which is natural Thus it is also in respect of Adams spirituals and his soul although all that holiness which was necessary to guide him to happiness was natural yet there were other things that might be of meer grace and superadded favour to him And under this we may comprehend the grace of God which Adam needed though qualified with original righteousness to do that which is holy as also the reward which God would give to Adams obedience for to be the Sonne of God in respect of a gracious enjoyment of God and to have received that life promised to him if he did obey though here be great Disputes about it what it would have been yet it would not have been of merit though of works but of grace for works and that grace in that state were consistent though Evangelical grace and works do immediately oppose one another Adam then was not without some supernatural savors SECT III. IN the third place that which will much tend to the magnifying of this Image of God is to consider the Integrity and universality of it so that he was made holy and righteous all over with light and wisdom in his mind with all kind of holiness in his will and affections so that Adam had both the perfection of parts and also of degree of grace within him One single habit was not sufficient to give perfection to all the active principles in a man yea there were several habits in every faculty of the soul So that original righteousness is an aggregation or collection of many habits That Text Eccless 7. when Adam is said to be made right inferreth so much for he is not right rectu that doth want any essential or necessary part and the very expression of the Image of God denoteth as much an Image consisting not in one or some few parts but in the harmonious composition of all How admirable was it then to have those commands of God Thou shalt not lust and Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy soul with all thy heart and strength fulfilled perfectly and without any difficulty If we do compare our sinfull and carnal hearts with this glorious temper that are carried out to lust inordinately all the day long and love every thing before and above God What shame and confusion may it bring to us But in that state of integrity there was no part of holiness or degree of holiness wanting It is true if we speak of the Image of God repaired in us We find a godly man doing that now which Adam could not do as to repent and to believe in a justifying manner in Christ for the actings of these graces were incompatible with that state and suppose an imperfection in the Subject and therefore even now cannot be so well called parts of the Image of God in a sanctified man and indeed there is some difference between that Imago Creationis and Imago Recreationis as Bannez expresseth it or Imago constituta and Imago restituta the Image of God in our Creation and the Image of God in our Recreation or Renovation when we are made new creatures by the Spirit of God Now because Adam had not justifying faith in his glorious estate it hath occasioned that dispute Vpon what terms or with what justice God can require of every man to believe in Christ seeing he never gave the power to do this in Adam Therefore the Arminians plead from hence a necessity of a new universal Covenant of grace and this hath been an hot dispute The Orthodox though they easily grant That Adam could not actually believe with justifying Faith yet they say this was potentially and habitually in him he had a power and habit for many things the acts and exercises whereof were yet inconsistent with that present estate of felicity he was created in and certainly we may gather good and sound positions for this truth out of some of the choisest Schoolmen They have laid down good Rules by which we may see that the firmament was not more filled with innumerable starres than Adam's soul with all choise graces SECT IV. FIrst Those graces the Schoolmen call them virtues which do not import any imperfection these were in Adam both habitually and actually as to love God to be thankefull to God to delight in God For these graces will alwayes continue even in Heaven it self and therefore were no wayes repugnant but necessarily required to Adam in that state of felicity Secondly Those graces which denote some kind of imperfection which yet were not repugnant to that state he was created in were also in Adam both according to the habit and also the act such are faith and hope By faith we do not mean the particular act of relying on Christ as a Mediatour but the general assenting unto every thing as true which God spake or promised unto him and according to this faith so also Adam had hope depending upon God and expecting such things as God had promised Now these graces of faith and hope even in the general nature of them have some imperfection if compared with vision and fruition Faith is opposed to vision and hope to fruition as the Apostle plainly argueth 2 Cor. 5. 7. Rom. 8. 24. But this imperfection did not repugn that state Adam was created in For although we say Adam was made right and perfect yet that is not to be understood absolutely as if he were as perfect as God nor comparatively in this sense neither as if he could not be made more perfect or as if he had such perfection as the glorified Saints in Heaven shall have but he was thus farre perfect that he wanted nothing for that state and condition God made him in A third Rule is Those graces which import an imperfection repugnant to the state Adam was in They were in him habitually but not actually They instance in the virtues of mercy and repentance Besides others we may also adde the grace of justifying Faith So that although the Arminians judge such a position as this absurd yet almost the common current of Schoolmen go this way And if the grace of mercy of liberality of fortitude and patience were in Adam habitually why not of justifying Faith Neither is it any Argument at all to say That these habits are given for their acts but the acts are inconsistent with that state he was made in for these habits were bestowed by way of perfection and ornament to mans nature in the general and the want of the habits of them would have been an imperfection Even as Adam's knowledge did extend to the medicinal virtue in herbs and plants which yet could not in that state of integrity be put in practice So that those habits though not reducible into acts yet were not in vain because they were for the perfection of humane nature When therefore Adam after his fall did repent and believe in Christ the seed of the woman promised He did not
put forth those acts from the habits of faith and repentance he was created in as some have said but the whole Image of God being lost every gracious habit or act was then supernatural to him which before was natural Yet Suarez in his Disputations concerning the Creation of man saith That even the habits of repentance and mercy were in the state of integrity reducible into some acts though not into all as if I should sin I would abhorre it and bewail it if there were any miserable I would relieve him which saith he are not meer conditional acts in the understanding but presuppose a purpose in the will Again saith he Adam from those habits had a complacency in his mind and an approbation of such acts when they could be performed by him in a sutable state But I presse not these things Now although the habit of justifying Faith and Repentance were in Adam yet we cannot say They were in the Angels or in Christ because these were in a condition that did repugne the very habit of such acts as well as the acts themselves Thus by these Rules we see there is no kinde of grace imaginable but Adam's soul was adorned with it one way or other Oh then take up bitter lamentation and like Rachel refuse to be comforted because our loss is unspeakably greater than hers There remaineth not one grace of those glorious ones mentioned now in us and in stead of a power to any thing that was good we have an utter impotency thereunto and a proneness unto evil But you may ask How can original six be said to consist in this privation of original righteousnesse seeing that seemeth to be Gods act to deprive us of it and not ours To this the Answer is That we are not to conceive of God taking away this righteousnesse from us as if one man should spoil another of his garments but man by sinning did exclude and shut it out from his soul and having thus provoked God then God doth not continue and vouchsafe that grace to him which Adam had thus repelled so that God is not as an efficient infusing wickednesse into Adam's heart but he denieth that holinesse to him which by sinne was repelled as if a man should shut out the light from him and keep himself in the dark But I have spoken more fully already to this Objection CHAP. XIII Reason to prove That the Privation of Original Righteousnesse is truly and properly a Sinne in us SECT I. I Shall adde that there are four Reasons why this Privation of Original Righteousnesse is truly and properly a sinne in us And First Because the soul is a Subject fit and prepared for to receive this Righteousnesse This rectitude you heard was a moral perfection necessarily required in man The soul of a man cannot be in a neutral condition it must either have holiness or sinne in it As the air doth necessarily receive either light or darkness The body is either sick or well if then the soul be such a fit and capable subject of holiness when it is deprived of it it wants that which is sutable and connatural to it Insomuch that for the soul to be without this holiness it 's against the nature of it Why should such a spot and a blemish be in so glorious a creature How came spots in this Sunne As Idolaters are condemned because they turned the glory of God into the Image of a beast that eateth hay No lesse is done by Adam's Apostasie upon us all for we who were made Gods Image are now become like beast without understanding and yet this consideration will not debase and humble us Secondly This Privation is a sinne Because it is against the Law of God which requireth habitual holinesse in us It requireth the continuance in that state which God created us in This Definition of original sinne that it is a Privation of that rectitude which ought to be in us was first assigned by Anselme and Occham thought it insufficient unlesse there was added 〈◊〉 the Description a Privation arising from the sinne of another Because saith he Adam upon his sinne lost this Righteousnesse which ought to be in him yet we cannot say he had original sinne because it did not arise from a sinne of another but from his own transgression This is a needlesse subtilty for it was original sinne in Adam yea and in Eve though they did not derive it from one another because they did actively communicate this unto all their Posterity This Privation then of all glorious holinesse being against the Law of God as we have formerly shewed therefore it makes a man truly sinfull Thirdly It is a sinne Because Adam our Head and common Trustes once had this Righteousnesse So that it is a Righteousnesse which we were once actually possessed of in our Head God did not only say Let us make man after our Image but he did put it into execution he did make him after his image So that it 's a righteousnesse that we once had which now we have lost Lastly It is a sinne Because by Adam our Head we were deprived of it The Apostle saith positively Rom. 5 That by one sinne came upon all inasmuch as all have sinned viz. in him and by him Hence it is That his losing of this Image is our losing of it as really as if we had actually and personally deprived our selves of it And thus much shall suffice for the Doctrinal part of it but because it 's good to have our affections wrought upon as well as our judgements informed The next work shall be to give the Aggravations of this losse that so we may make a full improvement of this Truth CHAP. XIV The Aggravations of our Losse of GODS Image SECT I. I Shall conclude this Text with that particular Observation about it that relateth to the privative part in original corruption for we have abbreviated that vast and large Subject of original righteousnesse into a little compasse briefly informing concerning the Nature of it For howsoever Epiphanius as Pererius and Suarez say thought that it was impossible for any to determine wherein the Image of God doth consist yet Paul doth sufficiently explain Moses in this particular So that we need not run to those forced expositions of some who will have man in respect of his bodily constitution to bear the Image of God Therefore some say God did assume an humane shape and in that did make man whereby man in a bodily manner was made after his Image Others That it was so said Let us make man after our own Image in reference to the Incarnation of Christ who was in time to be made man For we have already heard that it was righteousnesse and holinesse in the soul which made man to be after Gods Image So that the Image of God was not in the body but as in signe a sign and demonstration of that Image in the soul It is true Christ
