grace to sanctifie them and prepare them for any heavenly duty Prov. 20. 12. The hearing ear and seeing eye the Lord hath made even both of them Let the Use be even to amaze and astonish thee with the thoughts of this universal pollution upon thee the soul in all the parts thereof the body in all the members thereof Nothing clean and pure but all over leprous and ulcerous How canst thou any longer delight and put confidence in thy self Why doest thou not with Job sit abhorring of thy self and his indeed were ulcers of the body only and they were a disease but not sinne whereas thou art all over in soul and body thus defiled and that in a proper sinfull way Oh that the Spirit of God would convince all of this sinne The Prophet Isaiah was to cry All flesh is grasse and the floâ—rer thereof fadeth away to prepare for Christ but in that was chiefly comprehended All flesh is sinne and the fruit thereof damnation What though this be harsh and unpleasing to flesh and bloud What though many erroneous spirits deny it or extenuate it yet seeing the Scripture is so clear and evident with which every man that hath experience of his own heart doth also willingly concurre Believe it seriously and humble your selves deeply think not transient and superficial thoughts will prevail as the weighnness of the matter doth require If ever thy heart can be broken and softned let it be discovered here rise with the thoughts of it walk with the thoughts of it and leave it not till thou find the belief thereof drive thee out of thy self with fear and trembling finding no rest till thou art interessed in Christ CHAP. VIII Of the Subject of Predication Shewing that every one of Mankinde Christ onely excepted is involved in this common sinne and misery SECT I. The Text opened and vindicated LUKE 1. 35. Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Sonne of God WE have at large though not according to the desert thereof described and amplified the subject of original sinne wherein it is seated By which it appeareth that man all over is become corrupted both the totus homo and the totum hominus the whole man and the whole of man The next thing to be considered is the omnis homo or the Subject of predication as Divines call it The former being called the Subject of Inhesion Our work then is to shew That Christ onely excepted every one of mankind is involved in this common sinne and misery there is none that can plead any exemption from it For seeing it is made the peculiar priviledge of Christ to be so born because conceived after a miraculous manner it therefore necessarily followeth that all others are comprehended under this guilt Though you may see some men from the youth up lesse vicious then others more ingenuous and civil then others yet even these are by nature all over sinfull so that there is no such thing as a natural probity and goodness of which the Socinians dispute as in time is to be shewed That it is the prerogative of Christ only to be freed not only from all actual sinne but also original and birth-sinne is evident by this Text which containeth an answer of the Angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary who with some trouble and amazement had questioned how she should conceive a Sonne who knew not a man The Angels answer consisteth in the information of the manner how it shall be and the consequent issue and event thereof The Manner is expressed in the efficient cause and his efficacy The Efficient cause is said to be the holy Ghost and the power of the Highest A person not the vertue only of God as the Socinians blaspheme as appeareth â—n that we are baptized into the name of the holy Ghost who is reckoned one of the three with the Father and Sonne as also by the personal operations and characters attributed to him which cannot be cluded with the figure of a Proso 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some endeavour It is true The works of God ad extra are common to all the three Persons yet there is a peculiar order and appropriation and therefore the preparing and forming of Christs body out of the Virgin Mary is peculiarly ascribed unto the holy Ghost The Efficacy is set down in two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is to be understood of the operation of the holy Ghost not his essence for that is every where The like expression though to another purpose is Acts 1. 8. The second word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning which there is more difficulty The word in the New Testament is applied to a Cloud covering a man with a Dative Case though Favorinus and Stephanus make it to have usually an Accusative Matth. 17. 5. Mark 9. 7. and Acts 5. 15. such an overshadowing as they expected virtue and efficacy thereby So Heysichius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Old Testament by the Septnagint it is often rendreed for defence and protection because in these hot Countreys the shadows of trees were a great preservation against the extream scorchings of heat And in this sense rather then in any other we take the word in the Text that the holy Ghost should protect and defend her not only in the inabling of her against nature to conceive without a man but also against all accusations and dangers she was to be exposed unto by this means Thus Virgil used the word Et magnum Reginae nomen obumbrat Others which may be additional to the former render it The holy Ghost shall fill her with glory therefore she is said to be highly favoured And thus also among Poets the word is said to be used Olympiacis umbratur tempora ramis Stat. Some make it to be as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if the meaning were the holy Ghost should as it were pourtray and draw the lineaments of the body Others make it an allusion to the hen which by covering her egg doth by the heat thereof produce a live young one to which also the Scripture is said to allude Genes 1. 