sinnes cannot be any longer committed because the body groweth old and infirm yet this original sin is never weakned while a man is unregenerated but in a natural man though an hundred years old yet it is as vigorous and active as in youthfull sins It is reported of a liberal Emperour who was much in free munificence that he would say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Draw from me as from the River Nilus meaning that he would never be weary that he was like a fountain of which all travellers might drink yet he be as
powers of the soul must necessarily move sinfully and inordinately The soul of a man is alwayes working one way or other if then it hath lost original righteousnesse it cannot but be hurried on to what is evil as if you take away the pillar on which a stone liethh presently that will fall to the ground If you spoil the strings of musical instruments immediately they make a jarre and ingratefull noise upon every moving of them The soul of a man is a subject immediately susceptible of righteousnesse or corruption and if it lose its righteousnesse then by natural necessity corruption cometh in the room of it and so when the understanding acts it acteth sinfully when the will moveth it moveth sinfully So that we may well say with Austin to the Pelagian demanding How this corruption could come into us for God was good and nature good Quid quaeris latentem rimum cum habes apertam jannam Not a cranny but a gate or door is open for this corruption to seize upon us SECT IV. Application BEfore we come to answer the Objections Let us affect our hearts with it and labour to be humbled under the consideration of this positivenesse and efficacy of it For first Hereby we see that if it be not restrained and stopped by God we know not where we should stay in any sinne What Cain's what Judas's would we not prove Who can say Hitherto I will goe in sinne and no further for there is a fountain within thee that would quickly overflow all This active root of bitternesse this four leaven within thee would quickly make thy life like Job's body full of ulcers and noisome sores If thou art not plunged in the same mire and filth as others are doe not say Thou hast lesse of this corruption than they Thou art borne more innocent than they onely God stops thee as he did Balaam from doing such wickednesse as thy heart is forward enough unto No Serpent is fuller of poyson no Toad of venome than thou art of sinne which thou wouldst be constantly committing were not some stop put in the way Secondly In that sinne is thus positive and inclining thee thou art the more to admire the grace of God if that work a contrary inclination and propensity in thee If thou art brought with Paul To delight in the Law of God in the inward man If thy heart pants after God as the Hart after the waters which once delighted in sinne which once longed after nothing but the satisfying of the flesh Oh admire this gracious miraculous work of God upon thy soul who hath made thee to differ thus from thy selfe The time was once when thou rejoycedst in those sinnes that are now matter of shame and trembling to thee The time was when thy heart was affected with no other good than that of the creature Thou didst know no other desire no other but that but now God hath made iron to swimme he hath made the Blackmoor white Oh blesse God for the least desires and affections which thou hast at any time for that which is good for this cometh not from thee it is put into thee by the grace of God Lastly Consider that this positivenesse of sinne in thee doth not onely manifest it self in an impetuous inclination to all evil but also a violent resistance of whatsoever is good The Apostle Rom. 8. calleth it Enmity against God and Rom. 7. he complaineth of it as warring and fighting against the Law of his minde And certainly this is a very great aggravation not onely to be without what is good but to be a desperate enemy and a violent opposer of it both in others as also to that which the Spirit of God by the Word would worke in our own hearts not onely without the remedy but full of enmity against it Doth not this make our condition unspeakably wretched Certainly this is the highest aggravation in original sinne that we are not onely unable to what is good but we are with anger and rage carried out against it as if good were the onely evil and sweetnesse the onely bitternesse CHAP. XVII Objections against the Positive Part of Original Sinne answered SECT I. Cautions Premised THere remain only some Objections against this Truth but before we answer them take notice First That although we say original sinne is more than a privation of that Righteousnesse which ought to be in man yet We do not make it to be like some infecting corporeal quality in the body that hereby should vitiate the soul and as it were poison that Lombard and some others especially Ariminensis Distinct 30. They seem to deliver their opinion so as rejecting Anselm's definition of original sinne making it to be want of that original righteousnesse which ought to be in us and do declare it to be a morbida qualitas some kinde of pestilential and infecting quality abiding in the body and thereby affecting the soul As when the body is in some phrenetical and mad distempers the soul is thereby disturbed in all its operations so that these make the want of original righteousness to be the effect of original sinne not the nature of it saying upon Adam's sinne Man becoming thus defiled God refused to continue this righteousness to him any longer But if these Schoolmen be further questioned How such a diseased pestilential quality should be in the body Some say it was from the forbidden fruit that that had such a noxious effect with it but that is rejected because that was made of God and all was exceeding good Arimineâ—sis therefore following as he thinketh Austin maketh this venemous quality in a mans body to have its original from the hissing and breath as it were of the Serpent he conceiveth that by their discourse with the Serpent there came from it such an infectious air as might contaminate the whole body and he saith Austin speaks of some who from the very hissing and air from Serpents have been poisoned But the Protestants they do not hold it any positive quality in this sense for this is to make the body the first and chiefest subject of original sinne and so to convey it to the soul whereas indeed the soul is primarily and principally the seat of original sinne We therefore reject this as coming too near Manicheism as if there were some evil and infectious qualities in the very nature and substance of a man Secondly It must be remembred what hath been said before That when we come to give a particular reason why the understanding or will are propense to any evil We can assign only a privative cause viz. Because it wants that rectitude which would regulate it as if a ship it's Anselm's comparison were without Pilot and Governour of tacklings let loose into the whole Ocean it would be violently hurried up and down till it be destroyed Thus man without this Image of God would be tossed up and down by every lust never resting till he had
and that from this Text which because of the different thoughts of learned Interpreters doth deserve a diligent explication And For the Coherence of it you may take notice of the sad and bitter event described by the Evangelist of Christs coming as light into the world Though he came to his own and that as a Physician to the sick as a Saviour to such who were lost yet his own received him not Now lest it might be thought this rejection of Christ was universal he addeth Some did receive him and 〈…〉 dclareth the unspeakable benefit and priviledge vouchsafed to such So that in the words we may take notice 1. Of the Subject who are thus honoured and highly blessed by Christ Such as received him and what this is is explained viz. Such who believe on his Name In this is comprehended all our Evangelical Duty and that both inwardly and outwardly onely faith is expressed because this is virtually all This is the seed and the root the soul and life the salt that seasoneth the whole man 2. We have the Priviledge or Benefit which is said to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the right or dignity of being the sonnes of God for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be understood and therefore Popish Disputes about the power of free-will in holy things from this place is wholly impertinent onely the difficulty is Quest How they who believe in Christ can be said to have this priviledge given them of Sonship seeing that they could not believe unlesse they were first born of God and so the sons of God Answ Some therefore do understand this Sonship in respect of that future glory which in Scripture is sometimes called Adoption and 1 John 3. 1. Then it will properly appear that we are sonnes of God But we may well enough understand it of our Adoption and Sonship even in this life and this is said to be obtained by faith because in our sense and feeling there must be believing before we come to know this priviledge doth belong to us or else though faith and Sonship be together in time yet in order of nature one precedeth the other Thus we have the Subject and the Priviledge But in the next place we have the Description of the efficient cause for it was not their own power and free-will that made them believe Therefore the efficient cause is set down first Negatively and then Positively Negatively by removing those false causes that men might imagine and we have a three-fold enumeration of them Not of blood not of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man Divers Interpreters go divers wayes though much to the same sense Some think the Evangelist by blood doth not in the general mean natural generation and then afterwards distribute it into two particulars not of the will of the flesh that is of the woman Nor of the will of man that is not of the man Others supposing the general interpret the distribution thus Not of the will of the flesh that is not naturally Nor by the will of man that is not by humane adoption for so some are made legal sonnes amongst man Others they think all these enumerations are but to signifie one thing and therefore the opposition to all is God But we may not think the holy Ghost doth so industriously reckon up these several wayes but that some special thing is intended by every one Although as Erasmus observeth the emphatical Article is not in the original By blood therefore we understand any dignity or excellency of birth it's bloods in the plural number either by an Enallage and so an Hebraism as Maldenate Or else because of the long succession by birth And this may well oppose the carnal opinion reigning both with Jew and Gentile for all know how the Jew boasted in his birth because he was the seed of Abraham therefore he thought the favour of God necessarily annected to him And for the Gentile What a vanity and sinfull humour is in persons to be proud of their birth that they come of noble parents For although this be an outward civil dignity amongst men yet it maketh nothing at all to their spiritual dignity yea many times hindereth it according to that observation Heroum filiinoxae Regeneration then doth not come according to such civil and political respects 2. Not of the will of the flesh that is not of the natural will and choice of 〈◊〉 he hath no power or ability in him so much as to will a better condition then 〈◊〉 is in Lastly Not of the will of man that is not by the will of man though perfected and adorned with many acquired perfections Not by the will of a Plato or an Aristotle or a Seneca So that here is a two-fold will denied from efficacy in grace the will considered in its natural abilities or in its acquired abilities Thus 2 Pet. 1. 21. The prophesie in old time is said Not to come by the will of man but the will of God The will of man is there supposed to be in some raised and eminent ability above what it naturally hath and therefore opposed to the will of God in a more peculiar and extraordinary manner putting forth it self Thus we have all false causes removed and the true one affirmed which is God himself So that this Text doth plainly triumph over all the proud opinions of Pelagians Socinians Arminians and Papists who either give whole or part of the work of conversion to the will of man For the Evangelist is very diligent to exclude the will from any efficiency herein under any respect whatsoever Observe The will of every man is naturally so polluted that it cannot produce or cause our regeneration It is not by the will of the flesh or by the will of man that we are born again SECT II. Propositions concerning the Nature of the Will BEfore we come to lanch into this ocean of wormwood and gall for the polluted will polluteth all other things Let us say something to the nature of the will not enlarging our selves either as Philosophers or Divines do in this point but select only what is fit for our purpose First Therefore consider That God hath appointed and ordered in nature that every apprehensive power should have an appetitive power proportionable thereunto The apprehensive being like the eye to discern and discover the object The appetitive like the hand to imbrace it Thus the Angels as they have an understanding to know things so they have a will to desire them In beasts there is a sensitive apprehension by imagination and a sensitive appetite accordingly Now because man in his soul is like an Angel and in his body communicateth with beasts therefore he hath both a two-fold apprehension intellectual and sensitive understanding and imagination and also a two-fold appetite a rational one which is the will and a sensitive one which is the sensitive appetite in a man wherein the passions
