Christ and hath given to us the ministery of reconciliation * Now then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God * For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost for the promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are afar off and to as many as the Lord our God shall call And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law that the man which doth those things shall live by them But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise The word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart that is the word of faith which we preach that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved Death is swallowed up in victory O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. My yoke is easie and my burthen is light For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh hath for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit His Commandments are not grievous If while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life And not only so but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received the attonement I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me My grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness Ask and you shall have seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you To him that hath shall be given and he shall have more abundantly Having therefore these promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. The PRAYER I. O Eternal God Lord of Heaven and Earth Father of Men and Angels we do adore thy infinite Goodness we revere thy Justice and delight in thy Mercies by which thou hast dealt with us not with the utmost right and dominion of a Lord but with the gentleness of a Father treating us like friends who were indeed thy enemies Thou O God didst see our follies and observe our weaknesses thou knowest the aversness of our nature to good and our proneness to commit vanity and because our imperfect obedience could not bring us to perfect felicity whither thou didst design us the great God of all the world was pleased to make a new Covenant with Man and to become a debtor to his servants Blessed be God and blessed be that Mercy which hath done so great things for us O be pleased to work that in us which thou expectest from us Let us not lose our title in the Covenant of Faith and Repentance by deferring the one or dishonouring the other but let us walk worthy of our vocation according to the Law of Faith and the Mercies of God and the Covenant of our Lord Jesus II. O Blessed Jesus never suffer us to abuse thy mercies or to turn thy Grace into wantonness Let the remembrance and sense of thy glorious favours endear our services and let thy goodness lead us to Repentance and our Repentance bring forth the fruits of godliness in our whole life Imprint deeply upon our hearts the fear and terror of thy Majesty and perpetually entertain our spirits with highest apprehensions of thy loving kindness that we may fear more and love more every day more and more hating sin crucifying all its affections and desires passionately loving holy things zealously following after them prudently conducting them and indefatigably persevering in them to the end of our lives III. O Blessed and Eternal God with thy spirit inlighten our understandings in the rare mysterious Secrets of thy Law Make me to understand all the most advantageous ways of duty and kindle a flame in my Soul that no difficulty or contradiction no temptation within or persecution without may ever extinguish Give me a mighty grace that I may design to please thee with my best and all my services to follow the best examples to do the noblest Charities to pursue all Perfection ever pressing forward to the mark of the high calling in Christ Jesus Let us rather choose to die than to sin against our Consciences Let us also watch that we may omit nothing of our duty nor pretermit any opportunity by which thou canst be glorified or any Christian instructed comforted or assisted not resting in the strictest measures of Command but passing forward to great and prudent significations of love doing heroick actions some things by which thou mayest be greatly pleased that thou mayest take delight to pardon to sanctifie and to preserve thy servants for ever Amen CHAP. II. Of the Nature and Definition of Repentance And what parts of duty are signified by it in Holy Scriptures SECT I. THE Greeks use two words to express this duty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 post factum angi cruciari to be afflicted in mind to be troubled for our former folly it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Phavorinus a being displeased for what we have done and it is generally used for all sorts of Repentance but more properly to signifie either the beginnings of a good or the whole state of an effective Repentance In the first sence we find it in S. Mathew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and ye seeing did not repent that ye might believe him Of the second sence we have example in Judas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he repented too but the end of it was he died with anguish and despair and of Esau it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he found no place for an effective repentance but yet he repented too for he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he fain would have had it otherwise and he sought it with tears which two do fully express all the meaning of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when it is distinguished from the better and effective Repentance There is in this Repentance a sorrow for what is done a
the Question in hand and so destructive of the Roman hypothesis that nothing can be said against it His words are these therefore in all regards death is good because it divides those that were always fighting that they may not impugn each other and because it is a certain port to them who being toss'd in the sea of this world require the station of faithful rest and because it makes not our state worse but such as it finds every one such it reserves him to the future judgment and nourishes him with rest and withdraws him from the envy of present things and composes him with the expectation of future things E. W. thinking himself bound to say something to these words answers It is an excellent saying for worse he is not but infinitely better that quit of the occasions of living here is ascertain'd of future bliss hereafter which is the whole drift of the Saint in that Chapter Read it and say afterwards if I say not true It is well put off But there are very many that read him who never will or can examine what S. Ambrose says and withal such he hopes to escape But as to the thing That death gives a man advantage and by its own fault no disadvantage is indeed not only the whole drift of that Chapter but of that whole book But not for that reason only is a man the better for death but because it makes him not worse in order to Eternity nay it does not alter him at all as to that for as death finds him so shall the judgment find him and therefore not purified by Purgatory for such he is reserved and not only thus but it cherishes him with rest which would be very ill done if death carried him to Purgatory Now all these last words and many others E. W. is pleas'd to take no notice of as not being for his purpose But he that pleases to see more may read the 12. and 18. Chapters of the same Treatise S. Gregorie's saying that after this life there is no purgation can no way be put off by any pretences For he means it of the time after death before the day of judgment which is directly oppos'd to the doctrine of the Church of Rome and unless you will suppose that S. Gregory believ'd two Purgatories it is certain he did not believe the Roman for he taught that the purgation which he calls Baptism by fire and the saving yet as by fire was to be perform'd at the day of judgment and the curiosity of that trial is the fierceness of that fire as Nicetas expounds S. Gregories words in his oration in sancta lumina So that S. Gregory affirming that this world is the place of purgation and that after this world there is no purgation could not have spoken any thing more direct against the Roman Purgatory S. Hilary and S. Macarius speak of two states after death and no more True says E. W. but they are the two final states That is true too in some sence for it is either of eternal good or evil but to one of these states they are consigned and determined at the time of their death at which time every one is sent either to the bosom of Abraham or to a place of pain where they are reserved to the sentence of the great day S. Hilary's words are these There is no stay or delaying For the day of judgment is either an eternal retribution of beatitude or of pain But the time of our death hath every one in his laws whiles either Abraham viz. the bosome of Abraham or pain reserves every one unto the Judgment These words need no Commentary He that can reconcile these to the Roman Purgatory will be a most mighty man in controversie And so also are the words of S. Macarius when they go out of the body the quires of Angels receive their souls and carry them to their proper place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to a pure world and so lead them to the Lord. Such words as these are often repeated by the Holy Fathers and Doctors of the Ancient Church I summ them up with the saying of S. Athanasius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It is not death that happens to the righteous but a translation For they are translated out of this world into everlasting rest And as a man would go out of prison so do the Saints go out of this troublesome life unto those good things which are prepared for them Now let these and all the precedent words be confronted against the sad complaints made for the souls in Purgatory by Joh. Gerson in his querela defunctorum and Sr. Tho. More in his supplication of souls and it will be found that the doctrine of the Fathers differs from the doctrine of the Church of Rome as much as heaven and hell rest and labor horrid torments and great joy I conclude this matter of quotations by the saying of Pope Leo which one of my adversaries could not find because the Princes was mistaken It is the 91. Epistle so known and so us'd by the Roman writers in the Qu. of Confession that if he be a man of learning it cannot be suppos'd but he knew where to find them The words are these But if any of them for whom we pray unto the Lord being intercepted by any obstacle falls from the benefit of the present Indulgences and before he comes to the constituted remedies shall end his temporal life by humane condition or frailty that which abiding in the body he hath not received being out of the flesh he cannot Now against these words of S. Leo set the present doctrine of the Church of Rome that what is not finished of penances here a man may pay in Purgatory and let the world judge whether S. Leo was in this point a Roman Catholick Indeed S. Leo forgot to make use of the late distinction of sins venial and mortal of the punishment of mortal sins remaining after the fault is taken away but I hope the Roman Doctors will excuse the Saint because the distinction is but new and modern But this testimony of S. Gregory must not go for a single Testimony That which abiding in the body could not be receiv'd out of the body cannot that is when the soul is gone out of the body as death finds them so shall the day of judgment find them And this was the sence of the whole Church for after death there is no change of state before the General Trial no passing from pain to rest in the state of separation and therefore either there are no Purgatory pains or if there be there is no â—ase of them before the day of judgment and the Prayers and Masses of the Church cannot give remedy to one poor soul and this must of necessity be confessed by the Roman Doctors or else they must shew that ever any one Catholick Father did teach that after death
if he had foreseen he should have been written against by so learned an adversary But to let them agree as well as they can the words of Eusebius out of his last chapter I translated as well as I could the Greek words I have set in the Margent that every one that understands may see I did him right and indeed to do my Adversary right when he goes about to change not to mend the translation he only changes the order of the words but in nothing does he mend his own matter by it for he acknowledges the main Question viz. that the memory of Christs sacrifice is to be celebrated in certain signs on the Table but then that l may do my self right and the question too whosoever translated these words for this Gentleman hath abused him and made him to render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and hath made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be governed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is so far off it and hath no relation to it and not to be governed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with which it is joyn'd and hath made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be governed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when it hath a substantive of its own 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he repeats 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 once more than it is in the words of Eusebius only because he would not have the Reader suppose that Eusebius call'd the consecrated Elements the symbols of the body and blood But this fraud was too much studied to be excusable upon the stock of humane infirmity or an innocent perswasion But that I may satisfie the Reader in this Question so far as the testimony and doctrine of Eusebius can extend he hath these words fully to our purpose First our Lord and Saviour and then after him his Priests of all Nations celebrating the spiritual sacrifice according to the Ecclesiastick Laws by the bread and the wine signifie the mysteries of his body and healing blood And again By the wine which is the symbol of his blood he purges the old sins of them who were baptized into his death and believe in his blood Again he gave to his Disciples the symbols of the divine Oeconomy commanding them to make the image figure or representation of his own body And Again He received not the sacrifices of blood nor the slaying of divers beasts instituted in the Law of Moses but ordained we should use bread the symbol of his own body So far I thought fit to set down the words of Eusebius to convince my Adversary that Eusebius is none of theirs but he is wholly ours in the doctrine of the Sacrament S. Macarius is cited in the Disswasive in these words In the Church is offered bread and wine the Antitype of his flesh and blood and they that partake of the bread that appears do spiritually eat the flesh of Christ. A. L. saith Macarius saith not so but rather the contrary viz. bread and wine exhibiting the Exemplar or an antitype his flesh and blood Now although I do not suppose many learned or good men will concern themselves with what this little man says yet I cannot but note that they who gave him this answer may be asham'd for here is a double satisfaction in this little answer First he puts in the word exhibiting of his own head there being no such word in S. Macarius in the words quoted 2. He makes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be put with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of apposition expresly against the mind of S. Macarius and against the very Grammar of his words And after all he studies to abuse his Author and yet gets no good by it himself for if it were in the words as he hath invented it or some body else for him yet it makes against him as much saying bread and wine exhibite Christs body which is indeed true though not here said by the Saint but is directly against the Roman article because it confesses that to be bread and wine by which Christs body is exhibited to us but much more is the whole testimony of S. Macarius which in the Disswasive are translated exactly as the Reader may see by the Greek words cited in the Margent There now only remains the authority of S. Austin which this Gentleman would fain snatch from the Church of England and assert to his own party I cited five places out of S. Austin to the last of which but one he gives this answer that S. Austin hath no such words in that book that is in the Tenth book against Faustus the Manichee Concerning which I am to inform the Gentleman a little better These words that which by all men is called a sacrifice is the sign of the true sacrifice are in the tenth book of S. Austin de C. D. cap. 5. and make a distinct quotation and ought by the Printer to have been divided by a colume as the other But the following words in which the flesh of Christ after his assumption is celebrated by the Sacrament of remembrance are in the 20. book cap. 21. against Faustus the Manichee All these words and divers others of S. Austin I knit together in a close order like a continued discourse but all of them are S. Austins words as appears in the places set down in the Margent But this Gentleman car'd not for what was said by S. Austin he was as well pleased that a figure was false Printed but to the words he hath nothing to say To the first of the other four only he makes this crude answer that S. Austin denied not the real eating of Christs body in the Eucharist but only the eating it in that gross carnal and sensible manner as the Capharnaites conceiv'd To which I reply that it is true that upon occasion of this error S. Austin did speak those words and although the Roman error be not so gross and dull as that of the Capharnaites yet it was as false as unreasonable and as impossible And be the occasion of the words what they are or can be yet upon this occasion S. Austin spake words which as well confute the Roman error as the Capharnaitical For it is not only false which the men of Capernaum dreamt of but the antithesis to this is that which S. Austin urges and which comes home to our question I have commended to you a Sacrament which being spiritually understood shall quicken you But because S. Austin was the most diligent expounder of this mystery among all the Fathers I will gratifie my Adversary or rather indeed my Unprejudicate Readers by giving some other very clear and unanswerable evidences of the doctrine of S. Austin agreeing perfectly with that of our Church At this time after manifest token of our liberty hath shin'd in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ we are not burdened with the heavy operation of signs
There was here no remedy no second thoughts no amends to be made But because much was not required of him and the Commandment was very easie and he had strengths more than enough to keep it therefore he had no cause to complain God might â—nd did exact at first the Covenant of Works because it was at first infinitely toleâ—â—ble But 2. From this time forward this Covenant began to be hard and by degrees beâ—â—â—e impossible not only because mans fortune was broken and his spirit troubled 〈◊〉 his passions disordered and vext by his calamity and his sin but because man upon â—â—e birth of children and the increase of the world contracted new relations and consequently had new duties and obligations and men hindred one another and their faculties by many means became disorder'd and lessen'd in their abilities and their will becoming perverse they first were unwilling and then unable by superinducing dispositions and habits contrary to their duty However because there was a necessity that man should be tied to more duty God did in the several periods of the world multiply Commandments first to Noah then to Abraham and then to his posterity and by this time they were very many And still God held over mans head the Covenant of Works 3. Upon the pressure of this Covenant all the world did complain Tanta mandata sunt ut impossibile sit servari ea said S. Ambrose the Commandments were so many and great that it was impossible they should be kept For at first there were no promises at all of any good nothing but a threatning of evil to the transgressors and after a long time they were entertain'd but with the promise of temporal good things which to some men were perform'd by the pleasures and rewards of sin and then there being a great imperfection in the nature of man it could not be that man should remain innocent and for repentance in this Covenant there was no regard or provisions made But I said 4. The Covenant of Works was still kept on foot How justly will appear in the sequel but the reasonableness of it was in this that men living in a state of awfulness might be under a pedagogy or severe institution restraining their loosenesses recollecting their inadvertencies uniting their distractions For the world was not then prepar'd by spiritual usages and dispositions to be governed by love and an easie yoke but by threatnings and severities And this is the account S. Paul gives of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Law was a Schoolmaster that is had a temporary authority serving to other ends with no final concluding power It could chastise and threaten but it could not condemn it had not power of eternal life and death that was given by other measures But because the world was wild and barbarous good men were few the bad potent and innumerable and sin was conducted and help'd forward by pleasure and impunity it was necessary that God should superinduce a law and shew them the rod and affright and check their confidences left the world it self should perish by dissolution The law of Moses was still a part of the Covenant of Works Some little it had of repentance Sacrifice and expiations were appointed for small sins but nothing at all for greater Every great sin brought death infallibly And as it had a little image of Repentance so it had something of Promises to be as a grace and auxiliary to set forward obedience But this would not do it The promises were temporal and that could not secure obedience in great instances and there being for them no remedy appointed by repentance the law could not justifie it did not promise life Eternal nor give sufficient security against the Temporal only it was brought in as a pedagogy for the present necessity 5. But this pedagogie or institution was also a manuduction to the Gospel For they were used to severe laws that they might the more readily entertain the holy precepts of the Gospel to which eternally they would have shut their ears unless they had had some preparatory institution of severity and fear And therefore S. Paul also calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a pedagogie or institution leading unto Christ. 6. For it was this which made the world of the Godly long for Christ as having commission to open the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the hidden mystery of Justification by Faith and Repentance For the law called for exact obdience but ministred no grace but that of fear which was not enough to the performance or the engagement of exact obedience All therefore were here convinced of sin but by this Covenant they had no hopes and therefore were to expect relief from another and a better according to that saying of S. Paul The Scripture concludes all under sin that is declares all the world to be sinners that the promise by the faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe This S. Bernard expresses in these words Deus nobis hoc fecit ut nostram imperfectionem ostenderet Christi avidiores nos faceret Our imperfection was sufficiently manifest by the severity of the first Covenant that the world might long for salvation by Jesus Christ. 7. For since mankind could not be saved by the Covenant of works that is of exact obedience they must perish for ever or else hope to be sav'd by a Covenant of ease and remission that is such a Covenant as may secure Mans duty to God and Gods Mercy to Man and this is the Covenant which God made with mankind in Christ Jesus the Covenant of Repentance 8. This Covenant began immediately after Adams fall For as soon as the first Covenant the Covenant of works was broken God promised to make it up by an instrument of mercy which himself would find out The Seed of the woman should make up the breaches of the man But this should be acted and published in its own time not presently In the mean time man was by virtue of that new Covenant or promise admitted to Repentance 9. Adam confessed his sin and repented Three hundred years together did he mourn upon the mountains of India and God promised him a Saviour by whose obedience his repentance should be accepted And when God did threaten the old world with a floud of waters he called upon them to repent but because they did not God brought upon them the floud of waters For 120. years together he called upon them to return before he would strike his final blow Ten times God tried Pharaoh before he destroyed him And in all ages in all periods and with all men God did deal by this measure and excepting that God in some great cases or in the beginning of a Sanction to establish it with the terror of a great example he scarce ever destroyed a single man with temporal death for any nicety of the law but for long and great prevarications of it and when
