sinned he should have been immortal by grace that is by the use of the Tree of life and now being driven from the place where the Tree grew was left in his own natural constitution that is to be sick and die without that remedy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was mortal of himself and we are mortal from him Peccando Adam posteros morti subjecit universos huic delicto obnoxios reddit said Justin Martyr Adam by his sin made all his posterity liable to the sin and subjected them to death One explicates the other and therefore S. Cyprian calls Original sin Malum domesticum contagium mortis antiquae primâ nativitate contractum His sin infected us with death and this infection we derive in our birth that is we are born mortal Adams sin was imputed to us unto a natural death in him we are sinners as in him we die But this sin is not real and inherent but imputed only to such a degree So S. Cyprian affirms most expresly infans recens natus nihil peccavit nisi quòd secundum Adam carnalitèr natus contagium mortis antiquae primâ nativitate contraxit An infant hath not sinn'd save only that being carnally born of Adam in his first birth he hath contracted the contagion of the old death 20. This evil which is the condition of all our natures viz. to die was to some a punishment but to others not so It was a punishment to all that sinn'd both before Moses and since upon the first it fell as a consequent of Gods anger upon Adam as I before discours'd upon the latter it fell as a consequent of that anger which was threatned in Moses law But to those who sinned not at all as Infants and Innocents it was merely a condition of their nature and no more a punishment than to be a child is It was a punishment of Adams sin because by his sin humane Nature became disrob'd of their preternatural immortality and therefore upon that account they die but as it related to the persons it was not a punishment not an evil afflicted for their sin or any guiltiness of their own properly so called 21. We find nothing else in Scripture express'd to be the effect of Adams sin and beyond this without authority we must not go Other things are said but I find no warrant for them in that sence they are usually suppos'd and some of them in no sence at all The particulars commonly reckoned are that from Adam we derive an Original ignorance a proneness to sin a natural malice a fomes or nest of sin imprinted and plac'd in our souls a loss of our wills liberty and nothing is left but a liberty to sin which liberty upon the summ of affairs is expounded to be a necessity to sin and the effect of all is we are born heirs of damnation 22. Concerning Original or Natural ignorance it is true we derive it from our Parents I mean we are born with it but I do not know that any man thinks that if Adam had not sinn'd that sin Cain should have been wise as soon as his Navel had been cut Neither can we guess at what degree of knowledge Adam had before his fall Certainly if he had had so great a knowledge it is not likely he would so cheaply have sold himself and all his hopes out of a greedy appetite to get some knowledge But concerning his posterity indeed it is true a child cannot speak at first nor understand and if as Plato said all our knowledge is nothing but memory it is no wonder a child is born without knowledge But so it is in the wisest men in the world they also when they see or hear a thing first think it strange and could not know it till they saw or heard it Now this state of ignorance we derive from Adam as we do our Nature which is a state of ignorance and all manner of imperfection but whether it was not imperfect and apt to fall into forbidden instances even before his fall we may best guess at by the event for if he had not had a rebellious appetite and an inclination to forbidden things by what could he have been tempted and how could it have come to pass that he should sin Indeed this Nature was made worse by sin and became devested of whatsoever it had extraordinary and was left naked and mere and therefore it is not only an Original imperfection which we inherit but in the sence now explicated it is also an Original corruption And this is all As natural death by his sin became a curse so our natural imperfection became natural corruption and that is Original sin Death and imperfection we derive from Adam but both were natural to us but by him they became actual and penal and by him they became worse as by every evil act every principle of evil is improv'd And in this sence this Article is affirmed by all the Doctors of the ancient Church We are miserable really sinners in account or effect that properly this improperly and are faln into so sad a state of things which we also every day make worse that we did need a Saviour to redeem us from it For in Original sin we are to consider the principle and the effects The principle is the actual sin of Adam This being to certain purposes by Gods absolute dominion imputed to us hath brought upon us a necessity of dying and all the affections of mortality which although they were natural yet would by grace have been hindred Another evil there is upon us and that is Concupiscence this also is natural but it was actual before the fall it was in Adam and tempted him This also from him is derived to us and is by many causes made worse by him and by our selves And this is the whole state of Original sin so far as is fairly warrantable But for the other particulars the case is wholly differing The sin of Adam neither made us 1. Heirs of damnation Nor 2. Naturally and necessarily vicious 23. I. It could not make us Heirs of damnation This I shall the less need to insist upon because of it self it seems so horrid to impute to the goodness and justice of God to be author of so great a calamity to Innocents that S. Austins followers have generally left him in that point and have descended to this lesser proportion that Original sin damns only to the eternal loss of the sight of Gods glorious face But to this I say these things 24. I. That there are many Divines which believe this alone to be the worm that never dies and the fire that never goeth out that is in effect this and the anguish for this is all the Hell of the damned And unless infants remain infants in the resurrection too which no man that I know affirms or unless they be senseless and inapprehensive it is not to be imagined but that all that know
themselves and think all is well with them that they are regenerate and in the state of the Divine favour and if they die so their accounts are ballanc'd and they doubt not but they shall reign as Kings for ever To reprove this state of folly and danger we are to observe that there are a great many steps of this progression which are to be passed through and the end is not yet the man is not yet arrived at the state of regeneration 30. I. An unregenerate man may be convinc'd and clearly instructed in his duty and approve the law and confess the obligation and consent that it ought to be done which S. Paul calls a consenting to the law that it is good and a being delighted in it according to the inward man even the Gentiles which have not the law yet shew the work of the law written in their hearts their thoughts in the mean time accusing or excusing one another The Jews did more they did rest in the law and glory in God knowing his will and approving the things that are more excellent And there are too many who being called Christians know their Masters will and do it not and this consenting to the law and approving it is so far from being a sign of regeneration that the vilest and the basest of men are those who sin most against their knowledge and against their consciences In this world a man may have faith great enough to remove mountains and yet be without charity and in the world to come some shall be rejected from the presence of God though they shall alledge for themselves that they have prophesied in the name of Christ. * This delight in the law which is in the unregenerate is only in the understanding The man considers what an excellent thing it is to be vertuous the just proportions of duty the fitness of being subordinate to God the rectitude of the soul the acquiescence and appendent peace and this delight is just like that which is in finding out proportions in Arithmetick and Geometry or the rest in discovering the secrets of a mysterious proposition a man hath great pleasure in satisfactory notices and the end of his disquisition So also it is in moral things a good man is belov'd by every one and there is a secret excellency and measure a musick and proportion between a mans mind and wise counsels which impious and profane persons cannot perceive because they are so full of false measures and weak discourses and vile appetites and a rude inconsideration of the reasonableness and wisdom of sobriety and severe courses But virtus laudatur alget this is all that some men do and there is in them nothing but a preparation of the understanding to the things of God a faith seated in the rational part a conviction of the mind which as it was intended to lead on the will to action and the other faculties to obedience so now that the effect is not acquired it serves only to upbraid the man for a knowing and discerning Criminal he hath not now the excuse of ignorance He that complies with an Usurper out of fear and interest in actions prejudicial to the lawful Prince and tells the honest party that he is right in his heart though he be forc'd to comply helps the other with an argument to convince him that he is a false man