to act therein And 3. Of cruelty that God who is so ready to forgive us our own sinnes yet should impute to us Adam's But these are fig leaves only and cannot cover the Objectors nakedness SECT II. FOr First We do not say That the Nature of man as it was created first had this imbred pollution in it No it came out of Gods hands pure and clean Eccles 7. ult God made man upright It was after Gods own Image that he made him he had no experimental knowledge of any evil within him But as it was with the earth after mans fall it brought forth bryars and thorns being cursed which as it is thought it would not have done so before Thus upon Adams transgression then and not till then was his soul cursed spiritually to bring forth nothing but bryars and thorns such lusts as were fit combustible matter for hell fire Therefore every Infant almost may understand this That the maintaining of this Truth doth not at all redound to Gods dishonour for we see the like in the Devils Are not they become wicked spirits Is there not an utter impossibility in a Devil to do any thing that is good Are they not called the spiritual wickednesses in high places Ephes 6. 12. as if they were nothing but all over wickedness yet the Devil though so vile and abominable was made a glorious creature None of this poison was at first infused into him but the Apostle Jude ver 6 layeth it wholly upon themselves That they kept not their first estate but left their own habitation The Devils then though so full of wickedness yet are not a reproach to God their Maker but it was through their own wilfulness they became such Apostates Hence in the second place Adam when he first transgressed that command of God and thereby involved all mankind in darkness and misery did it from a voluntary free principle within there was no internal or external necessity compelling him to sinne for he was made with the image of God in him and that matter wherein he did transgress he might easily have attained from God giving him liberty to eat of all other trees so that it was meerly and solely from Adams own will that he undid himself and all his posterity It is true God if he had pleased could have prevented his sinning he could have confirmed him in such grace as we see he did the other Angels that fell not whereby he would certainly have been preserved from all sinne but God is the supreme Sovereign and is not tied up as men are to inferiour Laws It is true he is an eternal Law of Righteousness to himself whereby he cannot do any thing but what is just and righteous yet he hath also an absolute Dominion over all things and may dispose of his creatures as he pleaseth and from this it was that he created man with power to fall as well as to stand making him mutable and changeable whereas the glorified Saints in Heaven shall be delivered from such mutability and there shall not be in them a posse peccare a power to sinne so greatly shall their souls be perfected in Heaven So that still you see God is freed and mans destruction is of himself Hence also in the third place when Adam sinned at first it was not after the same manner as we sinne for when we sinne this floweth from a corrupted nature within Jam. 1. 17. Every one is tempted and drawn aside with the lust that is within him But in Adam there was no such vicious principle It is therefore a false and dangerous position of the Socinians That we sinne in the same manner that he did That we have no more corrupted Nature in us then he had but as he had a free-will by which he chose either good or evil so it is with us But this speaketh open defiance against the Scripture For was Adam by nature the child of wrath Were the imaginations of his thoughts only evil and that continually Could Adam say He found a Law of sinne in his Members warring against the Law of his mind Adam's sinne therefore came from the meer mutability and changeableness that was in his will there being no antecedent corruption in him Insomuch that it hath greatly exercised learned Divines to shew how Adam could sinne and wherein the imperfection did first break forth he being made after the Image of God but in us our sinfulness ariseth from a necessity contracted by the first voluntary transgression and so have a corrupt nature which inclineth to all corrupt actions Adam was in some sense a good Tree and yet did bring forth bad Fruit a sweet Fountain and yet did send forth bitter Streams Here we might say a Vine brought sorth Thorns and a Fig Thistles but we are bad Trees poisoned Fountains Briars and Thorns only from the paralleling of our selves with Adam we may conclude our incurableness as also the danger we are in by every temptation For if Adam though without any corrupt principle within him though without the least spark of any lust was yet so easily inflamed by a temptation What may we expect who have the seed of all evil within us If the green Ivy shall take fire so soon what will the dry Tree do Oh take heed of coming near any occasion of sinne As our Saviour said Remember Lots wife so do thou Adams wife yea and Adam himself These though created holy though without any lustful inclination yet did presently yeeld to the temptations of sinne What then wilt not thou do If Samson with his strength cannot resist the Philistims much less when that is gone can he withstand them But of this difference between Adam and us in sinning