free and necessary No compelling force of Providence in necessary causes Sec. 13. Contingency in secondary causes illustrated Sec 14. How Gods Providence is equal and how unequal The Providence of God general special and peculiar The law of Nature and how executed in Gods general Providence Sec. 15. What a miracle is and how one greater then another Sec. 16. Wherein miraculous effects exceed the strength of nature Sec. 17. Gods special Providence over Angels and men How over Angels How over men Sec. 18. Gods peculiar Providence over the Church of his Elect The dispensation hereof committed to Christ and how performed Sec. 19. Gods Providence particularly applied and how Sec. 20. This aptly illustrated Sec. 21. Why Gods Providence doth not admit Annihilation of the creatures CHAP. IX Concerning the Angels Elect and Apostate Sec. 1. WHat the nature of the Angels is Sec. 2. How and when created Sec. 3. Why and how immortal Sec. 4. The trial of Angels The obedience and confirmation of the good Angels Sec. 5. In what the confirmation of the good Angels Sec. 6. How and why from grace and not from nature Sec. 7. This grace in the understanding Sec. 8. And in the will made perfect by Christ Sec. 9. The fall and punishment of the evil Angels Sec. 10. The service of the good Angels in behalf of Christs Church the use and malice of the evil Angels in respect of the wicked Sec. 11. Gods glory manifested in both No fear to the good no hope to the evil Angels Sec. 12. What the orders and names of the good how given and constituted Sec. 13. How they assum'd bodies in their ministrations with men What the actions they performed in those bodies Sec. 14. What their Knowledge how increased and perfected Sec. 15. Yet know not all things not the secrets of the heart This Gods prerogative How they know the mysteries of Grace Sect. 16. How they admonish and perswade yet cannot savingly enlighten or convert This also Gods prerogative Sec. 17. How the Angels enjoy Gods presence in their ministrations to the Church Aptly illustrated Sec. 18. What honour we give the good Angels as their due What we may not give as not being due Not make them our mediators not invocate them and why Sec. 19. Their manner of working and of utterance not known what we beleeve of both What meant by the tongues of Angels Sec. 20. What Reason dictates concerning the speech of Angels Sec. 21. How different and how agreeing with that of Men. Sec. 22. How the same with that of the souls separate Sec. 23. What the sin of the Apostate Angels Satans malice against Christ and how especially prosecuted Sec. 24. What the knowledge of the Apostate Angels How encreased how not foretel events how foretel them The end of all diabolical predictions why not to be allowed of Sec. 25. What the power of the evil Angels how exercised Sec. 26. What their names and how proper and common Gods Glory manifested in all Sec. 27. The wonderful working of Satan Why not true miracles all miracles are from God such the miracles of Christ Sec. 28. Why not such the workings of Satan Sec. 29. The punishment of the evil Angels 1 Of loss 2 Of sense How tormented with the infernal fire How the Doctrine concerning Devils helps to confirm the faith of God CHAP. X. Concerning the estate of Man before his Fall Sec. 1. BY the common work of creation is manifested the wil and power of the God-head not the mystery of the Trinity That clearly manifested this darkly presented in mans creation Created in Gods image Sec. 2. Wherein the image of God in man did consist 1 In respect of his soul Sec. 3. 2. In respect of his body Sec. 4. 3. In respect of his person This peculiar to man above the woman Woman otherwise equal to the man Sec. 5. 4. In respect of his estate In all man a compleat image of God Sec. 6. What the resemblance of the Trinity in man Sec. 7. What most properly meant by those words of God the creation of man After our likeness Sec. 8. The souls immortality not lost by the fall What the change in man by his fall Sec. 9. Why the soul is immortal Sec. 10. When the soul is created and infused into the body What its principal seat and how it informs the body How the soul is the off-spring of God Sec. 11. How possest of all vertues in its integrity Sec. 12. The souls of men not propagated and why Sec. 13. Especially proved from their immortality Sec. 14. What the immortality of humane nature and from whence and how lost Sec. 15. How some bodies said to be incorruptible and how the bodies of our first Parents Sec. 16. What and how great things God did that Man should not sin and what he would have done that Man should not dye Sec. 17. What original righteousness was and how to have been transmitted to Adams posterity Sec. 18. Why said to be a connatural endowment Sec. 19. The wil the chief seat of original righteousness What its essential liberty is What the liberty of contrariety is and why not essential to the will Sec. 20. What that of contradiction is and why not essential to the wil In what it is necessary that the will have a liberty of contradiction Sec. 21. What is the liberty of will in God in Christ in the Angels and in the Blessed what in the Devils and in the wicked what in man in the state of innocence and of grace CHAP. XI Concerning the Covenant of Works and the Fall of man Sec. 1. ADam had a knowledg of Gods will perfect in its kinde What the Law to Adam How the same with the Decalogue Sec. 2. What the covenant of Works What the seal of of Covenant Sec. 3. The trial of mans obedience Sec. 4. Man left to the use of his free-wil Tempted by Satan Transgresseth in eating the forbidden fruit Sec. 5. Satans bait to catch man The subtilty of Satans temptation His order and progress in it The Tree of knowledg of good and evil why so called Sec. 6. Wherein the hainousness of Adams transgression doth consist how a violation of the whole Law Sec. 7. What was mans first sin is doubtful and so difficult to determine What the first internal principle of evil in man Adams sin was from himself freely without force Sec. 8. Adams sin incurs Gods curse of death upon himself and his posterity why upon his posterity Sec. 9. Adam propagates the curse and the sin too and this in propagating his nature Sec. 10. Gods goodness justified in giving Man a freewil though he knew the Devil would thereby enter and destroy man how it was necessary that man should have a will and that will a liberty to good and evil Sec. 11. To have made a rational creature without a will or a will without its liberty doth imply a contradiction Sec. 12. The mutability of estate in Angels
of sin into that against God against our Neighbours and against our Selves How all sin is against God how said to be against our Neighbours and our Selves The three-fold order which God hath established amongst men The threefold inordinacy in breach of this order making three kindes of sin Sec. 14. What the distinction of sin into that of infirmity of ignorance and of malice From whence this distinction is taken What is the inordinacy of the sensitive appetite what the inordinacy of the understanding what the inordinacy of the will When a sin of infirmity is when a sin of ignorance when a sin of malice Sec. 15. How the sensitive appetite doth beget an inordinacy in the will Which are the sins of infirmity Sec. 16. Why sins of sudden and inordinate passion are said to be sins of infirmity Sec. 17. What passions do excuse wholly from sin and what do not How reason ought to moderate passion Sec. 18. What is the office of the understanding When guilty of that ignorance which is sin and when guilty of those sins which are of ignorance Sec. 19. What ignorance doth not and what ignorance doth make the sin What things a man is capable of knowing but not bound to know what things a man is neither bound to know nor capable of knowing in all these ignorance rather a nescience is not sinful Sec 20. What ignorance doth excuse from sin somewhat excuse not wholly acquit illustrated by instance Sec. 21. When sin cannot be excused by any ignorance what an affected ignorance is and how it aggravates the sin Sec. 22. What ignorance is indirectly voluntary how it self sin yet the sins issuing from it lessened in their guilt and why Sec. 23. How the sin of malice is rightly discern'd How men are said to sin wilfully and against conscience Sec. 24 That the will doth not necessarily follow the right judgment of the understanding cleerly prooved Especially from the work of regeneration in which the will is renewed as well as the understanding enlightned Sec. 25. How we may distinguish sins of infirmity from sins of malice Sec. 26. What the distinction of sin into that of mortal and venial is no sin venial in its nature and why All sin is directly against not any meerly besides the law which incurring the guilt of eternal death cannot be expiated by temporal punishment Sec. 27. In what all sins are mortal yet not all equal How some sins mortal and some venial from whence we are to take the just weight of sins guilt what the guilt of the least sin without Christ Sec. 28. Though all sin be mortal yet most especially the sin against the Holy Ghost What the sin against the Holy Ghost is not Sec. 29. What it is As in the Pharisees As in Julian Why not now to be discovered by us Sec. 30. Why called the sin against the Holy Ghost why this sin shall not be forgiven Sec. 31. Sins against Conscience lead the way to this sin against the Holy Ghost How an erroneous conscience entangles