He that does it heartily and according to a present conscience hath some excuse but he that confesses that he is right in his perswasion and wrong in his practice is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 condemn'd by himself and professes himself a guilty person a man whom interest and not conscience governs Better is it not to know at all than not to pursue the good we know They that know not God are infinitely far from him but they who know him and yet do not obey him are sometimes the nearer for their knowledge sometimes the further off but as yet they are not arrived whither it is intended they should go 31. II. An unregenerate man may with his will delight in goodness and desire it earnestly For in an unregenerate man there is a double appetite and there may be the apprehension of two amabilities The things of the Spirit please his mind and his will may consequently desire that this good were done because it seems beauteous to the rational part to his Mind but because he hath also relishes and gusts in the flesh and they also seem sapid and delightful he desires them also So that this man fain would and he would not and he does sin willingly and unwillingly at the same time We see by a sad experience some men all their life time stand at gaze and dare not enter upon that course of life which themselves by a constant sentence judge to be the best and of the most considerable advantage But as the boy in the Apologue listned to the disputes of Labour and Idleness the one perswading him to rise the other to lie in bed but while he considered what to do he still lay in bed and considered so these men dispute and argue for vertue and the service of God and stand beholding and admiring it but they stand on the other side while they behold it There is a strife between the law of the mind and the law of the members But this prevails over that For the case is thus There are in men three laws 1. The law of the members 2. The law of the mind 3. The law of the spirit 1. The law of the members that is the habit and proneness to sin the dominion of sin giving a law to the lower man and reigning there as in its proper seat This law is also called by S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mind of the flesh the wisdom the relish the gust and savour of the flesh that is that deliciousness and comport that inticing and correspondencies to the appetite by which it tempts and prevails all its own principles and propositions which minister to sin and folly This subjects the man to the law of sin or is that principle of evil by which sin does give us laws 2. To this law of the flesh the law of the mind is opposed and is in the regenerate and unregenerate indifferently and it is nothing else but the conscience of good and evil subject to the law of God which the other cannot be This accuses and convinces the unregenerate it calls upon him to do his duty it makes him unquiet when he does not but this alone is so invalidated by the infirmity of the flesh by the Oeconomy of the law by the disadvantages of the world that it cannot prevail or free him from the captivity of sin But 3. The law of the Spirit is the grace of Jesus Christ and this frees the man from the law of the members from the captivity of sin from
our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered c. From whence the Conclusion that is inferred is in the words of S. Paul that we must pray with the Spirit therefore not with set forms therefore ex tempore Sect. 13. THE Collection is somewhat wild for there is great independency in the several parts and much more is in the Conclusion than was virtually in the premises But such as it is the Authors of it I suppose will own it And therefore we will examine the main design of it and then consider the particular means of its perswasion quoted in the Objection Sect. 14. IT is one of the Priviledges of the Gospel and the benefit of Christs ascension that the Holy Ghost is given unto the Church and is become to us the fountain of gifts and graces But these gifts and graces are improvements and helps of our natural faculties of our art and industry not extraordinary miraculous and immediate infusions of habits and gifts That without Gods spirit we cannot pray aright that our infirmities need his help that we know not what to ask of our selves is most true and if ever any Heretick was more confident of his own naturals or did evermore undervalue Gods grace than the Pelagian did yet he denies not this but what then therefore without study without art without premeditation without learning the Spirit gives the gift of prayer and is it his grace that without any natural or artificial help makes us pray ex tempore no such thing the Objection proves nothing of this Sect. 15. HERE therefore we will joyn issue whether the gifts and helps of the Spirit be immediate infusions of the faculties and powers and perfect abilities Or that he doth assist us only by his aids external and internal in the use of such means which God and nature hath given to man to ennoble his soul better his faculties and to improve his understanding ** That the aids of the Holy Ghost are only assistances to us in the use of natural and artificial means I will undertake to prove and from thence it will evidently follow that labour and hard study and premeditation will soonest purchase the gift of prayer and ascertain us of the assistance of the Spirit and therefore set Forms of Prayer studied and considered of are in a true and proper sence and without Enthusiasm the fruits of the Spirit Sect. 16. FIRST Gods Spirit did assist the Apostles by ways extraordinary and fit for the first institution of Christianity but doth assist us now by the expresses of those first assistances which he gave to them immediately Sect. 17. THUS the Holy Ghost brought to their Memory all things which Jesus spake and did and by that means we come to know all that the Spirit knew to be necessary for us the Holy Ghost being Author of our knowledge by being the fountain of the Revelation and we are therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taught by God because the Spirit of God revealed the Articles of our Religion that they might be known to all ages of the Church and this is testified by S. Paul He gave some Apostles and some Prophets c. for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the Body of Christ till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man c. This was the effect of Christ's ascension when he gave gifts unto men that is when he sent the Spirit the verification of the promise of the Father The effect of this immission of the Holy Ghost was to fill all things and that for ever to build up the Church of God until the day of consummation so that the Holy Ghost abides with the Church for ever by transmitting those revelations which he taught the Apostles to all Christians in succession Now as the Holy Ghost taught the Apostles and by them still teaches us what to believe so it is certain he taught the Apostles how and what to pray and because it is certain that all the rules concerning our duty in prayer and all those graces which we are to pray for are transmitted to us by Derivation from the Apostles whom the Holy Ghost did teach even to that very purpose also that they should teach us it follows evidently that the gift of prayer is a gift of the Holy Ghost and yet to verifie this Proposition we need no other immediate inspiration or extraordinary assistance than that we derive from the Holy Ghost by the conveyance of the Apostolical Sermons and Writings Sect. 18. THE reason is the same in Faith and Prayer and if there were any difference in the acquisition or reception faith certainly needs a more immediate infusion as being of greatest necessity and yet a grace to which we least cooperate it being the first of graces and less of the will in it than any other But yet the Holy Ghost is the Author of our faith and we believe with the Spirit it is S. Pauls expression and yet our belief comes by hearing and reading the holy Scriptures and their interpretations Now reconcile these two together Faith comes by hearing and yet is the gift of the Spirit and it says that the gifts of the Spirit are not extasies and immediate infusions of habits but helps from God to enable us upon the use of the means of his own appointment to believe to speak to understand to prophesie and to pray Sect. 19. BUT whosoever shall look for any other gifts of the Spirit besides the parts of nature helped by industry and Gods blessing upon it and the revelations or the supplies of matter in holy Scripture will be very far to seek having neither reason promise nor experience of his side For why should the spirit of prayer be any other than as the gift and spirit of faith as S. Paul calls it acquired by humane means using divine aids that is by our endeavours in hearing reading catechizing desires to obey and all this blessed and promoted by God this produces faith Nay it is true of us what Christ told his Apostles sine me nihil potestis facere not nihil magnum aut difficile but omninò nihil as S. Austin observes Without me ye can do nothing and yet we were not capable of a Law or of reward or punishment if neither with him nor without him we were able to do any thing And therefore although in the midst of all our co-operation we may say to God in the words of the Prophet Domine omnia opera operatus es in nobis O Lord thou hast wrought all our works in us yet they are opera nostra still God works and we work First is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods grace is brought to us he helps and gives us abilities and then
