Christ may dwell in thy Heart by Faith and that being Rooted and Grounded in love thou canst 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 Eph. 3.17 18 19. and that thou mayst be filled with all the fulness of God In all sincerity is the earnest Prayer of thine in Christ Jesus our Lord. FINIS THE Anatomy of Man SInce Man's Woful Apostacy from God Sin is become so habitual that the Custom hath taken away the Conscience of it and Corruption is so condensed in mens hearts without the due sense thereof that unless upon gross out-breakings little remorse is expressed for Sin and Guilt for most part is only owned from actual Transgressions and men do not charge themselves with the guilt of Original Sin as supposing that forreign to them as coming from Adam's particular Act and Transgression and take themselves not to be accountable therefore as being the single Act of another and if any thing of that guilt be owned it is only by roate and as coming from education or the customary profession of Religion without the due sense or conscience of the guilt and in regard that Original sin hath more in it than one single act though that one act of disobedience was cause enough of all the misery that followed and that the consequence of that disobedience hath fallen upon and concerneth all the Posterity of Adam we shall therefore consider First What Original Sin was in Adam Secondly How far the Posterity of Adam are therein concerned or chargeable and affected with it Thirdly We shall make some practical Inferences and Uses from thence First If we consider Adam the first and root of all Mankind that he was of God created after the Likeness of God in his Image Gen. 1.26 27 28. and at his first Creation had power and command given him to increase and multiply and subdue and have dominion over the Fish of the Sea the Fowls of the Air and every thing that moveth on the Earth under restriction from eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil with a penalty upon eating thereof that he should surely dye Gen. 2.15 16 17. Thus Man made after the Likeness of God and in the Image of God let us examine what this Likeness and Image was The Holy Apostle Paul tells us that it was Righteousness and true Holiness Eph. 4.24 The same Apostle elsewhere informs us that it was in Knowledge after the Image of him that Created him Col. 3.10 By these words of Righteousness true Holiness and Knowledge we may understand that Adam in his first Creation was endowed with all suitable faculties of the Mind to understand the Nature of all Beasts Fowls Fishes creeping Things and Vegetatives how to use and apply them to his own use and govern them in order to their subjection to himself and congruity among themselves as we find by Gods bringing the Creatures to Adam to vest him with Soveraignty over them and that he might express his faculty of understanding by giving to them names Gen. 2.19 20. and as some naturalists observe he gave to them names significant or expressive of their nature which implied his Knowledge of their several Natures from that primitive Knowledge given to him in his first Creation By Righteousness rendred in the Latine Justice as it is the Likeness and Image of God we must understand all integrity of Mind leading to what is right and forbearing what is wrong By true Holiness we must understand all purity of Mind Will and Affections in Sincerity and Truth to affect only and desire what is just pure holy and good and to shun all Thoughts Affections Actions or Purposes to the contrary as God is of purer Eyes than can behold Iniquity And by that Knowledge of God according to the Image of him that created him we must understand effectual and sufficient knowledge not only of things natural but also of Spiritual Truths by which man was made effectually capable to understand and to do good to abstain from and resist evil Thus Man being composed in such excellent frame capable to understand all things as well of God himself as of the Creatures and that he had his Being of God and sufficiently understood the Terms under which he was confined to his Allegiance and Obedience to God and the consequence of his Disobedience and there being given to him entire Integrity not tainted by any pollution or disabled by infirmities in full possession of all secular enjoyments with the knowledge of the glorious soveraignty of God and Majesty in the Creation sufficient to delight himself in God and glorifie his Maker in the Station he had placed him If David after the Apostacy when for Sin the World was degenerated and brought under the Curse and Bondage did then admire Mans Excellency Power and Glory how much more when in Mans Integrity unity of the Creation without Enmity Jarring or Discord Emulation or Contention the Morning Stars sang together Job 38.7 and all the Sons of God shouted for Joy How had the first Man reason to cry out How excellent art thou Lord in all the Earth And what is Man that thou remembrest him or the Son of Man that thou art mindful of him And what reason had he And how much had it been his and the happiness of all Posterities to have sate down contentedly in admiration and obedience of God and in quiet possession of all created enjoyments and subjection of the Creatures to him Thus Man Created in Righteousness true Holiness and