a consequent from the former viz. The Privacy and Propriety of it For whereas by the primitive Institution our will is to be commensurated and regulated by the will of God now it naturally abhorreth and refuseth any such agreement as if our will were to take place of Gods will as if the prayer were that our will not Gods will might be done In this is an Abysse of all evil that our will naturally inclineth to be independent on Gods will we would have that a measure and rule even to Gods will that God should not will but what we would have Oh horrible blasphemy and confusion for the humane will of the Lord Christ was not a rule and measure of things to be done being the will of a creature therefore he prayeth Not my will but thy will be done Luk. 26. 39. If then Christs humane will was to be regulated by that superiour and increated will how much more is the will of a sinfull and corrupt man This then is that which maketh the whole soul like a Blackmoor This is the essence as it were of all sinne A mans own will not Gods will is regarded but a mans own proper will is wholly followed we would give Laws to God and not God to us Whensoever thy heart is carried out to lusts to any wickedness What is this but to exalt thy will and to depress the will of God Hath God said Be not proud thou wilt be proud Hath God said Swear not thou wilt swear Thus all sinne is nothing but a mans own will lifted up against the will of God No wonder then if one said Cesset voluntas propria non ardebit gâ—henna Let there be no longer our own will and there will be no longer any hell It 's this proper private will of ours that was the cause of hell Adam and Eve they preferred their will before Gods will and that brought in death and demnation Therefore regeneration is the writing of Gods Law in our hearts whereby we come to say as Christ I come to do thy will O God and Paul immediately upon his conversion saith Lord what wilt thou have me do he giveth up his will as a blanck on which God may write his will O Lord there shall not be any longer my will to persecute my will to oppose thy Church I will break this will of mine renounce this will of mine Thus as a vessel melted in the fire may be put into any forme or fashion the artificer pleaseth so was it with Paul's will This proper private will of thine likewise maketh all the trouble and misery thou meetest with it is thy own will that maketh thee to walk so heavily and discontentedly for were thy will resigned up into Gods were thou able to say in all things the will of the Lord be done I have no will but what God would have me to exercise this would keep thee in a quiet calm frame all the day long whereas now all the dispute and contention is whether thy will or Gods will must give place to each other Oh vain and wretched man how long shall this self-will of thine be thy ruine Is it not reason that the will of the creature should give place to the will of the Creator as the starres do not appear when the Sunne beginneth to arise ¶ 5. The Pride and Haughtiness of the Will THirdly The great and notable pollution of the Will Is the pride and haughtiness of it not only refusing subjection to the Will of God and to be under that as hath been shewed but in some remarkable particulars The first whereof is an affectation of equality with God himself Thus the will of a poor weak wretch that cannot turn a white hair into black whose breath is in his nostrils that hath the same originals for his body as a worm hath yet the aspireth after a Deity and would be like God himself As 1. in attempting to make gods and then to worship them What pride and vanity is in man to take upon him to make what he intends to worship so that what man pleaseth shall be a god and what pleaseth him not shall be none Deus non erit Deus nisi homini placuerit Thus whereas God at first made man after his image now man maketh God after his image Besides the horrible blindness that is upon the mind in this thing there is also pride and arrogancy of the will what is this but to assume superiority over their own gods which yet they worship and adore But 2. This pride of the will is more conspicuously manifested In affecting to be like the true God not to endure him to be a superior above us While our first parents had not any internal pollution at all upon them yet this sinne did presently insinuate them whereby they aspired after a Deity therefore the Devil tempted them with this sutable bait Ye shall be like Gods knowing good and evil That sinne of Adam hath still a more peculiar impression upon mankind Whence came that abominable and blasphemous custome into the world of deifying men which they called Daimons but from that inbred pride of the will desiring to be like God Ezek. 28. 2. Thus it was with that Prince of Tyrus he lifted up himself and said I am a god I sit in the seat of God thou hast ser thine heart as the heart of God What detestable and loath some arroganacy is here Oh the patience of God that doth not immediately consume such a wretch as he did Herod who sinned not so highly for he did not proclaim he was God only the people by way of flattering cryed out the voice of God and not of man which because he did not disclaim but secretly owned therefore was such a remarkable punishment inflicted upon him We see from these instances what pride lurketh in mans will there is the cockatrice egg which may quickly prove to be a flying Serpent This pride is thought also to be the sinne of the Devil whereby he was not contented with the station God had put him but was ambitious of a divine nature as if he with Christ might think it no robbery to be equal with God This unspeakable arrogancy did shew it self notoriously in some great Potentates of the world Caius Caesar especially for which cause Grotius though absurdly maketh him to be the Antichrist that did exalt himself above all that is called God This madness of pride was as visible in Alexander who though sometimes through the consciousness of humane imbecillity as when he was wounded and saw bloud fall from him would refuse such a thought yet at other times he did industriously affect to be related among the number of the Gods and to have divine worship performed to him and as the sonne of Jupiter Hammon would be pictured with hornes and Jupiters Preist meeting of him instead of that form 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did purposely mistake saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Haile thou sonne of Jupiter yea he sends into Greece that by a publique Edict he might be acknowledged for a god which the Lacedemonians in scoff did without scruple admit saying Qundoquidem Alexander vult esse Deus Deus esto Seeing Alexander will be god let him be one But the Athenians being more scrupulous or at least of greater hatred against him punished Demades the Orator for advising them to receive him as god for he had said Look Oye Athenians Nè dum coelum custodies terram amittatis while ye keep heaven ye loose the earth This carnal counsel is admired as infallible policy almost by all the Potentates of the world Thus you see what pride is latent in the will of a man and how farre it may rise by temptations though the experience of humane imbecillities may quickly rebuke such mad insolencies yet some excuse or other they use to put it off as when it thundered one asked Alexander wheather he could do so he put it of and said he would not terrifie his friends if you say this corruption of the will is not in every man by nature I grant it for the degree but it is habitually and radically there Let any man be put in such temptations as Herod and Alexander were and left alone to this inbred pride and original pollution it would break out into as great a flame Original sinne needeth time to conceive and bring forth its loathsome monsters 3. This pride of the will is seen In the presumption and boldness of it to inquire into the consels of his Majesty and to call God himself to account for his administrations Rom. 9. 20 who art thou O man that disputest against God O man that is spoken to humble and debase him Wilt thou call God to an account Shall God be thought unjust because thou canst not comprehend his depths Certainly God hath more power over us then the Potter over his clay for the Potter doth not make the materials of that he only tempreth it wheras God giveth us our very beings and therefore it is intolerable impudency for us to ask God why he made us so yet how proud and presumptousis man to dispute about Gods precedings whereas the great Governors of the world will not allow any Subject to say why dost thou so to them The Psalmist complaineth of this pride in some men Psal 12. 4. Our lips are our own who is Lord over us Thus Pharaoh said to Moses who is the Lord that I should obey him This pride in the will whereby men will audaciously intrude into things they know not hath made these heretiques in judgements the Pelagians and Socinians Their will doth not captivate their understanding to Gods Ipse dixit for us the Schoolemen observe truly in every act of faith there is required pia affectio and inclinatio voluntatis and when that is refractory and unsubmitting it causeth many damnable heresies in the judgement for it is the pertinacy of the will that doth greatly promote the making of an heretique Lastly This pride of the will is seen In raging and rebellious risings up against God in his proceedings against us In this the pride of the will doth sadly discover it self what rage what fretting and discontent do we find in our hearts when Gods will is to chastise or afflict us If we could bind the armes of the Omnipotent to prevent his blowes how ready is presumptuous man to do it It is therefore a great work of regeneration to mollity and soften the will to make it sacile and ductile so as to be in what forme God would have us to be When David had such holy power over his will 2 Sam. 15. 26 that in his miserable flight from Absalom he could say If ye have no delight in me behold here I am let him do to me as seemeth good to him he could abound and want be rich and poor a king and no king all in a day this argued the great work of sanctification upon his will This iron was now in the fire and so could be molleated as God would have it Thus in the fore mentioned instance of Paul when he cryed out Lord what wilt thou have me to do Here was a tender humble resignative of the whole will to God without any conditions or provisoes But oh the pride and unruliness of the will if left to its natural pollution When God shall any wayes bring his judgements upon us how impatiently do we rise against God even as if we would be revenged of his Majesty As it is said of the Thracians when it thundereth and lightneth they shoot against heaven as if they would bring God to order Xerxes scourged the sea and sent a Bill of defiance against the hill of Athos Augustus being beaten with a tempest at sea defied their god Neptune and caused his image to be taken down from the place where the rest of their gods were Yea Charron speaketh of a Christian King who having received a blow from God swore be would be revenged and gave a commandment that for ten yeares no man should pray to him or speak of him I tremble to mention these dreadfull instances but they are usefull to demonstrate what pride and unsubdued contumacy is in the will of man even against God himself when he crosseth us of our wills Yea do not the godly themselves though grace hath much mollified their will and made it in a great measure obsequious to God yet do they not mourne and pray and groane under the pride of their will do they not complain oh they cannot bring their will to Gods will They cannot be content and patient under Gods dispensations they fret they mutter they repine Is not all this because the will is proud the will doth not submit Heavenly skill and art to order thy will would make thee find rest in every estate ¶ 6. The Contumacy and Refractoriness of the Will ANother instance of the native pollution of the will is The contumacy and refrractioness of the will it is obstinate and inpenetrable The Scripture useth the word heart for the mind will and conscience not attending to philosophical distinctions so that the stony heart the uncircumcised heart is the same with a stubborn and disobedient will Thus the Scripture putteth the whole cause of a man 's not conversion of his not repenting upon the resractory will in a man especially Levit. 26. 14. If ye will not hearken to me and will not do these Commandments vers 18. If ye will not for all this hearken to me vers 23. If ye will not be reformed but will walk contrary to me Observe how all is put upon the will so that if their will had been pliable and ready then the whole work of Conversion and Reformation had been accomplished So Matth. 21. 29. The disobedient sonne returneth this answer to his father I will not This contumacy therefore of the will may be called the bad tree
