Is it not because sin doth all in thee and flesh will not fight against flesh Vse 2. Why is it that even the most holy are to walk humbly to go out of themselves to lay fast hold on Christ and his righteousness is it not because they have such a treacherous enemy within that hindereth them in every holy duty Why also is there such a necessity of watching praying of holy fear and trembling Is not all this because of that secret deceitfull adversary within our own brests CHAP. IV. Of the Epithete Evil is present with us given to Original Sinne. SECT I. ROM 7. 21. I finde then a Law that when I would doe good Evil is present with me I Shall not for the present say any more in the general the may relate to the Explication of this Chapter especially of that conflict and combate mentioned therein as also in whose person he describeth it for all will be fully considered when we come to speak of the fruit and immediate effects of original sinne To come therefore immediately to the Text You may easily perceive that it is part of that paroxysme and spiritual agony Paul is in between the principles of good and evil working in him therefore he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I find that is by experience As for Grotius who makes this no more than the combat of conscience with corruption which may be in natural men alledging places out of the Poets and Epictetus where some have said in the like manner they knew it was evil they did and they do not allow it but yet their frail flesh compelleth them to do it so that they do not what they would and what they would not that they do As also bringing in a Pagan out of Lactantius saying That he sinneth Non quia velo sed quia cogor the flesh being so strong in him These are but low and philosophical notions arguing the ignorance of the work of Gods Spirit in a man and the repugnancy thereunto by the unregenerate part But of this more in its time It is enough for the present to take notice that Paul saith of himself That he findeth this in him In the next place There is the object matter of this experimental discovery which in the Greek is something intricate and hath so tormented Interpreters that there are eight Expositions given to make the grammatical connexion Yea Erasmus is so bold that unless we receive the supply of that Ellipsis or defect he thinketh in Paul's speech which he giveth that we must confess Paulum balbituri but as Beza well saith Erasmus doth ineptire in saying so our Translators render it smooth enough I find a Law and then followeth the specifical description of it for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken many times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is this That when I would do any good I cannot do it so fully so perfectly so freely because evil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is present with me it 's adjacent and pressing upon me it doth not signifie a meer presence of sense but the activity and vigorous motions of it Beza thinketh it an allusion to that which was spoken to Cain Gen. 4. 7. Sinne lieth at the door it is at hand upon all occasions in the punishment thereof to lay hold on a sinner howsoever if the simple word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not signifie a bare simple nearness but that which is a burdensom destructive approximation as when it 's said Matth. 3. 10. The ax is laid to the root of the tree 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Original and so also some expound that 1 Tim. 1. 9. The Law is not made for the righteous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a burden imposed upon him by constraint for he hath a voluntary principle within If I say the simple word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be used so then much more the compound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are called ' Diabolicae praepositiones because they do so intend the signification Paul then finds sinne alwayes at hand when his heart is ready to do any good to pull him back to press him down and so he is like the bird tied in a string which assaying to flie up to heaven immediately is plucked back again Now this sinne thus present is not actual habitual or an accustomed sinne Though Gratius relateth it to the custom of sinne even as he doth Lib. 2. de Jure belli cap. 12. 26. expound that of the Apostle By nature the children of wrath making nature to be custom saying The Apostle doth not so much speak of his own person as of the Romans amongst whom he then lived For Regeneration delivers from the custom of sinne but it is that original sinne that corrupt nature which doth alwayes cleave to us as the shadow doth the body or rather as the Ivy the Tree secretly consuming it From whence observe That original sinne is the adjacent sinne or the sinne that is alwayes troublesomly present with as So that whereas we may go from one company to another from one place to another yet we can never go from this original sinne but we carry it about with us at all times in all places in all duties and that even the most holy do whereby it is that they are kept so low and humble in themselves Why is it that when we are regenerated we should not be like Saints in Heaven without any spot or blemish Why should we not delight in God and heavenly things more than in earthly Why should there he the least difficulty and unwillingness in us to any thing that is good Is not all this because this sinne is thus readily present with us it lieth not at the door but in the very heart of us all But let us explain What is comprehended in this Epithete given original sinne That it is present with us SECT II. What is implied in that Epithete FIrst It implieth That this sinne putteth it self forth first in the soul The motions and thoughts of sinne arise first in us before grace can prevent them The Schoolmen speak of the motus primò primi the very immediate and first stirrings of the Soul before the will gives any consent or the mind hath any deliberation and these are sinnes because contrary to the Image of God But whence come they Even from this womb of original corruption So that it is like a furnace alwayes sending forth sparks The Scripture expresseth it notably Gen. 6. 5. where every imagination of the thought of the heart is said to be only evil and that continually Valentia Analysis Dis de peccato originali and other Papists complain That we aggravate originall sinne too much we speak too tragically about it and indeed the Subject is very distastfull to every man how unwilling is he to bear that he is all over thus sinfull This is to make them like Devils and
then that its necessary to have a sound judgement about the original of the soul for the Mortalists have fallen into that deep pit of heresy because they erred in this first It is with men as they say of Fishes they begin to putrify in the head first and so commonly men fall into loose opinions and then into loose practises But this rule must be acknowledged That whatsoever depends upon matter in being doth also depend upon it in existency It 's Aquinas his rule as you heard Quicquid dependet à materiâ in fieri depend quoad esse et existere That is the reason why the souls of all beasts are mortal because they depend upon the matter in being They cannot be produced but dependently on that and therefore their souls cannot subsist without their bodies As it is plain the souls of men do after death till the resurrection So that this Doctrine is injurious and derogatory to our spiritual and immortal souls Fifthly If souls were not by immediate Creation but by natural propagation from the parents then either from the mother alone or from the father alone or from both together This Argument Lactantius of old as Cerda in Tertull. alledgeth him formed to himself and answers it 's neither of those waies but from God Not from the Father alone because David doth bewail his mothers co operation hereunto Psal 51 Iniquity did my Mother conceive me Not the Mother alone because the Father is made the chief cause of conveighing this original sinne by the Apostle he layeth it upon Adam more then Eve though Eve is not excluded Not from both together for then the soul must be partible and divisible part from the Father and part from the Mother and so it cannot be a simple substance Under this Argument Meisuer doth labour and confesseth it is inexplicable how the soul should come from the parents though he assaieth to give some satisfaction Lastly There is something even of nature implanted in us to believe our soules come from God who hath not almost some impression upon his conscience to think that he had not his soul from his parents even nature doth almost teach us in this thing Hence the wisest Heathens have concluded of it as Plato and also Aristotle who confuteth the several false opinions of Philosophers about the soul for it was a doubt as Tertullian lib de animâ expresseth it whether Aristotle was parasior sua implera aut aliena inantre and affirmes it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to come from without and that it is a divine thing Thus it was with some Heathens though destitute of the Light of Gods Word yet in somethings they did fall upon the truth as saith Tertullian The Pilot in a tempestuous black night puts into a good haven sometimes prospero errore and a man in a dark place gropeth and finds the way out sometimes caecâ quâdam felicitate Thus did some Heathens in some things SECT IV. IF you aske What Arguments have they who hold the traduction of the Soul I answer There is none out of Scripture that is worth the answering The two things they urge are First If the soul be not propagated then man doth not beget a man as a beast doth a beast and he is more imperfect then other creatures but this is to be answered hereafter The other is Because original sinne cannot else be maintained but this is to be answered in the Explication how we come to pertake of it Let us proceed to the Uses Vse 1. Doth God create the soul then he must know all the thoughts all the inward workings and motions of thy soul As he that maketh a Clock or a Watch knoweth all the motions of it Therefore take heed of soul-sinnes of spirit-sinnes What though men know not your unclean thoughts your proud thoughts your malicious thoughts yet God who made thy soul doth and therefore this should make us attend to Gods eie upon us Vse 2. Did God make and create the soul then he also can regenerate it and make it new again he made it as a Creator and he only in the way of regeneration can make it again This may comfort the godly that mourn and pray Oh they would have more heavenly holy souls They would not have such vain thoughts such sinnefull motions Remember God made thy heart and he can spiritualize it 3. Doth God create the souls then here we see that it 's our duty to give our souls to him in the first place John 4. God is a Spirit and will be worshipped in spirit This hath been alwaies a complaint men have drawed nigh to God bodily but their hearts have been farre from him God made thy soul more then thy body and therefore let that be in every duty Lastly If Parents do not make our souls then here we see Children must obey Parents but in the Lord Should thy Parents command thee to doe any sinfull action to break the Sabbath you must not obey you may say My father and mother they help me but to my body God doth give me my soul and therefore they are but parents of your bodies not of your conscience and souls SECT V. The Authors Apologie for his handling this great Question THe false wayes which some have wandered in to maintain the Propagation of Original Corruption to all mankind being detected our work is now to explicate that Doctrine which seemeth most consonant to solid Reason and Scripture But before we essay that we are to informe you of one sort of learned Authors who because of the difficulty attending this Point Whether we hold the Traduction or Creation of the soul have thought it the most wife and sober way to acknowledge the Propagation of original Sinne But as for the manner How there to have a modest suspense of our judgement to professe a learned ignorance herein to believe That it is though How it is so we know not And Tertullian concerning the original of the soul Lib. de Animâ hath this known saying Praestat per Deum nescire quae ipse non revelaverit quà m per hominem scire quae ipse praesumpserit In this way of suspense Austin continued as long as he lived thinking that this might be one of those Truths we shall not know till we come into the Academy of Heaven and to this modest silence we have one place of Scripture which might much incline us Eccles 11. 5. As thou knowest not the way of the Spirit nor how the bones doe grow in the womb c. This Text should teach us not to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to venture too farre but to observe the light of the Scripture as they did the Pillar and Cloud in the wildernesse to stand still where that stands still And indeed the Disputes about the Modes of things is very intricate The known saying is Motum sometimes Modum nescimus the manner of Gods working in conversion The manner of Christs presence in
Memory is polluted in respect of its inward vitiosity adhering to it SEcondly As the memory is thus defiled about its proper objects so there is much inward vitiosity adhering to it And this we may take notice of as a main one The dullness sluggishness and stupidity of it especially as to heavenly things who can give any other reason why good things holy things should not be remembered as well as evil and sinfull things but only the native pollution of the memory And from hence it is that there is such a lethargy as it were upon the memory for if Peter 2 Pet 3. 1 writing to those who were sanctified and that had pure minds yet he thought it meet to stirre them up a metaphor as you heard from men asleep who need to be awakened how much more doth the memory of a natural man need stirring and exciting There is then a wonderfull stupidity and sleepiness as it were upon the memory it is even rusty as it were and unfit for any use men do not exercise and put their memories upon practice little do they know what they could remember if they did mind it and exercise themselves to remember what is good Thou complainest of a bad memory of a slippery memory No it is thy laziness it 's thy bad heart it 's thy want of diligence Thy memory would be as good and as active for holy things as it is for earthly things if you did put it in practice more but the memory being naturally dull and stupid thou lettest it alone thou never improvest it never awakenest it and so through thy forgetfullness thou comest eternally to perish This lethargy upon thy memory though a sad disease yet might be cured if thou wert real and industrious about it much praying and much practising of it in holy things would make it as expedite and as ready about good things as ever it was in any evil things In the third place The memory is naturally unsanctified in this particular that wherein it can or doth remember there it produceth not suteable operations nor doth it obtain its end The end of remembring what is good is to love it to practise it and to imitate it The end of remembring evil is to loath it bitterly to repent of it and to fly from it Now herein our memory is grosly polluted that it never obtaineth this blessed and holy end whereas if our memories were never so admirable as that of Symonides or Appelonius Thyaneus when he was about an hundred yeares old yet if our memory be not effectual and operative to make us more holy and heavenly this is a sinfull and defiled memory And for this reason it is that wicked men are said to forget God because though they do remember him yet they do not performe those duties to which their memory should be subservient For as the end of knowledge is action so the end of memory also is to be doing and as it is said If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them so when ye remember these things it 's a blessed thing to put them in practise But how often do we see by experience that where the memory is naturally very good there morally it is very bad and sinfull Do you not meet with many that can remember the Scripture remember Sermons yet never remember the practice of them whereas God hath given us memory for the same end he hath given us a knowledge which is to direct and help us in our operations That as in beasts they have a sensitive memory in them to preserve their natural being The Oxe remembreth his Masters crib the bird remembreth her seasons and all this for natural preservation The Bee remembereth the place of her hive The Ant her nest though some Philosophers because of the great siceity of the constitution of those creatures attribute it to a natural instinct rather then memory so this should be much more true in men therefore doth God bestow on us an intellectual memory that thereby he might spiritually preserve himself making use of that which is advantagious to his soul and avoiding all that which is destructive As then we are not to know only that we may know or to know thereby making ostentation that others may take notice of it so neither are we to remember that we may remember only or to brag of our memory that others may wonder to see what a strong and retentive memory we have but that thereby we may be more promoted and advanced in heavenly things Let all such tremble under this consideration who have very quick and sure memories about the Scripture and the Sermons they hear yet are very ungodly in their lives and walk in a contrary way to all that they do remember This argueth thy memory is not a sanctified memory that it carrieth not on the work of grace in thee for which end only it ought to be imployed It is observed that two sorts of men need a good memory First The lyar Oportet mendacem esse memorem now every professing Christian living wickedly is a lyar for with words he acknowledgeth him butin workes he denieth him insomuch that thou who lyest thus to God shouldst remember thy professions and obligations the second sort is of greatest accomptants such who have great summes to cast up and to be accountable for these also had need of great memories and such is every man Oh the vast and numberless particulars of which he is one day to give an account to God! Oh what a proficient in holiness might thou have been if all the good things thou remembrest were in a practical manner improved if thou couldst give a good account to God of thy memory for that you are to do as well as of the improvement of other parts of the soul As God at the day of judgement will have an account of every talent he hath given thee of thy understanding of thy will how these have been employed so likewise of thy memory What is that good that holiness thy memory hath put thee upon and this also you who are young ones and servants living in godly Families are diligently to attend to for you think this is enough if you can remember a Sermon or Catechistical heads so as to give an account to your Governors if you can satisfie them you think this is enough but thou art greatly deceived for therefore art thou to remember that thou maist do accordingly Thou art never to forget this or that truth that so it may be ready at hand to direct thee in all thy wayes and this is indeed a divine act of memory There are those who teach the art of memory and give rules to perfect a man therein but divine and holy operation is the end of the Christian art of our memory Fourthly The pollution of our memory is seen In that it is made subservient to the corrupt frame and inclination of our hearts We
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
and death So that they conclude it injurious and contumelious to Paul reproachfull to the grace of the Gospel and a palpable incouragement to sinne and wickedness to interpret the 7th of the Rom. of a regenerate person But because this is a truth of so special concernement we shall take these things in a more particular consideration for it would be found an heavy sinne lying upon most orthodox Teachers in the Reformed Church if they have constantly preached such a Doctrine as is injurious to Gods grace and an incentive to sinne as also slothfulness and negligence in holy duties for the present this Text will bear us out sufficiently that where ever the Spirit of God is in persons while in the way to heaven they have a contrary principle of the flesh within them whereby they are more humbled in themselves and do the more earnestly make their applications to the throne of grace and that all have such a conflict within them may appear by these following Reasons yea we may with Luther say so farre is it that any do attain to such a measure of grace as to be without this combate that the more holy and spiritual any are the more sensible they are of it for they have more illumination and so discover the exactness and spiritual latitude of the law more then formerly they did and also their hearts are more tender whereby they grow more sensible even of the least weight of any sinful motion though never so transient It is true the godly do grow in grace they get more mastery and power over the lustings of sinne within yet withall they grow in light and discovery about holiness they see it a more exact and perfect thing then they thought of they find the Law of God to be more comprehensive then they were aware of and therefore they are ready to cry out as Ignatius when ready to suffer Nunc incipio esse Christians Oh me never godly but beginning to be godly I believe but how great is my unbelief This Paul declareth Phil. 3. 12. Not as if I had already attained either were already perfect but I follow after c. Thus Paul is farre from owning such commendations which happily others may put upon him It is true indeed Amyraldus denyeth that any are absolutely perfect but yet he goeth beyond the bounds of truth in attributing too much to Paul or other Apostles which will appear First Because the most holy that are have used all meanes to mortifie and keep down the cause of these sinful motions If they did not continually throw water as it were upon those sparks within the most holy man would quickly be in a flame Even this Apostle Paul doth not he confess this of himself 1 Cor. 9. 27. I keep down my body and bring it into subjection c. He doth not mean the body as it is a meer natural substance for the glorified Saints will not keep down their bodyes but as it is corrupted and made a ready instrument to sin for though the Apostle call it not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet these are not opposite but suppose one another as Rom. 6. 12. Let not sinne reign in your mortal body and it is a very frigid and forced Exposition of Amyraldus as if the Apostle did understand it of the exposing his body to hunger and thirst and all dangerous persecutioâ—s for the Gospels sake For this was not Paul's voluntary keeping down of his body those persecutions and hardships to his body were against his will though he submitted to them when by Gods providence he was called thereunto but he speaketh here of that which he did readily and voluntarily lest from within should arise such motions to sinne as might destroy him yea it is plain that even in Paul there was a danger of the breakings forth of such lusts because 2 Cor. 12. God did in a special manner suffer him to be buffetted and exercised by Satan that he might not be lifted up through pride neither is this any excuse to say with Amyraldus That such sinnes are apt to breed in the most excellent dispositions for it is acknowledged by all that such sinnes have more guilt in them then bodily sinnes though not such infamy and disgrace amongst men Luther calleth them the sublimia peccat the sublime and high sins such the Devil was guilty of and they were the cause of his final overthrow and damnation If then the most godly have used all means to mortifie sinne within them it is plain they found a combate and that if sinne were let alone it would quickly get the upper hand Secondly That there is a conflict of sinne appeareth in those duties enjoyned to all the godly that they watch and pray that they put on the whole armour of Christ Yea the Disciples are commanded to take heed of drunkenness and surfetting and the cares of this world Luke 21. 34. and generally Paul's Epistles are full of admonitions and exhortations to give all diligence in the wayes of holinesse especially that command is very observable 2 Cor. 7. 1. Having these promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthinesse of flesh and spirits perfecting holinesse in the fear of God Here you see both flesh and spirit that is the rational and sensitive part have filthiness and that those who are truly godly are to be continually cleansing away this filthiness and to perfect what is out of order What godly man is there that can say This command doth not belong to me I am above it I need it not No lesse considerable is that command of Peter 1 Pet. 2. 11. Dearly beloved I beseech you as pilgrims and strangers abstain from fleshly lusts which warre against the soul Not as if this were wholly parallel with my Text as Carthusian is said to bring it in thereby proving that by flesh is meant the body and by spirit the soul but onely it sheweth that no godly man in this life is freed from a militant condition and that with his own flesh his own self which maketh the combate to be the more dangerous For this cause David though a man after Gods own heart though Gods servant in a special consideration yet prayeth Psal 19. 13. Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins which expression denoteth that even a godly man hath lust within him that would carry him out like an untamed horse to presumptuous sins did not the Lord keep him back But we need not bring more reasons to confirm that which experience doth so sadly testifie SECT III. A Consideration of that part of the seventh Chapter to the Romans which treats of the Conflict within a man Shewing against Amyraldus and others that it must be a regenerate person onely of whom those things are spoken ¶ 1. THe next Proposition that may give light to the weighty truth about the spiritual conflict that is in the most regenerate persons is this That besides the
Bondage is It s being carried out unto sinne voluntarily and with delight ¶ 9. Thirdly It is evident by its utter impotency to any thing that is spiritual Here is shewed wherein that inability consists ¶ 10. That man naturally loves his thraldom to sin and contradicts the means of Deliverance ¶ 11. It s Bondage is seen in its Concupiscential Affection to some creature or other never being able to lift it self up to God ¶ 12. That when it doth endeavour to overcome any sinne it is by falling into another ¶ 13. The more means of grace to free us the more our slavery appears ¶ 14. The Necessity of a Redeemer demonstrates our thraldome to sinne ¶ 15. An Examination of the Descriptions and Definitions of Freedom or Liberty of Will which many Writers give it Shewing That none of them are any wayes agreeing to the Will unsanctified CHAP. V. Of the Pollution of the Affections Col. 3. 2. Set your Affections upon things above not on things on the earth SECT I. The Text opened SECT II. Of the Nature of the Affections SECT III. How the Affections are treated of severally by the Philosopher the Physician the Oratour and the Divine SECT IV. The Natural Pollution of the Affections is manifested 1. In the Dominion and Tyranny they have over the Understanding and Will ¶ 2. Secondly In regard of the first motions and risings of them ¶ 3. Thirdly In respect of their Progress and Degrees ¶ 4. Fourthly In respect of the Continuance or Duration of them SECT V. They are wholly displaced from their right Object SECT VI. Their sinfulness is discovered in respect of the End and Use for which God ingraffed them in our Natures SECT VII And in their Motion and Tendency thereunto SECT VIII In respect of the Contrariety and Opposition of them one to another SECT IX The Pollution of the Affections in respect of the Conflict between the natural Conscience and them SECT X. In respect of the great Distractions they fill us with in holy Duties SECT XI Their Deformity and Contrariety to the Rule and Exemplary Patern SECT XII Their Dulness and senslesness though the Understanding declare the good to be imbraced SECT XIII The Affections being drawn out in holy Duties from corrupt Motiveâ— shews the Pollution of them SECT XIV That they are more zealously carried out to any false way than to the Truths of God SECT XV. They are for the most part in-lets to all sinne in the Soul SECT XVI The Privacy of them SECT XVII Their hurtfull Effects upon a mans Body SECT XVIII The sad Effects they have upon others SECT XIX And how readily they receive the Devils Temptations CHAP. VI. The Sinfulness of the Imaginative Power of the Soul Gen. 6. 5. And God saw that every Imagination of the thoughts of mans heart was only evil and that continually SECT 1. The Text explained and vindicated against D. J. Taylor Grotius the Papists and Socinians SECT II. Of the Nature of the Imagination in a man SECT III. 1. The Natural Sinfulnesse of the Imagination appears in its making Idols Supports and vain Conceits whereby it pleaseth it self SECT IV. 2. In respect of its Defect from that end and use which God did intend in the Creation of man with such a power SECT V. 3. Restlesnesse SECT VI. 4. Universality Multitude and Disorder of the Imaginations SECT VII 5. Their Roving and Wandring up and down without any fixed way SECT VIII 6. Their Impertinency and Unreasonableness SECT IX 7. The Imagination eclypseth and for the most part keeps out the Understanding SECT IX In the Imaginations for the most part are conceived all actual impieties SECT X. That many times Sinne is acted by the Imagination with Delight and Content without any relation at all to the external actings of Sinne. SECT XI It s Propensity to all evil both towards God and man SECT XII It continually invents new sins or occasions of sins SECT XIII The Sinfulness of the Imagination manifesteth it self in reference to the Word of God and the ministerial preaching thereof SECT XIV It is more affected with Appearances then Realities SECT XV. It s Sinfulness in respect of fear and the workings of Conscience SECT XVI Of the Actings of the Imagination in Dreams SECT XVII The Imagination is not in that orderly Subordination to the rational part of man as it was in the Primitive Condition SECT XVIII It is according to Austin's Judgement the great instrument of conveying Original Sinne to the Child SECT XIX How prone it is to receive the Devils Impressions and Suggestions SECT XX. Some Corollaries from the Premisses CHAP. VII Of the last Subject of Inhesion or seat of Original Sinne viz. the Body of a man 1 Thess 5. 23. And the very God of peace sanctifie you wholly and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and Body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ SECT II. The Text explained SECT III. Scripture-proofs of the sinfull Pollution of the Body SECT IV. The sinfulness of the Body discovered in particulars ¶ 1. It is not now instrumental and serviceable to the Soul in holy Approaches to God but on the contrary a clog and burden ¶ 2. It doth positively affect and defile the Soul ¶ 3. A man acts more according to the Body and the Inclinations thereof then the mind with the Dictates thereof ¶ 4. The Body by Original Sinne is made a Tempter and a Seducer ¶ 5. It doth objectively occasion much sinne to the Soul ¶ 6. It s indisposition to any service of God ¶ 7. How easily the Body is moved and stirred by the passions and affections thereof ¶ 8. The Body when sanctified is become no lesse glorious then the Temple of the holy Ghost CHAP. VIII Of the Subject of Predication Shewing that every one of mankind Christ only excepted is involved in this sinne and misery Luk. 1. 35 Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God SECT I. The Text explained SECT II. The Aggravations of Original Sinne. ¶ 1. The Aggravation of Adam's Actual Transgression ¶ 2. The Aggravation of Original Sinne inherent ¶ 3. An Objection Answered SECT III. That every one by Nature hath his peculiar Original Sinne. SECT IV. That Original Sinne in every one doth vent it self betimes SECT V. How soon a Child may commit Actual Sinne. SECT VI. Whether Original Sinne be alike in all CHAP. X. A Justification of Gods shutting up all under Sinne for the Sinne of Adam in the sense of the Reformed Churches against the Exceptions of D. J. Taylor and others Gal. 3. 24. But the Scripture hath concluded all under sinne that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe SECT I. The Text explained SECT II. Prâ—positions to direct us in this great Point of Gods Proceedings as to the matter of Original Sinne. SECT III. Objections Answered The Contents of the