more in its time In the fourth place God is to be justified though we be born full of sinne because we are to distinguish between nature it self and the corruption cleaving to it We say our Nature our Essence and Substance our Souls and Bodies in respect of their natural Being are the work of God and we are with David to admire the curious workmanship of God in respect of our Bodies The excellent composition of all the bodily parts did convince even Galen though otherwise an Heathen God therefore as a Creator is to be praised and glorified by us only as Austin of old we must not so praise Deum Creatorem as to make Superfluum Servatorem We must not so celebrate the name of God as a Creator that thereby we should make a Saviour superfluous and unnecessary Sub laudibus naturae latent inimici gratiae under the praises of Nature the enemies of Grace hide themselves and so under the praises of God as a Creator the enemies of Christ as a Saviour shelter themselves Nature then we say is good our Substance and Being is of God onely the defilement annexed inseparably thereunto is of man Even as in our bodies the substance of them is of God but God did not
up against it makes him rage at it as the Apostle doth abundantly testifie in this Chapter he tels us This Law of sinne did warre and fight against the Law of God it did lead him captive it conquered and subdued him against his will If then a godly man find this Law of sinne so powerfull and operative in him No wonder if men wholly carnal and natural they finde the Law of sinne as fully prevailing over them as the Devils did on the herd of Swine which they hurried violently into the sea without any resistance As then the Devil when he possessed some bodies provoked and moved them to many violent and sudden actions which they could not gainsay Thus doth the Law of sinne in men naturally it provoketh it instigateth it turneth the soul upside down it is continually pressing and enclining to evil which makes the Scripture say Gen. 6. That the imaginations of the thoughts of mans heart is only evil and that continually Thirdly Original sinne is a Law because by this a man is bound and captivated to the lusts thereof there is an indissoluble union till death Thus the Apostle argueth from the Law of an Husband and his Wife she cannot marry another while her Husband lives Neither can we be married to Christ while this is predominant yea we must die ere we be wholly freed of it Fourthly Original sinne is called a Law of sinne within us because of the injurious command and rule it hath in every man by nature And this indeed is the most explicite and formal reason why it is called a Law for to a Law there is not onely required a directive power for so counsels and admonitions have which are no Laws but there must be also a preceptive and commanding power so that a Law hath vim coactivum a compelling force to have a thing done and in this respect the Apostle gives it this Title of a Law of sinne within us for even in the person of a regenerate man What sad complaints doth he make of this tyrannical power of sinne within him He is not his own man he cannot do what he would yea he doth what he would not insomuch that he cals himself carnal and sold under sinne These expressions are so great that therefore some have thought they could not be applied to a godly man For it is said of Ahab as a sure Character of his wickednesse That he sold himself to do evil 1 Kings 21. 20. but Ahab did that willingly Paul is here passive he is sold against his will because sinne hath such tyranny over him Therefore the afflicted Israelite did not more groan to be delivered from his oppression than Paul crieth out to be delivered from this body of sinne Well therefore may this birth-pollution be called The Law of sinne within us for it ruleth all it commands the whole man what sinne bids us think we think what it bids us do we do No natural man can do othewise The Apostle speaks peremptorily They that are in the flesh cannot please God Rom. 8. 7 8. And the carnal minde is not subject to God neithe indeed can be Oh the miserable and unhappy estate we are all then in by this original sinne We cannot but sinne we do not love that which is good neither can we The Law of sinne hath wholly enslaved us Though all the curses of the Law be denounced against us yet we cannot but sinne As venemous creatures cannot vent that which is sweet but necessarily that which is poison yet as Bernard of old said well This necessity in sinning doth not take off from voluntarinesse and delight in it neither doth the delight take off from the necessity Lastly It may be called The Law of sinne saith Aquinas Because it 's that effect of Gods penal Law inflicted upon mankind because of Adam's transgression So that upon Adam 's sinne God hath so ordered that it should be by way of a punishment upon us to be prone unto all evil For as you heard this original sinne is both a sinne and a punishment So that as God hath appointed that every man should die it is a Law that shall never be repealed so likewise that every one born of man in a natural way should be unclean and have a fountain within him daily emptying it self into poisonous streams Vse To be informed whence it is that thy heart is so out of all measure evil whence it is that no godly thing is pleasing to thee whence it is that upon searching into thy heart thou findest a noisom dunghill there that thou art never able to go to the bottom whence it is that lust is so ready at hand alwayes that sinne alwayes appeareth first in thy soul All this is because original corruption is by way of a Law in thee That teacheth to sinne that instigateth to sinne yea that commands and imperiously puts thee on to all manner of evil If you do not feel this heavy thraldome and pressure upon you it is not because it is not there but because thou art dead in sin and hast no feeling of it Solemon speaking of a good woman hath this notable expression Prov. 31. 