a perfect grace * We must be ready to part with all for a good conscience and to die for Christ that 's perfect obedience and the most perfect love * We must conform to the Divine Will in doing and suffering that 's perfect patience we must live in all holy conversation and godliness that 's a perfect state * We must ever be going forward and growing in godliness that so we may be perfect men in Christ. * And we must persevere unto the end that 's perfection and the crown of all the rest If any thing less than this were intended it cannot be told how the Gospel should be a holy institution or that God should require of us to live a holy life but if any thing more than this were intended it is impossible but all mankind should perish 52. To the same sence are we to understand those other severe Precepts of Scripture of being pure unblameable without spot or wrinkle without fault that is that we be honest and sincere free from hypocrisie just in our purposes and actions without partiality and unhandsome mixtures S. Paul makes them to expound each other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sincere that is without fault pure and clear in Conscience 53. Like to this is that of Toto corde loving and serving God with all our heart and with all our strength That this is possible is folly to deny For he that saith he cannot do a thing with all his strength that is that he cannot do what he can do knows not what he says and yet to do this is the highest measure and sublimity of Christian perfection and of keeping the Commandments But it signifies two things 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without hypocrisie sincerely and heartily opposite to that of Corde corde in the Psalmist Corde corde loquuti sunt they spake with a double heart but the men of Zebulon went out to battel absque corde corde they were not of a double heart so S. Hierome renders it but heartily or with a whole heart they did their business 2. It signifies diligence and labour earnestness and caution Totus in hoc sum so the Latines use to speak I am earnest and hearty in this affair I am wholly taken up with it 54. Thus is the whole design of the Gospel rarely abbreviated in these two words of Perfection and Repentance God hath sent Jesus to bless you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whilest or so that every one of you turn from your iniquities He blesses us and we must do our duty He pardons us and we obey him He turns us and we are turned And when S. Peter had represented the terrors of the day of Judgment he infers What manner of persons ought we to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in holy living and holy worshippings This he calls a giving diligence to be found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without spot and unblameable that 's Christian perfection and yet this very thing is no other than what he calls a little before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a coming to repentance Living in holy conversation and piety in the faith of Christ is the extent and burthen of repentance and it is the limit and declaration of the spotless and unblameable This is no more and that is no less 55. Upon this account the Commandments are not only possible but easie necessary to be observed and will be exacted at our hands as they are imposed That is 1. That we abstain from all deliberate acts of sin 2. That we never contract any vicious habit 3. That if we have we quite rescind and cut them off and make amends for what is past 4. That our love to God be intire hearty obedient and undivided 5. That we do our best to understand Gods will and obey it allowing to our selves deliberately or by observation not the smallest action that we believe to be a sin Now that God requires no more and that we can do thus much and that good men from their conversion do thus much though in differing degrees is evident upon plain experience and the foregoing considerations I conclude with the words of the Arausican Council Omnes baptizati Christo auxiliante cooperante possunt debent quae ad salutem pertinent si fidelitèr laborare voluerint adimplere All baptized Christians may by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ if they will faithfully labour perform and fulfil all things that belong to their salvation 56. The summ of all is this The state of regeneration is perfection all the way even when it is imperfect in its degrees The whole state of a Christians life is a state of perfection Sincerity is the formality or the Soul of it A hearty constant endeavour is the Body or material part of it And the Mercies of God accepting it in Christ and assisting and promoting it by his Spirit of Grace is the third part of its constitution it is the Spirit This perfection is the perfection of Men not of Angels oand it is as in the perfection of Glory where all are perfect yet all are not equal Every regenerate man hath that perfection without which he cannot be accepted but some have this perfection more some less It is the perfection of state but the perfection of degrees is not yet Here men are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made perfect according to the measure of their Fathers as Porphyrie express'd it that is by the measures of mortality or as it pleases God to enable and accept them SECT IV. The former Doctrine reduc'd to Practice 1. THE Law is either taken for the Law of Moses or the Law of Works The Law of Works is that Empire and Dominion which God exercised over man using his utmost right and obliging man to the rigorous observation of all that Law he should impose upon him And in this sence it was a law of death not of life for no man could keep it and they that did not might not live This was impos'd on Adam only 2. But when God brought Israel out of Egypt he began to make a Covenant with them with some compliance to their infirmities For because little things could not be avoided Sacrifices were appointed for their expiation which was a mercy as the other was a misery a repentance as the sin But for great sins there was no Sacrifice appointed no repentance ministred And therefore still we were in the ministration of death for this mercy was not sufficient as yet it was not possible for a man to be justified by the Law It threatned sinners with death it inflicted death it did not promise eternal life it ministred no grace but fear and temporal hope It was written in Tables of stone not in their hearts that is the material parts of the Law of Moses were not consonant to natural and essential reason but arbitrary impositions they were not perfective of a man but
very often destructive This was a little alteration or ease of the Covenant of Works but not enough 3 From this state of evil things we were freed by Christ The law was called the letter the ministration of death the ministration of condemnation the old Testament apt to amaze and confound a sinner but did not give him any hopes of remission no glimpse of heaven no ministry of pardon But the Gospel is called the Spirit or the ministration of the Spirit the law of faith the law of liberty it ministers repentance it enjoyns holiness it gives life and we all have hopes of being saved 4. This which is the state of things in which the whole world is represented in their several periods is by some made to be the state of every returning sinner and men are taught that they must pass through the terrors of the Law before they can receive the mercies of the Gospel The Law was a Schoolmaster to bring the Synagogue to Christ it was so to them who were under the Law but it cannot be so to us who are not under the Law but under grace For if they mean the law of Works or that interposition which was the first entercourse with man they lose their title to the mercies of the Gospel If they mean the law of Moses then they do not stand fast in the liberty by which Christ hath made them free But whatsoever the meaning be neither of them can concern Christians For God hath sent his Son to establish a better Covenant in his blood to preach repentance to offer pardon to condemn sin in the flesh to publish the righteousness of God to convince the world of sin by his holy Spirit to threaten damnation not to sinners absolutely but absolutely to the impenitent and to promise and give salvation to his Sons and Servants 5. I. The use that we Christians are to make of the Law is only to magnifie the mercies of God in Jesus Christ who hath freed us from so severe a Covenant who does not judge us by the measures of an Angel but by the span of a mans hand But we are not to subject our selves so much as by fiction of law or fancy to the curse and threatnings of the Covenant of Works or of Moses Law though it was of more instances and less severity by reason of the allowance of Sacrifices for expiation 6. II. Every Christian man sinning is to consider the horrible threatnings of the Gospel the severe intermination of eternal pains the goodness of God leading to repentance the severity of his Justice in exacting great punishments of criminals the reasonableness of this Justice punishing such persons intolerably who would not use so great a grace in so pleasing a service for the purchase of so glorious a reward The terrors of the Law did end in temporal death they could affright no further but in the Gospel Heaven and Hell were opened and laid before all mankind and therefore by these measures a sinner is to enter into the sorrows of contrition and the care of his amendment And it is so vain a thing to think every sinner must in his repentance pass under the terrors of the Law that this is a very destruction of that reason for which they are fallen upon the opinion The Law is not enough to affright sinners and the terrors of the Gospel are far more to persevering and impenitent sinners than the terrors of the Law were to the breakers of it The cause of the mistake is this The Law was more terrible than the Gospel is because it allowed no mercy to the sinner in great instances But the Gospel does But then if we compare the state of those men who fell under the evils of the Law with these who fall under the evils threatned in the Gospel we shall find these to be in a worse condition than those by far as much as hell is worse than being stoned to death or thrust through with a sword This we are taught by that excellent Author of the Divine Epistle to the Hebrews He that despised Moses law died without mercy under two or three witnesses Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath troden 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 to the Spirit of Grace So that under the Gospel he that sins and repents is in a far better condition than he that sinn'd under the Law and repented For repentance was not then allowed of the man was to die without mercy But he that sins and repents not is under the Gospel in a far worse condition than under the Law for under the Gospel he shall have a far sorer punishment than under the Law was threatned Therefore let no man mistake the mercies of the New Covenant or turn the grace of God into wantonness The mercies of the Gospel neither allow us to sin nor inflict an easier punishment but they oblige us to more holiness under a greater penalty In pursuance of which I add 7. III. The Covenant by which mankind must now be judged is a Covenant of more Mercy but also of more holiness and therefore let no man think that now he is disobliged from doing good works by being admitted to the Covenant of Faith For though the Covenants are oppos'd as Old and New as a worse and a better yet Faith and Works are not oppos'd We are in the Gospel tied to more and to more excellent works than ever the subjects of any Law were but if after a hearty endeavour we fall into infirmity and still strive against it we are pitied here but there we were not Under the first Covenant the Covenant of Works no endeavour was sufficient because there was no allowance made for infirmities no abatements for ignorance no deductions of exact measures no consideration of surprises passions folly and inadvertency but under the New Covenant our hearty endeavour is accepted but we are tied to endeavour higher and more excellent things than they But he that thinks this mercy gives him liberty to do what he please loses the mercy and mistakes the whole design and Oeconomy of Gods loving kindness 8. IV. To every Christian it is enjoyned that they be perfect that is according to the measure of every one Which perfection consists in doing our endeavour He that does not do that must never hope to be accepted because he refuses to serve God by something that is in his power But he that does that is sure that God will not refuse it because we cannot be dealt withal upon any other account but by the measures of what is in our power and for what is not we cannot take care 9. V. To do our endeavour or our best is not to be understood equally in all the periods of our life according to the work or effect it self nor according to
fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God * abounding in the work of the Lord. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are the words often used fill'd full and perfect 16. To the same purpose is it that we are commanded to live in Christ and unto God that is to live according to their will and by their rule and to their glory and in their fear and love called by S. Paul to live in the faith of the Son of God to be followers of Christ and of God to dwell in Christ and to abide in him to walk according to the Commandments of God in good works in truth according to the Spirit to walk in light to walk with God which was said of Enoch of whom the Greek LXX read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He pleased God * There are very many more to the same purpose For with great caution and earnestness the holy Scriptures place the duties of mankind in practice and holiness of living and removes it far from a confidence of notion and speculation Qui fecerit docuerit He that doth them and teaches them shall be great in the Kingdom and Why do you call me Lord Lord and do not the things I say to you and Ye are my friends if ye do what I command you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We must not only be called Christians but be so for not to be called but to be so brings us to felicity that is since the life of a Christian is the life of Repentance whose work it is for ever to contend against sin for ever to strive to please God a dying to sin a living to Christ he that thinks his Repentance can have another definition or is compleated in any other or in fewer parts must be of another Religion than is taught by Christ and his holy Apostles This is the Faith of the Son of God this is that state of excellent things which he purchased with his blood and as there is no other Name under Heaven so there is no other Faith no other Repentance whereby we can be saved Upon this Article it is usual to discourse of Sorrow and Contrition of Confession of sins of making amends of self-affliction and some other particulars but because they are not parts but actions fruits and significations of Repentance I have reserved them for their proper place Now I am to apply this general Doctrine to particular states of sin and sinners in the following Chapters SECT III. Descriptions of Repentance taken from the Holy Scriptures ¶ WHEN Heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against thee if they pray towards this place and confess thy name and turn from their sin when thou afflictest them Then hear thou in Heaven and forgive the sin of thy servants and of thy people Israel that thou teach them the good way wherein they should walk and give rain upon thy land which thou hast given to thy people for an Inheritance ¶ And the Redeemer shall come to Zion and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob saith the Lord. As for me this is my Covenant with them saith the Lord My Spirit that is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy seed nor out of the mouth of thy seeds seed saith the Lord from henceforth and for ever Again when I say unto the wicked Thou shalt surely die If he turn from his sin and do that which is lawful and right If the wicked restore the pledge give again that he had robbed walk in the statutes of life without committing iniquity he shall even live he shall not die * None of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him he hath done that which is lawful and right he shall surely live Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that hence forth we should not serve sin Likewise reckon ye also your selves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. * Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof * Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin but yield your selves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God * Being then made free from sin ye became the servants of righteousness * I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness Wherefore my brethren ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ that ye should be married to another even to him who is raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God For when we were in the flesh the motions of sins which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death * But now we are delivered from the law that being dead wherein we were held that we should serve in the newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter And that knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed The night is far spent the day is at hand let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light * Let us walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in strife and envying * But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof Having therefore these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God For godly sorrow worketh Repentance to salvation not to be repented of but the sorrow of the world worketh death * For behold this self same thing that ye sorrowed after a godly sort what carefulness it wrought in you yea what clearing of your selves yea what indignation yea what fear yea what vehement desire yea what zeal yea what revenge in all thing ye have approved your selves to be clear in this matter For the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature old things are past away behold all things are become new That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts And be renewed in the spirit of your mind * And that ye put on that new man which after
great whatsoever it be that God hath chosen for our obedience To abstain from the fruit of a tree not to gather sticks or dew after a certain hour not to touch the Curtains of the Ark not to uncover our fathers shame all is one as to God for there is nothing in all our duty that can add any moments to his felicity but by what he please he is to try our obedience Let no man therefore despise a sin or be bold to plead for it as Lot for Zoar Is it not a little one For no man can say it is little if God hath chosen the Commandment which the sin transgresses as an instrument of his glorification and our felicity Disobedience is the formality of sin and since the instance or the matter of sin is all one to God so also is the disobedience The result of this consideration is this 1. That no man should indulge to himself the smallest sin because it is equally against God as the greatest and though accidentally it may come not to be so exacted yet of it self it may and God is just if he does 2. There is no sin but if God enters into judgment with us he may justly sentence us for it to the portion of accursed Spirits For if for any then for all there being as to him no difference But these things are to be proved in the following Section SECT III. That all sins are punishable as God please even with the pains of Hell 11. I. IN the aggravation of sins the injured person is as considerable as any other circumstance He that smites a Prince he that fires a Temple he that rails upon the Bible he that pollutes the Sacraments makes every sin to be a load and therefore since every sin is against God it ought not to be called little unless God himself should be little esteemed And since men usually give this account that God punishes a transient sin with an immortal pain because though the action is finite yet it was against an infinite God we may upon the same ground esteem it just that even for the smallest sin God in the rigour of his justice can exact the biggest calamity For an act of Murther or a whole year of Adultery hath no nearer proportion to an eternity of pains than one sinful thought hath for greater or less are no approaches towards infinite for between them both and what is infinite the distance is equally infinite 12. II. In the distinction of sins Mortal and Venial the Doctors of the Roman Church define Venial sins to be such which can consist with the love of God which never destroy or lessen it in the very definition supposing that thing which is most of all in question and the ground of the definition is nothing but the analogy and proportion of the entercourses and usages of men who for a small offence do not neglect or cast away the endearments of an old friend of which when I have given account I suppose the greatest difficulty of the question is removed Against this therefore I oppose this proposition The smallest sins are destructive of our friendship with God For although Gods mercies are infinite and glorious and he forgives millions to us that grudge to remit the trifles of our brother and therefore whatsoever we can suppose a man will forgive to his friend that and much more infinitely more may we expect from the treasures of his goodness and mercy yet our present consideration is not what we can expect from Gods mercy but what is the just demerit of our sins not what he will forgive but what he may justly exact not what are the measures of pardon but what are the accounts of his justice for though we have hopes upon other reckonings yet upon the account even of our smallest sins we have nothing but fear and sadder expectations For we are not to account the measures and rules of our friendship with God by the easiness and ignorance by the necessities and usual compliances of men For 13. I. Certain it is that in the usual accounts of men some things are permitted which are not so in the accounts of God All sorts of ignorance use to lessen a fault amongst men but before God some sorts of ignorance do aggravate such as is the voluntary and malicious which is the worst sort of vincible Not that men do not esteem him vicious and unworthy who enquires not for fear he should know but because men oftentimes are not competent judges whether they do or no. 14. II. Because men know not by what purpose their neighbours action is directed and therefore reckon only by the next and most apparent cause not by the secret and most operative and effective 15. III. Because by the laws of Charity we are bound to think the best to expound things fairly to take up things by the easier handle there being left for us no other security of not being confounded by mutual censures judgments and inflictions but by being restrained on the surer side of Charity on which the errors of men are not judged criminal and mischievous as on the other side they are But God knows the hearts of men their little obliquities and intricate turnings every propensity and secret purpose what malice is ingredient and what error is invincible and how much is fit to be pitied and therefore what may justly be exacted For there are three several ways of judgment according to the several capacities of the Judges * First the laws of men judge only by the event or material action and meddle not at all with the purpose but where it is open'd by an active sign He that gives me a thousand pounds to upbraid my poverty or with a purpose to feed my crimes is not punishable by law but he is that takes from me a thousand shillings though secretly he means to give it to my needy brother Because as in the estimation of men nothing is valuable but what does them good or hurt so neither can their Laws and Tribunals receive testimony of any thing but what is seen or felt And thus it is also in the measures of sins To break order in a day of battel is but a disorder and so it is to break order at S. George's show at a training or in a Procession and yet that is punished with death this with a Cudgel the aptness to mischief and the evil consequent being in humane Judicatories the only measures of judgment Men feel the effects and the Laws do judge accordingly 2. In the private judgments of men mercy must interpose and it can oftner than in the publick because in the private entercourses of men there is a sense and can be a consideration of particulars and little accidents and significations of things and some purposes may be privately discerned which cannot publickly be proved He that went to help his friend out of a river and pull'd his arm out of joynt was