evidence the Truth such will appear to be starres indeed fixed in the firmament when others like blazing Comets will quickly vanish away But this is not all the Priviledge there is a two-fold mentioned in the next verse First Ye shall know the truth when they did at first believe the Word they did know the Truth in some measure but now their knowledge should be more evident clear and encreasing And indeed the godly they do so grow in knowledge about heavenly things that they account their former knowledge even nothing at all The second Priviledge is The truth shall make them free Every man till regenerated is in bondage and captivity to blindness in his mind to lust in hiswill And there is nothing can set us at liberty from this dungeon and prison but the grace of God by the Word preached But no sooner is this Priviledge spoken of then it stirreth up the Cavils and Objections of some that heard it They answered him We be Abrahams seed and were never in bondage to any man How then doest thou say Ye shall be made free Some think That those who are said to believe did argue thus But this seemeth very harsh Therefore no doubt some others that were in the multitude that did not believe they were offended at this speech of our Saviours and therefore dispute against it arrogating to themselves both a Native freedom We are Abrahams seed and also an actual one We were never in bondage to any man This expression exerciseth Interpreters very much for whether by We they mean their Ancestours or Themselves living at that time It is plain at first they were in bondage in Aegypt afterwards in Babylon and at that present in bondage to the Roman Empire How then could they affirme such a notorious lie that they were never in bondage to any man Some say They mean of such vassals and slaves as sometimes in warre are taken and sold to others Now though the Israelites were often conquered and brought under the power of others yet they were never sold slaves and so not in bondage in that sense Others say They doe not speak of a Civil or Publique and State-Liberty but as it were a religious and holy freedome For though they were in civil bondage yet they glorified in Abraham's seed and the religious freedome thereby in respect of Gods favour So Hensius in his Aristarchus Sacer. upon this place They saith he who spake this did attend to the Law and Covenant for such who obeyed the Law they called free Hence they had a paradoxal Proverb None unlesse he exercise himself in the study of the Law is to be accounted a free man And Qui observat legem esse Regem even as the Stoicks say of their wise man Sixtus Senesis maketh these words to be spoken by some of the Galileans who would never owne any forreign power but did chuse rather to die then to make such an acknowledgement That which many pitch upon is That the Jewes speak this to Christ from their pride and arrogancy not willing to take any notice of their external subjection but so that they may oppose Christ care not what they say though never so contrary to Truth Although Calvin well addeth They might have a pretence for what they said as if the Roman power did by force reign over them and therefore that they were de jure free But our Saviour speaking of one kind of freedome and slavery and they of another he doth in the next verse more particularly open his meaning and withall layeth a foundation to prove That though they boasted and gloried in their freedome yet they were indeed servants and slaves This he proveth by that universal Proposition Whosoever committeth sinne is the servant of sinne You must lay an Emphasis in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not to be understood of every actual committing of sinne but of the wilfull habitual and constant committing of it And thus though great men may boast in their Sovereignty they have over many others though they may glory in multitude of servants yet if they be overcome by any one vice they be the vilest slaves and vassals of all Quot vitia tot Domini so many vices so many Lords Now original sinne that is a Lord and Master to every one that reigneth over all mankind some actual sinnes enslave one man and some another but original sinne doth every man yea though the godly are in some measure freed from the dominion of it yet it keepeth up a tyrannical dominion over the most holy as appeareth Rom. 7. by that complaint of Paul He could not doe the good he would because he was sold under sinne This foundation then being laid our Saviour shewing the difference between a servant and a sonne doth in my Text suppose 1. A necessity of every one till sanctified to be made free 2. The Manner how And 3. That this is freedom indeed The Necessity supposed is If the Sonne make them free Though he speaketh this to those Jews who were in a two-fold bondage to sinne original and actual natural and voluntary yet this is to be applyed to every man that is not in the state of regeneration He hath no liberty or freedome of will to do what is good but is a vassal to all sinne sinne is the lusts thereof do prevail-over him so that he hath neither will or power to come out of this bondage 2. There is the Manner how or the Person by whom we obtain true liberty If the Sonne make you free In some Cities the elder brother had power to adopt sonnes and so to make free however Christ is therefore called the Redeemer because he doth obtain spiritual freedome for his people and that not onely in respect of the guilt of sinne freeing from that which grace of Christ the Pelagians did acknowledge and would constantly interpret my Text in this sense onely but also the power of sinne by inherent Sanctification and Renovation of the whole man and of this freedom the Text doth here principally speak not so much the freedom from the guilt of sinne by justifying grace as from the power of sinne by sanctifying grace 3. You have the Commendation of this spiritual liberty it is called freedome indeed implying that though they had never so much civil freedom never so much dominion and power yet if servants to sinne they were in the vilest bondage that could be Civil freedom is thought to be so great a good that it can never be prized enough Therefore the Rabbins have a saying That if the Sea were ink and the world parchment it would never serve enough to contain the praises of liberty The Scripture informeth us how great an honour it was accounted to be free of Rome but if all this while men are captivated either to personal sinnes or to sinnes of the nature they remain in worse bondage then ever any Gally-slaves were in The people of Israel in their iron
disease is dangerous It is easie erring but dangerous in this point Hence this Article did so reign in the hearts of those Worthies that they used all diligence to keep this Fountain pure greatly fearing the posterity to come would be negligent herein Now as for the meanes how we are justified they did not only learn it out of the Scriptures which peculiarly appropriate this to Faith and not to any other particular grace but experimentally and practically out of their own hearts God suffering them to be greatly exercised and tempted about his favour and to be often in the deepes not seeing the Sun for many daies that so Justification by Faith alone might be the more confirmed unto them and they have the witness of this Doctrine in themselves And although it be true that the Protestant Writers in this Controversie did chiefly militate against the merit and causality of Works in Justification then asserted by the Papists Yet it is plain that thereby also they did exclude their Conditionality also as to the Act of Justification Hence Perkins quantus vir saith Fides est unicum solum illud instrumentum c. Faith is the alone and only instrument wrought by the Spirit of God in the heart of a man whereby he layeth hold on Christ applying his righteousness to himself which neither Hope or Charity or any other grace can do And whereas he had granted in the ensuing Discourse that these graces were present at Jnstification but doing nothing to it but Faith doth all As the head is present to the eye when it seeth yet it is the eye alone that seeth Bishop his Adversary by scorn calleth this a worthy piece of Philosophy and laboureth to invalidate it but the learned Abbot his Defendant is large in clearing of this Truth distinguishing of a separation Reall and Mental and that again into Negative and Privative declaring that Faith though not negatively considered excluding other graces yet privatively abstracted from the consideration of them is said to justifie I would referre the Reader to those solid and excellent Writers in this point Perkins his Reason for Justification by Faith alone is very pregnant from Joh. 3. 14. where believing in Christ for eternal life is compared to beholding of the Serpent that Moses lifted up in the Wilderness Now as it was meer seeing and no working that did heal the wounded Israelite so it is meer believing and no other grace that maketh us partakers of this Spiritual Priviledge Chemnitius also giving Reasons why the Protestants use the word solâ of Faith in Justification maketh one to be that merits and dignity may be excluded from our works and all attributed to grace only But another ut ostendatur medium seu organon applicationis for not by Works but Faith alone is the Promise received It is clear then that our former Divines though they principally aimed at the excluding of the merit of Works yet did also thereby shut out their conditionality because they make Faith the only applicativum medium and because they deny other graces to have any such receptive power For when the Papists urge other graces as Love c. they answer that these do consist in extramittendo Faith in intus recipiendo And lastly because they make them only qualifications of the subjects and the effects or discoveries of true Faith Insomuch that we never read in Scripture or as I know of in any sound Authour that we are justified by repentance or by love Neither is this Justification by Faith alone excluding the Conditionality of Works to be applyed to our Justification at first only but as continued so that from first to last we are justified all along by Faith Although therefore the learned Brother doth often fly to this Sanctuary and if this fall to the ground all his superstructure tumbleth with it yet it is clear by Scripture Justification begun and continued is by Faith alone Hence the Apostle arguing in this very matter brings that text The just shall live by Faith Gal. 3. 11. which belongs to the whole course of our life respectively to Justification and when the Apostle saith Rom. 5. Being justified by Faith we have peace with God Would it not be irrationall to limit it only to our Justification at first Is not the righteousness of God revealed from Faith to Faith Rom. 1. 17. Not from Faith to Works See Calvin proving non minus Justitiae complementum quam initium fidei tribuendum esse So that our Justification is by Faith to Faith not by Faith to Works If my judgment were for Justification by Works as a condition thereof as well as Faith I should think it my duty both in Preaching and Printing as occasion serveth to perswade the forbearing of the word Sola when we say Faith Justifieth For if God hath appointed Works as well as Faith how dare any man presume to say Faith alone And thus we must receive the moderating advice of Cassander who saith Multis eruditis piis viris satius videtur in concionibus popularibus vox illa Sola praetermittatur I can grant that we are justified by Faith as it is an instrument appointed by God and as it is a condition provided the conditionality of it be limited to the receptive Office of Faith and Gods designment thereunto But it cannot be an instrument applying and a condition in the sense my Reverend Brother contends for When we say Faith Justifieth as an applying meanes then Christ and his Grace is considered as donum oblatum Faith being the hand that receiveth this Treasure But when it Justifieth as a condition in the sense asserted it must be considered ut opus praestitum whereby the Covenant is made good to us which maketh two distinct kindes of Justification which latter differeth from the Popish way only ut magis minus They make Works merits and Causes he Conditions whereas not only causality but conditionality doth overthrow the alone Justification by Faith and introduceth another way of Justification then by application alone Or if the learned Brother will make Works a condition of Justification when Faith alone doth begin and continue it he will be necessarily involved in a contradiction In what a sense I make Faith a Passive Instrument but supernatural I have in my former Treatise clearly explained and so need not repeat it here again It is no Contradiction to exclude Works form a Conditionality as to the Act of Justification and yet to affirm them requisite necessarily in the Subject Justified I wonder at the wilfulness in some who accuse them as a contradiction when Protestant Writers do a thousand times over illustrate this by divers Similitudes Because Repentance is required as well as Faith must their office and work be confounded Must all they be Conditions Certainly it 's not Repentance but Faith that receiveth the pardon Yet Repentance qualifieth the Subject and denoteth it capable of
it Is Sanctification a Condition of Justification because they are inseparable one from another That distinction of Faith justifying quae viva but not quâ viva which IS lively and working but not AS lively and working is not trifling as the Remonstrants say nor is there any cheat in it Most of the Fundamentals of Religion are distinguished from confining errours by such distinctions If a man say Christus qui Deus mortuus est saith true but if he should say Quâ Deus would he not speak blasphemy And this I bring in the rather because there are some who affect and glory in a moderating way thinking the Papists and Protestants do not so Fundamentally differ in the Point of Justification but that they may be reconciled whereas our learned Worthies at first declared that if the Romanists and we differed in no other point but this this were enough to have no Communion with them Spalatensis one of the unhappy Catholique Moderators writing of the Protestants who affirm that Faith alone Justifieth yet such a Faith as is lively and worketh by love so that although Faith Justifieth yet other graces are present though not proximely attingent of Justification Ecce saith he Formalitates Theologicas adding that the Romanists may grant to the Reformed that the dispositions to Justification are not merits And again the Reformed grant to the Romanists that by these dispositions being joyned with Faith Justification is acquired not from merit but Divine mercy alone It is true he declareth his own notion how Faith Justifieth alone viz. Absque necessitate ullius alterius humanae positivae actionis non tamen absque negativâ illa dispositione non faciendi quicquam quod sit á Deo vetitum But in the protract of his Discourse he maketh our differences herein to be pura quaedam metaphysicalia ad salutem nihil necessaria sed Galaticamur planè fratres as Tertullian of old There is a propensity in all to Galatize to joyn Faith and Works under some notion or other as to our Justification whereas the Apostle maketh an immediatie opposition between them not in the person Justified but as to the manner of Justification The learned Brother alledgeth a place out of Doctor Twisse in the title page with a signall accent upon it The words are Verum in diverso genere ad justitiam Dei refertur Christi satisfactio fides nostra Christi satisfactio ad eandem refertur per modum meriti condignitatis nostra verò fides ad eandem refertur per modum congruae dispositionis Who would not think by this passage thus barely quoted that the Doctor was speaking of Justification that Christs satisfaction is meritorious of it and our Faith a congruous disposition to it But my Brothers oversight is very great in this allegation for the learned Twisse is there speaking of Gods Justice and Mercy tempered together in Election taken terminativè as it effectually comprehends Salvation Therefore he said before Electionem ad salutem non fieri sine intuitu miseriae nostrae satisfactionis Christi fidei nostrae resipiscentiae c. So that his words oppose Doctor Hammond and Mr Pierce with others who odiously charge the Calvinists as if they