in his undertakings to be present with him and to direct him whereas his adversaries could not do so And indeed how can an Arminian or a Pelagian with any of those Naturists cordially pray for the grace of God to assist them while they write against grace and patronize free-will Let them sacrifice to their own nets to their own parts and abilities It 's from their will that grace is efficacious This arrogancy is like that of the Heathens whose saying was Ignavis opus est auxilio Dei It is only the sluggish that need the help of God Yea Tully argueth the case That we are not beholding to God for our vertue therefore saith he our ancestors have praised the gods for their success and outward advantages but never for their vertues Happily it is awe and reverence that men bear to the Christian Religion that keepeth them from such blasphemous expressions yet even in Christian Writers pleading for the power of nature instances might be given of proud and swelling expressions Thirdly It is good to observe That even in all those whose end avour hath been to advance the free-will of a man to what is truly good there hath appeared some guiltiness as it were in them therefore they have often changed if not their minds yet their words thus they have removed from the mountaines to the valleys The Pelagians did incrustate their opinions often and the Papists speak sometimes so plausibly that you would think Bellarmine and Calvin did imbrace each other Pelagius did at last come to use the word grace yea did anathematize such as should not hold the grace of God requisite to every good act by which crafty guiles he did deceive the Eastern Bishops and still in the serpents-skin do the Jesuites and Arminians appear They think it the greatest calumny that can be cast upon them to say they are against the grace of God hence they use the word of grace often as well as of free-will but all this ariseth from guilt they do use the word grace ad frangendam invidiam to decline envy to insinuate more into the hearts of credulous hearers so that men sacrilegiously advance the will of man ' make man to have the greatest praise in converting himself in saving himself and whereas Paul said Not I but the grace of God with me They will on the contrary affirm Not the grace of God but I yet for all this they would be thought to advance the grace of Christ but that is a true rule of Austins Gratia non est gratia ullo modo nisi sit gratuita omni modo Grace is not grace any way unless it be free and graâ—uitous every way Therefore the inconstancy the changes and shifts all such are put to who plead for this liberty of the will argue they are not in the Truth but like thieves do hate the light and change their garments often that they may not be discovered They are afraid of the Scripture and would more gladly have the controversie ended by Aristotle then by Paul so that this Pelagian error hath had Cain's curse as it were upon it a trembling lest every place of Scripture it does meet with should kill it Fourthly To maintain the slavery of the will to sinne and to deny any liberty to that which is holy and godly is a truth so unpleasing to flesh and blood doth so reproach as it 's thought mankind that it hath alwayes in the Church of God by some heretical persons or others been spoken against It hath been judged very scandalous and offensive as that which did lay the axe to the root of all Religion and holiness But yet experience hath taught us that none have expressed so much holiness in their lives as those who have had this truth of Christs grace incorporated into them and on the other side the Pelagian Doctrine hath left upon mens spirits like leaven à cornu tumorem a sowreness and bitterness as also a tumor and vaunting confidence in themselves So that if the denying of free-will and exalting the grace of God be so prophane an opinion in its genius and inclination as some calumniate it 's a miracle that from such a poisoned fountain such sweet streames should flow and from such thornes so pleasant grapes should grow But the reason of this offence to flesh and blood is the self-love and self-fullness that is in every man by nature spiritual pride and self-confidence do reign in all men by nature hence it is that though they be naked yet they are not ashamed of it which in Adam while innocent did come from his integrity but in corrupt man from his senslesness and stupidity No wonder then if this Doctrine of grace be not justified cordially and as it ought to be but by the sonnes of grace who have felt the power and efficacy of it upon their hearts who have experimentally found the grace of God freeing their will from all that bondage it was in to sinne and Sataen Fifthly From this it is that a gracious heart is required to study this point as well as a learned head Experience of regeneration of being made a new creature of the conflict between the flesh and the spirit will excellently direct in this controversie I wonder not to see a man though come out of Egypt loaden with Egyptian gold to make a molten-calf for a god and to worship it men of great learning and it may be of great external civility as they say of Pelagius if not humbled by the grace of God and throughlyu emptied of themselves how can they stoop and yeeld all up to Christ It was therefore Austin's wish That the Pelagians would turne their disputations into prayers for it is the heart as well as the head that is usefull in this point Though all Divinity be practical and practice is the end of knowledge yea in Scripture language Tantum scimus quantum operamur we are said to know no more then we do yet some truths have a more immediate influence into practice then others whereas some opinions do stand in the Court as it were others enter into the holiest of holiest Now this truth about the grace of God and free-will is practice practice as I may say what some do of the ultimate dictate of the understanding This truth lieth in the vitals of Religion and therefore the experience of all the godly is justly brought after Scripture arguments to confirme this great truth Therefore humble your selves more commune with your own hearts be much in prayer and self-emptiness and you will quickly find the light of this truth shining into your hearts Come and tast Come and see what you hear with your eares pray that God would grant you an experimental knowledge of grace and then you will quickly confess not unto your own free-will but to the free grace of God all praise and glory doth belong Sixthly This truth therefore being so contrary to flesh and blood It