hand out of his bosom he willeth and willeth but never doth effectually set himself upon working This man is like a reed that is tossed up and down with every wind Many more sinfull affections might be named for they are like the motes in the air or the sand upon the sea shore But let this suffice because more will then be discovered when we speak of the slavery of it to evil having no freedom to will what is good Only let this Truth be like a coal of fire fallen upon thy heart let it kindle a divine flame in thy breast consider this corrupt will is the root of all evil If thy will were changed if thy will were turned to God this would bring the whole man with it Oh pray to God to master thy will to conquer thy will Say O Lord though it be too hard for me yet it is not for thee Remember hell will be the breaking of thy corrupt will Thou that wouldst not do Gods will here shall not have thy will in any thing when in hell SECT V. Of the Natural Servitude and Bondage of the Will with a brief Discussion of the Point of Free-will ¶ 1. JOH 8. 35. If the Sonne therefore shall make you free ye shall be free indeed HItherto we have been discovering the vast and extensive pollution of the will in its Originals and Naturals both in the several operations and affections of it The next thing in order is To treat of the will in regard of its state as in freedome of servitude about which so many voluminous Controversies have been agitated And indeed a sound judgement in the point of Free will is of admirable consequence to advance Christ and the grace of the Gospel For whosoever do obscure the glory thereof they lay their foundation here They praise nature to the dispraise of grace and exalt God as a Creator to the prejudice of Christ as a Redeemer Although it is not my purpose to go with this Point as many miles as the Controversie would compel me yet because the Doctrine of Free-will is so plausible to flesh and bloud that in all Ages of the Church it hath had its professed Patrons And because the cause of Christ and the Gospel is herein interessed and further because it is of a great practical concernment to know what a slavery and bondage is upon the will of man to sin it will be necessary and profitable in some measure to inlarge upon it for there is scarce one in a thousand but is pussed up with his own power and strength so that he feeleth not the want of grace ¶ 2. This last mentioned Scripture opened THis Text I have pitched upon will be a good and a sure foundation for the superstruction of our future Discourse For Austin in his hot disputes with the Pelagians about the freedom of the will to what is good doth often flie to this Text as a sure Sanctuary And Calvin gravely upon this Discourse of our Saviour saith Eunt nunc Papistae we may adde Arminians and Socinians liberum arbitrium factuosè extollunt c. Let them presumptuously exalt free will but we being conscious of our own bondage do glory in Christ onely our Redeemer Though Maldonate is pleased to censure this expression of Calvin us Sententia digna verberibus vel igne Let us therefore take notice of the Coherence and we will go no higher then to the 30th verse where we have specified a blessed and fruitfull event upon Christs Discourse concerning his Person and Office For as he spake those words many believed on him not by their own natural ability and power but the Father did draw them by his omnipotent and efficacious grace Christ while he spake to the ear did also reach to the heart he did not onely preach but could inable the hearer also to believe herein exceeding all Pastors and Teachers that ever were in the Church of God Christ plants and watereth and giveth the increase likewise all of himself Yea Christ seemeth here to sow his seed upon the high way and among thorns and stones yet some seed cometh up and prospereth well Upon this we have the love and care of Christ mentioned to these new Converts he immediately watereth these plants and swadleth these new born Infants that they may not miscarry This is seen in the counsel suggested to them where you have The Duty supposed and the admirable Priviledge issuing from it The Duty supposed If ye continue in my Word It is not enough to begin unless there be perseverance It is not enough to receive Christ and his Word unless we abide therein and have our ears as it were boared never to depart from such a Master The neglect of this maketh all that dreadfull Apostasie and those sad scandals to Religion which in all Ages do terribly break forth Except ye abide in Christ as well as be in him we shall fall short in the wilderness and not be able to enter into Canaan It is also observable that Christ saith If ye abide in my Word it must be the true Doctrine of Christ it must be what he hath delivered which denoteth two things 1. That heresie and errour can no wayes make to our Christian-Discipleship they cannot set us at liberty from any lust or sinne and therefore no wonder if you see men of corrupt judgements at last fall into sinfull and corrupt practices For the word of God is only the instrument and instituted means of sanctification Sanctifie them by thy word Joh. 17. 2. Hereby we see the necessity of the Ministry of it by the preaching of Gods word they are first brought to believe and after that are continually to depend on it The Ministry is both for the begetting of grace and the increase of it Those that despise and neglect the Word preached do greatly demonstrate they never got any good by it The consequent Priviledge upon this continuance in the Word is to be Christs Disciples indeed From whence we have a distinction of a Disciple in appearance and shew or profession onely and a Disciple indeed There were many that became Christs Disciples in profession onely they followed him for a season but afterwards forsook him which caused our Saviour so much in his Parables and Sermons to press them upon a pure thorow and deep work of grace upon their souls The title without reality will be no advantage Musculus observeth That Christ useth the Present tense Then are ye my Disciples indeed From whence he gathers That Continuance or Perseverance in grace doth not make the truth of grace but the truth of grace maketh the perseverance they do continue and therfore are Disciples indeed but they are Disciples indeed therefore they continue in Christs Word But Beza maketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in other places and if so then it must be thus understood That our Perseverance in grace doth not make grace to be true but doth demonstrate and
are ignorantis and concupiscentia Ignorance and Concupiscence Ignorance by that we know not God the true and chiefest good but every creature yea every lust is represented as good and lovely as in the dark night a white rotten post or a glow-worm will shine and appear something It is the not knowing of God as revealed in the Scripture which maketh us set up so many Idols in our hearts The other daughter is Concupiscence and this may be called Sheol because it is alwayes asking and craving insomuch that a man is insatibly carried out all his life long to one sinne or other he still cryeth Give give Now what a miserable creature is man that is thus greedy of that which is destructive of him If you should hear a man calling importunately for poison he will eat nothing but poison Is not such an one desperate set to ruine himself Thus is with every natural man he can never sinne enough as if he thought he could never damn himself enough How happy are the creatures comparatively herein to man Their appetites are moderated and they desire nothing that is hurtfull but man never stayeth himself in his lusts and withall he is wholly carried out to such things as will inevitably damn him Sixthly A thirsty man drinking down water doth it to refresh himself never attending whether it be wholsom or destructive to him How many have got their mortal bane by drinking to quench their raging heat within The Hydropical man will call for his drink though thereby he is ruined and this doth fitly resemble that cursed appetite in us to sinne though it damnus We look onely to the bait not to the hook to the pleasures of sinne the sweetness of sinne not at all considering what buterness thus will bring at the later end Is not this the miserable estate of man by nature Doth he look any further then to satisfie this corrupt thirst within him Doth he think will thus be for my good will this be in stead of God and Heaven to me Hence also it is that he is carried out to sinne from a voluntary principle within Even as a thirstly man needeth not to be hired or compelled to drink he hath that within him which will instigate him Thus it is in every man by nature though there should be no Devil to tempt him yet that corrupt frame within would provoke him to all evil It is from this that though hell and damnation be threatned though this sword of Gods anger hang over his head yet he will drink of this water Lastly There is denoted in this similitude That a man by committing of sinne is thereby inclined to sinne the more It doth not satisfie but increase the lust more As a man in distempered heat doth not allay it by drinking but enstameth it the more as a little water thrown on the fire intendeth the heat thereof Thus by drinking in of the water of sinne a man becomes more thirstly after it and so to his corrupt inclination there is added also a corrupt custom and these two cords are not easily broken it must be the grace of God alone that can set us at liberty Hence we have that expression concerning a stubborn obstinate man in his way of sinning Deut. 29. 19. That he addeth drunkennesse to thirst And so again Thirst to drunkennesse thus he is alwayes in vehement motions after sinne and the more he swalloweth it down and is inebriated with it the thirstier still he groweth according to that known Rule Quò plus suxt potae plus siâ—iuntur aquae It is true that proverbial expression used by Moses in the Text named is very obscure and is greatly vexed Delrio upon the place giveth fifteen Interpretations and Bonfrerius offereth one of his own Grotius goeth along with those that â—â—â—erstand the abstracts for concretes and so apply it to two different persâ—â—â— ut that of Calvins seemeth most probable which I have mentioned that it denoteth a man by custom in sinne to be more vehemently inclined thereunto Even as drunkennesse doth not quench the thirst but maketh a man more thirsty afterwards and this agreeth wholly with my purpose SECT III. Some Demonstrations proving that there is such an impetuous inclination in man to sin THat there is such an universal propensity in all manking is confirmed by experience and acknowledged by the adversaris to original sinne Let us bring some few demonstrations à posteriori that they may fully prove the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That there is such an impetuous inclination in man to sinne And First The testimony of the Scripture may be instar omnium in this point that doth sufficiently attest the general pollution of all men by their evil doings Not to bring in that fore-mentioned place Psal 14. 2 3. where God is said to look from Heaven upon the children of men and he could not behold one that did good no not one It was not upon Judea only but upon the children of men and he could not find one good We may take in many other places to confirm this How quickly had all mankind corrupted it self as appeareth Gen. 6. 12. God looked upon the earth and behold it was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted his way before God Here we see not long after the Creation how all the world was quickly become abominable in his eyes All flesh had corrupted his way every man had defiled himself Yea so great it was that vers 5. Every imagination of man was only evil and that continually Now whence should all this evil arise Must not the fountain needs be bitter from which so many bitter streams flow Could so many thorns grow from men if they were grapes If so be there were the seeds of virtue in men by nature as they say or at least man is by nature indifferent either to good or evil yea more inclining to good How cometh it about that alwayes evil should prevail How is it that good doth not sometimes take place Why is there not an age to be recorded wherein we may say all flesh had made their wayes holy and that every imagination of the thoughts of mans heart was onely good continually Why should not there be some ages wherein God might look from Heaven and see none that did evil no not one The pure Naturalists are never able to answer this satisfactorily for if man be by nature as well without vice or virtue ready and capable to receive either as his will shall carry him Why is it that this will of man doth never prevail universally in some age to make all good Why should sinne alwayes get the upper hand and supplant virtue as it were so as to come out first Neither can that be a refuge in this Text which sometimes they runne unto That long custom in sinning for many ages together and evil examples so long confirmed from age to age dâ— cause such a torrent of impiety For not to speak at this