2. when it is said The Spirit moved or was incumbent as the water Thus by the power of the holy Ghost in an unspeakable manner the body of Christ was formed of the mass and fleshly substance administred by the Virgin Mary But this we are to take heed of lest the mind of man should apprehend any indecent thing in this great mystery Therefore Smalcius the Socinian his assertion is to be rejected with great abomination that feared not to affirm That by this expression is secretly and modestly implied the work of the holy Ghost as supplying the place of a man his blasphemous and abominable expressions I shall not relate Smal. refut Smigl cap. 17 18 19. We shall then keep to the first interpretation understanding it of Help and Protection in this wonderfull work The
know lust to be sinne that is not so clearly so fully so experimentally as now he did since the grace of God had both enlightned and sanctified him How many have with great orthodoxy maintained this Truth against Pelagians and all the enemies of Gods grace shrouding themselves under the praise of nature but it is rare to see those that do not onely theoretically believe it but practically walk with broken and contrite hearts under it Examine then thy self Doest thou believe this is Gods Truth that thou camest into the world all over polluted Doest thou think that thou as well as any other though never so civil and unblameable in respect of actual sinnes art by nature a child of the Devil prepared fuel for the eternal flames of Hell And doest thou not onely believe this to be thy particular case but withall thou art so affected with an holy fear and trembling thou hast no quietnesse or rest in thy soul because of it then thou art come to a true and right knowledge of it For the end of our preaching on this Subject is not onely to establish your minds in this Truth against all errours therein but also to mollifie and soften your hearts that you may all your life time loath your self and advance the fulnesse of Christ And seeing that natural light is dimme and confused in this matter keep close to the Word and not only so but implore the Spirit of God that in and through the Word this Truth may enter like a two-edged sword into thy bowels knowing that without this foundation laid there cannot be any esteem of Christ CHAP. XXI That Reason when once enlightned by the Scripture may be very powerfull to convince us of this Natural Pollution SECT I. A Clear and full knowledge of original sinne can be obtained onely by Scripture light Although as you heard some Heathens have had a confused apprehension about it My work at this time shall be to shew That even Reason where once enlightned by the Scripture may be very powerfull to convince us of this natural pollution So that when Scripture Reason and Experience shall come in to confirm this Truth we may then say there needeth no further disquisition in this point And First This may abundantly convince us That the hearts of men are naturally evil Because of the overflowing of all wickednesse in all ages over the whole world How could such weeds such bryers and thorns grow up every where were not the soil bad It 's true in some ages some kind of sinnes have abounded more than others and so in some places But there was never any generation wherein impiety did not cover the earth as the waters do the Sea Insomuch that if we should with zeal undertake to reprove them according to their desert Non tam irascendum quà m insaniendum est as Seneca of the vices of his time Erasmus in his Epistle to Othusius complaineth That since Christ's time there was not a more wicked age then that he lived in Christ saith he crieth I have overcome the world but the world seemeth as if it would say shortly I have overcome Christ because of the wickedness abounding and that among those who profess themselves the salt and light of the world Now how were it possible that the whole world should thus lie in wickedness 1 Joh. 5. 19 as the Apostle affirmeth but that all mankind by nature is like so many Serpents and Toads of which there is none without poison If this wickedness did abound only in some places we might blame the Clymate the Countrey or their Education but it is in all places under the Equator as well as the Tropick in all ages former times as well as later have been all groaning under ungodliness and whereas you might say The world is in its old age now and the continual habituated customary wayes of wickedness have made us drink the dregs of impiety yet the Scripture telleth us That not long after the Creation of the world when we might judge greater innocency and freedom from sinne to have been every where yet then all flesh had corrupted their wayes Gen. 6. 