in sin but bindes not to what is sinful Sec. 32. An erroneous conscience may somewhat excuse but cannot wholly acquit and why What is the entanglement of an erroneous conscience CHAP. XV. Concerning the State of man fallen Sec. 1. THe original of all mans misery is in original sin and how Sec. 2. Adams disobedience imputed makes lyable to the punishment inflicted which punishment is death Sec. 3. In what this death doth formally consist In what it doth materially consist Sec. 4. This death is spiritual corporal and eternal What this sp ritual death is Sec. 5. What are the relicks of mans primitive estate in the estate of man fallen In respect of his understanding In respect of his will In respect of his conscience and in respect of his affections Sec. 6. The soul in mans fall is whole in its natural essence but spoil'd of its spiritual habits Thereby disabled for any spiritual good Sec. 7. What freedom the will hath lost by the fall and what it retains after the fall What liberty of will remains in the vilest Reprobate or Devil Sec. 8. How God doth turn and incline the wils of men without any forcibly compelling Why the exhortations c. of Gods word are not in vain in respect of the wicked Sec. 9. By multiplying his sin man aggravates his punishment and how in spirituals Sec. 10. What the corporal death and how begun Sec. 11. How and when finished Sec. 12. What the eternal death In its punishment of loss and of sense Sec. 13. What the punishment of loss is Sec 14. What the punishment of sense is Sec. 15. How the punishment of the damned is infinite as well as eternal Sec. 16. That wrath which comes by original sin is aggravated by mans actual transgression the full measure is at the day of judgment and how Sec. 17. The estate of man fallen summarily describ'd No salvation by the law or first covenant of works So that without Redemption by a Mediator Adam and his posterity must inevitably perish in their sin SION'S PROSPECT In it's FIRST VIEW CHAP. I. Concerning the Holy SCRIPTURES SEeing Grace doth not destroy but exalt Nature therefore as the Naturall inclination of the Will becomes subservient unto Charity so doth the Naturall Reason of the Understanding become subservient unto Faith Hence it is Reason arguguing from Scripture for the Scriptures that the holy Scriptures doe not only establish our Faith but also instruct our a 1 Pet. 3 15. Isa 1 18. Eze. 18.25 29. Reason even furnishing us with arguments rationally to prove their Truth to be sacred their Authoritie divine The manner and method of arguing is this Among all the Principles of Naturall Divinity there is none more firm more evident more universall then this That b 1 Ki. 18.21 Act. 17.23 Rom. 1 23 25. God is to be worshipped § 2. The true Knowledge of which God The knowledge of God and his worship by Revelation and right form of whose Worship cannot be had but by some a John 1.18 Deut. 29.29 Revelation whereby he doth manifest himselfe and declare his will as the b 2 Cor. 3.18 2 Cor. 4.6 Glasse of his Divinity and the c Mat. 7.21 Isa 1 10 12. Col 2.23 Mat. 5.9 Rule of his Worship This Revelation either with the Jews or with the Christians Now such a Revelation upon Reason's strictest enquiry is no where to be found but either in the Jewish or the Christian Church The former tells us they have committed to them the d Rom 3.2 chap 9.4 Oracles of God the latter the e Mar. 16.15 1 Cor. 1.17 Gospel of Christ and this Gospel as a f 2 Cor 3 9. Mat. 5.17 Rom. 10 4. 2 Cor. 3 14. Heb 9 10. chap. 10.1 cleerer light in the full complement of those Oracles The Church of the Jewes enquired into by Reason § 3.
sin and lyable to the curse Adams sin incurs Gods cu se of death § 8. Thus the Act of disobedience committed by Adam of his a Eccl. 7.29 own free-wil bringeth upon him the curse of death inflicted of God in his just judgment and not onely upon himself in his person upon himself and his posterity but also in his b Rom. 5.18 19 posterity for that God entered not his Covenant with Adam as he was one man Why upon his posterity but as he c Acts 17.26 1 Cor. 15.21 22 represented all mankinde of which he was the Root and the Head And therefore as by Adams obedience all his Posterity should have received the reward of life promised so equal it is that upon Adams disobedience d Rom. 5.14 15 all his posterity should undergo the curse of death threatned Adam propagates the curse and the sin too § 9. And thus as the blessing of the Covenant had not rested in Adams person so nor doth the a Rom. 5 12. curse and as not the curse so nor doth the a Rom. 5 12. sin But both sin and curse being seated in b Eph. 2.3 humane nature and this in propagating his nature as well as Adams person Adam propagating his nature doth propagate also his sin and with his sin the curse of Death So that as many as by natural generation descend from Adam are c Psal 51 5. shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin d Eph. 2 2 3. children of disobedience and children of wrath subject to e Mat. 10.28 Rom. 6.23 temporal and eternal death § 10. Now that no man may question the goodness and Justice of God in giving Adam a free-will God's goodness justified in giving man a free-will though he knew the Devil would thereby enter and destroy man How it was necessary that man should have a will and that will a liberty to good and evil whereat he knew Sin and Satan would enter and destroy him we acknowledge free-will to be a a Gen. 1.26 necessary part of the pure naturall being of man and so likewise of Angels therefore that God might make the Angels intelligent Spirits and Man a rationall creature necessary it was that they should have a will which will in its pure naturall constitution must have its freedome in a b Deut. 30.19 liberty to good and evill for that the will doth become free onely to good is from confirming Grace free onely to evill that is from degenerating sinne free both to good and evill that is from pure Nature § 11. Seeing then it was absolutely necessary that Angels and Man being Intelligent and Rationall Creatures should have a will and having a wil it was absolutely necessary that will should be free and being free it was absolutely necessary that freedome should be in a liberty to good and evill either God must not have made them such creatures or he must make them such wills To have made a rationall creature without a will or a will without its liberty doth imply a contradiction For God cannot doe what implies a contradiction in the thing not from any deficiency in God but from an incapacity in the creature indeed to be free onely to good by Nature is the perfection of Gods will whose wiâ—â— thereby becomes the very Rule of goodness § 12. Besides The mutability of estate in Angels and Man did depend upon the liberty of the will the a Job 4.18 15.15 John 4 44. Jude 6. Gen. 2.17 Mutability of estate in Angels and Man to the manifestation of Gods justice and mercy doth depend upon the liberty of their will to good and evill so that to have created Angels and Men in this perfection of will as free onely to good had been to have created them immutable in their estate whereas to be such by nature To be immutable by nature is peculiar unto God is b Mal. 3.6 Jam. 1.17 2 Cor. 5.1 Luke 20.36 1 Pet. 1.4 proper unto God and incommunicable to the creature which is not made such but by Grace and that grace made c perfect in glory § 13. So that to take away liberty from the will is to take away the will from man and to take away the will from man is to take away man from the Creation and to take away man from the creation is to take away much of the manifestation of Gods glory in the exercise of his mercy and justice as well as his wisdome and power Wherefore though God gave man a free will whereby Satan entred upon the soul to destroy Adam Mans fall not to be laid to Gods charge and sin entred upon Adam to destroy his posterity yet can we not in common equity lay mans fall to Gods charge § 14. To stop the mouth of all irrationall reasoning we make this reasonable instance by way of apt illustration Illustrated by a fit similitude In the building of an house it is necessary that for use conveniency and being it have a door which is made of sufficient strength to keep out the thief so the inhabitant have sufficient care to keep it shut Now if the thief by fair words not violent force get entrance and spoyl the goods whose is the fault the workmans that built the house or the inhabitants that set open the doores With the application we curb and stop mens curiosity that it do not run or rush them into blasphemy and where they cannot satisfie their reason they are taught to exercise their faith Where man cannot satisfie his reason it is reasonable that he exercise his faith and with devout praise to take a part in that heavenly Anthem a Rev. 15.3 Great and marvellous are thy works O Lord God Almighty just and true are thy wayes O thou King of Saints § 15. This then we affirm as certain truth that In mans fall Gods will was permitting and disposing in mans fall a Psal 5.4 Hos 13.9 God was neither compelling nor commanding nor perswading but permitting disposing And thus though God did not will mans fall yet was not indeed could not be mans fall without Gods will So that as God did not will mans fall so nor was mans fall without Gods will for if the b Matth. 10.30 hair of mans head cannot sure the head of all mankind could not if one poor c Matth. 10 29 Sparrow cannot sure our first Parents and in them whole humane Stock could not fall to the ground universally sink into the gulph d Rom. 5.18 of sin How ordered to his glory and mans good and guilt of death without the will of God whose will did certainly determin to permit and order man's fall to the greater manifestation of his own glory and the higher advancement of mans happiness in a gracious redemption by Christ § 16. Thus as God did not positively wil