highest punishment such as are idle words and the like Now first I suppose that the two latter will be sound to be both one For either God hath not forbidden idleness or falseness or he hath made no restraint at all upon words but left us at liberty to talk as we please for if he hath in this case made a law then idle words either cannot pretend to an excuse or it must be for the smalness of the matter or else it must fall in with the first and be excused because they cannot always be attended to 29. Now concerning the first sort of venial sins it is not a kind of sins but a manner of making all sins venial that is apt for pardon for by the imperfection of the agent or the act all great sins in their matter may become little in their malice and guilt Now these are those which Divines call sins of infirmity and of them I shall give an account in a distinct Chapter under that title 30. Concerning the second i. e. sins venial for the smalness of the matter I know none such For if the matter be a particular that God hath expresly commanded or forbidden respectively it is not little but all one to him as that which we call the greatest But if the particular be wholly relating to our neighbour the smalness of the matter does not absolutely make the sin venial for amongst us nothing is absolutely great or absolutely little but in comparison with something else and if a vile person had robb'd the poor woman that offered two mites to the treasury of the Temple he had undone her a farthing there was all her substance so that the smalness of the matter is not directly an excuse If a man had robb'd a rich man of a farthing he had not indeed done him so great a mischief but how if the rich man was not willing to part with his farthing but would be angry at the injury is it not a sin because the theft was small No man questions but it is It follows therefore that the smalness of the matter cannot make a sin venial but where there is a leave expresly given or justly presumed and if it be so in a great matter it is as little a sin as if the matter were small that is none at all 31. But now concerning the third which the Roman Schools dream of sins venial in their own nature and in their whole kind that is it which I have been disputing against all this while and shall now further conclude against by arguments more practical and moral For if we consider what are those particulars which these men call venial sins in their whole kind and nature we shall find that Christ and they give measures differing from each other The Catalogues of them I will take from the Fathers not that they ever thought these things to be in their nature venial for they that think so of them are strangers to their writings and to this purpose Bellarmine hath not brought one testimony pertinent and home to the question but because they reckon such Catalogues of venial sins which demonstrate that they do mean sins made venial by accident by mens infirmity by Gods grace by pardon by repentance and not such which are so in their own nature But the thing it self will be its own proof 32. S. Austin reckons Vanas cachinnationes in escis aviditatem immoderatiorem appetitum in vendendis emendis rebus charitatis vilitatis vota perversa usum matrimonii ad libidinem judicia apud infideles agitare Dicere fratri Fatue Vain laughter greediness in meat an immoderate or ungovern'd appetite perverse desires of dearness and cheapness in buying and selling commodities the use of marriage to lustfulness and inordination to go to law before the unbelievers to call our brother Fool. S. Hierome reckons jestings anger and injurious words Caesarius Arelatensis the Bishop reckons excess in eating and drinking idle words importune silence to exasperate an importunate begger to omit the fasts of the Church sleepiness or immoderate sleeping the use of a wife to lustfulness to omit the visitation of the sick and of prisoners and to neglect to reconcile them that are at variance too much severity or harshness to our family or too great indulgence flattery talkings in the Church poor men to eat too much when they are brought rarely to a good table forswearings unwary perjury slander or reproaches rash judgment hatred sudden anger envy evil concupiscence filthy thoughts the lust of the eyes the voluptuousness of the ears or the itch of hearing the speaking filthy words and indeed he reckons almost all the common sins of mankind S. Bernard reckons stultiloquium vaniloquium otiosè dicta facta cogitata talking vainly talking like a fool idle or vain thoughts words and deeds These are the usual Catalogues and if any be reckoned they must be these for many times some of these are least consented to most involuntary most ready less avoidable of the lightest effect of an eternal return incurable in the whole and therefore plead the most probably and are the soonest likely to prevail for pardon but yet they cannot pretend to need no pardon or to fear no damnation For our blessed Saviour says it of him that speaks an angry word that he shall be guilty of hell fire Now since we find such as these reckon'd in the Catalogue of venial sins and S. Austin in particular calls that venial to which our blessed Saviour threatned hell fire it is certain he must not mean that it is in its own nature venial but damnable as any other but it is venial that is prepared for pardon upon other contingencies and causes of which I shall afterwards give account In the mean time I consider 33. VI. When God appointed in the Law expiatory Sacrifices for sins although there was enough to signifie that there is difference in the degrees of sin yet because they were eodem sanguine eluenda and without shedding of blood there was no remission they were reckon'd in the same acounts of death and the Divine anger And it is manifest that by the severities and curse of the Law no sin could escape For cursed is he that continues not in every thing written in the law to do them The Law was a Covenant of Works and exact measures There were no venial sins by vertue of that Covenant for there was no remission and without the death of Christ we could not be eased of this state of danger Since therefore that any sin is venial or pardonable is only owing to the grace of God to the death of Christ and this death pardons all upon the condition of Faith and Repentance and pardons none without it it follows that though sins differ in degree yet they differ not in their natural and essential order to death The man that commits any sin dies if he repents not and he that does
repent timely and effectually dies for none The wages of sin is death of sin indefinitely and therefore of all sin and all death for there is no more distinction of sin than death only when death is threatned indefinitely that death is to be understood which is properly and specifically threatned in that Covenant where the death is named as death temporal in the Law death eternal under the Gospel 34. And thus it appears in a very material instance relating to this question for when our blessed Saviour had threatned the degrees of anger he did it by apportioning several pains hereafter of one sort to the several degrees of the same sin here which he expresses by the several inflictions passed upon Criminals by the Houses of Judgment among the Jews Now it is observable that to the least of these sins Christ assigns a punishment just proportionable to that which the gloss of the Pharisees and the Law it self did to them that committed Murther which was capital He shall be guilty of judgment so we read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so it is in the Greek He shall be guilty in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is in the Court of Judgment the Assembly of the twenty three Elders and there his punishment was death but the gentlest manner of it the decapitation or smiting him through with the sword and therefore the least punishment hereafter answering to death here can mean no less than death hereafter * And so also was the second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that calls Racha shall be guilty that is shall be used as one that stands guilty in the Sanhedrim or Council meaning that he is to die too but with a severer execution by stoning to death this was the greatest punishment by the houses of judgment for Crucifixion was the Roman manner These two already signifie Hell in a less degree but as certainly and evidently as the third For though we read Hell-fire in the third sentence only yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no otherwise signifies Hell than the other two by analogy and proportionable representment The cause of the mistake is this When Christ was pleased to add yet a further degree of punishment in hell to a further degree of anger and reproach the Jews having no greater than that of stoning by the judgment of the Sanhedrim or Council he would borrow his expression from that which they and their Fathers too well understood a barbarous custome of the Phoenicians of burning children alive in the valley of Hinnom which in succession of time the Hellenists called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not much unlike the Hebrew word and because by our blessed Lord it was used to signifie or represent the greatest pains of hell that were spoken of in that gradation the Christians took the word and made it to be its appellative and to signifie the state or place of the damned just as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the garden of Eden is called Paradise But it was no more intended that this should signifie Hell than that any of the other two should The word it self never did so before but that and the other two were taken as being the most fearful things amongst them here to represent the degrees of the most intolerable state hereafter just as damnation is called death the second death that because we fear the first as the worst of present evils we may be affrighted with the apprehensions of the latter From this authority it follows that as in the Law no sins were venial but by repentance and sacrifice so neither in the Gospel are they not in their own nature not by the more holy Covenant of the Gospel but by repentance and mortification For the Gospel hath with greater severity laid restraint upon these minutes and little particles of action and passion and therefore if in the law every transgression was exacted we cannot reasonably think that the least parts of duty which the Gospel superadded with a new and severer caution as great and greater than that by which the law exacted the greatest Commandments can be broken with indemnity or without the highest danger The law exacted all its smallest minutes and therefore so does the Gospel as being a Covenant of greater holiness But as in the law for the smaller transgressions there was an assignment of expiatory rites so is there in the Gospel of a ready repentance and a prepared mercy 37. VII Lastly those sins which men in health are bound to avoid those sins for which Christ did shed his most precious blood those sins which a dying man is bound to ask pardon for though he hopes not or desires not to escape temporal death certain it is that those sins are in their nature and in the Oeconomy or dispensation of the Divine threatnings damnable For what can the dying man fear but death eternal and if he be bound to repent and ask pardon even for the smallest sins which he can remember in order to what pardon can that repentance be but of the eternal pain to which every sin by its own demerit naturally descends If he must repent and ask pardon when he hopes not or desires not the temporal it is certain he must repent only that he may obtain the eternal And they that will think otherwise will also find themselves deceiv'd in this * For if the damned souls in hell are punish'd for all their sins then the unpardon'd venial sins are there also smarted for But so it is and so we are taught in the doctrine of our great Master If we agreee not while we are in the way we shall be cast into the eternal prison and shall not depart thence till we have paid the uttermost farthing that is ever for our smallest sins if they be unremitted men shall pay in hell their horrible Symbol of damnation And this is confessed on all hands that they who fall into hell pay their sorrows there even for all But it is pretended that this is only by accident not by the first intention of the Divine justice because it happens that they are subjected in such persons who for other sins not for these go to hell Well! yet let it be considered whether or no do not the smallest unremitted sins increase the torments of hell in their proportion If they do not then they are not at all punished in hell for if without them the perishing soul is equally punished then for them there is no punishment at all But if they do increase the pains as it is certain they do then to them properly and for their own malignity and demerit a portion of eternal pains is assigned Now if God punishes them in hell then they deserv'd hell if they be damnable in their event then they were so in their merit for God never punishes any sin more than it deserves though he often does less But to say that this is
in the Court of Conscience So Pacianus Haec est novi Testamenti tota conclusio despectus in multis Spiritus sanctus haec nobis capitalis periculi conditione legavit Reliqua peccata meliorum operum compensatione curantur Haec verò tria crimina ut basilisci alicujus afflatus ut veneni calix ut lethalis arundo meâ—uenda sunt non enim vitiare animam sed intercipere noverunt Some sins do pollute and some do kill the soul that is are very near approaches to death next to the unpardonable state and they are to be repented of just as habits are even by a long and a laborious repentance and by the piety and holiness of our whole ensuing life De peccato remisso noli esse securus said the son of Sirach Be not secure though your sin be pardoned when therefore you are working out and suing your pardon be not too confident 53. XI Those acts of sin which can once be done and no more as Parricide and such which destroy the subject or person against whom the sin is committed are to be cured by Prayer and Sorrow and entercourses with God immediately the effect of which because it can never be told and because the mischief can never be rescinded so much as by fiction of Law nor any supply be made to the injur'd person the guilty man must never think himself safe but in the daily and nightly actions of a holy Repentance 54. XII He that will repent well and truly of his single actual sins must be infinitely careful that he do not sin after his Repentance and think he may venture upon another single sin supposing that an act of contrition will take it off and so interchange his days by sin and sorrow doing to morrow what he was ashamed of yesterday For he that sins upon the confidence of Repentance does not repent at all because he repents that he may sin and these single acts so periodically returning do unite and become a habit He that resolves against a sin and yet falls when he is tempted is under the power of sin in some proportion and his estate is very suspicious though he always resolved against that sin which he always commits It is upon no other account that a single sin does not destroy a man but because it self is speedily destroyed if therefore it goes on upon its own strength and returns in its proper period it is not destroyed but lives and indangers the man 55. XIII Be careful that you do not commit a single act of sin toward the latter end of your life for it being uncertain what degrees of anger God will put on and in what periods of time he will return to mercy the nearer to our death such sins interâ—â—ne the more degrees of danger they have For although the former discourse is agreeable to the analogy of the Gospel and the Oeconomy of the Divine Mercy yet there are sad words spoken against every single sin Whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offends in one instance he shall be guilty of all saith S. James plainly affirming that the admitting one sin much more the abiding in any one sin destroys all our present possession of Gods favour Concerning which although it may seem strange that one prevarication in one instance should make an universal guilt yet it will be certain and intelligible if we consider that it relates not to the formality but to the event of things He that commits an act of Murther is not therefore an Adulterer but yet for being a Murtherer he shall die He is as if he were guilty of all that is his innocence in the other shall not procure him impunity in this One crime is inconsistent with Gods love and favour 56. But there is something more in it than this For every one that breaks a Commandment let the instance be what it will is a transgressor of the same bond by which he was bound to all Non quòd omnia legis praecepta violârit sed quòd legis Authoreâ—â— contempserit eóque praemio meritò careat quod legis cultoribus propositum est saith Venerable Bede He did not violate all the Commandments but he offended him who is the giver of all the Commandments It is like letting one Bead fall from a Rosary or Corone of Bugles This or that or a third makes no difference the string iâ— as much broken if he lets one to slide as if he dropp'd twenty It was not an ill conceit of Meâ—edemus the Eretrian that there was but one vertue which had divers names Aristo Chius express'd the same conceit with a little difference affirming all vertues to be the same in reality and nature but to have a certain diversification or rational difference by relation to their objects As if one should call the sight when it looks upon a Crow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if upon a Swan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so is vertue When it moderates the affections it is Temperance when it balances contracts it is Justice when it considers what is and what is not to be done it is Prudence That which they call Vertue if we call it the grace of God or Obedience it is very true which they say For the same spirit the same grace of obedience is Chastity or Temperance or Justice according as is the subject matter The love of God if it be in us is productive of all worthiness and this is it which S. John said This is love that we keep his Commandments The love of God constraineth us It worketh all the works of God in us It is the fulfilling of the Commandments For this is a Catholicon an Universal Grace Charity gives being to all vertues it is the life and spirit of all holy actions Abstinence from feasts and inordination mingled with Charity is Temperance And Justice is Charity and Chastity is Charity and Humility is still but an instance of Charity This is that Transcendent that gives life and vertue to Alms to Preaching to Faith to Miracles it does all obedience to God all good offices to our Neighbours which in effect is nothing but the sentence of Menedemus and Aristo that there is an Universal Vertue that is there is one soul and essence of all vertue They call it Vertue S. Paul calls it Charity and this is that one thing which is necessary that one thing which every man that sins does violate He that is guilty of all is but guilty of that one and therefore he that is guilty of that one of the breach of Charity is guilty of all And upon this account it is that no one sin can stand with the state of grace because he that sins in once instance sins against all goodness not against all instances of duty but against that which is the life of all against Charity and Obedience A Prayer to be said in the days of Repentance for the commission of any great Crime O