Fourth Part. TReating of the Effects of Original Sinne. CHAP. I. Of that Propensity that is in every one by Nature to sinne Job 15. 16. How much more abominable and filthy is man which drinketh iniquity like water SECT I. The Text explained and vindicated from Socinian Exceptions SECT II. How much is implied in this Metaphor Man drinketh iniquity like water SECT III. Some Demonstrations to prove that there is such an impetuous Inclination in man to sinne SECT IV. The true Causes of this Proneness and the false ones assigned by the Adversaries examined CHAP. II. The second immediate Effect of Original Sinne is the Causality which it hath in respect of all other sins Jam. 1. 14. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed SECT I. The Text explained setting forth the generation of Sinne. SECT II. That Original Sinne is the Cause of all Actual Evil cleared by several Propositions which may serve for Antidotes against many Errours ¶ 2. Of the Motions of the heart to sinne not consented unto as an immediate Effect of Original Sinne. ¶ 3. How many wayes the Soul may become guilty of sinne in respect of the Thoughts and motions of the heart CHAP. III. Of the Combate between the Flesh and the Spirit as the Effect of Original Sinne so that the Godliest man cannot do any holy Duty perfectly in this life Gal. 5. 17. For the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and these are contrary one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would SECT I. The Text explained and vindicated from corrupt Interpretations SECT II. Several Propositions clearing the truth about the Combate between the Flesh and Spirit in a Godly man SECT III. A Consideration of that part of the seventh Chapter to the Romans which treats of the Conflict within a man Shewing against Amyraldus and others that it must be a regenerate person only of whom those things are spoken ¶ 4. The several wayes whereby Original Sinne doth hinder the Godly in their Religious Progress whereby they are sinfull and imperfect ¶ 5. Objections against the Reliques of Sin in a regenerate man answered ¶ 8. The several Conflicts that may be in a man ¶ 10. How the Combate in a Godly man between the Flesh and Spirit may be discerned from other Conflicts ¶ 10. Of the Regenerates freedome from the Dominion of sinne and whether it be by the Suppression of it or by the Abolishing part of it CHAP. IV. Of Death coming upon all men as another Effect of Original Sinne. 1 Cor. 15. 22. For as in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive SECT II. Death an Effect of Original Sinne explained in divers Propositions ¶ 2. How many wayes a thing may be said to be Immortal and in which of them man is so ¶ 4. Distinctions about Mortality and that in several respects Adam may be said to be created Mortal and Immortal ¶ 7. The several Grounds assigned by Schoolmen of Adam's Immortality rejected and some Causes held forth by the Orthodox SECT III. Arguments to prove That through Adam's sinne we are made sinners and so Mortal SECT IV. Arguments brought to prove That Adam was made Mortal answered SECT V. Whether Adam's sinne was onely an occasion of Gods punishing all mankind resolved against D. J. Taylor SECT VI. Whether Death may be attributed to mans constitution considered in his meer Naturals against D. J. Taylor and the Socinians CHAP. V. Eternal Damnation another Effect of Original Sinne. Ephes 2. 3. And were by nature the children of wrath as well as others SECT I. What is meant by Wrath in this Text. SECT II. What is meant by Nature SECT III. That by nature through the original sinne we are born in all are heirs of Gods wrath all are obnoxious to eternal damnation SECT IV. What is comprehended in this Expression Children of wrath SECT V. Some Propositions in order to the proving That the wrath of God is due to all mankind because of Original Sinne. SECT VI. Arguments to prove it SECT VII Some Conclusions deduceable from the Doctrine of the damnableness of Original Sinne. SECT VIII A Consideration of their Opinion that hold an Universal Removal of the Guilt of Original Sinne from all mankind by Christs Death Answering their Arguments among which that from the Antithesis or Opposition which the Apostle maketh Rom. 5. between the first Adam and the second Adam SECT IX Of the state of Infants that die in their Infancy before they are capable of any Actual Transgressions and that die before Baptisme A TREATISE OF Original Sinne. PART I. CHAP. I. The first Text to prove Original Sinne improved and vindicated SECT I. EPHES. 2. 3. And were by nature the children of wrath as well as others THE true Doctrine of Original Corruption is of so great concernment that Austin thought De Peccato Orig. contra Pelag. Celest 2. cap. 24. the Summe of Religion to consist in knowing of this as the effect of the first Adam and also of Christ the second Adam with all his glorious benefits Though therefore Coelestius of old thought it to be but Recquaestionis not fides Ibidem cap. 4. And others of late have wholly rejected it as Austin's figment yet certainly the true way of Humiliation for sinne or Justification by Christ cannot be firmly established unless the true Doctrine of this be laid as a Foundation-stone in the building Now because original sinne is used ambiguously by Divines sometimes for Adam's first sinne imputed unto us for Omnes homines fuerunt ille unus homo he was the common Person representing all mankind as is in time to be shewed And this for distinction sake is called Originale originans or Originale imputatum And sometimes it 's taken passively for the effect of that first sinne of Adam viz. The total and universal pollution of all mankind inherently through sinne which is called Originale originatum or inherens I shall treat of it in this later acception as being of great practical improvement many wayes SECT II. ANd because in Theological Debates two Questions are necessary The An sit and the Quid sit Whether there be such a thing and What it is and in both these the truth of God meeteth with many adversaries I shall first insist on the Quod sit That there is such a natural and cursed pollution upon every one that is born in an ordinary way The first Text I shall fasten this Truth upon is this I have mentioned which deservedly both by Ancient and Modern Writers is thought to have a pregnant and evident demonstration That there is such a natural contagion upon all To understand this the better take notice of the Coherence briefly The Apostles scope is to incite the Ephesians to Thankfulness by the consideration of that great love and infinit mercy vouchsafed to them by God and because the Sunne is most
is the cause that most people are still such sots and sensless men about regeneration Yea learned and knowing men are as blind and bruitish in this as the simple and poor people are doth not all arise from this That they feel not neither do perceive that original sin like a leprosie hath run over the whole man both soul and body especially there would not be these three mistakes about the work of grace which are very common As 1. A Philosophical Reformation by the Dictates and Principles of Moralists such as Plutarch and Seneca give would not be taken for Regeneration For although their sayings and directions are admired and there may be some good use of them yet they do not go to the root of the matter they are not an antidote against original sinne that defileth the nature and therefore cannot promote Regeneration which doth properly cure that in some degree Aristotles way to make a man a virtuous man viz. by frequent and constant actions at lest to acquire an habit is absurd and repugnant to Scripture for by that the tree must be made good and a man must be born again ere he can do any thing holily Hence God promiseth to give a new heart to take away the heart of stone and then to cause us to walk in all holiness Ezek. 11. 19. These divine principles must be infused before there can be holy actions So 2. Civility and an ingenuous temperate disposition will be but a glistering dunghill a painted sepulchre when original sinne is known He will presently see for all his civil and inoffensive life his heart is full of all noisomness Therefore civil men of all men do most need this light to shine into their brests we are ready to think of our selves because so harmless and innocent as was said of Bonaventure In hoc homine non peccavit Adam such were born without sinne and brought better natures into the world than others but if you search into the Scriptures it will appear that all are born children of wrath and are equally destitute of that image of God and then as when the pillars of an house are removed the house it self must fall into its own rubbidge Thus when that primitive righteousness was lost man is prone to runne into all evil and every man would be like a Judas or a Cain even the most civil man that is did not God restrain original sin 3. Gifts and abilities which many have in religious exercises will presently be seen not to be Regeneration Though we should preach with the tongue of Angels though admirable in prayer and other holy duties yet these and original sin in the power of it may stand together and so many looking to the flowers but not the dead corpse they are upon conclude themselves to be alive when indeed they are dead SECT IV. I Shall mention some few more spiritual Advantages that come by the full and undoubted perswasion of this original corruption for so of old we are advised Firmissimè texe nullatenus dubita c. Believe most firmly and doubt not in the least manner but that by Adam's sinne all his posterity becomes sinfull and obnoxious to Gods wrath And First upon the Knowledg of originall sinne we evidently see our impossibility to keep the Law of God That when the Law requireth a love of God with all our heart mind and strength and also doth prohibit all kind of lust and sinfull concupiscence even in the very first motions and stirrings of it The Law I say requiring such universal perfection and we being wholly dead in sinne upon the comparing of the Law with our condition we cannot but conclude That we fail in all things That the Law is spiritual but we are carnal And if he be cursed that doth not continue in all things the Law requireth how accursed must he be that is not able to perform any one thing All those opinions that diminish original sinne do also plead for a possibility of keeping Gods Commandments Now this self-flattery is imbred in all Do not most of our common people think they keep the Commandments of God Do they believe that the curses of the Law do belong to them every hour Oh if such convictions were upon them how greatly would it humble them and make them debased before God but they trust in this they readily and confidently say with that young man All these have I kept from my youth up Mat. 9 20. Oh then inform thy self more about this natural defilement and loathsomness that is upon thee and then thou wilt find the Law to accuse and condemn thee in all things Secondly The right knowledge of this will make even the godly and regenerate though in some measure delivered from the power and dominion of it yet to see that because of its stirrings and actings in them there is imperfection in every thing they do And truly this is one of the most profitable effects of true knowledge herein for hereby a godly man is made to go out of all his graces and his duties hereby he is afraid of the iniquity of his holy things and cals his very righteousness a menstruous ragge This is clear in Paul Rom. 7. How sadly doth he complain of the vigorous actings of this original sinne in him For the present I take it as granted that that part of the Chapter must be understood of a regenerate person though vehemently denied by some as is in time to be shewed That Law of sinne was alwayes moving when he set himself to any thing that was holy he desired to obey the Law perfectly to love God compleatly but this Law of sinne would not let him So that because of this natural defilement evil is mixed with all the good we do insomuch that there would be a woe and a curse to all our gracious acts if strictly examined Thus it is with a godly man in this life as those Hetruscan-robbers reported of by Aristotle and mentioned by Austin who would take some live men and bind them to the dead men which was a miserable way of perishing Even thus it is here original corruption is constantly adhering and inseparably to him who is alive in holiness and by this means there is unbelief in his faith coldness in his zeal dulness in his fervency Insomuch that the Apostle crieth out of himself Oh wretched man that I am And that because of this very thing the Papists though they hold original sinne yet maintaining That after Baptism it 's quite taken away and that though there be some languor and difficulty in a man in respect of what is good yet if we do not consent to these motions of lusts within us they are not truly and properly sins do consequentially conclude that there is not necessarily dross and sinne in every holy duty we do but the evidence of Rom. 7. is too great to be contradicted So that preaching of original sinne is not only necessary
the natural Law which was at first in the Creation of man but that primordial and original Law is the same for substance with the moral though differing in some respects To the Argument therefore we say First That as this original sinne is voluntary voluntate causae which was Adam's will so it is also against a Law which was enjoyned Adam For although Adam had not a Law upon him in respect of the beginning or original of the righteousness he had he being created in that and so was not capable of any Law yet in respect of the preservation and continuation of this for himself and his posterity so he had a Law imposed on him and therefore violating of that Law we in him also did violate it You see then this original sin is a transgression of that Law which Adam was under viz. the continuation of the righteousness he was created in both for himself and his posterity Secondly Even by the moral Law or the Decalogue this original corruption is forbidden The Apostle Rom. 7. sheweth That he had not known lust to be a sinne had not the Law said Theu shalt not lust So that as the Law forbiddeth actual lusting thus it doth also the principle and root of it for the Law is spiritual and in its obligation reacheth to the fountain and root of all sin it doth not only prohibit the sinfull motions of thy soul but the cause of all these Even as when it commands any holy duty to love God for instance it requireth that inward sanctification of the whole man whereby he is inabled to love God upon right and induring grounds otherwise if this were not so the habits of sinne would not be against Gods Law nor the habits of Grace required by it as therefore it was with Adam his actual transgression was directly and immediately forbidden by the Law of God but that habital depravation of the whole man which came thereupon was forbidden remotely and by consequence Thus it is with that native contagion we are born in and this should teach us in every sin we commit to think the Law doth not forbid and condemn this actual sin only but the very inward principle of it say to thy self Alas I should not only be without such vain thoughts such vain affections but without an inclination thereunto Therefore mark the Apostle reasoning Ephes 4. 22 24 25. When he had exhorted them to put off the old man that is original sinne and to put on the new man which is the Image of God immediately opposing that See what he inferreth thereupon Wherefore put away lying they must leave that actual sinne because they have in measure subdued original sinne Thus it holds in all other sins put away pride earthliness prophaneness because the old man is first put away in some degrees But oh how little do men attend to this They think of their actual sins they say This I have done is against Gods Law but go no deeper they do not further consider but God forbids and layeth his axe to the root as well as the branches the fruit Thirdly A sinne doth not therefore cease to be a sin because the Law doth not now forbid it it was enough if it were once forbidden and contrary to Gods Law otherwise we might say That all sins which are past are no sins for the Law doth not require that what hath been done should be undone again or not to be done for that is impossible ex natura rei If therefore ever original sinne hath been under a Law prohibitive of it that is enough to make it a sin though now it cannot be helped Hence Almain the Schoolman hath a distinction of Debitum praecepti and Debitum statuti which other Schoolmen also mention now they apply it thus To be born without sin is not say they Debitum praecepti it doth not become due by any precept or command but it is Debitum statuti that is God had first appointed such an order that whosoever should come of Adam should be born in that righteousness which Adam was created in and was to preserve for himself and his posterity so that though there be no direct Praeceptum divinum yet they say there is Ordinatio divina that we should have been born without sinne Although we need not runne to this because it is now against the moral Law of God as you heard proved SECT VI. ANother Objection is from the Justice Equity and Righteousness of God as also his Mercy and Goodness How can it be thought consonant to any of these attributes that we should be involved in guilt and sinne because of anothers especially they urge that Ezek. 18. 18 19. where God saith The child shall not bear the sins of his father and the Lord doth it to stop their prophane caâ—il against his wayes as if they were not equal because the fathers did eat sour grapes and the childrens teeth were set on edge The Remonstrants are so confident that in their Apology cap. 7. they say Neither Scripture nor Gods Truth nor his Justice nor his Mercy and Equity nor the Nature of sinne will permit this To answer this First It is not my purpose at this time to enter into that great Debate Whether the sins of parents are punished in their children And it so How it stands with the Justice of God It is plain That in the second Commandment it is said That God being a jealous God because of Idolatry he will visit the sins of such persons to the third and fourth generation The same likewise is attributed unto God Exod. 34. 7. when his glorious Properties are described experience also in the destruction of Sedom and Gomorrah as also in the drowning of the world doth abundantly testifie this For no doubt there was in those places as God said of Ninevch many little ones that did not know the right hand from the left and so could not have any consent to the actual iniquities of their Parents To reconcile therefore that place of Ezek. 18. where God saith The child shall not bear the iniquity of his Father with those former places hath exercised the thoughts of the most learned men variously endeavouring to unty that knot Though I find some of late understanding that of Ezekiel only for that particular occasion as it did concern the Jews in their particular judgment of Captivity who complained that for their fathers iniquities they were transported into a strange Land So that they think it not to be extended universally but limited to that people only and at that time and that alone to that Land of Israel because they were driven from their own Countrey But whether this Interpretation will abide firm or no it is certain that the Text doth not militate against our cause in hand For 1. As hath been shewed There is not the same reason of parents since Adam 's fall as of Adam for he was a common person and
some kind of confused knowledge about this as in time may be shewed for they had a custom with them of expiating and cleansing of their Infants as being unclean Fifthly This expression of uncleanness doth denote our unfitness and unworthiness to come into Gods presence or to perform any holy duty no more than a person full of his vomit or loathsomness or a man with the noisom plague fores is fit to come into the presence of a great King As the legal unclean person was not to come into the Temple or to touch any holy things And this was typified in Adam when he was cast out of Paradise and flaming swords set to keep him out all this denoted That God had excommunicated Adam and as it were all mankind in him so that now they have no fitness or decency no worth or suitableness to any holy duty And certainly this should deeply humble us yea at this our hearts should tremble and move out of their places to consider that though none need God more than we do none have more need to pray incessantly to him yet such is our pollution that we are not fit to pray or to draw nigh to God yea our duties while performed by us in this our original condition are a provocation to God and they become new sinnes for if no clean thing can be brought out of an unclean then no clean prayer no clean holy duty can come from thee who art unclean It is true though we are thus polluted it is our duty to pray by our original Apostasie we are not freed from Gods commands we are bound to pray and to pray with as holy and heavenly frame of heart as Adam in his integrity but though it be our duty yet we have lost all power and ability Yea and besides this there is an unfitness and unworthiness even as when the frogs crept into Pharaoh's chamber And to this Bernard aâ—luded when he called himself Ranuncula repens in conspectu Dei How dare such a loathsom frog as he creep into the presence of so holy a God Certainly if the Angels though without any such blemish yea not having the least spot do yet not cover their feet but their faces the noblest part as it were because of the glorious and holy Majesty of God how much more must sinfull and unclean man Isa 6. When the Prophet had beheld God in his glory he crieth out though a regenerated man Woe be unto me for I am of pollutea lips This made him afraid to make mention of God How then may every natural corrupt man cry out Wo be to me for I am not only a man of polluted lips but also of a polluted mind and heart Sixthly This title of being naturally unclean maketh us to be in the most immediate 〈◊〉 to God that can be To say Man that is born of woman had been miserable frail subject to dangers and outward evils would not have denoted any immediate opposition to God but calling him unclean and unholy This sheweth that we are by nature in direct contrariety to what he is for he is by nature pure and holy yea it is that glorious Attribute which makes all others glorious because his Wisdom is holy Wisdom because his Power is holy Power therefore it 's admirable Wisdom and Power Hence those Angels Isa 6. of all the Attributes of God single out that to celebrate when they cry out Holy holy holy Now man is born unclean and unholy being herein directly contrary to God So that though man be indowed with many natural perfections yet this original uncleanness defileth them all he hath reason but it 's unclean reason he hath an understanding but it is an unclean understanding he hath a will but it 's an impure and unclean will So that of all the several Arguments which man hath to humble him he may chuse out this as the chiefest of all crying out unclean unclean unclean why is it that upon the discovery of this contrariety to God we do not more abhor our selves Seventhly This attribute of uncleanness proclaimeth the absolute necessity of Gods grace and of Christs blood for these only can make us clean Did a man truly consider how it is with him in regard of his birth-estate he would tremble to stay an hour in it he would neither eat drink or sleep till he be delivered out of it for being wholly unclean he can never while so enter into the kingdom of Heaven So that as no legal uncleanness was removed but with some sprinkling and washing much less can any moral uncleanness be washed away without Christs bloud therefore that is said to cleanse us from all our sinnes 1 Joh. 1. 7. and without shedding of blood there is no remission of sinne Heb. 9. 22. Oh then this natural uncleanness should teach us highly to esteem Christs blood for we could never weep water enough though our heads were fountains to wash us nothing can get out this spot but Christs blood and this every Infant though but a day old needeth Christs bloud then must purifie us else we perish and with this also there is requisite grace both justifying and sanctifying for these also tend to the cleansing of us Justification that is partly a cleansing and awashing away of our iniquities as God promiseth Zech. 13. 1. He would set open a fountain for sinne and uncleanness a fountain so that there is plenty and fulness of grace to wash away this filthiness Thus also Ezek. 36. 25. I will sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness Besides this there is also grace sanctifying necessary and this is a formal internal cleansing of us so that because of this work of grace we are made clean yet not so but that we need some washing daily as Joh. 13. 10. He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet for this uncleanness will not in this life be quite taken away but is like that of the Leprosie which stuck so to the wals of the house that though it were scraped off yet it would rise again and so could not be removed till the very house was demolished Thus while death lay this house of clay in the grave there will alwayes be some uncleanness adhering to thee Vse Of Instruction Can none bring a clean thing out of an unclean Then this sheweth That those who from the youth up have lived civil ingenuous and chaste lives are not to rest in this for thy nature is foul and loathsom as well as of all others though thy life may be cleaner The Snake hath a glistering skinne though she hath a poisoned body Thus thou hast a defiled soul an heart full of filthiness though thy outward conversation be unblameable Certainly if an Infant but a day old be thus unclean and needeth the bloud of Christ to cleanse it Doest thou flatter thy self with ingenuity and civility Thou hast not lesse sinnefulnesse and guilt in
of sinne is expresly said to be in the members And whereas the Apostle in that verse saith He seeth a Law in his members bringing him into captivity to the Law of sinne that doth not argue a distinction between these but according to the use of the Scripture the Antecedent is repeated for the Relative the sense being That the Law of his members did bring Paul into captivity to it notwithstanding the Law of the mind with in him as Gen. 9. 16. I will remember saith God himself the everlasting Covenant between God that is my self and every living creature We see then in these words that the Apostle giveth another name to that original sinne which dwelleth in him he calleth it very emphatically The Law of sinne in him Original corruption is even in Paul though converted how much more in all unregenerate persons by way of a Law From whence observe That the Scripture cals original sin the Law of sin Within us SECT II. TO understand this take notice of these things First The Apostle in his Epistles doth delight to use the word Law and that when speaking of contrary things The Law of God the Law of Works This he mentioneth properly but then he cals it The Law of faith because the Hebrew word for Law signifieth no more than Doctrine for Torath either comes they say from a word that signifieth to appoint or teach or from a word that signifieth to rain because saith Chemnitius as the raine is gathered together in the clouds not to be kept there but to be emptied on the earth that so it may be made fruitfull Thus the Law of God was appointed by God not meerly to be written in the Bible but also to be implanted in our hearts The word then in the Hebrew signifying Doctrine in the general no wonder if the Gospel be called The Law of Faith So Regeneration Rom. 8. is called The Law of the Spirit of life as in other places it is The Law of God written in our hearts but the Apostle doth not only apply it to these things but especially in this Chapter he cals it The Law of sinne not sin only but the Law of sinne and the Law in our members why the Apostle doth so you shall hear anon Only In the second place you must consider when the Apostle cals it The Law of sinne it is in an improper and abusive or allusive sense for a Law properly is only of that which is good the matter of a Law must be honest and just because a Law is pars juris and Jus is à justo Therefore Aquinas saith That unjust Laws are rather violentia than leges Yea Tully saith Such Decrees are neither Leges nor ne appellandae quidem yet the Scripture speaks of some who make iniquity a Law Psal 99. 20. or who frame mischief for a Law Tacitus complaineth of the multitude of Laws in his time and saith The Commonwealth groaned ut flagitiis ita legibus So that although the properties of a Law are to be good and profitable yet by allusion all unjust and hurtfull Decrees are called Laws and thus the Apostle cals it the Law of sinne alluding to those properties or effects which a Law hath What the Law of God doth in a regenerate man the contrary doth the Law of sinne in a natural man SECT III. Original Sinne compared to a Law in five respects ORiginal sinne therefore may be compared to a Law in these respects First A Law doth teach and direct Lex est lux It informeth and teacheth what is to be done Thus the Schoolmen they make Direction the first thing necessary to a Law The work of grace in a godly man is called by the Apostle The Law of the mind in this Chapter Because grace within a man doth teach and direct him what to do Hence 1 John 2. 27. the godly man is said to have an anointing within him The Law of God is written in his inward parts and so from within as well as by the Word without they are taught what to do Thus on the contrary the Law of sinne in a natural man doth teach and prompt him to all kind of evil This Law of sinne doth not indeed teach what we ought to do but it doth wonderfully suggest all kind of wickedness to us and from this cause it is that you see children no sooner able to act but they can with all readiness runne into evil sinnes that they have not seen committed before their eyes they can with much dexterity accomplish What a deal of instruction and admonition is requisite to nurture your young ones in the fear of the Lord And all is little enough And why is this The Law of God is not in their hearts they have not that in them which would direct and teach holiness But on the other side children need not to be taught wickedness you need not instruct them how to sinne they have much artifice and cunning in an evil way And why so The Law of sinne is in them this is that they are bred with So that as the young ones of Foxes and Serpents though they have no teacher yet from the Law of nature within them they grow subtil and crafty in their mischievous wayes Thus the Law of sinne doth in every man he is ingenious and wise to do evil As the ground ere it will bring forth corn doth need much labour and tillage but of it self bringeth forth bryars and thorns Thus all by nature are so foolish and blind that without heavenly education and institution you cannot bring them to that which is holy but of their own selves men have subtilty and abilities to frame mischievous things And why is all this They have a Law of sinne within them which directs suggests and informeth to do much evil So that we are not to put all upon the Devil to say He put it into my minde he suggested such thoughts to me No the Law of sinne within thee can sufficiently prompt thee to all evil Secondly A Law doth not onely teach but it doth instigate and incline it presseth and provoketh to the things commanded by it Thus the Law of the mind in a godly man doth greatly instigate and provoke him to what is good It is like a goad in his side it is like fire in his bowels he must do that which is good else he cannot have any rest within him You read when David refrained for a while from speaking good at last he could hold no longer but the fire did break out So Paul 2 Cor. 5. The love of Christ constraineth us Thus the true believer he hath a principle of grace within him which is like a Law upon him he cannot do otherwise he must obey it Thus on the contrary Original sinne in a natural man is like a Law within him it provoketh him it enflameth him to all evil Whensoever any holy duty is pressed upon him this Law of sinne stirreth him