26. The Law of kindnesse is in her lips The Law of kindnesse she cannot but be loving and friendly in all she saith Now on the contrary The Law of sinne is all over thee The Law of sinne is in thy heart the Law of sinne is in thy mind the Law of sinne is in thy eyes in thy tongue thou canst not but sinne in and by these CHAP. III. Of the Name The Sinne that dwelleth in us given to Original Sinne. SECT I. Of the Combate between the Flesh and Spirit ROM 7. 17. Now then it is no more I that do it but sinne that dwelleth in me THis excellent Chapter which containeth the heart and life of the Doctrine of Original Sinne so that it may be called the Divine Map thereof describing all the parts and extents of it will afford us many testimonies for the confirmation of it We therefore proceed to another name that we find here described to us in this Text viz. The sinne that dwelleth in us The Apostle you heard as we take for granted doth here speak in his own person and so of every regenerate man that there is a conflict and a combate between the flesh and the Spirit In all such there are two Twins strugling in the womb of the soul which causeth much grief and trouble of heart which the Apostle doth in a most palpable and experimental manner relate in this passage vers 15. That which I do I allow not for what I would that I do not but what I hate that I do Now you must understand this aright lest it prove a stumbling blâck For First The Apostle speaks not this as a man meerly convinced but yet carried away with strong corruptions This is not to patrocinate those who live in sinnes against their conscience but have some
not the effect of it Because we are thus sinful and polluted by nature therefore all our actions are likewise so polluted Now then if the Scripture make it such an impossible thing for a man accustomed only to evil to become a changed man that impossibility lieth upon a man who is naturally so For though custom be called a second Nature yet certainly the first Nature is more implanted and so more active in a man This particular therefore may greatly humble a man in that sinne is so deeply rooted in him it 's worse than an habit or custom of sinning It goeth as neer to thy very essence and substance as it can do and yet not be thy substance Therefore the Scripture cals it Flesh and blood The members of a man The Law of sinne in his flesh If a man hath a thorn in his flesh how restless and pained is he Paul compared that heavy temptation he grapled with to a Thorn in the flesh but although by nature we have this thorn not only in our sides but even all over the whole man yet we can lie down in ease and live in pleasure as if nothing ailed us but this is one deadly effect of original sinne that it takes away all sense and feeling whether there be any such thing or no. Oh then let the thoughts of this sinne go as deep into thee as the sinne it self Sinne is got into thy heart let sorrow get thither Sinne hath entred into thy bowels and filled the whole man brimme full as we say Oh let shame and holy confusion be as deep and as complete in thee SECT VIII SEventhly This naturality will appear If we consider that original righteousness which God created man in For our original sinne comes in the place thereof and such a perfection as that was to the soul such a defect is this to us Now the Orthodox do maintain against Papists That that original righteousness was not a supernatural perfection superadded to mans nature but a due and natural perfection concreated with him For as Adam being made to glorifie God was thereby to have a rational soul so also such perfection in that soul which might make him capable of his end otherwise man would have been created in a more imperfect and ignoble condition than any creature It is true indeed That Righteousness and Holiness Adam had which the Scripture cals Gods Image did not flow from the principles of nature neither was it a natural consequent thereof but yet it was a moral condition or perfection due to Adam supposing God created him to such an end and therefore we are not to conceive of that Image of God as an infused habit or habits which were to rectifie and guide the natural faculties and affections of the soul which otherwise would move in repugnancy and contrariety to one another but as a natural rectitude and innate ability of those powers and affections of the soul to move regularly and subordinately to Gods will Though therefore in respect of God that Righteousness Adam had might be called supernatural because it was his gift yet in respect of man the subject so it was connatural and a suitable perfection to his nature This being taken for a sure Truth then it will exceedingly help us to the true understanding of the naturality of this evil for original sinne