habit can equally in the merits of Christ be the disposition to a pardon as an act can for an act and is certainly much better than any one act can be because it includes many single acts of the same nature and it is all them and their permanent effect and change wrought by them besides So that it is certainly the better and the surer way But now the Question is not whether it be the better way but whether it be necessary and will not the lesser way suffice To this therefore I answer that since no man can be acceptable to God as long as sin reigns in his mortal body and since either sin must reign or the Spirit of Christ must reign for a man cannot be a Neuter in this war it is necessary that sins kingdom be destroyed and broken and that Christ rule in our hearts that is it is necessary that the first and the old habits be taken off and new ones introduc'd For although the moral revocation of a single act may be a sufficient disposition to its pardon because the act was transient and unless there be a habit or something of it nothing remains yet the moral revocation of a sinful habit cannot be sufficient because there is impressed upon the soul a viciousness and contrariety to God which must be taken off or there can be no reconciliation For let it be but considered that a vicious habit is a remanent aversation from God an evil heart the evil treasure of the heart a carnal mindedness an union and principle of sins and then let it be answered whether a man who is in this state can be a friend of God or reconcil'd to him in his Son who lives in a state so contrary to his holy Spirit of Grace The guilt cannot be taken off without destroying its nature since the nature it self is a viciousness and corruption 39. VI. Either it is necessary to extirpate and break the habit or else a man may be pardon'd while he is in love with sin For every vicious habit being radicated in the will and being a strong love inclination and adhesion to sin unless the natural being of this habit be taken off the enmity against God remains For it being a quality permanent and inherent and its nature being an aptness and easiness a desire to sin and longing after it to retract this by a moral retractation and not by a natural also is but hypocrisie for no man can say truly I hate the sin I have committed so long as the love to sin is inherent in his will and then if God should pardon such a person it would be to justifie a sinner remaining such which God equally hates as to condemn the innocent He will by no means acquit the guilty It was part of his Name which he caused to be proclaimed in the Camp of Israel And if this could be otherwise a man might be in the state of sin and the state of grace at the same time which hitherto all Theology hath believ'd to be impossible 40. VII This whole Question is clear'd by a large discourse of S. Paul For having under the person of an unregenerate man complain'd of the habitual state of prevailing sin of one who is a slave to sin sold under sin captive under a law of sin that is under vile inclinations and high pronenesses and necessities of sinning so that when he is convinc'd that he ought not to do it yet he cannot help it though he fain would have it help'd yet he cannot obey his own will but his accursed superinduc'd necessities and his sin within him was the ruler that and not his own better choice was the principle of his actions which is the perfect character of an habitual sinner he inquires after a remedy for all this which remedy he calls a being delivered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the body of this death The remedy is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the grace of God through Jesus Christ for by Christ alone we can be delivered But what is to be done the extermination of this dominion and Empire of concupiscence the breaking of the kingdom of sin That being the evil he complains of and of which he seeks remedy that is to be remov'd But that we may well understand to what sence and in what degree this is to be done in the next periods he describes the contrary state of deliverance by the parts and characters of an habit or state of holiness which he calls a walking after the Spirit opposed to a walking after the flesh It was a law in his members a law of sin and death Now he is to be made free by a contrary law the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus That is as sin before gave him law so now must the Spirit of God whereas before he minded the things of the flesh now he minds the things of the spirit that is the carnal-mindedness is gone and a spiritual-mindedness is the principle and ruler of his actions This is the deliverance from habitual sins even no other than by habitual graces wrought in us by the spirit of life by the grace of our Lord Jesus And this whole affair is rarely well summ'd up by the same Apostle As ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness If ye were servants before so ye must be now it is but justice and reason that at least as much be done for God as for the Devil It is not enough morally to revoke what is past by a wishing it had not been done but you must oppose a state to a state a habit to a habit And the Author of the Book of Baruch presses it further yet As it was your mind to go astray from God so being returned seek him ten times more It ought not to be less it must be as S. Chrysostom expresses it A custom against a custom a habit opposed to a habit that the evil may be driven out by the good as one nail is by another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Procopius In those things where you have sinned to profit and to increase and improve to their contraries that is the more comely way to pardon 41. VIII Either a habit of vertue is a necessary disposition to the pardon of a habit of vice or else the doctrine of mortification of the lusts of the flesh of all the lusts of all the members of the old man is nothing but a counsel and a caution of prudence but it contains no essential and indispensable duty For mortification is a long contention and a course of difficulty it is to be done by many arts and much caution and a long patience and a diligent observation by watchfulness and labour the work of every day and the employment of all the prudence and all the advices of good men and the
of God be in it Add then but these Our love to God does not consist in an act of intuition or contemplation nor yet directly and meerly of passion but it consists in obedience If ye love me keep my Commandments That 's our love of God So that Contrition is a detestation of our past sin and a consequent obedience to the Divine Commandments Only as the aversion hath been so must be the conversion It was not one act of disobedience only which the habitual sinner is to be contrite for but many and therefore so must his contrition be a lasting hatred against sin and an habitual love that is an habitual obedience to the Divine Commandment 63. VI. But now to the instances of David and the Prodigal and the sudden pronunciation of their pardon there is something particular to be said The Parable of the Prodigal can prove nothing but Gods readiness to receive every returning sinner but neither the measures nor the times of pardon are there described As for David his pardon was pronounced suddenly but it was but a piece of pardon the sentence of death which by Moses's law he incurred that only was remitted but after this pardon David repented bitterly in sackcloth and ashes he fasted and prayed he liv'd holily and wisely he made amends as he could and yet the child died that was born to him his Son and Subjects rebelled his Concubines were dishonoured in the face of the Sun and the Sword never departed from his house 2. But to both these and all other instances that are or can be of the like nature I answer That there is no doubt but Gods pardon is as early and speedy as the beginnings of our repentance but then it is such a pardon as is proportionable to the Repentance a beginning Pardon to a beginning Repentance It is one degree of pardon to be admitted to Repentance To have more grace given to have hopes of final absolution to be continued in the work of the Lord to be help'd in the mortification of our sins to be invited forwards and comforted and defended and blessed still are further progressions of it and answer to the several parts and perseverance of Repentance And in this sence those sayings of the old Doctors are true but in no other that I know of To this purpose they are excellent words which were spoken by S. Austin Nunquam Deus spernit poenitentiam si ei sincerè simplicitèr offeratur suscipit libentèr accipit amplectitur omnia quatenus eum ad priorem statum revocet God never does despise repentance that is sincerely offered to him he takes all he embraces all that he may bring the man to his former state 64. Obj. 5. But against this doctrine are pretended some sentences of the Fathers expresly affirming that a sinner returning to God in any instant may be pardoned even in the last moment of his life when it is certain nothing can be done but single acts of contrition or something like it Thus the Author of the book De coena Domini attributed to S. Cyprian Sed in eodem articulo temporis cum jam anima festinat ad exitum egrediens ad labia expirantis emerserit poenitentiam clementissimi Dei benignitas non aspernatur nec serum est quod verum nec irremissibile quod voluntarium quae cunque necessitas cogat ad poenitudinem nec quantitas criminis nec brevitas temporis nec horae extremitas nec vitae enormitas si vera contritio si pura fuerit voluptatum mutatio excludit à veniâ sed in amplitudine sinus sui mater charitas prodigos suscipit revertentes velit nolit Novatus haereticus omni tempore Dei gratia recipit poenitentes Truly this is expresly against the severity of the former doctrine and if S. Cyprian had been the Author of this book I should have confess'd him to be an adversary in this question For this Author affirms that then when the soul is expiring God rejects not the contrition of him who but then returns Though the man be compelled to repentance though the time be short and the iniquity was long and great yet in the last hour if he be truly contrite God will not refuse him To this I say that he that said these words was one that liv'd not very long since then when Discipline was broken and Piety was lost and Charity was waxen cold and since the mans authority is nothing I need say no more but that I have been reproving this opinion all this while But there are words in S. Cyprian's book to Demetrianus which are confessedly his and yet seem to promise pardon to dying penitents Nec quisquam aut peccatis retardetur aut annis quo minus veniat ad consequendam salutem In isto adhuc mundo manenti poenitentia nulla sera est Patet ad indulgentiam Dei aditus quaerentibus atque intelligentibus veritatem facilis accessus est Tu sub ipso licet exitu vitae temporalis occasu pro delictis roges Deum qui unus verus est confessione fide agnitionis ejus implores Venia confitenti datur credenti indulgentia salutaris de Divinâ pietate conceditur ad immortalitatem sub ipsâ morte transitur These words are indeed very expresly affirmative of the efficacy of a very late even of a Death-bed repentance if it should so happen But the consideration of the person wholly alters the case and makes it unapplicable to the case of dying Christians For Demetrianus was then a Pagan and a cruel Persecutor of Christians Nec saltem contentus es dolorum nostrorum compendio simplici ac veloci brevitate poenarum admoves laniandis corporibus longa tormenta Innoxios justos Deo charos domo privas patrimonio spolias catenis premis carcere includis bestiis gladio ignibus punis This man S. Cyprian according to the Christian Charity which teaches to pray for our Persecutors and to love our Enemies exhorts passionately to believe in Christ to become a Christian and though he was very old yet to repent even then would not be too late Hujus Sacramento signo censeamur Hunc si fieri potest sequamur omnes Let us all follow Christ let us all be consign'd with his sign and his Sacrament Now there is no peradventure but new converted persons Heathens newly giving up their Names to Christ and being baptized if they die in an hour and were baptized half an hour after they believe in Christ are heirs of Salvation And it was impossible to be otherwise for when the Heathen world was to be converted and the Gospel preached to all persons old men and dying men it must either be effective to them also of all the Promises or by nothing could they be called to the Religion They who were not Christians were not to be judged by the Laws of Christ. But yet Christians are and
apprehension that feeds upon necessity and lives in hardships that is never flatter'd and is never cheated out of vertue for bread those persons are likely to be wise and wary and if they be not nothing can make them so for he that is impatient in want is impotent in plenty for impatience is pride and he that is proud when he is poor if he were rich he would be intolerable and therefore it is easier to bear poverty temperately than riches Securo nihil est te Naevole pejus eodem Sollicito nihil est Naevole te melius And Passienus said of Caligula Nemo fuit servus melior nemo Dominus deterior He was the best Servant and the worst Master that ever was Poverty is like a girdle about our loyns it binds hard but it is modest and useful But a heap of riches is a heap of temptations and few men will escape if it be always in their hand what can be offered to their heart And therefore to be prosperous hath in it self enough of danger But when a sin is prosperous and unpunished there are left but few possibilities and arguments of resistance and therefore it will become or remain habitual respectively S. Paul taught us this secret that sins are properly made habitual upon the stock of impunity Sin taking occasion by the law wrought in me all concupiscence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apprehending impunity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by occasion of the Commandment viz. so expressed and established as it was Because in the Commandment forbidding to lust or covet there was no penalty annexed or threatned in the sanction or in the explication Murder was death and so was Adultery and Rebellion Theft was punished severely too and so other things in their proportion but the desires God left under a bare restraint and affixed no penalty in the law Now sin that is men that had a mind to sin taking occasion hence that is taking this impunity for a sufficient warrant prevail'd by frequent actions up to an evil custom and a habit and so rul'd them who were not renewed and over-ruled by the holy Spirit of grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a caution in law or a security so Suidas and Phavorinus It is used also for impunity in Demosthenes though the Grammarians note it not But as to the thing When ever you see a sin thrive start back suddenly and with a trembling fear for it does nurse the sin from a single action to a filthy habit and that always dwells in the suburbs of the horrible regions No man is so much to be pitied as he that thrives and is let alone in his sin there is evil towards that man But then God is kind to a sinner when he makes his sin to be uneasie and troublesome 6. VI. But in prosecution of the former observation it is of very great use that the vigorous and healthful penitent do use corporal mortifications and austerities by way of penance and affliction for every single act of that sin he commits whose habit he intends to mortifie If he makes himself smart and never spare his sin but still punish it besides that it is a good act of indignation and revenge which S. Paul commends in all holy penitents it is also a way to take off the pleasure of the sin by which it would fain make abode and seisure upon the will A man will not so soon delight or love to abide with that which brings him affliction in present and makes his life miserable This advice I learn from Maimonides Ab inolitâ peccandi consuetudine non posse hominem avelli nisi gravibus poenis Nothing so good to cure an evil custom of sinning as the inflicting great smart upon the offender He that is going to cure his habitual drunkenness if ever he be overtaken again let him for the first offence fast two days with bread and water and the next time double his smart and let the man load himself till he groans under it and he will be glad to take heed 7. VII He that hath sinn'd often and is now returning let him watch if ever his sin be offer'd to him by a temptation and that temptation dressed as formerly that he be sure not to neglect that opportunity of beginning to break his evil habit He that hath committed fornication and repents if ever he be tempted again not to seek for it but to act it and may enter upon the sin with ease and readiness then let him refuse his sin so dressed so ready so fitted for action and the event will be this that besides it is a great indication and sign of an excellent repentance it discountenances the habit and breaks the combination of its parts and disturbs its dwelling but besides it is so signal an action of repentance and so pleasing to the Spirit of God and of a good man that it is apt to make him do so again and proceed to crucifie that habit upon which he hath had so lucky a day and so great a victory and success It is like giving to a person and obliging him by some very great favour He that does so is for ever after ready and apt to do that obliged person still more kindness lest the first should perish When a man hath gotten an estate together he is apt saith Plutarch to save little things and be provident even of the smallest summ because that now if it be sav'd will come to something it will be seen and preserv'd in his heap But he that is poor cannot become rich with those little arts of providence and therefore he lets them go for his pleasure since he cannot keep them with hopes to improve his bank so is such an earnest and entry into piety it is such a stock of holiness that it is worth preserving and to have resisted once so bravely does add confidence to the spirit that it can overcome and makes it probable that he may get a crown However it falls out it is an excellent act and signification of a hearty repentance and conversion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is a just man not whosoever does no wrong but he that can and will not Maimonides saith excellently to the same purpose For to the Question Quaenam tandem est poenitentia perfecta He answers This is true and perfect repentance Cum qui◠ad manum habet quo priùs peccavit jam penes ipsum est idem perpetrare recedens tamen illud non committit poenitentiae causâ neque timore cohibitus neque defectu virium When the power and opportunity is present and the temptation it may be ready and urging when it is in a mans hand to do the same thing yet retiring he commits it not only for piety or repentance sake not being restrain'd by fear or want of powers 8. VIII If such opportunities of his sin be not presented it is never the worse
rendred In him it is violent and hard a distinct period by it self without dependence or proper purpose against the faith of all copies who do not make this a distinct period and against the usual manner of speaking 2. This phrase of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used in 2 Cor. 5.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not for that we would be unclothed and so it is used in Polybius Suidas and Varinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is eâ conditione for that cause or condition and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad quid ades are the words of the Gospel as Suidas quotes them 3. Although 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in whom or in him yet it is so very seldom or infrequent that it were intolerable to do violence to this place to force it to an unnatural signification 4. If it did always signifie the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or in him which it does not yet we might very well follow the same reading we now do and which the Apostles discourse does infer for even 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does divers times signifie forasmuch or for that as is to be seen in Rom. 8.3 and Heb. 2.18 But 5. supposing all that can be and that it did signifie in whom yet the sence were fair enough as to the whole article for by him or in him we are made sinners that is brought to an evil state of things usually consequent to sinners we are us'd like sinners by him or in him just as when a sinner is justified he is treated like a righteous person as if he had never sinned though he really did sin oftentimes and this for his sake who is made righteousness to us so in Adam we are made sinners that is treated ill and afflicted though our selves be innocent of that sin which was the occasion of our being us'd so severely for other sins of which we were not innocent But how this came to pass is told in the following words 11. For until the law sin was in the world but sin is not imputed when there is no law Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression who is the figure of him that was to come By which discourse it appears that S. Paul does not speak of all minkind as if the evil occasion'd by Adams sin did descend for ever upon that account but it had a limited effect and reach'd only to those who were in the interval between Adam and Moses This death was brought upon them by Adam that is death which was threatned to Adam only went forth upon them also who indeed were sinners but not after the similitude of Adams transgression that is who sinn'd not so capitally as he did For to sin like Adam is used as a Tragical and a high expression So it is in the Prophet They like men have transgressed so we read it but in the Hebrew it is They like Adam have transgressed and yet death pass'd upon them that did not sin after the similitude of Adam for Abel and Seth and Abraham and all the Patriarchs died Enoch only excepted and therefore it was no wonder that upon the sin of Adam death entred upon the world who generally sinn'd like Adam since it passed on and reigned upon less sinners * It reigned upon them whose sins therefore would not be so imputed as Adams was because there was no law with an express threatning given to them as was to Adam but although it was not wholly imputed upon their own account yet it was imputed upon theirs and Adams For God was so exasperated with Mankind that being angry he would still continue that punishment even to the lesser sins and sinners which he only had first threatned to Adam and so Adam brought it upon them They indeed in rigour did themselves deserve it but if it had not been for that provocation by Adam they who sinn'd not so bad and had not been so severely and expresly threatned had not suffer'd so severely * The case is this Jonathan and Michal were Sauls children it came to pass that seven of Sauls issue were to be hanged all equally innocent equally culpable David took the five sons of Michal for she had left him unhandsomly Jonathan was his friend and therefore he spar'd his son Mephibosheth Here it was indifferent as to the guilt of the persons whether David should take the sons of Michal or of Jonathan but it is likely that as upon the kindness which David had to Jonathan he spar'd his son so upon the just provocation of Michal he made that evil to fall upon them of which they were otherwise capable which it may be they should not have suffered if their Mother had been kind Adam was to God as Michal to David 12. But there was in it a further design for by this dispensation of death Adam was made a figure of Christ So the Apostle expresly affirms who is the figure of him that was to come that as death pass'd upon the posterity of Adam though they sinn'd less than Adam so life should be given to the followers of Christ though they were imperfectly righteous that is not after the similitude of Christs perfection 13. But for the further clearing the Article depending upon the right understanding of these words these two things are observable 1. That the evil of death descending upon Adams posterity for his sake went no further than till Moses For after the giving of Moses's law death passed no further upon the account of Adams transgression but by the sanction of Moses's law where death was anew distinctly and expresly threatned as it was to Adam and so went forward upon a new score but introduc'd first by Adam that is he was the cause at first and till Moses also he was in some sence the author and for ever after the precedent and therefore the Apostle said well In Adam we all die his sin brought in the sentence in him it began and from him it passed upon all the world though by several dispensations 2. In the discourse of the Apostle those that were nam'd were not consider'd simply as born from Adam and therefore it did not come upon the account of Natural or Original corruption but they were consider'd as Sinners just as they who have life by Christ are not consider'd as merely children by title or spiritual birth and adoption but as just and faithful But then this is the proportion and purpose of the Apostle as God gives to these life by Christ which is a greater thing than their imperfect righteousness without Christ could have expected so here also this part of Adams posterity was punish'd with death for their own sin but this death was brought upon them by Adam that is the rather for his provocation of God by his great transgression 14. There is now remaining no difficulty but