his hyperaspists new and old for the holy Council condemns them for hereticks who do indeed confess the true faith but separate from their Bishops and make conventicles apart from his Communion Now this I the rather urge because an Act of Parliament made 10 of Elizabeth does make this Council and the other three of Nice Ephesus and Chalcedon the rule of judging heresies I end this particular with the saying of the Council of Paris against the Acephali who were the branch of a Crabstock and something like Aerius cited by Burchard Nullâ ratione Clerici aut Sacerdotes habendi sunt qui sub nullius Episcopi disciplinâ providentiâ gubernantur Tales enim Acephalos id est sine capite Priscae Ecclesiae consuetudo nuncupavit They are by no means to be accounted Clergy-men or Priests that will not be governed by a Bishop For such men the Primitive Church call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is headless witless people This only Acephali was the title of a Sect a formal heresie and condemn'd by the Ancient Church say the Fathers of the Council of Paris Now if we can learn exactly what they were it may perhaps be another conviction for the necessity of Episcopal regiment Nicephorus can best inform us Eodem tempore Acephali quorum dux Severus Antiochenus fuit c. Severus of Antioch was the first broacher of this heresy But why were they called Acephali id est sine capitè quem sequuntur haeretici Nullus enim eorum reperitur author à quo exorti sunt saith Isidore But this cannot be for their head is known Severus was the heresiarch But then why are they called Acephali Nicephorus gives this reason and withal a very particular account of their heresie Acephali autem ob eam causam dicti sunt quòd sub Episcopis non fuerunt They refused to live under Bishops Thence they had their name what was their heresie They denyed the distinction of Natures in Christ. That was one of their heresies but they had more for they were trium capitulorum in Chalcedone impugnatores saith Isidore they opposed three Canons of the Council of Chalcedon One we have heard what their other heresies were we do not so well know but by the Canon of the Council of Paris and the intimation of their name we are guided to the knowlege of a second They refused to live under the government of a Bishop And this also was impugnatio unius articuli in Chalcedone for the eighth Canon of the Council of Chalcedon commands that the Clergy should be under Episcopal government But these Acephali would not they were Antiepiscopal men and therefore they were condemn'd hereticks condemn'd in the Council of Paris of Sevil and of Chalcedon But the more particular account that Nicephorus gives of them I will now insert because it is of great use Proinde Episcopis Sacerdotibus apud eos defunctis neque baptismus juxta solennem atque receptum Ecclesiae morem apud eos administratur neque oblatio aut res aliqua divina facta ministeriúmve Ecclesiasticum sicuti mos est celebratum est Communionem verò illi à plurimo tempore asservatam habentes feriis pascalibus in minutissimas incisam partes convenientibus ad se hominibus dederunt Quo tempore quam quisque voluisset placitam sibi sumebat potestatem Et propterea quod quilibet quod si visum esset fidei insertum volebat quamplurima defectorum atque haereticorum turba exorta est It is a story worthy observation When any Bishop died they would have no other consecrated in succession and therefore could have no more Priests when any of them died But how then did they to baptize their Children Why they were fain to make shift and do it without any Church-solemnity But how did they for the holy Sacrament for that could not be consecrated without a Priest and he not ordained without a Bishop True but therefore they while they had a Bishop got a great deal of bread consecrated and kept a long time and when Easter came cut it into small bits or crums rather to make it go the farther and gave it to their people And must we do so too God forbid But how did they when all that was gone For crummes would not last always The story specifies it not but yet I suppose they then got a Bishop for their necessity to help them to some more Priests and some more crumms for I find in the Council of Sevil the Fathers saying Ingressus est ad nos quidam ex haeresi Acephalorum Episcopus they had then it seems got a Bishop but this they would seldome have and never but when their necessity drave them to it But was this all the inconvenience of the want of Bishops No. For every man saith Nicephorus might do what he list and if he had a mind to it might put his fancy into the Creed and thence came innumerable troops of Schismaticks and Hereticks So that this device was one simple heresie in the root but it was forty heresies in the fruit and branches clearly proving that want of Bishops is the cause of all Schism and recreant opinions that are imaginable I sum this up with the saying of S. Clement the Disciple of S. Peter Si autem vobis Episcopis non obedierint omnes Presbyteri c. tribus linguae non obtemperaverit non solùm infames sed extorres à regno dei consortio fidelium ac à limitibus Sancti Dei Ecclesiae alieni erunt All Priests and Clergy-men and people and Nations and Languages that do not obey their Bishop shall be shut forth of the communion of Holy Church here and of Heaven hereafter It runs high but I cannot help it I do but translate Ruffinus as he before translated S. Clement SECT XLVIII And Bishops were alwaies in the Church men of great Honour IT seems then we must have Bishops But must we have Lord Bishops too That is the question now but such an one as the Primitive piety could never have imagined For could they to whom Bishops were placed in a right and a true light they who believed and saw them to be the Fathers of their souls the Guardian of their life and manners as King Edgar call'd S. Dunstan the guide of their consciences the instruments and conveyances of all the blessings heaven uses to pour upon us by the ministration of the holy Gospel would they that thought their lives a cheap exchange for a free and open communion with a Catholick Bishop would they have contested upon an aiery title and the imaginary priviledge of an honour which is far less than their spiritual dignity but infinitely less than the burden and charge of the souls of all their Diocess Charity thinks nothing too much and that love is but little that grutches at the good words a Bishoprick carries with it However let us see whether
that those who are under our Charges should know the force of the Resurrection of Christ and the conduct of the Spirit and live according to the purity of God and the light of the Gospel To this let us cooperate with all wisdom and earnestness and knowledge and spiritual understanding And there is no better way in the world to do this than by ministring to persons singly in the conduct of their Repentance which as it is the work of every man so there are but few persons who need not the conduct of a spiritual guide in the beginnings and progressions of it To the assistance of this work I have now put my Symbol having by the sad experience of my own miseries and the calamities of others to whose restitution I have been called to minister been taught something of the secret of Souls and I have reason to think that the words of our dearest Lord to S. Peter were also spoken to me Tu autem conversus confirma fratres I hope I have received many of the mercies of a repenting sinner and I have felt the turnings and varieties of spiritual entercourses and I have often observed the advantages in ministring to others and am most confident that the greatest benefits of our office may with best effect be communicated to souls in personal and particular Ministrations In the following book I have given advices and have asserted many truths in order to all this I have endeavoured to break in pieces almost all those propositions upon the confidence of which men have been negligent of severe and strict living I have cancell'd some false grounds upon which many answers in Moral Theologie us'd to be made to inquiries in Cases of Conscience I have according to my weak ability described all the necessities and great inducement of a holy life and have endeavoured to do it so plainly that it may be useful to every man and so inoffensively that it may hurt no man I know but one Objection which I am likely to meet withall excepting those of my infirmity and disability which I cannot answer but by protesting the piety of my purposes but this only that in the Chapter of Original sin I speak otherwise than is spoken commonly in the Church of England whos 's ninth Article affirms that the natural propensity to evil and the perpetual lusting of the flesh against the spirit deserves the anger of God and damnation against which I so earnestly seem to dispute in the sixth Chapter of my Book To this I answer that it is one thing to say a thing in its own nature deserves damnation and another to say it is damnable to all those persons in whom it is subjected The thing it self that is our corrupted nature or our nature of corruption does leave us in the state of separation from God by being unable to bear us to Heaven imperfection of nature can never carry us to the perfections of glory and this I conceive to be all that our Church intends for that in the state of nature we can only fall short of Heaven and be condemn'd to a poena damni is the severest thing that any sober person owns and this I say that Nature alone cannot bring us to God