12. which provoked God to bring that wonderfull and extraordinary judgement of drowning it with water as if it were become like a noisom dunghill that was to be cleansed And lest you should think this was only because of their actual impieties we see God himself charging it upon this because the imaginations of a mans heart were only evil and that from his youth up So that there is no man who considers the wayes and manners of all the inhabitants of the world but must conclude had there not been poisonous fountains within there had never been such poisoned streams The warres the rapines the uncleannesses and all the horrid transgressions that have filled the earth as the vermine did Aegypt do plainly declare That all men have hearts full of evil And lest you might think this deluge of impiety is only in the Heathenish Paganish and bruitish part of the world The Psalmist complaineth of that people who were the Church of God and enjoyed the light of the Word That there was none righteous that there was none that did good no not one Psal 14. 3. So that as graves and dead mens bones the Sepulchres and monuments every where do fully manifest men are mortal no lesse do the actual impieries that fill all Cities Towns and Villages discover that all are by nature prone to that which is sinfull SECT II. SEcondly This original sinne may be proved by reason yea and experience thus If you consider all the miseries troubles and vexations man is subject unto and at last death it self and that not only men grown up who have actual sinnes but even new born Infants will not this plainly inform us That all mankind hath sinned and is cast out of the favour of God How can it enter into any mans heart to think that God the wise Creator so full of goodness to man that he made him little lower than Angels should yet make him more miserable than all creatures It was Theophrastus his complaint when he lay a dying That man had such a short time of life prefixed him who yet could have been serviceable and by long age and experience found out many observable usefull things when Crows and Harts and other creatures of no consideration have a long life vouchsafed to them Yea all the Heathens even the most learned of them complained much concerning this Theme of mans misery being never able to satisfie themselves in the cause of it But now by the Scripture we see it 's no wonder the race of mankind is thus adjudged to all misery seeing it 's all guilty of sinne before God so that if there had been no actual sinnes committed by the sonnes of men yet the ground would have been cursed to bring forth bryers and thorns man would have been miserable and mortal So that this doth
then that its necessary to have a sound judgement about the original of the soul for the Mortalists have fallen into that deep pit of heresy because they erred in this first It is with men as they say of Fishes they begin to putrify in the head first and so commonly men fall into loose opinions and then into loose practises But this rule must be acknowledged That whatsoever depends upon matter in being doth also depend upon it in existency It 's Aquinas his rule as you heard Quicquid dependet à materiâ in fieri depend quoad esse et existere That is the reason why the souls of all beasts are mortal because they depend upon the matter in being They cannot be produced but dependently on that and therefore their souls cannot subsist without their bodies As it is plain the souls of men do after death till the resurrection So that this Doctrine is injurious and derogatory to our spiritual and immortal souls Fifthly If souls were not by immediate Creation but by natural propagation from the parents then either from the mother alone or from the father alone or from both together This Argument Lactantius of old as Cerda in Tertull. alledgeth him formed to himself and answers it 's neither of those waies but from God Not from the Father alone because David doth bewail his mothers co operation hereunto Psal 51 Iniquity did my Mother conceive me Not the Mother alone because the Father is made the chief cause of conveighing this original sinne by the Apostle he layeth it upon Adam more then Eve though Eve is not excluded Not from both together for then the soul must be partible and divisible part from the Father and part from the Mother and so it cannot be a simple substance Under this Argument Meisuer doth labour and confesseth it is inexplicable how the soul should come from the parents though he assaieth to give some satisfaction Lastly There is something even of nature implanted in us to believe our soules come from God who hath not almost some impression upon his conscience to think that he had not his soul from his parents even nature doth almost teach us in this thing Hence the wisest Heathens have concluded of it as Plato and also Aristotle who confuteth the several false opinions of Philosophers about the soul for it was a doubt as Tertullian lib de animâ expresseth it whether Aristotle was parasior sua implera aut aliena inantre and affirmes it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to come from without and that it is a divine thing Thus it was with some Heathens though destitute of the Light of Gods Word yet in somethings they did fall upon the truth as saith Tertullian The Pilot in a tempestuous black night puts into a good haven sometimes prospero errore and a man in a dark place gropeth and finds the way out sometimes caecâ quâdam felicitate Thus did some Heathens in some things SECT IV. IF you aske What Arguments have they who hold the traduction of the Soul I answer There is none out of Scripture that is worth the answering The two things they urge are First If the soul be not propagated then man doth not beget a man as a beast doth a beast and he is more imperfect then other creatures but this is to be answered hereafter The other is Because original sinne cannot else be maintained but this is to be answered in the Explication how we come to pertake