or successors of the injur'd person for in those sins very often the curse descends with the wrong So long as the effect remains and the injury is complained of and the title is still kept on foot so long the son is tied to restitution But even after the possession is setled yet the curse and evil may descend longer than the sin as the smart and the aking remains after the blow is past And therefore even after the successors come to be lawful possessors it may yet be very fit for them to quit the purchase of their fathers sin or else they must resolve to pay the sad and severe rent-charge of a curse 98. VI. In such cases in which there cannot be a real let there be a verbal and publick disavowing their fathers sin which was publick scandalous and notorious We find this thing done by Andronicus Palaeologus the Greek Emperor who was the son of a bad Father and it is to be done when the effect was transient or irremediable 99. VII Sometimes no piety of the children shall quite take off the anger of God from a family or nation as it hapned to Josiah who above all the Princes that were before or after him turned to the Lord. Notwithstanding the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal In such a case as this we are to submit to Gods will and let him exercise his power his dominion and his kingdom as he pleases and expect the returns of our piety in the day of recompences and it may be our posterity shall reap a blessing for our sakes who feel a sorrow and an evil for our fathers sake 100. VIII Let all that have children endeavour to be the beginners and the stock of a new blessing to their family by blessing their children by praying much for them by holy education and a severe piety by rare example and an excellent religion And if there be in the family a great curse and an extraordinary anger gone out against it there must be something extraordinary done in the matter of religion or of charity that the remedy be no less than the evil 101. IX Let not the consideration of the universal sinfulness and corruption of mankind add confidence to thy person and hardness to thy conscience and authority to thy sin but let it awaken thy spirit and stir up thy diligence and endear all the watchfulness in the world for the service of God for there is in it some difficulty and an infinite necessity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Electra in the Tragedy Our nature is very bad in it self but very good to them that use it well Prayers and Meditations THE first Adam bearing a wicked heart transgressed and was overcome and so be all they that are born of him Thus infirmity was made permanent And the law also in the heart of the people with the malignity and root so that the good departed away and the evil abode still Lo this only have I found that God hath made man upright but they have sought many inventions For there is not a just man upon earth that doth good and sinneth not Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me Purge me with hysop and I shall be clean wash me and I shall be whiter than snow create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me The fool hath said in his heart There is no God they are corrupt they have done abominable works there is none that doth good The Lord looked down from Heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek after God They are all gone aside they are all become filthy There is not one that doth good no not one O that the salvation of Israel were come out of Sion when the Lord bringeth back the captivity of his people Jacob shall rejoyce and Israel shall be glad Man dieth and wasteth away yea man giveth up the ghost and where is he For now thou numbrest my steps Dost thou not watch over my sin my transgression is seal'd up in a bag and thou sewest up iniquity Thou destroyest the hope of man Thou prevailest against him for ever and he passeth thou changest his countenance and sendest him away But his flesh upon him shall have pain and his soul within him shall mourn What is man that he should be clean and he that is born of a woman that he should be righteous Behold he putteth no trust in his Saints yea the Heavens are not clean in his sight How much more abominable and filthy is man which drinketh iniquity like water Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid They shall prevail against him as a King ready to battel For he stretcheth out his hand against God and strengthneth himself against the Almighty Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity for vanity shall be his recompence Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean thing no not one I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin and defiled my horn in the dust My face is foul with weeping and on my eye-lids is the shadow of death Not for any injustice in my hand also my prayer is pure Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death I thank God I am delivered through Jesus Christ our Lord. But now being made free from sin and become servants of God ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life For the wages of sin is death But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin reign in your mortal bodies that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof For sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the law but under grace The PRAYER O Almighty God great Father of Men and Angels thou art the preserver of men and the great lover of souls thou didst make every thing perfect in its kind and all that thou didst make was very good only we miserable creatures sons of Adam have suffered the falling Angels to infect us with their leprosie of pride and so we entred into their evil portion having corrupted our way before thee and are covered with thy rod and dwell in a cloud of thy displeasure behold me the meanest of thy servants humbled before thee sensible of my sad condition weak and miserable sinful and ignorant full of need wanting thee in all things and neither able to escape death without a Saviour nor to live a life of holiness without thy Spirit O be pleas'd to give me a portion in the new birth break off the bands and fetters of my sin cure my evil inclinations correct my indispositions and natural averseness
and ordinarily and the evil which I hate I do avoid sometimes indeed I am surpris'd and when I do neglect to use the aids and strengths of the spirit of grace I fall but this is because I will not and not because I cannot help it and in this case the man is not a servant or captive of sin but a servant of Christ though weak and imperfect But if it means I do it commonly or constantly or frequently which is certainly the complaint here made then to be a regenerate person is to be a vile person sold under sin and not Gods servant For if any man shall suppose these words to mean only thus I do not do so much good as I would and do sometimes fall into evil though I would fain be intirely innocent indeed this man teaches no false doctrine as to the state or duty of the regenerate which in this life will for ever be imperfect but he speaks not according to the sence and design of the Apostle here For his purpose is to describe that state of evil in which we are by nature and from which we could not be recovered by the law and from which we can only be redeemed by the grace of Jesus Christ and this is a state of death of being killed by sin of being captivated and sold under sin after the manner of slaves as will further appear in the sequel 12. III. Every regenerate man and servant of Christ hath the Spirit of Christ. But where the Spirit of God is there is liberty therefore no slavery therefore sin reigns not there Both the propositions are the words of the Apostle The conclusion therefore infers that the man whom S. Paul describes in this Chapter is not the regenerate man for he hath not liberty but is in captivity to the law of sin from which every one that is Christs every one that hath the Spirit of Christ is freed 13. IV. And this is that which S. Paul calls being under the law that is a being carnal and in the state of the flesh not but that the law it self is spiritual but that we being carnal of our selves are not cured by the law but by reason of the infirmity of the flesh made much worse curbed but not sweetly won admonished but assisted by no spirit but the spirit of bondage and fear This state is opposed to the spiritual state The giving of the law is called the ministery of death the Gospel is called the ministery of the Spirit and that is the ministration of life and therefore if we be led by the Spirit we are not under the law but if we be under the law we are dead and sin is revived and sin by the law brings forth fruit unto death From hence the argument of the Apostle is clear The man whom he here describes is such a one who is under the law but such a man is dead by reason of sin and therefore hath not in him the Spirit of God for that is the ministration of life A regenerate person is alive unto God he lives the life of righteousness but he that is under the law is killed by sin and such is the man that is here described as appears verse 9. and I shall in the sequel further prove therefore this man is not the regenerate 14. V. To which for the likeness of the argument I add this That the man who can say I do that which I hate is a man in whom sin is not mortified and therefore he lives after the flesh but then he is not regenerate for if ye live after the flesh ye shall die saith S. Paul but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live These arguments are taken from consideration of the rule and dominion of sin in the man whom S. Paul describes who therefore cannot be a regenerate person To the same effect and conclusion are other expressions in the same Chapter 15. VI. The man whom S. Paul here describes who complains That he does not the good which he would but the evil that he would not is such a one in whom sin does inhabit It is no more I but sin that dwelleth in me But in the regenerate sin does not inhabit My Father and I will come unto him and make our abode with him So Christ promised to his servants to them who should be regenerate and the Spirit of God dwelleth in them the Spirit of him that raised Jesus from the dead and therefore the Regenerate are called the habitation of God through the Spirit Now if God the Father if Christ if the Spirit of Christ dwells in a man there sin does not dwell The strong man that is armed keeps possession but if a stronger than he comes he dispossesses him If the Spirit of God does not drive the Devil forth himself will leave the place They cannot both dwell together Sin may be in the regenerate and grieve Gods Spirit but it shall not abide or dwell there for that extinguishes him One or the other must depart And this also is noted by S. Paul in this very place sin dwelleth in me and no good thing dwelleth in me If one does the other does not but yet as in the unregenerate there might be some good such as are good desires knowledge of good and evil single actions of vertue beginnings and dispositions to grace acknowledging of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ some lightnings and flashes of the holy Ghost a knowing of the way of righteousness but sanctifying saving good does not dwell that is does not abide with them and rule so in the regenerate there is sin but because it does not dwell there they are under the Empire of the Spirit and in Christs Kingdom or as S. Paul expresses it Christ liveth in them and that cannot be unless sin be crucified and dead in them The summ of which is thus in S. Paul's words Reckon your selves indeed to be dead unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof For sin shall not have dominion over you because we are not under the law but under grace 16. VII Lastly the man whom S. Paul describes is carnal but the regenerate is never called carnal in the Scripture but is spiritual oppos'd to carnal A man not only in pure naturals but even plac'd under the law is called carnal that is until he be redeemed by the Spirit of Christ he cannot be called spiritual but is yet in the flesh Now that the regenerate cannot be the carnal man is plain in the words of S. Paul The carnal mind is enmity against God and they that are in the flesh cannot please God To which he adds But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you
But the Spirit of God does dwell in all the servants of God in all the regenerate For if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Now as these are in Scripture distinguished in their appellatives and in their character so also in their operations They that are carnal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the flesh do mind or relish the things of the flesh They that are after the Spirit do mind the things of the Spirit And they that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts Now they that have crucified the flesh cannot in any sence of Scripture or Religion be called Carnal That there is something of carnality in the regenerate is too true because our regeneration and spirituality in this life is imperfect But when carnal and spiritual are oppos'd in Scripture and the Question is Whether of these two is to be attributed to the servants and sons of God to the Regenerate It is certain by the analogy of the thing and the perpetual manner of speaking in Scripture that by this word Carnal the Spirit of God never means the sons of God or the spiritual that is the Regenerate The sons of God are led by the Spirit of God therefore not by the flesh which they have crucified Whatsoever is essential to regeneration to new birth to the being the sons of God all that is in the regenerate for they cannot be that thing of which they want an essential part as a thing cannot be a body unless it be divisible nor a living creature if it have not life Therefore regeneration is perfect in respect of its essentials or necessary parts of constitution But in the degrees there is imperfection and therefore the abatement is made by the intermixture of carnality For it is in our new and spiritual birth as in our natural The child is a man in all essential parts but he is as a beast in some of his operations he hath all the faculties of a man but not the strengths of a man but grows to it by the progression and encrease of every day So is the spiritual man regenerate in his mind his will his affections and therefore when carnal and spiritual are oppos'd in their whole nature and definitions the spiritual man is not the carnal though he still retain some of the weaknesses of the flesh against which he contends every day To this purpose are those words of S. Leo. Quamvis spe salvi facti sumus corruptionem adhuc carnémque mortalem gestamus rectè tamen dicimur in carne non esse si carnales nobis non dominentur affectus meritò ejus deponimus â—uncupationem cujus non sequimur voluntatem We are not to be called Carnal though we bear about us flesh and its infirmities yet if carnal affections do not rule over us well are we to quit the name when we do not obey the thing Now if any man shall contend that a man may be called Carnal if the flesh strives against the Spirit though sin does not rule I shall not draw the Saw of Contention with him but only say that it is not usually so in Scripture and in this place of which we now dispute the sence and use it is not so for by Carnal S. Paul means such a person upon whom sin reigns I am carnal sold under sin therefore this person is not the spiritual not the regenerate or the son of God S. Paul uses the word Carnal in a comparative locution for babes and infants or unskilful persons in the Religion but then this carnality he proves to be in them wholly by their inordinate walking by their strifes and contentions by their being Schismaticks and therefore he reproves them which he had no reason to do if himself also had been carnal in that sence which he reproves 17. The Conclusion from all these premises is I suppose sufficiently demonstrated that S. Paul does not in the seventh Chapter to the Romans describe the state of himself really or of a regenerate person neither is this state of doing sin frequently though against our will a state of unavoidable infirmity but a state of death and unregeneration SECT III. 18. SAint Austin did for ever reject that interpretation and indeed so did the whole Primitive Church but yet he having once expounded this Chapter of the unregenerate or a man under the law not redeemed by the Spirit of Christ from his vain conversation he retracted this Exposition and constru'd those words in question thus Non ergo quod vult agit Apostolus quia vult non concupiscere tamen concupiscit ideo non quod vult agit The Apostle does not do what he would because he would fain not desire but yet because he desires he does what he would not Did that desire lead him captive to fornication God forbid He did strive but was not mastered but because he would not have had that concupiscence left against which he should contend therefore he said What I would not that I do meaning I would not lust but I do lust The same also I find in Epiphanius Nam quod dictum est Quod operor non cognosco facio quod odio habeo non de eo quod operati sumus ac perfecimus malum accipiendum est sed de eo quod solum cogitavimus Now this interpretation hath in it no impiety as the other hath for these Doctors allow nothing to be unavoidable or a sin of infirmity and consistent with the state of grace and regeneration but the mere ineffective unprocured desirings or lustings after evil things to which no consent is given and in which no delight is taken extraneae cogitationes quas cogitavimus aliquando non volentes non scientes ex quâ causâ as Epiphanius expresses this Article But S. Austin may be thought to have had some design in chusing this sence as supposing it would serve for an argument against the Pelagians and their sence of Free will For by representing the inevitability of sin he destroyed their doctrine of the sufficiency of our natural powers in order to Heaven and therefore by granting that S. Paul complains thus of his own infirmity he believed himself to have concluded firmly for the absolute necessity of Gods grace to help us But by limiting this inevitability of sinning to the matter of desires or concupiscence he gave no allowance or pretence to any man to speak any evil words or to delight or consent to any evil thoughts or to commit any sinful actions upon the pretence of their being sins of an unavoidable infirmity So that though he was desirous to serve the ends of his present question yet he was careful that he did not disserve the interests of Religion and a holy life But besides that the holy Scriptures abound in nothing more than in affirming our needs and the
excellency of the Divine grace and S. Austin needed not to have been put to his shifts in this Question it is considerable that his first Exposition had done his business better For if these words of S. Paul be as indeed they are to be expounded of an unregenerate man one under the law but not under grace nothing could more have magnified Gods grace than that an unregenerate person could not by all the force of nature nor the aids of the law nor the spirit of fear nor temporal hopes be redeem'd from the slavery and tyranny of sin and that from this state there is no redemption but by the Spirit of God and the grace of the Lord Jesus which is expresly affirmed and proved by S. Paul if you admit this sence of the words And therefore Irenaeus who did so cites these words to the same effect viz. for the magnifying the grace of God Ipse Dominus erat qui salvabat eos quia per semetipsos non habebant salvari Et propter hoc Paulus infirmitatem hominis annuncians ait Scio enim quoniam non habitat in carne meâ bonum significans quoniam non à nobis sed à Deo est bonum salutis Et iterum Miser ego homo quis me liberabit de corpore mortis hujus Deinde infert liberatorem Gratia Jesu Christi Domini nostri S. Paul's complaint shews our own infirmity and that of our selves we cannot be saved but that our salvation is of God and the grace of our Redeemer Jesus Christ. But whatever S. Austins design might be in making the worse choice it matters not much only to the interpretation it self I have these considerations to oppose 19. I. Because the phrase is insolent and the exposition violent to render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by concupiscere to do is more than to desire factum dictum concupitum are the several kinds and degrees of sinning assigned by S. Austin himself and therefore they cannot be confounded and one made to expound the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is also used here by the Apostle which in Scripture signifies sometimes to sin habitually never less than actually and the other word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies perficere patrare to finish the act at least or to do a sin throughly and can in no sence be reasonably expounded by natural ineffective and unavoidable desires And it is observable that when S. Austin in prosecution of this device is to expound those words to will is present with me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to perform what is good I find not he makes the word to signifie to do it perfectly which is as much beyond as the other sence of the same word is short What I do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I approve not Therefore the man does not do his sin perfectly he does the thing imperfectly for he does it against his conscience and with an imperfect choice but he does the thing however So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must signifie to do the good imperfectly the action it self only for such was this mans impotency that he could not obtain power to do even imperfectly the good he desir'd The evil he did though against his mind but the good he could not because it was against the law of sin which reigned in him But then the same word must not to serve ends be brought to signifie a perfect work and yet not to signifie so much as a perfect desire 20. II. The sin which S. Paul under another person complains of is such a sin as did first deceive him and then slew him but concupiscence does not kill till it proceeds further as S. James expresly affirms that concupiscence when it hath conceived brings forth sin and sin when it is finished brings forth death which is the just parallel to what S. Paul says in this very Chapter The passions of sins which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death peccatum perpetratum when the desires are acted then sin is deadly the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the passions or first motions of sin which come upon us nobis non volentibus nec scientibus whether we will or no these are not imputed to us unto death but are the matter of vertue when they are resisted and contradicted but when they are consented to and delighted in then it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sin in conception with death and will proceed to action unless it be hindred from without and therefore it is then the same sin by interpretation Adulterium cordis so our blessed Saviour called it in that instance the adultery of the heart but till it be an actual sin some way or other it does not bring forth death 21. III. It is an improper and ungrammatical manner of speaking to say Nolo concupiscere or Volo non concupiscere I will lust or I will not lust i. e. I will or I will not desire or will For this lust or first motions of desire are before an act of will the first act of which is when these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these motions and passions are consented to or rejected These motions are natural and involuntary and are no way in our power but when they are occasion'd by an act of the Will collaterally and indirectly or by applying the proper incentives to the faculty Vellem non concupiscere every good man must say I would fain be free from concupiscence but because he cannot it is not subject to his Will and he cannot say volo I will be free and therefore S. Paul's Volo and Nolo are not intended of Concupiscence or desires 22. IV. The good which S. Austin says the Apostle fain would but could not perfect or do it perfectly is Non concupiscere not to have concupiscence Volo non perficio but Concupiscere is but velle it is not so much and therefore cannot be more So that when he says to will is present with me he must mean to desire well is present with me but to do this I find not that is if S. Austins interpretation be true though I do desire well yet I do lust and do not desire well for still concupisco I lust and I lust not I have concupiscence and I have it not which is a contradiction 23. Many more things might be observed from the words of the Apostle to overthrow this exposition but the truth when it is proved will sufficiently reprove what is not true and therefore I shall apply my self to consider the proper intention and design of the Apostle in those so much mistaken periods SECT IV. 24. COncerning which these things are to be cleared upon which the whole issue will depend 1. That S. Paul speaks not in his own person as an Apostle or a Christian a man who is regenerate but in the person of a Jew one under the law one that is not regenerate 2. That