held irrespective Decrees in Election and Reprobation either to sinne or holiness Whereas the excellent Doctor sheweth that Salvation the terminus of Election is not accomplished without the satisfaction of Christ and our Faith and Repentance as fit dispositions to Salvation he doth not say to Justification The Doctrine of Justification hath been greatly polluted of old by Platonicall and Aristoteticall Philosophy and we must take heed we do not defile it in a new way by running to the Civil Law and deductions from it What are Bartolus and Baldus in this point As Justification is a mercy wholly revealed in Scripture and supernaturally vouchsafed so the Words and Phrases are observed by the Learned to be peculiar as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So that the Scripture expressions being compared together will best discover the manner how we are justified for it is wholly at Gods appointment what way he will take therein and from them we shall only discover a righteousness of Faith not of Love or any other particular grace It was the ruine of Socinus to conclude of the Truths of Divinity according to principles of the Civil Law this made him deny Christs satisfaction The Discourse of the Apostle James concerning Justification by Works doth not at all patrocinate the Reverend Brothers Opinion For first It is to be observed that the Apostle doth not mention any particular grace but Works in the generall as externally and visibly practised Had the Apostle said Abraham was justified not only by Faith but love then there had been some colour for his Assertion And secondly The expressions used by the Apostle concerning Justification by Works comply not with a conditio sine quâ non For ver 26. he saith As the body without the spirit is dead so is faith without Works Is the soul a conditio sine quâ non of life Again ver 22. By Abrahams Works his Faith was made perfect and his Works did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with his Faith Doth a condition sine quâ non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I urge not this as owning the Papists Expositions of Causality of Works and Merit only they make not for a conditio sine quâ non We must take Justification and Faith in another sense then the Papists do When the learned Brother explicateth that passage of the Apostle Faith is dead being alone after this manner That Faith is dead as to the use and purpose of Justifying for in it self it hath life according to its quality still Adding afterwards that Works make Faith alive as to the attainment of its end of Justification Can this be applyed to a conditio sine quâ non But the Discourse swelleth too big I have done what I thought sufficient in this matter The good Spirit of the Lord so lead us into his Truth that we may serve him with one heart and one way and wherein we have not yet attained reveal such Truths unto us A CATALOGUE Of the Chiefest of those Books as are Printed FOR THOMAS UNDERHILL By Col. Edw. Leigh Esquire A Treatise of the Divine Promises in Five Books The Saints Encouragement in Evil Times Critica Sacra or Observations on all the Radiees or Primitive Hebrew words of the old Testament in order Alphabetical Critica Sacra or Philological and Theological Observations upon all Greek words of the New-Testament in order Alphabetical By Samuel Gott Esquire Nova Solymae Librisex Sive Institutio Christiani 1. De Pueritia 2. De Creatione Mundi 3. De Juventute 4. De Peccato 5. De Virili Aetate 6. De Redemptione Hominis Essayes concerning Mans true Happiness Parabolae Evangelicae Litinè redditae Carmine Paraphrastico varii generis Morton His Touchstone of
of it or like one Intellectus agens as some Philosophers dreamed but it is in every man that cometh in the world every one that is born hath his birth-corruption Therefore David doth not speak of that iniquity as it is in all mankind but as it was his case and as he was born in it So that it is not enough for you to say It is true it cannot be denied but that all are sinfull by nature but you must come home to your own heart you must take notice of the dung-hill and hell that is in your own hearts Thus the Apostle Paul as you heard Ephes 2. 3. to humble them and to lay them low that they might see all the unworthiness and guilt that was upon them before the grace of God was effectual in them he informeth them not onely of those grosse actual impieties they had walked in but that they were by nature the children of wrath But you may see this duty of bitter and deep humiliation because of original sinne notably expressed in Paul Rom. 7. most of that Chapter is spent in sad groans and complaints because of its still working and acting in him It was the sense of this made him cry out Oh miserable man that I am Dost thou therefore flatter thy self as if there were no such law of sinne prevailing upon thee when thou shalt see Paul thus sadly afflicted because of it Therefore it is that I added in the Doctrine We are to bewail and acknowledge it all our lives For Paul speaks here whatsoever Papists and Arminians say to the contrary in the person of a regenerate man Who did delight in the Law of God in the inward man and yet these thorns were in his side Original sinne in the lusts thereof was too active whereby he could not do the good he would and when he did he did it not so purely and perfectly as he ought So that you see the work you are to do as long as you live Though regenerated though sanctified you are to bewail this sinne yea none but the truly godly do lay it seriously to heart Natural men they either do not believe such a thing or they have not the sense of it which would wound them at the very heart Therefore we read only of regenerate men as David Job and Paul who because of this birth-pollution do humble themselves so low under Gods hand But let us search into this truth SECT V. Which needed not to have been if Adam had stood FIrst Take notice That had Adam stood in the integrity God made him in had he preserved the Image of God for himself and for his posterity then there had been no occasion no just cause for such self-abhorrency as doth now necessarily lie upon us Adam did not hide himself and runne from God neither was he ashamed of himself till sinne had made this dreadfull breach In that happy time of mans innocency there was no place for tears or repentance There was no complaining or grieving because of a Law of sinne hurrying them whither they would not then Adam's heart was in his own power he could joy and delight in God as he pleased but since that first transgression there hath become that grievous ataxy and sad disorder and confusion under which we are to mourn and groan as long as we live for as we necessarily have corruptible bodies which will be pained and diseased as long as we are on the earth so we have also defiled and depraved soules which will alwaies be matter of grief and sorrow to every gracious heart so that they must necessarily cry out Oh Lord I would fain be better I desire to be better but this corrupted heart and nature of mine will not let me The Socinians who affirm That Adam even in the first Creation had such a repugnancy planted in him and a contrariety between the mind and the sensible part that this prevailing made him thereby to commit that transgression do reproach God the maker of man and make him the Author of sinne So then this necessity of confession and acknowledgment of our native pollution was not from the beginning but upon Adam's transgression SECT VI. We must be humbled for a two-fold Original sinne and seek from Christ a two-fold Righteousness SEcondly When we say That original sinne is to be matter of our humiliation and sorrow we must understand that two-fold Original sinne heretofore mentioned viz. Adam 's actual sin imputed to us and that inherent or in-dwelling sin we are born in For seeing the guilt of both doth redound upon our persons accordingly ought our humiliation and debasement to be Yea Piscator thinketh David confesseth both these in this verse In the first place In iniquity was I shapen or born as he interprets it viz. in Adam's iniquity And in the second place in or with for so some render it sinne did my mother conceive me which is to be understood of that imbred pollution howsoever it be here it is plain Rom. 5. that the Apostle debaseth and humbleth us under this two-fold consideration first That we all sinned in him there is the imputed sinne And secondly That by his disobedience we are made sinners there is our birth-sin So that those who would hunger and thirst after Christ finding a need of him must seek for a two-fold benefit by Christ answering this two-fold evil First the grace of Justification to take away the guilt of all sinne and then of Sanctification in some measure to overcome the power of it that as we have by the first Adam imputed and inherent sinne so by the second Adam imputed and inherent righteousness SECT VII The Different Opinions of Men about Humiliation for Original Sinne. THirdly There are those who make such an humiliation and debasement as David here professeth altogether needless and superfluous but they go upon different grounds For First All such who do absolutely deny any such thing they must needs acknowledge all such confessions to be lies and falshoods that it is but taking of Gods name in vain when we confess such a thing by our selves if it be not indeed in us For if Adam should have said Behold God created me in iniquity and formed me in sinne would not this have been horrible lying to God and blaspheming of his Name No less is it If their Position be true That we are born in the same condition and estate that Adam was created in derogatory to God and a bold presumptuous lie for men in their prayers to acknowledge such a sinne dwelling in them when indeed it doth not So then if this be true That we are not born in original sinne then David doth in this penitential Psalm fearfully abuse the Name of God speaking that which is a lie and a most abominable untruth But whose fore-head is so hardned as to affirm this Yet all such who deny there is any birth-sinne they must also say there is no confession to be made
they are brought to believe they are brought out of the bondage of sinne only Justification and such Gospel-priveledges are actually bestowed upon none till they do beleive we have not time to proceed in the discovery of other waies and opinions of the learned to answer this doubt only thus much we have heard that may make us therefore to bewail original sinne that we are in such a dark ignorance that we do but grope about the propagation had Adam continued in integrity he would not have only communicated righteousness to his posterity but they would also have certainly known the manner how but now we are wholly miserable and know not exactly the manner how we know little about the soul so that the soul which only is knowing in man knoweth very little of it self of its nature of its original like the eie that seeth other things but not it self Let us then be more sollicitous about our going out of the world then how we came into it Be more desirous to come out of this pit then to stand wondring how thou didst fall into it dost thou not observe more ready to inquire curiously about the one then daily to pray about the other SECT V. HItherto the expedients thought upon to ease that great difficulty about the propagation of original sinne have appeared very improbable and in some respect very absurd like unwise Chyrurgians not healing but vexing the wound worse We shall now proceed to some more probable ones and dispatch them with convenient speed lest you should think these are such 〈◊〉 upon which no grapes can grow of more difficulty then usefulness although you shall find that even in this wilderness we may meet with Mâ—ona The truth discussed will not only be for doctrinal Information 〈◊〉 doctrinate Application The next therefore that I shall instance in is 〈…〉 of those who hold The soul is not by the immediate Creation of God but 〈◊〉 or multiplication and this they are so confident in That they 〈◊〉 Doctrine of original corruption cannot be maintained unless we affirme so Thus you heard Austin affirming That neither by reading praier or disputing could he find out how one could be defended without the other It is true Bellermine saith That the opinion of the traduction of the soul from the parents doth no way at all either advantage or incommodate the Doctrine of original sinne but that the difficulty will still be as great so also Arminius Thes pri de primo peccato maketh the dispute about the original of the soul in the matter of the propagation of this hereditary defilement unusefull and needless But certainly the clearing of the souls original is very influential into this point especially because we are forced to it by the adversaries of this truth for it seemeth very probable that Austin would readily have believed the immediate creation of every of every soul but that the dispute about original corruption was the remora for he regarded not any other Objection This opinion then That the soul cometh originally from the parents as well as the body hath had its grave and learned abettors Tertullian of old who wrote a book De animâ And as for Austin it is true he did not defend this opinion neither did he deny it he wrote four Books De origine animae against one Vincentius Victor who blamed Austin for his hesitancy in this point and in those Austin doth still persist in the same doubt and doth answer those Arguments which are usually brought out of the Scripture yet so as that he doth not determine against the souls Creation but desired stronger Arguments and therefore doth rebuke that young man for his bold presumption in determining that controversie so confidently Austin also in his tenth Book upon Genesis ad literam doth shew the same doubting mind within him as also in his Epistle to Hierom wholly about the original of the soul wherein he doth earnestly desire of Hierom that he would teach him and satisfie him in this point by strong and sure evidence likewise he maketh the original of the soâ—â— the subject of this Epistle to Optatus It appeareth that Austin did more incline to hold the Creation of the soul therefore he saith to Hierom That although none can by wishing make a thing to be true yet if it could he would by wishing have the Doctrine of the Creation of the soul to be the truth No wonder that Austin thus doubted seeing Hierom saith the greatest part of the western Doctors were for the traduction of the soul But the eastern the greek Fathers they did generally hold the immediate Creation of it In the latter daies of the Church since the Reformation there have also been eminent and able Divines asserting the traduction of the soul from the parents and thereby original sinne Vostius mentioneth Johnius and Marnixius The Lutheran Divines seem generally to be of this opinion as appeareth by Brechword and Meisner The latter whereof relateth of Luther that he should say He would never trouble the Church about any opinion about the original of the soul yet his private opinion was that it was not by Creation and they do pitch on this as holding it most convenient to remove all doubts although Meisner confesseth there are even unanswerable Objections if they do hold the generation of it from the parents But I must tell you that those who affirm the soul to be from the parents as well as the body differ amongst themselves for some say it is by eduction out of the matter that it is generated as the body Others they say by traduction that the soul is not corporally begotten but the parents soul doth multiply the infants soul even say they as you see one candle doth inlighten another In the confession of the Aethiopick Faith as Hornebeck summa Cont. de Gracis relateth it is affirmed Omnes sine ullâ hesitantiâ in hâc sententiâ versamur c. All of us are in this opinion without any hesitancy that all our souls come of Adam as well as our flesh and that we are all Adam's seed both in flesh and soul CHAP. XXIV That the Soul is neither by Eduction or Traduction but by Introduction or immediate Infusion proved by Texts of Scripture SECT I. BUt whatsoever learned men have thought therein we may say That it is against Scripture and true reason that the soul is either by Eduction or Traduction but by Introduction or immediate Infusion and that by God himself And I shall instance in some Texts of Scripture to which though they give exceptions yet I suppose the Truth stands immoveable neither do you think this work needless for it 's worth the while if there were no other use but to informe you against a dangerous sect that are called Mortalists who hold the soul is nothing but the temperament of the body and that it is mortal to which abominable opinion the Socinians also do strongly incline The first Text