Free-will and so the praise shall be given partly to our selves and partly to God But above all he that doth either deny or diminish the guilt and contagion of this sinne can never exalt Christ in all his Offices as he ought to do He that denieth the disease must needs derogate from the Physician The whole need not the Physician saith our Saviour Matth. 9. 12. And therefore it 's of great consequence to be fully perswaded about the depth breadth and length of this sinne that thereby we may be able to comprehend the dimensions of Christs love to us Not that Christ came only to take away the guilt of original sin as some Papists affirm but because this is the womb wherein all other sins are conceived This is the wound of the whole nature actual sins only infect the person of a man We may then easily see the necessity of being truly informed about this Subject for this is like miscarriage in the first concoction which cannot be amended by that which followeth And therefore this consideration should quicken you up in a diligent attention to the whole Doctrine which shall be delivered about it SECT III. IN the next place we are to shew you of what practical advantage it is for all to be fully informed about this native contagion and leprosie we bring with us into the world And First He that doth truly believe in this point will quickly silence all those impatient if not blasphemous complaints that are uttered by many against nature because as they say it is such an hard step-mother to mankind Non tam editi quum ejecti said the Heathen I call them blasphemous complaints because what is spoken against Nature redounds upon God the Author of Nature Hence in the Scripture what Nature doth God is said to do Now then if we consider what impatient expostulations the Heathens have made why man of all creatures should be by Nature most miserable No true answer could ever be given to satisfie but this because man comes sinfull into the world The young ones of beasts and birds are not so miserable as our Infants because not corrupted with evil in their Natures as they are So that if we see our very Infants which yet as the Scripture saith cannot discern between the right hand and left and have not done actual good or evil subject to grievous diseases and death it self Wonder not at this for they have in themselves through their native sinfulness a desert not only of this pain but eternal torments in hell Hence it is that the Scripture instructs us in that which all Philosophy could never inform us viz. the cause and original of all those diseases and pains yea of death it self which reigneth over all mankind Insomuch that thereby we see though there were not one actual sinne in the world though all men had no more sinne upon them then what they had in the womb and in the cradle yet there was demerit enough of that vengeance of God which upon mans transgression was threatned in the Word Gen. 6. 5. The main cause why God brought that universal deluge upon the whole world was not so much their actual wickedness as such but because it came from a polluted fountain which would never be wholly cleansed Their hearts were so many shops wherein were constantly formed all manner of impieties yea by this we see not only the miseries upon man but all the bondage an vanity that is upon the whole world That there are any barrenness any famines that the ground brings forth thorns and thistles that the woman brings forth with so much labour and forrow all these things come by original sinne God did not at first create things in such disorder and confusion If therefore thou wouldst quiet thy heart under all tumults and vexing thoughts to see the manifold mischiefs and miseries mankind is subject unto This Grave jugum super filios Adam as Austin often out of Ecclesiasticus this heavy yoke upon the sons of Adam have recourse to a serious meditation about original sin Secondly The true knowledge of this natural defilement will also satisfie us in those doubtfull Questions which some have greatly tormented themselves with viz. How sinne comes to be in the world And whence it is Austin in his seventh Book of his Confessions and fifth Chapter doth there bewail before God the great agonies and troubles of mind he was in about the beginning of sinne whence it did arise For seeing every thing that God made was exceeding good this exceedingly puzzled him to know how evil should be Yea this knot was so hard to unty in some mens judgments that it made many of the Marcionites heresie who because they saw men commit evil as soon as they were born and yet withall being convinced That God was good and could not be the beginning of evil They therefore maintained two principles of all things the one good of all good things The other evil of evil things Thus men have wonderfully plunged themselves into boggs and quagmires of danger and destruction because not acquainted with this main Truth of Original sin Thirdly For want of knowledge herein that main duty so much commended both by Scripture and the Heathens viz. To know our selves can never be put in practice The Heathen said è Coelo descendit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And as for the Scripture How often is it required That we should search and try our hearts That we should examine our selves and commune with our own hearts and be still Psal 4. Now these duties can never be effectually done without a firm belief of that desperate pollution which is in our heart And till we acknowledge with Jerem. 17. The heart is deceitfull above all things and desperately wicked Who can know it Yea we see David Psal 19. 13. though a godly man and much enlightned thereby being enabled to make deep search into his soul and having the Sun beams could discern those atoms and motes of sinne which man in the dark could not do yet he crieth out Who can understand his errors Cleanse me from secret sins that is such sins that lie latent and lurking in my heart that never yet I could find out If then this duty be so great of knowing our selves that some make all Religion to be in these two things The knowledge of our selves and of God then how necessary is it that we should be thorowly acquainted with this heart and nature-sinfulness for without this we can never know how vile and loathsom we are Our actual impieties though never so gross and numerous do not demonstrate our loathsomness so much as this bitter and sour leven within These are the stream that is the fountain These are the effects that is the cause Therefore the greatest strength of our wickedness lieth in a defiled Nature as you see in a Serpent or Toad that venom it sends forth at any time is nothing to the venom in