this state which he describes is the state of a carnal man under the corruption of his nature upon whom the law had done some change but had not cured him 3. That from this state of evil we are redeemed by the Spirit of Christ by the Grace of the Gospel and now a Child of God cannot complain this complaint 25. I. That he puts on the person of another by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or translation as was usual with S. Paul in very many places of his Epistles is evident by his affirming that of the man whom he here describes which of himself were not true I was alive without the law once Of S. Paul's own person this was not true for he was bred and born under the law circumcised the eighth day an Hebrew of the Hebrews as touching the law a Pharisee he never was alive without the law But the Israelites were whom he therefore represents indefinitely under a single person the whole Nation before and under the law I was alive once without the law but when the Commandment came that is when the law was given sin revived and I died that is by occasion of the law sin grew stronger and prevailed 2. But concerning the Christian and his present condition he expresly makes it separate from that of being under the law and consequently under sin But now we are delivered from the law that being dead wherein we were held that we should serve in newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter We are delivered It is plain that some sort of men are freed from that sad condition of things of which he there complains and if any be it must be the regenerate And so it is For the scope of the Apostle in this Chapter is to represent and prove that salvation is not to be had by the law but by Jesus Christ and that by that discipline men cannot be contain'd in their duty and therefore that it was necessary to forsake the law and to come to Christ. To this purpose he brings in a person complaining that under the discipline of the law he was still under the power of sin Now if this had been also true of a regenerate person of a Christian renewed by the Spirit of grace then it had been no advantage to have gone from the Law to Christ as to this argument for still the Christian would be under the same slavery which to be the condition of one under the law S. Paul was to urge as an argument to call them from Moses to Christ. 26. II. That this state which he now describes is the state of a carnal man under the corruption of his nature appears by his saying that sin had wrought in him all manner of concupiscence that sin revived and he died that the motions of sin which were by the law did work in the members to bring forth fruit unto death and that this was when we were in the flesh that he is carnal sold under sin that he is carried into captivity to the law of sin that sin dwells in him and is like another person doing or constraining him to do things against his mind that it is a State and a Government a Law and a Tyranny For that which I do I allow not plainly saying that this doing what we would not that is doing against our conscience upon the strength of passion and in obedience to the law of sin was the state of them who indeed were under the law but the effect of carnality and the viciousness of their natural and ungracious condition Here then is the description of a natural and carnal man He sins frequently he sins against his conscience he is carnal and sold under sin sin dwells in him and gives him laws he is a slave to sin and led into captivity Now if this could be the complaint of a regenerate man from what did Christ come to redeem us how did he take away our sins did he only take off the punishment and still leave us to wallow in the impurities and baser pleasures perpetually to rail upon our sins and yet perpetually to do them How did he come to bless us in turning every one of us from our iniquity How and in what sence could it be true which the Apostle affirms He did bear our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead unto sin should live unto righteousness But this proposition I suppose my self to have sufficiently proved in the reproof of the first exposition of these words in question only I shall in present add the concurrent testimony of some Doctors of the Primitive Church Tertullian hath these words Nam etsi habitare bonum in carne suâ negavit sed secundum legem literae in quâ fuit secundum autem legem Spiritus cui nos annectit liberat ab infirmitate carnis Lex enim inquit Spiritus vitae manumisit te à lege delinquentiae mortis Licet enim ex parte ex Judaismo disputare videatur sed in nos dirigit integritatem plenitudinem disciplinarum propter quos laborantes in lege per carnem miserit Deus filium suum in similitudinem carnis delinquentiae propter delinquentiam damnaverit delinquentiam in carne Plainly he expounds this Chapter to be meant of a man under the law according to the law of the letter under which himself had been he denied any good to dwell in his flesh but according to the law of the Spirit under which we are plac'd he frees us from the infirmity of the flesh for he saith the law of the Spirit of life hath freed us from the law of sin and death Origen affirms that when S. Paul says I am carnal sold under sin Tanquam Doctor Ecclesiae personam in semetipsum suscipit infirmorum he takes upon him the person of the infirm that is of the carnal and says those words which themselves by way of excuse or apology use to speak But yet says he this person which S. Paul puts on although Christ does not dwell in him neither is his body the Temple of the holy Ghost yet he is not wholly a stranger from good but by his will and by his purpose he begins to look after good things But he cannot yet obtain to do them For there is such an infirmity in those who begin to be converted that is whose mind is convinc'd but their affections are not master'd that when they would presently do all good yet an effect did not follow their desires S. Chrysostom hath a large Commentary upon this Chapter and his sence is perfectly the same Propterea subnexuit dicens Ego verò carnalis sum hominem describens sub lege ante legem degentem S. Paul describes not himself but a man living under and before the law and of such a one he says but I am carnal Who please to see more
authorities to the same purpose may find them in S. Basil Theodoret S. Cyril Macarius S. Ambrose S. Hierom and Theophylact The words of the Apostle the very purpose and design the whole Oeconomy and Analogy of the sixth seventh and eighth Chapters do so plainly manifest it that the heaping up more testimonies cannot be useful in so clear a case The results are these I. The state of men under the law was but a state of carnality and of nature better instructed and soundly threatned and set forward in some instances by the spirit of fear only but not cured but in many men made much worse accidentally II. That to be pleased in the inner man that is in the Conscience to be convinc'd and to consent to the excellency of vertue and yet by the flesh that is by the passions of the lower man or the members of the body to serve sin is the state of Unregeneration III. To do the evil that I would not and to omit the good that I fain would do when it is in my hand to do what is in my heart to think is the property of a carnal unregenerate man And this is the state of men in nature and was the state of men under the law For to be under the law and not to be led by the Spirit are all one in S. Paul's account For if ye be led by the Spirit ye are not under the law saith he And therefore to be under the law being a state of not being under the Spirit must be under the government of the flesh that is they were not then sanctified by the Spirit of grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ they were not yet redeemed from their vain conversation Not that this was the state of all the sons of Israel of them that liv'd before the law or after but that the law could do no more for them or upon them Gods Spirit did in many of them work his own works but this was by the grace of Jesus Christ who was the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world this was not by the works of the law but by the same instruments and grace by which Abraham and all they who are his children by promise were justified But this is the consequent of the third proposition which I was to consider 27. III. From this state of evil we are redeemed by Christ and by the Spirit of his grace Wretched man that I am quis liberabit who shall deliver me from the body of this death He answers I thank God through Jesus Christ so S. Chrysostom Theodoret Theophylact S. Hierom the Greek Scholiast and the ordinary Greek copies do commonly read the words in which words there is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they are thus to be supplied I thank God through Jesus Christ we are delivered or there is a remedy found out for us But Irenaeus Origen S. Ambrose S. Austin and S. Hierom himself at another time and the Vulgar Latin Bibles instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gratia Domini Jesu Christi the grace of God through Jesus Christ. That is our remedy he is our deliverer from him comes our redemption For he not only gave us a better law but also the Spirit of grace he hath pardon'd all our old sins and by his Spirit enables us for the future that we may obey him in all sincerity in heartiness of endeavour and real events From hence I draw this argument That state from which we are redeemed by Jesus Christ and freed by the Spirit of his grace is a state of carnality of unregeneration that is of sin and death But by Jesus Christ we are redeemed from that state in which we were in subjection to sin commanded by the law of sin and obeyed it against our reason and against our conscience therefore this state which is indeed the state S. Paul here describes is the state of carnality and unregeneration and therefore not competent to the servants of Christ to the elect people of God to them who are redeemed and sanctified by the Spirit of Christ. The parts of this argument are the words of S. Paul and proved in the foregoing periods From hence I shall descend to something that is more immediately practical and cloth'd with circumstances SECT V. How far an Vnregenerate man may go in the ways of Piety and Religion 28. TO this inquiry it is necessary that this be premised That between the regenerate and a wicked person there is a middle state so that it is not presently true that if the man be not wicked he is presently Regenerate Between the two states of so vast a distance it is impossible but there should be many intermedial degrees between the Carnal and Spiritual man there is a Moral man not that this man shall have a different event of things if he does abide there but that he must pass from extreme to extreme by this middle state of participation The first is a slave of sin the second is a servant of righteousness the third is such a one as liveth according to Natural reason so much of it as is left him and is not abused that is lives a probable life but is not renewed by the Spirit of grace one that does something but not all not enough for the obtaining salvation For a man may have gone many steps from his former baseness and degenerous practices and yet not arrive at godliness or the state of pardon like the children of Israel who were not presently in Canaan as soon as they were out of Egypt but abode long in the wilderness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they begin to be instructed that is their state Thou art not far from the Kingdom of Heaven said our blessed Saviour to a well disposed person but he was not arrived thither he was not a subject of the Kingdom These are such whom our blessed Lord calls The weary and the heavy laden that is such who groan under the heavy pressure of their sins whom therefore he invites to come to him to be eased Such are those whom S. Paul here describes to be under the law convinced of sin pressed vexed troubled with it complaining of it desirous to be eased These the holy Scripture calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ordained disposed to life eternal but these were not yet the fideles or believers but from that fair disposition became believers upon the preaching of the Apostles 29. In this third state of men I account those that sin and repent and yet repent and sin again for ever troubled when they have sinn'd and yet for ever or most frequently sinning when the temptation does return 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They sin and accuse and hate themselves for sinning Now because these men mean well and fain would be quit of their sin at their own rate and are not scandalous and impious they flatter
the tenure of death Here then are three Combatants the Flesh the Conscience the Spirit The flesh endeavours to subject the man to the law of sin the other two endeavour to subject him to the law of God The flesh and the conscience or mind contend but this contention is no sign of being regenerate because the Flesh prevails most commonly against the Mind where there is nothing else to help it the man is still a captive to the law of sin But the Mind being worsted God sends in the auxiliaries of the Spirit and when that enters and possesses that overcomes the flesh it rules and gives laws But as in the unregenerate the Mind did strive though it was over-power'd yet still it contended but ineffectively for the most part so now when the Spirit rules the flesh strives but it prevails but seldom it is over-powered by the Spirit Now this contention is a sign of regeneration when the flesh lusteth against the Spirit not when the flesh lusteth against the mind or conscience For the difference is very great and highly to be remark'd And it is represented in two places of S. Pauls Epistles The one is that which I have already explicated in this Chapter I consent to the law of God according to the inner man But I see another law in my members fighting against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin that is in my members where there is a redundancy in the words but the Apostle plainly signifies that the law of sin which is in his members prevails that is sin rules the man in despite of all the contention and reluctancy of his conscience or the law of his mind So that this strife of flesh and conscience is no sign of the regenerate because the mind of a man is in subordination to the flesh of the man sometimes willingly and perfectly sometimes unwillingly and imperfectly 32. I deny not but the mind is sometimes called Spirit and by consequence improperly it may be said that even in these men their spirit lusteth against the flesh That is the more rational faculties contend against the brute parts reason against passion law against sin Thus the word Spirit is taken for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the inner man the whole mind together with its affections Mat. 26.4 and Acts 19.21 But in this Question the word Spirit is distinguished from Mind and is taken for the mind renewed by the Spirit of God and as these words are distinguished so must their several contentions be remark'd For when the mind or conscience and the flesh fight the flesh prevails but when the Spirit and the flesh fight the Spirit prevails And by that we shall best know who are the litigants that like the two sons of Rebecca strive within us If the flesh prevails then there was in us nothing but law of the mind nothing but the conscience of an unregenerate person I mean if the flesh prevails frequently or habitually But if the Spirit of God did rule us if that principle had possession of us then the flesh is crucified it is mortified it is killed and prevails not at all but when we will not use the force and arms of the Spirit but it does not prevail habitually not frequently or regularly or by observation This is clearly taught by those excellent words of S. Paul which as many other periods of his Epistles have had the ill luck to be very much misunderstood This I say then walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh so that ye cannot that ye do not or may not do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the things that ye would But if ye be led by the Spirit ye are not under the law The word in the Greek may either signifie duty or event Walk in the Spirit and fulfil not or ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh If we understand it in the Imperative sence then it is exegetical of the former words He that walks in the Spirit hoc ipso does not fulfil the lusts of the flesh To do one is not to do the other whoever fulfils the lusts of the flesh and is rul'd by that law he is not ruled by the grace of Christ he is not regenerate by the Spirit But the other sence is the best reddition of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if he had said Walk in the Spirit and then the event will i◠that the flesh shall not prevail over you or give you laws you shall not then fulfil the lusts thereof And this is best agreeable to the purpose of the Apostle For having exhorted the Galatians that they should not make their Christian liberty a pretence to the flesh as the best remedy against their enemy the flesh he prescribes this walking in the Spirit which is a certain deletery and prevalency over the flesh And the reason follows for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh so that ye cannot do the things that ye would that is though ye be inclined to and desirous of satisfying your carnal desires yet being under the Empire and conduct of the Spirit ye cannot do those desires the Spirit over-rules you and you must you will contradict your carnal appetites For else this could not be as the Apostle designs it a reason of his exhortation For if he had meant that in this contention of flesh and Spirit we could not do the good things that we would then the reason had contradicted the proposition For suppose it thus Walk in the Spirit and fulfil not the lusts of the flesh For the flesh and the Spirit lust against each other so that ye cannot do the good ye would This I say is not sence for the latter part contradicts the former For this thing that the flesh hinders us from doing the things of the Spirit is so far from being a reason why we should walk in the Spirit that it perfectly discourages that design and it is to little purpose to walk in the Spirit if this will not secure us against the domineering and tyranny of the flesh But the contrary is most clear and consequent If ye walk in the Spirit ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh for though the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and would fain prevail yet it cannot for the Spirit also lusteth against the flesh and is stronger so that ye may not or that ye do not or that ye cannot for any of these readings as it may properly render the words of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so are not against the design of the Apostle do what ye otherwise would fain do and therefore if ye will walk in the Spirit ye are secured against the flesh 33. The result is this 1. An impious profane person sins without any contention that is with a
to their own deception that by quitting one or two lusts they may have some kind of peace in all the rest and think all is well These men sometimes would fain obey the law but they will not crucifie the flesh any thing that does not smart Their temper and constitution will allow them easily to quit such superinduc'd follies which out of a gay or an impertinent spirit they have contracted or which came to them by company or by chance or confidence or violence but if they must mortifie the flesh to quit a lust that 's too hard and beyond their powers which are in captivity to the law of sin * Some men will commute a duty and if you will allow them covetousness they will quit their lust or their intemperance according as it happens Herod did many things at the preaching of John the Baptist and heard him gladly Balaam did some things handsomely though he was covetous and ambitious yet he had a limit he would obey the voice of the Angel and could not be tempted to speak a curse when God spake a blessing Ahab was an imperfect penitent he did some things but not enough And if there be any root of bitterness there is no regeneration Colloquintida and Death is in the pot 39. V. An unregenerate man may leave some sins not only for temporal interest but out of reverence of the Divine law out of fear and reverence Under the law there were many such and there is no peradventure but that many men who like Felix have trembled at a Sermon have with such a shaking fit left off something that was fit to be laid aside To leave a sin out of fear of the Divine judgment is not sinful or totally unacceptable All that left sin in obedience and reverence to the law did it in fear of punishment because fear was the sanction of the law and even under the Gospel to obey out of fear of punishment though it be less perfect yet it is not criminal nay rather on the other side The worse that men are so much the less they are afraid of the Divine anger and judgments To abstain out of fear is to abstain out of a very proper motive and God when he sends a judgment with a design of emendation or threatens a criminal or denounces woes and cursings intends that fear should be the beginning of wisdom Knowing therefore the terrors of the Lord we perswade men saith S. Paul And the whole design of delivering criminals over to Satan was but a pursuance of this argument of fear that by feeling something they might fear a worse and for the present be affrighted from their sin And this was no other than the argument which our blessed Saviour used to the poor Paralytick Go and sin no more lest a worse thing happen to thee But besides that this good fear may work much in an unregenerate person or a man under the law such a person may do some things in obedience to God or thankfulness and perfect mere choice So Jehu obeyed God a great way but there was a turning and a high stile beyond which he would not go and his principles could not carry him through Few women can accuse themselves of adultery in the great lines of chastity they chuse to obey God and the voice of honour but can they say that their eye is not wanton that they do not spend great portions of their time in vanity that they are not idle and useless or busie-bodies that they do not make it much of their imployment to talk of fashions and trifles or that they do make it their business to practise religion to hear and attend to severe and sober counsels If they be under the conduct of the Spirit he hath certainly carried them into all the regions of duty But to go a great way and not to finish the journey is the imperfection of the unregenerate For in some persons fear or love of God is not of it self strong enough to weigh down the scales but there must be thrown in something from without some generosity of spirit or revenge or gloriousness and bravery or natural pity or interest and so far as these or any of them go along with the better principle this will prevail but when it must go alone it is not strong enough But this is a great way off from the state of sanctification or a new birth 40. VI. An unregenerate man besides the abstinence from much evil may also do many good things for Heaven and yet never come thither He may be sensible of his danger and sad condition and pray to be delivered from it and his prayers shall not be heard because he does not reduce his prayers to action and endeavour to be what he desires to be Almost every man desires to be sav'd but this desire is not with every one of that perswasion and effect as to make them willing to want the pleasures of the world for it or to perform the labours of charity and repentance A man may strive and contend in or towards the ways of godliness and yet fall short Many men pray often and fast much and pay tithes and do justice and keep the Commandments of the second Table with great integrity and so are good moral men as the word is used in opposition to or rather in destitution of religion Some are religious and not just some want sincerity in both and of this the Pharisees were a great example But the words of our blessed Saviour are the greatest testimony in this article Many shall strive to enter in and shall not be able Either they shall contend too late like the five foolish Virgins and as they whom S. Paul by way of caution likens to Esau or else they contend with incompetent and insufficient strengths they strive but put not force enough to the work An unregenerate man hath not strength enough that is he wants the spirit and activity and perfectness of resolution Not that he wants such aids as are necessary and sufficient but that himself hath not purposes pertinacious and resolutions strong enough All that is necessary to his assistance from without all that he hath or may have but that which is necessary on his own part he hath not but that 's his own fault that he might also have and it is in his duty and therefore certainly in his power to have it For a man is not capable of a law which he hath not powers sufficient to obey he must be free and quit from all its contraries from the power and dominion of them or at least must be so free that he may be quit of them if he please For there can be no liberty but where all the impediments are remov'd or may be if the man will 41. VII An unregenerate man may have received the Spirit of God and yet be in a state of distance from God For to have received the holy Ghost is not