to send them to hell they think but what can be spoken more terribly against man in regard of original sinne then God himself here speaks where every word is like so much thunder and lightning as is to be shewed Only for the present purpose observe that he saith Every imagination of the thought of a mans heart is evil Imagination or framing and fashioning the heart of a man is compared to a shop of wickedness and every thing framed or fashioned there is only evil Sinne then is present in a powerfull manner when there cannot so much as rise a motion in thee a stirring of thy soul though never so involuntary and indeliberate but it is only evil Oh it was not thus in the state of integrity then every imagination every motion was good and only good but now our gold is become dross and wine water Let a natural man observe his heart and he shall see what riseth first in his soul is all filth like the muddy fountain it comes from Yea even in a godly man How many thoughts and motions rise up in his heart that he abhorreth and trembleth at It is true sometimes the devil injecteth vile and blasphemous thoughts so that his heart is not at all active in them and therefore are not sinnes but compared to the Cup in Benjamin's sack they knew not how it came there and it is a great dexterity in casuistical Divinity so to direct a Christin that he may know when such motions arise from the devil alone so that they are my afflictions but not sinnes or when they come from my heart and so are truly imputable to me of which in its due time it may be but for the present we may sigh and groan under this consideration That evil is so present with us that nothing riseth up in the heart sooner than sinne Secondly In that evil is said to be present to Paul there is denoted the universal and diffusca presene of it Paul doth not say it 's present in one part in one faculty but to me that is in every part susceptible of sinne Therefore it is called The Law in his members because it putteth forth its efficacy every where sinne is present in the mind by atheism unbelief c. in the will by obstinacy and obdurateness in the affections by inordinacy and confusion yea sinne is present in the eye in the tongue So that the Apostle meaneth this original sinne is of such an universal extent that it is present in every part in him For you must not think as some Papists do That original sinne is only in the inferiour sensitive part of a man but it is principally and chiefly in the intellectual and most noble part the mind and the understanding and indeed because it 's so predominant therefore is conversion so difficult for the Ministry bringing arguments and convictions out of Gods word The sinne that is present in the understanding putteth a man upon atheistical cavils and carnal disputes whereby he shuts himself up voluntarily in his darkness rather than he will receive light Thirdly In that evil is said to be present with us here is denoted the continual assaulting and vigorous acting of it at all times Though original sinne be not an actual sinne yet it is an active sinne Hence Paul attributeth such actions to it as if it were some mighty imperious and conquering tyrant he saith it doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It warreth against him it leadeth him into captivity Do not then think this sinne hath a meer bare sluggish presence is if it lay asleep in thee No it is daily assaulting thee it 's continually pulling thee down As the heart and pulse are in continual motion thus is original sin within thee Therefore our imaginations are not only said to be only evil Gen. 6. 5. but also continually Thy soul never acteth but it acteth sinfully and corruptly It is true while men are in their natural estate They are dead in sinne and so they find not feel not these stirrings neither do they groan under them but there are innumerable Myriads of sinfull motions in thee to sinne though thou doest not apprehend them As a man shut up in a dark dungeon full of Toads and noisom vermin he seeth nothing till light come into the place and then he trembleth being afraid to stay there any longer such a loathsom dungeon is every mans heart naturally Oh the atheism vanity wickedness that is bound up therein but thou dost not know or believe any such thing because dead in sin Fourthly There is implied the facility and easiness in sinning The way to sinne is no narrow or strait way There needeth not much striving to enter therein for it 's ready at hand May not all find if they will search this readiness of sin at all time Why is thy heart so quickly moved and drawn out to any earthly or sinfull pleasure but it 's a long while ere thou canst make any fire or kindle a flame in thy soul to that which is good Thy soul is a dry Tree to the former but a green Tree to the later as the Scripture speaks concerning the righteousness of faith It 's night thee Thou needest not say Who shall go into the deep for it Rom. 10 c. Thus it is true of sin in thee thou needest no instruction no masters thou needest not fetch devils from hell to commit sinne for that is alwayes present with thee Hence Eliphaz compareth it Job 15. to drinking of water when a man is scorched with thirst If you see there are many who by a natural conscience are so convinced that they are difficulty brought to commit some sinnes especially gross ones It is no contradiction for a man to be all over polluted and prone to sinne notwithstanding such dictates of conscience implanted in all men This is plain That sin ss so present that without any difficulty or pain we are carried out to sinne so that the kingdom of hell doth not like the kingdom of Heaven need any violence to take it Fifthly When evil is said to be present there is denoted the subtile and daily insinuation of it into all that we do It 's in a man like leaven that sends forth its fourness into all the meal it leaveth not the least part unleavened This sinne is like a Dalilah in Samson's heart it is alwayes enticing and tempting of thee and therefore it 's called by the name of lust or concupiscence and Jam. 1. 17. there it 's said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to intice by setting baits for us Hence in Jer. 17. the wickedness of the heart is expressed by this That it is deceitfull above all things who can think that the wise holy God made us with such hearts at first No but upon the first transgression came this desolation upon us Because then evil is thus present with us hence every holy duty is contaminated hence there
noble creature worse than other creatures if he had not created him with such perfect and suitable qualifications as would inable him to obtain true blessedness for every creature else had an implanted ability in it to accomplish his end and why then should God do lesse bountifully with man one of the chiefest instances of his glorious workmanship But of this I must necessarily speak more because of the Socinian who cals this Doctrine of original righteousness Faetida fabula an old stinking fable SECT V. 5. ORiginal sinne is a privation not only of that righteousness which was a natural perfection due to him upon supposition of his Creation for the enjoyment of God but also of whatsoever supernatural and gracious favour Adam had We do not say That Adam had nothing supernatural in him for assisting and co-operating 〈◊〉 supernatural as also that prophetical light he had concerning 〈…〉 God did superadde many glorious ornaments which were 〈…〉 and which he did not absolutely need as means to make him 〈…〉 and such likewise were those consequents of holinesse mentioned before 〈◊〉 to be the Sonne of God and to be the Temple of the holy Ghost Now all these gratuita are lost as well as the naturalia we are no more the children of God or the Temple of God but our souls are possest with Satan and he ruleth in our hearts as in his proper possession Some Divines call original righteousnesse the absolute Image of God and our sonship and filial relation to God for Adam is called the Sonne of God Luke 3. ult the relative Image now whether absolute or relative Image all is lost and therefore that assisting grace which was then ready at hand for Adam to enjoy that thereby he might bâ—â—nabled to do any good action we are naturally without Oh then the 〈◊〉 and undone estate we are in being without inberent grace dwelling in us and assisting grace from God without us without eyes and the light of the Sun also Who can think that God at first made us such sinfull mortal and wretched creatures It would be much against the wisdom and goodness of God he would then have done worse with man than with any flie or worm SECT VI. What are the most excellent and choice parts of that Original Righteousness that we are deprived of BUt because the greatest part of the privative way of original corruption is in losing that Image of God and concreated holinesse and we have onely spokan in the general of that that we may be the more affected with it and the losse thereof may pierce to our very hearts Let us consider what are the most excellent and choice parts of this original righteousnesse that we are deprived of that so we may not only see our losse in the bulk but be able to account of every particular in this and that we have lost And the first particular to be insisted on is that great dignity God put on man making him with a Free will to do what is holy Free-will is a great perfection though the mutability in it as in Adam was a negative Imperfection this was admirable in Adam that he had power if he willed to doe any holy action whatsoever There was not in him any clog any impediment to stop the exercise of this Free will but as he had dominion over all creatures so also over hiâ— whole soul and indeed if God had not created him with this dominion over his actions his obedience had not been so eminent nor his disobedience so culpable But this flower is withered this Crown is fallen to the ground Man hath now no free will no power to do any thing that is holy He hath power to eat and drink he hath power to do civil moral actions he hath power to do actions externally religious to come to the Congregation to hear but for those things that are internally holy to love God to believe on him to repent of sin This the Scripture doth in many places deny to him making him to be dead in sinne and untill born again by the Spirit unable to do any holy duty This Raymundus Theol. Natur. de lapsu hominis doth well urge That the soul as to spiritual actions and in reference to God is wholly dead so that as a dead man is not able to produce any vital actions so neither can any natural man spiritual actions and because man being dead is not sensible of this losse therefore doth the same man compare him to a mad man that knoweth not how it is with him yea he much pursueth that similitude of wine degenerated into vinegar saying That as vinegar retaineth nothing of the sweetnesse or goodnesse it had when it was wine Thus neither doth man retain any thing of that light in his mind or love in his heart which once he had Man saith he is not become of good wine bad which though bad retaineth some taste and hath a little relish of the nature of wine but he is as when Wine is degenerated into vinegar which hath all clean contrary to what is had when once wine This comparison he the rather urgeth Because saith he man doth not or cannot discern in himself the difference between his created condition and his fallen therefore he must see how it is with him in similitude by other things We may adde to this similitude another of the body of man while living and an instrument of the soul with it self when dead and separated from it that body then though formerly never so beautifull and comely never so lively and active now is loathsome and hath the clean contrary qualities Such a thing is man now fallen if compared with his Creation SECT VII A Second instance of a particular in this Image of God which we have lost is Faith and dependance upon God as a Father As God made Adam his son in holinesse so Adam had a filial dependance and belief on him resting alone in Gods protection and preservation and thereby was not subject to any fears grief or troublesom dejections of mind about his soul or body This was an excellent pearl in that Crown of glory which God set on mans head but how totally is this lost Every man by this original sinne may justly go up and down trembling like a Cain fearing that every thing should not only kill him but damn him Yea whence is it that the Sea is not fuller of monsters than thy heart is of unbelieving doubting and diffident thoughts about God Why art thou so fearfull suspicious and despairing about God naturally Is not this because God and thy soul are separated Doth not thy conscience secretly suggest to thee that God is offended with thee Is not this a plain discovery of thy losse of God and his Image that thou hast naturally fears and doubts within thy self Thou thinkest of God and art troubled as Adam when he heard Gods voice ran and hid himself All the natural tremblings and
Pharisee to boast saying He was not a prophane grosse sinner like a Publican he did not wallow in bodily sinnes of the flesh for he was dangerously diseased with soul sinnes The flesh there made him abominable in the eyes of God for that which they did so highly exalt it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before God What an heavy and sad deceit will this prove when thou shalâ— find that wherein thou blessest thy self and applaudest thy self in will be thy condemnation as Christ told the Pharisees Moses in whom ye trust he will condemn you Oh that this Truth might be like a sword piercing into the secrets of your heart How wilt thou be overwhelmed when that which thou hopest will save thee that will damn thee There is a carnal Religion there is a fleshly devotion in which men putting their confidence may thereby be condemned as well as by grosse prophanenesse Certainly this confidence in what religious duties we perform as some at the last day will plead Have not we prophesied and wrought miracles in thy Name doth insensibly and incurably damn the greatest part of formal Christians and it is very hard to make them discern or judge themselves carnal in this To trust in the arm of flesh they will acknowledge quickly to be a sinne but to trust and rest in the holy duties they have performed out of this sinne no sonnes of Boanerges can awaken them Fourthly A man is naturally carnal in all his religious performances Because when he dâ—h them it is not out of any love to God to exalt and honour him but out of love to himself thinking thereby to aveiâ— some judgement or other It is true we deny not but it's lawfull to serve God to be humbled for sinne with respect to our own good that we may escape temporal evil but yet we are not to do it principally and chiefly for this we are not to uti Deo and frui Creaturis to enjoy the creatures for themselves as the utmost end and make use of God only for our outward help as John 6. 26. our Saviour told the multitude that followed him That they did seek him only because they did eat of the loaves and were siled This is a fundamental principle of flesh in every man by nature not to love himself subordinately to God but God subordinately to himself which is a sinne of a very high nature and immediately opposing the great majesty of God They worship God upon no other reason then what some Heathens did sacrifice to the Devils Tantùm ne noceant That they might do them no hurt I 〈◊〉 not then out of any love to God or desire to magnifie him but wholly for their own ends and hence it is that they alter and change the worship and wayes of God as they please and as it serveth for any political interest as you see in Jeroboam and other wicked Kings Whence is all this but because they make themselves the Alpha and Omega Et Deus non erit Dens nisi homini placuerit How could men thus break the statutes and ordinances of God but because they make their own advantages the supreme Law as if God were for them and they not for him Hence it is also that the Scripture complaineth so much of men Walking in their own Imaginations And Jeroboam 1 King 12. 33. is branded for this that he set up such a worship and Ministry that he had devised of his own heart This then is a sure demonstration of our fleshly minds that in our worship and duties we regard not divine Institutions and Gods Rule but attend only to what is subservient to our purpose Now the foundation of all this is because we do not look upon God as supreme to whom all our senses should bow but referre him and his glory to our selves The Apostle 2 Cor. 5. 16. speaketh of knowing Christ after the flesh and so there is also a knowing of God after the flesh which is when we doe not things purely and sincerely out of respect to his Name but for our own profit and benefit Take heed then of this fleshly frame in thy approaches to God Fifthly The fleshly mind of a man is seen in his spiritual transactions between God and himself In that he doth wholly conceive and imagine such a God and Christ not as the Scripture represents but as he would have and doth most suit with his carnal disposition This is greatly to be observed for because of this though they hear never so much of God and Christ yet because they think them to be such as they would have a God of their own making a Christ of their own making therefore they never truly repent or turn unto God for concerning God they conceive him as altogether mercifull They never think he is a just and holy God They attend not to the sury and vengeance which the Scripture saith is in him against obstinate and impenitent sinners but apprehend him to be one that loveth them and will save them though they go on in all rebellious wayes against him The Psalmist doth notably speak to this purpose Psal 50. 21. where having spoken of such hypocrites that will come and worship God though they retain their old lusts and live in all impurity he addeth Thou thoughtest I was altogether such an one as thy self They thought God was not provoked with such abominations they thought God would not be angry with them as if he were like themselves And doth not this still continue true in most prophane men Why is it that they do not tremble under the name and thoughts of God Why is it that they roar not out with fear lest God should damn them Is it not because they make a God like themselves They love themselves and acquit themselves they easily think well of themselvs and therefore they think God will do so also and thus they do likewise with Christ They represent him to be a Saviour and a Saviour only They consider not that he died to conquer the Devil to make us a peculiar people zealous of good works They attend not to the purifying and cleansing power of Christs death from the strength and power of lusts within as well as from the guilt and damnation by it which being so they can trust in Christ and put their whole hope in Christ although they live in all disobedience at the same time and therefore whereas we might wonder how prophane men can live as they do Where are their thoughts of God and Christ Why are they not stricken with astonishment when they hear of them Alas you may cease to wonder for the Scripture God the Scripture-Christ in the Scripture-way they do not think of but a God and a Christ which is a meer Idol in their own hearts set up by themselves Sixthly The fleshly mind of a man is seen in running into extreams and so never submitting themselves to Gods word which is alwayes the same So
24. So that this supposeth even the memories of the most godly to be as it were dull and sleepy very heavy and negligent about what they ought to be diligently exercised with But yet the Apostle hath not said all his mind herein for vers 15. he professeth this care of his for the good of their memories shall extend even after his death I will endeavour that after my decease you may have these things alwayes in remembrance Now that would be done by these very Epistles they would be as continual memento's to them See then here the godly zeal and faithfull diligence of a godly Pastor it extends to the future as well as the present he is afraid after his decease all he had preached should be forgotten And doth not experience sadly confirm this After the death of a godly Minister How quickly are all his labours all whose precious truths he had made known forgotten as if they never had such a Preacher amongst them However if these soul-saving truths be forgotten Peter will take care that the sinne should not lie at his door he will be faithfull to do his duty And Chap. 3. 1. take notice how again he taketh up this profession of his care and zeal to help their memories He wrote both these Epistles to stirre up their pure minds by way of remembrance Their pure minds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as are discovered and tried as it were by the Sunne-beams the least more any vain thoughts or sinfull motions are discovered and abandoned yet though they have such pure minds he writeth Epistle upon Epistle to stirre them up by remembrance and as if all this were not enough to quicken up their memory the Apostle Jude writing to the same persons doth almost write the same things verbatim which the Apostle Peter had written in this second Epistle and vers 4. he proclaimeth this to be his end To put them in remembrance though once they knew this It was for their memories sake by way of exhortation not for their understandings by way of instruction Now from all this we may gather That such is the weaknesse and sinfulnesse of the memory and that even in the regenerate that they need daily divine helps to provoke it to its duty And whereas the sinfulness of our memory may be two wayes either actually by a wilfull forgetting of holy things and a carelesse neglect of them or original whereby the memory through Adam's fall as well as the other parts of the soul are become all over unsanctified and hath no sutablenesse or proportion to divine objects and holy duties I shall speak of this later though as expressing and emptying it self into actual and wilfull forgetfulnesse for of this original and native pollution of the memory must we understand this Text in a great measure which the Apostle by frequent filing would get off as so much rust seeing he writeth to those that are sanctified and as also he speaketh of this as a permanent and an abiding weaknesse in them Now in the regenerate all contracted habits of sinne are expelled by vertue of the new birth And as for actual sinnes they are transient so that there remaineth no other defilement but original and the reliques or immediate products thereof If then the most holy do need quickning helps to their memory because of the dulnesse and slownesse in it about holy things It is plain the memory as well as the other faculties of the soul is depraved by original sinne and if in the sanctified person the memory hath this partial and gradual sinfulnesse in the unregenerate and natural man it must be all over polluted and made unsavoury about any good thing Observe That the memory of every man by nature is wholly polluted by original sinne It cannot perform those offices and acts for these holy ends as it was at first inabled to do in the state of integrity It will be very usefull and profitable to anatomize the sinfulnesse of the memory as we have done of the other intellectual powers for it is from the pollution of this part that all wickednesse is committed The Scripture makes this the character of all wicked men That they forget God Psal 9. 17. implying That if we did remember God his Greatnesse his Power his holy Will we should not fall into any sinne Insomuch that we may in some sense say All they evil is committed because of thy evil and sinfull memory hadst thou remembred such and such threatnings such and such places of Scripture they would have preserved thee from this impiety SECT II. What we mean by Memory TWo things must be premised before we enter into the main matter First What we mean by the memory Aristotle wrote a little Book about Memory and Remembrance De Memoriâ Reminiscentiâ and from him many have taken up large and uselesse Disputes herein It is not my purpose to teach you with these thorns it is enough that there is acknowledged a sensitive memory which is common to men with beasts and an intellective though that be questioned but against all reason for the soul separated doth remember as appeareth in that Parable where Abraham said to Dives Sonne remember thou hast received the good things of this life Luk. 16. 25. Angels also must necessarily remember because all things are not present to them therefore past things they cannot know but by way of memory God is said in the Scripture often to remember but that cannot be properly because to him all things past and future are as present so that he cannot be said to remember properly no more then to fore-know onely such expressions are used by condescension to our capacity Aristotle distinguisheth between Memory and Remembrance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and this he saith as farre as is yet observed no creature can do but man When therefore I shall speak of the Memory I shall understand it as it is Remembrance and as it is Intellectual for in man we may say his memory is in a great part the understanding knowing things as they are past Therefore Austin and the Master of Sentences following him though this be disclaimed by many that came after make three powers or faculties in the rational part of a man his Vnderstanding his will and Memory which they call the created Trinity and by it they say is resembled the blessed and increated Trinity But I shall not dispute this for I shall speak of Memory as the same with the understanding onely in this particular as it is carried out to things that are past for that is the necessary object of Memory that it must be past we do not remember a thing present or a thing future SECT III. A two-fold weaknesse of Memory IN the second place While we speak of the weaknesse of the Memory about good things we must take notice of a two-fold weaknesse a Natural weaknesse and a sinfull weaknesse a Natural weaknesse is that which ariseth from the
