and affections are seated The will then is in a man his rational appetite following the proposition and manifestation of the understanding For if a man did know what was good or what is evil and no appetite to imbrace the one or avoid the other he would be no better than a stone or a statue for all his reason We see then why God hath placed such a power in the soul as the will is It is that the good which the understanding manifesteth may be imbraced and entertained and the evil it doth discover may be shunned Whether this will be distinct really from the soul it self and from the understanding is a Philosophical Dispute and will not tend to your edification Secondly Though it be the appetite in a man yet it is a rational appetite it is subjected in the rational soul There is a three-fold appetite 1. Natural which is in the motion of inanimate things as in the stone to descend downwards this is called an appetite though properly it is not so because it doth not follow knowledge but is consequent upon the forme immediately 2. There is the sensitive appetite which moveth upon the knowledge of sense and this is both in beasts and also in men yea naturally we live and desire even all the motions of the soul are according to sense and so in this respect man is become like the bruit beast But of this afterwards 3. There is the rational appetite and that is called the will and this is in man onely a beast hath not properly any will no more then he hath understanding so that the will of a man is a noble and high faculty in him appointed to follow reason and to be regulated by it in all things and therefore Austin saith Voluntas tantum est in bonis The will is only in good things If a man love evil or desire evil this is not voluntas saith he but cupiditas It doth not deserve the name of the will but of lust but common speech is otherwise there is a bad will a corrupted will as well as a good will only when we say the will is a rational appetite that must not be understood formaliter but participativè as they say that is the will doth not know doth not reason but is directed thereby therefore it is called coeca potentia a blind power and if you say it is blind How then can it see the good proposed I answer it followeth the good proposed not because it knoweth it but because of its essential subordination to the understanding Hence it is that to have a good will it is so requisite to have a sound mind Ignorant and blind minds are alwayes accompanied with corrupt and polluted wils There cannot be a sanctified will where there is not an enlightened mind This should make the ignorant and stupid to tremble in their estate they live in This should make you prize knowledge above gold and pearls as also to wait upon the Ministery with diligence seeing that by knowledge the will cometh to be made holy Fourthly we are the more to inform our selves about its depravation by how much the more noble and excellent it is It is hotly disputed between the two factions of Thomists and Scotists which is the more excellent faculty the understanding or the will The Thomists are for the understanding the Scotists for the will but these two cannot absolutely and in every respect be commended before each other only in respect of power and efficacy the will is more eminent for the understanding it self in respect of its exercise is subject to the dominion of the will and the will also is properly the original and fountain of all good or evil in a man for though the understanding hath actual sinfulnesse and the affections yet this is because of the will either directly or indirectly so that to an actual deliberate sinne there is required some kind of voluntarinesse either expresly or interpretatively either in se or in causâ Original sinne you heard was voluntary in some sense although we need not judge of that by Aristotle's rules who was ignorant of any such thing Therefore Julian the Pelagian triumphed in his Aristotelical Philosophy against original sinne despising his Ecclesiastical Judges as not knowing Aristotle's Categories as if saith Austin he desired a Synod of Peripateticks rather than Judges in the Church but though original sinne with the indeliberate motions thereof have not the actual personal will of a man yet all other sinnes have so that the pollution of the will is in effect the pollution of the whole man Hence In the fifth place There is this difference between the understanding and the wil in relation to its objects The understanding doth receive the species of the object to it self not the objects themselves and therefore when we know or understand evil as an object this doth not defile the understanding but is a perfection of it Thus Godknoweth all the evil committed in the world yet his knowledge is not polluted thereby Scire malum non est malum but the will that goeth out to the objects as they are in themselves and thereby loving of them is what the object is Thus if we will sinne it is sinne and not if we know sin because the will goeth out to a sinfull object as it is in it self so that above all keepings we are to keep the will for what that is placed upon it presently becomes like it If thou lovest the world or earth thou art earth thou art of the world Hence all the while sinne is kept out from the will though it be in thy mind though it be by suggestion to thee yet because there is no consent it is not thy sinne but thy misery I speak not of the motus principatus which are antecedent to our will but of