he saith The Positive inclination to evil must be the effect of the privation of original righteousnesse and so not a part of original because an effect cannot be a part of its cause It 's answered first That sometimes there is a division of a common thing as into two parts when yet one is the effect of the other as when malum is divided into malum culpae and malum poena the evil of punishment is necessarily the effect of the evil of sinne But Secondly Though an inclination to evil may be the effect of the privation of original righteousnesse yet for all that it may be part of original sinne which is the whole consisting of both these Even as according to some learned Divines Remission of sinne is part of Justification although it be an effect of the imputation of Christs Righteousnesse which is also another part of our Justification SECT II. The word Lust expounded HAving therefore considered this Title or Name given to original sinne viz. Flesh which doth denote the Positivenesse of it I come to a second which shall also be the last and that is the word lust or concupiscence which both in the Scripture and in the writings of several Authors is attributed to it For which purpose the Text pitched upon is very usefull To understand which consider that the Apostle having asserted some things which in an outward appearance did seem to dishonour the Law he maketh this Objection to himself Is the Law sinne A cause of sinne and so sinne and God the Law-giver a commander of sinne To which he answers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by defiance God forbid and in the next place giveth a reason why the Law cannot be the cause of sinne because that doth discover and detect sinne that judgeth and damneth it therefore it cannot be the cause of sinne and that the Law is the manifester and reprover of sinne he instanceth in himself and his own experience I had not known lust to be sinne except the Law had said Thou shalt not covet Now ere we can understand this Text we must answer some Questions And First It 's demanded What is meant by the Law here Some say the Law of Nature which is not so probable Others the written Law of Moses and this is most probable by the whole context But yet some though they understand it of the Law of Moses yet they do not mean any particular command but the Law in the general saying the Apostle useth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for all one As if the meaning were The Law in general did not only forbid sinfull actions but also inward lust and motions of the soul thereunto as our Saviour fully expoundeth it Matth. 5. Others they understand this Law of a particular Commandment viz. the tenth and therefore Beza observeth the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by this or by that Commandment in particular And this seemeth most probable because they are the very words of the tenth Commandment But secondly If the Apostle alledge that command Why doth he instance onely in the sinne forbidden not mentioning the objects that are specified in the command Thy neighbours Oxe or his Asse c The Answer is that is not material for the Apostle speaking of lusts in the heart what latent and unknown sins they were without the light of the Law it was enough to name the sinne it self seeing the objects about which they are conversant are of all sorts and can hardly be numbred In the third place It 's doubted how the Apostle could say that he did not know lust to be sinne but by the Law of Moses seeing that by the very Law of nature even Heathens have condemned inward lusts and unjust thoughts and plots though but in the soul and never put into practice Aquinas makes the meaning of it as if Paul's sense was He did not know lust to be sinne as it was an offence to God and a dishonour to him because the Law of Moses represents the sinfulness of these lusts in a more divine and dreadfull way then the Law of nature doth Grotius maketh the sense thus Paul did not know lust but by Gods Law because the Laws of men punish nothing but sinfull actions never at all medling with the thoughts and purposes of the heart Beza expounds the expression comparatively I had not known lust to be sinne viz. so evidently so fully so unquestionably as I did when I understood the Law But the general Interpretation is That the Apostle speaketh here of his thoughts and knowledge while he was a Pharisee and it 's plain by our Saviours correcting of pharisaical glosses about the Law Matth. 5. That they thought the Law did onely require external obedience and whatsoever thoughts or sinfull lusts men had so that they did not break out into the practice of them they were not guilty of sinne He did not then know lust to be sinne following the traditional exposition of his Masters till he came to understand the Law aright Another Question of greater consequence is What is meant by lust Thou shalt not covet for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though in Exod. 20. there be the same Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet Deut. 5. 21. There is another Hebrew expression which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which because in Hithpael and so of a reciprocal signification they translate fecit se concupiscere to stirre up a mans self to desire and thereby say such lusts are only forbidden that a man nourisheth and yeelds himself up unto but that rule is not a general one see Prov. 23. 3. Some limit this Commandment too much as it did only command contentation of spirit and that we should not sinfully desire that which others have But the Apostle doth plainly extend it further than so The Papists they likewise limit it too much making only those lusts andmotions of sinne which we consent to to be forbidden denying that those motions to evil which arise antecedently to our reason and will to be truly sinnes hence is their Rule concerning them Non sensus but consensus is that which doth damn which in a good sense we also will acknowledge to be true But we are not to limit Scripture where it hath not limited it self and therefore we conclude That the command doth forbid a threefold concupiscence or lust First That lust which is actually consented to though not breaking forth into act and if this were all the Law of God would hereby be exlted above all humane Laws which reach no further than external actions And how many are ignorant of at least not affected with the spiriruality of this Law in this particular Would they dare to entertain such heart-sinnes as they doe could they make their souls cages of uncleane unjust and ungodly thoughts as they do Secondly The Law goeth higher and doth not only forbid those lusts in thy heart which thou yeeldest consent unto