without the regeneration of the Spirit and the grace of God we can never go to Heaven but because this Nature was not spoil'd by Infants but by persons of reason and we are all admitted to a new Covenant of Mercy and Grace made with Adam presently after his fall that is even before we were born as much as we were to a participation of sin before we were born no man can perish actually for that because he is reconcil'd by this He that says every sin is damnable and deserves the anger of God says true but yet some persons that sin of mere infirmity are accounted by God in the rank of innocent persons So it is in this Article Concupiscence remains in the regenerate and yet concupiscence hath the nature of sin but it brings not condemnation These words explain the 〈◊〉 Original imperfection is such a thing as is even in the regenerate and it is of the nature of sin that is it is the effect of one sin and the cause of many but yet it is not daâ—â—ing because as it is subjected in unconsenting persons it loses its own natural venome and relation to guiltiness that is it may of it self in its abstracted nature be a sin and deserve Gods anger viz. in some persons in all them that consent to it but that which will always be in persons that shall never be damned that is in infants and regenerate shall 〈◊〉 damn them And this is the main of what I affirm And since the Church of England intended that Article against the Doctrine of the Pelagians I suppose I shall not be thought to recede from the spirit and sence of the Article though I use differing manners of expression because my way of explicating this question does most of all destroy the Pelagian Heresie since although I am desirous to acquit the dispensation of God and his Justice from my imputation or suspicion of wrong and am loth to put our sins upon the account of another yet I impute all our evils to the imperfections of our nature and the malice of our choice which does most of all demonstrate not only the necessity of Grace but also of Infant Baptism and then to accuse this Doctrine of Pelagianism or any newer name of Heresie will seem like impotency and weakness of spirit but there will be nothing of truth or learning in it And although this Article was penn'd according to the style of the Schools as they then did loâ—e to speak yet the hardest word in it is capable of such a sence as complies with the intendment of that whole sixth Chapter For though the Church of England professes her self fallible and consequently that all her truths may be peaceably improved yet I do think that she is not actually deceiv'd and also that divers eminently learned do consent in my sence of that Article However I am so truly zealous for her honour and peace that I wholly submit all that I say there or any where else to her most prudent judgment And though I may most easily be deceived yet I have given my reasons for what I say and desire to be tried by them not by prejudice and numbers and zeal and if any man resolves to understand the Article in any other sence than what I have now explicated all that I shall say is that it may be I cannot reconcile my Doctrine to his explication it is enough that it is consistent with the Article it self in its best understanding and compliance with the truth it self and the justification of God However he that explicates the Article and thinks it means as he says does all the honour he can to the Authority whose words if he does not understand yet the sanction
his children That ye should walk worthy of God who hath called you unto his Kingdom and glory * For this cause also thank we God without ceasing because when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us ye received it not as the word of men but as it is in truth the word of God which effectually worketh also in you that believe How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God And having an High Priest over the house of God Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water * Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering for he is faithful that promised * And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works * Not forsaking the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more as ye see the day approaching For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins * but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries * He that despised Moses's law died without mercy under two or three witnesses * Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite unto the Spirit of Grace For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God and if it first begin at us what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure And whatsoever we ask we receive of him because we keep his Commandments and do those things which are pleasing in his sight And he that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end to him will I give power over the Nations A Penitential Psalm collected out of the Psalms and Prophets HAVE mercy upon me O God according to thy loving kindness according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions For our transgressions are multiplied before thee and our sins testifie against us our transgressions are with us and as for our iniquities we know them In transgressing and lying against the Lord and departing away from our God speaking oppression and revolt conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falshood Our feet have run to evil our thoughts are thoughts of iniquity The way of peace we have not known we have made us crooked paths whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace Therefore do we wait for light but behold obscurity for brightness but we walk in darkness Look down from Heaven and behold from the habitation of thy Holiness and of thy Glory where is thy zeal and thy strength the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies towards me are they restrained We are indeed as an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags and we all do fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away But now O Lord thou art our Father we are the clay and thou our potter and we all are the work of thy hand Be not wroth very sore O Lord neither remember iniquity for ever behold see we beseech thee we are thy people Thou O Lord art our Redeemer thy Name is from everlasting O Lord Father and Governour of my whole life leave me not to the sinful counsels of my own heart and let me not any more fall by them Set scourges over my thoughts and the discipline of wisdom over my heart lest my ignorances encrease and my sins abound to my destruction O Lord Father and God of my life give me not a proud look but turn away from thy servant always a haughty mind Turn away from me vain hopes and concupiscence and thou shalt hold him up that is always desirous to serve thee Let not the greediness of the belly nor the lust of the flesh take hold of me and give not thy servant over to an impudent mind There is a word that is clothed about with death God grant it be not found in the portion of thy servant For all such things shall be far from the godly and they shall not wallow in their sins Though my sins be as scarlet yet make them white as snow though they be red like crimson let them be as wooll For I am ashamed of the sins I have desired and am confounded for the pleasures that I have chosen Lord make me to know mine end and the measure of my days what it is that I may know how frail I am and that I may apply my heart unto wisdom Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me O Lord let thy loving kindness and thy truth continually preserve me For innumerable evils have compassed me about mine iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look up for they are more than the hairs of my head therefore my heart faileth me But thou O Lord though mine iniquities testifie against me save me for thy Name sake for our backslidings are many we have sinned grievously against thee But the Lord God will help me therefore shall I not be confounded therefore have I set my face like a flint and I know that I shall not be ashamed He is near that justifieth me who will contend with me The Lord God will help me who is he that shall condemn me I will trust in the Lord and stay upon my God O let me have this of thine hand that I may not lie down in sorrow S. Paul's Prayers for a holy life I. I BOW my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole family in Heaven and Earth is named that he would grant unto me according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in my heart by faith that being rooted and grounded in love I may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge and may be filled with all the fulness of God through the same our most blessed Saviour Jesus Amen The Doxologie Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us Vnto him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages world without end Amen II. O MOST gracious God grant to thy servant to be filled with the knowledge of thy Will in all