e Luke 1.47 blessed virgin the mother of Christ not excepted is therefore a child of â—â—â—â—h because a child of Adam communicating in his sin by f Mat. 7.16 17. Jam. 3 11. partaking of his nature How we become deprived of Original righteousness § 3. That Adam then and his posterity become deprived of Original righteousness is not because God doth forcibly withdraw it by his power but deservedly withhold it in his justice a 2 Chr. 15.2 God doth not desert but being first deserted And therefore it was not God that spoyled man but it was man b Eccles 7.29 Hos 13.9 who made voide to himself the integrity of his nature by the guilt and pollution of his actual disobedience which disobedience was indeed a complication of the most hainous transgressions of pride ingratitude Why this deprivation is a sin rebellion c. So that the first loss of Original righteousness being by Adams transgression yea in Adam a sin the after privation thereof in himself and his posterity must needs be sinful Why the punishment of Gods withholding righteousness is no excuse for mans sinful waste and want of it § 4. Though true it is that man having first cast away that rich treasure of Original righteousness by his sin God after a Isa 59.2 withholds it in his justice by way of punishment yet doth not this just punishment from God excuse the sinful privation in man his Original sin in the privation of Original righteousness being though a necessary consequent yet not a proper effect of that punishment much less the formal punishment it self Sin in the privation of righteousness doth follow Gods withholding his grace as darkness being the privation of light doth follow the Suns withholding his beams not as a proper effect but as a necessary consequent And though to be deficient in necessaries is equivalent to an efficiency be true where there is an obligation of law natural or positive to require the assistance yet it is not so where the obligation is broken by his default in whose behalf the assistance is required as it is â—â—â—e in the Case of mans Original sin in the prâ—â—â—â—ion of Original righteousness § 5. Original Sin then is not from God he is no waies the Author of it How we become by nature children of disobedience and children of wrath nor it formally a punishment from him it is properly the effect of Adams disobedience and the consequent of Gods wrath whereby we are become by nature children a Ephâ—s 2 23. of disobedience and children of wrath otherwise neither should children conceived and quickned b Rom. 5.14 dye in the womb nor ought they How proved that we are such being newly born be baptized c Rom. 6.3 6. into the remission of sins As sin d Rom 6.23 doth inseparably bring forth death so doth death infallibly presuppose sin which in the quickned Embryo and new born Infant can be none other then this of Original Sin § 6. How Original sin is a repugnancy to the whole law Which Original sin not onely as the depravation of corrupt nature but also as the deprivation of primitive righteousness it is not barely a 1 John 3.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a transgression of the law in some one or some few particulars but is more fully b Rom. 7.23 8.7 Gal 5.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an enmity or opposition against the whole Law in general For the Law is not onely the rule of our life and of our works but also c Psal 19.7 Mar. 12.33 Rom. 7.14 of our nature and of our faculties requiring integrity and holiness in these as well as purity and righteousness in them The same precept which commands love requires strength otherwise the Law hath said in vain d Luke 10.27 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy strength seeing e Rom. 5.6 we have no strength to love him so that not onely to want righteousness in our lives but even to want integrity in our natures is opposite to the Law yea the whole Law of God and therefore must be sin § 7. Seeing that in original sin The contagion of original Sin extends to the persons of all mankinde and the parts of the whole man the evil deprivation of primitive righteousnes is accompanied with a total deprivation of humane nature therefore as the whole man and all mankinde is become guilty so is a Rom 5.12.13 c. Gen 6.5 Isa 1.6 all mankinde and the whole man become polluted And as this Original corruption of mans nature doth extend to all mens persons so doth this corruption of the whole man extend to all the parts and how spreading its contagion into b 1 Cor. 2.14 2 Cor. 3.14 the understanding by ignorance into c Deut. 32.18 Psal 106.21 the memory by forgetfulness into d Mat. 23.37 John 8.44 the will by perverseness into e Tit. 1.15 16. Heb. 10.22 the conscience by confusion into f Rom. 1.24 26 Jam. 4.6 the affections by disorder and into the g RoÌ„ 3.13 c. 6.13 19. very members of the body as the instruments of sin What Original corruption is call'd in Scripture § 8. This Original corruption is called in sacred Scripture sometimes a Rom. 7.7 Jam 1.14 lust and concupiscence sometimes b Rom. 7.8 13 the sin the c Rom. 7.17.20 inhabiting sin the d Heb. 12.1 encompassing sin and sometimes the e Rom. 7.23 8.2 law of sin It is sometimes called the f Rom. 6 6. Ephes 4 22. Col. 3 9. old man g John 3.6 Rom. 7.5 9.8 Gal. 5.19 and the flesh even as flesh is put for the whole man And therefore we read of the h Col. 2 18. Rom 8 6 7. 2 Cor. 1.12 understanding mind and wisdom of the flesh the i Ephes 2.3 Gal 5.24 will affections and lusts of the flesh yea that this man of sin inhabiting in sinful man might be the more fully described this flesh is said to have its k Col. 2.11 body and that body its l Col. 3.5 members The analogy between Christ and Adam in respect of the righteousness and disobedience imputed § 9. Thus as there is an antithesis so is there an a Rom. 5.14 1 Cor. 15.45 analogy between the disobedience of Adam and the righteousness of Christ in that as b Rom. 5.18 19 1 Cor. 15.22 the righteousness of Christ the Head of his Church is imputed to his members for their justification so equal it is that the disobedience of Adam the head of his posterity be imputed to his members to their condemnation and as by the obedience of Christ many even his whole spiritual Generation are made righteous so equal it is that by the disobedience of Adam many even his whole carnal race be made sinners
e Rom. 7.25 Ephes 4.23 weakned by grace shall be perfectly f 1 Cor. 15.53 Rev. 7.14 abolish'd in glory What concupiscence is as spoken of in sacred Scripture § 16. This propagated corruption inherent in our natures is called sometimes in Scripture a Rom. 7.7 Jam. 1.14 15. concupiscence which concupiscence is nothing else but that depraved disposition or habitual propension of our corrupt nature b 1 Thes 4 5. Jam. 1.14 inordinately and actually inclining unto evil and this not onely in the unbridled desires of the sensitive appetite Why seated in the superior as well as in the inferior faculties but even in the inordinate lustings of the will and so is seated not c Gal. 5.19 20 21. only in the inferior but also in the superior faculties of the soul as appears in those sins of envy hatred heresie idolatry and the like From whence concupiscence in its inordinacy is § 17. Concupiscence then in its inordinacy as sin is not from the natural condition of our primitâ—ve being but from the corrupt condition of our lapsed estate For though it is true that upon the union of the soul with the body a spiritual substance with a sensible matter there did necessarily follow in man whilst stated in integrity an a 1 Cor. 15.47 48. inclination and propensity to what was sensible and material yet that this inclination doth now become inordinate and rebellious this propension precipitate and vitious is from the b Eccles 7.29 Rom 7.17 20. corruption of mans nature lapsed into sin Why the sensitive appetite cannot be this concupiscencâ— Wherefore the sensitive appetite and natural affection they may be the c Rom. 7.18 23 sâ—â—t or subject of concupiscence but not formally d 1 Iohn 2.16 concupiscence it self which doth consist in an inordinacy and enormity e Deut. 10.16 Rom. 8.7 repugnant to Gods Law which law saith f Rom. 7.7 Thou shalt not covet What the sensitive appetite in m n is § 18. Further we must know that the sensitive appetite in man it is the faculty not of a brutish but of a rational soul and therefore in pure nature though the Spiritual part did desire carnal things And in pure nature how subordinate unto reason yet did not those carnal things return upon the spiritual part an inordinacy of its desires the sensitive appetite being an inferiour faculty of the rational soul and so subject to the dictate and command of the superiour faculties the Understanding and Will And thus in the state of integrity the rational Soul in its natural desires acting by its sensitive appetite Thereby specifically distinguish'd from that in the beasts it was not in a sensuality the same with the beasts but specifically distinguish'd from them as being seated in such