teacheth no such wickednesse yet because many may have a bare knowledge and a vain empty profession of Christ and live such Paganish lives he addeth a corrective to his speech which is worthy of all attention If so be ye have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus This is an excellent limitation men may know Christ professe Christ and yet not do it as the truth is in Jesus that is not to obey the Doctrine of Christ as he hath commanded Christ never required that thou shouldst only make a profession of faith in him and then for thy life that that may be full of vice and corruption know if you do so you know not the truth as it is in Jesus Christ We have a like expression Colos 1. 6. where the godly are said To know the grace of God in truth◠and Tit. 1. 1. There is the acknowledging of the truth after godlinesse Oh let such hear and let their ears tingle and their hearts tremble who come to Church profess Christ and yet runne in all excesse of riot What doth any knowledge profit if it be not of the truth as it is in Jesus if it be not an acknowledgment after godlinesse thou deniest the faith and art indeed worse then an Heathen There is Theologia rationalia and experimentalis as Gerson or Theologia docens and utens It is this later viz. an exercised experimental Divinity that maketh a Divine properly Therefore Amesius his definition of Theologia is good that it is Doctrius Deo vivendi a Doctrine whereby we are taught to live unto God Every wicked Christian is worse then a Pagan But who will believe this report Now that we may know what it is to know truth as it is in Jesus he instanceth in a twosold effect or demonstration thereof The first is To put off the old man with the decitfull lusts thereof This old man you heard is original sinne this must be mortified with the immediate issues thereof So that a true knowledge of Christ doth not only cleanse the strems but the fountain also doth not onely change the conversation of a man but the heart the affections the whole man It goeth to the root as well as the branches And the second effect is in the Text To be renewed in the spirit of your mind wherein we are to observe the Duty and the Subject of it The Duty is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To be renewed We read it Imperatively but in the Greek it is the Infinitive mood as also the Duty to put off mentioned ver 22. is in the same mood for these Infinitives do relate to the Verb being taught as the truth is in Christ to be taught to put off to be taught to be renewed If so be we conceive of those to whom Paul writeth as converted already then this duty of renovation is to be understood of further increased and degrees To be more renewed every day for it is usual with the Apostle to write to those who are supposed to be in the state of grace that they should be more sanctified and reconciled to God To be renewed is to have the mind indowed with new Properties and Qualities for ignorance knowledge for atheism and unbelief faith for sinfull and vain thoughts gracious and holy ones c. So that there are two extreame errours in the expounding of this 1. Of the Illyricans who as they held sinne to be the substance of a man so this renovation they must hold to be substantial not accidental But it 's absurd to say a man must have a new soul essentially in regeneration The other extream is of Socinians for they holding There is no such thing as original sinne they must needs say That this renovation is only in regard of contracted sinne and external impiety in the life not in respect of any inbred and inherent pollution in the mind But this also is against the Scripture The second thing in the Text is the Subject of this renovation The spirit of your mind Concerning the difference between spirit and mind many thoughts have been but either it is an Hebraism and is no more then the mind which is a spirit or else spirit is taken for that which is the most sublime noble and also most active and vigorous in a man Thus Job 20. 3. we have the spirit of understanding And Isa 11. 2. The spirit of wisdom the spirit of counsel and the spirit of knowledge Yea it is sometime applied to the vigorous and high actings of evil as Hos 4. 12. The spirit of whoredom And the spirit of whoredoms Hosea 5. 4. So that when the Apostle doth not say Be renewed in your mind but in the spirit of your mind This supposeth That what is most choise excellent and noble even in the rational part of a man called for its dignity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet this is all over polluted by original sinne and so needeth a renovation As for those who by the spirit would understand the holy Ghost that is most absurd For how can we be renewed in that SECT II. THe Text thus opened we may see two Doctrines in the womb of it the first implied and supposed viz. 1. That the mind of every man in all the choise operations thereof is wholly polluted and stained 2. Because it is thus polluted that needs regeneration and renovation as well as any other parts The former Doctrine is only to my subject in hand for now my work is to shew you Wherein this contagion doth discover it self And I shall begin with that which hath the greatest dignity in a man and if that hath not escaped pollution much lesse may we think the other parts have And if the eye be dark how great must our darknesse be And before we speak particularly to that let us say something in the general about the subject wherein this original sinne is seated SECT III. FIrst There hath been some who have not so much seated it in the soul as made the very soul and substance of a man to be original sinne So that we might properly and truly say Man was sinne it self The Author of this was Flaccius Illyricus who in many things is to be praised for his diligence and industry but he was of a turbulent spirit very restless insomuch that in his studies at first he was so greatly tempted that many times publick prayer was made for him in the solemn Assemblies Vide Horned Sum. Controv. de Lutheranismo This man out of great earnestness to oppose Papists yea and the Lutheran Strigelius who extenuated original sinne fell into another extream making it to be the very substance of man It is true Some have excused him as thinking his opinion was sound onely his words were obscure and dangerous for he doth often distinguish between the Homo Physicus and the Homo Theologicus he maketh the Theological man as he is in such a consideration to be onely sinfull But surely it is
further actings of original sinne in the mind and spirit of man And The second in order is That incapacity which is in every mans understanding about holy things Divine and supernatural things are no more received by him then a Beast doth apprehend the things of reason We have this fully affirmed 1 Cor. 2. 14. But the natural man receiveth not the things of God neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned you see there is no habitude or proportion between the understannding of a natural man and spiritual things no more then is between the bodily eie and a spiritual 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is one that doth excolere animam such as labour to adorne and perfect the soul with the most intellectual and moral indowments that are a Tully a Plato an Aristotle these if brought to Gospel-truth are not so much as noctuae ad solem Owles to the Sunne-beames To this purpose also Rom. 8. 7 we have not only this truth asserted but also aggravated where the carnal mind is said To be enmity against God and it is not subject to the Law of God neither can it be By which places of Scripture it is evident That the mind of man hath an utter incapacity as to any divine things Indeed there is a passive capacity as some express it and so the mind of man is susceptible of holy truth and such a capacity is not in a beast as that is not capable of sinne so neither of regeneration But then there is an active capacity when the soul by some ability and power of its own is able to move to these supernatural objects and thus the understanding of the most learned in the world cannot of it self receive it and therefore faith is said To be the gift of God so that we may justly abhorre the Arminians Probitas animi and Pia doxilitas which they make preparatory or main part to conversion Now there is a twofold receiving of divine Truths 1. Speculatively by a bare dogmatical assent and even thus none by nature can receive the Truths of God for the Pharisees though they heard Christ preached and saw the miracles he did yet they did not believe with so much as a dogmatical faith 2. There is a practical and experimental receiving of holy Truths in the power of them which is here called the knowing of Truths as they are in Jesus and this much less are we able to receive To the former is required the common grace of God To this a more special one Wonder not then if you see men even the most learned naturally so brutish so ignorant about divine things That they have no more understanding and apprehension about heavenly things Oh bewail original corruption which maketh thee so unteachable so untractable Why doth not every Scripture-truth every powerfull Sermon have its full and powerfull operation upon thee but because it doth not me et with a preparedand fitted subject Thirdly Adam's actual sinne which is our original imputed one was partly this They desired to be as gods to know good and evil which hath left its impression upon all Like the Bethshemite we desire to be looking into the Ark. The Apostle 1 Cor. 4. 6 as he would not have the Corinthians think of men above that which is written so much less of God contrary to that which is revealed This is a great evil upon the understandings of men by original sinne that now the mind is not contented with the rule God hath given it They think it a small and contemptible matter to know no more then what may be known by the Scripture but they affect extraordinary things This curiosity is that which filled the Church once with so many Schoolemen and their Questions as Aegypt was once with Caterpillars It is true School-divinity hath its use and so farre as they deal solidly and improve natural reason in any point they are very admirable but when once they fall into their useless unprofitable and sublime Questions where neither the Word of God or sure reason can conduct them then they vanish like smoak in the air how rash are they in their Disputes about Angels With what nice conceits have they obscured the Doctrine of the Trinity Insomuch that we may see much of original sinne in them inclining and hurrying of them to a bold and venturous determination of such things which God hath not manifested so that none of their seraphical sublime or angelical Doctors could begin their Disputations as John his Epistle That which we have seen we have heard and our hands have handled 1 Joh 1. 1. Though therefore the Schoolemen have in somethings their great use yet in their difficult niceties which are but as so many cob-webs there they are as much to be slighted as one king did a man who boasted he could stand at a distance and throw a grain of corn through the eie of a needle Again this original curiosity of the mind venteth it self in all those Magick Arts and Witchcrafts which have abounded in the world as also in judiciary Astrology and such deceitful impostures men affecting as Adam did to be like God to be able to declare the things that are to come Act. 19 19. They are called curious arts Furthermore this curiosity of the mind is seen in nauseating and disdaining known things and what are already discovered and ambitiously thirsting to find out some Veritas incognita as others have done Terra incognita To bring such new things to the world that were never knowen or heard before It 's from this sinful curiosity that men forsake the good Truths of God and runne after heresies errors and whatsoever hath novellisme in it so that he who would examine himself about his regeneration must look to the renovation of his mind in this particular as well as any other Fourthly Original sinne discovereth it self in our minds by the vanity that they are filled with 1 Cor. 3 20 The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise that they are vain If the thoughts of wise men without the Scripture be vain how much more of men who have no more then natural ability And certainly this must needs be a very heavy censure upon man that he who hath the best parts the greatest understanding yet till grace sanctify he is but a vain man His mind is a vain mind his understanding is a vain understanding many waies the vanity of it might be discovered as thus The understanding of man is naturally more affected with pleasing things then with solid and sound Truths it is more affected with words language jests and merry tales then with that matter which tendeth to spiritual edification Is not this a great instance of the vanity upon our minds to regard leaves more then fruit chaff more then good seed pictures and shews more then substances whence ariseth that delight in embroydered language in playes and Comedies and in Romances and such bubles and empty vapours but from