drawn to the condemnation and final excision of such persons who after baptism fall into any great sin of which they are willing to repent 38. There is also something peculiar in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 renewing such men to repentance that is these men are not to be redintegrate and put into the former condition they cannot be restored to any other gracious Covenant of repentance since they have despis'd this Other persons who hold fast their profession and forget not that they were cleansed in baptism they in case they do fall into sin may proceed in the same method in their first renovation to repentance that is in their being solemnly admitted to the method and state of repentance for all sins known and unknown But when this renovation is renounc'd when they despise the whole Oeconomy when they reject this grace and throw away the Covenant there is nothing left for such but a fearful looking for of judgment for these persons are incapable of the mercies of the Gospel they are out of the way For there being but one way of salvation viz. by Jesus Christ whom they renounce neither Moses nor Nature nor any other name can restore them And 2. Their case is so bad and they so impious and malicious that no man hath power to perswade such men to accept of pardon by those means which they so disown For there is no means of salvation but this one and this one they hate and will not have they will not return to the old and there is none left by which they can be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 renewed and therefore their condition is desperate 39. But the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or impossible is also of special importance and consideration It is impossible to renew such For impossible is not to be understood in the natural sence but in the legal and moral There are degrees of impossibility and therefore they are not all absolute and supreme So when the law hath condemned a criminal we usually say it is impossible for him to escape meaning that the law is clearly against him Magnus ab infernis revocetur Tulliâ—s umbris Et te defendat Regulus ipse licèt Non potes absolvi That is your cause is lost you are inexcusable there is no apology no pleading for you and that the same is here meant we understand by those parallel words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is left no sacrifice for him alluding to Moses's law in which for them that sinn'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a high hand for them that despised Moses's law there was no sacrifice appointed which Ben Maimon expounds saying that for Apostates there was no sacrifice in the Law So that it is impossible to renew such means that it is ordinarily impossible we have in the discipline of the Church no door of reconciliation If he repents of this he is not the same man but if he remains so the Church hath no promise to be heard if she prays for him which is the last thing that the Church can do To absolve him is to warrant him that in this case is absolutely impossible but to pray for him is to put him into some hopes and for that she hath in this case no commission For this is the sin unto death of which S. John speaks and gives no incouragement to pray So that impossible does signifie in sensu forensi a state of sin which is sentenc'd by the Law to be capital and damning but here it signifies the highest degree of that deadliness and impossibility as there are degrees of malignity and desperation in mortal diseases for of all evils this state here described is the worst And therefore here is an impossibility 40. But besides all other sences of this word it is certain by the whole frame of the place and the very analogy of the Gospel that this impossibility here mentioned is not an impossibility of the thing but only relative to the person It is impossible to restore him whose state of evil is contrary to pardon and restitution as being a renouncing the Gospel that is the whole Covenant of pardon and repentance Such is that parallel expression used by S. John He that is born of God sinneth not neither indeed can he that is it is impossible he cannot sin for the seed of God remaineth in him Now this does not signifie that a good man cannot possibly sin if he would that is it does not signifie a natural or an absolute impossibility but such as relates to the present state and condition of the person being contrary to sin the same with that of S. Paul Be ye led by the Spirit for the spirit lusteth against the flesh so that ye cannot do the things which ye would viz. which the flesh would fain tempt you to A good man cannot sin that is very hardly can he be brought to chuse or to delight in it he cannot sin without a horrible trouble and uneasiness to himself so on the other side such Apostates as the Apostle speaks of cannot be renewed that is without extreme difficulty and a perfect contradiction to that state in which they are for the present lost But if this man will repent with a repentance proportion'd to that evil which he hath committed that he ought not to despair of pardon in the Court of Heaven we have the affirmation of Justin Martyr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They that confess and acknowledge him to be Christ and for whatsoever cause go from him to the secular conversation viz. to Heathenism or Judaism c. denying that he is Christ and not confessing him again before their death they can never be saved So that this impossibility concerns not those that return and do confess him but those that wilfully and maliciously reject this only way of salvation as false and deceitful and never return to the confession of it again which is the greatest sin against the Holy Ghost of which I am in the next place to give a more particular account SECT V. 41. HE that speaketh against the Holy Ghost it shall never be forgiven him in this world nor in the world to come so said our blessed Saviour Origen and the Novatians after him when the Scholars of Novatus to justifie their Masters Schism from the Church had chang'd the good old discipline into a new and evil doctrine said that all the sins of Christians committed after Baptism are sins against the Holy Ghost by whom in Baptism they have been illuminated and by him they were taught in the Gospel and by him they were consign'd in confirmation and promoted in all the assistances and Conduct of grace and they gave this reason for it Because the Father is in all Creatures the Son only in the Reasonable and the Holy Spirit in Christians against which if they prevaricate they shall not be pardon'd while the sins of Heathens as being only against
Rom. 5.12 As by one man sin entred into the world and Death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned i. e. As by the disobedience of Adam sin had its beginning and by sin death that is the sentence and preparations the solennities and addresses of death sickness calamity dâ—â—inution of strengths Old age misfortunes and all the affections of Mortality for the destroying of our temporal life and so this mortality and condition or state of death passed actually upon all mankind for Adam being thrown out of Paradise and forced to live with his Children where they had no Trees of Life as he had in Paradise was remanded to his mortal natural state and therefore death passed upon them mortally seized on all for that all have sinned that is the sin was reckoned to all not to make them guilty like Adam but Adams sin passed upon all imprinting this real calamity on us all But yet death descended also upon Adams Posterity for their own sins for since all did sin all should die But some Greek copies leave out the second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which indeed seems superfluous and of no signification but then the sence is cleareâ— and the following words are the second part of a similitude As by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin So death passed upon all men for that all have sinned But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies neutrally And the meaning is As Adam died in his own sin So death passed upon all men for their own sin in the sin which they sinned in that sin they died As it did at first to Adam by whom sin first entred and by sin death so death passed upon all men upon whom sin passed that is in the same method they who did sin should die But then he does not seem to say that all did sin for he presently subjoyns that death reigned even upon those who did not sin after the similitude of Adams transgression but this was upon another account as appears in the following words But others expound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie masculinely and to relate to Adam viz. that in him we all sinned Now although this is less consonant to the mind of the Apostle and is harsh and improper both in the language and in the sence yet if it were so it could mean but this that the sin of Adam was of Universal obligation and in him we are reckoned as sinners obnoxious to his sentence for by his sin humane Nature was reduced to its own mortality 13. For until the law sin was in the World but sin is not imputed where there is no law And marvel not that Death did presently descend on all mankind even before a Law was given them with an appendant penalty viz. With the express intermination of death For they did do actions unnatural and vile enough but yet these things which afterwards upon the publication of the Law were imputed to them upon their personal account even unto death were not yet so imputed For Nature alone gives Rules but does not directly bind to penalties But death came upon them before the Law for Adams sin for with him God being angry was pleased to curse him also in his Posterity and leave them also in their mere natural condition to which yet they disposed themselves and had deserved but too much by committing evil things to which things although before the law death was not threatned yet for the anger which God had against mankind he left that death which he threatned to Adam expresly by implication to fall upon the Posterity 14. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression who is the figure of him which was to come And therefore it was that death reigned from Adam to Moses from the first law to the second from the time that a Law was given to one man till the time a Law was given to one Nation and although men had not sinned so grievously as Adam did who had no excuse many helps excellent endowments mighty advantages trifling temptations communication with God himself no disorder in his faculties free will perfect immunity from violence Original righteousness perfect power over his faculties yet those men such as Abel and Seth Noah and Abraham Isaac and Jacob Joseph and Benjamin who sinned less and in the midst of all their disadvantages were left to fall under the same sentence But it is to be observed that these words even over them that had not sinned according to some Interpretations are to be put into a Parenthesis and the following words after the similitude of Adams transgression are an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to be referred to the first words thus Death reigned from Adam to Moses after the similitude of Adams transgression that is as it was at first so it was afterwards death reigned upon men who had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression that is like as it did in the transgression of Adam so it did afterward they in their innocence died as Adam did in his sin and prevarication and this was in the similitude of Adam As they who obtain salvation obtain it in the similitude of Christ or by a conformity to Christ so they 〈◊〉 die do die in the likeness of Adam Christ and Adam being the two representatives of mankind For this besides that it was the present Oeconomy of the Divine Providence and Government it did also like Janus look 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it looked forwards as well as backwards and became a type of Christ or of him that was to come For as from Adam evil did descend upon his natural Children upon the account of Gods entercourse with Adam so did good descend upon the spiritual Children of the second Adam 15. But not as the offence so also is the free gift for if through the offence of one many be dead much more the grace of God and the gift by grace which is by one man Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many This should have been the latter part of a similitude but upon further consideration it is found that as in Adam we die so in Christ we live and much rather and much more therefore I cannot say as by one man vers 12. so by one man vers 15. But much more for not as the offence so also is the free gift for the offence of one did run over unto many and those many even as it were all except Enoch or some very few more of whom mention peradventure is not made are already dead upon that account but when God comes by Jesus Christ to shew mercy to mankind he does it in much more abundance he may be angry to the third and fourth generation in them that hate him but he will shew mercy unto thousands of them that love him to a thousand generations and in ten thousand degrees
so that now although a comparison proportionate was at first intended yet the river here rises far higher than the fountain and now no argument can be drawn from the similitude of Adam and Christ but that as much hurt was done to humane nature by Adams sin so very much more good is done to mankind by the incarnation of the Son of God 16. And not as it was by one that sinned so is the gift for the judgment was by one to condemnation but the free gift is of many offences unto justification And the first disparity and excess is in this particular for the judgment was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by one man sinning one sin that one sin was imputed but by Christ not only one sin was forgiven freely but many offences were remitted unto justification and secondly a vast disparity there is in this that the descendants from Adam were perfectly like him in nature his own real natural production and they sinned though not so bad yet very much and therefore there was a great parity of reason that the evil which was threatned to Adam and not to his Children should yet for the likeness of nature and of sin descend upon them But in the other part the case is highly differing for Christ being our Patriarch in a supernatural birth we fall infinitely short of him and are not so like him as we were to Adam and yet that we in greater unlikeness should receive a greater favour this was the excess of the comparison and this is the free gift of God 17. For if by one offence so it is in the Kings MS. or if by one mans offence death reigned by one much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ. And this is the third degree or measure of excess of efficacy on Christs part over it was on the part of Adam For if the sin of Adam alone could bring death upon the world who by imitation of his transgression on the stock of their own natural choice did sin against God though not after the similitude of Adams transgression much more shall we who not only receive the aids of the spirit of grace but receive them also in an abundant measure receive also the effect of all this even to reign in life by one Jesus Christ. 18. Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation Even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life Therefore now to return to the other part of the similitude where I began although I have shown the great excess and abundance of grace by Christ over the evil that did descend by Adam yet the proportion and comparison lies in the main emanation of death from one and life from the other judgment unto condemnation that is the sentence of death came upon all men by the offence of one even so by a like Oeconomy and dispensation God would not be behind in doing an act of Grace as he did before of judgment and as that judgment was to condemnation by the offence of one so the free gift and the grace came upon all to justification of life by the righteousness of one 19. For as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous The summ of all is this By the disobedience of one man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many were constituted or put into the order of sinners they were made such by Gods appointment that is not that God could be the Author of a sin to any but that he appointed the evil which is the consequent of sin to be upon their heads who descended from the sinner and so it shall be on the other side for by the obedience of one even of Christ many shall be made or constituted righteous But still this must be with a supposition of what was said before that there was a vast difference for we are made much more righteous by Christ than we were sinners by Adam and the life we receive by Christ shall be greater than the death by Adam and the graces we derive from Christ shall be more and mightier than the corruption and declination by Adam but yet as one is the head so is the other one is the beginning of sin and death and the other of life and righteousness It were easie to add many particulars out of S. Paul but I shall chuse only to recite the Aethiopick version of the New Testament translated into Latin by that excellent Linguist and worthy Person Dr. Dudly Loftus The words are these And therefore as by the iniquity of one man sin entred into the world and by THAT SIN death came upon all men therefore because THAT SIN IS IMPUTED TO ALL MEN even those who knew not what that sin was Until the Law came sin remained in the world not known what it was when sin was not reckoned because as yet at that time the Commandment of the Law was not come Nevertheless death did after reign from Adam until Moses as well in those that did sin as in those that did not sin by that sin of Adam because every one was created in the similitude of Adam and because Adam was a type of him that was to come But not according to the quantity of our iniquity was the grace of God to us If for the offence of one man many are dead how much more by the grace of God and by the gift of him who did gratifie us by one man to wit Jesus Christ life hath abounded upon many Neither for the measure of the sin which was of one man was there the like reckoning or account of the grace of God For if the condemnation of sin proceeding from one man caus'd that by that sin all should be punished how much rather shall his grace purifie us from our sins and give to us eternal life If the sin of one made death to reign and by the offence of one man death did rule in us how much more therefore shall the grace of one man Jesus Christ and his gift justifie us and make us to reign in life eternal And as by the offence of one man many are condemned Likewise also by the righteousness of one man shall every son of man be justified and live And as by one man many are made sinners or as the Syriack Version renders it there were many sinners In like manner again many are made righteous * Now this reddition of the Apostles discourse in this Article is a very great light to the Understanding of the words which not the nature of the thing but the popular glosses have made difficult But here it is plain that all the notice of this Article which those Churches derived from these words of Saint Paul was this That the sin of Adam