habit virtually and transcendently An act of this charity will not do this but the habit will For he that does a single act of charity may also doe a single act of malice and he that denies this knows not what he says nor ever had experience of himself or any man else For if he that does an act of charity that is he who by a good motion from Gods Spirit does any thing because God hath commanded to say that this man will do every thing which is so commanded is to say that a good man can never fall into a great sin which is evidently untrue But if he that does one act in obedience to God or in love to him for obedience is love will also do more then every man that does one act to please his senses may as well be supposed that he will do more and then no mans life should have in it any variety but be all of a piece intirely good or intirely evil I see no difference in the instances neither can there be so long as a man in both states hath a power to chuse But then it will follow that a single act of contrition or of charity cannot put a man into the state of the Divine favour it must be the grace or habit of charity and that is a magazine of habits by equivalency and is formally the state of grace And upon these accounts if old men will repent and do what they can do and are enabled in that state they have no cause to be afflicted with too great fears concerning the instances of their habits or the sins of their youth Concerning persons that are seis'd upon by a lingring sickness I have nothing peculiar to say save this only That their case is in something better than that of old men in some things worse It is better because they have in many periods of their sickness more hopes of returning to health and long life than old men have of returning to strength and youth and a protracted age and therefore their repentance if it be hearty hath in it also more degrees of being voluntary and relative to a good life But in this their case is worse An old man that is healthful is better seated in the station of penitents and because he can chuse contraries is the more acceptable if he chuses well But the sick man though living long in that disadvantage cannot be indifferent in so many instances as the other may and in this case it is remarkable what S. Austin said Si autem vis agere poenitentiam quando jam peccare non potes peccata te dimiserunt non tu illa To abstain from sin when a man cannot sin is to be forsaken by sin not to forsake it At the best it is bad enough But I doubt not but if they do what they can do there is mercy for them which they shall find in the day of recompences 67. Obj. 7. But how shall any man know whether he have perform'd his repentance as he ought For if it be necessary that he get the habits of vertue and extirpate the habits of vice that is if by habits God do and we are to make judgments of our repentance who can be certain that his sins are pardon'd and himself reconcil'd to God and that he shall be sav'd The reasons of his doubts and fears are these 1. Because it is a long time before a habit can be lost and the contrary obtain'd 2. Because while one habit lessens another may undiscernibly increase and it may be a degree of covetousness may expel a degree of prodigality 3. Because a habit may be lurking secretly and for want of opportunity of acting in that instance not betray it self or be discover'd or attempted to be cur'd For he that was not tempted in that kind where he sinn'd formerly may for ought he knows say that he hath not sinn'd only because he was not tempted but if that be all the habit may be resident and kill him secretly These things must be accounted for 70. I. But to him that inquires whether it be light or darkness in what regions his inheritance is design'd and whether his Repentance is sufficient I must give rather a reproof than an answer or at least such an answer as will tell there is no need of an answer For indeed it is not good inquiring into measures and little portions of grace * Love God with all thy heart and all thy strength do it heartily and do it always If the thing be brought to pass clearly and discernibly the pardon is certain and notorious But if it be in a middle state between ebbe and floud so is our pardon too and if in that undiscerned state it be in the thing certain that thou art on the winning and prevailing side if really thou dost belong unto God he will take care both of thy intermedial comfort and final interest * But when people are too inquisitive after comfort it is a sign their duty is imperfect In the same proportion also it is not well when we enquire after a sign for our state of grace and holiness If the habit be compleat and intire it is as discernible as light and we may as well enquire for a sign to know when we are hungry and thirsty when you can walk or play on the lute The thing it self is its best indication 71. II. But if men will quarrel at any truth because it supposes some men to be in such a case that they do not know certainly what will become of them in the event of things I know not how it can be help'd I am sure they that complain here that is the Roman Doctors are very fierce Preachers of the certainty of salvation or of our knowledge of it But be they who they will since all this uncertainty proceeds not from the doctrine but from the evil state of things into which habitual sinners have put themselves there will be the less care taken for an answer But certainly it seems strange that men who have liv'd basely and viciously all their days who are respited from an eternal Hell by the miracles of mercy concerning whom it is a wonderful thing that they had not really perished long before that these men returning at the last should complain of hard usage because it cannot be told to them as confidently as to new baptized Innocents that they are certain of their salvation as S. Peter and S. Paul * But however both they and better men than they must be content with those glorious measures of the Divine mercy which are described and upon any terms be glad to be pardon'd and to hope and fear to mourn and to be afflicted to be humbled and to tremble and then to work out their salvation with fear and trembling 72. III. But then to advance one step further there may be a certainty where is no evidence that is the thing may be certain in it self though
them they knew not but bid them hope well And when they did admit dying penitents to the peace of the Church they did it de benè esse that it might do as much good as it could But they knew not what that was Poenitentiam dare possumus securitatem dare non possumus They are S. Austins words Now if I were to ask of him an account it would be in the same way of objection as I am now â—ntying For did God promise pardon to dying penitents after a wicked life or are there fearful threatnings in Scripture against such sinners as certainly all in their case are or hath God said nothing at all concerning them If God did promise pardon to such then why did not the Church give security as well as penance If God did threaten fearfully all such persons why do they admit such to repentance whom God will not admit to pardon but hath threatned with eternal death If he hath said nothing of them they are to be judged by the measures of others and truly that will too sadly ring their passing-bell For men in health who have contracted vicious habits cannot be pardoned so long as their vicious habit remains and they know that to overcome and mortifie a vicious habit is a work of time and great labour and if this be the measure of dying penitents as well as of living and healthful they will sink in judgment that have not time to do their duty But then why the Church of those ages and particularly S. Austin should hope and despair at the same time for them that is knew no ground of revelations upon which to fix any hope of pardon for them and yet should exhort them to Repentance which without hopes of pardon is to no purpose there is no sensible account to be given but this that for ought they knew God might do more than they knew and more than he had promised but whether he would or not they knew not but by that means they thought they fairly quit their hands of such persons VI. But after all this strict survey of answers if we be called to account for being so kind it must be confess'd that things are spoken out of charity and pity more than of knowledge The case of these men is sad and deplorable and it is piety when things are come to that state and saddest event to shew mercy by searching all the corners of revelation for comfort that God may be as much glorified and the dying men assisted as much as may be I remember the Jews are reproved by some for repeating the last verse but one in the book of Isaiah and setting it after the last of all That being a verse of mercy this of sorrow and threatning as if they would be more merciful than God himself and thought it unfit to end so excellent a book with so sad a cursing Indeed Gods ways are best and his measures the surest and therefore it is not good to promise where God hath not promised and to be kind where he is angry and to be free of his pardon where he hath shut up and seal'd his treasures But if they that say God hath threatned all such sinners as dying penitents after wicked life are and yet that they must not despair are to be reproved as too kind then they much more who confidently promise heaven at last It is indeed a compliance with humane misery that makes it fit to speak what hopeful things we can but if these hopes can easily be reproved I am sure the former severity cannot so easily be confuted That may this cannot 31. I. But now things being put into this constitution the inquiry into what manner of Repentance the dying penitent is oblig'd to will be of no great difficulty Qui dicit omnia nihil excipit He that is tied to all can be excus'd from none All that he can do is too little if God shall deal with him according to the conditions of the Gospel which are describ'd and therefore he must not inquire into measures but do all absolutely all that he can in that sad period Particularly 32. II. Let him examine his Conscience