deluded in all things and takest counterfeit for that which is true and genuine Under this head we may comprehend all that craft and subtilty in men as in the Jesuites to maintain Idolatry or Heresie For the Devil as at first so still he delights to use Serpents because they are more crafty then others The craft also in man naturally to do mischief for which they are compared in Scripture to Foxes doth declare how original sinne hath all over infected the mind Eighthly The great pollution of original sinne upon our minds is seen In the pronenesse to vain idle sinfull and â—oving thoughts so that these do discover an unclean fountain of the heart more then any thing Whence do these sparks arise but from that furnace of sinne within thee The Air is not fuller of Flies Aegypt was not fuller of Frogs then every mans heart is naturally of idle vain foolish and impertinent thoughts Thoughts they are the immediate product and issue of original sinne The first born they are streams that come immediately from the fountain Now certainly if a man had by nature an holy sanctified mind he would also have holy and sanctified thoughts Think you that Adam in integrity or the good Angels are troubled with thoughts as we are For all the while a man is natural he never had a good thought in him he might have a thought of good but not a good thought For as every Cogitatio mali is not Cogitatio malâ We may think of evil to abhorre and detest and this thought of evil is good So in a natural man though he may have a thought about good yet it is not in a good manner and therefore evil though the object matter be good What then will prostrate thee and make thee lie grovelling upon the ground loathing thy self if this do not Amongst the millions and millions of thoughts which thou hast there is not one but it is either vain proud idle or impertinent yea our thoughts are not in our own power no more then the birds that flie in the air but they arise antecedently to our own will and deliberation And certainly if vain thoughts be such a burden to a regenerate man if they do captivate and inthrall him which made one cry out Libenter Domine bonus esse vellem sed cogitationes meae non patiuntur I would gladly be good but my thoughts will not suffer me No wonder if to the natural man who is under the power of original sinne that sinfull thoughts hurry him away without any resistance Ninthly Original pollution doth greatly defile the mind of a man in the mutability and instability of it Insomuch that the judgement of every natural man destitute of true light and faith which doth onely consolidate the soul is like a reed shaken with every wind he is mutable and various ready every day or every year to have a new Faith and a new Religion This maketh the Apostle inform us That one end of the Ministry Ephes 4. 14. is That we be not carried away with every wind of Doctrine Such empty straws and feathers are we that any new opinion doth presently seduce us and therefore the Scripture doth press a sound mind and an heart established with grace which is the special preservative against such instability Aquinas maketh this the reason of the good Angels confirmation in grace and that they cannot now sinne because such is the perfection and immutability of their natures that what their understanding doth once adhere unto they cannot change Indeed it is thus with God that his knowledge is unchangeable but there is no reason to attribute this to Angels and therefore their confirmation in good is not so much to be attributed to any intrinsecal cause in themselves as to the grace of God establishing them But how farre short was man newly created of such immutability How much more then man fallen From this pollution it is that we have so many apostates that there are Seekers that there are so many Neutrals that there are so many who think any in any Religion may be saved It is true there may be a just cause of changing our minds in Religion as when educated in Popery or when we have received any heretical opinions but I speak here of that instability which is naturally in the mind of a man that though he be in the truth yet there is a proneness to desert it and to discover much lenity in the matters of Religion The Remonstrants go too farre this way commending this sinfulnesse under the name of modesty and humility and therefore though in Fundamentals they will grant we may say This our faith is This we doe believe yet in other points which though not fundamentals yet the errors about them may greatly derogate from the glory of Christ and his grace as also much prejudice the consolations of those who truly fear God as their opinions do They commend those expressions Ita nobis videtur and Salvo meliorum judicio It is our sententia not our fides Now if this were said only in some points disputed amongst the Orthodox that are at a great distance from Fundamentals it might be received but they extend this further if not to the foundation-stones yet to those that immediately joyn to them and so do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 remove such things that will in time endanger the whole structure of Christianity and so from Remonstrantisme proceed to Socinianisme which is adificari and ruinam as Tertullian expresseth it De praesc Such an edification many unsetled spirits meet with Tenthly Original sinne doth pollute the mind of a man with pride and vain-glory so that he is easily puffed up with his own conceits and altogether ignorant of his ignorance The Apostle Col. 2. 18. saith of some Vainly puffed up with a fleshly mind This Tumor this Tympany in the mind hath been the cause of most heresies in the Church The Gnosticks boasted in their knowledge and had their name from it The Eunomians did vainly and blasphemously brag That they knew God as well as he knew himself And some in these later dayes have not been afraid to compare themselves above the Apostles for gifts and illuminations So that whereas every one should with wise Augur say humbly I have not the understanding of a man I am more bruitish then any man Or with Austin when one admiring his learning used this expression Nihil te latet he answered again Nihil tristius legi because he knew the falshood of it because of his ignorance even in innumerable places of Scripture They equalize themselves to Angels yea to God himself This pride this self-conceit is a worm bred in the rose and the more parts men have the more doth this disease increase Matthew Paris relateth of a great Scholar much admired for his learning who in his Lectures once in the Schools proving the Divine Nature and also Incarnation of Christ with mighty applause did
notorious and most ungodly enemies of the Church because the seed and root of these is in all so we may appropriate this feared conscience to every man naturally whereby a man commits gross and foul sinnes and yet finds not one prick or stab at his heart for it What made David when he had numbered the people to have his heart smite him presently but because his conscience was sanctified and made tender by God whereas thou canst a thousand times fall into the same gross-sinnes and thy conscience giveth thee not one lash for it Is not this because thy conscience is stupified so that it hath made thee in all thy sinnes as Lot was when made drunk by his daughters He knew not in the morning what he had done Thus with the same stupidity and sottishness dost thou act sinne it cometh from thee as excrements from a dying person and thou hast no apprehension of them as in sleep the stomack doth digest that meat which if waking would so molest it that there would be no ease till exonerated Thus while conscience is asleep those things are committed which if it were tender it would with fear and trembling fly from O men bitterly to be lamented and mourned over Conscience which is set as a schoolemaster to direct and reproove thee is become a flatterer or rather lieth stark dead within thee that the Devil and sinne in all the lusts thereof may hurry thee whether they please and conscience doth not contradict so that you may as well offer light to the blind speech to the deaf wisedome to the bruit beast as publish the great truths and commands of God to them while conscience is thus stupified within them Therefore in conversion the first work of grace is to make this tender and sensible even of the least sinne SECT III. The Blindness and Stupidity of Conscience discovered in the several Offices and actings of it THirdly Because this pollution of the conscience is expressed in the general viz. blindness and stupidity Let us examine how this sinfullness is seen in the several offices and actings of conscience for which God hath placed it in the soul And 1. One main work of conscience is to apply what we read in the Scripture as generally spoken conscience is to apply it in particular When it readeth the threatnings and cursings of the law to such sinnes as thou art guilty of then conscience is to say This belongeth to me This curse This burden is my curse it 's my burden Because David did not let his conscience do its duty in application David could condemne sinne in general His wrath is kindled against such sinners as himself in the general Nathan was forced to be in stead of conscience to him saying Thou art the man Thus conscience if not polluted when it heareth any woe denounced against such and such sinnes then that stands up and saith Thou art the man hence God giveth the commands by particular application Thou shalt not commit adultery Thou shalt not steal that conscience may say This Commandment belongs to me As natural bodies they act by a corporal contact so the Scripture worketh upon the soul by a spiritual contact and that is the application of conscience Insomuch that if we do a thousand times read over the Scriptures if we hear Sermons upon Sermons all our life if conscience doth not apply all becomes ineffectual And this may answer that Question How it cometh to pass that a man can commit those sinnes which he knoweth to be sinnes which his conscience tells him are sinnes Who are there so much stupified and besotted by sinne that do not in the general know that the waies they live in are wicked that they provoke God that they ought not to do so How then is it possible that they should close with those sinnes that they know to be so seeing the will cannot will evil as it is evil Now the Answer is This ariseth from the defect of conscience she doth not particularly make such a powerfull application pro hic nunc as it ought to do There is therefore a general knowledge an habitual knowledge of such things to be sinnes yea it may be a particular apprehension that they are now sinning and offending God but this is onely a speculative apprehension it 's not a practical one produced by conscience in thee Oh therefore that all our Auditors were delivered from this original pollution of conscience for therefore we preach in vain and you hear in vain because no application is made to your own hearts None brings the truth the command the threatning to his own soul saying This is my portion none so guilty as I am in this particular and thus as she said to the Prophet Thou hast brought my sinnes to my mind or as the woman of Samaria concerning Christ He had told her of all that she had done Thus faith the applying conscience This Sermon brings my sinnes to my mind This Sermon tels me of the wickednesse at such a time committed by me It was the Prophets complaint of his hearers None said What have I done They did not make a particular application Therefore till the grace of God quicken the conscience making thee to cry out What shall I do I have sinned Gods Word hath found me out It is me the Law condemneth It is me that the curses belong to as if I were mentioned and named as if I had heard a voice from Heaven saying Thou Thomas Thou John here is thy sin here is thy doom Till I say this be done all thy knowledge in the general all the Texts of Scripture in thy memory they have no influence at all Secondly Herein is the corruption of the conscience naturally seen That though it doth apply yet it is in so weak and cold a manner that it hath lost its activity and predominancy over the affections and the will of a man insomuch that though conscience do speak do rebuke do apply yet a man careth not for it The affections and the will are not kept in awe by it Thus although conscience in many doth not so much as stirre it is stark dead yet in many it doth sometimes apply bringing home the Word of God to the heart so that he cannot but confesse if he doth thus and thus he sinneth but then conscience is too weak affections and passions like Amnon to Tamar are too strong and consuperate her whether she will or no Is not this the dreadfull condition of many who frequent our Congregations whose consciences condemn them daily Thou art such a sinner thy wayes are damnable but they slight and despise these applications of conscience as rude Scholars the authority of their Master what care they for the Monitor in their breast Like Balaam they will press forward to their wickedness though conscience stand like an Angel with a sword in his hand to stop in the way Rom. 1. 18. The Apostle speaketh excellently to this