suggestions only offered from without but when the will yeeldeth when that consencs it becometh thy evil immediately as poison while it is in the remote parts of the body may not kill but when it striketh to the heart then it is mortall Thus sinne in temptation sinne in suggestion doth not destroy till the will receive it so great a matter is it to look to this power of the soul For In the sixth place Because of this rule and dominion the will hath therefore it is called the universall appetite of the whole man We see all the other powers of the soul have their peculiar and proper inclination The eye to see the ear to hear the understand to know but the will is to will the good for the whole person therefore it is not limited to one good object more then another but bonum in communi the good in general is the object of it so that the will is the universall appetite and inclination of the whole man now if this great wheel that moveth all be irregular and out of order what good can be expected in the less wheeles if the foundation
with it a guilt of conscience is contracted upon every sinne Thus some expound that known saying of Austin Jussisti Domine sic est ut omnis animus inordinatus sit sibi ipsi poena O Lord thou hast so commanded and thus it is that a soul immoderate any way should be a punishment to it self Thus as the moral Philosophers say Virtus est sibiipsi praemium so peccatum est sibiipsi poena Virtue is a reward to it self because it brings sweetness and comfort of conscience so a sinne is a punishment to it self because it brings terror and fear with it Lastly The same thing may be both a sinne and a punishment both poena damni and poena sensus a punishment of loss and so every sinne in that it is a sin depriveth the soul of that spiritual good and glory which it ought to have and so is a kind of disease or death it self and then in some sins they are a punishment of sense as in envy and anger Thus when Ahitophel and Judas hanged themselves their self-murder was both a sinne and a punishment of loss and sense also SECT III. IN the third place it is objected If original inherent sinne be made a distinct sin from Adam's imputed sinne we do needlesly make two guilts and so multiply sins without necessity for all the guilt that is in Adam's sinne imputed the corruption of Nature which floweth immediately from it doth not make a new sin but makes the former more hainous As if say they a man should by some sin lose his eyes that act whereby he put out his eyes was a sinne but then it 's not a new distinct sin in him to be without eyes Or if a Commander who had a Castle to keep upon which depended the good of a Town adjacent if he prove persidious and give it up to the enemy his perfidious act at first is all the sinne if the Town adjacent have much misery thereby it is an aggravation of his sin but it doth not make him guilty of two sins This hath made some think That our original pollution as distinct from Adam's sinne imputed is not a sinne and that whensoever the Fathers call it a sinne they understand it as connexed with Adam's sinne Thus the learned Vossius in his Pelagian History But the truth no doubt is on their side who hold a twofold distinct guilt That Adams sinne imputed to us and that inherent are two distinct sins though one doth necessarily imply an order to another and the later is alwayes to be looked upon as a relative to the former Neither doth that similitude of a man wilfully putting his eyes out make to this purpose For when a man hath lost his eyes there is a natural impotency ever to have them again Neither is there any obligation or Law binding him thereunto But besides the guilt of imputed sinne we are bound to have that inherent rectitude we once lost and therefore being defective in that we ought to have it 's truly a sinne The loss of a mans eyes is malum naturale this is morale And thus Aristotle determined that a drunken man who committed any sin worthy of punishment was to be twice punished both for his drunkenness and the other sinne committed Thus Rivet also in the matter of Lot's Incest which he committed while he was so drunk that he could not tell what he did inclineth to their opinion who say That Lot's Incest was not only a punishment of his drunkenness and so an aggravation of his sinne but truly and properly Incest so that he had two sins and was twice guilty Some learned men do determine That if a man commit such a sin upon which other sins do usually follow though while they do them they cannot avoid them not knowing what they do yet those subsequent sins are to be charged upon them besides the first that was the cause of all as murder is to be charged as a distinct sin upon a drunkard though happily in his drunkenness he knew not that he committed such a sin SECT IV. ARe we all guilty of sinne as soon as we are born This should teach us Humiliation and Patience under the death or miseries of our Infants we are ready to say Why are such poor Innocents exposed to such calamities The knowledge of original sinne will stop thy mouth herein When Titus the Emperour was dying who for his good and sweet Government was called Deliciae generis humani he quarrelled with the gods because he thought they did eripere vitam immerenti he deserved not to die he thought death was a wrong to him but had he understood original sinne he would have seen his desert of it though he had never committed any actual impiety Pliny likewise if he had known this would not have uttered