most curiously according as his time will permit and his other abilities because he ought to be sure that his intentions are so real to God and to Religion that he hath already within him a resolution so strong a repentance so holy a sorrow so deep a hope so pure a charity so sublime that no temptation no time no health no interest could in any circumstance of things ever tempt him from God and prevail 33. III. Let him make a general confession of the sins of his whole life with all the circumstances of aggravation let him be mightily humbled and hugely ashamed and much in the accusation of himself and bitterly lament his folly and misery let him glorifie God and justifie him confessing that if he perishes it is but just if he does not it is a glorious an infinite mercy a mercy not yet revealed a mercy to be look'd for in the day of wonders the day of judgment Let him accept his sickness and his death humbly at the hands of God and meekly pray that God would accept that for punishment and so consign his pardon for the rest through the blood of Jesus Let him cry mightily unto God incessantly begging for pardon and then hope as much as he can even so much as may exalt the excellency of the Divine mercy but not too confidently lest he presume above what is written 34. IV. Let the dying penitent make what amends he can possibly in the matter of â—eal injuries and injustices that he is guilty of though it be to the ruine of his estate and that will go a great way in deprecation Let him ask forgiveness and offer forgiveness make peace transmit charity and provisions and piety to his relatives 35. V. Next to these it were very fitting that the dying penitent did use all the means he can to raise up his spirit and do internal actions of Religion with great fervour and excellency To love God highly to be ready to suffer whatsoever can come to pour out his complaints with great passion and great humility adding to these and the like great effusions of charity holy and prudent undertakings of severity and Religion in case he shall recover and if he can let him do some great thing something that does in one little body of action signifie great affections any heroical act any transportation of a holy zeal in his case does help to abbreviate the work of many years If these things be thus done it is all that can be done at that time and as well as it can be then done what the event of it will be God only knows and we all shall know at the day of Judgment In this case the Church can give the Sacrament but cannot give security Meditations and Prayers to be used in all the
ask'd or given or presum'd * But if our consent was in it then either it was included naturally or by an express will of God that made it so It can no way be imagined how our will can be naturally included for we had no natural being We had no life and therefore no action and therefore no consent For it is impossible there should be an act of will in any sence when there is an act of understanding in no sence * But if by a Divine act or decree it became so and not by our act then we only are said to consent because God would have it so which if we speak intelligibly is to charge God with making us guilty when we were not to say we consented when we did not 31. VIII In pursuance of which argument I consider that whatsoever can be said to consent must have a being either in or out of its causes But our will was not in being or actual existence when Adam sinned it was then in its causes But the soul and so the will of man hath no cause but God it being with the soul immediately created If therefore we sinned we could not sin in our selves for we were not born nor could we sin in Adam for he was not the cause of our will it must therefore be that we sinn'd in God for as was our being so must our action be but our being was then only in God our will and our soul was in him only tanquam in 〈◊〉 causâ therefore in him was our action or consent or what we please to call it Which affirmative what sence or what piety or what probability it can have in it I suppose needs not much inquiry 32. IX To condemn Infants to Hell for the fault of another is to deal worse with them than God did to the very Devils who did not perish but for an act of their own most perfect choice 33. X. This besides the formality of injustice and cruelty does add and suppose a circumstance of a strange ungentle contrivance For because it cannot be supposed that God should damn Infants or Innocents without cause it finds out this way that God to bring his purposes to pass should create a guilt for them or bring them into an inevitable condition of being guilty by a way of his inventing For if he did make any such agreement with Adam he beforehand knew that Adam would forfeit all and therefore that unavoidably all his posterity should be surpris'd This is to make pretences and to invent justifications and reasons of his proceedings which indeed are all one as if they were not For he that can make a reason for an action otherwise unjust can do it without any reason especially when the reason it self makes the misery as fatal as a decree without a reason And if God cannot be supposed to damn infants without just cause and therefore he so order'd it that a cause should not be wanting but he infallibly and irresistibly made them guilty of Adams sin is not this to resolve to make them miserable and then with scorn to triumph in their sad condition For if they could not deserve to perish without a fault of their own how could they deserve to have such a fault put upon them If it be unjust to damn them without cause is it not also unjust to make a cause for them whether they will or no 34. XI It is suppos'd and generally taught that before the fall Adam had Original righteousness that is not only that he was innocent as children new born are of actual sin which seems to be that which Divines call Original righteousness there being no other either taught or reasonable but a rare rectitude of the inner man a just subordination of the inferior faculties to the superior an excellent knowledge and clear light and therefore that he would sin had so little excuse that well it might deserve such a punishment so great as himself suffered Indeed if he had no such rare perfections and rectitude I can say nothing to the particular but to the Question this that if Adam had it not then he could not lose it nor his posterity after him as it is fiercely and mightily pretended that they did But if he had this rectitude and rare endowments what equity is it that his posterity who had no such helps to resist the sin and were so far from having any helps at all to resist it that they had no notice of it neither of the law nor the danger nor the temptation nor the action till it was past I say what equity is it that his posterity should in the midst of all these imperfections be equally punished with him who sinned against so great a light and so mighty helps 35. XII Infants cannot justly perish for Adams sin unless it be just that their wills should be included in his will and his will justly become theirs by interpretation Now if so I ask Whether before that sin of Adam were our wills free or not free For if we had any will at all it must be free or not free If we had none at all how could it be involv'd in his Now if our wills were free why are they without our act and whether we will or no involv'd in the will of another If they were not free how could we be guilty * If they were free then they could also dissent If they were not free then they could not consent and so either they never had or else before Adams fall they lost their liberty 36. XIII But if it be inquired seriously I cannot imagine what can be answered Could we prevent the sin of Adam could we hinder it were we ever ask'd Could we if we had been ask'd after we were born a month have given our negative Or could we do more before we were born than after were we or could we be tied to prevent that sin Did not God know that we could not in that case dissent And why then shall our consent be taken in by interpretation when our dissent could not be really acted But if at that time we could not dissent really could we have dissented from Adams sin by interpretation If not then we could dissent no way and then it was inevitably decreed that we should be ruin'd for neither really nor by interpretation could we have dissented But if we could by interpretation have dissented it were certainly more agreeable to Gods goodness to have interpreted for us in the better sence rather than in the worse being we did neither really and actually and if God had so pleased he rather might with his goodness have interpreted us to have dissented than he could with justice have interpreted us to have consented and therefore certainly he did so or would have done if there had been need 37. XIV Lastly the Consequent of these is this That because God is true and just and wise and good and merciful it is