constitution of the body and unfit temperature of the brain for though the actions of the understanding be immaterial to know and to remember yet they require the body as the Organ and the Instrument So that as the most artificial Musician cannot discover his skill upon an Instrument whose strings are out of order so neither can the understanding of a man put forth its noble actions when the body is out of order Hence we read that some diseases or other events have deprived men of their memory so that they have forgot their own name By this we see That the soul doth act dependently upon the body being the form informing of a man and giving his being and operations to him Now it 's usefull to know this distinction for many good people especially when grown in year do much complain that their memory is gone They cannot carry away so much of a Sermon or from good Books as once they did and this doth much grieve them they look upon themselves as drones and not Bees that carry home honey from every flower but this may support them that this is a natural affect in the memory not a sinfull one For as Aristotle observeth Lib. de Memoriâ Reminiscentiâ neither in children or in old men is there such a capacity for memory in children because of the too much moisture And therefore it is saith he as if a man should imprint a Seal in the water which because of its fluid nature would receive no impression nor in old men is there such a capacity of memory because of their drinesse and siccity as if a man should imprint a seal upon a dry peice of wood it would not receive any forme or character If then in thy old age thy memory faileth know this is a natural imbecillity as sickness and pain is not a sinne Others again they abuse this distinction for when they are urged to holy duties called upon to remember what hath been preached then they excuse themselvs with their bad memory God help them they have an ill memory but if thou hast a memory for other things jests and merry tales or businesses of profit and no memory for holy things This is thy sinne thou hast no memory in the these good things because thou hast no heart no delight about them as is more to be shewed Yea I must adde that though a natural weaknesse in the memory be not a sinne yet it is the fruit of sinne and so ought deeply to humble thee for thy memory would have had no such defects and weaknesses if Adam had not fallen As therefore diseases and death though they be not sinne yet are the effects of sinne and therefore we are to humble our selves under them so thou art to do under thy imperfect memory though sicknesse or old-age hath much impaired it SECT IV. OUr work is to discover the sad and universal pollution of the Memory And by the Memory we mean only the mind as it extends its actions to things that are past And thus the Scripture speaketh 2 Pet. 3. 1. To stirre up your pure minds by remembrance Tit. 3. 1. Put them in mind to be subject c. Mind is there for memory Thus Austin also maketh memory in a man to be either the soul or the power and faculty of the soul Thus the Latine Etymologers make Memini reminiscere to come of Mens yea Minerva made the goddesse of learning is Quasi Mineriva à memini And common speech amongst us maketh mind and memory all one as when we say It was quite out of my mind c. So that both the Scripture and the judgement of the learned yea and the use of the vulgar will allow us to speak of the memory as nothing else but the mind considering of things as past SECT V. The great Usefulnesse of the Memory BUt before we speak to the discovery of this Memory it is good to take notice of what use and consequence it is that so when we shall consider the dignity and serviceablenesse of the memory we may then bewail the sinfulnesse thereof for when that is made sinfull it is as if a fountain were poisoned of which all must drink or as the air pestilential which all must receive in their nostrils if the memory be corrupted then all is corrupted Hence as you heard all wicked men are said to forget God Memory is of so great use as the Heathens made a goddesse of it yea they make it to be the mother of the Muses of all Arts of all Wisdome and Prudence No tongue can either expresse the serviceablenesse of it or the nature of it not the serviceablenesse of it For if there were no memory there could be no discourse no civil society if there were no memory a man could not take heed of any danger or prevent any mischief hence they attribute it to the forgetfulnesse and stupidity of the Flie that when it is flapt off from the meat and was in danger of death yet it will immediately flie to it again Thus would man without memory plunge himself into all misery If there were no memory there could be no learning no humane sciences for memory is made the mother of them Yea if there were no memory there would be no Religion no Worship of God or service of him Thus both the natural civil and religious life of a man would be destroyed were there not a memory So that we are infinitely bound to praise God for this power left in us and as deeply to humble our selves that it is so corrupted that it cannot do its proper acts in a spiritual way at last thereby to promote our happinesse our memory helpeth to damn us not to save us SECT VI. Of the Nature of it ANd as for the Nature of memory though Aristotle and others after him have undertaken to say much about it yet Austin doth much bewail the ignorance and weaknesse of a man in this thing l. 10. conf calling it the unsearchable recesses and vast concavities of the memory saying It is in vain for a man to think to understand the nature of the Heavens when he cannot know what his memory is Under this difficulty he saith he did labour and toil and yet could not come to any sure knowledge This is certain that the things we remember are not in our souls themselves when we remember such a tree or stone the tree or stone is not really in us Hence saith Austin we may Doloris laeti reminisci and Laetitiae dolentes reminisci Remember with joy former sorrow or with sorrow former joy Yea he saith we may Oblivionis reminisci we may remember our forgetfulnesse Now if these things were really in us it could not be but that sorrow remembred would make us sorrowfull or forgetfulnesse remembred make us forgetfull The objects then remembred are in us by way of Species or Images the Phantasmata are there conserved and when by them we come to
glorified in our addresses to him as he ought to be Psal 86. 11. David there prayeth That God would unite his heart to fear his Name And the Apostle 1 Cor. 7. doth therefore speak so warily and tenderly in the case of marriage That they might serve the Lord without distraction And no doubt dividing and diverting thoughts are as troublesome to the godly heart in holy duties as the croaking frogs were to Pharaoh when they came up into his chamber Say then with indignation to all those intruding and violent thoughts which make thee not hoc agere instant in the duty thou art about stand aloof off and be gone Bolt the door upon them as Ammon on Thamar What doth Saul among the Prophets How cometh these uclean things into the holiest of holies Let the fear of God be like the Porter or Watchman to keep out all things that would then come into thy memory Liberet me Deus said he ab homâ—pe unius tantum negotii when thy heart minds only one thing when it is God only thy soul is fixed upon and thou art not diverted otherwise such duties are effectual and prevail much Thus you have at large heard the many waies wherein this noble and usefull part of the soul is grosly polluted what a Sepulchre as it were it is wherein are contained nothing but loathsome and abominable things Come we then to make some Use of it And Vse 1. Is the memory thus defiled about holy and divine objects It is so forgetfull of what is good Then we see it is no matter of wonder if the most people who sit under the continual means of grace do abide and continue in their wicked waies as much as if never any Prophet had been amongst themâ— For they go away from all Sermons remembring no more then stones in the wall They are the Apostles forgetfull hearers Jam. 1. and so presently let all things slip out of their minds Thus forgetfulness of which you hear so much is the mother of all that disobedience and wickedness many live in The Apostle giveth a good exhortation Heb 2. 1. We ought to give the more earnest heed to the things Which we have heard lest at any time we should let them slip out of our mind We must give earnest heed All your thoughts and care and study should be how to keep the good truths of God in your mind and that alwayes lest that every thing thou hearest should fasten upon thee even till thou comest to the grave The Greek word also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is emphatical The Margin maketh it from vessels that leak Others from wet and bloached paper upon which we cannot write anything Let us then look to our memories more then we have done pray for the sanctification of them seeing by the evil thereof the Ministry is made ineffectual And because the memory is thus weak we see the necessity and usefulnesse of a two-fold custom of writing of Sermons and of repeating them afterwards in the Family of writing for whatsoever some pretend to the contrary yet it is a special means to make a thing be more fixed in our memory and this was the reason why God would have the King of Israel write the book of the Law and that with his own hand because hereby he would remember it more tenaciously And as for repeating of Sermons besides that it is part of the Sanctification of the Sabbath it doth greatly help to make the Word ingrassed into us So that those Families where there is no repeating of the Word preached do plainly discover that they regard not the retaining of it in their hearts and so are not afraid to be found in the number of forgetfull hearers Vse 2. If the memory be thus defiled then this also sheweth the necessity of parents duty in the constant instruction and teaching of their children in the principles of Religion children have not understanding to serve God with and therefore their memory which is easily quickned in them must be the more drawn out that so they may serve God as they are able It 's good seasoning these vessels betimes with wholsome liquor CHAP. IV. Of the Pollution of the VVill of man by Original Sinne. SECT I. JOHN 1. 13. Which were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God THe original pollution of the Vnderstanding Conscience and Memory hath been largely and fully discovered We now proceed to the other part or power of the rational soul which is the will That is in the soul like the primum mobile in the Heavens that doth carry all the inferiour orbs away in its own motion or like the fire among the elements that doth assimulate every thing else to it self This is the whole of a man A man is not what he knoweth or what he remembreth but what he willeth The understanding is but as a Connsellour The will is as the Queen sitting upon its Throne exercising its dominion over the other parts of the soul The will is the proper subject and seat of all our sinne and if there could be a Summum malum as there is a Summum bonum this would be in the will Seeing therefore that our will is the master power of the soul and is to that what the heart is to the body the principle of all motion and action the more we find this will thorowly infected with sinne the greater will our misery appear Neither mayest thou fear that the doctrinal discovery of that poisoned fountain in thee and the representation of thy soulness and loath somness upon thee may discourage thee but hereby thou wilt be brought to loath thy self and admire the riches of grace in Christ which shall pardon and glorifie such a noisome wretch as thou art by nature Indeed Lorinus Comment in 17. chap. Act. relateth of Ptolomy King of Aegypt that he banished one Hegesius a Philosopher and eloquent Orator because he did so pathetically and sensibly Declaim upon the miseries of mans life that many were thereby cast into such grief that they made away themselves but our end in discovering of this universal leprosie of sinne upon us by nature is to bring us into an holy despair of our selves a renouncing of our righteousness that so Christ may be all in all Come we then to make inquiry into the original pollution of our will which is a subject of very large territories The Disputes about it are voluminous but I shall be as brief as the nature of this truth will permit and whereas concerning the will we may consider the nature of it absolutely in its proper works and operations or relatively in its state as free or enslaved I shall treat of both because herein original sinne hath put forth it self more then in any other parts of the soul And First I shall begin with the will absolutely considered as it is the great and mighty part of the soul
of Salvation but not as a place of Gods glory they desire Salvation as it freeth from Hell torments but not as it is a perfect sanctification of the whole man for the enjoyment of God Here thy intention is sinfull and incompleat when thou intendest Heaven and happiness thou art to desire all of it not some parts of it Again Our intenton is much more corrupted in making the meanes to be the end we make a perfect period and stop at a Comma or a Colon and truly this is the general and universal corruption of every mans natural intention he shooteth his arrow too short he intends no further then an happy pleasant and merry life in this world one intends honours another intends wealth another intends pleasures There is no natural man can intend any higher good then some creature or other That as the bruit beasts have a kind of improper intention as they have of reason whereby they are carried out to those things only that are obvious to sense Thus it is with man in his natural estate destitute of regeneration a worme can as soon fly like a Lark towards Heaven as this man intend any thing that is spiritually good for the natural man hath neither a mind or an heart for such holy things and so is like an Archer that hath neither eyes or hands and thereby can never reach the mark Secondly The intention of the will is corrupted in its error and mistake about its object it shooteth at a wrong mark It 's really and indeed evil which he intendeth though it be apparently good it is in truth poison though it be guilded It is true the rule is Nemo intendens malum operatur No man intendeth evil as evil but it is propounded under the notion of good and that even in those who sinne against the light and dictates of their own conscience But yet the Scripture speaketh constantly of wicked men as those that love evil and will evil and hate good because it is evil which their wills are carried out unto though it hath the outward bait and colour of what is good Herein then we have cause with bitterness of heart to bewail our sinfull intentions thou dost but cosen and delude thy own self Though thou hast many glosses many colours and pretences to deceive thy self with yet that which in deed and truth doth alure and bewitch thy soul is evil in the appearance as it were of some real good a strumpet in Matrones cloaths Thirdly The intention of the will is herein also greatly defiled that when it doth any holy and spiritual duties the true motive and proper reason of their intention is not regarded but false and carnal ones Finis operis and Finis operantis are not the same as they ought to be This is the wickedness of man so great that no heads though fountaines of waters can weep enough because of it The Pharisees they were very constant and busie in prayers in giving of almes but what was their intention all the while It was to be seen of man and therefore in the just judgement of God they had that reward This intention of the will is thought by some to be the eye our Saviour speaketh of If that be darke the whole body is darke Matth. 6. 22. Jebus did many things in a glorious manner as if none were so zealous as he but like the Kite though he soared high yet still his eye was to see what prey lay on the ground that he might devour it it was a kingdome not Gods glory he intended Thus Judas intended a bag and riches in all that seeming love and service he professed to Christ Oh take heed of the intention of thy will in every holy duty This maketh or marreth all To what hath been said may be further added First That we foolishly labour to justify our bad and sinfull actions by our good intentions as if they were able to turne evil unto good and black into white Is not this a continuall plea among natural people that though what they do be unlawfull yet they mean no hurt in it they have good hearts and good intentions Hence it is that when they have done evil in the eyes of God then they study to defend themselves by some intended good or other Thus Judas when he muttered about the ointment powred on our Saviour yet he pretends to good intentions That the ointment might have been sold and given to the poor Saul when he had rebelliously spared the best of the Cattel yet he carrieth it as if his intention had been to keep them for a Sacrifice to the Lord Yea the Pharisees in all their malicious and devilish designs against Christ would be thought that their high and pure intentions for the glory of God did carry them forward in all they did By such instances we see how prone every man is to put a good intention upon a bad action and thereby think to wash himself clean from all guilt but it is against the principles of Divinity that a good intention should justifie that which is a bad action It is true a bad intention will corrupt a good action so vain glory or to do any religious duty to be seen of men This is a worme which will devour the best rose This is a dead Flie in a box of ointment But it doth not hold true on the contrary That a good intention will change the nature of an evil action The reason whereof is that known Rule Malum est è quolibet defectu bonum non est nisi ex integris causis Even as in a Picture one defect is enough to make it uncomely but the beauty of it is not unless every thing be concurrent So in musick any one jarre is enough to spoil the harmony but to make sweet musick there must be the consent of all Do not therefore flie to thy good heart to thy good meanings thou intendest no hurt for if thy action cannot be warranted by the Word if it have not a good and lawfull superscription upon it this will never endure the fiery trial The Apostle maketh all such conclusions full of horrour and blasphemy as it were that argue Let us do evil that good may come of it Rom. 3. 8. Austin said It was not lawfull to lie though it were to save a world Consider then the sinfulnesse of thy will and be more affected with it then hitherto thou hast been When thou art overtaken with any sinne Doest thou not excuse thy selfe with a good intention Doest thou not plead some good or other though aimest at in all such unlawfull wayes But though man cannot judge thee yet the All-seeing eye of God doth pierce into all thy intentions and he knoweth thee better then thou knowest thy self Secondly The intention of the will is greatly corrupted in this particular also That it will adde to the worship of God and accumulate precepts and means of grace as they think in
a mutable creature as is to be shewed Such a determination to good only was in Christ also from his perfection and is likewise in the Angels confirmed and Saints glorified here is no power to sinne yet have they liberty in an eminent degree though determined to good onely On the contrary the Devils and damned men they are necessarily determined to that which is evil they cannot but hate God they are not able to have one good thought or one good desire to all eternity yet all this is done freely by them Now as the determination to good did arise from perfection from the strong principles of holinesse within so in these their necessary determination to evil doth arise from that power of iniquity and sinne they are delivered up unto In this necessity of sinning are all natural men till regenerated absolutely plunged into and that from the dominion which sinne hath over them Onely herein they differ from the Devils and damned men they are in their termino in their journeys end and so are not in a capacity of being ever freed from this necessity and thraldome to sinne There will never be a converted Devil or a converted man in hell their state is unchangeable and they can never be recovered but with wicked men in this life God hath dealt in many plentifull wayes of mercy so that though for the present determined only to evil all the day long though for the present under the chains and bonds of sinne Yet the grace of God may deliver them out of this prison and set them at liberty but till this be they are as the Devils carried out necessarily in all hatred unto God and this determination to one is from imperfection Lastly There is a determination to one from principles of Nature without reason and judgement and where such is there cannot be any liberty for reason and judgement is the root of liberty though it be formally in the will By this then you see That this necessity of sinning doth not take away the natural freedome that is in the will so that a man and a beast should be both alike Luther De Servo Arbit indeed wished that the word Necessity might be laid aside Neither doth Bradwardine like that expression Necessitas immutabilitatis as applied to man but in the sense all that are Orthodox do agree ¶ 8. The second Argument of the Servitude of the Will is its being carried out unto sinne voluntarily and with delight SEcondly This necessity of sinning doth not at all take off from the voluntarinesse and delight therein but every natural man is carried out so voluntarily and readily unto every sinne suggesting it self as if there were no necessity at all Hence man by nature is said To swallow down iniquity like water Job 15. 16 Even as the feavorish or Hydropical man is never satiated with water Therefore the necessity of sinning is never to be opposed to his willingness and freedom for though a man hath no freedom to good yet he hath to evil Eoque magis libera quo magis Ancilla the more he is subject to sinne the more enslaved to it by his delight therein the freer he is to act it We must not then imagine such a necessity of sinning in a man as if that did compel and force a man against his inclination and desire You must not think that it is thus with a man as if he could say O Lord my will is set against sinne I utterly abhorre and detect it but I am necessitated to do it for the will being corrupted doth with all propensity and delight rejoyce in the accomplishing of that which is evil ¶ 9. 3. The Bondage of the Will is evident by its utter impotency to any thing that is Spiritual And wherein that inability consists THirdly This bondage of the will to sinne is evidently manifested in its utter impotency and inability to any thing that is spiritual It 's like Samson that hath lost its strength God made man right whereby he had an ability to do any thing that was holy there could not be an instance in any duty though in the highest degree which Adam had not a power to do and now he is so greatly polluted that there is not the greatest sinne possibly to be committed by the vilest of men but every man hath the seed and root thereof within him for this reason man by nature is not onely compared to the blind and deaf but also to such who are wholly dead in sinne So that as the dead man hath no power to raise himself so neither hath a man who is spiritually dead in his sinnes That this Truth may greatly humble us Let us consider wherein this absolute impotency to what is holy is in every man for this is a great part of the demonstration of our spiritual bondage to sinne and Satan And First Such is the thraldom of the will That a man by nature cannot resist the least temptation to sinne much lesse the greatest without the special grace of God helping at that time We matter not those Pelagian Doctors who hold a man by his own power may resist lesse temptations yea more grievous ones though not continually for when our Saviour teacheth us to pray That we may not be lead into temptation doth not that imply whatsoever is a temptation whether it be small or great if the Lord leave us thereunto we presently are overcome by it Certainly if Adam while retaining his integrity in a temptation and that about so small a matter comparatively for want of actual corroborating grace was overtaken by it Is it any wonder that we who have no inward spiritual principle of holiness within us but are filled with all evil and corruption that we are reeds shaken with every wind The rotten Apple must fall at every blast Know then that it is either sanctifying or restraining grace that keeps thee from every snare of sinne thou meetest with Thou wouldst every hour fall into the mire did not that uphold These Dalilahs would make thee sleep in their laps and then as Jael to Sicera so would they do to thee Herein is our bondage discovered Secondly Our thraldome is manifested In that we are not able of our selves to have one good thought in reference to our eternal salvation But if any serious apprehension if any godly meditation be in thy soul it is the grace of God that doth breath it into thee The wilderness of thy heart cannot bring forth such roses Thus the Apostle We are not able of our selves 2 Cor. 3. 5. to think any thing as of our selves Though the Apostle speaketh it occasionally in his ministerial imployment yet it holdeth generally true of every one of thy self then thy heart is like a noisome dung-hill nothing but unsavoury thoughts doe arise from it but if at any time any good motion any sad and serious thought stirreth within thee know this cometh from without it is put into thee as
to remove SECT V. They are wholly displaced from their right Objects THirdly The great sinfulness of the affections is seen In that they are wholly displaced from their right Objects The objects for which they were made and on which they were to settle is God himself and all other things in reference to him our love God onely challengeth in that command Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy heart and soul c. Our hatred that is properly to be against sin because it dishonours God our sorrow it is principally to be because of our offences to him so that there is not any affection we have but it doth either primarily or secondarily relate to God but who can bewail the great desolation that is now fallen upon us Every affection is now taken off its proper center In stead of loving of God we love the world we love our pleasures rather then God Instead of hating of sinne we hate God and cannot abide his pure and holy Law and Nature Thus we fear not whom we ought to fear viz. God That can destroy both soul and body in hell and what we ought not to fear there we are afraid as the frowns and displeasure of men when we are to do our duties Our sorrow likewise is not that also corrupted How melting and grieved are we in any temporal loss in any worldly evil but then for the loss of God and his favour by our iniquities there our bowels never move within us Thus our affections out of all order to their proper objects ought to be groaned under more than if all our bones were out of joynt for that is only a bodily evil hindring a natural motion this is a spiritual one depriving us of our enjoyment of God This particular pollution it is that the Text doth immediately drive at when it commands us To set our affections above it plainly sheweth where they are naturally viz. upon things of the earth and therefore as it was Christs divine power that made the woman bowed down with her infirmity for so many years to be strait Thus it must also be the mighty and gracious power of God to raise up these affections that are crawling on the ground to heavenly things Possess then thy soul throughly with this great evil that thou hast not one affection within thee that can go to its proper object but some thing moveth it from Go to the vain and fading creatures If these affections be the pedes animae the feet of the soul then with Asa thou hast a sad disease in thy feet and if thy whole body else were clean these feet would need a daily purifying SECT VI. The sinfulness of the Affections is discovered in respect of the End and Use for which God ingraffed them in our Natures FOurthly Their sinfulness is discovered in respect of the object about which So also in respect of the end and use for which God first ingraffed them into our Natures They were given at first to be like the wheels to the Chariots like wings to the bird To facilitate and make easie our approaches to God the soul had these to be like Elijah's fiery chariot to mount to Heaven and therefore we see where the affections of men are vehement and hot they conquer all difficulties that Adam might in body and soul draw nigh to God that God might be glorified in both therefore had he these bodily affections And we see David though restored to this holy Image but in part yet he could say His soul and his flesh did rejoyce in the Lord his flesh desired God as well as his soul that is his affections were exceedingly moved after God as Psal 84. 2. For the soul being the form of the body whatsoever that doth intensly desire by way of a sympathy or subordination there is a proportionable effect wrought in the inferiour sensitive part As Aaron's oyl poured on his head did descend to his skirts Thus by way of redundancy what the superiour part of the soul is affected with the inferiour also doth receive and by this means the work of grace in the superiour part is more confirmed and strengthned and the heat below doth encrease the heat above Thus you see that these affections had by their primitive nature a great serviceablenesse to promote the glory of God to prepare and raise up men to that duty But now these affections are the great impediments and clogs to the soul that if at any time it would sâ—ar up to Heaven if light within doth instigate to draw nigh to God These affections do immediately contradict and interpose and the reason is because they are ingaged to contrary objects so that when we would love God love to the world that presently stoppeth and hinders it when we should delight and rejoyce in holy things worldly and earthly delights they do immediately like the string to the birds feet pull down to the ground again Hence it is that you many times see men have great light in their minds great convictions upon their consciences they know they live in sinfull wayes they know they do what they ought not to do yea they will sometimes complain and grieve bitterly because they are thus captivated to those lusts which they are convinced will damn them at last but what is the snare that holdeth them so fast What are the chains upon them that bind them thus hand and soot even their sinfull and inordinate affections their carnal love their carnal delight keepeth conscience prisoner and will not let it do its duty Oh that we could humble our selves under this that what was wine is now become poison that what we had to further us to Heaven doth hurry us to hell that our affections should carry us to sinne that were for God that they should drive us to hell which were to further us to Heaven Oh think of this consider it and bewail it Many things lose their use and they only become unprofitable they do not hurt by that degeneration as salt when it hath lost its seasoning but now these affections are not onely unprofitable they will not help to what is good but are pernicious and damnable we that were of our selves falling into hell they thrust us and move us headlong to it so that they seem to be in us what the Devils were in the herd of Swine These are the wild horses that tare thy soul in so many pieces Thus our gold is become dross SECT VII When the Affections are set upon inferiour objects that are lawfull yet they are greatly corrupted in their Motion and Tendency thereunto IN the next place If the inferiour objects they are placed upon be lawfull and allowable yet they are greatly corrupted in their motion and tendency thereunto For they are carried out excessively and immederately They do unlawfully move to lawful things As man â—ands corrupted by nature his affections are defiled two wayes in respect of the objects For sometimes