entertain Insomuch that every man by nature may say he no longer liveth but sinne in him and the Devil in him Hereby thy heart may be called hell yea and Legion because many Devils do rule in thee Oh that God would make this Truth like a two-edged sword in our hearts that we may not rest day or night till God hath delivered us from this wretched estate Pray for it groan for it all the day long CHAP. XX. A clear and full Knowledge of Original Sinne can be obtained only by Scripture Light SECT I. A Full and large information concerning the whole Nature of original sinne both in the Privative and Positive part thereof hath been delivered to which this Text hath been very usefull There remaineth one thing more in it which is very considerable and that is the way or means how Paul cometh to be thus convinced of that sinfulnesse which he did not acknowledge before and that is said to be by the Law In what sense Paul said He knew not lust to be sinne hath already been declared There remaineth therefore this Doctrine to be observed viz. That original sinne in the immediate effect thereof is truly and fully known onely by the light of Gods word None are ever clearly and throughly perswaded of such an universal horrid defilement but those who look into the pure glass of Gods word This Paul acknowledgeth in himself and yet no Heathen he lived under the light of the Word but following traditional expositions from his fathers and wanting the Spirit of God to enlighten him therefore he was wholly stupid and senslesse in this matter as therefore the Doctrine of Christ and Evangelical grace is a mystery so is also this Doctrine about original sinne SECT II. Whether the wisest Heathens had any Knowledge of this Pollution BUt because this matter is under Debate and Question let us further enquire into it examining Whether the wisest Heathens had any knowledge of this natural pollution the Word doth so fully inform us in And First As for that original sinne called originans viz. Adam's actual transgression made ours by Gods will and appointment through imputation that is wholly known by revelation so that no Heathens by the highest improvement and cultivage of nature could ever discern such things That God made Adam righteous giving him a command of tryal in obedience or disobedience whereof all his posterity should be involved this they had not the least him of and the reason is Because the truth of such things lieth not in nature neither have second causes the least demonstration of this but it is wholly discovered as a matter of fact by the Scripture So that we Christians ought the more to bless God for the sight of his Word seeing thereby a very Ideot amongst us may know more then the wisest Aristotle or Plato amongst the Heathens Secondly As for original inherent sinne it must necessarily be granted That even the Heathens had some general confused knowledge about a mans natural defilement Hence was their custom of a solemn washing and lustration of their Infants in a religious way implying hereby that they came into the world polluted and needed the propitious savour of their gods This solemn religious custom of theirs was some general confession of original sinne but as for the Philosophers who were the wisest and most learned of them some do speak more congruously to this point than others That noble and learned Plessâ—us in his Book of the Truth of the Christian Religion Pag. 377. which he endeavoureth to prove even from Heathinish Authors especially the Platonists doth alledge some things pertinently to our subject For Plato holding That the soul was put into the body as into a prison and a dungeon for former sinnes committed through he grosly erred in the foundation thinking souls pre-existent before the body and for faults committed then adjudged to the body as a place of prison which was an absurd errour yet there was some truth he did take notice of for observing that the soul which should rule and command the body was yet mancipated and enslaved to it he concluded there was some fore-going crime deserving this though he was wholly ignorant of Adam's fall Hence he saith That the soul hath lost and broken her wings which she had at first and thereby doth onely creep and crawl upon the ground Theâ—phrastus also Aristotle's Scholar was wont to say That the soul payeth a very dear rent for the house of her body the body is such a clog and impediment to it The Platonists do seem to acknowledge more truth herein then Aristotls for Aristotle doth expresly deny That either virtue or vice is in us by nature the very same thing which Pelagin afterwards did use to say Therefore the Schoolmen though enslaved to Aristotle yet when urging this Argument That there cannot be a sinne by birth in a man because no man is to be reproved or beaten for that which he hath by nature but rather to be pitied it is not his sinne but misery Which speech if true doth utterly contradict that of the Apostle We are by nature the children of wrath The Schoolmen I say though 〈◊〉 vasalized to Aristotle and alledging him oftner than Paul do answer that Argument thus It is no matter what Aristotle saith in this case because he knew nothing of original sinne Thus you see they are forced to leave him in this point and therefore Aristotle is more to be renounced in this point then any other Philosopher Grotius also Comment in 2d. Luc. v. 21. alledgeth several Hethenish Authors who lay down this for a Position that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is implanted and ingraffed into man to sinne Tully lib. 3. Tusc doth speak so fully to this purpose as if he had read what Moses speaketh of man by nature Simul ac editi sumus in lucem suscepti in omni continuè pravitate versamur c. as soon as ever we are born we are presently exercised in all manner of evil Vt poenè in lacte nutricis errorem suxisse videamur as if we sucked down errour with the nurses milk Here you see he speaketh something like to Moses when he saith Gen. 6. That the imagination of the thoughts of our hearts are only evil and that continually Although at the same time he seemeth to attribute this propensity to evil to wicked manner and depraved opinions for there he saith Nature hath given us of honesty parvulos igniculos and that there are ingeniis nostris semina innata virtutum But although some of their wisest men have confessed such a misery and infirmity upon us yet it may be doubted Whether they looked upon this as truly and properly sinne deserving punishment either from God or man They rather thought all sinne must be voluntary Hence Seneca Erras si existimas nobiscum nasci vitia supervenerunt ingesta sunt Indeed in their sad complaints concerning mans birth and all misery accompanying