to the purities and perfections of God in respect of which as he says of us men in our imperfect state so he says also of the Angels or the holy Ones of God and of the Heaven it self that it is also unclean and impure for the cause and verification of which we must look out something besides Original sin * Add to this that vice is pregnant and teeming and brings forth new instances numerous as the spawn of fishes such as are inadvertency carelesness tediousness of spirit and these also are causes of very much evil SECT V. Of liberty of Election remaining after Adams fall UPON this account besides that the causes of an universal impiety are apparent without any need of laying Adam in blame for all our follies and miseries or rather without charging them upon God who so order'd all things as we see and feel the universal wickedness of man is no argument to prove our will servile and the powers of election to be quite lost in us excepting only that we can chuse evil For admitting this proposition that there can be no liberty where there is no variety yet that all men chuse sin is not any testimony that there is no variety in our choice If there were but one sin in the world and all men did chuse that it were a shrewd suspicion that they were naturally determin'd or strongly precipitated But every man does not chuse the same sin nor for the same cause neither does he chuse it always but frequently declines it hates it and repents of it many men even among the Heathens did so So that the objection hinders not but that choice and election still remains to a man and that he is not naturally sinful as he is naturally heavy or upright apt to laugh or weep For these he is always and unavoidable 72. And indeed the contrary doctrine is a destruction of all laws it takes away reward and punishment and we have nothing whereby we can serve God And precepts of holiness might as well be preached to a Wolf as to a Man if man were naturally and inevitably wicked Improbitas nullo flectitur obsequio There would be no use of reason or of discourse no deliberation or counsel and it were impossible for the wit of man to make sence of thousands of places of Scripture which speak to us as if we could hear and obey or could refuse Why are promises made and threatnings recorded Why are Gods judgments registred to what purpose is our reason above and our affections below if they were not to minister to and attend upon the will But upon this account it is so far from being true that man after his fall did forfeit his natural power of election that it seems rather to be encreased For as a mans knowledge grows so his will becomes better attended and ministred unto But after his fall his knowledge was more than before he knew what nakedness was and had experience of the difference of things he perceiv'd the evil and mischief of disobedience and the Divine anger he knew fear and flight new apprehensions and the trouble of a guilty conscience by all which and many other things he grew better able and instructed with arguments to obey God and to refuse sin for the time to come And it is every mans case a repenting man is wiser and hath oftentimes more perfect hatred of sin than the innocent and is made more wary by his fall But of this thing God himself is witness Ecce homo tanquam singularis ex se ipso habet scire bonum malum So the Chaldee Paraphrase reads Gen. 3.22 Our Bibles read thus And the Lord God said Behold the man is become as one of us to know good and evil Now as a consequent of this knowledge God was pleased by ejecting him out of Paradise to prevent his eating of the Tree of Life Ne fortè mittat manúm suam in arborem vitae Meaning that now he was grown wise and apt to provide himself and use all such remedies as were before him He knew more after his fall than before therefore ignorance was not the punishment of that sin and he that knows more is better enabled to choose and lest he should choose that which might prevent the sentence of death put upon him God cast him from thence where the remedy did grow Upon the authority of this place Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon hath these words Potestas libera unicuique data est Si vult inclinare se ad bonum esse jusâ—us penes ipsum est Sin vult se ad malum inclinare esse impius hoc ipsum penes est Hoc illud est quod in lege scribitur Ecce homo tanquam singularis ex seipso habet scire bonum malum To every man is given a power that he may choose and be inclined to good if he please or else if he please to do evil For this is written in the Law Behold the man is as a single one of himself now he knows good and evil as if he had said Behold mankind is in the world without its like and can of his own counsel and thought know good and evil in either of these doing what himself shall choose Si lapsus es poteris surgere In utramvis partem habes liberum arbitrium saith S. Chrysostome If thou hast fallen thou mayest rise again That which thou art commanded to do thou hast power to do Thou mayest choose either 73. I might be infinite in this but I shall only add this one thing That to deny to the will of man powers of choice and election or the use of it in the actions of our life destroys the immortality of the Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Hierocles Humane Nature is in danger to be lost if it diverts to that which is against Nature For if it be immortal it can never die in its noblest faculty But if the will be destroyed that is disabled from choosing which is all the work the will hath to do then it is dead For to live and to be able to operate in Philosophy is all one If the will therefore cannot operate how is it immortal And we may as well suppose an understanding that can never understand and passions that can never desire or refuse and a memory that can never remember as a will that cannot choose Indeed all the faculties of the soul that operate by way of nature can be hindred in individuals but in the whole species never But the will is not impedible it cannot be restrained at all if there be any acts of life and when all the other faculties are weakest the will is strongest and does not at all depend upon the body Indeed it often follows the inclination and affections of the body but it can choose against them and it can work without them And indeed since sin is the action of a free faculty it can no more
66. For we must observe carefully that there is a pardon of sins proper to this life and another proper to the world to come Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted and what ye bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven That is there are two remissions One here the other hereafter That here is wrought by the Ministery of the Word and Sacraments by faith and obedience by moral instruments and the Divine grace all which are divisible and gradual and grow or diminish ebbe or flow change or persist and consequently grow on to effect or else fail of the grace of God that final Grace which alone is effective of that benefit which we here contend for Here in proper speaking our pardon is but a disposition towards the great and final pardon a possibility and ability to pursue that interest to contend for that absolution and accordingly it is wrought by parts and is signified and promoted by every act of grace that puts us in order to Heaven or the state of final pardon God gives us one degree of pardon when he forbears to kill us in the act of sin when he admits when he calls when he smites us into repentance when he invites us by mercies and promises when he abates or defers his anger when he sweetly engages us in the ways of holiness these are several parts and steps of pardon For if God were extremely angry with us as we deserve nothing of all this would be done unto us and still Gods favours increase and the degrees of pardon multiply as our endeavours are prosperous as we apply our selves to religion and holiness make use of the benefits of the Church the ministery of the Word and Sacraments and as our resolutions pass into acts and habits of vertue But then in this world we are to expect no other pardon but a fluctuating alterable uncertain pardon as our duty is uncertain Hereafter it shall be finished if here we persevere in the parts and progressions of our repentance But as yet it is an Embryo in a state of conduct and imperfection here we always pray for it always hope it always labour for it but we are not fully and finally absolved till the day of sentence and judgment until that day we hope and labour * The purpose of this discourse is to represent in what state of things our pardon stands here and that it is not only conditional but of it self a mutable effect a disposition towards the great pardon and therefore if it be not nurs'd and maintain'd by the proper instruments of its progression it dies like an abortive conception and shall not have that immortality whither it was designed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For it was not ill said of old he that remits of his severity and interrupts his course does also break it and then he breaks his hopes and dissolves the golden chain which reached up to the foot of the throne of grace 67. II. Here therefore the advice is reasonable and necessary he that would ensure his pardon must persevere in duty and to that purpose must make a full and perfect work in his mortifications and fights against sin he must not suffer any thing to remain behind which may ever spring up and bear the apples of Sodom It is the advice of Dion Prusaeensis He that goes to cleanse his soul from lusts like a wild desert from beasts of prey unless he do it thoroughly in a short time will be destroyed by the remaining portions of his concupiscence For as a Fever whose violence is abated and the malignity lessened and the man returns to temper and reason to quiet nights and chearful days if yet there remains any of the unconquered humour it is apt to be set on work again by every cold or little violence of chance and the same disease returns with a bigger violence and danger So it is in the eradication of our sins that which remains behind is of too great power to effect all the purposes of our death and to make us to have