of them yet at other times when the temptation is violent they need to have the same truths suggested to them again by others or else though Job was convinced that man being thus unclean he might well be moral and subject to diseases yet happily he did not see the righteousness of God in inflicting extraordinary judgements such as his were upon a godly man delivered from the dominion of this original pollution and walking with all integrity of heart as Job was perswaded he did Eliphaz therefore maketh use of this Truth about mans sinfulness still to bring Job lower in his own eyes and to make him exalt God and indeed there is no truth so greatly accommodated to bring a man off yea though godly in an high degree from all self-confidence as also all repinings and murmuring under the severity of God as this about original sinne Now Eliphaz to aggravate this the more doth at the 14. Verse speak interrogatively What is man that he should be clean and then exegetically explaining this he addeth and he that is born of a woman that he should be righteous So that by cleanness is meant righteousness and there is also the reason given why none is righteous even because born of a woman So that it is plain all this sinfulness cometh by natural descendency from our parents The first Hebrew word signifieth that a man hath no innocency so that he hath not any cause to complain or murmure under Gods judgments be they never so heavy and the other denoteth that he hath no righteousness whereby he is able to answer God if called to his Tribunal and the word for man signifieth him a miserable wretched man incurably wretched This proposition is aggravated à majori Behold he putteth no trust in his Saints yea the heavens are not clean in his sight By Saints some have understood the godly Patriarches of old but if we compare this with Job 4. 18. It is plain he meaneth Angels and if we understand it of evil Angels it is plain they proved Apostates there was no trust in them they forsook their habitation as if they did contemne it and were weary of it or if of good Angels then it is plain that God neither did put any trust in them as of themselves for it was the power and grace of God which did confirme them so that of themselves they would have apostatized as well as the rest Eliphaz addeth for amplification sake The heavens are not clean in his sight By heavens we are to understand metonymically the Angels who dwell therein and these are said to be not clean in his sight comparatively to the purity and holiness of God for as the being of the most noble creature is even nothing at all to his infinite Essence so also is their righteousness some understand the heavens without any Trope as if they were said to be not clean because they are subject to vanish away because they shall wax old as a garment Psa 102. 27. and there shall be made new heavens 2 Pet. 3. 7. Cajetan as Pineda in loc observeth from this place and many others alwayes taketh occasion to broach his opinion That the heavens are animated and subject to sinne but that opinion is rejected as absurd though it seemeth to be Aristotle's opinion that caelum est animatum If then it be thus with Angels who are such glorious spirits and and have not the least blemish in their natures comparatively to God no wonder that my Text is brought in with an how much more abominable is man c. wherein we have man described from his property and â—â—ition be is in by nature And secondly the effect as a sign demonstrating of this The property is two-fold abominable even as a carkass is abominable that hath lost the soul which did animate it so is man being made carnal and natural having lost the Spirit of God and his image Abhominable that denoteth such loathsomeness that we cannot endure to behold or come near the object loathed that we cannot endure the sight of it such a thing is man naturally in the eyes of God the Hebrew word for man is the strongest man or the most famous and best of men naturally and indeed this is to be applyed even to regenerate men also so farre as original corruption hath still any vigorous actings in them for so some think Job was not sensible enough though otherwise godly of the contaminating power of original sinne in him whereby his best duties had some impurity and so God might justly bring all that evil upon him he did Thus man is abominable and loathsome in the eyes of God and he ought to be so in his own eyes to his own self a natural man should not be able to bear or endure himself because of that loathsome sinfulness that doth adhere to him how much are Pelagian-Doctrines that cry up a purity in mans nature contrary to this Text Oh that God would mercifully do that to such corrupt Doctors which God threatens in anger to the prophane secure sinner Psal 50. 21. I will reprove thee and set in order before thy eyes the original doth not name what the translator addeth his sinnes some adde thy own self which cometh all to one I will set thy self before thy self and all thy sinnes in the several kinds and grievous aggravations of then The Hebrew word is military and taken from setting a battell in aray against another Thus God said he would do and what a mercy is it to a man when all our self-love self-flattery and self-fullness shall be removed and God shall set our selves in all our loathsomeness and deformity before our selves What burdens would we be to our own selves but this is Gods work humane speculations and moral instructions have no efficacy herein The second propercy attributed to man is filthy The Hebrew word is only used here and Psal 14. 