Knowledge after the Image of God made Lord of all the Creatures and in possession thereof having sufficient knowledge to understand his Duty and Interest and to know the advantage of Obedience and consequence of breach of Duty breaks the Chain of his Obedience and eats the forbidden fruit Gen. 3.6 Whereupon God in his Justice according to his Promise and Terms of Mans first Creation deprives Man of his Soveraignty over the Creatures puts Enmity between Man and the Creatures and accurseth Man and the Earth for his sake Gen. 3.14 to the end This being the Matter of fact in Mans Creation under the Penal Law and his Breach and Rebellion against God and the punishment of his disobedience we come next to examine the nature of this first and original sin and consider whether it consisted only in this single Act of eating of the Tree of Knowledge or what other sins were or are complicated in it If we consider Man as truly endowed by God with Knowledge Righteousness and true Holiness and under the Prohibition of a Penal Law we shall find all the sins committed and discovered in after Ages under the growth of Corruption to have been in that transgression First That wilful breach of Gods Law and Sin cannot be palliate under the excuse of the sin of Ignorance for that mans knowledge was strong and sufficiently
clear to understand good and evil and in respect there was a positive prohibition against such offence it must imply knowledge and therefore makes it a wilful breach and offence against a known Law Secondly It cannot be called the Sin of Infirmity or surprize as Adam would have excused himself by the Womans giving of the fruit to him and the Womans Apology of the Serpents beguiling her for that they were foretold that they should not Eat of that Fruit and forbid the eating thereof under the Penalty of Death Gen. 3.12 13. and that the knowledge they had of good and evil and that to break the Commandment of God was evil it self although it had not been under the Penalty expressed and therefore having in themselves sufficient knowledge to understand and strength to defeat and resist the force and arguments of Satans Insinuations this Sin was a vehement and bold presumption against the Justice and Authority of God Thirdly This Sin was of the greatest Pride and Ambition imaginable for that God had endowed Man with knowledge sufficient in every respect to make him happy in understanding all things to complete his satisfaction and delight in God and the Creatures nevertheless upon Satans Insinuation that by eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil they should become more knowing and be like Gods knowing Good and Evil they wilfully in the Pride and Ambition of their Hearts lusted after knowledge to be equal with God and by disobedience broke Gods Law Fourthly This Sin was of greatest unbelief and impeachment of Gods Truth and Justice in believing Satans Lye you shall not surely die Gen. 3.4 and not believing Gods word thou shalt surely die Whereby to their own ruin and ruin of their Posterity they yeilded to a deceitfully and did not obey the Truth and righteousness Gen. 2.17 Fifthly This eating of the Tree of Knowledge implyed the greatest Murmuring Repining and Ingratitude for that God had given to Man the Use of and Dominion over all the Creatures and had only reserved one single Tree with a Prohibition from meddling with it nevertheless man is not Content but must have all not remembring or willfully forgetting that he had his beginning and being of God and what he had was of and from him and that he had what was sufficient to make him happy yet was his Covetousness without bounds Sixthly This Sin was of the greatest Sloth imprudence and inadvertence in that while God had endowed Man with Knowledge Righteousness and Holiness when Satan did accost him with a Ly to break the Command he should have reflected on the Righteousness and Hoilness of God that it was impossible for God to Lie and thereby should have resisted Satans Suggestions founded on a Ly from the Holyness and Goodness of God in giving man all things he should have reasoned that it was not just in him to murmur at his pleasure in mans being restrained from some thing and upon Satans first Suggestion of a Ly against God he should not have listned further to him but rested in the Credit of Gods truth and continued in his Obedience Seventhly From the Method of Committing this Sin all manner of Sin seems to be employed in it the Text saith And when the Woman saw that the Tree was good for Food and that it was pleasant to the Eyes and a Tree to be desired to make one wise She took of the Fruit thereof and did eat and gave also to her Husband with her and he did eat Gen. 3.6 From hence we see when Satan by a lying Suggestion had tampered with the Woman ay and got her to listen to his temptation from her ambition of being as Gods she lets her thoughts out to a further survey of the apparent excellencies and advantages to be had in the eating of that fruit and thus ambition kindleth lust and one lust begetteth another so the heart swelling with ambition of further Knowledge and that ambition runs to the Eyes and from the Eyes to the Sensual Appetite and thus the whole Mass is tainted and defiled and let out to the gluttinous poysoning of the Soul to the Rebellion of