at the beginning endeavoured to clear himself and to charge his sinne upon God The woman thou gavest me And happily some even in the primitive times by mis-understanding some places of Scripture wherein God is said to give men up to their lusts to harden and blind men in their sinnes might occasion such a detestable Position And although the Papists do ordinarily charge this damnable Doctrine upon the Calvinists yet there needeth no more to justifie Calvin in this particular then what he doth most excellently and solidly deliver upon this very Text. The truth is our learned men shew expressions from the Papists yea from Bellarmine himself more harsh and incommodious then I believe can be found in any Protestant Writer But this by the way The Apostle being to inform us of the true cause of all the sinne we do commit and that not God no nor Devils or wicked men are to be blamed comparatively but our own selves sheweth that all this evil cometh from that concupiscential frame of heart we have within us And as for God the Apostle expresly instanceth concerning him prohibiting any one to think or say it is from God that they do sinne Let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God and he giveth two reasons whereof one is the cause of the other If you ask How is it that God is said to tempt no man seeing he tempted Abraham and the Israelites Austin's distinction is made use of that there is a temptation probationis and seductionis of probation or tryal or of deceiving and enticing to sin God indeed doth often tempt his people the former way not but that he knoweth what is in the heart of every man but that hereby a godly mans graces may be the more quickned as also a man have more experimental knowledge of himself As for the other temptation of seduction God doth not thus tempt that is he doth not encline or enrice to sinne It is true we read the Prophet Jeremiah saying O Lord I am deceived and thou hast deceived me Jer. 20. 7. But that is spoken unadvisedly and rashly by the Prophet who thought because what he had prophesied was not as yet fulfilled and therefore his adversaries derided and scorned him that therefore it would not at all be fulfilled and so by consequence that God had deceived him Secondly Divines distinguish temptation into external and internal External are afflictions and troubles called often so in Scripture and these temptations are from God 2. Internal which do immediately incline to sinne and with these God doth not tempt Now although the Apostle had in the former part spoken of external temptations yet now he speaks of internal ones though some think he continueth his discourse of externals because these many times draw out hearts to sinne but this ariseth not from God The reason why God cannot tempt to sinne is from the infinite perfection of holiness which is in God he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He cannot be tempted by evil It is true men are said to tempt God many times and so ex parte hominu there is done what man could do even to make God deviate from his own holy nature and Law but the Apostle meaneth ex parte Dei that God is of such absolute purity and transcendent holiness that there cannot arise any motion in his nature to make him sinne For so we expound the Greek word in a passive sense Estius himself granting that the use of it in an active signification can hardly be found though Popish Interpreters plead for the active sense but then there would be no distinction of this from the following words Neither tempteth he any man The original word is used only here in the New Testament The strength then of the Argument lieth in this God doth not tempt any man to sin because he hath no inward temptation or motion in his own nature to sin for that is the reason why the Devil is so impetuous and forward in tempting us to sin because his nature is first carried out to all evil so there is no man that doth draw on another to sin but because he in his own heart is drawn aside with it before The Apostle having thus justified God and removed all cause of evil from him In my Text he directeth us to the true internal and proper cause of all the sinne that we do commit and therein doth most excellently shew the several steps and degrees of sinne whereby of an Embryo as it were at first it cometh to be a compleated and perfected sinne This Text is much vexed by Bellarmine and Popish Authors to establish their distinction of a venial and mortal sinne though they cannot find any true aid from the Text. Let us consider the particulars of this noble Text The Cause of a mans sinne is said to be lust 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is the same with original sinne the corruption of all the powers of the soul whereby it is inordinately carried out to all things Of which more in the Doctrine This is described from the note of propriety 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His own lust This expression is used that we may not lay all upon the Devil or other men for this is ordinarily brought by men to excuse themselves It is true I was in such a fault I have sinned but the Devil moved me or such wicked companions they enticed me or I did it because men compelled me and terrified me all this will not serve thy turn It is thy own lust within not men without that hath made thee thus to sinne And this sheweth That every man hath his own proper original sinne by way of a lust within him 3. This is further amplified from the Vniversality of the Subject wherein this lust is seated Every man so that no man but Christ who was God and man is freed from this incentive to evil 4. There is the Manner How this lust doth tempt us to sinne and that is expressed in two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Drawn away that is as some from God from heavenly objects because in all sinne there is an aversion from God and a conversion to the creature or else as others Drawn aside form the consideration of hell of the wrath of God of eternal death and damnation For we sinne continually as Eve did at first The Devil perswaded her she should not die and then when this fear was removed she presently falleth into the transgression and thus before men fall into the pit of any sinne they are drawn aside from those serious thoughts This will offend God this will damn me The other word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Metaphor either from birds or fishes which have baits to allure them and thereby are destroyed Thus lust appeareth with a bait but the hook doth not appear In the next place This original sinne is illustrated in the issue of it the Apostle sheweth how sinne Ã
be also the cause of the sins themselves But I see not why we may not call original sinne the remote cause only of some sins because that is the seed and spawn only of all evil there are many temptations and suggestions which do ripen and quicken this monster to bring forth So that although men have lust enough within them to make them so many Cains so many Judasses to be as abominable in wicked wayes as the vilest of men are yet Nemo repente fit turpissimus as the Poet said There is time required to grow up into such foul abominations This is like the Prophets little cloud which at first though no bigger than an hand yet did afterwards biggen till it covered the whole sky The Apostle you heard compareth the production of sinne to the child that is first conceived in the mothers womb and so through the warmth and nourishment thereof doth lust bring forth As it is with the Acorn that is at first but little in quantity yet being great in efficacy doth in time enlarge it self into a great Tree Conclude then all evil even the most enormious impieties which for the present it may be thy heart doth tremble at yet they are seminally and radically in thee there are the sparks of fire which if let alone will quickly set all on a flame Hence The third Proposition is That whosoever would by the grace of God be delivered from any actual sins the best remedy is to endeavour to quench the lust within He that would dry up the streams must look to the fountain to have that dried up He that would destroy the bad fruit of a Tree must lay the axe to the root of it And this is a very necessary Rule to be attended unto in practical Divinity Observe that the same way sinne comes to live the same way thou must take to kill it It beginneth at the heart first before it 's in the eyes or hands and therefore thou must look to crucifie it in the heart first Thus the Wiseman adviseth Prov 4. 23. Keep thy heart for out of it are the issues of life After this then he exhorteth to look to our mouth and lips to our eyes and feet but the foundation must be laid in the heart if the heart be good all is good And this sheweth the preposterous way of the Casuists and Confessionists in Popery from which the late Writer so often mentioned doth not much decline in his Treatise of Ecclesiastical Penance for with such Writers you have scarce one word to the penitent sinner about Regeneration whereas external duties of alms or restitution which in their way are necessary by Gods command must flow from a spiritual and supernatural life within as the foundation of all much lesse have you one icta or tittle about faith laying hold on Christ by whom alone our persons are justified and all our duties are accepted This I say is the great neglect and unskilfulness in such writers that they deal in externals but for faith by which the heart is purified and whereby we please God in Christ that they make no mention of at all But the Scripture is herein different from moral Philosophy and Aristotelical precepts which those Casuists are wholly captivated unto for that requireth yea and promiseth first a tender and holy heart a circumcised heart and then to walk in the wayes of God whereas moral Philosophers first begin with actions and then go to acquired habits Justè agendo sumus justs This then is a golden Rule and of perpetual use in Christianity for a Christian to be mortifying lust within to watch against the treacherous adversary in thy own breast and then when the foundation is destroyed the superstruction must needs fall to the ground Propos 4. Because man is thus tempted and enticed by lust within therefore it is that man fallen doth sinne farre otherwise then Adam did in the state of integrity We do not sinne now as Adam at first we have an internal cause and principle within us whereas Adam did sinne wholly from suggestion without neither was it lust within but his meer will that made him consent to such suggestions This Proposition is the more to be regarded because Pelagian and Socinian Writers they all agree in this That we at first sinne in the same manner as Adam did at first the sensitive part being enticed by sensible objects and so rebelling against the rational part But this is to be wholly ignorant of that holy estate and glorious Image wherein God created Adam at first Adam had all such external and internal helps so freed from all ignorance passion or lust that nothing could destroy him but the liberty and mutability of his will Whereas alas in man destitute of Gods Image there is a lusting principle within him carrying him out inordinately unto every object proposed It is therefore a false and an absurd Position which Molina the Jesuite one of the meer Naturalists affirmeth Quaest 14. Disput. 4. de Concord lib. Arb. where he saith Adam had Innatum appetitum excellentiae ac laudis quo ad intellectum voluntatem c. That he had this temptation within him viz. an innate appetite to his own excellency and praise For how could this consist with that holiness and righteousness God created him in Indeed he saith in another place of the same book Quaest 14. Disp 45. Ex contemplation rei amabilis c from the contemplation of any lovely object and which is of concernment to be obtained there doth naturally rise in the will a certain motion whereby the will is affected to it which motion is not a volition but an affection of the will to that object whose goodness it is allured with And this he maketh to be in men yea in the Angels before they fell But what is this but to say that in men and Angels even before their fall there was a concupiscential inclination to delightsome objects and so Adam and Angels must according to this Text be tempted away and enticed by their own lusts An horrible Position highly derogating from Gods honour who created them holy and righteous Therefore Adam and much more Christ when they were tempted by Satan it was not in the same way with us The temptation was only external not internal there was no inward lust within yea the very external temptation of Adam and Christ was different from ours in a further respect For the Devil had not power by his suggestions to move or disturb their phansie as he doth in us Though the Devil cannot force our wils yet he can make bodily commotions of the phantasie and so thereby man is the more easily carried away to evil But neither Christ or Adam had their imagination so disturbed For although they might understand by phantasmes yet all was at the command of deliberate judgement A mans imagination was then in his own power so that those inferiour faculties in their operation could not