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
remember what our hearts are set upon what our affections are earnest for whereas our memory should precede and go before them for the intellective memory is the same with the mind and understanding of a man for although to remember be not properly an act of knowledge yet this intellective memory we make the same with the mind of a man as it extends to things that are past The memory then is to make way for the heart and the affections to be directive to them whereas now for the most part it is made a slave to the corrupt heart for if the understanding in it all 's hegemonical and primary actions hath lost its power how much more is this true in the memory For the most part therefore the badness of the heart makes a bad memory and a good heart a good memory men complain they cannot remember when indeed they will not remember their hearts are so possessed and inslaved to earthly things that they remember nothing but what tendeth thereunto This is the ground of that saying Omnia quae curant senes meminerunt Old men remember all things their hearts are let upon all things they do earnestly regard They can remember their bonds the place where their money lieth because their hearts are fixed upon these things but no holy or good things can lodge in their memories The rule is Frigus est mater obiivionis Coldness is the mother of oblivion as is partly seen in old men and thus it is even in old and young their hearts are cold earthly lumpish even like stones about holy things and therefore it is no wonder if they remember them no better so that we may generally conclude That the cause of all they blockishness and forgetfullness about divine things is thy sinfull and corrupt heart if that were better thy memory would be better We have a notable place Jer. 2. 32. Can a maid forget her ornaments or a bride her attire yet my people have forgotten me daies without number Can a bride forget her attire and ornament it is impossible because her delight and affections are upon it but saith God My people have forgotten me daies without number Why so because I am not that to them which ornaments are to a bride saith God if they delight in me rejoyce in me if they did account me their glory then they would never forget me By this you see that therefore we forget God and his wayes because our hearts are not in love with him Can he that is powerfully conquered by love of a friend forget his friend Doth he not alwaies remember him Is not a friend alter ego Is not the lovers soul more where it loveth then where it animateth Thus it would be also with us in reference unto God therefore we have bad memories because bad hearts It is true some natural causes may either deprive us wholly of or greatly enervate the memory Thus Messalla that famous Orator judged to be more elaborate then Tully two yeares before his death forgot all things even his own name Hermogenes also that famous Rhetorician who wrote those Rhetorical institutions which are read with admiration of all and this he did when he was but eighteen years old and some six yeares after grew meerly stupid and sensless without any evident cause of whom it was said that he was Inter pueros senex inter senes puer Thucidides as Vostius reporteth Orat. institut lib. 6. speaketh of such an horrible pestilence that those who did recover of it grew so forgetfull that they did not know their friends neither remembred what kind of life or profession they once followed So that natural causes may much weaken the memory but if we speak in a moral sense then nothing doth so much corrupt the memory about holy things as a sinfull and polluted heart Fifthly The pollution of the memory is seen In that it is not now subject in the exercise of it to our will and power We cannot remember when we would and when it doth most concern us whereas in the state of integrity Adam had such an universal Dominion over all the powers of his soul that they acted at what time and in what measure he pleased Thus his affections were subject to him in respect of their rise progress and degree and so for his memory he had all things in his mind as he would Some indeed question Whether Adam did then Intelligere per Phantasmata But that seemeth inseparable from the nature of man while upon the earth and living an animal life though without sinne No doubt his soul being the form of the whole man did act dependently upon the instrumentality of the body though such was the admirable constitution of his body that nothing could make the operations thereof irregular Adam then had nothing which could either Physically or Morally hinder the memory but all was under his voluntary command whereas such an impotency is upon us that if we would give a world we cannot remember the things we would Hence we are force to compel our selves by one thing after another to bring to our minds what is forgotten for in remembring there is some dependance of one thing upon another as rings if tied together are more easily taken hold of then when they lie singly and loosly And this Austin lib. 10. confes maketh to be the Etimology of the word Cogito Cogito à cogo as Agito ab ago Factito à facio as if to cogitate were to force and compell things into our minds Let us then mourn and humble our selves under this great pollution of nature that those things which are of such infinite consequence which are as much as our salvation and eternal happiness are worth yet we do not we cannot remember Hence in the sixth place The memory being not under our command it falleth out that things come into our minds When we would not have them yea when it is a sinne to receive them How often in holy duties in religious performances do we remember things which happily we could not do when the fit season and opportunity was for them Do not many worldly businesses come into our minds when we are in heavenly approaches to God that as Job 1. when the sonnes of God came and appeared before God then Satan came also and stood with them Thus when thou art busie to remember all those Scripture-arguments which should humble thee in Gods presence which should exalt and life up thy soul to God How many heterogeneous and distracting thoughts do croud in also so that this worldly business and that earthly imploiment cometh into thy remembrance Insomuch that the people of God though their memories are sanctified and so cleansed in much measure from original filth in the dominion of it yet do much groan under this importante and unseasonable remembring of things for hereby our duties have not that united force and power as they should have neither is God so