3. and Psal 53. 3. concerning the root of it there is no certainty only it is generally translated that which is putrid rotten and stinking and because rotten and putrifying things are unusefull and unprofitable Hence it is that Rom. 3. 12. the word out of the Psalmist is rendered unprofitable Thus man having lost the Image of God is become like unsavoury salt as he is noisome in Gods eyes so he is unfit for any good thing he is in a state of sinne and so hath no ability to what is good neither can he by any power abiding in him ever recover out of this lost estate so that man is now become like Ezekiel's Vine Ezek. 15. 2 3 4. It will not serve for any work not so much as to make a pin of it to hang a vessel upon it but is only suel for fire Thus unusefull and unserviceable a man is become in respect of the least good whereby the glory of God may be exalted Thus we have the properties describing man by his natural principles In the next place he
remember what our hearts are set upon what our affections are earnest for whereas our memory should precede and go before them for the intellective memory is the same with the mind and understanding of a man for although to remember be not properly an act of knowledge yet this intellective memory we make the same with the mind of a man as it extends to things that are past The memory then is to make way for the heart and the affections to be directive to them whereas now for the most part it is made a slave to the corrupt heart for if the understanding in it all 's hegemonical and primary actions hath lost its power how much more is this true in the memory For the most part therefore the badness of the heart makes a bad memory and a good heart a good memory men complain they cannot remember when indeed they will not remember their hearts are so possessed and inslaved to earthly things that they remember nothing but what tendeth thereunto This is the ground of that saying Omnia quae curant senes meminerunt Old men remember all things their hearts are let upon all things they do earnestly regard They can remember their bonds the place where their money lieth because their hearts are fixed upon these things but no holy or good things can lodge in their memories The rule is Frigus est mater obiivionis Coldness is the mother of oblivion as is partly seen in old men and thus it is even in old and young their hearts are cold earthly lumpish even like stones about holy things and therefore it is no wonder if they remember them no better so that we may generally conclude That the cause of all they blockishness and forgetfullness about divine things is thy sinfull and corrupt heart if that were better thy memory would be better We have a notable place Jer. 2. 32. Can a maid forget her ornaments or a bride her attire yet my people have forgotten me daies without number Can a bride forget her attire and ornament it is impossible because her delight and affections are upon it but saith God My people have forgotten me daies without number Why so because I am not that to them which ornaments are to a bride saith God if they delight in me rejoyce in me if they did account me their glory then they would never forget me By this you see that therefore we forget God and his wayes because our hearts are not in love with him Can he that is powerfully conquered by love of a friend forget his friend Doth he not alwaies remember him Is not a friend alter ego Is not the lovers soul more where it loveth then where it animateth Thus it would be also with us in reference unto God therefore we have bad memories because bad hearts It is true some natural causes may either deprive us wholly of or greatly enervate the memory Thus Messalla that famous Orator judged to be more elaborate then Tully two yeares before his death forgot all things even his own name Hermogenes also that famous Rhetorician who wrote those Rhetorical institutions which are read with admiration of all and this he did when he was but eighteen years old and some six yeares after grew meerly stupid and sensless without any evident cause of whom it was said that he was Inter pueros senex inter senes puer Thucidides as Vostius reporteth Orat. institut lib. 6. speaketh of such an horrible pestilence that those who did recover of it grew so forgetfull that they did not know their friends neither remembred what kind of life or profession they once followed So that natural causes may much weaken the memory but if we speak in a moral sense then nothing doth so much corrupt the memory about holy things as a sinfull and polluted heart Fifthly The pollution of the memory is seen In that it is not now subject in the exercise of it to our will and power We cannot remember when we would and when it doth most concern us whereas in the state of integrity Adam had such an universal Dominion over all the powers of his soul that they acted at what time and in what measure he pleased Thus his affections were subject to him in respect of their rise progress and degree and so for his memory he had all things in his mind as he would Some indeed question Whether Adam did