hinder the superiour Whether Adam in the state of integrity would have had dreames is uncertain but if he had learned men conclude they would alwayes have been good and not without the present use of reason as Rivet thinketh in cap. 3. Genes However this is enough for our purpose to shew that we are tempted to sinne in a different way from Adam Hence the fifth Proposition is That because there is such an internal Insting principle within a man is carried out to sinne though there be no external temptations by Satan or wicked men But even as the Devil who sinned first had no tempter but was carried out by his meer free-will to evil So much more must man who hath this corrupt principle within him be carried out to sinne though there be no Devil to tempt us or wicked men Hence the Apostle doth in this Text name lust onely as the inward cause not mentioning Devils or wicked men But yet it is disputed That although the lust of a man within be a sufficient cause and principle to carry a man out to all evil whether for all that the Devil also doth not help to the committing of every sinne They question Whether original lust be the cause only and that the Devil also doth not excite and stirre this up Some think because wicked men are said to do what they see their father the Devil do and because he is called the tempter 1 Thess 3. 4. That therefore though we sinne alwayes of our selves yet it is by the instigation of the Devil but because the Scripture maketh the imagination of mans heart to be only evil Gen. 8. 21. And because our corruption within is generally said to be the cause of a mans sinne therefore we cannot say that the Devil tempteth to every evil action that we do commit although in some particular hainous sins as in Judas and Ananias and Sapphira he entered into their hearts and filled them with his temptations but at that very time observe how Peter doth reprove Ananias for letting Satan have such admission into his heart Acts 5 3. Why hath Satan filled thy heart So that the Devil doth not compell any man to sinne it will be no excuse to say Satan tempted me for this could not be if thy lust did not consent to him and entetain him he throweth his fiery darts and thy heart is like thatch or straw that quickly is inflamed The last Proposition is That the effects of this inhereâ—t lust within us are of two sorts immediate and mediate Immediate are those first motions and workings of soul to any evil object though not consented unto yea it may be abhorred and humbled for The mediate effects are lusts consented unto in the heart and many times externally committed in our lives For that original sinne hath an influence into grosse sinnes appeareth by David's confession Psal 51 when he bewails his birth-pollution in his penitential humiliation for those foul sins committed by him But I shall enlarge my self only concerning those sinfull motions and stirrings of the heart unto evil which though the ungodly man taketh no notice of yet the constant and perpetual work of a godly man is to conflict with as appeareth Rom. 7. They are those perpetual restlesse workings of his heart inordinately one way or other that make his condition so bitter and therefore it is good to consider what may be said for our information herein ¶ 2. Of the Motions of the Heart to sinne not consented unto as an immediate Effect of Original Sin THe last Proposition we mentioned contained a division of the effects of original sinne within us which were either immediate such as the motions of the heart to sinne with the pleasures therof not consented unto Or mediate which are lusts consented unto and the external actings of sinne thus imbraced I shall only enlarge my self upon the former and for your information therein take these considerations First That these motions to sinne may be divided according to the subject they are in Now the powers of the soul are usually divided into the apprehensive and appetitive the cognitive and affective that is either such as know or understand or such as are carried out by love and desire These are the Jachin and Beaz as it were the two pillars of the temple of the soul and respectively to these two so are the stirrings of sinne within us In the mind or knowing part of the soul the workings of sinne are by apprehensions and thoughts In the affective part by way of delight and love And in both these the heart of a godly man is many times sadly exercised For thoughts How many vain idle foolish ones do arise in his soul like the sand upon the sea-shore The flies and Locusts in Aegypt did not more annoy then these do molest and trouble a gracious heart These thoughts come like so many swarms upon thee before thou hast time to recollect thy self They are got into the souls closet before they were ever perceived knocking at the door Nay these thoughts are not only roving wandring and restlesse but sometimes horrid black ones blasphemous atheistical diabolical which put the soul into an holy trembling and they know not what to do they think none like them no such vile wretches in the world as they are Indeed there are blasphemous injections of Satan such as are suggested to the soul importunately by him to which the soul giveth no consent but like the maid in the judicial Law that was ready to be ravished cryeth out against them or as the people when they heard Rabshakeh rail and blaspheme the God of Israel so horribly They answered him not a word Thus the people of God in such temptations give no consent or approbation to them now these are afflictions not sinnes they are sad exercises but not our corruptions because they are wholly external and cast in upon us as if we were in a room where we could not get out hearing men curse and blaspheme this would torment our souls but they do not make us guilty They are compared to the Cup in Benjamen's sack it was found there but it was not his fault it came there without his knowledge and consent And although they be foul and loathsom to a gracious heart yet God usually keepeth his people hereby humble and lowly yea he maketh them more spiritual and fruitfull as the black and noisom dung maketh the field more fertile and fruitfull but I speak not of these The thoughts we are treating of are such as arise from our own hearts for seeing original sinne is the seed of all evil the most erroneous and flagitious that can be therefore atheistical blasphemous lascivious and other evil thoughts may come out of our own hearts It is indeed a special part of heavenly skill and wisdom experimentally to make a difference between what thoughts are our own and what are meerly of diabolical â—â—jections to discover when our own corrupt
posse mori is known by all It is not then an absolute but a conditional immortality we speak of ¶ 3. Propos 3. ALthough we say that God made man immortal yet we grant that his body being made of the dust of the earth and compounded of contrary element it had therefore a remote power of death It was mortal in a remote sense only God making him in such an eminent manner and for so glorious an end there was no proxim and immediate disposition to death God indeed gave Adam his name whereas Adam imposed a name upon all other creatures but not himself and that from the originals he was made of to teach him humility even in that excellent estate yet he was not in an immediate disposition to death When Adam had transgressed Gods Law though he did not actually die upon it yet then he was put into a mortal state having the prepared causes of death within him but it was not so while he stood in the state of integrity then it was an immortal state now it is a mortal one I say state because even now though Adam hath brought sinne and death upon us yet in respect of the soul a man may be said to be immortal but then there was immortality in respect of soul and body the state he was created in did require it So that although death be the King of terrors yet indeed original sinne which is the cause of it should be more terrible unto us Now man by sinne is fallen the beasts could they speak would say Man is become like one of us yea worse for he carrieth about with him a sinfull soul and a mortal body ¶ 4. Distinctions about Mortality and that in several respects Adam may be said to be created mortal and immortal THe fourth Proposition is That from the former premisses it may be deducted that in several respects Adam may be said to be created mortal and immortal yet if we would speak absolutely to the question when demanding how Adam was created we must return Immortall Some indeed because mans mortalilty and immortality depended wholy upon his will as he did will to sinne or not to sinne so they have said he was neither made mortal or immortal but capable of either but that is not to speak consonantly to that excellency of state which Adam was created in for as Adam was created righteous not indifferent as the Socinians say neither good or bad but capacious of either qualification so he was also made immortal not in a neutral or middle state between mortal and immortal so that he had inchoate immortality upon his creation but not consummate or confirmed without respect to perseverance in his obedience for the state of integrity was as it were the beginning of that future state of glory Again Adam might be called mortal in respect of the orginals of his body being taken out of the dust of the earth but that was only in a remote power so God did so adorne him with excellent qualifications in soul and body that the remote power could never be brought into a proxime and immediate disposition much less into an actual death for a thin◠may be said to be mortal 1. In respect of the matter and thus indeed Adams body in a remote sence was corruptible 2. In respect of the forme Thus Philosophers say sublunary things are corruptible because the matter of them hath respect to divers formes whereas they call the heavens incorruptible because the matter is sufficiently actuated by one forme and hath no inclination to another and thus Adam might truly be said to be immortal for it was very congruous that a body should be united to the soul that was sutable to it for that being the form of a man and having an inclination or appetite to the body if man had been made mortal at first the natural appetite would in a great measure have been frustrated it being for a little season only united to the body and perpetually ever afterwards seperated from it Surely as an Artificer doth not use to put a precious Diamond or Pearl into a leaden Ring so neither would God at first joyn such a corruptible body to so glorious and an immortal soul 3. A thing may be said to be mortal in respect of efficiency and thus it is plain Adam was not made mortal for he might through the grace of God assisting have procured immortality to himself that threatening to Adam In the day he should eat of that forbidden fruit he should die the death Gen. 2 17. doth plainly demonstrate that had he not transgressed Gods command he should never have died 4. A thing may be said to be mortal in respect of its end Thus all the beasts of the field whatsoever Puccius thought are mortal because their end was for man to serve him so that it is a wild position to affirm as he doth that there shall be a resurrection of beasts as well as of men for they were made both in respect of matter form and end altogether mortal whereas Adam was made after the Image of God to have communion and fellowship with God and that for ever which could not be without immortality ¶ 5. Prop. 5. THe true causes of death are only revealed in Gods Word All Philosophers and Physitians they searched no further then into the proxim immediate causes of death which are either external or internal they looked no further and knew of no other thing but now by the Word of God we Christians come to know that there are three principal causes of death so that had not they been those intermedious and proxime causes of death had never been The first cause is only by occasion and temptation and that was the Devil he tempted our first parents and thereby was an occasion to let death into the world for this cause the Devil is called Joh. 8. 44. a murderer from the beginning it doth not so much relate to Cain as to Adams transgression yet the Scripture Rom. 5. doth not attribute death to the Devil but to one mans disobedience because Adams will was not forced by Satan he had power to have resisted his temptations only the Devil was the tempting cause The second and most proper cause of death was Adams disobedience so that death is a punishment of that sinne not a natural consequent of mans constitution The History of Adam as related by Moses doth evidently confirme this that there was no footstep of death till he transgressed Gods Law and upon that it was most just that he who had deprived himself of Gods Image which is the life of the soul should also be deprived of his soul which is the life of the body that as when he rebelled against God he presently felt an internal rebellion by lusts within and an external disobedience of all creatures whom he did rule over before by a pacifical dominion so also it was just that he who had deprived himself