of it Let us proceed to the Uses Vse 1. Doth God create the soul then he must know all the thoughts all the inward workings and motions of thy soul As he that maketh a Clock or a Watch knoweth all the motions of it Therefore take heed of soul-sinnes of spirit-sinnes What though men know not your unclean thoughts your proud thoughts your malicious thoughts yet God who made thy soul doth and therefore this should make us attend to Gods eie upon us Vse 2. Did God make and create the soul then he also can regenerate it and make it new again he made it as a Creator and he only in the way of regeneration can make it again This may comfort the godly that mourn and pray Oh they would have more heavenly holy souls They would not have such vain thoughts such sinnefull motions Remember God made thy heart and he can spiritualize it 3. Doth God create the souls then here we see that it 's our duty to give our souls to him in the first place John 4. God is a Spirit and will be worshipped in spirit This hath been alwaies a complaint men have drawed nigh to God bodily but their hearts have been farre from him God made thy soul more then thy body and therefore let that be in every duty Lastly If Parents do not make our souls then here we see Children must obey Parents but in the Lord Should thy Parents command thee to doe any sinfull action to break the Sabbath you must not obey you may say My father and mother they help me but to my body God doth give me my soul and therefore they are but parents of your bodies not of your conscience and souls SECT V. The Authors Apologie for his handling this great Question THe false wayes which some have wandered in to maintain the Propagation of Original Corruption to all mankind being detected our work is now to explicate that Doctrine which seemeth most consonant to solid Reason and Scripture But before we essay that we are to informe you of one sort of learned Authors who because of the difficulty attending this Point Whether we hold the Traduction or Creation of the soul have thought it the most wife and sober way to acknowledge the Propagation of original Sinne But as for the manner How there to have a modest suspense of our judgement to professe a learned ignorance herein to believe That it is though How it is so we know not And Tertullian concerning the original of the soul Lib. de Animâ hath this known saying Praestat per Deum nescire quae ipse non revelaverit quà m per hominem scire quae ipse praesumpserit In this way of suspense Austin continued as long as he lived thinking that this might be one of those Truths we shall not know till we come into the Academy of Heaven and to this modest silence we have one place of Scripture which might much incline us Eccles 11. 5. As thou knowest not the way of the Spirit nor how the bones doe grow in the womb c. This Text should teach us not to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to venture too farre but to observe the light of the Scripture as they did the Pillar and Cloud in the wildernesse to stand still where that stands still And indeed the Disputes about the Modes of things is very intricate The known saying is Motum sometimes Modum nescimus the manner of Gods working in conversion The manner of Christs presence in
feel the burden of sinne These hopefull workings I say do at last end in a sensless stupidity Pharaoh for a while and so also Belshazzar and Felix trembled Conscience in these did give some sharp stings but alas it came to no good use so rare a thing is it to come in a gracious manner out of these waves and stormes upon thy soul Experience also doth give in full testimony to this How many do we see that for some time yea it may be yeares have had as it were an hell within them They have eat their bread and drunk their drink with trembling and astonishment They have been even distracted with the terrors of the Lord but if you observe the later end of such they have at last grown secure and stupid as if the Spirit of God had never visited them in such a dreadfull manner So that we may say to many What is become of those troubles thou didst once groan under Where are those feares those cries those agonies thou hadst then Where are those zealous and fervent workings of heart which did so burn within thee once Alas after these meltings and thawings a greater frost and cold hath come upon them That as sometimes frequent and constant aguish fits do at last end in a consumption Thus frequent troubles of conscience upon some fits and seasons do sometimes end in a plain dedolency and stupidity of conscience never to be troubled more God hath left thee to be like an Adaman◠and stone so that though thou sinnest never so grosly yet now thy conscience is seared and thou canst be bold and rejoycing in the midst of thy impieties Thus you see it 's a great consequence for any one labouring under the troubles of conscience diligently to consider how he cometh out of them for now is the time of saving or damning of thee now is the time thou art in the fire either to be purged and refined or to be consumed Oh pray and get all thy godly friends to pray that these troubles may be sanctifie that they may be blessed to make a through change upon thee Better never have had such a wounded conscience such a troubled heart and then to returne to thy vomit again for every sinne committed by thee after these troubles hath an high and bloudy aggravation Thou knowest how bitter sinne is Thou hast tasted what gall and wormewood is in it Thou hast been in the very jawes of hell hast had