Disobedience This seems to be that same thing which the Apostle calls the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eyes and the Pride of Life Which is an entire Mass of all pollution so that it was not only the eating of that fruit which was the Sin only but the Infection that was got into the Heart and Affections whereby the goodly frame of Righteousness Holyness and true Knowledge became all tainted and infected with the deceitful Appetites and Lusts of the Flesh 1 Joh. 2.15 16. First By distrusting of God and then by a Covetous lusting after what was set apart from them by Gods prohibition and so breaking the limits of Obedience le ts the Lust swing after a carnal propension or forwardness to satiate their desires and thus disorders the righteous frame of Justice Holyness and Knowledge lately erected by God in them so that this Sin was not only that actual and only act of eating the fruit but the Corruption of the whole faculties run into disorder from God expressed by that rebellious act of eating the forbidden Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge This also seems to be proved and explained in many places of Scripture especially those of the Apostle Paul I had not known Sin but by the Law I had not known lust except the Law had said thou shalt not Covet Rom. 7.7 Where by the word Lust rendred most properly in the Original Concupiscence and the word Covet there Exod. 20.17 is properly meant a desire of what is more than our own and allowable in Justice and in that place For the Iniquity of his Covetousness Isa 57.17 Where by Covetousness is meant the lustful Inclinations and by the Apostle in that place Rom. 7.7 By lusts he means not so much the polluted actions of the Flesh as the polluted fountain of them Non pravas Cupiditates sed illarum fontem and the Soul is well called Sedes Nativae illius labis the seat of that Natural Corruption and this seems likewise to be confirmed by that Scripture and God saw that the wickedness of man was greater in the Earth and that every Imagination of the thoughts of his heart was evil and only evil continually Gen 6.5 Where God chargeth mans heart with this Sin as being the Fountain of the Corruption That of the Psalmist The Fool hath said in his heart there is no God Psal 14.1 Seems to be to the same purpose for none were openly such professed Atheists as to deny the being of God but the Prophanity of their Conversation leads the Psalmist to charge them with denying of God whereby he chargeth the heart with the pollution and brings the act of Sin as Instance and proof of it Christ himself also in that Scripture But those things which come out of the mouth come from the heart and they do defile
they said to be of that Pedigree we see Christ would not suffer the Scribes and Pharisees amongst the Jews to claim to Abraham because they did not his works we see the Prophet Isaiah chargeth the Jews to be an adulterous race and that they were of a Mother divorced from her Husband where is the Bill of your Mothers Divorcement whom I have put away behold for your Iniquities have you sold your selves and for your transgressions is your Mother put away Isa 51.1 What glory is it to be of noble blood which for the worst of Crimes was attainted and to be of Illustrious birth when the Issue is Adulterous and Spurious this is the Fountain and Spring of the Blood and Pedigree of all Mankind of higher or lower degree on Earth and this cross bar is inherent in the Scutcheon of all Mortals this is that Mené Tekél Dan. 5.25 the Motto of all the natural Issue of Adam and this stain is not to be blotted out but by the Blood of that Scape Goat the Lamb Jesus Christ who must blot out the Hand-writing of Ordinances that was against us contrary to us and took it out of the way nailing it to his Cross Col. 2.14 Secondly This Sin having such Complication of all manner of sin in it and being the Fountain from whence came all manner of Corruption look not on it as one single act to be extenuate with that excuse of eating only a little of forbidden Fruit but look on it as a poysoned Fountain in which were lodged all enchantments to sin and that deliberate contraction of enmity against God an evil Heart of unbelief stuffed with malice glutted with covetousness swellen with pride cankred with envy fretted with discontent and boundless in desire Thirdly When by Providence Affliction or Chastisement for sin cometh consider that before Sin came there was no sorrow that Justice and Judgment must attend Iniquity and as Sin was first punished by a deluge of misery on Mankind so the Continuance must not escape the like fate and look on all acts as coming from that Fountain of Corruption and make not the single act of any one transgression the sole cause of mourning repentance and reformation but run the act to the spring of the Heart and fix on the Soul that vehement desire fear zeal indignation and revenge in the act and corruption in the fountain what Indignation yea what fear what vehement desire yea what zeal yea what revenge and never meet with any sin or temptation to it but with an Eye of Jealousie as over a Pit of Destruction Fourthly When Providence deprives thee of any Earthly enjoyment for the reasons in Divine Wisdom murmur not to be denied some of thy desires but remember thou wast