effectual the concupiscible part now this kingdome is divided against it self our fear doth put out our joy we do not take that quiet delight which might be in having any temporal good because we are so molested with feares lest we should loose it How often are we distracted Inter spem metum between hope and fear Thus these affections that by their primitive institution were all of one accord they all mutually assisted one another now they are become like contrary winds hope driveth one way fear another love one way anger another so that by this meanes every man is miserably tormented within himself There is an heartquake as well as an earthquake and as this later is produced by winds got into the bowels of the earth which cannot find any vent Thus it is with these passions of man they are all pent up as it were close in his heart one is ready violently to break out one way another another way so that no sea is more tossed up and down when contrary Euroclydons fall upon it then the heart of man while moved with different passions It 's the contrariety of thy passions maketh all thy discontents and all the turmoiles that are in thy soul thy love that haleth thee one way thy anger draggeth another way Thus thou art like one that is to be torn in peices by wild horses one draweth one limb asunder another teareth another part asunder so that thy soul is become like the Levites wife's body that was cut into so many peices Adam in respect of his affectionate part was like the upper region where there is no molestation or confusion but now that part in us is like the middle region where tempests and stormes thundring and lightning are daily produced SECT IX The Pollution of the Affections in respect of the Conflict between the natural Conscience and Them AGain The great and notorious pollution of the affections doth appear In that fight and conflict which is between the natural conscience and them so that no sooner doth the reason and affections of men begin to work in them but presently there is a civil warre begun in a man his mind that inclineth one way and his affections they carry another way The very Heathens acknowledged this as Aristotle in his incontinent person and the Poet in his Medea Video meliora probeque deteriora sequor yea there are some interpreters Socinians and Papists and Arminians to whom also Amyraldus in this particular adjoyneth himself though disalowing their other opinions that would have the Apostles complaint which he maketh Rom 7 to be nothing more then the contrariety of the mind and affections in an unregenerate man especially when the mind is legally convinced and that hath some powerfull influence upon it and among other reasons he giveth this that it would be very injurious to regenerating grace as if that could or did carry a man no further the Aristotle's incontinent person was wheras indeed convinced of better things but had no power to follow them But there is a two-fold conflict and combate to be acknowledged The first a natural one betwen conscience and affections The other a spiritual one and that is not between these several powers in the soul but between the regenerate part in every particular and the unregenerate so that there is not only spiritual light against corrupt affections but affections sanctified against unsanctified ones they have love against love fear against fear hope against hope This opposition in the regenerate man is universal whereas this natural conflict is seated only in some particular parts of the soul The Apostle Rom. 7 doth speak of this spiritual fight in himself as regenerate as appeareth because he saith In the inward man he delighted in the Law of God which no unregenerate man can do and although the Apostles and some other eminent and godly men may attain to farre higher degrees of greace then others yet it may not be thought that there is any godly man living or did live that doth not more or less find this combate of flesh and spirit in him Certainly if it should be so in any man we might say that in that man original sinne was quite subdued the flux of bloud was wholly dried up in them but that is the prerogative of heaven But our work is to consider the sad difference that is now brought upon all men by original corruption between the rational and affective part our very constitution is in discord there is no more agreement then between fire and water Even as in the Romane Governement there was commonly perpetual opposition between the Senatus and the Plebs The Senate and the common People they were very difficultly ever reconciled Thus in man his intellectual and sensitive part they are carried out to contrary objects one inviting to one way another to another Indeed even the rational part is in the Scripture sence become flesh that is wholly corrupt and mindeth only sinful things yet this corruption doth not put out those natural dictates and practical maxims which conscience hath against which the affections of men do naturally so rebell It is true that there are some who have so hardned themselves in evil by a voluntary obstinateness and are made such bruits in their lusts that they have none of this conflict at all they are hurried on with all delight to sinne and have not so much as the least regreet within themselves but this is acquired partly by the just judgement of God upon mans wilful impiety being from him delivered up to such a senslessnes otherwise there is in all such a fundamental contrariety between the superior and inferior part of his soul that there is no rest within It is true the Papists and so the Socinians they affirme his repugnancy to have been in Adam in the state of integrity yea a Remonstrant attributeth it blasphemously to Christ himself but seeing that God made man right this rectitude is to be understood universal and that could not be without an admirable harmony and agreement between the spiritual and sensitive part in a man There are some also who place the hurt that we have by original sinne in this affectionate part only as if the mind and the will they did escape in Adams fall and no sinne infected them only the sensitive part becomes all over poisoned but the contrary to this hath already been demonstrated yet we grant that in the affectionate part is the Serpents brood there are the Cockatrices eggs that is the womb wherein many sinnes even all the bodily ones are conceived and brought forth SECT X. The Sinfulness of these Affections is seen in the great Distractions they fill us with when we are to set upon any holy Duties FUrther The sinfulnesse of these affections is seen in the great distractions they fill us with when we are to set upon any holy Duty What is the reason we do not make God the delight of our soul
Why is not our conversation in Heaven Why do we not pray without distraction hear without distraction Is it not because these affections hurry the soul otherwayes In Heaven when we shall enjoy God face to face and the affections be fully sanctified then the heart will not for one moment to all eternity be taken off from God but now because our affections are not spiritualized neither are we fully conquerours over them Hence they presse down continually the creature for where a mans affections are there is his heart there is his treasure The godly they do exceedingly groan under this exercise of distractions in holy duties Oh how it grieveth them that their hearts are not united they cannot hoc agere they cannot be with God alone but some thoughts or importunate suggestions do molest them like so many croaking frogs many flies fall upon their Sacrifice Now whence is all this Our unmortified affections are the cause of this if they were more spiritual and heavenly there would be more union and accord in holy duties SECT XI Their Deformity and Contrariety to the Rule and exemplary Patterne IN the next place Herein doth their depravation appear Because they are so full of deformity and contrariety to their rule and exemplary pattern which is in God himself for we are to love as God loveth to be angry as God is angry It is disputed by the learned Whether affections be properly in God Now it must be As affections do denote any passions or imperfections intermixed with them so they cannot be attributed to him who is the fountain of perfection yet because the Scripture doth generally attribute these affections unto God he is said to love to grieve to hope to be angry Hence it is that Divines do in their Theological Tractates besides the attributes of God handle also of those things which are as some expresse it analogical affections in him They treat of his love his mercy his anger which are not so properly Attributes in God as analogical affections As when the Scripture saith God hath eyes and hands these are expressions to our capacity and we must conceive of God by those words according to the supream excellency that is in him Thus it is also in affections There is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the former and an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the later It was of old disputed by Lactantius Whether anger was truly and properly in God Some denied it some affirmed it But certainly the difference did arise from the different use of the Word for take anger as it signifieth an humane imperfection so it cannot be said to be in God but as it is a Will to revenge an impenitent sinner so it is in God Hence these things are said to be in God per modum effectus rather than affectus And some learned men like this expression better than of analogal affections saying that metaphorical speech applied to God viz. about desire hope c. is rather equivocal then analogical concerning desire hope and fear in God Some Arminianizing or Vorstizing have spoken dangerously Yea some Socinians as Crellius Vide Horndeeck Socin Confut. lib. 2. doe positively maintain affections to be properly in God And although to mollifie their opinion they sometimes have fair explications of themselves yet they grant the things themselves to be in God which we call affections Hence they call them often The commotions of Gods will which are sometimes more sometimes lesse Yea they are so impudent as to say the denial of such affections in God is to overthrow all Religion But this opinion is contrary to the pure simplicity and immutability of Gods Nature as also to his perfect blessednesse and by the way observe the wickednesse of these Heretiques who take from the Divine Nature the persons thereof as also some glorious Attributes such as Omniscience c. and yet will give to the same such things as necessarily imply imperfection To return Affections are not in God as they imply any defect yet we are by Scripture to conceive of some transcendent perfection in God eminently containing them and this being laid for a foundation we may then bewail the great deformity that is upon our affections the unlovelinesse of them if compâ—â—ed to the Rule Do we love as God loveth He doth infinitely love himself and all things in subordination to his own glory But the love of our selves and all things in reference to our own selves is that which doth most formally exclude and oppose the love of God The poison and sinfulnesse of all the affections doth arise from the sinfulnesse of our love It is corrupt love that causeth corrupt anger corrupt hatred corrupt sorrow and therefore the way to crucifie all other affections is to begin with love But oh the irreconcilable and immediate opposition that is between our love and his love our love is to be copied out after his We are to imitate God in our love but we place our selves in Gods room and are carried out to love our selves not rationally but according to a bruitish appetite as it were hence whereas in the love of others we require some presupposed goodnesse in the love of our selves we look for none at all The vilest and most prophane sinner who ought to judge himself worthy of the hatred of God and all creatures yet he doth intensively love himself even to the hatred of God Had we infinite holinesse infinite purity and perfection as God hath then we might love our selves principally but because the goodnesse we have is a rivolet from that Ocean a beam-line from that Sun therefore we are to love our selves in reference to God Our love to God should make us love our selves but how impossible and paradoxal is this to our corrupt natures As our love is thus distantial from Gods love so our hatred and anger also is for the hatred of God is only against sinne It 's sinne he punisheth it is sinne that he hath decreed to be avenged of to all eternity Wicked men and Devils are damned because of sinne in them could that be taken out of their natures they would be the good and acceptable creatures of God But oh the vast difference between Gods hatred and ours for that is not against sinne but that which is truly godly and holy so desperately and incurablely are we corrupted herein SECT XII Their dulness and senslesness though the Understanding declare the good to be imbraced SEcondly The native defilement of the Affections is greatly demonstrated in that dulnesse and senslesnesse which is in them even though the understanding doth powerfully and evidently declare the good they ar to imbrace And this can never enough be lamented that when we have much light in our mind we find no heat in our affections Indeed the Question is put How the affectious though in regenerate persons can be affected with any thing that is spiritual for they being of a material and corporeal nature
have no more proportion or sutablenesse with spiritual and supernatural objects then the eye hath with immaterial substances so that as the eye cannot see a spirit neither can material affections terminate upon immaterial objects But the Answer is That the affections being implanted in us as hand maids to the rational parts and subjected to them by an essential subordination therefore it is when those superiour parts of the soul do strongly imbrace any spiritual good the affections also by way of concomitancy are stirred up therein onely as it is with the will though that be made to follow the understanding and as some say doth necessarily yeeld to the ultimate and practical Dictate thereof yet the will doth need a peculiar sanctification of its own nature neither is the illumination of the mind all the grace the will wanteth So it is with these affections although they be appointed to follow the directions and commands of the mind and will yet they must be sanctified and enlivened by the peculiar grace of God else they move no more than a stone Now this necessity of enlivening and quickning grace upon the affections the godly are experimentally convinced of How often doe they complain they know Christ is the chiefest good they know eternal glory is an infinite treasure Oh but how barren are their hearts no affections no cordial stirrings of their soul when they think of these things Doe the children of God complain of any thing more than their want of affections in holy things They have them as hot as fire for the things of the world but are clods of earth in spiritual duties This maketh them cry so often with the Church Draw us and we will runne after thee This maketh them pray Arise O Southwind and blow O North upon the garden of my soul that the flowers thereof may send forth a sweet fragrancy Thus that saying is true Citò prevolat intellectus tardus sequitur affectus If therefore there were no other pollution upon the affections then their dulnesse and senslesnesse as to holy things This may make the godly go bowed down all their life time Their affections are green wood much fire and frequent blowing will hardly inflame them and hence it is that the godly are so well satisfied and do so thankfully acknowledge the goodnesse of God to them when they find their affections stirring in any holy thing Insomuch that they judge that duty not worth the name of a duty which is not an affectionate duty That prayer not worthy the name of prayer which is not an affectionate prayer But how dull and heavy are these till sanctified as to any holy object Yea such is the perverse contrariety that is now come upon the superiour and inferiour parts of the soul that when the more noble parts are intensively carried out to any object the inferiour are thereby debilitated and wholly weakned so that many times the more light the lesse heat the more intellectual and rational the lesse affectionate Now this is contrary to our primitive creation for then the more knowledge of heavenly things the more affections also to them did immediately succeed But now experience doth confirme That those men whose understandings are most deeply ingaged in finding out of truths their affections are at the same time like a barren wildernesse Hence you may often find a poor inconsiderable believer more affectionately transported in love to Christ and holy things than many a great and learned Scholar That as natural fools have a greater stomack to meat and can digest better than wise men whose animal spirits are much tired and wearied out So it is here the lesse disputative the lesse head-work a godly man hath many times he hath the better heart-work Oh then bewail this in thy self as a most degenerating thing from primitive rectitude when thou findest thy knowledge thy controversal Disputes dry up thy affections So that truth is indeed earnestly sought after but the goodnesse of it doth not draw out thy affections When David commended the word of God above the honey and the honey-comb it was evident he found much experimental sweetnesse of the power of it upon his affections SECT XIII The Affections being drawn out to holy Duties from corrupt Motives shews the Pollution of them THirdly Herein also is apparent the original pollution of our affections That when they are moved and stirred up in any holy duties yet it is not a spiritual motive that draweth them out but some corrupt or unlawfull respect Thus there is a world of guile and hypocrisie in our affections we think it is the love of God that affecteth us when it is love to our selves to our own glory to accomplish our own ends Thus in our sorrow we think it is for sinne that we grieve when it is because of temporal evil or some outward calamity Insomuch that this very consideration of the hypocrisie and deceitfulnesse of our affections may be like an Abysse or deep to swallow us up when the heart is said to be so desperately wicked and that none can know it but God by that is meant in a great part our affections none knoweth the depths of his love of his fear of his sorrow How often doth he blesse himself when he finds these things moving in him especially in holy duties Whereas alas it is not any consideration from God any heavenly respect moveth him but some earthly consideration or other You may observe this in Jehu what ardent and burning affections did he shew in the cause of God destroying Idolatry and executing the judgements of God upon his enemies But what moved his affections all this while It was not the glory of God but self-respects self-advancement Oh this is the treacherous deceitfulnesse of our affections we may find them very strong in preaching in publick prayer with others and the fire to them be onely vain-glory Yea our affections may be blown up with our own expressions and delight in them so that as it is a long while ere thou canst get thy affections up to any holy duty so it is as difficult to search out What is the cause of them Why they rise up Those in Mat. 7. 21. that would cry Lord Lord did by the ingemination of the word demonstrate lively affections yet they were such whom God would bid depart as not knowing of them Here therefore is the misery of man that as all the speculative knowledge in the world unlesse it be also accompained with an affectionate frame doth not at all commend us to God so all hot and strong affections do not presently suppose the truth of grace within Experience doth sadly confirm this that many who have had great affections and workings of heart in the profession of godlinesse have yet desperately apostatized and become at last a senslesse and as stupid about heavenly things as any prophane ones are The Jews are said for a while to rejoyce in Johns light Joh. 5. 35.
The word signifieth more then ordinary affections even such as to make them trepidate and leap for joy yet this was but for a season So Mat. 13. there are some hearers who yet had not root enough that did receive the Word with joy By these instances it is plain That our affections are full of deceit full of falshood we know not when to trust them It is hard to tell what it is that draweth them out even in our holy duties and if the godly though in some measure regenerated find the power of this deceit upon their affections certainly the natural man he is all over cosened his affections are altogether a lie to him he saith he loves God with all his heart he saith he is grieved for all his sins when all the while his affections are moved from other respects SECT XIV Also they are more zealously carried out to any false and erroneous way then to the Truths of God FOurthly Herein also is manifested the great pollution of our affections That they are more earnestly and zealously carried out to any false and erroneous way then to the truths of God Let a man be in an heretical way in a superstitious way in any deluded way of Religion and you will find such to be more affectionate in their way then the godly can be in a true way and the reason is because our affections have more sutablenesse with what is corrupt and false then with what is true and of God Observe all the false religions that are in the world may you not admire at the zeal at the pains they take for the propagation of their opinions how restlesse they are Which certainly may exceedingly shame the children of the truth that men should be more active for the Devil then they can be for God Our Saviour observed it of the Pharisees how they compassed sea and land to make proselytes And Paul speaking of the Jews Rom. 10 2. He beareth them record that they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge The more affection in a wrong way the more dangerous it is It is good to be zealously affected saith the Apostle in a good thing Gal. 4 18. This he speaketh because the false apostles did appear with a great deal of affection none seemed to manifest such passionate bowels to people as they did but saith Paul they zealously affect you but not well It is not from spiritual and heavenly motives that they are thus affectionate towards you Well then this is sadly to be bewailed that our affections will vehemently runne like a torrent down any false or erroneous way whereas to that which is truth indeed we can hardly raise them up Wonder not then if you see the Papist in his superstitious way the erroneous person in his false way to be so full of affections and devotion in his perswasions for alas it is easie falling down the hill error and supersition is agreeable with the corrupt nature of man When we read what some Monks and Hermites have done in solitary places afflicting themselves macerating their bodies we may admire how their affections in that way could hold out so long but mans heart like the earth will bring forth nettles and weeds of it self but it cannot corn or flowers without diligent managing of it Let us then mourn for this evil that is come upon our affections look upon all the superstitious and false wayes in the world See with what greedinesse and vehemency they are carried out to them but as for thee whom God preserveth in the truth and keepeth in his wayes thou art quickly weary in well-doing Oh be afraid lest all the pains and diligence of man in false wayes do not rise up to condemn thee for thy slothfulnesse in Gods wayes SECT XV. They are for the most part inlets to all sinne in the Soul HErein are these motions of the soul greatly depraved In that they are inlets for the most part of all sinne into the soul They are the weakest part of the wall and therefore Satan doth commonly begin his batteries there this is as it were the thatcht part of the building and so any spark of lusts falling upon it doth immediately set the whole building on fire It is true the senses they are the out-works and porches as it were of the soul and therefore temptations begin there but then the affections are the second Court as it were so that for the most part the mind and the will are carried on to sinne because the affections are first corrupted these lye as Saul's men did all asleep while his enemies had the opportunity to take away not only his spear but his life Now it is good to know that the order and method of the souls motions to any outward objects in its first creation was very rational and commensurate to the true rule for then the understanding did first apprehend and take notice of the objects to be loved which it did consider without any ignorance or error upon this clear proposition of the object The will did readily receive and imbrace it and when this was all done then the affections were subsubsequent they immediately followed without any delay so that Adam had this perfect method in all his actions before his apostacy reason did begin and affections did end but what confusion and disorder is now brought upon us affections do now begin not the eies but the feet do lead the Devil and sinne get their first entrance into the soul by the affections so that as the Philosophers say in a natural way Quicquid est in intellectâ— prius fuit in sensu whatsoever is in the understanding was first in the sence so may we say morally Quicquid est in voluntate prius fuit in appetitu sensitivo whatsoever is in the will was in the affections and no wonder it is so now seeing that the Devil did bring sinne into the world by beseiging the affections at first and thereby corrupting the understanding for as Satan did first tempt Eve the weaker vessel and so beguiled Adam whereupon the woman is said to be first in the transgression so even in man he did first begin with the affectionate part the Eve as it were and by that did overcome the rational part which was like the Adam Eve then was tempted to sinne although she had no corrupt principles within her meerly because the bait laid for her was sutable to her sense and affections how much more then do affections like so many thieves open all the doors and let iniquity come in every where when reason and grace have no command over them Sit down then and well consider this particular That thy affections do first beatray thee Thy ruin doth begin in them and therefore whosoever would keep any sinne from taking the Castle of the soul he must watch over his affections he must be sure to put out every spark of their fire as it were Job made a
moment wherein thy fancy is not busied about some object or other And whereas other parts of the soul are subject to sinne while we are awake only The will the mind they only sinne at that time this fancy is many times very sinful in the night time how many polluted and wicked dreames do men fall into at such a time at which they tremble and abhorre themselves when awakened Thus though all sleep yet sinne doth not but liveth and acteth in the imagination But of the sinfulness of dreames by the corrupt imagination more afterwards Only for the present let us humble our selves under the perpetual and incessant motion of our sinful fancy there being no hour or moment wherein we are free from the corrupt stirrings thereof If there could be a breathing time or a respite from sinne this would at least lessen the damnable guilt thereof but to be daily minting and fashioning corrupt imaginations without any intermission how heavily should it presse us down and make us to judge our selves worse then beasts yea equal to the apostate Angels in perpetuity of sinning For whereas it is said that in this particular mans wickedness is not so great as the Devils because the Devils sinne continually they neither slumber or sleep as God who keepeth Israel doth not so neither they who oppose Israel The Devil doth vent his enmity and never hath any stop therein by any natural impediment Now whereas in man by reason of sleep there is to be a natural intermission and interruption of evil the imagination being corrupted doth thereby keep the fire of sinne like that of hell from going out Cry out then unto God because of this daily oppression that is upon thy soul yea how happy would it be if thou couldst judge it to be an oppression and a slavery but these sinful imaginations are matter of delight and titillation to thee thou art pleased and ravished as it were with them all the day long SECT VI. The Universallity Multitude and Disorder of them FOurthly As the perpetual sinful actings of them may humble us so the universallity and multitude of them They do extend themselves to ens and non ens to every thing and to nothing Insomuch that the multitude of thy imaginations do even overwhelm thee for this being the difference between the external senses and the imagination that the outward senses they are never moved or excited but by the present objects The imagination that is constantly working about absent objects hence it is that your fancyes they are many times roving and wandring about those objects that are many hundred miles distant from thee as God complained of the people of Israel That they drew nigh with their lips but their heart was afarre off They shewed much love but their heart went after their covetousness Ezek. 33. 31. Thus it is with us continually when we pray when we hear our imaginations are running many miles off They are like Cain vagabonds and have no setled abode which brings in the next instance of their sinfulness SECT VII Their roving and wandring up and down without any fixed way FIfthly Their roving and wandring up and down without any fixed and setled way They fly up and down and frisk here and there so that although they were a multitude yet if in a setled ordered way ther might be some spiritual advantage made of them As a great Army if well marshalled may be usefull but now here is nothing but confusion and disorders in thy imagination so that sometimes many fancyes come into thy head at the same time that thy head and heart is all in uproar which breedeth another particular of sinfulness and that is The hurry and continuall noise that a man hath daily within him as if a swarme of Bees were in his soul Christ told Martha She was troubled about many things but one thing was necessary Luk. 10. 41 The word signifieth she was in a crowd as it were There was a great noise within her as men make in a market or some common meeting As those in a Mill have such a noise within that they cannot hear any speaking to them without Thus it is here the imagination fils thy soul with cumbersome thoughts with confused noises so that thou canst seldome make quiet and calme approaches unto God in any holy duty and if so be the ground tilled and dressed doth bring forth such bryars and thornes is it any wonder that the wilderness doth If in a godly man there be nothing so much annoyeth him which is so constant a burden and complaint to him as these tumulâ—ouns imaginations these roving fancyes flying up and down like so many feathers in a stormy wind what can we think is continually in the imagination of a natural man SECT VIII The Impertinency and Unseasonableness of the Imaginations SIxthly The impertinency and unseasonableness of thy imagination this is also to be bewailed Indeed the unregenerate man findeth no load or burden here therefore if these weeds choak up all the corn if sinful imaginations fill his heart full all the while that religious duties are performing he never mattereth it he had rather his heart should be full of dung and earth then of pearles he is more desirous that his soul should be fraughted with pleasing imaginations then attentive to those things that are spiritual and heavenly But oh the sad complaints the people of God make in this particular the unseasonableness of their fancy in heavenly approaches to God commonly in religious duties more then at any other time do roving imaginations obtrude themselves which even the children of God can no more hinder then the birds flying in the air This is the sad temptation that you have most of Gods people exercised with and for redemption out of this bondage they do earnestly pray to God but as long as the soul though sanctified is thus joyned to the body and acts dependently upon the organs thereof it cannot be otherwise but as when a stone cast into the water maketh one circle and that maketh another This it is in mans imagination one fancy causeth another and that another whereby the soul is scarce ever quiet in any duty but these phantasmes lie knocking at the door and do breed great disturbance and which is saddest of all the Devil as is to be shewed doth usually at such times cast in his fiery darts his blasphemous injections do oftentimes violate the soul so that in stead of drawing nigh to God it is filled with doleful and terrifying imaginations SECT VIII It eclipseth and for the most part keeps out the Understanding With many instances thereof SIxthly Herein doth the sinfulnesse of it appear that it doth eclipse yea for the most part exclude and keep out the understanding which is the more noble light and to which it ought to be subservient so that men whether in religions or civil affairs are more led by fancy then by reason there imagination is