brought death into the world That it was his sin alone that did the great mischief That this sin was made ours 〈◊〉 by inherence but by imputation That they who suffered the calamity did not know what the sin was That there was a difference of men even in relation to thiâ— sin and it passed upon some more than upon others that is some were more miserable than others That some did not sin by that sin of Adam and some did that is some there were whose manners were not corrupted by that example and some were that it was not our sin but his that the sin did not multiply by the variety of subject but was still but one sin and that it was his and not ours all which particulars are as so many verifications of the doctrine I have delivered and so many illustrations of the main Article But in verification of one great part of it I mean that concerning Infants and that they are not corrupted properly or made sinners by any inherent impurity is clearly affirmed by S. Peter whose words are thus rendred in the same Aethiopick Testament 1 Pet. 2.2 And be ye like unto newly begotten Infants who are begotten every one without sin or malice and as milk not mingled And to the same sence those words of our Blessed Saviour to the Pharisees asking who sinn'd this man or his Parents John 9. the Syriack Scholiast does give this Paraphrase some say it is an indirect question For how is it possible for a man to sin before he was born And if his Parents sinn'd how could he bear their sin But if they say that the punishment of the Parents may be upon the Children let them know that this is spoken of them that came out of Egypt and is not Universal And those words of David In sin hath my Mother conceived me R. David Kimchi and Abeâ—esra say that they are expounded of Eve who did not conceive till she had sinned But to return to the words of S. Paul The consequent of this discourse must needs at least be this that it is impossible that the greatest part of mankind should be left in the eternal bonds of Hell by Adam for then quite contrary to the discourse of the Apostle there had been abundance of sin but a scarcity of grace and the access had been on the part of Adam not on the part of Christ against which he so mightily and artificially contends so that the Presbyterian way is perfectly condemned by this discourse of the Apostle and the other more gentle way which affirms that we were sentenced in Adam to eternal death though the execution is taken off by Christ is also no way countenanced by any thing in this Chapter for that the judgment which for Adams sin came unto the condemnation of the world was nothing but temporal death is here affirmed it being in no sence imaginable that the death which here S. Paul says passed upon all men and which reigned from Adam to Moses should be eternal death for the Apostle speaks of that death which was threatned to Adam and of such a death which was afterwards threatned in Moses's Law and such a death which fell even upon the most righteous of Adams posterity Abel and Seth and Methuselah that is upon them who did not sin after the similitude of Adams transgression Since then all the judgment which the Apostle says came by the sin of Adam was sufficiently and plainly enough affirmed to be death temporal that God should sentence mankind to eternal damnation for Adams sin though in goodness through Christ he afterwards took it off is not at all affirmed by the Apostle and because in proportion to the evil so was the imputation of the sin it follows that Adams sin is ours metonymically and improperly God was not finally angry with us nor had so much as any designs of eternal displeasure upon that account his anger went no further than the evils of this life and therefore the imputation was not of a proper guilt for that might justly have passed beyond our grave if the sin had passed beyond a metonymy or a juridical external imputation And of this God and Man have given this further testimony that as no man ever imposed penance for it so God himself in nature did never for it afflict or affright the Conscience and yet the Conscience never spares any man that is guilty of a known sin Extemplo quodcunque malum committitur ipsi Displicet Authori He that is guilty of a sin Shall rue the crime that he lies in And why the Conscience shall be for ever at so much peace for this sin that a man shall never give one groan for his share of guilt in Adams sin unless some or other scares him with an impertinent proposition why I say the Conscience should not naturally be afflicted for it nor so much as naturally know it I confess I cannot yet make any reasonable conjecture save this only that it is not properly a sin but only metonymically and improperly And indeed there are some whole Churches which think themselves so little concerned in the matter of Original sin that they have not a word of it in all their Theology I mean the Christians in the East-Indies concerning whom Frier Luys di Vrretta in his Ecclesiastical story of Aethiopia says That the Christians in Aethiopia under the Empire of Prestre Juan never kept the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary no so entremetieron en essas Theologias del peccato Original porque mâ—nca tuvieron los entendimientes muy metafisicos antes como gente afable benigna Llana de entendimientos conversables y alaguenos seguian la dotrina de los santos antiguos y de los sagrados Concilios sin disputas ni diferencias nor do they insert into their Theology any propositions concerning Original Sin nor trouble themselves with such Metaphysical contemplations but being of an affable ingenuous gentle comportment and understanding follow the Doctrine of the Primitive Saints and Holy Councils without disputation or difference so says the story But we unfortunately trouble our selves by raising Ideas of Sin and afflict our selves with our own dreams and will not believe but it is a vision And the height of this imagination hath wrought so high in the Church of Rome that when they would do great honours to the Virgin Mary they were pleased to allow to her an immaculate conception without any Original Sin and a Holy-day appointed for the celebration of the dream But the Christians in the other world are wiser and trouble themselves with none of these things but in simplicity honour the Divine attributes and speak nothing but what is easie to be understood And indeed Religion is then the best and the world will be sure to have fewer Atheists and fewer Blasphemers when the understandings of witty men are not tempted by commanding them to believe impossible Articles and unintelligible propositions when every thing is
not also serve their own ends in giving their Princes such untoward counsel but we find the Laws made severally to several purposes in divers cases and with different severity Constantine the Emperour made a Sanction Vt parem cum fidelibus ii qui errant pacis quietis fruitionem gaudentes accipiant The Emperour Gratian decreed Vt quam quisque vellet religionem sequeretur conventus Ecclesiasticos semoto metu omnes agerent But he excepted the Manichees the Photinians and Eunomians Theodosius the elder made a law of death against the Anabaptists of his time and banished Eunomius and against other erring persons appointed a pecuniary mulct but he did no executions so severe as his sanctions to shew they were made in terrorem onely So were the Laws of Valentinian and Martian decreeing contra omnes qui prava docere tentant that they should be put to death so did Michael the Emperour but Justinian onely decreed banishment 13. But whatever whispers some Politicks might make to their Princes as the wisest and holiest did not think it lawfull for Churchmen alone to doe executions so neither did they transmit such persons to the Secular judicature And therefore when the Edict of Macedonius the President was so ambiguous that it seemed to threaten death to Hereticks unless they recanted S. Austin admonished him carefully to provide that no Heretick should be put to death alledging it not onely to be unchristian but illegal also and not warranted by Imperial constitutions for before his time no Laws were made for their being put to death but however he prevailed that Macedonius published another Edict more explicite and lesse seemingly severe But in his Epistle to Donatus the African Proconsul he is more confident and determinate Necessitate nobis impactâ indictâ ut potiùs occîdi ab eis eligamus quà m eos occidendos vestris judiciis ingeramus 14. But afterwards many got a trick of giving them over to the Secular power which at the best is no better then Hypocrisie removing envy from themselves and laying it upon others a refusing to doe that in externall act which they doe in counsel and approbation which is a transmitting the act to another and retaining a proportion of guilt unto themselves even their own and the others too I end this with the saying of Chrysostome Dogmata impia quae ab haereticis profecta sunt arguere anathematizare oportet hominibus autem parcendum pro salute eorum orandum SECT XV. How far the Church or Governours may act to the restraining false or differing Opinions BUT although Hereticall persons are not to be destroyed yet Heresie being a work of the flesh and all Hereticks criminal persons whose acts and Doctrine have influence upon Communities of men whether Ecclesiasticall or civil the Governours of the Republick or Church respectively are to doe their duties in restraining those mischiefs which may happen to their several charges for whose indemnity they are answerable And therefore according to the effect or malice of the Doctrine or the person so the cognizance of them belongs to several Judicatures If it be false Doctrine in any capacity and doth mischief in any sense or teaches ill life in any instance or encourages evil in any particular 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these men must be silenced they must be convinced by sound Doctrine and put to silence by spiritual evidence and restrained by Authority Ecclesiasticall that is by spiritual Censures according as it seems necessary to him who is most concern'd in the regiment of the Church For all this we have precept and precedent Apostolicall and much reason For by thus doing the Governour of the Church uses all that Authority that is competent and all the means that is reasonable and that proceeding which is regular that he may discharge his cure and secure his flock And that he possibly may be deceived in judging a Doctrine to be hereticall and by consequence the person excommunicate suffers injury is no argument against the reasonableness of the proceeding For all the injury that is is visible and in appearance and so is his crime Judges must judge according to their best reason guided by Law of God as their Rule and by evidence and appearance as their best instrument and they can judge no better If the Judges be good and prudent the errour of proceeding will not be great nor ordinary and there can be no better establishment of humane judicature then is a fallible proceeding upon an infallible ground And if the judgement of Heresie be made by estimate and proportion of the Opinion to a good or a bad life respectively supposing an errour in the deduction there will be no malice in the conclusion and that he endeavours to secure piety according to the best of his understanding and yet did mistake in his proceeding is onely an argument that he did his duty after the manner of men possibly with the piety of a Saint though not with the understanding of an Angel And the little inconvenience that happens to the person injuriously judged is abundantly made up in the excellency of the Discipline the goodnesse of the example the care of the publick and all those great influences into the manners of men which derive from such an act so publickly consign'd But such publick judgement in matters of Opinion must be seldome and curious and never but to secure piety and a holy life for in matters speculative as all determinations are fallible so scarce any of them are to purpose nor ever able to make compensation of either side either for the publick fraction or the particular injustice if it should so happen in the censure 2. But then as the Church may proceed thus far yet no Christian man or Community of men may proceed farther For if they be deceived in their judgement and censure and yet have passed onely spiritual censures they are totally ineffectual and come to nothing there is no effect remaining upon the Soul and such censures are not to meddle with the body so much as indirectly But if any other judgement passe upon persons erring such judgements whose effects remain if the person be unjustly censured nothing will answer and make compensation for such injuries If a person be excommunicate unjustly it will doe him no hurt but if he be killed or dismembred unjustly that censure and infliction is not made ineffectual by his innocence he is certainly killed and dismembred So that as the Churche's Authority in such cases so restrained and made prudent cautelous and orderly is just and competent so the proceeding is reasonable it is provident for the publick and the inconveniences that may fall upon particulars so little as that the publick benefit makes ample compensation so long as the proceeding is but spiritual 3. This discourse is in the case of such Opinions which by the former rules are formal Heresies and upon practicall inconveniences But
of us from Heaven they that say that not every solution or breaking of them is exclusive from Heaven which are the words of Bellarmine and the doctrine of the Roman Church must even by the consequence of this very gloss of his fall under the danger of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the false teachers or the breakers of them by false interpretation However fearful is the malediction even to the breakers of the least 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that I may use the words of Theophylact he shall be last in the resurrection and shall be thrown into Hell for that is the meaning of least in the Kingdom of Heaven fortasse ideò non erit in regno coelorum ubi nisi magni esse non possunt said S. Austin least is none at all for into Heaven none can enter but they which are great in Gods account 19. VII Lastly God hath given us the perpetual assistances of his Spirit the presence of his grace the ministery of his word the fear of judgments the endearment of his mercies the admonition of friends the severity of Preachers the aid of Books the apprehension of death the sense of our daily dangers our continual necessities and the recollection of our prayers and above all he hath promised Heaven to the obedient which is a state of blessings so great and infinite as upon the account of them it is infinitely reasonable and just if he shall exact of us every sin that is every thing which we can avoid 20. Upon this account it is that although wise and prudent men do not despise the continual endearments of an old friend yet in many cases God may and doth and from the rules and proper measures of humane friendship to argue up to a presumption of Gods easiness in not exacting our duty is a fallacious proceeding but it will deceive no body but our selves 21. II. Every sin is directly against Gods law and therefore is damnable and deadly in the accounts of the Divine justice one as well though not so grievously as another For though sins be differenc'd by greater and less yet their proportion to punishment is not differenc'd by Temporal and Eternal but by greater and less in that kind which God hath threatned So Origen Vnusquisque pro qualitate quantitate peccati diversam mulctae sententiam expendit Si parum est quod peccas ferieris damnâ— minuti ut Lucas scripsit ut verò Matthaeus quadrantis Veruntamen necesse est hoc ipsum quod eâ—estitisti debitor solvere Non enim inde exibis nisi minima quaeque persolveris Every one according to the quantity and quality of his sin must pay his fine but till he hath paid he shall not be loosed from those fearful prisons that is he shall never be loosed if he agree not before he comes thither The smallest offence is a sin and therefore it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a transgression of the Law a violation of that band by which our obedience unites us unto God And this the holy Scripture signifies unto us in various expressions For though the several words are variously used in sacred and profane writers yet all of them signifie that even the smallest sin is a prevarication of the Holy laws 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Damascen calls sin which we render well by Transgression and even those words which in distinction signifie a small offence yet they also signifie the same with the greater words to shew that they all have the same formality and do the same displeasure or at least that by the difference of the words no difference of their natures can be regularly observed Sins against God only are by Phavorinus called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the same word is also used for sin against our neighbours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If thy brother sin against thee that is do thee injury and this is properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 injustice But Demosthenes distinguishes injustice from sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by voluntary and involuntary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that does wrong willingly is unjust he that does it unwillingly is a sinner 22. The same indistinction is observable in the other words of Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is by S. Hierome used for the beginnings of sin Cum cogitatio tacita subrepit ex aliquâ— parte conniventibus nobis nec dum tamen nos impulit ad ruinam when a sudden thought invades us without our advertency and observation and hath not brought forth death as yet and yet that death is appendent to whatsoever it be that can be signified by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we may observe because the sin of Adam that called death upon all the world is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and of the Ephesian Gentiles S. Paul said they had been dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in trespasses and sins and therefore it cannot hence be inferred that such little obliquities or beginnings of greater sins are only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 besides the law not against it for it is at least the word hinders not but it may be of the same kind of malignity as was the sin of Adam And therefore S. Austin renders the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 delictum or offence and so do our Bibles And the same also is the case of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is attributed even to concupiscence or the beginnings of mischief by S. Paul and by S. Hierome but the same is used for the consummation of concupiscence in the matter of uncleanness by S. James Lust when it hath conceived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 peccatum is the Latin word which when it is used in a distinct and pressed sence it is taken for the lesser sins and is distinguished from crimen Paulus Orosius uses it to signifie only the concupiscence or sinful thoughts of the heart and when it breaks forth to action he calls it a crime peccatum cogitatio concipit crimen verò non nisi actus ostendit and it was so used by the ancient Latins Peccatus it was called by them quasi pellicatus that inticing which is proper to uncleanness So Cicero in A. Gellius Nemo ita manifesto peccatu tenebatur ut cum impudens fuisset in facto tum impudentior videretur si negaret Thus the indistinction of words mingles all their significations in the same common notion and formality They were not sins at all if they were not against a Law and if they be they cannot be of their own nature venial but must be liable to that punishment which was threatned in the Law whereof that action is a transgression 23. II. The Law of God never threatens the justice of God never inflicts punishment but upon transgressors of his Laws the smallest offences are not only threatned but may be punished with death therefore
they are transgressions of the Divine Law So S. Basil argues Nullum peccatum contemnendum ut parvum quando D. Paulus de omni peccato generatim pronunciaverat stimulum mortis esse peccatum The sting of death is sin that is death is the evil consequent of sin and comes in the tail of it of every sin and therefore no sin must be despised as if it were little Now if every little sin hath this sting also as it is on all hands agreed that it hath it follows that every little transgression is perfectly and intirely against a Commandment And indeed it is not sence to say any thing can in any sence be a sin and that it should not in the same sence be against a Commandment For although the particular instance be not named in the Law yet every instance of that matter must be meant It was an extreme folly in Bellarmine to affirm Peccatum veniale ex parvitate materiae est quidem perfectè voluntarium sed non perfectè contra legem Lex enim non prohibet furtum uniu◠oboli in specie sed prohibet furtum in genere That a sin that is venial by the smalness of the matter is not perfectly against the Law because the Law forbids theft indeed in the general but does not in particular forbid the stealing of a half-peny for upon the same reason it is not perfectly against the Law to steal three pound nineteen shillings three pence because the Law in general only forbids theft but does not in particular forbid the stealing of that summ * But what is besides the Law and not against it cannot be a sin and therefore to fancy any sin to be only besides the Law is a contradiction so to walk to ride to eat flesh or herbs to wear a long or a short garment are said to be besides the Law but therefore they are permitted and indifferent Indifferent I say in respect of that Law which relates to that particular matter and indifferent in all sences unless there be some collateral Law which may prohibit it indirectly So for a Judge to be a Coachman for a Priest to be a Fidler or Inne-keeper are not directly unlawful but indirectly they are as being against decency and publick honesty or reputation or being inconvenient in order to that end whither their calling is design'd To this sence are those words of S. Paul All things are lawful for me but all things are not expedient That is some things which directly are lawful by an indirect obligation may become unfit to be done but otherwise Licitum est quod nullâ lege prohibetur saith the Law If no Law forbids it then it is lawful and to abstain from what is lawful though it may have a worthiness in it more than ordinary yet to use our liberty is at no hand a sin The issue then is this either we are forbidden to do a venial sin or we are not If we are not forbidden then it is as lawful to do a venial sin as to marry or eat flesh If we are forbidden then every such action is directly against Gods Law and consequently finable at the will of the supreme Judge and if he please punishable with a supreme anger And to this purpose there is an excellent observation in S. Austin Peccatum delictum si nihil differrent inter se si unius rei duo nomina essent non curaret Scriptura tam diligentèr unum esse utriusque sacrificium There are several names in Scripture to signifie our wandrings and to represent the several degrees of sin but carefully it is provided for that they should be expiated with the same sacrifice which proves that certainly they are prevarications of the same Law offences of the same God provocations of the same anger and heirs of the same death and even for small offences a Sacrifice was appointed lest men should neglect what they think God regarded not 24. III. Every sin even the smallest is against Charity which is the end of the Commandment For every sin or evil of transgression is far worse than all the evils of punishment with which mankind is afflicted in this world and it is a less evil that all mankind should be destroyed than that God should be displeased in the least instance that is imaginable Now if we esteem the loss of our life or our estate the wounding our head or the extinction of an eye to be great evils to us and him that does any thing of this to us to be our enemy or to be injurious we are to remember that God hates every sin worse than we can hate pain or beggery And if a nice and a tender conscience the spirit of every excellent person does extremely hate all that can provoke God to anger or to jealousie it must be certain that God hates every such thing with an hatred infinitely greater so great that no understanding can perceive the vastness of it and immensity For by how much every one is better by so much the more he hates every sin and the soul of a righteous man is vexed and afflicted with the inrodes of his unavoidable calamities the armies of Egypt the Lice and Flies his insinuating creeping infirmities Now if it be holiness in him to hate these little sins it is an imitation of God for what is in us by derivation is in God essentially therefore that which angers a good man and ought so to do displeases God and consequently is against charity or the love of God For it is but a vain dream to imagine that because just men such who are in the state of grace and of the love of God do commit smaller offences therefore they are not against the love of God for every degree of cold does abate something of the heat in any hot body but yet because it cannot destroy it all cold and heat may be consistent in the same subject but no man can therefore say they are not contraries and would not destroy each other if they were not hindred by something else and so would the smallest offences also destroy the life of grace if they were not destroyed themselves But of this afterwards For the present let it be considered how it can possibly consist with our love to God with that duty that commands us to love him with all our heart with all our strength with all our might and with all our soul how I say it can be consistent with a love so extended so intended to entertain any thing that he hates so essentially To these particulars I add this one consideration That since there is in the world a fierce opinion that some sins are so slight and little that they do not destroy our relation to God and cannot break the sacred tie of friendship he who upon the inference and presumption of that opinion shall chuse to commit such small sins which he thinks to be the All that is