a soul as was endued with the light and rule of reason and as being constituted in such an harmonious subjection as was without the least breach or jar of inordinacy and immoderation § 19. Concupiscence in its inordinacy is the issue of mas fall and why Concupiscence then as an inordinate inclination transgressing the bounds of reason is altogether repugnant to the natural constitution of man in his primitive purity and therefore must necessarily be the issue of mans fall as the sin of corrupt nature Indeed we cannot but with Saint Paul call a Rom. 7.7 8 9 11 13 c. concupiscence sin which exposeth to b Rom. 7.24 Ephes 2.13 death Wherefore call'd Sin and makes subject unto wrath yea certainly it must be sin in its self if made c Rom. 7.8 13. exceeding sinful by the law And how shall concupiscence d Jam. 1.15 conceive and bring forth sin if it be not it self sinful The e Mat. 7.17 20. fruit being evil doth sufficiently declare the tree to be corrupt CHAP. XIV Concerning Actual Sin § 1. AS the body which hath lost its health The privation of original righteousness is inseparably accompanied with the corruption of original uncleanness must needs be sick the member which hath lost its strength must needs be lame so man having a Eccles 7.29 lost his integrity must needs be wicked having lost b Eph. 4.23 24 his purity must needs be corrupt Which Original corruption doth break forth into c Rom. 7.5 23. Gal. 5.17 19 c. inordinate desires and actual lustings contrary to the rule of life the law of God so that Original corruption is to Actual Sin as d Gen. 6.5 fuel to the fire What original corruption is to actual sins or as the e Mat. 15.19 fountain to the stream or as the f Gal. 5 19. Mat. 13.17 tree to the fruit or as the g Jam. 1.15 womb to the child or as the h Col. 3.5 body to the members or as the i Rom. 7.5 habit to the act What actual sin is § 2. Actual Sin as it is formally a de-ordination a 1 John 3 4. in the transgression of Gods law cannot properly have any efficient cause but is rather the b 1 Cor. 6.7 deficiency of those causes which are the efficients of those acts wherein the sin is seated What the immeâ—iate internal causes of it and how The immediate internal causes of actual sin are the c Isa 27.11 Ephes 4.18 understanding and d Prov. 12.8 Isa 1.19 will as defective in their proper offices the former to give the later to observe the rule and direction of Right Reason The remote internal causes are the e Psal 94.8 Prov. 30.2 Jer. 10.21 Jam. 1.26 imagination and sensitive appetite moving and inclining the understanding and wil to what is evil f Rom. 7.5 Ephes 2.3 prompted on by the inordinate propension of Original Concupisence No inducement whatsoever can cause sin without a conspiracy in the inward man § 3. Evil Spirits wicked men and sensible objects may outwardly perswade but they cannot sufficiently induce to any sin a Psal 51.4 Jam. 4 7. Psal 1.1 Jude 16. without a conspiracy in the inward man b Jer. 4.22 Ephes 4.17 even of the judgement and will The external object by means of the imagination may provoke the sensitive appetite and the sensitive appetite by the judgment may tempt the will but neither truly necessitate nor effectually induce a man to sin without some c Gen 6.12 Prov. 1.16 2 Pet. 2 15 22. previous disposition in the inordinacy of the will No actual sin prevailing without the will consenting The Will not necessitated in its volition by any power but that of Gods whereby it consenteth unto evil So that the fort is not gained d Deut. 5.29 Prov. 4.23 23.26 Mat. 15 8. till the will by consent be surrendred the soul by temptation is not overcome till the will in its consent be surprised and God alone it is who in his wisdom and
have a disposition or purpose to kill another though he knew it were his Father if killing the man he knows him not to be his Father which yet after proves to be his Father it is not the ignorance that shall excuse but the depraved disposition and wicked purpose which shall make guilty of patricide For though ignorance had its Concomitancy with it yet it hath not any efficiency in it and so the malefactor cannot be said to offend out of ignorance but being ignorant For there What an affected ignorance is and how it aggravates the sin when a man will be a Ezek. 12.2 Zech. 7.11 12. 1 Cor. 14.38 ignorant on purpose that he may not suffer controll in his sin but have the greater scope to offend this ignorance is affected and becomes directly b Iob 22.14 2 Pet. 3.5 voluntary because it is wil'd upon design and for ends and therefore doth rather inhance then any way abate the guilt of the sin What ignorance is indirectly voluntary § 22. But that a Hos 4.1.6 1 Cor. 15.34 ignorance which comes by negligence in a sloathfull carelesnesse or through unnecessary imploiments not indevouring to attain that knowledge which a man ought and is able to attain and that ignorance which comes by b Gen. 19.32 33. intemperance in a sottish drunkenness a man being rob'd of his discretion or the use of it such an ignorance is truly though indirectly wilfull seeing he that wils the cause doth indirectly and by consequence will the effect and this ignorance thus wilfull c 2 Thess 1.8 Rom. 8.2 3. becomes it self a sin How it self sin yet the sins which issue from this ignorance d Luke 23.24 Acts 3.17 13.27 are lessened in their guilt having the less of reason and will in their act for seeing the understanding cannot pass a right judgement yet the sins issuing from it lessened in their guilt and why the will cannot be said to give a direct consent so that though the ignorance may be aggravated by circumstances yet is the consequent sin in it self lessened by the ignorance How the sin of malice is rightly discerned § 23. To discern aright what the sin of malice is we must know that though the will be determined by a Psal 142. Prov. 2.11 the understanding in the specification of its object yet hath the will this liberty intire in it self in the exercise of the act freely to chuse what is presented as good and freely to reject what is presented as evill So that though the will doth alwayes follow the last practical judgement of the understanding How men are said to sin wilfully and against conscience yet this last judgement being often after the right judgement and the right judgement first given by the understanding and repuls'd by the will b Exod. 8.10.15 19 28 32. 9.13 14.27 28 34 35 c. 1 Sam. 15.1 2.3 9 11 13 15 18 19 22 c. virtually remaining in the act of sin and even then actually renew'd by the checkes of Conscience men are hereby said to sin winfully on set purpose and against conscience which is the true nature of that we call the sin of malice § 24. That the will doth not necessarily follow the right judgment of the understanding clearly proved That the will doth not necessarily follow the right judgement though it doth the last judgement of the understanding is apparent in the Divels reprobate in the sin against the holy Ghost and in sins against conscience And indeed if the will did necessarily follow the right judgment of the understanding Especially from the work of Regeneration the whole work of Regeneration were perfected in the act of illumination and God needed not a 2 Cor. 5.17 1 Thes 5.23 throughly sanctifie fully to enlighten were sufficient for the new birth and the new man But this is altogether dissonant from the truth of Christ which tells us the b Eph. 4.23 24. Phil. 2.13 will is renewed In which the will is renewed as well as the understanding enlightned as well as the c Eph. 1.17 18 Col. 3.10 understanding enlightned in the work of regeneration The d Phil. 1.9.10 11. understanding is enlightned to give a right judgement to the will and the will renewed to follow that right judgment of the understanding to the bringing forth the works of holiness and of righteousness § 25. How we may distinguish sins of infirmity from sins of malice By this we may distinguish sins of infirmity from sins of malice In sins of infirmity this a Psal 40.8 Acts 11.23 Gal. 6.1 Matth. 26.33 Luke 22.33 purpose and intention of the heart to please God in all things remains sincere so that though for a time the wil suffer a violation of her integrity an interruption of her resolutions through some b 2 Sam. 11.2.4 inordinate affections c Luke 22.56 c. violent passion or d 1 Chro 21.1 Luke 22.31 32 prevailing temptation yet after a while she returneth to her former good purposes by e Psal 51. Luke 22 61 62 1 Chron. 21.8.17 Prov. 24.16 repentance But in sins of malice the heart is f Jer. 13.23 Psal 10.4 Rom. 3 18. 1 John 3.8 habitually inclined unto wickedness the will is evill disposed in respect of the end There are not any sincere purposes of holiness no true aims at Gods glory and therefore the infection of the sin is the more permanent and destructive to the soul in a g Luke 7.30 Acts 7.51 stronger opposition of the good Spirit of grace in the work of repentance and faith § 26. What the distinction of sin into that of mortal and venial is The last distinction of sin is in respect of the effect into sins * 1 John 5.16 17. mortall and veniall we say in respect of the effect no sin being veniall in its nature For No sin veniall in its nature and why that any sin is pardoned doth denote an a Exod 18.20 Gal. 3.10 act of divine mercy which in b Exod. 34.67 severity rigor of Justice God might have not done But for any sin to be in its nature veniall as expiated by temporall punishment were to destroy this pardoning mercy of God and after temporall punishment to oblige him to an improperly called forgiveness lest he be tax'd with cruelty and injustice All sin is directly against no any meerly besides the law Which incurring the guilt of eternall death cannot be expiated by temporall punishment Yea c Rom. 4.15 1 John 3.4 whereas all sin is directly against not any meerly besides the law and that the violation of Gods eternall law doth incurre a guilt of d Ezek. 18.20 Rom 6.23 1 Cor. 15.56 eternall death There is no sin that can be expiated by temporall punishment but either it must be by e John 1.29