thee see the dunghill in thy heart the general pollution of thy soul thou wilt cry out Oh how blind was I till now how sensless till this time Oh I am a damned man an undone man if God do not recover by his grace Therefore that of Austin though formerly mentioned can never enough be inculcated That in their controversie with Pelagians there is more need of prayer then syllogismes The truth of this Doctrine as it is primarily discovered by the Scripture so secondarily by the experience of the regenerated who as Paul said were alive once secure and blessed according to their own thoughts in the state they were in but when once convinced of the spirituality of the Law and their own carnality and contrariety therunto then sinne becometh out of measure sinfull and they die and are undone in their own thoughts Therefore concerning the Writers in this Controversie we are not only to enquire what acquired learning they have but what inspired grace what experimental workings of Gods Spirit in the humbling of them and to make them renounce all their own righteousness and fullness that Christ may be all in all Thus Austin who of all the Fathers hath most orthodoxly propugned this truth so none of them discover such an experimental conversion to God and a gracious change upon their hearts as he doth in his Books of Confessions I do not detract from the piety of the other Ancients only it is plain Austin discovereth a more peculiar and higher degree of an experimental knowledge of his own unworthiness and Gods gracious power in bringing him out of darkness into light and no question but the efficacy and power of this experience made him so orthodox and couragious in maintaining that truth which political and phylosophical principles did much gainsay but this is the wofull effect of original sinne that it taketh away all power to discover it self and as those deseases are most dangerous which take away the sense of them so is original sinne to be aggravated in this respect that it maketh a man insensible of it Fifthly The aggravation of this sinne is seen That it is the habituall aversion of the soul from God and conversion to the creature It is true original sinne is not an habitual acquired sinne but yet it is per modum habitus as Aquinas expresseth it That is the soul of every Infant born into the world cometh with an innate and habitual averseness to God and what is holy as also a concupiscential conversion to the creature so that the two parts expressed in an actual sinne of commission mentioned by the Prophet Jermiah Chap. 2. 13. My people have committed two evils they have forsaken me the fountain of life there is the aversio à Creatore and have hewed to themselves broken cisterns there is the conversio ad creaturam the same hath some representation in original sinne for every man by this hereditary pollution stands with his back upon God and his face to the creature Even as the child cometh bodily into the world with his face downwards and his back upon the heavens so it is with the soul of a man and this maketh our sinne of native pollution to be out of measure sinfull in that a man standing thus at a distance yea at enmity against God can never turn his face again towards God but by a supervenient grace from above Sixthly The great heightening of this sinne is In the deep radication of it It is so intimately and deeply rooted in all the powers of the soul that while a man is in this life he can never be freed from it hence it is that the ordinary determination of the Protestant Writers concerning original sinne even in regenerate persons is That it is taken away Quoad reatum though not Quoad actum There is original sinne in every man living yea in the most holy only it is removed from them Quoad reatum the guilt shall not be imputed and Quoad Dominum though it be in them yet it doth not reign in them only it is in some degree present there and therefore called by the same Divines Reliquiae peccati which expression though scorned by Corvinus yet both Scripture and some experience doth justly confirme such a phrase And although the late Adversary against original sinne Tayl. a further Explication of the Doct. of Orig. pag. 501. doth positively and magisterially according to his custome dogmatize that it is a contradiction to say sinne remaineth and the guilt is taken away and that in the justified no sinne can be inherent yet herein he betrayeth his symbolizing with Papists for all our learned Protestants have maintained this Position against Papists Bishops and others distinguishing between reatus simplex that is inseperable from sinne or the merit of damnation and Reatus redundans in personam which is when this is imputed There is therefore alwayes abiding in every man though justified original sinne in some measure it is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sinne dwelling in us as the Apostle calleth it Rom 7. and therefore in regard of the immobility and inseperability of it from mans nature while here on the earth it is more to be aggravated then all actual and habitual sins For though in Regeneration there is an infusion of gracious habits whereby the habits of sinne are expelled yet this original depravation is not totally conquered by it And thus much may suffice for the aggravating of it because something hath already been spoken to this Point ¶ 3. An Objection Answered THere remaineth one great Objection against the hainousness of this sinne That it is wholly involuntary and therefore we are traduced in this particular that we charge our sinnes hereby upon Adam or God himself freeing our selves Thus we accuse others and excuse our selves Is not this to do as Adam who put off all to the woman whom God had given him so we to clear our selves put all upon Adam's score Therefore many Papists and others complain of us as aggravating it too much whereas one of them saith Rundus Tappor Disp de peccato origin that it is minus minimo peccato veniali lesse then the most least venial sinne But to answer this First As this Doctrine about original sinne is wholly by revelation so we are to judge of the hainousness of it according to Scripture-principles It is true as hath been said formerly the Heathens did complain of the effects of this original sinne but they did not know the cause so that as by the Word we come to know that from our descendency from Adam we do contract this original pollution thus also by the Word we are to passe sentence about the greatness of the sinne If the Scripture saith We are by nature the children of wrath If God in destroying of the world doth not simply look to actual sins but as they flow from such a polluted principle If by this we are in bondage to Satan and are