gloried in humane literature 1 Cor. 1. 23. Though it is true God will by these weak things bring to nought the great admired things of the world Thus 2 Cor. 10. 5. The ministerial weapons of the Gospel are mighty through God to pull down strong holds and to cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self as Cannon-shot doth strong Castles By this of the Apostle you see the imaginations of men raise up strong and mighty opposition against the Word preached though the Word of God set home by his own power overcometh every thing that doth withstand it It is good then especially for men of quick parts and raised fancies to suspect themselves to fear lest from them arise all their destruction lest these be the bolts and barres that keep Christ out from possessing of their hearts SECT XIV It is more affected with Appearances then Realities TWelfthly The sinfulnesse of the Imagination is seen in that it is more affected with the appearance of things then the reality yea we do wholly satisfie our selves with things as they are in our fancy only and never attain to what is really good or happy Our comforts are but imaginary comforts our delights but imaginary delight yea our wealth our honours are but in imagination onely It 's usual with the Scripture to speak of the Nations of the world comparatively to God as a drop as a little dust How often is a mans life compared to a shadow Insomuch that neither our life and delight are worthy of the name All the things of this world are but in imagination What seemeth to be more substantial than wealth which is said to answer all things yet Solomon saith Why doest thou set thy eyes upon that which is not Prov. 23. 5. Wilt thou cause thine eyes to flie upon it is in the original It sheweth our ardent desires after that thing which is not Hence a wicked man in his greatest triumph and glory is compared but to a dream Job 20 8. He shall flee away as a dream and shall not be All the while we pursue riches honours all the while our hearts are hastening after the creatures we are but in a dream What is true riches What is true food What is true glory We misse and imbrace onely a shadow This is notably represented by the Prophet Isa 29. 8. The enemies of the Church that had in their hopes and expectations devoured Zion are compared to an hungry man that dreameth he eateth but when he is awakened his soul is empty Thus it is in all these worldly enjoyments this life is but a dream we are not awaked till we come within the borders of eternity Oh that this were truly considered how greatly would it mortifie that inordinacy in us to these sading things When the child rejoyceth in his bauble it is but his Imagination that is pleased his counters he taketh for money it is but his fancy that contents him and truly no more are all the great things of the world in respect of God and eternal things SECT XV. The sinfulness of the Imagination in respect of fear and the workings of Conscience 13. AS the Imagination makes us rejoyce and account our selves happy when there is no solid foundation for it so on the other side When the conscience is awakened for sinne many times the imagination doth work so terribly and filleth us with such sad apprehensions that we fear where no fear is we flee when none pursueth So that a disturbed imagination doth many times work with the troubles of conscience hindering both the working of our judgement and of faith representing God and Christ to us farre otherwise then they are Job complaineth Chap. 7. 14. that God did scare him with dreams Oh it is very sad and a grievous condition when God shall turn a mans fancy against his own self To have our conscience against us and our imaginations against us is an hell upon an earth and it is just with God to fill these Imaginations that once received nothing but lustfull and pleasant impressions with terrible and dreadfull ones and both these wayes draw from God both joyfull delights and terrible apprehensions That great change which we read made upon Nebuchadnezzar who from a great Monarch of the world is become like a beast living amongst them his haires being growne like Eagles feathers and his nailes like birds clawes was nothing else as many Expositours judge but a judgement brought upon his Reason and Imagination by a deep melancholly So that the terrours of a troubled Imagination especially when joyned with troubles of conscience doe drive from Christ oppose the comfortable way of the Gospel as well as proud and unclean motions do the pure and holy way thereof SECT XVI Of the Actings of the Imagination in Dreams IN the fourteenth place Herein the pollution of it doth manifest it self That when the senses and the rational part are bound up so that they cease from operation even then that is acting and most commonly in a sinfull manner by dreams Dreams are the proper work of the Imagination and Divines do make three sorts of them Natural Dreams which arise from natural causes and these commonly either have much sinfulness in them or great troublesomness Diabolical such as are cast into the imagination by the Devil or Divine such as are caused by God for the Spirit of God hath used the imagination in some operations thereof Thus Joseph and others were warned by God in a dream And Joel 2. the promise is That their young men should dream dreams These Divine dreams Tertullian Lib. 3. de animâ doth divide into Prophetica such as are meerly fore-telling things to come Revelatoria such as reveal something to be done as Peters vision concerning Cornelius Aedificatoria such as build up to any holy duty And Vocatoria that call to some spiritual service as that vision of Paul inviting him to come into Macedonia Concerning Diabolical Dreams they are not a mans sinnes but afflictions unless a man doth directly or indirectly consent thereunto or walk so that he deserveth God should leave him to such unclean or polluted apprehensions But we speak of Natural Dreams and not such as are meerly natural that arise from some natural cause but such as have had some voluntariness antecedent thereunto while waking such now are proud dreames malicious dreams unclean and unjust dreams All these do either expresly or virtually come from a polluted Imagination while we are awake though happily we cannot remember any such thoughts we had The sinfulness then of our dreams we are to be humbled under as coming from sinne the cause and being also sinnes in themselves No doubt but Adam would have dreamed it being common to all mankind onely it is said of Nero That he seldome or never dreamed till after the murder of Agrippina after which he was afrighted with terrible ones As also of the Atalantes that none dream amongst them Though
Tertullian faith Perhaps same did deceive Aristotle in that report yet his dreams had been meerly natural not having the least connexion of any sinne or any disquieting with them But how greatly is confusion brought upon us in this very respect Insomuch that what the Devil cannot tempt to while waking he doth allure unto while dreaming Indeed it is folly and superstition as many people do to regard dreams so as to make conjectures and prophesies thereby but so to observe them as to take notice of the filthiness and sinfulness of them that is a duty for although the reason and the will do not operate at that time yet there is sinne in our dreams because they are the effects of the sinfull motions of thy soul sometimes or other Let it then be thy care to have pure and sanctified imaginations both dreaming and waking and do nothing that may provoke the Spirit of God to leave thee to the defilements thereof SECT XVII It is not in that orderly Subordination to the rational part of man as it was in the Primitive Condition 15. THe imagination is hereby deprived That it is not now in that orderly subordination to the rational part of man as it was in its primitive condition Every thing in Adam was harmonical he was not infested with needless and wandering Imaginations Even the birds of the air as well as the beasts of the field God brought to Adam that he should give names to them The birds though flying in the air yet come and submit to him so it was in his soul Those volatique Imaginations and flying thoughts which might arise in Adam's soul they were all within his power and command neither did any troublesomly interpose in his holy meditation but now how predominant is thy imagination over thee How are good thoughts and bad thoughts conjoyned as there were clean and unclean beasts at the same time in the Ark Especially doest thou not labour and groan under thy wandring imaginations even in thy best duties and when thy heart is in the best frame Is not this the great Question thou propoundest to thy self How may I be freed from wandering thoughts and roving Imaginations in my addresses to God Oh that I were directed how to clip the wings of these birds for they are my burden and my heavy load all the day long Surely the experience of this in thy self may teach thee what a deep and mortal wound original sinne hath given every part of thee Hadst thou the Image of God in the full perfection of it as Adam once had as Christs humane nature had and as we shall have when glorified in Heaven then there would not be one wandring thought one roving imagination left as a thorn in thy side to offend and grieve thee This imagination being of such a subtil and quick motion doth presently flie from one thing to another runneth from one object to another so that hereby a great deal of sinne is committed in the very twinkling of an eye The soul indeed being sinite in his essence cannot think of all things together but not to consider that which it ought to do or to rove to one object when it should be fastned on another This is not a natural but a sinfull infirmity thereof SECT XVIII It is according to Austin's Judgement the great Instrument of conveying Original Sinne to the child 16. THe Imagination is so greatly polluted That according to Austin 's judgement it is the great instrument of conveying original sinne to the child For when he is pressed to shew how original sinne cometh to be propagated how the soul can be infected from the flesh though this be not his chief answer yet he doth in part runne to this viz. the powerfull effect of the imagination The vehement affection and lust in the parent is according to him the cause of a libidinous disposition in the child hereupon he instanceth in the fact of Jacob who by working upon the imagination of the females did by the parti-coloured sticks produce such a colour in their young ones Yea one thinketh that this instance was by a special providence of God chiefly to represent how original sinne might be propagated from parents to children And it cannot be denied but that many solid Philosophers and Phisitians do grant that the imagination hath a special influence upon the body and the child in the womb to make great immutation and change Austin instanceth lib 5. contra Julian cap. 9 in the King of Cyrus who would have a curious picture of exquisite beauty in his chamber for his wife to look upon in the time of her conception Yea Histories report strange and it may be very fabulous things herein therefore we are not to runne to this of the imagination when we would explain the traduction of this sinne It is true some imbre qualities are many times transfused from parents to children parents subject to the Gout and Stone have children also subject to such diseases and blackmores do alwaies beget blackmores and so no doubt but in the conveighing of original sinne there is a seminal influence but how and in what manner it is hard to discover but though the corrupt imagination cannot be the cause yet it may in some sense dispose for the propagating of it SECT XIX How prone it is to receive the Devils Impressions and Suggestions LAstly The imagination is greatly polluted In that it is so ready and prone to receive the Devils impressions and suggestions When we lost original righteousness which is the image of God not only original sinne like an universal leprosie did succeed in the room thereof but the Devil also did thereupon seize upon us as his owne our souls and all the parts and powers thereof are his habitation he reigneth in the hearts of all by nature we are all his captives so that as a man is said to dwell in his own house it is his home he may do what he will such a right and claim hath the Devil to a mans soul by nature he dwells in it he moveth and reigneth in it Now the imagination is that room of the soul wherein he doth often appear Indeed to speak exactly the Devil hath no efficient power over the rational part of a man he cannot change the will he cannot alter the heart of a man neither doth he know the thoughts of a man so that the utmost he can do in tempting of a man to sinne is by swasion and suggestion only but then How doth the Devil do this even by working upon the imagination Learned men make this his method that he observeth the temper and bodily constitution of a man and thereupon suggests to his fancy and injects his fiery darts thereinto by which the mind and will come to be wrought upon for it is Aristotl's rule That Phantasmata movent intellectum sicut sensila sensum so that as the object of sense being present doth presently move the sense so
part as it were flowing from the essence of God and this they acknowledge immortal but the soul and the body they say are mortal And the ancient Heretiques the Apollinarists might runne to this refuge who denied Christ to have any rational soul but his Divine Nature and his sensitive soul and body do make upon Christ The Manichees also affirmed two souls in men the one rational that was good and of God The other evil and the fountain of evil the sensitive soul coming from the Devil Yea Cerda upon Tertul. de anima lib. 3. saith not only Dydimus but others of the ancients did incline to this opinion that the Spirit was a distinct part in a man from soul and body which opinion Austin opposed Thus this Text hath favoured as some think that opinion of two souls in a man his rational and sensitive not in the Manichean way but in a Philosophical way and some learned men indeed have thought by holding two distinct souls many inconveniences would be avoided which are maintained in Philosophy and also the conflict and combate that is between the flesh and the spirit would be better explicated But certainly the Scripture speaketh constantly of man as having but one soul What will it profit a man to winne the whole world and lose his soul not his souls which Chrysostome used as an argument to make man watchfull to the salvation of it saying If thou hast lost one eye thou hast another to help thee if one arm another to support thee but if thou losest thy only soul thou hast not another to be saved Others therefore that they may avoid this inconvenience of holding three parts in a man do by spirit understand the work of grace in a man Thus the Greek Interpreters of old and some learned men of late but this doth not appear any wayes probable nor will the Context runn smoothly to make grace as it were a part of a man neither is it coherent to pray that God would preserve our grace our soul and body but rather grace in them Therefore we take spirit and soul for the same real substance in a man onely diversified by its several operations Lactantius cals it an inextrieable Question Whether animus and anima be the same thing in man meaning by anima that whereby the body is enlivened by animus that whereby we reason and understand but there seemeth to be no such difficulty therein the Scripture promiscuously calling it sometimes a soul and sometimes a spirit It 's called the spirit in regard of the understanding and reason as Ephes 4. 23. Be renewed in the spirit of your mind and soul because of the affectionate part therein so that the Apostle doth not mean two distinct parts in a man but two distinct powers and offices in the same soul You have a parallel expression Heb. 4. 12. where the word of God is said To divide between soul and spirit which afterwards is expressed by discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart Thus when Mary said Luke 1. 46 47. My soul doth magnifie the Lord and my spirit hath rejoyced in God she meaneth the same part within her only giveth it divers names This being explained whereas we see the Apostle praying for the sanctification of the body as well as the soul it is plain That it is unclean and sinfull as well as the soul else it did not need Sanctification From whence observe That the body of a man naturally is defiled and sinfull Sanctification extendeth adequately to our pollution Seeing then it is required of man that his body be holy and he is to glorifie God in that as well as in his soul and this cannot be without the sanctification of it it remaineth that our bodies are not only mortal but sinfull And indeed under the corruptibility of them we do readily groan and mourn under the diseases pains and aches of the body but spiritual life is required to be humbled for the sins of the body Object And if you say How can there be sinne in the body seeing that is not reasonable all sinne supposeth reason now the body being void of that it should seem that it is no more capable of sinne then bruit beasts are Answ To this it is answered That the body is called sinfull not because sinne is formally in it for so it is in the soul but because by it as an instrument sinne is accomplished The subjectum quod or of denomination of sinne is the person man himself The Principium quo formale is the soul the mind and will The medium or instrumentum quo is the body not that the body is only an instrument to the soul for it is an essential part of man with the soul as is further to be shewed Thus we truly call them sinfull eyes sinfull tongues because they do instrumentally accomplish the sinfulness of the heart when the Apostle prayeth That they might be sanctified wholly in spirit soul and body he prayeth for the reparation of Gods Image again Now when that was perfect in Adam the spirit was immediately subject to God the soul to the spirit the body to the soul So that what the spirit thought the soul affected and the body accomplished but now this excellent harmony being dissolved as the spirit is disobedient to God the affections to the spirit so also in the body to both and thereby it becometh a co-partner with the soul in sinne and therefore must be joyned with it in eternal torments SECT III. Scripture Proof of the sinfull pollution of the Body THat the very body of a man is sinfull and needeth sanctification is plain from these Texts 2 Cor. 7. 1. Having these promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holinesse This is spoken to those also that are regenerated none is perfect they must be perfecting As Apelles when he drew his line would write faciebat in the Imperfect tense not fecit as if he had finished it he would be still making it more exact so should we be in our best holy duties Amabam not amavi credebane not credidi there remaineth a further complement and fulness to be added to our best graces Now this perfection is by cleansing of the flesh and spirit that is the body and the soul It is a great errour among some Papists that they hold the spirit and mind of a man free from original contagion and therefore confine it only to the inferiour bodily parts but that hath sufficiently been confuted yet we deny not but the bodily part of man is likewise greatly contaminated and like an impure vessel defileth whatsoever cometh into it The uncleanness of the body appeareth also from that command Rom. 12. 1. where the Apostle enjoyneth that we should present our bodies a living Sacrifice holy and acceptable So that whatsoever we do by our body it is to be holy and acceptable unto God Now this exhortation was needless if we did
not naturally offer up our bodies a sacrifice to sinne and to the Devil For meerly a natural man serveth sinne and the Devil with all the parts of his body Therefore the Apostle speaking to persons converted Rom. 7. 19. saith As ye have yeelded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity so now yeeld your members servants to righteousness Thy eye was once the Devils and sinnes thy tongue was thy ear was by all these sinne was constantly committed so now have a sanctified body an holy eye a godly ear an heavenly tongue a pure body And indeed we need not runne for Texts of Scripture experience doth abundantly confirm the preparedness and readiness of the body to all suitable and pleasing iniquity Consider likewise that pregnant place Heb. 10. 22. Let us draw near with a pure heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water As the heart must be cleansed from all sinnes that our consciences may condemn us for so our bodies likewise must be washed with pure water it is an allusive expression to the legal custom which was for all before they drew nigh to the service of God to sprinkle themselves with pure water to take off the legal uncleanness of the body And thus we must still in a spiritual way that so the body may be fitted for Gods service As it is said of Christ Heb. 10. 5. A body thou hast prepared for me because the Spirit of God did so purifie that corpulent mass of which Christs body was made that being without all sinne he was thereby fitted for the work of a Mediator For as for the Socinian Interpretation who would apply it to Christs body made immortal and glorious as if it were to be understood of Christ entring into Heaven the Context doth evidently confute it that which the Apostle following the Septuaginnt in the original calleth Preparing the body out of which it is alledged Ps 40. 6. It is my ears hast thou opened aliuding to the Jewish custom who when a servant would not leave his Master his ears were to be boared and so he was to continue for ever with him The ears were boared because they are the instrument of hearing and obedience and thereby was signified that he would diligently hearken to his Masters commands Thus it was with Christ his ears were opened his whole body prepared to do the will of God Now as it was thus with Christ so in some respect it must be with us God must prepare and fit a body for us till grace sanctifie and polish it there is no readiness to any holy duty The seeing eye and the hearing ear God is said to make both Prov. 20. 12. By these instances out of Scripture you see what a Leprosie of sin hath spread over the body as well as the soul Oh that therefore we were sensible of these sinfull bodies that are such clogs to us such burdens to us in the way to Heaven But let us proceed to shew the sinfulness thereof in particulars SECT IV. The Sinfulness of the Body discovered in particulars ¶ 1. It is not now Instrumental and serviceable to the Soul in holy Approches to God but is a clog and burden FIrst The Body is not now instrumental and serviceable to the soul in holy approaches to God but is a clog and burden whereas to Adam abiding in the state of innocency the body was exceeding usefull to glorifie God with The body was as wings to the soul or as wheels to the chariot though weighty in themselves yet they do ableviate and help to motion They are both Onera and adjumenta oneranda exonerant Thus did the body to Adam's soul but now such is the usefulness yet the hinderance of the body to the souls operations that the very Heathens have complained of it calling it Carcer animae and Sepulchrum animae the prison of the soul the very grave of the soul as if the soul were buried in the body How much more may Christianity complain of this weight of the body while it is to runne its race to Heaven Mezenius is noted for a cruel fact of binding dead bodies to live men that so by the noisom stink of those carkasses the men tied to them might at last die a miserable death Truly by this may be represented original sinne not fully purged away by sanctification The godly do complain of this body of sinne as a noisom carkass joyned to them and with Paul cry out Wretched men that we are who shall deliver us from this bondage ¶ 2. It doth positively affect and defile the Soul SEcondly The bodies sinfulness doth not only appear thus privatively in being not subservient and helpfull to the soul But it doth also positively affect and defile the soul not by way of any phisical contact for so a body cannot work upon a spirit but by way of sympathy for seeing the soul and body are two constituent part essentially of man and the soul doth inform the body by an immediate union hence it is that there is a mutual fellowship one with another there is a mutual and reciprocal acting as it were upon one another the soul greatly affected doth make a great change upon the body and the body greatly distempered doth also make a wonderfull change upon the mind and if thereby man fall into madness and distractions why not also into sinne and pollutions of the mind Thus the corrupt soul maketh the body more vile and the corrupt body maketh the soul more sinful and so they do advance sinne in a mutual circle of causality Even as vapours cause clouds and clouds again dislolving do make vapours Thy sinful soul makes thy body more wicked and thy sinful body heightens the impiety of thy soul ¶ 3. A man acts more according to the body and the inclinations thereof then the mind with the Dictates thereof THirdly Herein is the pollution of the body manifested In that a man doth act more according to the body and the inclinations thereof then the mind with the dictates thereof He is body rather then soul for whereas in mans Creation the soul had the dominion and the body was made only for the use of the soul now this order is inverted by original sinne the body prevaileth over the soul and the soul is enslaved to the propensities thereof Even Aristotle said that homo was magis sensus quam intellectus more sence then understanding and so more corporeal then spiritual man is compounded of two parts which do in their nature extraemly differ from each other the body that is of dust and vile matter and such materials God would have man formed of even at first he did not make mans body of some admirable quintessential matter as Philosophers say the heavens are made of but of that which was most vile and contemptible to teach man humility even in his very original and most absolute
it totally prevail with the natural man Mat. 10. 28. Luk. 12. 4. I say to you may friends fear not them which can kill the body only but fear him who can cast both body and soul into hell But what Apostacies what sad perfidiousness in religion hath this love to the body caused the inordinate fear of the death thereof hath made many men wound and damne their soules Times then of dangers and persecutions do abundantly discover how inordinate men are in their love to their bodies looking upon bodily death worse then eternal damnation in hell although our Saviour hath spoken so expresly What will it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul Mark 8. 36. It is the Scriptures command that we should glorifie God in soul and body which are Gods our body is Gods that is bought with a price as well as your soul so that it ought to be our study how we should glorifie God by our eies by our ears by our tongues It is not enough to say thou hast a good heart and an honest heart if thou hast a sinful body now though there be many wayes wherein we may glorifie God by our bodies yet there is none so signal and eminent as when we do willingly at the call of God give our bodies to be disgraced tormented and killed for his sake then God saith to thee as he did to Abraham upon his willingness to offer up his son Isaac Now I know thou lovest me Thus you have Paul professing Gal. 6. 17. I bear in my body the marks of the Lords Jesus The Greek word signifieth such markes of ignominy as they did use to their servants or fugitives or evil doers now though in the eies of the world such were reproachfull yet Paul gloryed in them and therefore he giveth this as a reason why noue should trouble and molest him in the work of the Ministery this ought to be a demonstration to them of his sincerity and that he seeketh not himself but Christ hence also he saith Phil. 1. 20. Christ shall be magnified in his body whether by life or by death By this it is evident that we owe our bodies to Christ as well as our souls and that any fear to suffer in them for his sake argueth we love our bodies more then his glory ¶ 6. The Bodies indisposition to any service of God a Demonstration of its original Pollution BUt let us proceed to another particular wherein the original pollution of the body may be manifested and that is by the indisposition that is in the body to any service for God though it may be the soul is willing and desirous The drousinesse dulnesse and sleepinesse of the body doth many times cause the soul to be very unfit for any approaches unto God Our Saviour observed this even in his very Disciples when he said The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak Matth. 26. 41. when our Saviour was in those great agonies making earnest prayer unto God and commanding his Disciples To watch and pray that they might not enter into temptation yet they were heavy and dull and therefore were twice reproved for their sleep and this sleepinesse of theirs was at that time when if ever they should have been throughly awakened but thus it falleth out often that in those duties and at those times when we ought most to watch and attend then commonly the body is most heavy and dull Hence is that drousinesse and sleepinesse while the Word is preached whereas at thy meals or at thy recreations and in wordly businesses there is no such dulnesse falleth upon thee This ariseth partly from the soul and partly from the body The soul that is not spiritual and heavenly therefore it doth not with delight and joy approach unto God and then the body is like an instrument out of tune as earth is the most predominant element in it so it is a clog and a burden to the soul Therefore bewail thy natural condition herein Adams body was expedite and ready he found no indisposition in his body to serve the Lord but how often even when the heart desireth it yet is thy body a weight and trouble to thee Nazianzene doth excellently bewail this How I am joyned to this body I know not saith he how at the same time I should be the Image of God and roll in this dirt so he calleth the body It is a kind enemy a deceitfull friend How strange is this conjunction Quod vereor amplector quod amo perhorresco Doth not God suffer this wrestling of the body with the soul to humble us that we may understand that we are noble or base heavenly or earthly as we propend to either of these Orat. de pauperum curâ This should also make thee earnestly long for the coming of Christ when all this bodily sinfulnesse shall be done away Oh what a blessed change will there then be of this vile heavy dull and indisposed body to an immortal glorious and spiritual body then there will be no more complaints of this body of thine then that will cause no jarre or disturbance in the glorious service of God ¶ 7. How easily the Body is moved and stirred by the passions and affections thereof FOurthly The body is from the original defiled in that it is easily and readily moved and stirred by the passios and affections thereof It cannot be denied but that Heathens and Heretiques have declamed against and reviled the body of man as appeareth by Tertul de Resurrect Carmi. as if it were an evil substance made from some evil principle hence it is written of Piotinus the great Platenist that he was ashamed his soul was in a body and therefore would by no means yeeld to have the picture of it drawn neither would he regard parents or kindred or countrey because his body was from them but we proceed not upon these mens account we follow the Scripture-light and by that we see the body consociated with the soul in evil whereof this of the passions is not the least The passions they are seated in the sensitive and material part of a man and therefore have an immediate operation upon the body being therefore called passions because they make the body to suffer they work a corporal alteration Hence anger is defined from its effect an ebullition or bubling forth of bloud about the heart and thus grief because it is so immediately seated in the body is therefore said to be rottennesse to the bones and it is said to work death 2 Cor. 7. 10. But it was not thus with the body from the beginning Adam indeed had such passions as do suppose good in the object such as love and delight though they were bounded and did not transgresse their limits but then he was not capable of those passions which do suppose evil and hurt as anger fear and grief for these would have repugned the blessed estate he was created in