any thing evill in its selfe should be made good by what is evill in another that sin in the act should be justified by error in the conscience It is not the Conscience then b Rom. 3.8 no nor any thing else whatsoever What is the entanglement of an erroneous conscience that can oblige to what is unlawfull in it self and as it cannot oblige so nor c Rom. 3.7 can it acquit Here then is the entanglement of an erroneous conscience that if we do what it dictates we sin and if we doe not what it dictates we sin too so that there is no avoiding the sin but by reforming the error CHAP. XV. Concerning the State of Man fallen § 8. SEeing Originall Sin in its guilt The original of all mans misery is in originall sin and how pollution and punishment is a Psal 51 5. Job 14.5 Isa 48.8 John 3.6 effectually connveyed and really communicated by naturall propagation and carnal generation in a lineal descent and hereditary right from Adam the b Acts 17.26 Rom. 5.12 1 Cor. 15.21 22. Ephes 2.3 root of humane Stock to all the posterity of mankind his natural branches Therefore by Adams c Rom. 5.18,19 c Rom. 3.9 Gal. 3.22 disobedience is judgement come upon all men to condemnation Jew and Gentile being d shut up under sin and thereby become e Rom. 3.19 Ephes 2.3 subject to the just wrath and vengeance of God § 2. Adams disobedience imputed makes liable to the punishment inflicted Though that single act then of Adams disobedience did passe away yet it continued to be his and remaineth ours by a Rom. 5.12 13. just imputation And the sin imputed must needs make us liable to the b Rom. 5 17.18 punishment inflicted Which punishment is death which punishment of Adams sin is c Gen. 2.17 Rom 5.12 death In what this death doth formally consist § 3. Which death doth formally consist in a being a Deut. 30.20 Psal 30.5 36.9 Isai 59.2 separated from the blessed communion and banish'd from the gracious presence of God A Figure and Type whereof God gave Adam in b Gen. 3.24 driving him out of Paradise that visible Testimony of Gods favour and presence In what it doth materially consist And again this death doth materially consist in a miserable privation of that life and happinesse accompanied with a sinfull privation of that Holiness and Righteousness which man did either actually possess by Creation or might assuredly have obtained in a more eminent manner and a more abundant measure upon Condition even upon the c Gen. 2.16 17 Ezek. 20.11 Gal. 3.12 condition of obedience to Gods law This death is spirituall corporall and eternall What the spirituall death is § 4. This death is either spirituall or corporall both which are consummated and swallowed up in that death which is Eternall a Ephes 2.1 5.14 Spirituall death that especially seizeth the soul b Rom. 3.23 Ephes 4 18. whereby sin defaceth the lively Image of God in the c Eph. 4.23 24 Col. 3.10 totall deprivation of primitive integrity and originall righteousnesse despoyling man of all those sanctifying and saving graces wherewith he was endued in his creation even to the d Luk. 10.30 wounding and weakning the very faculties and powers of his naturall Being What are the Reliques of mans primitive estate in the estate of man fallen In respect of his understanding § 5. So that though there be in man fallen some a Jam. 3.9 Reliques of his primitive estate yet such only as are found with a corrupt being of nature not a spirituall well-being of grace The understanding both in the b Rom. 1.20 21. theoretick and c Rom. 1.32 2.15 practick part hath some glimpses of morall righteousness but not d 1 Cor. 2.13 14. the least light of Evangelical truth The will that as a free faculty retaineth its liberty In respect of his will which it exerciseth in e Gen 13.9 1 Cor. 7.37 John 21.18 naturall and morall actions but through the servitude of sin is wholly disabled as of its self for f Rom. 8.7 Ephes 2.1 2 Cor. 3.5 supernaturall and divine So that though the will is of its selfe g Eph. 4.19 Rom 3.15 freely carried unto the willing what is evil yet being h Rom. 6.16 17 enslav'd unto sin In respect of his conscience doth not of i John 15.5 Phil. 2.13 its selfe move to the willing what is good good k Rom. 8.8 Heb. 11.6 in order to eternall life Yea the conscience though sometimes l Rom. 2.15 awakened yet is it m Tit. 1.15 polluted and the affections and In respect of his affections though n 1 Cor. 5.1 2 Tim. 3.5 restrained from some evils yet are they inordinatly o Rom. 1.28 29 30. carried into other impieties § 6. In man fallen then the soul The soul in mans fall is whole in its naturall essence but spoyld of its spirituall habits Thereby disabled for any spiritual good with its rationall faculties doth remain whole in its naturall essence though it be spoyled of its spirituall habits and being dispoyled of all divinely spirituall habits it becomes disabled for the a Rom. 3.11 Phil. 2.13 Jam. 1.14 apprehending willing and desiring any divinely spirituall good And as the soul hath not lost its faculties so nor have those faculties lost their acts in what is natural moral or artificial but seeing b 1 Cor. 2.14 ignorance hath seized the understanding c Rom. 3.11 12 8.7 perversness the will and d Num. 7.5.23 inordinacy the inferior appetite the understanding will and affections become averse undisposed and altogether e Gen. 6.5 2 Cor. 3.5 Ephes 2.1 2 3. insufficient for what is divine and spirituall § 7. What fredome the will hath lost by the fall and what it retains after the fall Though the will then hath lost its freedome in respect of its a John 8.34 36. Rom. 6.6 7 20. 8.2 2 Pet. 2.19 Jer. 13 23. voluntary servitude unto sin whereby it becomes necessitated so b as to will nothing in spirituals but what is evil yet hath it not lost its freedom in respect of the naturall liberty of its acting so as to be compell'd or necessitated to will this or that evill Indeed seeing to will is an immanent and elicite act for man to lose his liberty were to lose his will to lose his liberty in the exercise of its act What liberty of wil remains in the vilest reprobate or Divell were to lose his will in the faculty of its being This liberty then remains in the will of the vilest reprobate and Divel who can be no longer said to will then they will freely though they doe not thereby will any thing that is good yet have they the faculty
e Isa 10.6 7. act their own wicked designes whil'st God orders them to the effecting his sacred decrees § 11. Indeed How the Executioners of Gods Justice the wicked are so the instruments of God's Power as that they are withal the a Psa 17.13 14. executioners of his Justice and we know that when the Judge gives up a Malefector into the hands of the executioner for the punishment of death and in that Execution how guilty of sin if then the executioner have no respect to the justice of the Judge but pursue the rage of his own malice satisfying his furious revenge in executing the Malefactor punishment the death of the Malefactor though justice in the Judge will be found murder in the executionor before the Judgment Seat of Christ And what Shall this stand good with those that are said to be Gods and not with him b Psal 82.6 who hath said they are Gods The wonder of God's Providence in respect of wicked mindes This is then the wonder of Gods working in his Providence that he doth make an c Isa 13.3 5. holy use of wicked mindes d Acts 2.23 4.28 effecting his just and holy will even by their wills which are unjust and unholy and yet is this no e Acts 3.15 extenuation of their sin nor shall be any f Jer. 51.25 26. mitigation of their punishment § 12. Futher as not the decree of God's will Gods Providence imposeth no compelling force so nor doth the concourse of God's Providence impose any compelling force upon the creatures so that though there is not any event a Numb 35.22 23. contingent in respect of God yet are there b Exod. 21.13 many contingents in respect of secondary causes but establisheth the nature of all causes contingent free and necessary And indeed God the primary cause doth work in all things according to the nature of the secondary causes c Prov. 16.33 with contingents according to the nature of their contingency with free d Mat. 17.12 Agents according to the nature of their liberty and with e Psa 104.14 necessary causes according to the nature of their necessity so far is God from compelling and enforcing by his Providence in causes contingent and free No compelling force of Providence in necessary causes that he doth not do it in causes f Job 38.35 natural and necessary for in them both he implanted by nature such an obediential power that they g Psa 105.28 Psa 147.15 148.8 Joel 2.25 fulfil his word by a natural propension not a violent compulsion they perform his command by a ready observance not a forc'd obedience Contingency in secondary causes illustrated § 13. That in the Dispensations of God's Providence some things are fortuitously contingent in respect of their secondary causes which yet are infallibly necessary in respect of God the Primary and Supreme Cause we illustrate by this Allusion When a Master sends two servants to one and the same place by different and divers waies each being ignorant of the other's mission Their meeting as it relates to the servants who intended it not is casual and contingent but as it relates to the Master who pre-ordain'd their meeting it is intended and necessary Thus are there many things contingent in respect of the created Agents who are a Psa 119.91 all as servants which yet are necessary in respect of their first cause God as b Pro. 22.2 Lord and Master of all How God's Providence is equal and how unequal § 14. Though the several dispensations of God's Providence are all equal as to the act of his will yet are they very much unequal as to the effects in the creatures for that by how much any thing hath its nearer access to God in the degrees of its excellency The Providence of God general special and peculiar by so much it hath an higher place with God in the order of his Providence Hence it is that as the Providence of God is general a Psal 103 19. Job 34.13 over all the world so is it special b Psal 103.19 Heb. 12.9 over Angels and c Psal 22 28. Job 7.20 men and peculiar d Psal 45.6 Isa 50. 