some experience of what even the damned feel and wilt thou go to such sinnes again wilt thou put these Adders into thy breast again that have almost stung thee even to despair Therefore set a Selah an accent as it were upon this particular thou who hast been a troubled sinner and see how thou comest to be freed from this spiritual pain A great Difference between a troubled Conscience and a regenerate Conscience IN the second place You must know That there is a great difference between a troubled conscience and a regenerated or sanstified conscience The conscience may be exceedingly troubled about sinne have no peace or rest because of sinne yet be in the state of original pollution yet be destitute of the Spirit of Christ This mistake is very frequent many judging the troubles of conscience they once had to be the time of their conversion to God though ever since they have lived very negligently and carelesly without the strict and lively conformity of their lives to the rule whereas we see in Cain in Judas these had even earthquakes as it were upon their consciences They had more trouble then they could bear yet none can say they had a regenerated conscience It is true indeed these troubles of conscience may be introductory and preparatory to the work of conversion but if ye stay in these and think to have had these is enough ye grosly deceive your own soules Act. 2. 37 38. When Peter did in such a particular and powerfull manner set home upon the Jews that grievous sinne of killing the Lord Christ it is said They were pricked in heart Here their consciences were awakened here were nailes as it were fastened by the Master of their Assembly into their soules yet when they cry out saying What shall we do Peter doth direct them to a further duty which is to repent Those troubles then those feares and agonies were not enough a further thing was requisite for their conversion Thou then who art troubled rest not in these think not this is all but Press forward for regeneration without this though these troubles did fill thy soul as much as the Lecusts did Aegypt yet thou wouldst go from begun torments here to consummate torments hereafter It is true a gracious regenerated conscience may have its great troubles and agonies be in unspeakable disquietings but I speak of such who are yet only in innitiatory troubles who are as yet but in the wilderness journying towards Canaan all these troubles do not inferre regeneration but are therefore brought upon thee that thou maist be provoked to inquire after this new creature What may be the Causes of the trouble of Conscience which yet are short of true saving Motives IN the third place take notice of what may be the cause and motives which may make thy conscience awakened and troubled which yet are not from true saving principles 1. The commission of some gross and hainous sinne against conscience this may work much terror The very natural light of consciene in this particular is able to fill the soul with feares Rom. 2. The Heathens had their consciences acusing of them We read of Nero that after he had killed his mother Agrippina he was so terrified in his conscience that he never dared to offer sacrifices to the Gods because of the guilt upon him yea and as Tertullian lib. de animâ cap. 44. observeth from Suetonius after this parricide he who in his former times never used to dreame it 's noted of him as a rare and strange thing was constantly terrified in his dreames with sad imaginations Thus you see natural conscience upon the committing of some gross sinne hath power of it self to recoil and with heavy terror to overwhelm a man Some also do relate of Constantine that having been the cause of the death of his eldest sonne Crispus upon groundless suspicious was greatly tormented in his conscience not knowing what to do and thereupon was advised to receive the Christian Religion in which alone there could be found an expiation for so foul an offence 2. The trouble of conscience may arise from some heavy and grievous judgement that hath overtaken us Conscience may lie asleep may yeares the sinnes thou hast committed long agoe may be almost forgotten and yet some judgement and calamity falling upon thee afterwards may bring them to mind Thus Joseph's brethren whose consciences were so stupid as you heard that upon the throwing of their brother into the pit they could sit down as
second particular is the consequent and event thereof which is expressed 1. By note of Inference 2. The Subject And 3. The Predicate The Subject is That holy thing which shall be born of thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Present for the Future though some apply it not so properly to the conceiving 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Christ is called the Neuter gender is emphatical for though it be sometimes put for the Masculine as 1 John 5. 