that foolish complaint That homo was animal infaeliciter natum which did cum suppliciis vitam auspicari unam tantum ob culpam quia natum est that did begin his life with miseries and punish us for this fault only because he was born No The Scripture would have informed him it was because he was born in sinne This is the rise and spring of all mans calamity SECT V. I Shall at this time conclude this famous and noble Text wherein we have the Doctrine of original sinne so evidently asserted notwithstanding all the fogs and mists that some have indeavoured to bring upon it The remaining work is to dissolve some further Objections that are laid in the way as stumbling-blocks which when removed we shall proceed to the practical improvement of it In the next place therefore this is thought a powerfull weapon against this Truth viz. It cannot be truly and properly a sinne because it is not against any Law The Apostle makes contrariety to the Law to be of the essence of sinne If therefore Infants new-born or before they are born are not under a Law then they are not capable of any sinne and truly it hath a seeming absurdity to say Infants are commanded by Gods Law to be born without sinne seeing that is no more in their power than to be born This consideration did press that learned Divine Molinaus Enodatio graviss Quaest de peccato origin pag. 130. to acknowledge That no such Law was upon Infants and therefore he saith That the Law doth condemn original sinne but not prohibit it But this seemeth very strange For how can the Law condemn a thing but because it is against it And how can it be against it but because it doth prohibit If therefore the meaning of that learned man be that original sinne is not immediately and proximely forbidden that is readily granted for so only actual sins are but mediately and remotely both the habits of sinne and original must necessarily be prohibited if they be condemned The learned Vossius also affirmeth That original sinne is not forbidden by the moral Law though he confesseth it is by
Conclusion from the former Discourse Some have read the words preceptively as if the sense were As we have born the Image of the first Adam so let us bear the Image of the heavenly But the most solid Interpreters read it affirmatively as in the Text we render it and this seemeth to be more consonant because the Apostle is still in the Didactical and Doctrinal point about our Resurrection The particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is for the and so better translated illatively Therefore The Text then affirmeth two things 1. That all bear the Image of Adam who came from him 2. Those who are of Christ shall bear his Image Having therefore treated of original sin the Quod sit and the Quid sit we come to that which is deservedly thought the most difficult and hard to conceive and explain in this point Which is the manner of propagating it and this shal be soberly and modestly discussed out of these words For from the 45th verse Austin takes an occasion to dispute as Paraeus relateth about the souls traduction from Adam as well as the body Although to speak the truth that which is principally and apparently affirmed by the Apostle here is That we have mortal bodies propagated to us from Adam which is easier to conceive of then to have also sinfull souls from him yet because the Text speaketh of Adam's Image in us and that doth necessarilly suppose a sinfull soul as well as a mortal body We shall therefore declare the truth as of them conjoyned together Observe That all who come of Adam do thereby bear his Image Our natural descension from him maketh us to be wholly like him when he was corrupted That as those who are of Christ are renewed after his Image in righteousness and true holiness so all of Adam are corrupted in sin and ungodliness SECT IV. WHat this Image is you have heard already at large our main work is to examine How we come to be made partakers of it Yet it is good summarily to say something of this Image of Adams we all bear about with us And First Man who was not only made after the Image of God Gen. 1. 26. but is said absolutely to be the Image of God 1. Cor. 11. 7. by his apostasie became not only like the beasts that perish but also like the Devils that are damned Insomuch that now this glorious Image of God being defaced If you ask Whose Image and Superscription he beareth We answer of corrupted sinfull and mortal Adam an Image we are to be ashamed of and to mourn under all the dayes of our life Who can look upon man but may behold sinne and misery folly and mortality Now this Image of the first Adam comprehended the things of the soul and the body In the body we have pains diseases and a necessity of death at last In the soul there is horrible blackness and confusion upon it that as devils are represented in the most horrid and black manner that can be such things are our souls now become Although therefore the Text speaketh of Adam's Image in the bodily part that we are thereby corruptible and mortal and so need a Resurrection to make us happy yet I shall chiefly speak of this Image in the soul as it is infected and polluted with sinne from him This is the Image we bear but there is exceeding great comfort to the godly that they being in Christ the second Adam they shall be made perfectly conformable to him they shall bear that heavenly Image and at last shall have no cause to complain that their souls are bowed down with sinfull earthly and heavy affections