for fifteen hundred yeares It is Bellarmine that saith so but our Divines had detected this falshood long before Jansenius Howsoever Austin may use the word yet the Scripture expresseth that which we call the will by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A second word to express liberty is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 liberty yet this is not so much applied to the liberty of the will as to the liberty of a man as here in the Text the sonne shall make you free your persons not your wils but because there is an universal bondage in all the powers of the soul to sinne blindness in the mind contumacy in the will for Quid est libertas sine gratiâ nisi contumacia What is liberty in the will without grace but contumacy against God and a wilfull delight in evil wayes Inordinacy in the affections therefore the person is said to be made free not but that the will is principally included in this only the will is not all that is made free 2 Cor 3. 17 where the spirit of the Lord is thereby is liberty It 's from the Spirit of God we obtain liberty from sinne and also from servile slavish feares The Jesuites would have this liberty nothing to the purpose in the controversie de libero arbirio for say they this is a spiritual mistical liberty libertas à peccate and they are treating of libertas naturae which they make to consist in an indifferency to good or evil but by their favour this is a proper liberty and it is this that the Pelagians did most controvert about and still the proper dispute between the orthodox and their adversaries is in this particular Whether there be any liberty or freedome in a mans will without grace to shake off the deminion of sinne so that they keep most properly to the state of the question who are diligent in the opening of the nature of this liberty Another word which the Scripture useth to express this free-will by is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 5. 2 Phil. 1. 4 and this is very proper and full when we do a thing not by constraint or by a natural necessity then we do it freely therein we shew our liberty so that liberty doth oppose coaction and natural necessity It is impossible the will should in its immediate elicite acts be compelled for then it should be voluntas and noluntas at the same time then velle would be nolle which is an high contradiction Therefore liberty doth necessarly oppose constraint but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth also oppose a natural necessity I say a natural necessity for there are other necessities that liberty doth consist with yea and the more necessary the more free as in time is to be shewed Thus though the stone hath an inclination to descend downwards yet because the stones motion is from a natural necessary principle therefore it is not free Beasts likewise though they exceed the inanimate creatures yet they do not agere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 voluntarily They do act spontaneously but not voluntary because a natural principle of sence doth determine them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indeed Heb. 10. 26 is translated wilfully If we sinne wilfully after we have known the truth but there it signifieth an high degree of the obstinacy of the will and a confirmation in evil against great light and knowledge but commonly it signifieth doing a thing so as not to be constrained to it Platonical Philosophers call free-will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too proud a word to be given to a creature and therefore the ancient Greek Fathers being many of them Platonists did greatly obscure the glory of grace by receiving Platonical words of which this is one Indeed they gave to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is too much for a creature which hath a necessity of subordination to God and dependency on him The Stoicks they express free-will by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which is in our own power The Aristotelians express it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the Scripture expression likewise Though the Scripture and Aristotelians differ as much as light and darkness about the nature of liberty As the Ancients by following Platonical Philosophy so the Neotericks especially the Jesuites by following Aristotle have greatly prejudiced the Doctrine of free-grace setting up free-will in the room thereof There is one expression more and the Scripture hath it but once which is the most emphatical in describing of this liberty and that is 1 Cor. 7. 37. Having power over a mans own will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for liberty lieth in some kinds of some dominion to have our own will hence in liberty we may conceive something Negative and something Positive Negative and that is not to be compelled not to be constrained not to be inslaved Positive and that is to have some power and dominion over the actions of our will as the Apostle instanceth in him who had decreed to keep his virgin from marriage This man is said to have power over his own will By these Scripture words we may come to understand in a great measure what liberty and freedome of will is ¶ 5. Some Observations concerning the Promoters of the Doctrine of Free-Will how Unpleasing the contrary Doctrine is to flesh and blood with some advice about it SEcondly take notice That it is the great purpose and design of some to go contrary to the plain intent of the Scripture For many in all ages of the Church have with all their learning and parts endeavoured to set up this Idol of Free-will whereas the great drift of the Scripture is to advance and set up the free grace and free gift of God The Apostles they write to debase man and to exalt the grace of God Erronious persons they dispute and write to exalt the will of man and to take off from the grace of God What a loud trumpet is Paul in his Epistles to sound forth the praises of free grace not only free grace in justification but free grace also in sanctification It 's the grace of God that doth not only pardon the guilt of sinne but conquer the power of it Consider then whether it be better to set up Dagon or the Ark the free-will of man or the free gift and grace of God Truly it is a very uncomfortable task to be disputing against that grace which yet we must wholly rely upon when we come to die It is one thing what men write while they are in health what cobweb-distinctions they please themselves with in their voluminous writings and another thing when they are in the agonies of death and are to appear at the tribunal of a righteous God It was that which that famous Champion for the grace of God Bradwardine comforted himself with when he undertook the cause of God against Pelagians That he could pray for the grace of God to help him
the cup of gold in Benjamin's sack and therefore this must greatly debase us Thirdly We are not able of our selves to have the least desire or longing after grace and a state of holinesse Not only Pelagianism but Semi-pelagianism is a dangerous rock to be avoided The later made our desires to begin and then Gods grace to succeed and accomplish But there is not so much as the least groan the least desire can arise in thy heart Oh that God would change me Oh that I were in the state of those that do truly fear God! And the reason is because the Scripture describeth us by nature to be dead in sinne and compareth the work of grace to a spiritual resurrection Oh how great is thy bondage which doth so farre oppress thee that thou canst not so much as long for any freedom Oh hopeless and wretched man if left to himself Fourthly From this followeth the next demonstration of our vassalage and spiritual impotency That we cannot pray to God that he would deliver us out of this misery No natural man can pray it is the grace of God that doth inable thereunto he may utter the words of prayer he may repeat the expressions but alas he doth not he cannot pray as God requireth and so as he will accept of it The Apostle is clear for this Rom. 8. 26. The Spirit helpeth our infirmities for we know not what to pray for as we ought Is not this unspeakable misery who needeth to pray more then thou and yet thou canst not pray Thou art sinning thou art dying thou are damning and yet canst not pray Is not thy heart like an adamant if this break thee not Fifthly Such is our impotency and bondage That we are not able to affect our selves with the fear and terrour of the Law thereby to be convinced and humbled in our selves If we cannot do the preparatories for grace much lesse grace it self if we cannot do the lesse How shall we do the greater Now one great preparatory work is To have a divine and powerfull fear in our souls by reason of the Law whereby we are afraid of hell of the day of Judgement and cannot have any rest in our spirits because of this Now this is wrought by the Spirit of God in a preparatory way Rom. 8. 15. It is called The Spirit of bondage And Joh. 14. The Spirit doth convince the world of sinne So that in and through the preaching of the Law and discovery of sinne the Spirit of God doth awaken and terrifie the conscience of a man maketh him afraid that he cannot eat or drink or take the delight he used to do It is true the slavish sinfulness of this fear the Spirit of God doth not work but the heart being like a mudded pool when it is moved such slavish fears will arise likewise But how farre is every natural man from this he is secure and jolly blessing and applauding himself crying peace peace all is at quiet within him because the strong man doth keep the house It is the voice of the Lord only that can make these mountains to quake and melt Sixthly Such is our weakness That we cannot barden or soften our hearts in the least manner but they remain obdurate and like brasse and iron Thy heart is like a stone within thee and thou art no wayes able to mollifie it Therefore God maketh it his work and he graciously promiseth I will take away the heart of stone Ezek. 11. 19. and give an heart of flesh As if God had said I know this work is above you you are not able to do it And certainly if the godly themselves because of the remainders of original corruption doe complain of the hardnesse of their hearts cannot mollifie or soften them as they desire Is it any wonder if the wicked man be not able to remove the stone from him Seventhly A man cannot by the power of nature believe no not so much as with an historical faith till grace prepare the heart therein Now faith is the first foundation-stone Heb. 11. He that cometh to God must believe he is and so he must believe the truth about Christ But we see by the Pharisees who heard Christ preach saw the wonderfull miracles he did yet in stead of believing in him did deride and oppose him so that all the acts of faith whether dogmatical or saving we are enabled unto only by the grace of God Matth. 13. 11. To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven but not to them Thus Act. 18. 27. the Disciples are said to believe through grace faith then is the gift of God not the work of mans free-will And if he cannot do this it is plain he cannot move one foot of himself towards Heaven Lastly Such is our impotency That when grace is offered and tendered to us the will of it self hath no power to consent to it or make improvement of it It can and oft doth resist and refuse grace but of it self it cannot imbrace it It is true Papists and Arminians plead hard for this power of the will but this is to give more to mans will then to Gods grace this is to make man to differ himself from others It might be thought that the will indeed cannot chuse Christ or receive him as a Lord because there is no revelation or manifestation of a Christ They are a people happily who sit in darkness and have no light and therefore though they may have an inward power to see yet for want of light to actuate the medium they cannot so that the defect ariseth not from the power within but the manifestation of the object without And this indeed is gratly to be considered whether an Infidel or Pagan for example doth not believe because there is no proposition of the object in the Ministry otherwise if he enjoyed that then he had power over his own to assent to it Now even the Pelagians themselves and their followers yea even all that give not grace its full due yet thus farre they do acknowledge there must be a doctrinal revelation by the Spirit of God of the truths to be acknowledged and when this light is set as it were upon the Candlestick then a man of his own self is able to see but such is the corruption of man that not only grace must bring in the light but it must also give the eye to see So that the work of Gods grace is both objective and subjective objective in revealing the object and subjective in preparing and fitting the subject It being the Lord who doth give the seeing eye and the hearing ear Prov. 20. 12. Yea the Arminians go further acknowledging that grace doth irresistibly work upon the understanding of a man for it being a passive faculty it cannot withstand its illumination but the will that retaineth its indifferency when grace hath done all it will do This therfore is granted That without the
more predominant then the understanding It is with man the little world as the great world God made in this two great lights the Sunne and Moon one to rule in the day the other in the night Thus man hath two lights created in him which are to direct him in all his operations the Sunne that is the Understanding the Moon is like the Imagination which giveth a glimmering light and that onely in particular and corporeal things Now as it would be an horrible confusion in the world if the Moon should shut out the Sunne and take upon it to rule in the day time all the light the Moon hath let it be supposed it hath some of its own would not suffice to make a day Thus it is in man his fancy which hath not light enough to guide him in his actions to his true end yet that usurpeth upon the understanding and doth in effect command all Thus the inferiour light prevaileth over the superiour Oh what groaning should the new creature be in till it be delivered from this bondage See then to thy self and examine all things that passe through thy soul more narrowly and exactly It may be thy imagination is the cause of all thy Religion of all thy opinions It may be it is not faith but fancy It may be it is not conscience but imagination that instigateth thee Those expressions me thinks and I imagine so are not high enough or becoming those glorious actings of faith in the soul which the Apostle calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 11. 