2 7. Rev. 15 3. 1 Tim. 4 10. Mat. 16.18 over the Church of his Elect. The law of natu e and how â—xâ—cuted in God's general Providence For the order and government of the world by his general Providence God hath establish'd in the creatures a e Psal 148.6 Isa 55 10. Jer. 33.20 law of nature to the execution whereof he hath given them f Psal 19.5 Hos 2 22. natural inclinations g Prov. 6.6 30. â—4 Jer. 8.7 secret instincts and an h Job 37.12 13 Psal 44.4 Psal 105.16 19 31 34. Psal 103.21 Psal 148.8 Isa 7.18 19. obediential power whereby they are still ready at his Summons and command § 15. What a miracle is What is done in the world according to the a Jer. 31.35.36 33.20 Hâ—s 2.22 law of nature is by God's ordinary Providence but what is done above the law of nature is by his Providence extraordinary and it is called a d Psal 136.4 Psal 77 14. Miracle so that e Dan. 4.3 miraculous effects do declare an omnipotent cause f John 10.25 Acts 2.22 Exod. 8.19 manifesting the efficient to be Almighty and How one greater then another And that one g John 14.12 miracle is greater then another is not in respect of God's power which being infinite admits no degrees but is h Isa 40.15 17 equal and the same in all but in comparing one miracle with another they will appear one greater then another in respect of those different degrees they exceed the strength of nature in their production § 16. Wherein miraculous effects exceed the strength of nature Miraculous effects exceed the strength of nature either in relation to the substance of the thing done or to the subject in which it is done or the manner how it is done 1. In relation to the substance of the thing done as when the a 2 Kin. 20 1â— Sun went backward at he Prayer of Hezekiah or aâ— when the b 1 Cor. 15.53 Pail 3 21 body shall be glorified in the resurrection of the justâ— which for the substance of the thing Nature at no time and by no means can effect 2. In relation to the subject in which it is done as to c Joh. 11.33.34 to give life to a dead Lazarus and d Mark 10.46 sight to a blind Bartimaeus nature indeed can give life but not to a dead body it can give sight but not to a blinde man 3. In relation to the manner how it is done as the e Mark 1.31 present and perfect curing of a Fever with a touch the f 1 Kin. 18.38 speedy
faculties of the Soul the Understanding Memory and Will which three faculties have but one soul and the soul is one and the same in all the three faculties or else in the frame and order of mans intellectual nature and operation for that in one and the same spiritual Being the understanding doth beget the Word of the minde the image of it self in which it knows and from both issues a Dilection in the Will whereby it loves which is some likeness though no perfect Image of the Trinity § 7. Wherefore when God saith What most properly meant by those words of God is the creation of man After our likeness a Gen. 2.26 Let us make man in our own image after our likeness those words After our likeness we understand aright 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of exposition to those words In our Image and so they intimate unto us what this image is not of identity but of analogy not of essence but of quality that being b 2 Cor. 4.4 Col. 1.15 H b 1.3 John 14.9 1 Tim. 3.16 proper unto Christ this common unto c Job 1.6 Mat. 22.30 Angels and d Gen. 9.6 1. Cor. 11.7 Man Man then being made in Gods image and after his likeness doth denote a distance of diversity as well as declare a nearness of similitude Indeed Christ and Christ alone is the perfect and equal image of God being coessential and coeternal with the Father so that Gods image is in Christ as that of the King in his connatural Son by generation but in man as that of the King in his publick Coyne by impression § 8. It is an inseparable property of Mans soul in its analogical conformity to Gods nature The souls immortality not lost by the fall to be immortal which could not be lost by the fall for that in man degenerated by Sin as in man regenerated by Grace What the change in man by his fal the change is real but not essential it is in a Col. 3 10. Eph. 4 24. qualities but not in substance it is in the gifts and habits of the minde and thereby in the excellency not in the essence of the soul And as not in the souls essence so nor in its essential powers and properties man by his fall doth become indeed b Jer. 10.14 brutish but not a brute c Psa 49 12 20 Like the beasts in sensuality but not a beast in real truth Why the soul is immortal § 9. The soul then in all men continuing to be immaterial it must needs be immortal which otherwise could not be capable of an a 2 Cor. 5.1 Rom. 2 7. 1 Pet. 1.4 eternal reward in the godly or an b Mat. 25.4 Mark 9.43 44. eternal punishment in the wicked and needs must the soul be immortal which is spiritually begotten of c 1 Pet. 1.4 immortal seed and nourished by d John 6.51 incorruptible food which together with our whole Christian faith would become e 1 Cor. 15.13 14 vain yea perish in the souls mortality So that we cannot profess the Religion of Christ if we deny the immortality of the soul When the soul is created and infused into the body § 10. The soul is not a Rom. 9.11 pre-existent in its self before it is united unto the body by inspiration from God but as in the b Gen. 2.7 primitive being of the soul in Adam so in the successive beings of souls in all men The c Num. 16.22 Zech. 12.1 Col. 1.17 Job 5.17 soul is then infused by Creation and created by infusion when the body is prepared by a fit * Exod. 21.22 organization of the parts What its principal seat and how it informs the body made capable to receive it Whose Royal seat is in d Deu. 5.29 65. 30.14 Prov. 23.26 Heb. 8.10 the heart and by its analogically omnipresent power and infinite essence in its little world it actuates e 1 Cor. 12.14 c. the whole body and each member according to the several dispositions of the Organs And the soul thus inspired or infused it is not de Deo of God in his essence but f Rom. 11.36 a Deo from God in his power How the soul is the off-spring of God and so it is g Acts 17.28 Heb. 12.9 his off-spring by way of efficiency in a conformity of divine habits in its qualification not by an identity of divine substance in its Constitution § 11. In mans primitive integrity How possest of all vertues in its integrity Reason being subordinate unto God and the inferior faculties subordinate unto Reason Man was in a proportion possest of all vertues some in habit though not in act some both in act and in habit Those vertues which did imply an imperfection in mans estate were in him onely according to their habits and not their acts as mercy and repentance which implies misery and sin Those vertues which did imply nothing repugnant to mans created perfection were in him both according to their habits and their acts as Faith Hope and Charity Justice Temperance and Chastity and the like § 12. The souls of men not propagated Seeing the soul doth receive its being by a Eccles 12.7 Isa 57.16 1 Pet. 4.9 creation it cannot be extraduced propagated by generation as if the soul were from the soul as light is from light or the body from the body for then sure Adam would have said b Gen. 2 23. of Eve that she was spirit of his spirit as well as flesh of his flesh And why neither can that be by natural generation which is incorruptible in its nature yea simple and indivisible in its substance now such is the c Luke 23.46 Hâ—b 12 9. soul of man § 13. Yea Especially proved from their immortality the soul being an immaterial and immortal substance subsisting in its self and so a Heb. 12.23 Rev. 6.10 having the operations of life without the body it cannot be by Generation but must have its being by Creation otherwise as it begins its being with the Body generated it should cease to be with the Body corrupted and thereby could not be immortal Wherefore to say the soul is propagated by carnal Generation were to deny its immortality and therewith overthow the Faith and destroy our Christianity What the immortality of humane nature § 14. Besides the immortality of the soul in its spiritual substance man in his primitive estate had an immortality of humane nature not whereby he had no power to dye and from whence but whereby he had a power not to dye from his Original righteousness he had a power not to sin and from thence did flow that his primitive immortality in a power not to dye and how lost a Gen. 1.17 Rom 6.23 death being a punishment and so a consequent of sin §