weighing us down to the ground were it not for hope of this at our Resurrection the Doctrine about Adam's fall and our hurt thereby would utterly discourage us but there is a second Adam as well as a first if he had been the first and last too that no Adam would have answered him in the way of righteousness and life as he was in the way of sinne and death nothing but horrour and damnation could have taken hold of us Let us be more deeply affected with the first Adam and so shall we come more highly to prize and esteem the second Adam Secondly Adam 's Image as it is sinfull in the general is not only born by us but there seemeth to be a stamp and impression upon us of those very sins he committed As those women who have inordinate desire after some things do sometimes leave marks and impressions thereof upon the body Thus it is spiritually Those very sins which Adam particularly committed in eating the forbidden fruit all men seem most universally to incline unto As 1. A curiosity and affectation of knowing that which is not to be known An inordinate desire was in Eve to eat of the Tree of knowledge because the Devil told her It would make her wise therefore she must eat of it And is not this a very natural sinne in all a curiosity in knowledge Do not all desire to eat of the Tree of knowledge but few of the Tree of life especially Scholars and such who are busied in learning What an incurable itch is there to be wise above Scripture and to know such things God hath hidden And this is a good Item to us to content our selves with sobriety in questioning How Adam's sinne can be ours How the soul can come to be polluted To desire to know this is like the eating of the forbidden fruit While thou art thus curious remember Adam's sinne that thou art acting it while thou enquirest how we are guilty of it A second thing remarkable in the first sinne was Their mincing about the word of God yea plainly lying that God had said they should not touch it which though some say is put for eating Others that Eve did say so for caution sake Whence Ambrose hath a good saying Nihil quod bonum videtur c. we must adde nothing to Gods precept though it seem very good and make much for godliness yet others make Eve plainly to lie and so to accuse God as if he envied them further knowledge Now this sinne of lying how natural is it We see it in children before they can move their feet to go their tongues can stir to lie as if they had been taught they are so subtil in it 3. Adam did excuse and cover his sinne as much as may be putting it off from himself to others and herein also we have a natural resemblance of him for how prone are we to clear our selves to lay the fault any where rather than on our selves Thus we bear Adam's Image CHAP. XXIII The various Opinions Objections and Doubts about the manner how the Soul comes to be polluted SECT I. THe next work is to consider of the manner how we come to bear this Image As for the body to have a mortal and a corruptible one from Adam is easily to be conceived because the body
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
God implying That the Sunne and the night can no more stand together then the remembring of God and carnal confidence can the ambitious man the voluptuous man remembring God would find it to be like thunder and lightning upon the soul This would immediately stop him in his waies of iniquities Thus 2 Sam. 14 11. that suborned woman of Tekoah in her disguised Parable to David complaining of some that would rise up against her to destroy her sonne she desireth the King to stop the revengers wrath by this Argument Let the King remember the Lord thy God Thus when thou art sollicited inticed to any evil way Remember thou God the infinite God the just God the omniscient God the dreadfull and terrible God in all his wayes of anger Nehemiah also maketh use of this Argument to quicken up the Jews against sinfull fear and cowardise in Gods work Nehem. 4. 14. 1 said to the Nobles and Rulers of the people be ye not afraid of them but remember the Lord which is great and terrible This God complaineth of Isa 57. 11. Thou hast not remembred me nor laid it to thy heart and therefore were they so propense to all their abominations These Texts may suffice to inform that our memories ought constantly to be fixed upon God and no sooner do we let him out of our mind but immediately some sinne or other is committed But how unspeakably is the memory of every man naturally polluted herein When is God in their thoughts Amongst those millions and millions of objects which thou dost remember when is the great God the just God the holy God thought on May you not see it by the bold impiety and undaunted wickednesse of all unregenerate men that they remember not God Yea the godly themselves finde in part this pollution upon their memory Whence arise those carnal feares those dejected thoughts Is it not because you forget the greatnesse and goodnesse of God Bewail thy memory-sinfulnesse as well as other sins 2. As the Scripture prescribes the object of our memory viz God himself so it doth instance in one time more then at another Though at all times God is to be remembred yet in one time of our age though there be greatest cause yet our lusts and desire after other things do greatly hebetate our memory We have the injunction from Solomon himself Eccl 12. 