fought in vain and lose all our labours and all our hopes and the intermedial piety being lost will exasperate us the more and kill us more certainly than our former vices as cold water taken to cool the body inflames it more and makes cold to be the kindler of a greater fire 68. III. Let no man be too forward in saying his sin is pardoned for our present perswasions are too gay and confident and that which is not repentance sufficient for a lustful thought or one single act of uncleanness or intemperance we usually reckon to be the very porch of Heaven and expiatory of the vilest and most habitual crimes It were well if the Spiritual and the Curates of Souls were not the authors or incouragers of this looseness of confidence and credulity To confess and to absolve is all the method of our modern repentance even when it is the most severe Indeed in the Church of England I cannot so easily blame that proceeding because there are so few that use the proper and secret ministery of a spiritual guide that it is to be supposed he that does so hath long repented and done some violence to himself and more to his sins before he can master himself so much as to bring himself to submit to that ministery But there where the practice is common and the shame is taken off and the duty returns at certain festivals and is frequently performed to absolve as soon as the sinner confesses and leave him to amend afterwards if he please is to give him confidence and carelesness but not absolution 69. IV. Do not judge of the pardon of thy sins by light and trifling significations but by long lasting and material events If God continues to call thee to repentance there is hopes that he is ready to pardon thee and if thou dost obey the Heavenly calling and dost not defer to begin nor stop in thy course nor retire to thy vain conversation thou art in the sure way of pardon and mayest also finish it But if thou dost believe that thy sins are pardon'd remember the words of our Lord concerning Mary Magdalen much is forgiven her and she loved much If thou fearest thy sins are not pardon'd pray the more earnestly and mortifie thy sin with the more severity and be no more troubled concerning the event of it but let thy whole care and applications be concerning thy duty I have read of one that was much afflicted with fear concerning his final state and not knowing whether he should persevere in grace and obtain a glorious pardon at last cried out O si scirem c. Would to God I might but know whether I should persevere or no! He was answered What wouldest thou do if thou wert sure Wouldest thou be careless or more curious of thy duty If that knowledge would make thee careless desire it not but if
videantur said Vincent Lirinensis in which every man knows what innumerable ways there are of being mistaken God having in things not simply necessary left such a difficulty upon those parts of Scripture which are the subject matters of controversie ad edomandam labore superbiam intellectum à fastidio revocandum as S. Austin gives a reason that all that err honestly are therefore to be pitied and tolerated because it is or may be the condition of every man at one time or other 8. The sum is this Since holy Scripture is the repository of divine truths and the great rule of Faith to which all Sects of Christians do appeal for probation of their several opinions and since all agree in the Articles of the Creed as things clearly and plainly set down and as containing all that which is of simple and prime necessity and since on the other side there are in Scripture many other mysteries and matters of Question upon which there is a vail since there are so many Copies with infinite varieties of reading since a various Interpunction a parenthesis a letter an accent may much alter the sence since some places have divers literal sences many have spiritual mystical and Allegorical meanings since there are so many tropes metonymies ironies hyperboles proprieties and improprieties of language whose understanding depends upon such circumstances that it is almost impossible to know its proper interpretation now that the knowledge of such circumstances and particular stories is irrevocably lost since there are some mysteries which at the best advantage of expression are not easie to be apprehended and whose explication by reason of our imperfections must needs be dark sometimes weak sometimes unintelligible and lastly since those ordinary means of expounding Scripture as searching the Originals conference of places parity of reason and analogie of Faith are all dubious uncertain and very fallible he that is the wisest and by consequence the likeliest to expound truest in all probability of reason will be very far from confidence because every one of these and many more are like so many degrees of improbability and incertainty all depressing our certainty of finding out truth in such mysteries and amidst so many difficulties And therefore a wise man that considers this would not willingly be prescribed to by others and therefore if he also be a just man he will not impose upon others for it is best every man should be left in that liberty from which no man can justly take him unless he could secure him from errour So that here also there is a necessity to conserve the liberty of Prophesying and Interpreting Scripture a necessity derived from the consideration of the difficulty of Scripture in Questions controverted and the uncertainty of any internal medium of Interpretation SECT V. Of the insufficiency and uncertainty of Tradition to Expound Scripture or determine Questions 1. IN the next place we must consider those extrinsecal means of Interpreting Scripture and determining Questions which they most of all confide in that restrain Prophesying with the greatest Tyranny The first and principal is Tradition which is pretended not only to expound Scripture Necesse enim est propter tantos tam varii erroris anfractus ut Propheticae Apostolicae interpretationis linea secundum Ecclesiastici Catholici sensus normam dirigatur But also to propound Articles upon a distinct stock such Articles whereof there is no mention and proposition in Scripture And in this topick not only the distinct Articles are clear and plain like as the fundamentals of Faith expressed in Scripture but also it pretends to expound Scripture and to determine Questions with so much clarity and certainty as there shall neither be errour nor doubt remaining and therefore no disagreeing is here to be endured And indeed it is most true if Tradition can perform these pretensions and teach us plainly and assure us infallibly of all truths which they require us to believe we can in this case have no reason to disbelieve them and therefore are certainly Hereticks if we doe because without a crime without some humane interest or collaterall design we cannot disbelieve traditive Doctrine or traditive Interpretation if it be infallibly proved to us that tradition is an infallible guide 2. But here I first consider that tradition is no repository of Articles of faith and therefore the not following it is no Argument of heresie for besides that I have shewed Scripture in its plain expresses to be an abundant rule of Faith and manners Tradition is a topick as fallible as any other so fallible that it cannot be sufficient evidence to any man in a matter of Faith or Question of heresie 3. For first I find that the Fathers were infinitely deceived in their account and enumeration of Traditions sometimes they did call some Traditions such not which they knew to be so but by Arguments and presumptions they concluded them so Such as was that of S. Austin ea quae universalis tenet Ecclesia nec à Conciliis instituta reperiuntur credibile est ab Apostolorum traditione descendisse Now suppose this rule probable that 's the most yet it is not certain It might come by custome whose Original was not known but yet could not derive from an Apostolical principle Now when they conclude of particular Traditions by a general rule and that general rule not certain but at the most probable in any thing and certainly false in some things it is wonder if the productions that is their judgments and pretence fail so often And if I should but instance in all the particulars in which Tradition was pretended falsely or uncertainly in the first Ages I should multiply them to a troublesome variety for it was then accounted so glorious a thing to have spoken with the persons of the Apostles that if any man could with any colour pretend to it he might abuse the whole Church and obtrude what he listed under the specious title of Apostolical Tradition and it is very notorious to every man that will but read and observe the Recognitions or stromata of Clemens Alexandrinus where there is enough of such false wares shewed in every book and pretended to be no less than from the Apostles In the first Age after the Apostles Papias pretended he received a Tradition from the Apostles that Christ before the day of Judgment should reign a thousand years upon Earth and his Saints with him in temporal felicities and this thing proceeding from so great an Authority as the testimony of Papias drew after it all or most of the Christians in the first three hundred years For besides that the Millenary opinion is expresly taught by Papias Justin Martyr Irenaeus Origen Lactantius Severus Victorinus Apollinaris Nepos and divers others famous in their time Justin Martyr in his Dialogue against Tryphon says it was the belief of all Christians exactly Orthodox 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