hid in the soul which by education and instruction are blown up into a flame So that the Schools which are generally provided for youth do declare That the nature of man of it self will bring forth weeds but there must be much plowing and sowing much cost and labour ere any good seed will grow up That known Text of Scripture will for ever bear record against these patrons of nature Folly is bound up in the heart of a child but the rod of correction will drive it away Prov. 22. 15. No lesse powerfull is that counsel Prov. 23. 13. With-hold not correction from the child if thou beat him with the rod he shall not die if thou beat him c. thou shalt deliver his soul from hell Doth not this proclaim that every child is set to damn it self if left alone It is not more prone to runne into the fire then it is to fall into hell and this maketh chastisement so necessary How necessary is it for parents to consider this either education or hell either chastisement or damnation And whence is all this but because of the impetuous nature in every child unto evil As the horse and mule need the bridle being carried out only by sense Thus doth the child need admonition being unteachable and untamable of himself even like the wild Asses colt Job 11. 12. Let parents then take heed of remisness lest their children roaring in hell do continually curse them for their negligence It 's a known example of a young man carried to the place of execution that cried out Non Praetor sed Mater mea duxit ad furcam It was not the Judge but his mother brought him to that shamefull death There was in the Tabernacle Aarons Rod and the Manna which some would have allegorically to signifie the sweetness and benefit of Discipline Iniquity then breedeth within us all the wisest and severest education can no more free a child from its inherent filthiness then Paracelsus could make himself immortal as he fondly boasted if he had had the first ordering and dieting of his body Hence the duty of parents is set down Ephes 6. 4. To bring up their children in the nature and admonition of the Lord. And Solomon who was so tender and onely beloved in the sight of his mother yet his parents were continually distilling wholsome precepts into him as Prov. 4. 3 4 5 implying thereby that none is without ignorance without a proneness to evil therefore is godly instruction so necessary So that the Doctrine of original sinne should greatly provoke fathers and mothers to their duties Every mother should be a Monica to her Austin that we may say It is not possible that Filius tot lachrymarum pereat a sonne of so many prayers and tears should perish Fifthy The difficulty that is acknowledged by ali to do that which is good and holy doth also manifest our propensity to what is evil We cannot apply the Text to that which is good and say Man drinketh down that like water The very Heathens could say Facilis discensus averni and Virtus in arduo sita est Virtue was placed upon an high mountain it was hard climbing up unto it but it was easie to tumble down it is easie to fall down the hill Sinne then being so easily committed and that which is good so hardly performed Doth not this speak plainly that we are corrupted by nature For certainly if the word of God neither in the threatnings or in the promises of it can make us decline from evil and do good when neither hell can terrifie us nor the glorious joyes of Heaven invite us This argueth we are immovably fixed in a way of sinning Is there any command for holy duties Is there any Law enjoyning us to leave our lusts of which we do not say It is an hard saying who can bear it Hence it is that the wisdome of the flesh is said to be enmity in the very abstract against God Rom. 8. 7. the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whatsoever is either in mind or affections is wholly opposite to the pure Law of God So that this is an evident demonstration of mans vehement inclination to sinne that though God hath set so many fiery flaming swords in the way to stop us from sinne Though Heaven in the glory of it be on one side discovered and hell in all the horrible and dreadfull torments of it on the other side Though many Ministers of God meet thee at the Angel did Balaam to stop thee in the way to sinne yet for all this thou doest despirately and obstinately proceed This maketh it appear that there is a more flagrant appetite to sinne then to any thing else like Rachel crying Give me children else I die so let me have my lusts satisfied else no life no condition is comfortable Sixthly The necessity of Gods grace both for the beginnings progresse and consummation in every good work doth evidently prove our polluted nature We need grace to make us new creatures of spiritually dead to quicken us and enliven us we need grace to breath in the very first desires and groans after any thing that is good Now why is there such a necessity of a Physician if we be not sick Christ is in vain grace is in vain if original sinne with the effects thereof be denied And therefore Austia said Pelagians were but nomine tenus Christiani Christians only in name for they do in effect exclude Christ and evacuate grace Indeed the pure Naturalist Vnam Necessarium Chap 6. pag. 413. affirmeth That the necessity of grace doth not suppose our nature to be originally corrupted for beyond Adam's meer nature something else was necessary and so it is in us This Position is bottomed upon that false and absurd Doctrine invented at first by some Philosophers brought into the Church by Pelagions much insisted upon by Papists That there is a middle state a state of pure nature between sinne and grace That Adam was created in such a condition God superadding the glorious ornaments of grace which upon his fall he was deprived of and so fell into his state of pure nature again and in this middle estate every Infant is now born a state indeed they say of imperfection but not of sinne we need grace to carry us to those sublime and high things which are above nature but otherwise there is no sinne is 〈◊〉 So that it 's the Papists expression That Adam standing and Adam fallen 〈◊〉 only as a man that was cloathed and naked or as the late Author as Moses face while the light did shine upon it and when it was removed As Moses face did remain with its naturals though it had not the super-added lustre Thus say they man is in his state of nature not sinfull neither godly But this is a monstrous figment and he that saith Those who dispute of original sinne do dispute De non ente How much rather may we say that
sinne finished because therein the evil of sinne doth most palpably demonstrate it self It is true Calvin doth by sinne finished or perfected mean not so much the acting of any grosse sinne as the customary continuance and perseverance in it and no doubt this sense is not to be excluded but the Text may very well be interpreted of any sinne though but once committed though it be not frequently iterated And thus we have this full and excellent Text largely explained From which we observe That original sinne is that lust within a man from whence all actual sinnes do flow That is as there is not a man or woman but he doth come from Adam Hence the Canonists have a saying That if Adam were alive he could not have a wise among all the women in the world because of their discent from him So it is true of every vain thought every idle word every ungodly action they all come from this original lust within a man and therefore the Devil with all his fiery darts could do us no hurt did not our lusts betray us Nemo se palpet de suo Satanas est said Austin Let no man flatter himself he is a Devil to himself from his own lust he is a tempter to himself This truth is of special use to humble us this will make us debase our selves crying out O Lord I even I alone am to be blamed it is from my own vile self that all this corruption doth thus overflow This our Saviour confirmed when he said Matth. 15. 19. One of the heart proceed evil thoughts murders adulteries c. So that whosoever would be kept free and unspotted from sinne he must watch over his heart more diligently there is the nest there is the spawn of all those noisome sins that may be seen in thy life SECT II. That Original Sinne is the cause of all Actual Evil cleared by several Propositions which are Antidotes against many Errors ¶ 1. VVE proceed to clear this Truth in several Propositions which also will be as antidotes for the most part against so many respective errors in this Point And First By lust here in the Text we are not to understand that particular libidinous disposition in men whereby they are carried out in a wanton or unclean manner as we in our English phrase do for the most part limit it For the Apostle doth comprehend farre more Rom. 7. in that command Thou shalt not lust or covet neither is this lust to be restrained only to the sensitive and carnal part of a man as if lust were not chiefly in the reason and the will of a man according to Scripture-language Lust doth comprehend the deordination of the sublime and rational part in a man Therefore those Papists who do limit lust only to the sensual part are wholly ignorant of the extension of original sinne and the diffusion of it self through the chiefest parts of a man Hence it is justly to be censured that the late Annotator on this Text doth in his paraphrase joyn with the most erroneous of the Popish party for by lust he understands our treacherous sensual appetite which being impatient of sufferings suggests some sensitive carnal baits and so by them enticeth him And in the verse following he agin paraphraseth When consent is joyned to the invitation of the sensual part against the contrary dictates of his reason and the Spirit then that and not the affliction or temptation begetteth sinne Thus he But we may meet with a more sound and orthodox explication I say not in Whitaker and other Protestant Authors who conflict with the Papists in this point but even in Estius the Papist who doth ingenuously acknowledge That because the Apostle is here speaking of the original of all sinne spiritual sinnes as well as carnal it cannot be limited to the sensitive appetite Do not the sins of the mind arise from our lusts within us Do not the Devils sinne from the lust within them and yet they have no sensitive appetite And when the Apostle Gal. 5. 17. speaketh of that remarkable lusting which is between the flesh and the Spirit he cannot mean the sensual inferiour part of a man only for the works of this flesh are some of them said to be Idolatry Heresies which must needs proceed from the rational part of a man It is therefore too evident that this lust which doth so greatly entice us is not only in the inferiour part of the soul but most predominantly in the superiour and hence the understanding hath its peculiar enmity to the holy truths of God and the will its proper obstinacy to the good duties which God hath commanded Therefore we read of that expression Col. 2. 18. Puft up with a fleshly mind So that heresie is a lust of the mind envy a lust of the mind for the Devil is full of envy though Philosophers referre envy to one of their mixed and compounded passions unbelief ambition vain-glory these are lusts of the rational part Think not then that thy affections only do lust against the Spirit of God but thy reason thy will also doth and these have the greatest evil in them they are the greatest enemies to the wayes and truths of Christ As the Publicans sinnes were from the lust of the flesh so the Pharises sinnes were from the lusts of the mind And thus the more superstitious erroneous and devout any are in false wayes of Religion the more dangerous are their lusts because the more spiritual and immaterial This kind of lusting followeth us in our prayers in our preachings in all spiritual performances So that whereas carnal and bodily lusts are easily discerned and are accounted very loathsome in the eyes of the world These spiritual lusts are very difficulty discovered and may then most reign over a man when he thinketh himself most free from them Propos 2. When we say original sinne is the cause of all the actual evil that is committed this is not to be understood as if it did proximly and immediately produce every actual impiety onely this is the mediate cause and the root of all It is true the learned Whitaker will not allow it to be called the remote cause of death and other miseries which Infants are obnoxious unto As the root cannot be said to be the remote cause of fruit because it doth nourish it though under ground and at a distance from it Or as he instanceth a fountain is a cause of that stream which is carried in a long course distant from the spring De peccat orig l. 2. c. 9. But we need not strive about words No doubt when men through custom have contracted habits of sin upon them habits are the immediate and proxim causes of the wicked actions such persons do commit but original sinne is the mediate yet because original sinne is the causa causae it may be called the causa causati it being the cause of the customs and habits of sins it may
object is to our corrupt hearts one way or other as the forbidden fruit was to Eve not that God doth forbid us to see or hear such things but because the soul cannot be excited by those objects and affected with them but it is in a sinful manner If then thy head were a fountain of teares it could not weep enough for the desolation that is upon thee Thy eye maketh thee sinne thy ear maketh thee sinne Thus thou art compassed about with sinne from evening and morning 2. These suddain motions of sinne sometimes arise from the imagination and fancy of a man And truly how often do displeasing and sinful imaginations disturb the peace and quiet of thy soul Is it not thy fancy thou complainest of how volatique and roving is that It stayeth no where it is not fixed in holy duties It is like a market place where there is a croud of people so that the imagination doth very often help this original lust and sinne to bring forth What a quiet srene and blessed life should a man live if his imagination could be kept in an holy fixed frame if he could bid it go and it goeth do this and it did it 3. The perturbation of the body by distempers that many times causeth this original sinne to be working in us Though the body be corporeal and the soul a spirit and so cannot act physically upon it yet because they are both the essential parts of a man immediately united together there is by sympathy an acting and affecting of one another especially the body being instrumental to the soul in many operations Hence it is when that is disturbed and indisposed the soul also is hindred in its operations and therefore from the distemper of the body we are easily moved to anger to sorrow to fear to lusts So that the motions of the soul are many times according to the motions of the body as Gerson instanceth Compend Theol. in a simile which he saith some use concerning the water when the Sunne-beams are upon it as the water moveth or danceth up and down so do the Sunne-beams which are upon the water Thus as the body is in any commotion so the soul which is more immediately united to the body then the beams of the Sunne are to the water doth work according as it finds this instrument disposed Fourthly This original lust is often stirred up to entice us by the sensitive appetite by the passions and affections that are in us This we told you some did limit lust to in the Text but very unsoundly yet it cannot be denied but because the affectionate part of a man is so prevalent and operative that very often sinne is committed here even without the consent of the will These affections doe suddenly transport us and we can no more command them to be quiet then we are able to compose the waves of the Sea Now though we would withstand and gain-say them yet they are our sinnes for all that as we see Paul sadly complaining herein Rom. 7. Austin delighteth De Trinit lib. 13. to expresse our manner of sinning by allusion to the first sinne When any object doth present it self to allure and affect us then the Serpent saith he sheweth us the forbidden fruit When the sensitive appetite of a man is drawn out to consent unto it then Eve doth eat of this forbidden fruit when the rational part of the soul is enticed likewise to consent to this sinne then Eve giveth of this fruit to Adam and he eateth Thus Reason is like Adam Eve like the sensitive part and as Eve when she did eat the forbidden fruit alone did thereby grow mortal and would have died though Adam had not consented to eat Thus the affectionate part of a man carrying us away to sinne though the superiour part of the soul will not agree thereunto yet this maketh us to be in a state of damnation This maketh the action to be damnable Lastly When none of these wayes doe stirre up original sinne then the thoughts and apprehensions of a man in the intellectual part they may And indeed the former provoking causes were most conspicuous in grosse and carnal sinnes but this is influential in spiritual sinnes from the minde come vain thoughts ambitious proud malicious thoughts from the mind arise blasphemous atheistical and unbelieving thoughts Thus you see how poor and wretched man is become in his soul as Laezarus was in his body all over with ulcers and sores no place is free from sinne Oh that God would deliver us from our blindnesse of minde from our self-fulnesse whereby we are so apt to fall in love with our selves so as to think we want nothing when we are without God without Christ without the Image of God without all holinesse and peace within either of soul or body How should it pity thee to see this glorious building thus lying in its own ruines and rubbidge Now from all these particulars thus joyned together you may observe how sinne carrieth us away in a pleasing enticing manner So that although we cannot but sinne yet this is very delightsome and satisfactory insomuch that man is drawn aside to sinne as he said Trahit sua quemque voluptas And this is more to be observed because the adversaries do so tragically exclaim against us in affirming that we lie under a necessity of sinning we cannot but sin Why then say they Why should God damn us for sinning any more than for being thirsty or hungry which do necessarily affect us But the Answer is two-fold 1. This necessity of sinning is voluntarily contracted and brought upon us it is not as hunger or thirst which were necessary properties of man at his Creation though without that grief and pain which now we feel And 2. This necessity is also voluntary and pleasing it seizeth upon the mind will affections and the whole man and therefore as we cannot help it so neither will we help it We love and delight to eat this poison Lastly There are these three degrees whereby it 's said Lust cometh to be accomplished Though some differ in their expressions herein The first is Suggestion and that is when any lust doth begin to arise in the soul This is very imperceptible and undiscerned but by those who are exact in the spiritual exercises of thier soul It is true some say this word Suggestion is not proper because that doth properly come from without the Devil or the world but this is internal arising of our selves But we need not strive about words The second is Delight From this motion the soul presently findeth some secret pleasure and accordingly thinketh of it with delight receiveth it with delight Lastly There is the consent unto these to will them to be joyned to them And thus when sinne hath made this progresse a man is an adulterer a murderer before God though not actually done in the eyes of men as our Saviour witnesseth Matth. 5. 28. for
there as you see Paul doth Rom. 7. Let it not be thought that thou art freed from all sinne because thou doest withstand them thou doest not own them For although this will keep them from being imputed unto thee yet in themselves they are sinnes they are damnable God might throw thee into hell for the meer having of them God might justly say I sowed good seed in thy soul but how come these tares there These thoughts these motions are none of my planting I created them not Therefore the very having of them in thy soul is a sinne against God though never expressed in action and the reason hereof is from the exact spirituality of the Law of God There is this great difference between God and all political Law-giver these later forbid only the external action they do not prohibit the inward will or desire What Law-giver amongst men was ever so absurd as to say you shall not cover or desire such a thing But if men do outwardly offend then they are obnoxious to punishment But it is otherwise with God in his Laws who is the Father of Spirits and searcheth our hearts therefore his Law doth principally reach to the heart to make that a good treasure to have the tree first good and then to make the fruit answerable thereunto 2. We offend against God not only by having of these motions stirring in us but much more when they delight us when we find a complacency and sweetness in the thinking of them when they affect us so that we roll them like honey under the tongue And truly in this respect the godly soul is even amazed and astonished to see how vile it is and how abominable For what innumerable pleasing delightsome motions do arise in thy soul all the day long either about unlawfull objects or if lawfull in an inordinate and sinfull manner Are not these more then the hairs of thy head in number Now concerning these delightfull pleasing motions of the soul in a sinfull way observe these Rules 1. That a man may be carried out in these delightfull objects either by a meer affection of complacency and pleasure or by an efficacious act and purpose of the will to accomplish such a sinne as in uncleannesse The corrupt heart may delight it self in lascivious apprehensions and defile it self exceedingly in that way but yet have no efficacious will to commit the sinne yea as we told you would not for a world commit it either for shame or for punishment or some other respects For sinne hath then got strong power over us and we are left by God when we are boldly carried on to commit such leudness It is therefore necessary for the spiritual and heart-Christian to observe the former as well as the later Do there not arise contemplative delightsome thoughts about sinfull objects Are they not rolled up and down in thy heart though thou hast no purpose to effect them Oh be ashamed and blush to have such an impure soul Is this soul fit for communion with God Is this the temple of the holy Ghost Rule 2. The object of these delighting pleasing motions may either be the sinnes themselves desired and inclined after or They may be the meer thoughts and apprehensions of them For the soul being a spiritual substance hath power to reflect upon its own acts and operations to know it knoweth to think what it thinketh And therupon because as Aquinas saith Delectatio sequitur operationem Delight followeth operation we may take great pleasure in our thoughts and even be drunken with delight therein This is especially to be seen in heretical and erroneous persons Men who are proud of their opinions their notions their own conceptions and inventions What infinite pleasure and content do such men take in the thoughts about their own thoughts and apprehensions More sometimes then the greatest Monarchs can do in their earthly greatness It behoveth therefore men of parts and gifts men of learning and extraordinary activity of wit to take heed of lust within carrying them out to pride and delight in their own selves Rule 3. These motions of delight and pleasure in the soul are of a large extent We are not to limit them only to bodily lusts or ambitious desires for as large as the command of God is so large is this way of delightsome motions in the soul by contrariety thereunto As the Law of God is divided into two Tables and therein are required all the duties we own to God and man So likewise hereby are forbidden all the pleasing lusts and thoughts of the soul which oppose these duties And if a man be a searcher of his own heart he cannot but take notice how often these sinfull motions of his soul sometimes empty themselves in reference to God and sometimes towards our neighbour Towards God and thus we have delightfull motions in our own self-trusting and confidence in the creature we love and rejoyce in humane comforts to the excluding and shutting out of God himself especially in holy duties in the observance of his own day and Ordinances How many pleasing distracting and wandring motions do then seize upon us so that commonly we never find our selves more molested by them then when we are in a most heavenly and holy manner to approach unto him And for the duties towards our Neighbour there arise many pleasing evil motions of soul to envy at his good to be glad at the evil which befalleth him to have uncharitable and suspitious thoughts towards him Thus where ever any actual sin may be committed either against God or man there may and do pleasing and delightfull thoughts arise before and prepare the way for them Lastly Cajetan giveth a good Rule Summula Tit. Delectatio concerning these motions of delight within us that in them we are to consider the Occasion the Liberty and the Intention about them The occasion Thus if we do put our selves into such companies go to see such sights read such books hear such unsavoury discourse as may stirre up our hearts to these sinfull motions then our sinne is the greater and we shall be found the more guilty before God Such is our corrupt nature that we need not adde oil to that fire within us Even in lawfull and just duties yea in our most holy and heavenly performances these sinfull motions arise to disturb and distract our souls as if mens did come of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Moon as some affirm because of the divers shapes and vicissitude it is often put into We ought therefore to be farre from adding fuel to this fire by going to unlawfull sights to wicked companions thereby to provoke that corruption within us Again We are to consider what Liberty and power we have to subdue them and represse them some rise more suddenly then others and some again appear so that we have time to consider of the danger of them the damnable nature of them Now the more time we have to