then Intelligere per Phantasmata But that seemeth inseparable from the nature of man while upon the earth and living an animal life though without sinne No doubt his soul being the form of the whole man did act dependently upon the instrumentality of the body though such was the admirable constitution of his body that nothing could make the operations thereof irregular Adam then had nothing which could either Physically or Morally hinder the memory but all was under his voluntary command whereas such an impotency is upon us that if we would give a world we cannot remember the things we would Hence we are force to compel our selves by one thing after another to bring to our minds what is forgotten for in remembring there is some dependance of one thing upon another as rings if tied together are more easily taken hold of then when they lie singly and loosly And this Austin lib. 10. confes maketh to be the Etimology of the word Cogito Cogito à cogo as Agito ab ago Factito à facio as if to cogitate were to force and compell things into our minds Let us then mourn and humble our selves under this great pollution of nature that those things which are of such infinite consequence which are as much as our salvation and eternal happiness are worth yet we do not we cannot remember Hence in the sixth place The memory being not under our command it falleth out that things come into our minds When we would not have them yea when it is a sinne to receive them How often in holy duties in religious performances do we remember things which happily we could not do when the fit season and opportunity was for them Do not many worldly businesses come into our minds when we are in heavenly approaches to God that as Job 1. when the sonnes of God came and appeared before God then Satan came also and stood with them Thus when thou art busie to remember all those Scripture-arguments which should humble thee in Gods presence which should exalt and life up thy soul to God How many heterogeneous and distracting thoughts do croud in also so that this worldly business and that earthly imploiment cometh into thy remembrance Insomuch that the people of God though their memories are sanctified and so cleansed in much measure from original filth in the dominion of it yet do much groan under this importante and unseasonable remembring of things for hereby our duties have not that united force and power as they should have neither is God so
Images those glorious Altars and many other superstitious wayes of worship but because the fancy was pleased herein what is pleasing to the senses is also carried with delight to the Imagination Insomuch that those Heathens Numa and others who would have no Images to adore their gods by thinking it unbeâ—eeming their greatness were carried by reason and did not give way to the Imagination and this is a very necessary truth for all such who are so difficulty taken off from their Idolatries and Superstitions for what is it but thy fancy thou wouldst have satisfied thou doest not look upon Ordinances and the worship of God as spiritual means to quicken thy faith and to make thee more spiritual but as that whereby thou wouldst have thy Imagination take some corporeal refreshment and satisfaction Even Aristotle saw the vanity of this and therefore would not have any musical delights in the worship of their Heathenish gods And Aquinas following him herein is against musical instruments in the service of God what God appointed in the Old Testament cannot be brought as an argument for any such custome in the New Secondly Towards man here the imagination is as full of evil as the sea of water Prov. 6. 16. One of the seaven things that are there said to be an abomination unto the Lord An heart that deviseth wicked abominations How crafty and subtle is the abomination of man to devise wicked and malicious purposes This is the forge of all those malicious bloody and crafty designes that ever have been acted in the world Read over prophane and sacred Histories and there you will admire what subtle foxes men have been sometimes what cruel lyons they have been at other times all which doth arise from this sinful imagination which is prone to find out all manner of wayes to vent the wickedness that is bound up in the heart so that we need not exclaim on the Devil as if he put this into their hearts for though no doubt sometimes he doth as in Judas yet the heart of it self is ready for any evil SECT XII It continually invents new Sinnes or occasions of Sinnes ALthough much hath been said concerning the original pollution of mans imagination yet still more is to be discovered so that there is a very 〈◊〉 resemblance between mans imagination and those chambers of imagery which Ezekiel beheld in a Vision upon the walls thereof were pourtrayed the forme of creeping things and abominable beasts and all the Idols of the house of Israei Ezek. 8. 