from Paradise lest he should eat of that tree For it was just that he who had incurred the sentence of death by his transgression should be deprived of all the signs of life and symbols of Gods favour Furthermore this tree of life was not it self immortal Would that alwayes have continued Was not that subject to alterations as well as other trees How then can mans immortality be attributed to that Seeing then there is so much uncertainty amongst Schoolmen upon what to place Adam's immortality the Orthodox do consonantly to Scripture put it upon these things concurring as causes to preserve him from death The first is That excellent constitution and harmony of his body whereby there could not be any humour peccant or excessive So that from within there would not have sprung any disease And although in Adam's eating and drinking being nourished thereby there would necessarily have been some alteration in him by deperdition and restauration which is in all nourishment yet that would have been in part onely not so as to make any total change upon his body 2. The second cause was That original righteousnesse which God made him in For seeing sinne only is the meritorious cause of death while Adam was thus holy and absolutely free from all sinne death had no way to enter in upon the body 3. There was the providence of God in a special manner preserving of him so that death could not come by any extrinsecal cause upon him No doubt but Adam's body was vulnerable a sword if thrust into his heart would have taken away his life but such was the peculiar providence of God to him in that condition that no evil or hurtfull thing could befall him Lastly and above all Gods appointment and divine ordination was the main and chief cause of his immortality For if the Scripture say Deut. 8. 3. in the general That man liveth not by bread alone but by every word that cometh from the mouth of the Lord then this was also true in Adam And if we read of Elias that he went fourty dayes in the strength of a little bread that he did eat Is it any wonder that the appointment of God should work such immunity from death in Adam Whereas then there are three things about death considerable the potentia or power the actus or death it self and the necessity Adam was free from all these unlesse by power we mean a remote power for if he had not had this power of dying then he could not have fallen into the necessity of death Thus you see the excellent constitution of his body original righteousness a divine providence and Gods order and decree therein did sufficiently preserve Adam not only from actual death or the necessity of death or death as a punishment but also from any disposition or habitual principle within him of death and it may be from this state of immortality Adam was created The Poets by 〈◊〉 obscure tradition had their figments of some meats and drinks which made men immortal as their Nectar called so say some because when drunk did make them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 young again or as others from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as that which did not suffer them to die There was also their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as much as sine mortalitate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is mortalis They had also their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 luctus because it did expell all sorrow and grief But to be sure when we compare our mortal sinfull and wretched estate we are in with this glorious estate of Adams What cause have we to humble our selves to see the sad change that is now come upon us By this we may see how odious that first transgression was unto God that for the guilt thereof hath made this world to be a valley of tears to be like a great Hospital of diseased and miserable men SECT III. Arguments to prove that through Adam's sinne we are made sinners and so mortal ¶ 1. LEt us proceed to prove our Doctrine That through Adam sinning we are made sinners and so mortal which necessarily supposeth that Adam was made immortal and that death had nothing to do with mankind till sinne came into the world The first Argument is From that glorious condition Adam was made in and also the excellent end he was created for All which would have been horribly obscured if death or mortality had then been present The fears and thoughts of death are a bitter herb in the sweetest dish that is when of any comfort we have we may say as the young Prophets to their master there is mors in ella death in the pot death in this or that mercy thou enjoyest this doth greatly abate our delight Therefore we read of one of the Kings of France a Lewis that forbad all those who attended him ever to make any mention of death in his ears that prophane man thought such a speech would damp his delights Seeing then Gods purpose was to make a man such an excellent and blessed creature can we think he was made mortal and that it might have been said to him This night thy soul shall be taken away and then whose shall this Paradise and all these goodly enjoyments be It is the Scriptures designe to aggravate the goodness of God towards man and to shew the excellency and honour God put upon him Whereas the Socinians directly oppose this purpose of Gods Spirit and would make man as miserable as may be Hence they say he was created like a meer innocent that he had not much more knowledge than an Infant that he had no original righteousness that he was made mortal Yea Socinus Resp. ad Puc cap 14 pag. 106. cavils at the explication of that place Genes 2. 8. which is owned by all Interpreters about the garden in Eden which God placed Adam in he would not have any such place of pleasure or delight understood thereby But although the word may be retained as a proper name Eden for so our English Translators do yet because it cometh of a word that signifieth to delight Gen. 18. 12. The Church of God hath alwayes intepreted it of a place of delight yea that Heaven is called Paradise allusively thereunto and therefore it 's horrible impudency in Socinus to say that place was not called Eden when God planted it at first but in following ages it received that appellation Thus whereas the Psalmist doth admire the goodness of God for the honour put upon man at the Creation This Heretique laboureth to debase and diminish it as much as may be ¶ 2. ANd if Adam had been made so righteous and glorious yet subject to death he would have been like that building Paul supposeth 1 Cor. 3. Whose foundation was of gold and precious stones but the superstructure hay and stubble Or like Nebuchadnezzar's Image which was partly of gold with other additaments and partly of clay all
soul the rational the irascible and the concupiscible which he calleth indignativum concupiscentivum In the irascible he speaketh of a good indignation and an evil one applying this Text to the later Cerda his Commentator illustrating this saith Tertullian's meaning is That we are by nature children to our passions we are not at our own disposing we are under their power adding That Paul mentioneth wrath rather than any other affection because of that anger and fury by which he once persecuted the Church of God Thus he mentioning also another Exposition That by anger is to be understood the Devil who may so be called because of the cruelty he exerciseth upon men but this is so improbable that it needeth no refutation The wrath then is Gods wrath which like himself is infinite and the effects thereof intollerable So that it is as much as to be Children of hell children of everlasting damnation even whatsoever the wrath of God may bring upon a man in this world and the world to come SECT II. What is meant by Nature THe second Question is What is meant by Nature As for those who would have it to signifie no more then prorstus and vere altogether or indeed we have heretofore confuted yet granting that this is part of the lease but not the principal For we are to take nature here for our birth-descent as appeareth partly because the Apostle useth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which doth more properly relate to our nativity whereas before he calleth the children of disobedience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 partly because the Apostles order is observable for in the original it is We were children by nature of anger that is natural children opposed to adopted ones and partly because the Iews pretended holiness by their nativity because they were the seed of Abraham which pride the Apostle would here abate making them equal herein to the Heathen Idolaters Neither by nature are we to understand custome only as if the Apostle meant by it the constant custome of our actual iniquities which useth to be called a second nature we are made children of wrath for the Apostle doth no where use the word so no not in that place 1 Cor. 11. 14. Doth not nature 〈◊〉 you c. For nature is taken both for the first principles and also the immediate conclusions deduced from them which later the Apostle doth call nature Therefore it is matter of wonder that the late Annotator in his paraphrase on Ephes 2. should take in the orthodox sense viz. And were born and lived and continued in a damning condition as all other Heathens did observe that born in a damning condition should yet referre to his notes on 1 Cor. 11. where he seemeth to contradict any such birth-damnation from this of the 2d to the Ephesians For he would understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the national custome of Idolatry amongst the Heathens and if so then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not to relate to our nativity or birth as some translate it which he also noteth in the margin But though custome may be called nature yet there is commonly some limiting expression as when he quoteth out of Galen that customs are acquired natures or out of Aristotle custome is like nature Here are restrictive expressions whereas Paul speaketh absolutely And as for that instance which the learned Annotator hath out of Suidas which the late Writer maketh use of for the corrupting of this Text Vnum Necessar cap. 6. Sect. 2. it doth very fairly make against them For Suidas upon the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inlarging himself and particularly making it to signifie the principle of motion and rest of a thing essentially and not by accident alluding happily to Aristotles definition doth after this adde But when the Apostle saith we we were by nature the children of wrath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he doth not speak of nature in this sense because this would be the fault of him that created us All which is very true and doth directly oppose Manicheism We do not say there is any evil nature or that the primordials of our nature were thus corrupted They that hold pure naturals cannot answer this reason of Suidas it doth militate against them But we affirm this corruption of our nature came in by Adam's voluntary transgression So that in this sense we call it naturale malum as Austin and quodammod◠naturale as Tertullian So Suidas his meaning seemeth to be That the wrath of God is not naturally due to us as the creatures have their natural principles of motion and rest within them but that Suidas doth not by nature wholly mean an evil custome appeareth in that he saith two things are implied in this expression The first is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an in dwelling abiding evil affection by which we may very genuinely understand that innate corruption in us that sinne which dwelleth in us And The second is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A continual and wicked custome These are not to be confounded as the same thing but one is the cause of the other Original sinne is that evil in-dwelling affection from whence proceedeth evil customs in sin But it is not worth the while to examine what the opinion of Suidas was in this particular Varinus doth better discourse upon the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 making it to be the individual property of a thing as the fire to burn and saith it differeth from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for this is the essence of a thing and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the power or efficacy of a thing and thus from him we may say original sinne is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though still we must remember that it is not a primordial but a contracted property It 's made so upon Adam's transgression SECT III. That by nature through the original sinne we are born in all are heirs of Gods wrath all are obnoxious to eternal damnation NOw my purpose is to insist chiefly upon the Predicate in ths Propositon We are children of Wrath and that by nature even of Gods wrath So that thus Text doth contain the heavy doom of all mankind For it 's observed to be the form of speech which the Jewish Judges used when they passed sentence upon any capital offenders to pronounce That such were the sons of death From hence we may observe That by nature through the original sinne we are born in all are heirs of Gods wrath all are obnoxious to eternal damnation This is the most bitter herb in all this discourse of original sinne Here all the adversaries to it seem to be most impatient when you utter such words as these by nature deserving damnation as soon as ever we are born before any actual sinne committed it is just with God to throw us into hell that every Infant is obnoxious to