1. The substance of things hoped for Aristotle opposeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to those apparitions that are made in the air as the Rain-bow which hath no real subsistency and truly such are the conceits and apprehensions many have in Religion and Piety They are not of a solid true and well-grounded knowledge but are like meteors in the air Thus do their opinions flie up and down in their head We may observe it a very ordinary thing in controversies and polemical writings that both parties will often charge one another with their fancies and their imaginations that there is no such thing in Scripture or in reason but a figment in the brain Yea the Pelagians and Socinians call this very Doctrine of original sinne Austin's fancy as if it were an evil imagination to hold That the thoughts and imaginations of the heart are only evil and that continually Thus you see in what confusion we are in when sometimes the solid Doctrine of the Scripture is traduced for a meer imagination And again meer fancies applauded and earnestly contended for as sundamental pillars of Religion and Piety Seeing then our imaginations are so apt to get into the chair of the understanding and as Athaliah destroyed the seed royal that she might reign so fancy bolteth out all solid reasons and arguments that it alone may do all it behoveth us the more to watch over our hearts in this respect and to be sure they are the solid works of faith and not the fickle motions of the fancy that do guide thee and the rather because it is the perpetual custome of wicked and ungodly men to brand and stigmatize both the true faith and all solid piety with the reproach of a meer fancy Do not Papists Arminians Socinians and the like exclaim against the Protestant Doctrine as if it were but an Idol of Calvins and Luthers making when they condemned the blessed Martyrs to burn at the stake they concluded such suffered but for their fancies and their humours It being therefore the constant charge by all enemies to truth that it is not thy faith thou pleadest for thou sufferest for but thy meer fancy it behoveth thee to be the more diligent in Scripture knowledge and to pray that the Spirit of God may thereby quicken thee up to a found and sure faith Thus also it is in practicals Let a man set himself to the power of godliness walk strictly in opposition to the loosness and profaneness of the world Let his soul mourn for sinne and his heart grieve for his evil wayes what do carnal people presently say This is your fancy these are your melancholly conceits they judge it to be some distemper in your imagination that it is a kind of a madness Now that we may withstand such accusations it behoveth us to seek after and pray for such a thorough work of sanctification that we may be assured it is no more fancy then that we live or have our being that if to be godly if to be converted be a fancy onely then to be a man or to be a wicked man is only a fancy also Well though we must take heed of calling faith a fancy and the work of grace a melancholly conceit for that is a kind of blaspheming the holy Ghost yet experience doth evidence That many have not faith have not true piety but meer empty shadows and imaginations in Religion witness the Scepticism of many in these dayes who are of no faith and no Religion who change it often as they do their garments who have no rooting or immovable foundation but are as the water which receiveth every impression but retaineth none that are Reeds shaken with every wind and are clean contrary to Christ for they are not the same yesterday and to day and for ever Can you say this is the work of Gods Spirit Can we say this is the Scripture-truth No you read the Character of such who have true faith and that in a sanctified manner If it were possible to deceive the very elect Matth. 24. 24. Certainly the prevalency of the imagination above the understanding in religious things is one of the sore evils which original sinne hath brought upon all mankind SECT IX In the Imagination are conceived for the most part all Actual Impieties SEventhly This also doth greatly manifest the sinfulness of the Imagination That as in the affections so likewise in it are conceived for the most part all actual impieties The Imagination and the Affections joyned together are commonly that dunghill wherein these serpents lay their eggs yea sinne many times lieth a long while breeding in the imagination before it be brought forth into action yea many times it is never brought forth but the womb of sinne is also the tomb it lived and died in the imagination We may observe the Scripture attributing the greatest works of impiety to the imagination as the cause of it Psal 21. Why do the people imagine a vain thing All the opposition of wicked men and their carnal policy to overthrow the wayes of Christ flow from this imagining Thus Psal 38. 12. They imagine deceits all the day long Zech. 7. 10. All the injustice oppression and fraud that may be used to other men is attributed to this Let none of you imagine evil against his brother in his heart It is true this Imagination spoken of in the Text comprehends also acts of the mind
yet because as you heard the mind acteth dependently upon the imagination therefore we conjoyn them together How polluted then must that fountain be which sends forth so many polluted streams Sinne as we told you may be a long while breeding here before it be compleatly formed and actuated yea and God beholdeth and taketh notice of thy sinnes thus prepared in thy imagination long before the commission of them We have a notable instance for this Deut. 31. 21. where Moses in the name of God testifying against the people of Israel that when they come into Canaan they do not fall off from God useth this expression For I know their imagination which they go about even now before I have brought them into the Land which I sware unto them God did before they come into Aegypt see what was working in their imaginations what they were making and fashioning in their hearts in which sense some expound that place of the Psalmist Thou knowest my thoughts afarre off Psal 139. 2. And this is good and profitable for us to consider we many times wonder to see how such gross and loathsom sinnes can come even from the godly themselves Alas marvel not at it these Serpents and Toads were a long while breeding in the imagination The pleasure or profit of such a sinne was often fancied before It was again and again committed in thy thoughts before it was expressed in thy life so that a man can never live unblameably in his life that doth not keep his imagination pure and clean Hence you have so often evil thoughts complained of as the root of all bitterness Jer. 4. 14. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge in thee Mark 15. 19. Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts As exhalations and vapours ascending from the earth which are scarce perceptible yet at last are congealed into thick and dismal clouds so those sins which while in the thoughts and imagination were scarce taken notice of do at last grow into soul and enormous transgressions 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 THirdly The sinfulness of the Imagination is further to be amplified In that many times sinne is acted with delight and content there without any relation at all to the external actings of sinne So that a man while unblameable in his life may yet have his imagination like a cage of unclean birds and this is commonly done when there are external impediments or some hinderances of committing the sinne outwardly The fear of mens laws outward reproach and shame want of opportunity may keep men off from the outward committing of some lust when yet at the same time their imaginations have the strong impressions of sinne upon them and so in their souls they become guilty before God The Adulterous man Is not his imagination full of uncleanness The proud man Is not his fancy lifted with high and towring conceits As the Apostle Peter speaketh of some whose eyes were full of adultery and that cannot cease from sinne 2 Pet. 2. 14. or as some read it according to the original Adulteresse imagination made them have her in their eyes continually though absent for if their eyes were their imaginations also must necessarily be because of the immediate natural connexion between them so then when there are no outward sores or ulcers to be seen upon a mans life yet his imagination may be a noisom dunghill what uncleanness fancied what high honours imagined that whereas thou art restrained from the actings of sinne yet thy heart burneth like an oven with lusts inwardly It is the emphatical similitude that the holy Ghost useth Hos 7. 8. They have made ready their heart like an oven The meaning is that as the oven heated is ready to bake any thing put therein so was the heart of those evil men prepared for any kind of naughtiness Some understand it of the adultery of the body only as if that were the sinne intended by the Prophet Others of the spiritual adultery of the soul by which name Idolatry is often called in Scripture Others referre it to both we may take it to be a proverbial expression denoting the readiness of a mans heart to commit any sinne that it lieth in the heart and the imagination day and night men highly sinning against God inwardly when outwardly they are restrained Know then that when the grace of sanctification shall renew thy spirit soul and body thou wilt then be very carefull to look to thy very imagination that no tickling fancies or conceits of any lust do defile thee thou wilt keep thy imagination as a precious Cabinet wherein precious pearls shall be treasured up not dirt and filth As we fitly use an expression concerning delight in sinne that it is the rolling of honey under the tongue so there is a rolling of sinne in the imagination with great titillation and pleasure when sinne cannot be committed in action we do it in our imagination Hence it is that by the imagination old men become guilty of their youthfull lusts when they have not bodies to be as instrumental to filthiness as they have been yet in their imaginations they can revive their by-past sinnes many years ago committed Thus men became as it were perpetual sinners in their imaginations Consider of this more seriously and pray for an holy chaste and pure imagination knowing thou hast to do with an omniscient God that knoweth what is working therein though it be hid from the world besides think not sinfull imaginations will escape the vengeance of God though no sutable operations of impiety do accompany them SECT XI It s Propensity to all evil both towards God and towards man NInthly Our Imagination is naturally corrupted Because of its propensity to all evil both towards God and towards man And First Towards God Let us take up that which was but glanced at before and that is How prone we are to provoke God in his worship declining from the true Rule and meerly because of our Imaginations The pleasing of them hath been the cause of all that displeasure which God ever had in his Church concerning the worshipping of him No sinne doth more provoke God then the corrupting of his worship to adulterate this is to meddle with the apple of his eye God beareth other sinnes a long while till his worship become to be corrupted and then he will endure no longer Now the original of all sinfulness in this kind hath been our imagination we have not attended to what God hath commanded we regard not his institutions but our own fancies the pleasing of them Hence when God promiseth a restauration to the people of Israel and a reformation from their former Idolatries he saith Neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart Jer. 3. 17. It was this Imagination carried them out to Idolatry whence came those goodly
even as Rebeckah when her twinnes did strive in the womb this was an extraordinary prognostick caused in a supernatural way by God And although Calvin on the place saith That it is natural to the fruit of the womb to leap or move when the mother is moved with joy yet he acknowledgeth that Luke doth here note some extraordinary thing and that this leaping was by the secret motion of the Spirit of God which doth detect the horrible impudence and slander of Maldonate who is not ashamed to say That Calvin doth own nothing besides what is natural in this for which in derision he calleth him pius autor we see by this how little we may trust such men We must then conclude even the babe at that time was affected with joy upon the Virgin Mary's coming to his mother and this supposeth that the child also was filled with the Holy Ghost yea v. 15. it is expresly said of John That he should be filled with the holy Ghost from the womb But if this be granted then it is greatly controverted Whether the babe did this with sense and knowledge that Christ was present or whether it was by the motion of the Spirit of God in the child that knowing nothing at all There are probable arguments on both sides The Lutherans they do greedily imbrace that opinion that maketh the child while in the womb to have actual faith and knowledge of Christ and from thence they do peremptorily conclude That Infants have actual sinnes and that they may have actual faith and other graces but this is against experience and if we do grant that John had such actual knowledge of Christ yet this was extraordinary and miraculous and must no more be attributed to all children then speaking to all Asses because Balaam's once did Many Authors conclude that John did rejoyce with some sense and apprehension and for this reason he is said to be filled with the Holy Ghost and joy must arise from some knowledge and apprehension neither say they will it follow from hence that he did not loose this actual knowledge afterwards but had it alwayes while an Infant for we see the Prophets though men grown up yet had not the spirit of prophecy at all times But come we to our business Let it be granted that John had actual faith that he was filled with the Holy Ghost that doth not hinder but that by nature he was a child of wrath and full of sinne for this grace is bestowed upon him when by nature sinfull and doth no more argue he had no sinne in him before then persons grown up have not when the Holy Ghost was poured on them And although it be said He was filled with the Holy Ghost that doth not imply that all sinne was wholly taken out of him no more then the Apostles and all others were quite purged from sinne when they are said to be filled with the Holy Ghost Besides the Scripture as Calvin considereth well doth not say John was filled with the Holy Ghost in the womb but from his mothers womb which he thus expounds That John the Baptist did betimes even from his Infancy manifest what an excellent Prophet he was like to be because the Spirit of God did even then give many Demonstrations thereof and thus though not so extraordinarily God sometimes doth give to some his sanctifying Spirit even from the cradle almost they begin betimes to put forth many excellent signs of that grace which will flourish more in their elder yeares Timothy from a child is said to have the knowledg of the Scriptures from a Child 2 Tim. 3. 