9 12. Thu is every mans imagination a table as it were whereon are pictured all the formes and shapes of all kind of evil It may well be called the chamber of mans imagery where are images of jealousy daily created such formes received that do provoke God to wrath and jealously Let us therefore proceed Tenthly In this we have an open field wherein mans imagination doth act numberless evils because of its invention it is continually inventing new sinnes or occasions of sinnes As if the old sinnes and trespasses which had filled the world were not enough What new wayes of impiety are invented new fancies in evil wayes For although invention be indeed principally an act of the understanding yet because as you heard the understanding in its operations hath recourse to the imagination and that is subservient and under-agent to it therefore we may attribute the same things to both especailly the things of invention because a mans imagination hath a peculiar influence therein Now in this respect if there were no other the sinnes of the imagination will encrease like the sands upon the sea-shore It were possible to shew by going over every particular Commandment that the imagination of man doth constantly invent new sinnes against them the Apostacy of man from his first rectitude is emphatically described by the Scripture in this as the general and summe of all that he sought out many inventions Eccles 7. 29. where the wise man having declared that amongst men and women though less amongst women one not so much as good in an ethical and moral sense could be found for in a spiritual sence there is not one man amongst a thousand no not in all mankind that is good but the speaketh of external and moral enquiring then after the cause why such an universal corruption should overflow all mankind insomuch that there is not one amongst a thousand that deserveth the name of a man not such an one as the primitive righteousness did require but not so much as reason judging rightly by ethical Rules would commend he doth clear God from being the Author of this And because this truth is of such great consequence he useth a word of attention Lo Ecce Consider it diligently And secondly he telleth you how he came to the knowledge of it I have found it viz. in the Word of God where you see this Doctrine concerning original corruption is not to be investigated by humane reason as it is discovered by divine revelation I have found it after much and diligent study Oh that those corrupt teachers who deny this original pravity could with Solomon say They have at last after much study found out this truth also Now the Doctrine found out is That God made man right full of righteousness and holiness not onely negatively without sinne but positively full of righteousness but they that is Adam and Eve which are called the man Adam in the words preceding Sought out not being contented with that measure of knowledge and happiness God created them in affecting to be like God Many inventions that is found out many wayes of sinning when they once forsook the strait Rule they diverted and wandered into many crooked paths The Hebrew word Chishbonoth is very emphatical it is used but once more in the Old Testament and that is 2 Chron. 26. 15. where it is said Vzziah used engines invented by cunning men to shoot arrows and great stones withall So that by this word is denoted that subtilty and great artifice which is in mans Imagination to invent any evil way sinnes that never were acted before are found out Every age almost hath new sinnes and whence is this but from the subtilty of mans Imagination to find out new wayes of sinning Hence Rom. 1. 30. one character in the Catalogue of those sinnes attributed to the Heathens is to be Inventers of evil things And certainly here the Imagination of man is very prone that whereas to learn Trades or the Arts there they must have teachers and much time must be allowed them to learn In the invention of evil things there men are taught of their own corrupt hearts to do so We might instance in divers things wherein the sinfull Imagination of man is discovered about inventing of evil new sinnes new oaths new blasphemies new wayes of cheating and dishonesty especially in those new wayes for nourishing pride and wantonness Which is the ridiculous absurd and uncivil
The Apostle having strictly charged That women should not usurp authority over the man for two reasons 1. From the primitive Creation even before sinne Adam was first formed then Eve So that in the state of integrity the wife was to have been subject to her husband even as children to parents but it would have been without that difficulty and reluctancy which sinne hath now brought upon mankind The other reason is Because the woman was first in the transgression and thereby through her original sinne infected all Now lest this should afflict women too much and they conceive their estate desperate the Apostle mingleth honey with this gall he informeth them of comfortable considerations even from that very particular wherein they see the evident displeasure and wrath of God and that is the sorrows and pangs they bring forth children with She shall be saved in child-bearing How this is to be understood seemeth difficult For may not maids or such married persons that never have children be saved How shall they do that have no children if the woman be saved in child-bearing To this it is easily answered That the Apostle doth not speak of the meritorious cause of salvation which is Christ for in him all believers are one there is neither male or female Jew or Gentile married or unmarried that do differ as to justification and salvation through him Therefore the Apostle speaketh here only of such women as are married and have children Now because such might be discouraged because of the curse laid upon the woman at first in bringing forth of children he addeth That notwithstanding this she shall be saved Those pangs and sorrows do not exclude her from salvation therefore the Greek Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Rom. 2. 