of integrity 479 Nor is there sense or feeling of any such Conflict in a natural man 480 It 's in all that are sanctified 81 Conflict the several kinds 500 Conscience What Conscience is 223 Whence quietness of Conscience in unregenerate men 90 And whence troubles of Conscience in the regenerate ib. Erroneous Conscience ought to be obeyed 224 Conscience horribly blind and erroneous by nature 225 And senslesse 226 The defect of Conscience in its offices and actings 228 The corruption of Conscience in accusing and excusing 230 Of a counterfeit Conscience 233 Sinfull lust fancy and imagination custome and education mistaken for Conscience ib. Conscience severe against other mens sins blind about its own 236 Security of Conscience 237 The defilement of Conscience when troubled and awakened 238 The difference between a troubled and a regenerate Conscience 243 Causes of trouble of Conscience without regeneration ib. False cure of a wounded Conscience 245 Consent A two-fold Consent of the will expresse and formal or interpretative and virtual 287 Creation Christ had his soul by Creation and so we have ours 195 Creature Mans bondage to the Creature 317 D Damnation DAmnation due to all for original sinne 528 Death Death not natural to Adam before sin 31 115 Death and all other miseries come from sin 173 Devil The Devil cannot compell us to sinne 15 114 Difference Difference between original and actual sins 477 Difficulty Difficulty of turning to God whence 478 Doubtings Doubtings whence 241 Duties Imperfection in the best Duties 11 Of doing Duties for conscience sake 234 E Exorcisms EXorcisms used anciently at the Baptism of Infants 54 F Faculties SOme Faculties and imbred principles left in the soul after the fall 224 Mans best Faculties corrupted by sinne 139 Flesh Flesh and spirit in every godly man 11 How the word Flesh is used in Scripture 139 Flesh and spirit contrary ib. Forgetfulness Forgetfulness natural and moral 257 Forgetfulness of sin 260 Of usefull examples and former workings of Gods Spirit 261 Of our later end the day and death and judgement and the calamities of the Church 262 Freedom Several kinds of Freedom 306 Freedom from the dominion of sin whether it be by suppression or abolishing part of it 503 G Grace WHat sanctifying Grace is 20 Given not so much to curb actual sin as to cure the nature ib. Free Grace exalted by the Apostles 308 The Doctrine of free Grace unpleasing to flesh and bloud 310 The necessity of special Grace to help against temptations 314 H Habits THe Habits of sin forbidden and the Habits of grace required by the Law 45 Heathens Heathens how far ignorant of original sin 168 Condemn the lustings of the heart 169 Heresies Hereticks The Heresies of the Gnosticks Carpocratians Montanists and Donatists 225 The guilt and craft of Heretiques 303 I Jesus Christ JEsus Christ his conception miraculous 388 But framed of the substance of the Virgin 389 Why called the Son of God ib. Had a real body ib. Born holy and without sin 390 How he could be true man and yet free from sin 392 Ignorance A universal Ignorance upon a mans understanding 178 210 Image Gods Image in Adam not an infused habit or habits but a natural rectitude or connatural perfection to his nature 19 Why called Gods Image 21 The Image of God in man Reason and understanding one part of it 113 Holinesse and righteousnesse another part ib. Power to persevere in holinesse another part ib. A regular subordination of the affections to the rule of righteousnes another part 114 Primitive glory honour and immortality another part 115 Dominion and superiority another part yet not the only Image of God as the Socinians falsly ib. How man made in it 131 Imagination Imagination its nature 351 Its sinfulnesse in making Idols and conceits to please it self 352 And in its defect from the end of its being 353 By its restlesnesse 355 By their universality multitude disorder their roving and wandring their impertinency and unseasonablenesse 356 357 It eclipseth and keeps out the understanding 358 Conceiveth for the most part all actual transgressions 359 Acts sin with delight when there are no external actings 360 Its propensity to all evil 361 Is continually inventing new sins or occasions of sin 362 Vents its sinfulnesse in reference to the Word and the preaching of it 364 Mind more affected with appearances than realities 365 And in respect of fear and the workings of conscience 366 And its acting in dreams 367 Is not in subordination to the rational part of man 368 The instrument in Austins judgment of conveying sin to the child 368 Prone to receive the Devils temptations 369 Immortal How many wayes a thing may be said to be Immortal 509 Of Adams Immortality in the state of innocency 513 Impossibility Impossibility of mans loosing himself from the creature and return to God 371 Infants Infants deserve hell 7 Sinners 29 Cannot be saved without Christ 35 55 Infant-holinesse what it is 56 Infants defiled with original sin before born 62 Judgment Whence diversities of Judgment in the things of God 219 Justification Justification by imputed not inherent righteousnesse 29 K Knowing Known CVriosity and affection in all of Knowing what is not to be Known 184 Which comes from original sin 212 L Law THe Law impossible to be kept 10 A Law what 85 The Law requireth habitual holinesse 130 Forbids lust in the heart 156 Liberty Liberty of will nothing but voluntarinesse or complacency 132 Lust What Lust is 155 How distinguished 157 Lust considered according to the four-fold estate of man 160 Sinfull Lust utterly extirpated in heaven 161 M Man MAn by nature out of Gods favour 117 Man made to enjoy and glorifie God 132 133 How sin dissolved the harmony of Mans nature ib. Man unable to help himself out of his lost condition 153 Through sin it is worse with Man than other creatures 174 The nobler part of Man inslaved to the inferiour 175 Man utterly impotent to any spiritual good 177 By his fall became like the devil 183 Memory The pollution of it 247 What it is 250 A two-fold weaknesse of Memory natural and sinfull ib. The use and dignity of it 251 The nature of it 253 Discoveries of its pollution 253 Wherein it is polluted 257 Wherein it fails in respect of the objects ib. Hath much inward vitiosity adhering to it 263 Subservient to our corrupt hearts 265 Mind Whence the vanity and instability of the Mind 217 Ministry One end of the Ministry 255 N Natural EVery Natural man is carnal in the mysteries of Religion in religious worship in religious ordinances in religious performances 140 141 In spiritual transactions and religious deportment 142 143 Necessity What Necessity is consistent with freedom 312 O Original Sinne. THe necessity of knowing it 1 The term ambiguously used and how taken in this Treatise ib. That there is such a natural concontagion on all 2 Why called Original sin 5 Denial of
it the mother of many errors 6 The cause of all miseries 7 Worse than actual 8 Ignorance thereof the cause why men understand not the work of conversion 9 Inseparably adheres to the best 11 A natural evil and how with the several names it hath had 13 The difilement of our specifical being 14 The inward principle of all sinfull motions ib. Flacius his opinion concerning it ib. Is alwayes putting it self forth 16 Neerer to us than actual or habitual sin 18 What it is 19 20 Why compared to death 21 Objections answered 22 Pelagians and Socinians opinion of it 28 Propagated ib. Is an internal and natural depravation of the whole man 32 Adams sin imputed to us is not all our Original sin ib. Of that opinion that Original sinne is vitium but not peccatum 33 Truly and properly a sin 34 Against the Law 35 How voluntary 39 Arminius and the Remonstrants disagree about Original sin 40 Arminius Remorstrants Zuinglius Papists Scotists and Socinians opinions of it 40 A sin a punishment and a cause of sin 41 Original inherent sin and Adams imputed sin are two distinct sins 43 Against the Law and how 44 45 Acknowledged in Old Testament times 48 Remonstrants confess it may be proved by two or three places of Scripture ib. Compared to a leprosie 51 Makes us leathsom to God as soon as born 52 Why called uncleanness ib. Should make us vile in our own eyes ib. Put a man by nature into worse condition than beasts 53 Makes us like the Devils ib. Pollutes our duties and makes us unfit and unworthy to draw nigh to God in duties 54 Makes us to be in the most immediate contrariety to God that can be ib. The denial of it charged upon Calvinists by the Lutherans 56 Acknowledged by the Rabbins and Fathers 62 Meditation thereon wherein advantagious 64 Not one universal thing of general influence but a particular thing in particular men 65 To be bewailed even by those that are regenerate ib. A two-fold Original sin 66 The different opinions of men about humiliation for it 67 In what sense it is to be repented of 68 Papists against sorrow for it 69 Several opinions concerning the pardon of it 67 68 69 Wherein repentance and the pardon of Original and actual sin do differ 70 It is an universal defilement 71 And an universal guilt ib. And the fountain and root of all actual sin ib. And the greatest sin 72 Inseparable from our natures while we live 73 Of the Scripture names of it 79 Not the essence or substance of the soul ib. Why called the old man 80 Improperly called a Law 83 Why called a Law 84 Instructs a man in all evil ib. Inclineth and provoketh to all evil ib. Compelleth to all evil 85 Why called the inherent or in-dwelling sin 90 How it dwels in the regenerate ib. Active and ever stirring 94 Is of an insinuating and contaminating nature 95 Depriveth both of power and will to do good 97 98 Inclines the heart to the creature 98 Resisteth all profers of grace 99 Weakens the principles of grace 100 Why called a treasure 102 An inexhausted stock 103 The cause of all pleasure in sin 104 Called a body and why 105 107 Shews it self outwardly in all our actions 107 Cannot be mortified without pain ib. A reality yet not a substance 108 Not a single sin but a lump of all evil ib. Inclineth only to carnal earthly and bodily things 109 Seth born in Original sinne 110 111 Deprives of more than external happiness and immortality against Socinians 117 Many Papists deny the positive part of it 136 Hath infected all men 137 Positive as well as privative 144 And the reasons thereof 145 Produceth positive sinfull actions 146 Sticks closer then vicious habits ib. Not a pestilential quality in the body 149 Is properly concupiscence or lust 157 And in what sense 159 And why so called 162 It is ignorant also ib. Defined 164 The whole man and the whole of man the subject thereof ib. Propagated and communicated to all Adams posterity 165 Truly known only by Scripture-light 167 How farre Heathens were ignorant thereof 168 The propagation thereof by the souls creation 199 Hath fill'd us with errour 211 And with curiosity 212 And vanity 213 And folly 214 Polluting the conscience how and wherein 221 Polluteth the memory 249 Polluteth the will 268 The affections 325 The imagination 348 The body of a man 392 And every one of mankind 387 Not the children of the most godly or the Virgin Mary excepted but only Christ 387. to 401 Original sin imputed the aggravations of it 405 Inherent the aggravation of it 407 It defiles all the parts of the soul is the root and cause of all actual sin is incurable taketh away all spiritual sense and feeling is habitual radicated in the soul 407. to 410 Objections against the hainousnesse of this sin Every one hath his proper Original sin 412 Vents it self betimes 415 Is alike in all 419 The immediate effects of Original sinne are mans propensity to sin 437. to 455 Is the cause of all other sine 455 Evil motions not consented unto and lusts consented unto 464 The combat between the flesh and spirit 474 Death 505 Eternal damnation 526 P Pray A Natural man cannot Pray 314 Pride Pride the cause of most heresies 218 Propagation Propagation of sin 397 Punishment The same thing may be a Punishment and a sin 41 R Redeemer THe necessity of a Redeemer demonstrates our thraldom to sin 319 Reformation A carnal mans Reformation is but the avoiding of one sin by another 318 Regenerate A sure difference between a Regenerate and unregenerate man 9 Regeneration Three sorts of mistaken Regeneration 10 Reliques Reliques of sin 474 Remember Whence is it that we Remember things when we would not 266 Righteousness Original Righteousness not given to Adam as a curb to the inferiour faculties 25 The difficulty of Rom. 5. 26 Original Righteousness the privation of it a sin 130 We were deprived of it by Adam 131 Vniversally lost 135 The losse of it the cause of all temporal losses ib. The privation of it doth necessarily inferre the presence of all sin in a subject susceptible 202 S Sacraments ONe end of the Sacraments 255 Sanctification Sanctification two fold 391 Satan All by nature in bondage to Satan 370 Scripture Scripture discovers us to our selves better then light of nature or Philosophy 161 168 The end of its being written 253 Self-knowing Self knowing a great duty and the hinderance of it 8 Sensless We are altogether Sensless as to any spiritual concernment 176 Sin A man naturally can do nothing but sin 15 16 The reason why all men do not commit all Sins though inclinable thereto 17 Men lie under a necessity of sinning yet this necessity is consistent with voluntarinesse 18 Sin delightfull to men 21 How Sin is natural to us 24 Christ only born without Sin and how 37. 390 Sin is what