1. Remember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth Here you see who is to be remembred when he is to be remembred God is to be remembred and that in the time of our youth But do not the strong effects of original sin heightned also by actual sins discover herein most palpable impiety in young persons they remember their lusts their pleasures in the dayes of their youth and God is never in all their thoughts Oh where may we find a young Timothy that was acquainted with the Scripturee from his infancy Where an Obadiah That feared God from the youth Do not most young persons live so negligently about holy things as if they were allowed to be dissolute as if the things of Heaven and eternity did not belong to them as if Solomon had said the contrary Do not remember God in the dayes of thy youth be not so strict and precise but follow thy pastimes and pleasures Thus the very memory of God and holy things is a burden to young persons They think Solimon spake farre better Chap. 11. 9. when he saith Rejoyce O young man in thy youth let thy heart cheer thee and walk in the wayes of thy heart remove sorrow and evil away They like this well This is good but there is a sting in that which followeth Know thou that for all these things God will bring thee to judgement This will quickly damp all thy youthfull jollities Let then young persons especially bewail the sinfulnesse and forgetfulnesse of their memory herein This is the best and most flourishing time for your memory now it is put upon to learn either Mechanical Trades or the Liberal Arts your memories are most drawn out in inferiour things but take the advantage to imploy it more about holy things You hear old persons complain they have lost their memory they grow forgetfull therefore fix your memories upon good things while you may 3. The Scripture commends the Word of God likewise as the object of our memory Timothy had learnt the Scripture from his Infancy The word of God was for this end amongst others as you heard committed to writing that so we might the more readily have it in our memories Mal. 4. 4. the Prophet commands them to remember the Law of Moses with the statutes and judgments yea they were to have such a ready and familiar knowledge of the Word of God that when they were rising or walking they were to be speaking of them Deut. 6. 7 8 9. we may there see what care is taken that the Law of God should be alwayes in their mind but do we not evidently behold the cursed and wretched pollution of mans memory in this particular Why is it that little children will remember any Songs sooner then the principles of Religion Why is it that many persons who are not able to remember any thing of the Scripture or the Sermons they have heard yet can remember Ballads and Songs they can remember their youthfull pranks and talk of them with delight but they cannot give any account of the good truths that in their younger years were preached to them When do ye hear such say Such a Sermon wounded me at heart it sticketh still upon me I shall never forget it Now is not the sinfulnesse of the memory greatly to be bewailed in this particular If it were holy and sanctified it would take more delight and joy to remember Scripture-truths then any thing else whereas now thy memory is like a sieve that lets the corn and weighty grain fall through but the light refuse stuff that it retaineth Thus what is solid and would do thy soul good that quickly passeth away Oh that we could not fay our Sermons passe away as a tale that is told for those you do remember and you will carry a long while in your mind empty frothy things those abide long with you Would you not judge it madnesse in the Husbandman if he should pluck up and hinder the growth of his corn and let cockle and tare with other weeds flourish Thus thou dost about thy memory throw away the flours and keep the weeds whereas thy memory should be like the holiest of holies nothing but what is select and sanctified should enter therein 4. That I may not be too long in these instances The works of God whether in his mercy or in his wrath they are to be the object of our memory Thus the Scripture speaketh often of remembring his marvellous works Matth. 16. 19. Christ reproveth his Disciples because they did not remember the miracle of the loaves All the great
Images those glorious Altars and many other superstitious wayes of worship but because the fancy was pleased herein what is pleasing to the senses is also carried with delight to the Imagination Insomuch that those Heathens Numa and others who would have no Images to adore their gods by thinking it unbeâ—eeming their greatness were carried by reason and did not give way to the Imagination and this is a very necessary truth for all such who are so difficulty taken off from their Idolatries and Superstitions for what is it but thy fancy thou wouldst have satisfied thou doest not look upon Ordinances and the worship of God as spiritual means to quicken thy faith and to make thee more spiritual but as that whereby thou wouldst have thy Imagination take some corporeal refreshment and satisfaction Even Aristotle saw the vanity of this and therefore would not have any musical delights in the worship of their Heathenish gods And Aquinas following him herein is against musical instruments in the service of God what God appointed in the Old Testament cannot be brought as an argument for any such custome in the New Secondly Towards man here the imagination is as full of evil as the sea of water Prov. 6. 