at the beginning endeavoured to clear himself and to charge his sinne upon God The woman thou gavest me And happily some even in the primitive times by mis-understanding some places of Scripture wherein God is said to give men up to their lusts to harden and blind men in their sinnes might occasion such a detestable Position And although the Papists do ordinarily charge this damnable Doctrine upon the Calvinists yet there needeth no more to justifie Calvin in this particular then what he doth most excellently and solidly deliver upon this very Text. The truth is our learned men shew expressions from the Papists yea from Bellarmine himself more harsh and incommodious then I believe can be found in any Protestant Writer But this by the way The Apostle being to inform us of the true cause of all the sinne we do commit and that not God no nor Devils or wicked men are to be blamed comparatively but our own selves sheweth that all this evil cometh from that concupiscential frame of heart we have within us And as for God the Apostle expresly instanceth concerning him prohibiting any one to think or say it is from God that they do sinne Let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God and he giveth two reasons whereof one is the cause of the other If you ask How is it that God is said to tempt no man seeing he tempted Abraham and the Israelites Austin's distinction is made use of that there is a temptation probationis and seductionis of probation or tryal or of deceiving and enticing to sin God indeed doth often tempt his people the former way not but that he knoweth what is in the heart of every man but that hereby a godly mans graces may be the more quickned as also a man have more experimental knowledge of himself As for the other temptation of seduction God doth not thus tempt that is he doth not encline or enrice to sinne It is true we read the Prophet Jeremiah saying O Lord I am deceived and thou hast deceived me Jer. 20. 7. But that is spoken unadvisedly and rashly by the Prophet who thought because what he had prophesied was not as yet fulfilled and therefore his adversaries derided and scorned him that therefore it would not at all be fulfilled and so by consequence that God had deceived him Secondly Divines distinguish temptation into external and internal External are afflictions and troubles called often so in Scripture and these temptations are from God 2. Internal which do immediately incline to sinne and with these God doth not tempt Now although the Apostle had in the former part spoken of external temptations yet now he speaks of internal ones though some think he continueth his discourse of externals because these many times draw out hearts to sinne but this ariseth not from God The reason why God cannot tempt to sinne is from the infinite perfection of holiness which is in God he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He cannot be tempted by evil It is true men are said to tempt God many times and so ex parte hominu there is done what man could do even to make God deviate from his own holy nature and Law but the Apostle meaneth ex parte Dei that God is of such absolute purity and transcendent holiness that there cannot arise any motion in his nature to make him sinne For so we expound the Greek word in a passive sense Estius himself granting that the use of it in an active signification can hardly be found though Popish Interpreters plead for the active sense but then there would be no distinction of this from the following words Neither tempteth he any man The original word is used only here in the New Testament The strength then of the Argument lieth in this God doth not tempt any man to sin because he hath no inward temptation or motion in his own nature to sin for that is the reason why the Devil is so impetuous and forward in tempting us to sin because his nature is first carried out to all evil so there is no man that doth draw on another to sin but because he in his own heart is drawn aside with it before The Apostle having thus justified God and removed all cause of evil from him In my Text he directeth us to the true internal and proper cause of all the sinne that we do commit and therein doth most excellently shew the several steps and degrees of sinne whereby of an Embryo as it were at first it cometh to be a compleated and perfected sinne This Text is much vexed by Bellarmine and Popish Authors to establish their distinction of a venial and mortal sinne though they cannot find any true aid from the Text. Let us consider the particulars of this noble Text The Cause of a mans sinne is said to be lust 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is the same with original sinne the corruption of all the powers of the soul whereby it is inordinately carried out to all things Of which more in the Doctrine This is described from the note of propriety 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His own lust This expression is used that we may not lay all upon the Devil or other men for this is ordinarily brought by men to excuse themselves It is true I was in such a fault I have sinned but the Devil moved me or such wicked companions they enticed me or I did it because men compelled me and terrified me all this will not serve thy turn It is thy own lust within not men without that hath made thee thus to sinne And this sheweth That every man hath his own proper original sinne by way of a lust within him 3. This is further amplified from the Vniversality of the Subject wherein this lust is seated Every man so that no man but Christ who was God and man is freed from this incentive to evil 4. There is the Manner How this lust doth tempt us to sinne and that is expressed in two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Drawn away that is as some from God from heavenly objects because in all sinne there is an aversion from God and a conversion to the creature or else as others Drawn aside form the consideration of hell of the wrath of God of eternal death and damnation For we sinne continually as Eve did at first The Devil perswaded her she should not die and then when this fear was removed she presently falleth into the transgression and thus before men fall into the pit of any sinne they are drawn aside from those serious thoughts This will offend God this will damn me The other word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Metaphor either from birds or fishes which have baits to allure them and thereby are destroyed Thus lust appeareth with a bait but the hook doth not appear In the next place This original sinne is illustrated in the issue of it the Apostle sheweth how sinne Ã