succeeding in the stead thereof is not as some Papists affirm like the taking of cloaths from a man and so leaving him naked or like the taking away of a bridle from an horse all which are superadded and external helps as it were but it 's like death that takes away the life of a man in respect of what is holy and godly and like an heavy disease that doth much hinder and debilitate even the natural operations This original sinne then is like the spoiling of an instrument of Musick or the deordination of a Clock or Watch when not able to perform their proper service they were made for So that original sinne is partly the want of this original Righteousness that was so connatural and partly thereby a propensity and inclination to all evil For as when the harmony of the humours is dissolved presently diseases arise in the body Thus when that admirable rectitude which was at first in the whole man was broken then all inordinacy all perversness and crookedness presently began to possess the whole man As then original Righteousness was not as an infused habit but the faculties of the soul duly constituted whereby they did regularly move in their several wayes so original sin is not to be conceived like some acquired habit polluting the powers of the soul but as the internal defect and imperfection that is cleaving to them Even as the paralitical hand whensoever it moveth doth it with feebleness and trembling wanting some strength within If therefore we would truly judge of the horrible nature of this sinne we must throughly understand the excellency and wonderful nature of that original Righteousness which is now lost then all things in the soul were in an admirable subordination to that which is holy and although the sensitive appetite was then carried out to some sensible object yet it was with a subordination to the understanding so that in that state of integrity there did not need as the Papists say Righteousness as a bridle to curb in the passions and affections which otherwise would be inordinate for this were to attribute a proneness to sinne in us to God himself for he is the author of every thing which is natural in us but all the affections and sensitive motions were then subjected to the command of reason so that Adam had power to love when and as long and in what measure he pleased All the affections of his soul were both quoad originem gradum and progressum under his dominion Even as the Artificer can make his Clock strike when and as many times as he pleaseth But wo be unto us all this excellent harmony and subordination is now lost and our affections they captivate and rule over our judgments and all this is because ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã there wants something within as he said of his Image that he could not make stand because it wanted life within SECT IX EIghthly That this original sinne is a natural evil appeareth From the work of grace sanctifying which is the proper remedy to cure this imbred defilement For the grace of Regeneration is chiefly and principally intended to subdue sinne as it did corrupt the nature and so by consequence as we were personally corrupted Therefore the tree must first be made good ere the fruit can be good as the tree is in its nature evil and then it brings forth evil fruit So that God in vouchsafing of this grace of Regeneration doth not principally intend to make thee leave thy actual sinnes for that is by consequence only but to make thy nature better to repair his Image in thee
the natural Law which was at first in the Creation of man but that primordial and original Law is the same for substance with the moral though differing in some respects To the Argument therefore we say First That as this original sinne is voluntary voluntate causae which was Adam's will so it is also against a Law which was enjoyned Adam For although Adam had not a Law upon him in respect of the beginning or original of the righteousness he had he being created in that and so was not capable of any Law yet in respect of the preservation and continuation of this for himself and his posterity so he had a Law imposed on him and therefore violating of that Law we in him also did violate it You see then this original sin is a transgression of that Law which Adam was under viz. the continuation of the righteousness he was created in both for himself and his posterity Secondly Even by the moral Law or the Decalogue this original corruption is forbidden The Apostle Rom. 7. sheweth That he had not known lust to be a sinne had not the Law said Theu shalt not lust So that as the Law forbiddeth actual lusting thus it doth also the principle and root of it for the Law is spiritual and in its obligation reacheth to the fountain and root of all sin it doth not only prohibit the sinfull motions of thy soul but the cause of all these Even as when it commands any holy duty to love God for instance it requireth that inward sanctification of the whole man whereby he is inabled to love God upon right and induring grounds otherwise if this were not so the habits of sinne would not be against Gods Law nor the habits of Grace required by it as therefore it was with Adam his actual transgression was directly and immediately forbidden by the Law of God but that habital depravation of the whole man which came thereupon was forbidden remotely and by consequence Thus it is with that native contagion we are born in and this should teach us in every sin we commit to think the Law doth not forbid and condemn this actual sin only but the very inward principle of it say to thy self Alas I should not only be without such vain thoughts such vain affections but without an inclination thereunto Therefore mark the Apostle reasoning Ephes 4. 