evils which they commit in their executing this punishment are all from their own corrupt and vile affections It is no excuse to the wicked that they fulfill Gods secret will when they disobey his will revealed and why § 5. And though true it is the wicked do perform a Rom. 9.19 Gods secrets will his will of purpose even when they disobey b Acts 2.23 his revealed will his will of precept yet because Gods revealed will is the Rule of our obedience to disobey that though we perform the other it c 1 Iohn 3.4 is sin So that it can be no excuse of sin in man or imputation of unrighteousnesse in God that the wicked whil'st they sin yet not in their sin actually do what he by his secret counsel eternal decree hath appointed to be done d Acts 4.27 Isai 10.5 c. because they do it not in obedience to Gods just will but in pursuance of their own unjust wilfulnes God wills the permission not the commission of sin and why § 6. Besides Gods purpose and foreknowledge is not the cause of what he hath decreed to permit but of what he hath decreed to effect seeing God then doth not wil the commission but the permission of sin he cannot be the cause of it And that God should wil the permission of sin is most just for that otherwise he should lose the glory of his Justice yea and of his mercy too of this we may be confident God is so infinitely good that he would not permit evill were he not withall so infinitely powerfull as to a Rom. 8.28 5.20 order that evill unto good How God is said to harden in sin § 7. Further yet when God is said to a Exod. 9.12 Deut. 2.30 Isai 6.10 29.10 63.17 Rom 9.18 harden malicious sinners he doth it not by adding more sin or infusing more malice but by further withholding or quite withdrawing his Grace and so in just judgement b 1 Sam. 16.14 Psal 109.6 1 Tim. 1.20 giving them up unto Satan and their own c Rom. 1.24.26.28 vile affections they truly and really d Exod. 9.34 Mat. 13.14 15. Heb. 3.13.15 Acts 28.26 27 harden themselves Sin then is not prompted or caused by God but suggested by Satan or raised by lust and through consent of the will committed by man § 8. And as sin hath no efficient What sin is in its privative Being but a Rom. 3.23 1 Cor. 6 7. deficient cause so hath it no positive but a privative Being and so cannot properly be an action which is a naturall good but the obliquity and error of the action which is a morall evill it is not the work but the evill of the work What in its proper nature in a deviation from the rule of righteousnesse the b Rom. 4 5. Law of God which is the sin And sin being in its proper nature the c Rom 5.15.17.18 Job 34.31 Jam. 3. ◠offence of Gods Justice in the d Isa 48.8 Job 31 33. Isa 35 5. 1 John 3.4 transgression of his Law doth bring upon man a guilt a pollution and a punishment § 9. In The severall adjuncts of sin that 1. It is Guilt The guilt of sin is that whereby a Mat. 6.12 23 16. Rom. 1 32. 3.19 4.15 man becomes debtor unto God bound over unto the penalty of that law which he hath transgress'd From this guilt doth proceed an b Gen 3 10. Heb. 10.31 horror From whence proceeds horror attended with despair The c Rom. 1.32 2.15 Conscience terrifying the Soul with a selfe-accusing and condemning sentence d Gen. 4.13 Heb. 2.15 Heb. 10 31. made more dreadfull by despair 2. It s Pollution § 10. Besides this guilt of sin which relateth unto the punishment there is a a Mat 15.11 Rev. 22.11 pollution Whereby God abhors man which cleaveth unto the soul Which pollution doth make God to b Prov. 3.32 6.16 Isai 1.15 Jer. 16.18 b Isa 59.2 Hab. 1.13 abominate and abhorre man and Man himselfe with a confuon of face c hiding his face from him and doth make man d Ier. 3 25 Dan. 9.7 8. with confusion of face to loath and e Ezek. 6.9 Iob. 42.6 abhorre himself and to f Gen 3.8 Ier. 32.33 flie the divine presence 3. It s Punishment Gods vindicative Justice diversly exprest § 11. The punishment of sin that is an a Prov. 13.21 Ier. 18.8 Amos 3.2 6. evill of misery inflicted by God in the execution of his vindictive Justice Which Justice as it is provoked by sin is call'd b Ier. 7.19 Mich. 7.18 anger and wrath as it is more hotly incens'd to severity it is call'd c Deut. 29.20 Ierem. 7.20 fury and jealousie as it denounceth sentence and executeth punishment upon sin it is call'd d Deut. 32.35 Ierem. 51.6 Rom. 2.5 judgement and vengeance Why the guilt punishment of sin is infinite § 12. The weight of the offence committed is to be measured according to the greatnesse of the person offended The a Gal. 3.10 Matth. 5.22 12.36 least violation then of an infinite Majesty must incurre the guilt of an infinite punishment How all punishment is equall and how unequall which is b Rom. 6.23 Eternall Death And thus all punishment becomes equall extensively in duration of time though not Matth. 5.22 11.22 24. intensively in degrees of torment yea as is our obligation to the duty such is our transgression of the command and as is our transgression of the command such is the punishment of our sin all of equall extent the transgression infinite because the breach of an infinite obligation and so the punishment infinite because the penalty of an infinite transgression The duration of punishment is correspondent to the duration of sin and how § 13. Thus the duration of punishment doth become correspondent to the duration of sin of the sin not in respect of its Act which is transient but of its pollution and of its guilt which are permanent and so a John 8.24 permanent as that they are eternall Wherefore seeing the least sin without the grace of the Spirit to sanctifie and the mercy of God to pardon is eternall in its pollution and guilt it must needs be so too in its b John 3.36 punishment c Rev. 21.27 certainly excluding the sinner from life and glory and d Ezek. 18.20 eternally subjecting him to death and misery How Gods Justice doth punish and his mercy pardon sin § 14. When Gods justice executeth the punishment of wrath a Lam. 3.39 Jerem. 9.9 it is with respect to the guilt of sin And therefore when Gods mercy doth pardon the sin he b Heb. 8.12 remits the punishment by acquitting from the guilt So that if God should
Acts 4.12 13.38 Christs all-sufficient satisfaction or the f Mat. 5.25 26 25.46 Sinners everlasting condemnation Wherfore seeing the poysonous guilt of the least sin is not expelled but by the Soveraign Antidote of Christs blood g Mark 1.15 Acts 20.21 Luke 24.47 Rom. 3.25 through repentance and faith it cannot be that any sin is veniall in its nature but in a respect to Gods mercy and Christs merits in the effect In what all sins are mortal yet not all equal § 27. In this all sins are mortall that by their guilt they meke liable to * Matth. 5.22 eternall death and though all are mortall yet are they not therfore a Ezek. 8.6.13.15 John 19.11 all equall some by their more b Mat. 5.22 11.22 24. Luke 12.47.48 hainous guilt making subject to a more grievous punishment in that death which is eternall How some sins mortall and some veniall That some sins then are said to be mortall and some veniall it is not in the nature but in the effect or rather the event of the sin in relation to the subject which is the sinner to c John 5.24 Rom. 8.1 Acts 13.39 whom through faith and repentance not onely the lesser but the greater sins become venial and d John 3.36 Gal. 5.10 without faith repentance not only the greater but also the lesser sins are mortall so that if we take the weight of sin From whence we are to take the just weight of sins guilt not from the deceitful scales of our own opinions but from the just ballance of the Sanctuary the truth of Gods word we find the least sin to have the greatest guilt so that e Mat 12.36 1 Cor. 4.5 every vain thought What the guilt of the least sin without Ghrist and idle word shal be brought to judgment and whatsoever sin Christ brings to the last judgement shall without Christ bring upon the sinner everlasting punishment § 28. Though all sin be in its nature mortall Though all sins be mortall yet most especially the sin against the Holy Ghost and so to be mortall is common to all sin yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is appropriate to the a 1 John 5.16 sin against the Holy Ghost for its most deadly naure call'd in Scripture the sin unto death which excluding repentance depriveth b Math. 12.32 of forgivenesse even so as never to be forgiven What the sin against the Holy Ghost is not Which sin against the Holy Ghost doth not consist in any c 2 Kings 21.6 c 24.4 2 Chron. 33.12 13. 