guilty in Adam of grudging God the reserving of the Tree of Knowledge and by thy impatient bearing of losses thou makest the old sore of Adams transgression bleed afresh in discontent but rather let the memory of Original Sin oblige thee to submission contentment sorrow and repentance Fifthly Are all men guilty of Adams transgression and are of the same corrupted and degenerate blood and some by course of Providence raised to Wealth and Honour above others what reason then hath the exalted or brother of high degree to dispise him on whom the deceitful Riches of this World have not smiled this Man who dispiseth his Brother is forgetful of himself as if not of the same blood with the other he is like a man beholding his natural Face in a glass he beholdeth himself and goeth away and forgetteth what manner of Man he was Jam. 1.23 24. The Riches and Honour of this Life should not raise a Man in esteem of himself above his brother for what he hath is given to him of God who can as equally level him with his Brother and thereby make him remember his own Pride and that the other is of the same Blood with him See the Instance of this in Nebuchadnezzar and many others I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of Heaven all whose Works are Truth and his ways Judgments and those that walk in Pride he is able to abase Dan. 4.29 to the end Consider what the Apostle James saith of Carnal partiality of preferring the Rich in Gay Clothing with a goodly Gold Ring and despising the poor Brother and what arguments he useth to the contrary Are ye not then partial in your selves and are become Judges of evil thoughts hath not God chosen the Poor of this World Rich in Faith Heirs of the Kingdom which he hath promised to those that love him and ye have dispised the Poor do not Rich Men oppress you and draw you before the Judgment Seats do not they blaspheme that worthy name by which ye are called if ye fulfil that royal Law according to the Scripture thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self ye do well but if you have respect to persons ye sin Jam. 2. to 10. Here by strong arguments he proves the partial preferring the Rich before the poor to be sinful First For that the Godly though poor in this World is the worthier person in Gods esteem in that he is chosen of God an heir of the Kingdom of Glory Secondly That Great and Rich Men are Enemies to the Godly they bring them before Judgment Seats and oppress them Thirdly Rich Men are not Enemies only to Godly Men but to God and Blaspheme his Holy Name Fourthly That the royal Law of God commands the Duty of equal love love thy Neighbour as thy self Wherefore since Pride and Ambition was a cheif ingredient of that first Fountain of sin let none through Pride dispise him who was of the same blood with himself though not in that equal Worldly Splendor or Glory but consider as Pride did ruine Adam and abased all his Posterity so Justice will take the like vengeance upon all the Race of Adam guilty of the same Crime Whoso dispiseth the poor reproacheth his Maker Prov. 17.15 God is Maker of poor and rich Prov. 22.2 Sixthly Are all men of one Blood and Family and so Brethren and Members one of another Eph. 4.24 This calls all men to mutual Sympathy mutual Assistance and supply of one another this is that express Command of Christ that ye love one another as I have loved you John 13.34 And the Apostle presseth this most vehemently Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God neither he that loveth not his Brother 1 John 3.10 We have passed from Death to Life if we love the Brethren and he that loveth not his Brother abideth in Death he that hateth his Brother is a murderer and hath not Eternal Life We ought to Lay down our Life for the Brethren 1 Joh. 3.14 15 16. This Love consists not only in the Airy Compliment of professed and pretended Friendship but First In a general Sympathy Fellow-feeling and Compassion in all Conditions and Circumstances Spiritual and Temporal like Christs Love to
oblige Men beyond their pretended Interest what Allyances or Treaties tye Princes from Usurpation or Encroachments may it not be too much charged on most of the greatest form on Earth which was said of Philip of Macedon amicitias utilitate non fide colebat his Interest not his Promise obliged him Secondly If we look on the World in respect of the Politick Constitution what Nation Country or People shall we find quiet from Commotions Disturbances Rebellions or Mutinies either from the Oppression Tyranny or Usurpation of the Soveraign or the Murmurings Jealousies and Mutinous Uneasie and Discontented Humours of the Subject Doth not Judah vex Ephraim and Ephraim envy Judah Is 11.13 doth not the Church Complain Servants have ruled over us and none delivered out of their Hands Kings are hanged up by their Hand the faces of Elders were not Honoured Lam. 5.8 12. Is not the whole World at Enmity Nation against Nation and Nations divided by intestine Wars and Contentions This Enmity is not only between Man and Man but hath also infected the Beasts of the Field Fish of the Sea and fouls of the Air whereas in Mans first State he had all of them given him for use with Dominion over them they are turned wild run into Rebellion and not to be subdued or made useful but by force and many are not only