22 24 25. When he had exhorted them to put off the old man that is original sinne and to put on the new man which is the Image of God immediately opposing that See what he inferreth thereupon Wherefore put away lying they must leave that actual sinne because they have in measure subdued original sinne Thus it holds in all other sins put away pride earthliness prophaneness because the old man is first put away in some degrees But oh how little do men attend to this They think of their actual sins they say This I have done is against Gods Law but go no deeper they do not further consider but God forbids and layeth his axe to the root as well as the branches the fruit Thirdly A sinne doth not therefore cease to be a sin because the Law doth not now forbid it it was enough if it were once forbidden and contrary to Gods Law otherwise we might say That all sins which are past are no sins for the Law doth not require that what hath been done should be undone again or not to be done for that is impossible ex natura rei If therefore ever original sinne hath been under a Law prohibitive of it that is enough to make it a sin though now it cannot be helped Hence Almain the Schoolman hath a distinction of Debitum praecepti and Debitum statuti which other Schoolmen also mention now they apply it thus To be born without sin is not say they Debitum praecepti it doth not become due by any precept or command but it is Debitum statuti that is God had first appointed such an order that whosoever should come of Adam should be born in that righteousness which Adam was created in and was to preserve for himself and his posterity so that though there be no direct Praeceptum divinum yet they say there is Ordinatio divina that we should have been born without sinne Although we need not runne to this because it is now against the moral Law of God as you heard proved SECT VI. ANother Objection is from the Justice Equity and Righteousness of God as also his Mercy and Goodness How can it be thought consonant to any of these attributes that we should be involved in guilt and sinne because of anothers especially they urge that Ezek. 18. 18 19. where God saith The child shall not bear the sins of his father and the Lord doth it to stop their prophane caâil against his wayes as if they were not equal because the fathers did eat sour grapes and the childrens teeth were set on edge The Remonstrants are so confident that in their Apology cap. 7. they say Neither Scripture nor Gods Truth nor his Justice nor his Mercy and Equity nor the Nature of sinne will permit this To answer this First It is not my purpose at this time to enter into that great Debate Whether the sins of parents are punished in their children And it so How it stands with the Justice of God It is plain That in the second Commandment it is said That God being a jealous God because of Idolatry he will visit the sins of such persons to the third and fourth generation The same likewise is attributed unto God Exod. 34. 7. when his glorious Properties are described experience also in the destruction of Sedom and Gomorrah as also in the drowning of the world doth abundantly testifie this For no doubt there was in those places as God said of Ninevch many little ones that did not know the right hand from the left and so could not have any consent to the actual iniquities of their Parents To reconcile therefore that place of Ezek. 18. where God saith The child shall not bear the iniquity of his Father with those former places hath exercised the thoughts of the most learned men variously endeavouring to unty that knot Though I find some of late understanding that of Ezekiel only for that particular occasion as it did concern the Jews in their particular judgment of Captivity who complained that for their fathers iniquities they were transported into a strange Land So that they think it not to be extended universally but limited to that people only and at that time and that alone to that Land of Israel because they were driven from their own Countrey But whether this Interpretation will abide firm or no it is certain that the Text doth not militate against our cause in hand For 1. As hath been shewed There is not the same reason of parents since Adam 's fall as of Adam for he was a common person and