1 John 5.16.17 18. particular transgression of Gods Law nor yet in that blasphemy and persecution of Christ and his Gospel which ariseth from ignorance no nor in that Apostasie from the truth d 1 Tim. 1.13 and deniall of Christ which ariseth from e Mat. 26.70 72 74 75. infirmity though all of them sins of a deep die and horrid guilt § 29. But the sin against the Holy Ghost What it is is such a denying and rejecting of Christ as ariseth from malice in an hatred of Him and his Truth contrary to knowledge and conscience opposing and persecuting the Gospel of Christ as an imposture of Satan the power and grace of the Spirit as a work and designment of the Divell thus it was in the a Matth 12.24 c. Luke 19.14 20.13 c. Mark 3.30 John 7.28 Pharisees As in the Pharisees Also to sin against the Holy Ghost is to b Heb. 6.4 5 6 10.26 fall away from the faith of Christ by an universall Apostacy in wilfully denying and maliciously opposing Christ and his Truth yea in a contempt of his Sacrifice and an hatred of his Gospel persecuting his Church with an irreconcilable enmity Thus it was in Julian As in Julian thus in many in the Apostles times and thus in many in these our dayes of whom we cannot Why not now to be discovered by us we may not pass sentence of judgement wanting that so eminent a gift c Acts 5.3.9 8.32 13.10 1 Cor. 12.10 among the primitive Saints namely the discerning of the Spirits Why calâ—d the sin against the Holy Ghost § 30. This sin is said to be against the Holy Ghost in respect of his a Isa 12.2 Ephes 1.17 more immediate Office of illumination not as being any wayes the more eminent person in the Trinity all being b Isai 6.3 Matth. 28.19 coequall in their Unity of Essence and of Glory Seeing then it is the more immediate c 1 Cor. 12.11 Office of the Holy Ghost to illuminate in the truth of Christ a d Acts 7.51 wilfull hatred of Christ and his truth accompanied with a malicious opposition of his illuminating power is properly called a sin against the Holy Ghost and that this sin shall not be forgiven is not because it e Rom. 5.20 exceeds Gods grace Why this sin shall not be forgiven or out-vies Christs merits f Heb. 7.25 but because it excludes g Heb. 6.5 6. the work of Repentance in despightfully opposing the Spirit and rejects the h Heb. 10.26 Sacrifice of Christ in wilfully denying his truth Sins against Conscience lead the way to this sin against the Holy Ghost § 31. Sins against Conscience they a Psal 19.13 lead the way to this sin against the Holy Ghost Wherefore that this may be prevented those must be avoided avoid we not onely sins against conscience b 1 Tim. 1 19. when enlightned with the truth but also though c Rom. 14.23 seduced with error For that an Erroneous Conscience doth d Tit. 1.15 entangle and fetter in sin How an erroneous conscience entangles in sin but binds not to what is sinful though it doth not oblige or bind to what is sinfull So that he alwayes sins who e Rom. 14.5 23. acts any thing against the dictate of his conscience because the f Rom. 1.14 15. 1 Sam. 24.5 6 dictate of the conscience is by interpretation the precept of God And thereby it is that though the act be materially good yet it cannot be formally so the good is not done well because accompanied with so great an evill a contempt of God in the doing Wherefore whatsoever is good in it selfe if done against conscience though errour judging it to be evill it thereby becomes sin and a sin against Conscience deep in its guilt An erroneous conscience may somewat excuse but cannot wholly acquit § 32. Again the erroneous Conscience may a Acts 26.9 10. Phil 3.6 1 Tim. 1.13 mitigate but cannot make void it may somewhat excuse but cannot wholly acquit from what is sinfull whether it be in omitting what is good supposing it to be evill or in committing what is evill and why misdeeming it to be good Indeed impossible it is that
from without to compel him to will or do what was good or what was evil whether it were in things Natural Civil Moral or Divine CHAP. XI Concerning the Covenant of Works and the Fall of man § 1. MAN being made in a Gen. 1.27 Gods Image Adam had a knowledg of Gods will perfâ—ct in its kinde had a perfect b Col. 3.10 knowledg of Gods will not that c Isa 40.13 Rom 11.33 34. absolute and secret will of God which is the Cause of all Being but that d Deut. 29.29 conditional and revealed will of God What the Law to Adam which is the e Psal 143.10 Mat. 6.10 rule of mans working Which will of God was to be a law to man How the same with the Decalogue and Adam in his creation had this f Psal 40.8 Jer. 31.33 Rom. 2.15 law written in the table of his heart the same in substance with the Decalogue g Exod. 34.28 that law of the ten Commandments which afterwards Israel had written in tables of stone § 2. God having given man a law What the Covenant of Works he further entreth with him a a Exod. 34.28 Deut. 9.10 Jer. 31.31 32. Heb. 8.9 13. Covenant This call'd the Covenant of Works In which the b Lev. 18.5 Ezek 20.11 Rom. 7.10 10.5 Gal. 3.12 promise on Gods part is the confirming man in his created estate of life holiness and happiness The c Lev. 18.5 Ezek. 20.11 Rom. 7.10 10.5 Gal. 3.12 condition on mans part is perfect obedience unto the d Deut. 27.26 Luke 10.25 26 27. Gal. 3.10 Jam. 2.10 whole law of his Creator according to the full extent of his revealed will What the seal of the Covenant This Covenant God seals in a solemn ratification with that Sacramental Tree the e Gen 2 9. 3.22 Prov. 3.18 Tree of life § 3. Thus God having made firm his Covenant The trial of mans obedience he doth put man upon the trial of his obedience a Gen. 2.16.17 forbidding him to eat of the tree of knowledg setting on the prohibition with this commination b Gen. 2.17 that in the day he eateth thereof he shall surely dye So that as upon mans performing the condition God freely promised by covenant a Blessing of life so upon his breach of the Covenant God severely threatned in justice the curse of death Man left to the use of his freewil § 4. Now God having entred a Covenant and seal'd it enacted a probatory law and publish'd it he leaveth man a Eâ—cles 7.28 furnish'd with sufficient power to the use of his free will for the trial of his obedience Tempted by Satan And here the b John 8.44 Devil in malice to God and envy to man making use of the c Gen. 3.1 2 3 c. 2 Co. 11.3 Serpent by the subtilty of his suggestions deceiveth Eve and by the plausible importunity of her d Gen. 3 6. 1 Tim. 2.14 perswasions Transgresseth in eating the forbidden fruit seduceth Adam to a breaking the Covenant of his God by eating the forbidden fruit Satans bait to catch men § 5. That which Satan in his temptation doth labour by subtil Sophistry to perswade is this That man should not dye though he did eat but should be like God The subtilty of Satans temtation when he had eaten This poyson the Devil first presents unto Eve in a cover'd cup words of a dark dubious and perplex'd sense by a Gen. 3.1 way of interrogation yea hath God said the better to catch at her answer His order and progress in it and pursue his design And when by his questioning he hath b Gen. 3.3 brought Gods Command into question he presently c Gen. 3.4 takes away the commination which God hath set as a bar to his law lest man should break in and transgress his command and to Gods severe threatning he d Gen. 3.5 opposeth an enticing promise which he sets on with a false crimination cast upon God and as a gloss to his lye he gives a rare commendation of the fruit The Tree of knowledg of good and evil why so called seemingly made good by the very denomination of the Tree the e Gen. 2.17 Tree of knowledg of good and evil which name it had of God not from the constitution of its nature but of his ordinance with respect to the event of mans sin foreseen § 6. wherein the hainousness of Adams transgression doth consist The enormity and hainousness of Adams sin is not to be sought for in the tast or in the fruit or in the tree which present but a low estimation of the sin to a seeming meanness of the fact but it is to be sought for in the a Gen. 2.17 3.11 Exod. 20.1.2 high contempt of the Divine Majesty and Law in the b Gen. 3.5.6.22 proud affectation of the Divine Dignity and Likeness yea in the horrid Apostacy of preferring Satans word before Gods and thereby turning from God in his truth to a siding with Satan in his c John 8.44 lie The sin then of our first Parents it was no light trivial or single sin but indeed a mass or heap of hainous horrid and manifold impieties even to a violation of the whole Decalogue how a violation of the whole Law in a total breach of that d Jam 2 8 Royal Law of love which doth e Mat. 22 36 37 38 40. Rom. 13.10 fill up both tables in what concerns God our neighbour and our selves § 7. In this transgression of Adams What was mans fist sin is doubtful and so difficult to determine the concourse and complication of many sins it is doubtful and difficult to determine which was the first sin the erroneous a Jer. 4.22 Psal 14.2 judgment of the understanding that must necessarily go before the evil election of the will in order of nature yet we conceive the understanding and will What the first internal principle of evil in man by error and evil choise did in one and the same instant compleat the sin and thereby became the first internal principle of evil in man whether that evil were a sin either of vain confidence or infidelity or of pride or of covetousness one of which most probably was which is not necessary to be determined the first sin committed by Adam in his Apostacy Adams sin was from himself freely without force And thus that Adam sinned was not by any a Jam. 1.13 enforcement either of positive decree in God or of b Jam 4.7 irresistible temptation in Satan or of c Eccles 7.29 evil disposition in himself But at the suggestion of the Devil Adam misusing the liberty of his will of his own accord did d Rom. 5.14.15 transgress the command of his God and thereby became guilty of