4. yet here it is emphatical to shew the extensiveness of Christs holiness that he is all over holy having not the least spot of sinne and that not only as God for so he is essentially and infinitely holy nor only by the personal Union with the Godhead but in his humane Nature both originally having no natural sinne in him and habitually and also actually in which sense he is every way holy The Predicate is He shall be called the Sonne of God that is he shall be indeed so and also famously and publiquely declared to be so And Lastly There is the note of Inference 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore also At this the Socinians greatly catch for they denying Christ to be the Sonne of God by eternal generation say That he is called the Sonne of God for many other Reasons whereof one is gradual to another so that he was not compleatly the Sonne of God till after his Resurrection when he was indowed with that glorious power God had given him sitting down at the right hand of God Now the first reason why Christ is called the Sonne of God is say they not because of any eternal generation from the Father as if he had been God before he was man from all eternity but from this miraculous and wonderfull production in time And they affirm Nothing can be plainer because when he had said The holy Ghost should over shadow her then is added Therefore he should be called the Sonne of God The Remonstrants they do or at least seem to do hold Christ to be the Sonne of God by eternal generation and also to be called so for other causes also as viz. by this miraculous production And it may not be denied but Maldonate the Papist doth plead for this as the reason in the Text why he should be called the Sonne of God So that saith he if Christ had been a pure man yet by this miraculous production he would have been made the Sonne of God But Gontzen his fellow Jesuite doth answer his reason Zanchy also is too liberal in this point acknowledging that Christ is here to be called the Sonne of God because of this miraculous communication of an humane being to him But his is no wayes to be received for the note of inference is not from the holy Ghosts overshadowing as a cause of his filiation but as from the sign It is I say an argument not from the cause but the sign so that the meaning is This extraordinary way of conceiving without a man is a sign that he is the true God who was before promised by the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 9. That a Virgin should conceive and his Name should be called Immanuel God with us For that there is a respect to that Prophecy appeareth plainly by Mat. 1. 23. And indeed it must needs be so for Christ is never called the Son of God because born of a woman though in a miraculous manner but the Sonne of man alwayes And if this Exposition should be granted Christ would have two filiations one as whereby he was made the Sonne of God and another as whereby he was made the Sonne of man It is also absurd to say Christ may be called the Sonne of God for several causes when there is one true and proper one he that is a Sonne by natural generation cannot be by Adoption or any other adventitious cause Again That particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is urged both of old and late That also which is born of thee c. implying that he had no other being though now he assumed this Thus you have the Text vindicated only one thing more is to be observed the expression used by the Angel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which shall be born of thee doth fully demonstrate That Christ had a body framed by the holy Ghost of the substance of the Virgin Mary that he had not a phantastical body neither did he bring a body from Heaven and so passe through the Virgin Mary as some of old and late have dreamed Therefore Marcion who denied the true body of Christ and thereby also his Conception and Nativity did wholly evade this Chapter of Luke and would not receive it as Canonical being called by Tertullian Mus ponticus because of his corroding and gnawing out of Scripture as he pleased when he saw any place make against him The words thus explained Observe That Christ onely is born holy and that all the rest of mankind is polluted with sinne It is a saying Exceptio format regulam if then Christ be exempted so that it is his peculiar priviledge then certainly all the rest are included As there are some who make all men pure by nature So some have blasphemously vented That Christ had original sinne Yea a Remonstrant writeth That the humane nature of Christ had that fight and conflict in it which is between the reason and the appetite which we say must necessarly be sinne The Socinians they affirm That Christ had a holy of sinne but then by sinne they mean onely infirmities and weaknesses not that which is truly so for this alledging Heb. 7. 27. Heb. 9. 28. The true meaning whereof we shall give anon But with Christians we need not long to insist upon the proof of this That Christ was without all sinne either original or actual typified therein by the High Priest in the Law who had this written upon him Holinesse to the Lord and therefore he is not onely holy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that sanctifieth and maketh us holy by his bloud And therefore the Apostle demonstrateth his preheminency above all the Priests of the Law That they were to offer for their own sinnes as well as for the sinnes of the people but so it was not with him if he had had sinne in him he could not have been our Saviour but he would have needed a Saviour himself yea Dan. 9. 24. he is called Sanctum sanctorum the Holy of holies or most holy And to this truth the Scripture speaketh clearly not onely when it saith That be knew no sinne and that no guile was found in his mouth which happily might be thought to be limited only to actual sinne but also as to the original and radical evil of mans nature that though he be a man of like nature with us yet sinne is still exempted Rom. 8. 3. He sent his own Sonne in the likenesse of sinfull flesh not in the likeness of the flesh
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
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