15. And some have the fear of God planted so early in their hearts that they cannot know any remarkable time of their conversion yea they cannot remember but that alwayes they had such a tenderness about sinne and love to good things yet we must not think for all this they were not born in sinne we must not say of them as was said of Bonaventure for his hopefullness in his youth In hoc homine non peccavit Adam No these have by nature the same seed of all impiety and their younger yeares would have demonstrated this poison as well as it doth in others but the grace of God doth prevent Oh let such Obadiah's that can say They feared God from the youth admire the goodness of God to them he might have suffered that original sinne in thee to make thee wallow in such mire and filthy lusts as other young persons do Oh take heed of thinking thou hast a better nature then they that thou hast not so much original sinne in thee as others but walk humbly lest God sometime or other leave thee to let thee see what is in thy heart that all the sparkes of original sinne are not put out and then though to thy great grief thou be convinced there is a such a thing in thee SECT III. IT is the peculiar and incommunicable prerogative of Christ alone in respect of his humane nature to be exempted from original sinne as you have heard And therefore it 's an inseparable and inevitable property following every one of mankind As it is said of Justification by Christ Bond and free Jew and Grecian all are out Gal. 3. 28. So there is neither rich or poor Christian or Heathen Noble or ignoble civil or prophane male or female but all are one in original sinne because all are of Adam by natural generation and thereby original sin is propagated to all which Doctrine is to be explicated in more propositions And First Though our natural generation from corrupted Parents be the means by which we all are born polluted and depraved yet this doth not exclude the justice of God and his righteous Decree that from a sinfull fountain shall arise such polluted streams from such a bitter root also bitter fruit but doth necessarily presuppose it So that the just judgement of God in punishing of all mankind for Adam's first transgression must alwayes be acknowledged and we must not separate the natural propagation of sinne from the sentence and Decree of God For if this were the only reason that we became guilty of Adam's sinne because in his lions then all Adam's other sinnes should be made ours as well as that first act of disobedience in eating of the foridden fruit and the sinnes of our immediate parents in whose loines we were should be transmitted to us as well as Adam's yea happily if this were so then the longer original sinne hath been propagated it would still grow more evil and thereby men in the later age of the world become more polluted with original sinne then men in the former age but Cain and Abel who were the immediate off-spring of Adam were as deeply plunged in this native defilement as any are now Therefore some learned men though in this Controversie they do allow the phrase of the Propagation of original sinne because commonly used yet would gladly have
past time We grant it therefore that Paul saith this of himself though regenerated that he was sold under sin But then we say The expressions above named and this is not a like here it is in a passive sense there in an active sense of those wicked men it is said They sold themselves which denoteth their wilfulnes and obstinacy of this he was sold which implieth it to be done against his will as captives are there it is absolutely here it is limited to the flesh And if this phrase did denote a wicked man in an high degree then how can they apply it to a man under legal convictions and in a preparatory way to conversion It would be very hard to say of such men that they sold themselves to do evil Besides there is a two-fold bondage and captivity under sin even as the Israelites had a two-fold one they were born in that of Egypt and another they voluntarily by their sin sell into which was that of Babylon Thus there is a bondage unto sin we are all born in for in Adam we were all sold to sinne and so needed a Christ Redermer And secondly there is a bondage unto sinne by our own voluntary transgressions It is true a regenerate person cannot be sold under sinne in this later sence but he is in the former and so it is no more injurious unto the grace of God as Austin noteth then that he is yet mortal and corruptible Thus you have this great and necessary truth established Paul speaketh here of a regenerate person and that not only of him as he is in the lowest estate and initials of grace as Musculus thinketh but of every godly person while in this life even the most perfect that is though this conflict be more applicable to some then others yea if we do regard the exact purity of the law the most holy do most humble themselves under it ¶ 4. The several Wayes whereby Original Sinne doth hinder the godly in their Religious Progress whereby they are sinful and imperfect THe next Proposition in order is That this flesh this original sinne in a man doth several wayes hinder the godly in their religious progress whereby they are sinful and imperfect whereby every one is forced to cry out as he O me nunquam sapientem so O me nunquam pium Oh me never godly never believing never answering the holy Law of God! This treacherous enemy within us is so multiforme putteth it self Chamelion-like into so many shapes that the most holy men have cause to be alwayes on their guard to keep continual watch lest sometime or other this Daliah betray them into the hands of the Philistines How were it possible that some eminent servants of God as David and Peter have fallen so grievously and committed such sinnes which some Heathens by the light of nature would have abhorred but that there is this fuel and spawn of sinne abiding in every regenerate person It may well be affirmed that the reliquiae peccati originalis the reliques of original sinne are in the most holy for as when an house hath been for the greatest part consumed but at last the fire is quenched yet there remains some little sparks and embers which cause a constant watch lest they kindle and consume whatsoever is left yet undestroyed Such care and fear ought the godly to have lest the remaining corruption break out suddainly and so destroy them I shall instance in some particulars whereby original sinne doth thus hinder and retard the work of grace in us As First This flesh within the godly maketh us imperfect in this life by its strong opposition and contrary thwarting it hath to the grace of God within us These two saith the Text are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are two adversaries daily combating with one another Insomuch that what the Spirit saith do the flesh saith do it not Thus original corruption is like Solomons brawling woman whose contentions are a continual dropping Prov. 19. 13. What rest can such a man have no more then he that lyeth in his bed and hath constant droppings of rain upon him Such a disturber and farre more troublesome inmate is original sinne to a believer grace hath no rest no quietnes but the flesh is alwayes raising up oppositions against it alwayes crossing it what the Spirit would not that the flesh would Therefore Rom. 7. 23. the Apostle expresseth the violent actings thereof by military termes it warreth and it bringeth into captivity In this sence we may say the flesh is Satan for that is an adversary in our way that riseth up and stoppeth us in our spiritual progress It is true the natural and carnal man findeth no such opposition he never cryeth out Oh how hard a thing is it to be heavenly minded to be godly indeed to live a life of faith how difficult to live and die upon Scripture and spiritual grounds for all is flesh within dead men feel no pain they find no opposition Mortuus non belligerat is the Proverb but the godly are in continual exercises no sooner doth grace begin to work but the flesh presently beginneth to counter-work Secondly The flesh doth retard and hinder the work of grace by subtil allurements and enticements Thus as the Devil sometimes appeareth as a roaring Lion and sometimes again as a glistering Serpent and in this latter way is most dangerous so it is with this flesh within us sometimes it grosly and violently opposeth the grace of God at other times it craftily insinuateth It readily interposeth it propounds many sweet baits thus what it cannot do as a Lion it accomplisheth as a Fox so that what counsell is given Mis. 75. Keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lyeth in thy bosome implying there would be treachery in the nearest relations This is much more to be observed against original sinne that lyeth in thy own bosome yea it is thy own self and therefore how easily may it perswade thee yea no temptations without could do thee any hurt did not this flesh within betray all Thus it craftily insinuateth and surprizeth the strongesth holds of the soul before we are aware so you heard from that of James 1. 17. Every man is tempted and drawen aside with his own lust Sweet poison doth more easily destroy white powder that giveth no noise more certainly kills and this is the Reason why the godly may be carried away to sinne of profit and pleasure and not judge them to be so their hearts may not condemne them and all because the flesh can so bewitch us it doth cast such mists before our eyes that we are not able to discern between things that differ Thirdly The flesh within us doth keep off grace from its perfect work by depressing it and weighing it down that when grace would lift up the soul to heaven that is like a milstone about our neck and pulleth us back again it is lime to the birds wings it
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
Conversion Mr Hezekiah Woodward Of Education of Youth or The Childs Patrimony The Lives and Acts of the good and bad Kings of Judah A Treatise of Fear A-Thank-offering Mr Samuel Fisher A Love-Token for Mourners being two Funeral Sermons with Meditations preparatory to his own expected Death in a time and place of great Mortality Mr Herbert Palmer and Mr Daniel Cawdry A Treatise of the Sabbath in 4 parts Memorials of Godliness and Christianity in seven Treatises 1. Of making Religion ones Business With an Appendix applied to the Calling of a Minister 2. The Character of a Christian in Paradoxes 3. The Character of visible Godliness 4. Considerations to excite to Watchfulness and to shake of spiritual Drowsiness 5. Remedies against Carelesness 6. The Soul of Fasting 7. Brief Rules for daily Conversation and particular Directions for the Lords-day His Sermon entituled The Glass of Gods Providence toward his faithfull ones His Sermon entituled The duty and Honours of Church-Rest Mr William Barton His Psalms His Catalogue of Sins and Duties implied in each Commandement in verse Mr Vicars Chronicle in four parts Mr Samuel Clark A generall Martyrology or A History of all the great Persecutions that have been in the world to this time Together with the Lives of many eminent Modern Divines His Sermon at the Warwickshire mens Feast entituled Christian God fellowship Mr Kings Marriage of the Lamb. Mr Shorts Theological Poems The French Alphabet Jus Divinum Ministerii by the Provincial-Assemly of London Mr Thomas Blake His Answer to Blackwood of Baptism Birth-Priviledge Mr Cook His Font uncovered Dr John Wallis His explanation of the Assemblies Catechism 〈◊〉 Austin's Catechism 〈◊〉 Vicar's Catechism Mr Pagit's Defence of Church-Government by Presbyterial Classical and Synodal Assemblies Mr Tho Paget A Demonstration of Family-Duties Mr Anthony Burgess Vindiciae Legis or A Vindication of the Law and Covenants from the Errors of Papists Socinians and Antinomians A Treatise of Justification in two Parts Spiritual Refining Part 1. or A Treatise of Grace and Assurance Handâ—ling the Doctrine of Assurance the Use of Signs in Self examination how true Graces may be distinguished from counterfeit several true Signs of Grace and many false ones The Nature of Grace under divers Scripture Notions viz. Regeneration the New Creature the Heart of Flesh Vocation Sanctification c. Spiritual Refining the Second Part or A Treatise of Sinne with its Causes Differences Mitigations and Aggravations specially of the Deceitfulness of the Heart of Presumptious and Reigning Sinnes and of Hypocrisie and Formality in Religion All tending to unmask Counterfeit Christians Terrifie the ungodly Comfort doubting Saints Humble man and Exalt the Grace of God His CXLV Sermons upon the whole 17th Chapter of St John being Christs Prayer before his Passion The Difficulty of and Encourageâ—â—â—â— to Reformation a Sermon upon Mark. 1. vers 2 4. before the House of Commons A Sermon before the Court Marshal Psal 106 30 31. The Magistrates Commission upon Rom. 13. 4. at the Election of a Lord Maior Romes Cruelty and Apostasie upon Revel 19. 2. preached before the House of Commons on the 5th of November The Reformation of the Church to be endeavoured more then the Commonwealth upon Judg. 6. 27. 28 29. preached before the House of Lords Publique Affections pressed upon Numb 11. 12. before the House of Commons Self judging in order to the Sacrament with a Sermon of the Day of Judgment A Treatise of Original Sinne. Mr Richard Baxter Plain Scripture-proof of Infant Baptism The Right Method for getting and keeping Spiritual Peace and Comfort The unreasonableness of Infidelity in four Parts 1. The Spirits Intrinsick witness to the truth of Christianity with a Determination of this Question Whether the Miracles of Christ and hic Apostles do oblige those to believe who never saw them 2. The Spirits Internal witness of the truth of Christianity 3. A Treatise of the Sin against the holy Ghost 4. The Arrogancy of Reason against Divine Revelation repressed The Christian-Concord or The Agreement of the Associated Ministers of Worcestershire with Mr Baxters Explication of it A Defence of the Worcestershire Petition for the Ministry and Maintenace The Quakers Catechism An Apology against Mr Blake Dr Kendal Mr Lodovicus Molineus Mr Aires and Mr Crandon His Confession of Faith The Saints Everlasting Rest The safe Religion a piece against Popery Hiâ—â—â—esent Thoughts about Perseveran◠〈…〉 Practice of Godliness Mr Langly His Catechiâ—◠〈…〉 A Treatise 〈…〉 Dr Teate His 〈…〉 at the Funeral of Sr. Charles Cooâ— Mr Dury The desires of forrain Divines of a Body of Divinity from English Divines with an Essay of a Modell Ford. Three common mistakes about the work of Grace Object Answ Object Answ Object Answ Object Answ Object Answ Object Answ Object Answ Doct. Observ Obj Answ Object Answ Object Answ Object Answ Origen and Plato's opinion The Jews Some Papists Arg. 3. Arg. 4. Arg. 5. Argum. 6. It 's covered over with the veil of Blindness Vid. Cerd iâ— Tert. de presc II. With Senslesness and Stupidity Superiour objects 1. God 3. The Scripture 4. The works of God 1. Sinne past 2. Examples of others 3. The former work of Gods Spirit upon us 4. Our end and the day of Judgement 5. The afflictions of others 〈…〉 Apol. Confes c. de Trin. Propos 2. Quest Answ Prop. 4. Prop. 1. Cathol Refor Controv. 4. Cap. 1. Exam. Concil Trid. de fide Justific Prop. 2. Sex sessiois Antidot Prop. 3. Prop. 4. Prop. 5. Prop. 6. Spalat de Repub. Eccl. lib. 7. cap 11. Vindic. Grat. lib. 1. pars tertia vol. Mai. pag. 218. Prop. 7. Prop. 8. Aphorismes of Justification pag. 300.