Memory is polluted in respect of its inward vitiosity adhering to it SEcondly As the memory is thus defiled about its proper objects so there is much inward vitiosity adhering to it And this we may take notice of as a main one The dullness sluggishness and stupidity of it especially as to heavenly things who can give any other reason why good things holy things should not be remembered as well as evil and sinfull things but only the native pollution of the memory And from hence it is that there is such a lethargy as it were upon the memory for if Peter 2 Pet 3. 1 writing to those who were sanctified and that had pure minds yet he thought it meet to stirre them up a metaphor as you heard from men asleep who need to be awakened how much more doth the memory of a natural man need stirring and exciting There is then a wonderfull stupidity and sleepiness as it were upon the memory it is even rusty as it were and unfit for any use men do not exercise and put their memories upon practice little do they know what they could remember if they did mind it and exercise themselves to remember what is good Thou complainest of a bad memory of a slippery memory No it is thy laziness it 's thy bad heart it 's thy want of diligence Thy memory would be as good and as active for holy things as it is for earthly things if you did put it in practice more but the memory being naturally dull and stupid thou lettest it alone thou never improvest it never awakenest it and so through thy forgetfullness thou comest eternally to perish This lethargy upon thy memory though a sad disease yet might be cured if thou wert real and industrious about it much praying and much practising of it in holy things would make it as expedite and as ready about good things as ever it was in any evil things In the third place The memory is naturally unsanctified in this particular that wherein it can or doth remember there it produceth not suteable operations nor doth it obtain its end The end of remembring what is good is to love it to practise it and to imitate it The end of remembring evil is to loath it bitterly to repent of it and to fly from it Now herein our memory is grosly polluted that it never obtaineth this blessed and holy end whereas if our memories were never so admirable as that of Symonides or Appelonius Thyaneus when he was about an hundred yeares old yet if our memory be not effectual and operative to make us more holy and heavenly this is a sinfull and defiled memory And for this reason it is that wicked men are said to forget God because though they do remember him yet they do not performe those duties to which their memory should be subservient For as the end of knowledge is action so the end of memory also is to be doing and as it is said If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them so when ye remember these things it 's a blessed thing to put them in practise But how often do we see by experience that where the memory is naturally very good there morally it is very bad and sinfull Do you not meet with many that can remember the Scripture remember Sermons yet never remember the practice of them whereas God hath given us memory for the same end he hath given us a knowledge which is to direct and help us in our operations That as in beasts they have a sensitive memory in them to preserve their natural being The Oxe remembreth his Masters crib the bird remembreth her seasons and all this for natural preservation The Bee remembereth the place of her hive The Ant her nest though some Philosophers because of the great siceity of the constitution of those creatures attribute it to a natural instinct rather then memory so this should be much more true in men therefore doth God bestow on us an intellectual memory that thereby he might spiritually preserve himself making use of that which is advantagious to his soul and avoiding all that which is destructive As then we are not to know only that we may know or to know thereby making ostentation that others may take notice of it so neither are we to remember that we may remember only or to brag of our memory that others may wonder to see what a strong and retentive memory we have but that thereby we may be more promoted and advanced in heavenly things Let all such tremble under this consideration who have very quick and sure memories about the Scripture and the Sermons they hear yet are very ungodly in their lives and walk in a contrary way to all that they do remember This argueth thy memory is not a sanctified memory that it carrieth not on the work of grace in thee for which end only it ought to be imployed It is observed that two sorts of men need a good memory First The lyar Oportet mendacem esse memorem now every professing Christian living wickedly is a lyar for with words he acknowledgeth him butin workes he denieth him insomuch that thou who lyest thus to God shouldst remember thy professions and obligations the second sort is of greatest accomptants such who have great summes to cast up and to be accountable for these also had need of great memories and such is every man Oh the vast and numberless particulars of which he is one day to give an account to God! Oh what a proficient in holiness might thou have been if all the good things thou remembrest were in a practical manner improved if thou couldst give a good account to God of thy memory for that you are to do as well as of the improvement of other parts of the soul As God at the day of judgement will have an account of every talent he hath given thee of thy understanding of thy will how these have been employed so likewise of thy memory What is that good that holiness thy memory hath put thee upon and this also you who are young ones and servants living in godly Families are diligently to attend to for you think this is enough if you can remember a Sermon or Catechistical heads so as to give an account to your Governors if you can satisfie them you think this is enough but thou art greatly deceived for therefore art thou to remember that thou maist do accordingly Thou art never to forget this or that truth that so it may be ready at hand to direct thee in all thy wayes and this is indeed a divine act of memory There are those who teach the art of memory and give rules to perfect a man therein but divine and holy operation is the end of the Christian art of our memory Fourthly The pollution of our memory is seen In that it is made subservient to the corrupt frame and inclination of our hearts We