27. compared with 29. it doth not signifie she is saved by that as a cause For how many women are there who through their impenitency in wicked wayes will be damned though they be the mothers of many children It signifieth only the way and means wherein she may obtain salvation So that what was at first in it self a curse may now be sanctified and so prove no impediment to their salvation It is true some would have this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be meant of the Virgins bearing of Christ as if the meaning were She shall be saved by Christ born of a woman Erasmus on the place saith Theophilact mentioneth this but rejecteth it The late Annotatour mentioneth it with approbation but the Context doth no wise agree with this for he speaketh of every woman in the Church bearing her children therefore addeth If they abide in faith and charity neither can any argument be put upon the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if the Apostle meant that signal and eminent bearing of a child when Christ was born for if this were so none but the Virgin Mary and no other woman could take comfort from this palce Heinsius by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 understandeth marriage She shall be saved in the way of marriage which is called so saith he from the end of marriage which is to have children for as he affirmeth the Grecians have not one word to expresse marriage by and therefore in stead thereof they use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but this hath no probability We adhere therefore to the former Exposition the sense whereof is That notwithstanding Eve did through original sinne bring a sad curse upon child-bearing yet to those women that are godly the curse is taken off yea and doth become a sanctified meanes of their salvation not of it self to every one for then no child-bearing woman could be damned but if they do walk in those wayes God hath commanded Therefore it followeth If they abide c. which denoteth the necessity of abiding and continuing in all holy duties Some indeed referre this to the children If the children continue in what is good And if it be said When a godly mother doth her duty she may have notwithstanding wicked and ungodly children and shall that prejudice her salvation To this they answer That for the most part the wickedness of children is laid upon the parents neglect but if it be not then God will accept of the mother faithfully discharging her duty though the children do wickedly miscarry but it is farre more probable to referre it to the woman And though the number be changed into the plural If they abide yet that is ordinary in Scripture especially when the word is a collective as in the 5th Chapter of this Epistle vers 4. where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the singular number and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the plural relateth to it The qualification then that is necessary to all women that would find the curse in child-bearing taken away and original guilt accompanying that sorrow removed is to abound in all saving graces and to continue therein and then that woman who is a wife and a mother of many children let her not torment her self about the state of her children and the condition they are born in but quiet her soul with this Text of Scripture The last particular that may satisfie the souls of such parents who may be exercised in these particulars about original sinne is to remind themselves That the whole matter about original sinne in reference to Adam and all his posterity is not without the wise and holy appointment of God who would never have suffered this evil to be could he not have raised out thereby a greater good For although it be true That Adam did sinne from his meer internal liberty there being no decrees or execution thereof that did necessitate him to do so yet all this could not be without the Decree of God permitting as also wisely ordering all things for his own glory No doubt but God could have confirmed Adam in his holiness yea he might have so ordered it that every man and woman should stand or fall upon their personal account as the Angels did yet such was his will and Covenant that in Adam all his posterity should be involved and the same issue should attend both them and him This then being the appointment of a just wise and mercifull God we ought wholly to acquiesce knowing that the business of mans life and death his salvation and damnation could not have been ordered better otherwise though all the wisdome of men and Angels had been put together And therefore when thou who art a parent but tempted about the state of thy children thou hast brought forth art turmoiling thy self in these disputes shake off these vipers and conclude That God regardeth his own glory and honor more then thou canst do he hath taken that way wherein he will magnifie his own glorious Attributes And truly this should presently silence all thy disputations For wouldst thou have God lose part of his glory Wouldst thou have his honour in any