useless but destructive and they also are at War amongst themselves destroying one another so that in place of all the Sons of God shouting together for Joy as in the first State we now hear the noise of Wars Malice Envy and Destruction and whereas at first God looked on all that he had made and it was very good Gen. 1.31 afterwards for the Degeneracy thereof It repented God that he had made Man on the Earth and it grieved him at his Heart Gen. 6.6 and whereas all things were good when first Created and given to Man for use the Scripture tells us That the Friendship of the World is Enmity with God and whosoever will be a Friend of the World is the Enemy of God If any Man love the World the love of the Father is not in him Ja. 4.4 1 Jo. 2.15 If then the Heavenly Harmony Union and joyful Shoutings of the Sons of God was Ravishing and Refreshful even to sitting down under that shadow with great delight and being sick of Love when Man and the Creation was in its first Integrity when we look on the black and defaced Countenance of Man and Creatures defiled with all manner of Sin and Pollution and the World with all Deformity of Wickednesses and Contention and being Branded with Gods displeasure How great reason have we with the Church to cry out How is the Gold become Dim How is the most fine Gold changed and with David to say Wo is me that I Sojourn in Mesech and dwell in the Tents of Kedar Ps 120.5 If the Soul of Righteous Lot was grieved at the Iniquity of Sodom how much more Reason have Men now adays to grieve for that universal Deluge of Abominations which overflow the whole while earth in serious Reflection of Man in his Integrity and the Beauty of the Creation and the present Degeneracy under Sin and Misery and being Anxious to understand that Mystery why the World once approved of God to be good and given to Man should afterwards be stamped with Gods Curse and Displeasure as in the foregoing Scripture I was entertained with that of Eliphas the Temanite Shall Mortal Man be more just than God shall a Man be more pure than his Maker Job 4.17 which lead me to enquire into the particular causes of this great Catastrophe and to understand the meaning together with the Justice of God and the Mistery of his Love to believers in Christ Jesus In this enquiry I was led up to the Fountain of Gods bounty to Man by which he was made in the likeness of God in Righteousness true Holiness and Knowledge according to the Image of him that Created him and had the other Creatures given to him for use with Dominion over them under the Tenure of his Obedience and under the Commination and Assurance of Death on his Transgression I had no sooner viewed the Happiness of his first Estate when I was led to the Record of his Transgression by putting forth his Heart to Rebellion and his Hands to the Trespass and then found the Judgment entred against him by which he was degraded of his Soveraignty and Enmity was sown between him and the Creatures and the Earth accursed for his sake Gen. 3.14 to 20. And here with the Prophet we may put the question is Man the Darling of the Creation made lately in Gods own Image and Lord of all the Creation is he now a Servant a Home-born Slave why is he spoiled The Answer is in the Text hast thou not procured this to thy self In that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God for my People have committed two Evils they have forsaken me the Fountain of Living Waters and hewed themselves Cisterns broken Cisterns that can hold no Water Jer. 2.11 13 14 17. And with the same Prophet we may cry out with Astonishment Be Astonished O Heavens and be horribly afraid be ye very desolate saith the Lord Jer. 2.11 And here is this Riddle resolved shall Mortal Man be more Just than God Shall Man be more pure than his Maker Man hath forsaken God and followed his own Inventions therefore God must be just to bring upon him the Judgment threatned viz. the forfeiture of all his Priviledges and make him smart under the folly of his own Devices They hatch Cockatrice Eggs and weave the Spiders Webb he that eateth of their Eggs dyeth and that which is crushed breaketh into a Viper their Webb shall not become Garments neither shall they cover themselves with their Works their Works are Works of Iniquity Is 59.5 6 7. Hence we find God is Just in punishing Man for his Transgression and Man by his Folly hath brought himself and Posterity to ruin who through the Pride of his Concupiscence abode not in his Integrity but in repining against God hath brought himself and Posterity under Servitude to Sin Misery and Death Thus while with Rachel weeping for her Children and refusing to be Comforted because they were not Jer. 31.15 I was plunged in oppression of Thoughts and heavily Lamenting that so glorious a Fabrick of Gods Handy-work as in the first Creation in Holiness and Integrity should be polluted by Sin and defaced from the primitive Beauty and as Moses pleading with God from the Arguments of his own Glory and Power in behalf of his People of Israel Num. 14.11 to 17. heartily wishing that glorious and first Image might again be restored in Man after the Image of him that Created it I was led to that Scripture My thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways saith the Lord for as the Heavens are higher than the Earth so are