16. One of the seaven things that are there said to be an abomination unto the Lord An heart that deviseth wicked abominations How crafty and subtle is the abomination of man to devise wicked and malicious purposes This is the forge of all those malicious bloody and crafty designes that ever have been acted in the world Read over prophane and sacred Histories and there you will admire what subtle foxes men have been sometimes what cruel lyons they have been at other times all which doth arise from this sinful imagination which is prone to find out all manner of wayes to vent the wickedness that is bound up in the heart so that we need not exclaim on the Devil as if he put this into their hearts for though no doubt sometimes he doth as in Judas yet the heart of it self is ready for any evil SECT XII It continually invents new Sinnes or occasions of Sinnes ALthough much hath been said concerning the original pollution of mans imagination yet still more is to be discovered so that there is a very 〈◊〉 resemblance between mans imagination and those chambers of imagery which Ezekiel beheld in a Vision upon the walls thereof were pourtrayed the forme of creeping things and abominable beasts and all the Idols of the house of Israei Ezek. 8. 9 12. Thu is every mans imagination a table as it were whereon are pictured all the formes and shapes of all kind of evil It may well be called the chamber of mans imagery where are images of jealousy daily created such formes received that do provoke God to wrath and jealously Let us therefore proceed Tenthly In this we have an open field wherein mans imagination doth act numberless evils because of its invention it is continually inventing new sinnes or occasions of sinnes As if the old sinnes and trespasses which had filled the world were not enough What new wayes of impiety are invented new fancies in evil wayes For although invention be indeed principally an act of the understanding yet because as you heard the understanding in its operations hath recourse to the imagination and that is subservient and under-agent to it therefore we may attribute the same things to both especailly the things of invention because a mans imagination hath a peculiar influence therein Now in this respect if there were no other the sinnes of the imagination will encrease like the sands upon the sea-shore It were possible to shew by going over every particular Commandment that the imagination of man doth constantly invent new sinnes against them the Apostacy of man from his first rectitude is emphatically described by the Scripture in this as the general and summe of all that he sought out many inventions Eccles 7. 29. where the wise man having declared that amongst men and women though less amongst women one not so much as good in an ethical and moral sense could be found for in a spiritual sence there is not one man amongst a thousand no not in all mankind that is good but the speaketh of external and moral enquiring then after the cause why such an universal corruption should overflow all mankind insomuch that there is not one amongst a thousand that deserveth the name of a man not such an one as the primitive righteousness did require but not so much as reason judging rightly by ethical Rules would commend he doth clear God from being the Author of this And because this truth is of such great consequence he useth a word of attention Lo Ecce Consider it diligently And secondly he telleth you how he came to the knowledge of it I have found it viz. in the Word of God where you see this Doctrine concerning original corruption is not to be investigated by humane reason as it is discovered by divine revelation I have found it after much and diligent study Oh that those corrupt teachers who deny this original pravity could with Solomon say They have at last after much study found out this truth also Now the Doctrine found out is That God made man right full of righteousness and holiness not onely negatively without sinne but positively full of righteousness but they that is Adam and Eve which are called the man Adam in the words preceding Sought out not being contented with that measure of knowledge and happiness God created them in affecting to be like God Many inventions that is found out many wayes of sinning when they once forsook the strait Rule they diverted and wandered into many crooked paths The Hebrew word Chishbonoth is very emphatical it is used but once more in the Old Testament and that is 2 Chron. 26. 15. where it is said Vzziah used engines invented by cunning men to shoot arrows and great stones withall So that by this word is denoted that subtilty and great artifice which is in mans Imagination to invent any evil way sinnes that never were acted before are found out Every age almost hath new sinnes and whence is this but from the subtilty of mans Imagination to find out new wayes of sinning Hence Rom. 1. 30. one character in the Catalogue of those sinnes attributed to the Heathens is to be Inventers of evil things And certainly here the Imagination of man is very prone that whereas to learn Trades or the Arts there they must have teachers and much time must be allowed them to learn In the invention of evil things there men are taught of their own corrupt hearts to do so We might instance in divers things wherein the sinfull Imagination of man is discovered about inventing of evil new sinnes new oaths new blasphemies new wayes of cheating and dishonesty especially in those new wayes for nourishing pride and wantonness Which is the ridiculous absurd and uncivil