deliberate and to consider about the sinfulness and wickedness of them how much God is offended how loathsom and abominable they are in his eyes and yet we suffer them to lodge there the greater is our condemnation Lastly The Intention and end of such thoughts is to be considered for alwayes cogitatio mali is not mala cogitatio the thought of evil is not an evil thought When men think of sinne to repent of it to detest it to reform it sinne is in their mind then but because there are no delightfull motions to it therefore it is not evil So if a Minister preach against adultery or any other sinne he cannot but think of the nature of it and what it is yet because his intention in thinking of it is to make men abhorre and leave it therefore it is good and lawfull So that meer thoughts about sinne are not alwayes sinne but when accompanied with some affections and inclinations thereunto Onely it is good to inform you That such is our deceitfulness of heart that many times we think it lawfull to rejoyce and delight in some profit and emolument that may come by another mans sinne or some evil upon him when indeed we are glad of the sin or evil it self If a man by telling a lie should save thy estate or life How hard is it not to delight in the sinne because thou hast profit by it Thus unnatural children may rejoyce in the death of their parents whereby they come to inherit their estates and yet please themselves that they not rejoyce in their death but the profit that cometh thereby to them There are many practical instances in this case and therefore we must look our hearts do not deceive us therein For it is very difficult to have any advantage by another mans sinne or evil and not to have a secret and tacit will thereof And thus much for the Rules about delightfull motions to sin We proceed to a third particular whereby we may sinne against God by these motions of sinne within us and that is When we are carelesse and negligent about them they trouble us not they grieve us not How many are there that regard the thoughts and motions of their soul no more then the fowls that flie over their heads It argueth an unregenerate heart an heart not acquainted with the power of godliness that doth not mourn and grieve under them How greatly was the Apostle Paul Rom. 7. afflicted by them This made him long for Christ and Heaven where he should be annoyed with them no more This negligence about them is that which maketh thee also careless to repress and conquer them They may lodge whole dayes and nights in thy soul and thou never seekest to expel them out Thus thy heart is like the sluggards field full of bryars and thorns Oh that God would give you seeing eyes and tender hearts then you would find that even an hair hath its shadow even the least motion to sinne hath its sting and bitterness with it and above all sinfull motions look to those that arise in thee because good things are urged and commanded to thee For this is the desperate incurable evil our souls that good things stirre up sinfull lusts within us not indeed properly and directly but occasionally and by accident Thus the Apostle bewaileth the motions of lusts within him from this account Rom. 7. 8. Sinne taking occasion by the commandment wrought all manner of concupiscence within him Thus the good and spiritual Law made him more carnal and sinfull And what is more often then to have powerfull preaching godly and wholsome reproofs stirre up the evil motions of men against them Thus the more remedies are applied to us the more corrupt we grow We might be voluminous in this soul-searching point but we must conclude Let the Use be Seeing that a man is thus tempted from his own lust within him we cannot lay the cause on the Devil himself though he be a Tempter then it 's our duty to look to what is within Those embers within us will quickly set all on fire Say not this or that moved me blame not this or that estate but thy corrupt lust within This is as Luther said in Genes Chap. 13. to be like the fool that stood in the Sunne bowed down and then complained his shadow was crooked It is not thy riches nor thy poverty not thy health or sickness no condition or temptation whatsoever but the true proper cause is this maternal lust which lieth in our bosoms How little is this truth attendeth unto with the Pharisees we more regard to cleanse the outside than the inside Mat. 23. 25. The mistake herein brought those many rigid and ausiere disciplinary wayes in Popery as if from the externals we must cure the heart and not by curing the heart thereby cleanse the outwards The Franciscan will not so much as touch silver The Carthusians will not eat a bit of flesh though their lives depend upon it What folly is this Meat and money are the good creatures of God if we do abuse them they are not to be blamed but our corrupt lusts within If a whorish woman wear gold and precious stones to allure others they are in themselves good though she abuse them to an ill end And thus all the comforts and mercies we enjoy are Gods good gifts and it is not the actual abdication of the use of them but the mortifying of our lust within that will make us please God CHAP. III. Of the Combate between the Flesh and the Spirit as the Effect of Original Sinne so that the Godliest man cannot do any holy Duty perfectly in this life SECT I. The Text explained and vindicated from corrupt Interpretations GAL. 5. 17. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would THe Apostle in the verses before admonished them about the use of their liberty that it should not be turned into licentiousness but that they make love the Rule thereof For though in respect of the right of my Christian liberty my conscience is to regard none but God yet the use and exercise of it must be regulated by love and prudence according as the edification of our brother doth require As a remedy therefore to refrain from all excess therein he giveth us an excellent precept with an emphatical Introduction thereunto This I say then that is This is the summe the main the all in all in these cases Then you have the Antidote it self Walk in the Spirit The only way to prevent all those importunate temptations of the flesh is to give up your selves to the Spirit to obtain the direction and illumination thereof as also the inclination and powerfull operation of it whereby we may be established in that which is good To know what is good and then to be inabled to do it
having named two contrary principles and their lustings one to another there is no reason to limit it to one but that we understand it thus That even in had things a godly man is not carried out with the full command of the flesh but the Spirit of God doth in a great measure check and prohibit it And also in good things though the Spirit of God doth enlighten and enlarge the soul yet the flesh doth something retard and by its opposition causeth that we cannot do holy things with that fulness purity and perfection as we would do Thus you have this noble Text explained which will afford excellent practical matter concerning that property of original sinne that it remaineth in some measure even in the most holy and that therefore there is no perfection in this life None is all spirit without any flesh at all in them Therefore the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text may have its emphasis The same things ye cannot do that ye would For what godly man doth not feel that it is not the same prayer the same faith the same repentance he desired The duty like Jeremiah's vessel cometh to be marred upon the wheel in the very doing so much deadness distraction lukewarmness and senslesness of spirit appeareth that he wondereth to see how different the duty exercised is from the desire and purpose in his soul From the words thus declared observe That original sinne remaineth in every man though never so godly in some measure whereby there is a combate between the flesh and the Spirit so that we cannot do any holy duty perfectly in this life I limit my Discourse only to the good will in the Text not the bad because that is most homogeneous with my subject And besides The Pelagians calumniated this Doctrine of original sinne as a discouragement unto holiness and that hereby perfection could never be attained because this sinne is said to have some being and working in the most holy though it have not dominion It is from original sinne that the most holy men find a combat within them more or lesse that alwayes in this life they find a need both of pardon of sinne and of the righteousness of Christ which if any deny as the Pelagians did we will not believe them with Austin in that they say but attribute it to their arrogancy and hypocrisie pretending more holiness to the world then they have for their self-advantage or else to their stupidity and senslesness not feeling what doth indeed annoy and oppose the Spirit of God and truly they who have not the Spirit of God abiding in them How can they discern of such a combate That moral conflict which Aristotle speaketh of in the incontinent person he may perceive within himself but this of the Spirit and the flesh He cannot know because it is spiritually discerned SECT II. Several Propositions clearing the truth about the Combat between the Flesh and Spirit in a godly man ¶ 1. The Difference between Original and Actual Sinne. THe only way to comprehend the latitude of this excellent truth about the Conflict between flesh and spirit in the true believer because of original sinne still adhering to him is to lay down several Propositions wherein we may at the same time assert truth and obviate some error First Original sinne doth greatly differ from actual sinne in this particular that when an actual sinne is committed there remaineth no more but the guilt of it which upon repentance by justification is wholly removed away and thus an actual sinne is as if it had never been but in original sinne although the guilt of it be taken away yet the nature of it abideth still though not with such dominion as formerly it did It is true the Schoolmen except Biel and some others say actual sinnes leave a macula a blot or defilement upon the soul as well as a reatus or guilt and what this macula is they are different in their explication of but we must necessarily grant that every actual sinne doth defile the soul depriving it either of the beauty it hath or ought to have but yet still the act of sin is passed away whereas in original sin the sin it self doth still continue by which it is that though to those who are in Christ there is no actual condemnation yet there is that which is damnable in them insomuch as without Christ there is a wo to their most holy and praise-worthy actions It is true the Papists and others look upon this as non-sense or a contradiction that sin should be in a man and not make him guilty as if actual condemnation might not be separated from sinne though indeed the desert of condemnation cannot It cannot be but wheresoever sinne is it doth deserve hell it hath enough in it to provoke God to wrath but yet when humbled for and withstood then through the bloud of Christ this actual guilt though not the potential one is taken away Yea original sinne doth not only differ from actual sinne but also habitual because though habitual sinnes do abide in a man yet when a man is regenerated and made a new creature all the habits of sinne are expelled for if the habits of sinne and grace should abide together then a man might at the same time be holy and unholy the sonne of God and the sonne of the Devil seeing our denomination is from the habits that are within us therefore that cannot be But though in our Regeneration the habits of sinne are removed yet it is not so with original corruption that is not an acquired but an innate habit of sinning within us Thus our original corruption is farre more pertinaciously cleaving unto us then any habits or customs of sinne can be though of never so long continuance ¶ 2. IN the second place That is a false position which the Remonstrants have Exam Censurae cap. 11. pag. 128. that the difficulty which new converts have to leave their former lusts doth arise chiefly from their former custome and exercise in wayes of impiety not from original sinne For they distinguish of godly men such as are incipients new beginners that are but newly converted unto Christ and these they say have a great conflict within them they have much ado to leave their former lusts and impieties they have been accustomed unto and then there are the Adulti such who are proficients and grown up now these they say may arise to such a measure of holiness as to be without any conflict at all between flesh and spirit or to feel it very rarely but that is directly to contradict this Text which speaketh it universally of all that have the Spirit of God in them while in this life they do meet with opposition not only from the devil without but the flesh within Therefore they would elude this Text as if it did not mean an actual reluctancy or lusting against one another but only potential that it is the
nature of the flesh and Spirit thus to oppose one another for this is say they against the nature of habits seeing it is the property of habits to make the will readily and willingly will and do those things which formerly were grievous and troublesome but the Scripture speaketh of the actual reluctancy it doth not say it may or it can but it doth lust and as for habits though we grant when these supernatural habits of grace are infused into the soul we are carried out with readiness delight and willingness in those holy duties which formerly were tedious and grievous unto us yet because neither the habits of grace are perfect within us nor the acts that flow from them therefore it is that there is a mixture of our dross with the spirits gold For although the habits of grace are immediately inspired or infused from God and so as they come from him are perfect yet because that is a true rule Quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis whatsoever is received is received according to the capacity and qualification of the subject Hence it is that these habits of grace are imperfect as received and seated in us and whereas again they reply that suppose this Text be understood of actual reluctancy yet it is not generally to be extended to all but limited to the Galathians who were but new converts but beginners and therefore had this fight within them that is also false The Apostle saith the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh in the general It is an universal Proposition neither is it any more to be limited to the Galathians then the duty enjoyned which is to walk in the Spirit so that as the duty belongeth to every godly man the reason likewise must and therefore the Apostle doth not say the flesh lusteth against the Spirit in you they put in vobis into the Text but speaketh universally of all that have the Spirit of God Besides this Text opposeth them for grant these Galathians were new converts yet the cause of the combate within them is not attributed to their former custome of impiety as they would have it but to the flesh which is original sinne within them when therefore a man is truly converted that difficulty to leave his former lusts doth not arise because the habits of sinne do still abide in him but because original sinne is still living in us and therefore according to the greater or lesser measure of grace healing and sanctifying of us so we find the greater opposition in parting with the sinnes we formerly committed ¶ 3. WE are to lay it down for a certain foundation to build upon as hath formerly been delivered That this spiritual conflict was not in the state of integrity Adam before his fall could not find such a rebellion in him for if so this would greatly have interrupted all his blessedness and withall such a duell within him and that necessarily flowing from his creation would have redounded to the great dishonour of God his Maker Now the Adversaries of original sinne whether Papists Remonstrants or Socinians who do usually traduce the orthodox Doctrine about it as if horribly injurious to God do in this particular farre transcend all such supposed reflections either upon the justice or mercy of God For they do boldly affirm That by the very natural constitution of man there is a necessary conflict between the rational and sensitive part only say the Papists original righteousness which the Socinian derideth as much as original sinne did keep down this repugnancy so that Adam had not any actual rebellion within though it was there potentially and radically Thus Soto though Stapleton fluctuateth and seemeth to be his Adversary therin expresly affirmeth Lib. de Naturâ Gratiâ c. 3. that the conflict mentioned by the Apostle Gal. 5. 17. is Homini â naturâ ingenita inbred in the very nature of a man which he would prove from a philosophical Discourse out of Aristotle who divideth man into two parts his rational and sensitive adding that the sensitive part obeyeth the rational not despotically as servants who have no right of their own do to their masters for so the members of the body only do serve the mind but politically and civilly as a Citizen doth his Prince in whose power it is to disobey But as Aristotle knew nothing of mans creation or the Image of God put upon him nor of his fall and the utter depravation of mans soul thereby so it would be absurd to runne to his darkness to fetch light about these things Hence also it is that the same Author Cap. 13. in another place compareth man fallen with man standing to some weighty piece that hangeth on high but is hindred that it cannot fall and the same piece when the impediment is removed For as such a piece of timber had the same proneness to fall to the ground while it was hindred as when the obstacle was removed only it did not actually fall Thus man abiding in his state of integrity had this principle within to carry him more affectionately to sensible things then spiritual only original righteousness did stop and hinder the actual motions thereof It is true that all Papists do not assert this repugnancy from our primitive constitution For Cajetan upon the place doth note truly Sermo est c. saith he The speech is of the flesh as infected with original sinne for thence the flesh lusteth against the Spirit not from the primary Creation Yea their admired Thomas a Kempis Pag. 77. for his practical devotion confesseth that Adam in the state of innocency had not this conflict And no wonder that Papists thus dogmatize when Arminius who useth to be very wary being he was the first that was to broach those dangerous errours the Devil delighting to use a Serpent not an Ass because he was more subtil then other beasts of the field yet asserteth that the inclination to sinne was in Adam before his fall Licet non ita vehemens inordinata ut nunc est although not so vehement and inordinate as now it is It is true the whole Paragraph is put by way of question but in the procedure thereof this is spoken affirmatively Articul perpendendi cap. de peccato originis And with the Socinians nothing is more ordinary then to affirm such a rebellion in man and that so peremptorily that from this they conclude Adam did sinne it was from his concupiscence that he did break the Law of God Yea some are not afraid to attribute this repugnancy and conflict to Christ as if when he prayed Father if it be possible let this Cup passe away that this came from the Agony between the rational and sensitive part within him It is wonder that these do not also hold that it will continue in Heaven also so that as long as man hath a soul and a body this opposition cannot be removed but surely the naming
is the string to her feet This made Paul cry out of it as a weight lying upon him Rom. 7. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death yea Heb. 12. 1. it is called a weight now as that must needs be an impediment to any who run in a race no less burdensome is original sinne to a godly man in his way to heaven Fourthly It hinders the perfection of grace cooling and remitting the fervour and zeal thereof and herein chiefly the mischievous effect of original sinne is discovered it maketh the soul halt in his progress it allayeth the heat of grace it is like smoak to put out the fire The adversaries to this Truth say it is not intelligible how the Spirit can make us will one thing and the flesh another seeing a man hath but one will and he cannot velle nolle will and nill at the same time about the same object But they may know that by such expressions are chiefly meant That the hearrt of a man through this flesh within him is very faint and remiss in all its actions about that which is good when he doth will it it 's so inefficaciously so slluggishly so imperfectly that it may be called a nilling as well as a willing and this is the sad issue of original sinne it maketh us go halting to the grave it abateth that activity and zeal of spirit which ought to be in holy things Fifthly The flesh hindereth absolute compleatness of grace by soiling debasing and infecting our holy duties It is as some mud cast into a pure stream it is as some poison mingled with wine and for this it is that the most holy have prayed God would not enter into judgement with them because in his sight no flesh could be justified Psal 143. 2. For this the Scripture compareth even our righteous actions to a menstruous cloath Isa 30. 22. This is the frog that is drawen up with the pure water out of the well though our godly duties are not sinnes yet they are sinful they are damnable in themselves and therefore need the mercy of God to forgive the imperfections adhering to them Lastly The flesh is an hindrance in the way of grace by dividing and distracting of the heart In the stare of integrity when there was no such intestine warre then the whole strength of the soul emptied it self one way but now though grace hath for the main setled our hearts upon God yet the flesh interposeth that propoundeth other objects and thus because the pool runneth into divers streams it is not so full and plentifull so that it is impossible there should be any perfection where there is any distraction or division and therefore we may justly expostulate with all those who plead they are without sin Whether they never have so much as one wandring thought in any holy duty they go about If they should say they have not it is our duty to flee from such persons as are puffed up with such self-love and self-confidence that they know not or feel not what they are or do Such are like those distracted persons that conceit themselves Kings and Emperours when at the same time they are miserable and indigent Now by these several actings of the flesh within us the godly man may perceive what little cause he hath to trust in himself thou canst not be secure while in this mortal body the wound original sinne hath given thee is not wholly cured sometime or other this close secret enemy may rob thee of thy Pearls and Jewels if thou art not diligent in praying and watching over thy self In the next place I shall proceed to a second Proposition and therein shall answer such general Objections that may plausibly be urged against the actings of original sinne within us and thereby against the imperfection of regeneration for some have thought it no dangerous errour to plead for a perfection even in this life Therefore Arminius his heires Epistola dedecati ad cap. 7. ad Rom. say that the unseasonable and excessive urging of the constant imperfection of regenerate persons and the impossibility of keeping the Law in this life without adding what the godly might do by faith and the Spirit of Christ such a thought as this might easily enter into the hearts of the hearers that they can do no good at all and they adde the ancient Church thought not the question about the impossibility of the law to be reckoned among capital ones which is apparent say they from Austin which wisheth the Pelagians would acknowledge it might be performed by the grace of Christ and then there would be peace between them But certainly Austin may best explain himself De perfectione justitiae ad Caelestiam ad finem where he saith he knoweth some who hold there either have been or are some that were without sinne Quorum sententiam de bâc re non audeo reprehendere quanquam nec defendere valeam as he dared not reprove it so he could not defend it This is his modest expression but if Austin could not defend it I do not know who in that age could seeing Austin by the gloss in the Canon law hath justly the preheminence above all the Ancients for Disputations as Hierom for the Tongues and Gregory for Morals and certainly the places brought to prove this point do argue that no man is without sinne that none can be justified if God enter into judgement It was also Pelagins boast in that Epistle ad Demetriadem for it 's taken to be his That in the first place he doth enquire what men are able to do how farre their own power extendeth as if this foundation were not laid there could be no exhortation to godliness Hence the Pelagians charged it as a consequence upon the Doctrine of original sinne that it would work in men a despair about perfect righteousness lib secundo coutra Julianum in initio But of late Writers setting aside Papists Castellio for we must not call him Castalio seeing he bewaileth his pride Castel Defens page 356. for assuming that name to him from the fountain of Muses doth with the greatest earnestness propugn the perfection of regenerate persons and immunity from sinne understanding that prayer for pardoning of sinne like as that duty to forgive our enemies viz. when we have them This Writer calleth that question Whether a man may by the Spirit of God perfectly obey the law a very profitable question but addeth that the errour on the right hand viz. that we are able perfectly to fullfill it is farre less dangerous then the contrary for God will never find fault with that man who doth endeavour for a perfect obedience and that by the help of God De obedientiâ Deo praestandâ pag. 227 228. but his arguments are as weak as his affections are strong in this point ¶ 5. Objections against the Reliques of sinne in a regenerate man answered LEt us examine what
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
that this man hath for this errour is because the Scripture useth substantive expressions it is called an evil heart a stony heart c. But this is because of the corruption adhering to it As we say a rotten tree or a poisoned fountain The heart as it is a fleshly substance is not evil but as it is the principle of our motions and actions not in a physical but moral sense It is true we say That through original sinne man cometh short of his end And so as the hand when its dead cannot do the works of an band or salt when it hath lost its seasoning is good for nothing Thus it is with man in regard of any supernatural actions yet he hath not lost any thing that was substantial and essential Only the power of the soul want the primitive rectitude they once had and therefore whensoever they act it is with deordination Indeed we will grant That Illyricus his adversary Victorinus Strigelius did not fully express original corruption in the Disputation between them who compared a man to a Loadstone of which they say when rubbed with Garlick it will not draw iron but if that be wip'd off by Goats bloud it will be as attractive as before For this similitude is not full enough because original sin doth not only hinder the doing of good actions but infecteth the very powers and principles of them It is true there are those as Contzen in Rom. 5. that say because the Calvinists hold That concupiscence is sinne they cannot avoid Flaccianism but that is a meer calumny We alwayes distinguish between the nature and substance of a man and the ataxy and disorder that doth now accompany it Neither when we call it an accident do we thereby extenuate the nature of original sinne for we do not make it a light superficial one but which is inbred with us and doth diffuse it self over all the parts and powers of the soul Neither do we say it is a transient temporary accident but that which is fixed and permanent in us Thus we see in what sense there may be excessive expressions about original sinne otherwise we cannot say enough to affect our hearts with the loathsomness of it provided we keep close to the Scripture directions herein Thus at last by the good hand of God we are come out of these deeps into the haven we have waded through all the several parts of this vast Subject and are now come to the shore It remaineth as a duty upon every one to hasten out of this captivity and bondage not to stay a day or hour in this damnable estate and above all things to take heed of such opinions that do either lessen or nullifie this sinne for this is to erre in the foundation Christ and grace and regeneration can never be built thereupon This Doctrine hath stood as a firm 〈◊〉 in all ages upon which the contrary errors have dashed and broken themselves and without this we are never able to performe those two necessary duties To know our selves and to know Christ This hath alwayes been the Catholique Doctrine of the Church of God Neither did the Fathers before Austin's time generally speak otherwise as late Writers would make us believe Even as the Socinians say the Ancients affirmed otherwise about Christ than after Athanasius his time and the Council of Nice was usually done in the Church Scripture the Consent of the Church and every mans own experience doth proclaim this truth Quis ante prodigiosum diâ—cipulum Pelagii Coelestium reatu praevaricationis Adae omne genus humanum negavit astrictum Lyr. cont Haeres c. 24. FINIS AN ALPHABETICAL TABLE A Actions MEns best Actions carnal pag. 139 Bad Actions are not justified by good intentions 280 The will hath not power over all its Actions 323 Adam Adam had full power over himself 20 Made upright 23 Yet free and changeable ib. 114 He sinned not after the same manner that we sinne against Socinians ib. A common head 25 His sin was disobedience 27 His sin imputed to all ib. His disobedience makes us sinners by propagation not by imitation 28 He had power to stand 114 And to repent and believe while in innocency transcendently ib. Deprived by his fall of more then was meerly supernatural 118 And of supernaturals also ib. Had free-will to good before his fall not after 119 Had faith 120 128 Loved God above all before his fall ib. And delighted in him 121 Not made in a neutral indifferent state 123 How original righteousnesse was natural to him 125 What was supernatural to Adam 127 Had all graces either actually or habitually 128 129 Had his affections subject to his mind 134 A comparison between the first and second Adam 181 Affections The pollution of them 325 The nature of them 327 How variously they may be considered 328 Their tyranny over the understanding and will 329 Sinfull in their first motions 330 And in their progress and degrees 331 And in their duration and in respect of their objects 332 And in respect of their end and use 333 And in their motion to lawfull objects 334 And in respect of their opposition to one another 336 Affections polluted in respect of the conflict between them and natural conscience 336 And in their distracting us in duties 338 And in their contrariety to the example of God ib. How they are in God 339 Their dulness toward good 340 Drawn to holy duties from corrupt motives 341 Zealously drawn out to false wayes 342 Inlets to all sin 343 The privacy of the Affections 345 The hurtfull effects on our own bodies 346 And others 347 They readily receive temptations ib. All. All sinfull that come of Adam sinfull by nature though the children of the most godly 394 And how absurd to exempt any 400 God justified for shutting up All under sin for the sin of Adam 421 Amyraldus Amyraldus and other sense upon the conflict in Rom. 7. examined 483 Angels Angels not generated 196 Appetite Of the three-fold Appetite in man 158 B Beleeve NO man can Beleeve by the power of nature 315 Blasphemies What devilish Blasphemies have been received 219 Body Body of man defiled with sin 372 Is not serviceable to the soul in holy approaches but a clog 376 Doth positively affect and defile the soul 377 Man acts more according to the inclinations of the Body then the dictates of the mind ib. It s a tempter and seducer 378 Doth objectively occasion much sin to the soul 381 Its indisposition to serve God 392 Easily moved by its passions 384 When sanctified it is the temple of God 385 C Children CHildren suffer for parents sinnes 46 Arminians make the Children of Heathens and believers alike 67 How soon a Child may commit actual sin 416 Christ Whether upon Christ's death there be a universal removal of the guilt of original sinne 539 Combate Combate between the flesh and the spirit 474 Conflict No spiritual Conflict in the state