to send them to hell they think but what can be spoken more terribly against man in regard of original sinne then God himself here speaks where every word is like so much thunder and lightning as is to be shewed Only for the present purpose observe that he saith Every imagination of the thought of a mans heart is evil Imagination or framing and fashioning the heart of a man is compared to a shop of wickedness and every thing framed or fashioned there is only evil Sinne then is present in a powerfull manner when there cannot so much as rise a motion in thee a stirring of thy soul though never so involuntary and indeliberate but it is only evil Oh it was not thus in the state of integrity then every imagination every motion was good and only good but now our gold is become dross and wine water Let a natural man observe his heart and he shall see what riseth first in his soul is all filth like the muddy fountain it comes from Yea even in a godly man How many thoughts and motions rise up in his heart that he abhorreth and trembleth at It is true sometimes the devil injecteth vile and blasphemous thoughts so that his heart is not at all active in them and therefore are not sinnes but compared to the Cup in Benjamin's sack they knew not how it came there and it is a great dexterity in casuistical Divinity so to direct a Christin that he may know when such motions arise from the devil alone so that they are my afflictions but not sinnes or when they come from my heart and so are truly imputable to me of which in its due time it may be but for the present we may sigh and groan under this consideration That evil is so present with us that nothing riseth up in the heart sooner than sinne Secondly In that evil is said to be present to Paul there is denoted the universal and diffusca presene of it Paul doth not say it 's present in one part in one faculty but to me that is in every part susceptible of sinne Therefore it is called The Law in his members because it putteth forth its efficacy every where sinne is present in the mind by atheism unbelief c. in the will by obstinacy and obdurateness in the affections by inordinacy and confusion yea sinne is present in the eye in the tongue So that the Apostle meaneth this original sinne is of such an universal extent that it is present in every part in him For you must not think as some Papists do That original sinne is only in the inferiour sensitive part of a man but it is principally and chiefly in the intellectual and most noble part the mind and the understanding and indeed because it 's so predominant therefore is conversion so difficult for the Ministry bringing arguments and convictions out of Gods word The sinne that is present in the understanding putteth a man upon atheistical cavils and carnal disputes whereby he shuts himself up voluntarily in his darkness rather than he will receive light Thirdly In that evil is said to be present with us here is denoted the continual assaulting and vigorous acting of it at all times Though original sinne be not an actual sinne yet it is an active sinne Hence Paul attributeth such actions to it as if it were some mighty imperious and conquering tyrant he saith it doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It warreth against him it leadeth him into captivity Do not then think this sinne hath a meer bare sluggish presence is if it lay asleep in thee No it is daily assaulting thee it 's continually pulling thee down As the heart and pulse are in continual motion thus is original sin within thee Therefore our imaginations are not only said to be only evil Gen. 6. 5. but also continually Thy soul never acteth but it acteth sinfully and corruptly It is true while men are in their natural estate They are dead in sinne and so they find not feel not these stirrings neither do they groan under them but there are innumerable Myriads of sinfull motions in thee to sinne though thou doest not apprehend them As a man shut up in a dark dungeon full of Toads and noisom vermin he seeth nothing till light come into the place and then he trembleth being afraid to stay there any longer such a loathsom dungeon is every mans heart naturally Oh the atheism vanity wickedness that is bound up therein but thou dost not know or believe any such thing because dead in sin Fourthly There is implied the facility and easiness in sinning The way to sinne is no narrow or strait way There needeth not much striving to enter therein for it 's ready at hand May not all find if they will search this readiness of sin at all time Why is thy heart so quickly moved and drawn out to any earthly or sinfull pleasure but it 's a long while ere thou canst make any fire or kindle a flame in thy soul to that which is good Thy soul is a dry Tree to the former but a green Tree to the later as the Scripture speaks concerning the righteousness of faith It 's night thee Thou needest not say Who shall go into the deep for it Rom. 10 c. Thus it is true of sin in thee thou needest no instruction no masters thou needest not fetch devils from hell to commit sinne for that is alwayes present with thee Hence Eliphaz compareth it Job 15. to drinking of water when a man is scorched with thirst If you see there are many who by a natural conscience are so convinced that they are difficulty brought to commit some sinnes especially gross ones It is no contradiction for a man to be all over polluted and prone to sinne notwithstanding such dictates of conscience implanted in all men This is plain That sin ss so present that without any difficulty or pain we are carried out to sinne so that the kingdom of hell doth not like the kingdom of Heaven need any violence to take it Fifthly When evil is said to be present there is denoted the subtile and daily insinuation of it into all that we do It 's in a man like leaven that sends forth its fourness into all the meal it leaveth not the least part unleavened This sinne is like a Dalilah in Samson's heart it is alwayes enticing and tempting of thee and therefore it 's called by the name of lust or concupiscence and Jam. 1. 17. there it 's said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to intice by setting baits for us Hence in Jer. 17. the wickedness of the heart is expressed by this That it is deceitfull above all things who can think that the wise holy God made us with such hearts at first No but upon the first transgression came this desolation upon us Because then evil is thus present with us hence every holy duty is contaminated hence there
is flesh as well as spirit in the best performances This close subtil insinuating nature of original sinne is the cause why a godly man can never know the bottom of his heart This makes so many hypocrites and apostates This is it that makes a man so uncertain about himself for when he hath done all that we would think there were no danger yet some embers or other may lie as it were under the ashes and set all on flame Lastly When it saith Evil is present with us that denoteth the molesting and retarding nature of it stopping us in all the good we would do This is that especially for which Paul makes this sad complaint so that he cannot step one step but sinne puls him back again This is the milstone about the neck This is the clog and burden upon every man Oh Lord I would even flie up into heaven but this burden doth press me down When we would runne our spiritual race this makes us halt Vse Of Instruction to abhorre all such Doctrines as teach a perfection that holdeth We may attain to be without sin in this life Some Anabaptists and Papists though so extreamly contrary yet have understood that place Ephes 5. 27. Not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing to be fulfilled in this life forgetting the words before that he might present it to himself a glorious Church so that till this be done it is not without spot And near to these are such who though sinne be every way present in them yet because of their pharisaical and doubled minds as Paul once was they do not discover or feel any such thing But let the tender enlightned heart go into Gods presence and sadly bewail himself saying O Lord How ill is it with me What shall I think or say of my self How unspeakable is my misery I might have thought all sin within me even dead and buried But oh how it stirreth Oh how ready is it to put forth it self Lord I know not how to live with this burden and yet I cannot live without it I should utterly faint but that thy grace is sufficient for me CHAP. V. Of that Name The Sinne that doth so easily beset us given to Original Sinne. SECT I. HEB. 12. 1. And the Sinne which doth so easily beset us THe Apostle from those several Examples of many Worthies recorded in the former Chapter which he cals A Cloud of Witnesses partly for the multitude of them and partly for Direction As the Israelites had a Cloud to guide them in the wilderderness doth inferre a conclusion by way of Incouragement to go on constantly in the way of Christianity which he doth here as in other places compare to a running in the race This similitude sheweth the Difficulty in the race the Earnestness the Fortitude and Patience that ought to be in such who will be saved What an antidote should the meditation of this expression be against all dulness slothfulness and negligence whose life is like a running in a race to Heaven Now the Apostle following this Metaphor exhorts to lay aside all those burdens that may hinder us in this work It would be 〈◊〉 in him who is to runne a race to put burdens upon his back and lay as many heavy weights upon himself as he can No lesse absurd are they who give way to sinne in the lusts thereof and yet hope to arrive at Heaven Now the burden we are to lay aside is expressed in two words 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 weight by this is meant all actual sinne especially love and cares about the world for the earth is an element that descends downward and so he who hath an earthly heart cannot but have his soul presse downward 2. There is the Root and cause of this expressed in that phrase The sinne that doth so easily beset us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word is but once used and that in this place it 's a two fold compound and so the more emphatical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much here as easie and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that it is a sinne which besetteth and compasseth us about and that very easily it finds no resistance neither have we any power to withstand it Some understand this of actual sinnes but not only Protestant Interpreters but even some Papists also Ribera and others understand it of Concupiscence within us The word is made a Metaphor several wayes Erasmus renders it Tenaciter adhaerentem That sinne which doth so tenaciously adhere to us making it an Allâ—sion to Ezekiel Chap. 24. where there is a Pot set on the fire yet all the fire and burning cannot get off the rust and filth that cleaveth to it Gretius makes it to respect Lament 1. 14. where there are yokes and bands mentioned about the neck which are impediments to the beast in his going Others they make the Metaphor from a Wall or an hedge that stops the passenger in his way Yea Lapide following others makes it to be the outward temptations or the dangers that are in the way by enemies and adversaries to the Truth but the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not well agree to that Hesichius rendereth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Varinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If we compare this expression with what Paul saith of himself Rom. 7 concerning original sinne keeping and pressing him down we may well with Beza put a procul dubto upon that exposition which doth apply it to original sinne for that indeed is the onely weight that doth constantly and perpetually beset us and hinder us in our way to Heaven and that with all ease and facility Observe then That original sinne is the sinne which doth so easily beset us That doth circumcingere as Beza saith bind us up strait and close that our limbs are not expedite and free to runne our holy race So that it is with us as a racer that hath his arms or legs bound his garments so strait-laced to him that he cannot have that liberty and freedom to runne as he doth desire Some consider the word as it did allude to a milstone about the neck plunging us down into the Sea SECT II. What is implied in that Expression So easily beset us LEt us take notice What is contained in this excellent and emphatical word And First There is implied our utmost impotency and inability to shake off the power of it For although the Apostle exhorteth us to lay it aside yet that must be understood as a duty alwayes in doing that we are neverable to compleatfully and perfectly You see though they are godly to whom he writeth and they are already in the race yet it is their work daily to be unburdenning of themselves When therefore it 's called The sinne so easily besetting us hereby is taught us our inability and insufficiency to withstand it Insomuch that all those Doctrines which teach Free-will and a power to do what is good are justly to be