Adam in that he was the ãâã of mankind was a kind of universal cause and so by his corrupt act all mankind was corrupted Vse Of Instruction That nothing more is requisite on our part to be partaker of Adam's sinne and to be made unclean but natural generation and descent from Adam It 's true there is on Gods part also a Covenant and his imputation otherwise Adam's sinne would not have been ours no more than other parents but on our parts there is no other way of conveying it but by natural descent from him whereas to be in Christ and to partake of his divine benefit there is required a supernatural work upon us a spiritual insition and incorporation of us into Christ but to be a sinner in Adam our very being born in a natural way before we are able to know or will any thing or to discern the right hand from the left is enough to intitle us to it Oh then with what shame sorrow and holy confusion of face should we think of this our natural uncleanness How vile and loathsom should we be in our eyes Oh the distance and contrariety that is between so holy and pure a God and thou an impure and unclean wretch If our righteousnesses are menstruous rags how abominable then is our real iniquity CHAP. XI A Fourth Text to prove Original Sinne opened and vindicated SECT I. PSAL. 51. 5. Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sinne did my mother conceive me THe sad occasion of this Psalm is plainly set forth in the Inscription David a godly man after Gods own heart a Prophet a King who had been exercised under several afflictions yet when arrived to peace plenty and ease fals into those foul sinnes of Adultery and Murder which later was contrived with much deliberation subtilty and bloodiness Yet after some security in this sinne being admonished and awakened by Nathan he repents and bitterly bewaileth these transgressions So that in this Psalm is described a form for every Prodigal repenting and coming home to his Father That David was only in a Lethargy or Apoplexy not quite dead that the seed of grace was not wholly extinct in him is sufficiently proved against the Arminians by the Orthodox though they deride saying The Calvinists Elect persons The Albae Gallinae filii They may do any thing commit any sinne and nothing will hurt them But this is to mock and scorn at that special Covenant of Grace in Christ made to those who are given to him by the Father and indeed such present meltings and remorse of soul upon Nathan's admonition without any rage malice or fury at the Prophet who rebuked him intimate That the seed of grace was not quite overcome within him For the Psalm it self that is Supplicatory wherein David wrestleth in agonies with God for to obtain mercy using several Arguments One from the Mercy yea the multitude of mercy that is in God Another is from the confession and deep sense of sinne in his soul he acknowledgeth it and it is alwayes before him he never puts it out of his memory Whither soever he goeth and whatsoever he is doing still his sinnes are as it were so many Devils appearing in horrid shapes before his eyes A third Argument is in the Text from the aggravation of those actual sinnes he committed They were not sinnes to be considered meerly in themselves but from the cause and root whence they sprang even the defiled and corrupt nature that was in him it being not so much those actual though so horrid sinnes that made him so guilty as that they did flow from such a defiled fountain within him Thus he aggravateth those actual sinnes from the root and cause within him For although he was regenerated and so delivered from the dominion of original corruption yet it was with him as with Paul The Law of sinne did still warre within him against what was good sinne dwelt in him still and was apt upon all occasions like a Dalilah to betray him into the hand of the Philistims into the power of some soul transgressions It is true some have thought that David speaks this to extenuate and lessen his sinne as if his meaning had been Lord it 's true I have committed these foul sinnes in thy sight but they are the more venial and pardonable because my nature is corrupt It is no wonder that being not an Angel or a man in integrity as Adam or confirmed in grace as the glorified Saints in Heaven but the son of corrupted Adam that I have thus tumbled into the mire And it cannot be denied but that this truth of our original corruption may be pleaded both for aggravation to punish and also for pity to spare Hence Gen. 6. 5. Because every imagination of mans heart was only evil and that continually therefore God was provoked to destroy the world by water yet Chap. 8. 21. the very same thing viz. because a mans heart is evil from his youth is made a reason why God will not smite the earth again with such an universal destruction But it seemeth farre more genuine and consonant to David's scope in this Psalm to make these words by way of aggravation for David is humbling and debasing of himself desirous to justifie and clear God and therefore he layeth himself as low as possibly he can digging into the very bottom of all that evil which cleaveth to him In the words therefore we may take notice of the matter confessed and acknowledged with the introductory particle to make it more considerable It is not an ordinary or slighty thing he is to speak of and therefore he begins with that note Behold This Ecce may be called the Asterisk of the holy Ghost or the Bibles nota benè It is commonly used either for Attention or Admiration or Caution and it may have this three fold use here For Attention the matter being of so great concernment so little minded or believed by most men for David doth not speak here as if it were his particular case alone as if none were born in iniquity but him yea rather it followeth if David though so eminent and godly so blessed by God was yet born in sinne then no doubt but all others are likewise Again It may be a note of Admiration because of the mysterious depth of this original defilement It is unsearchable and the more he considers of it the more amazed and astonished he is even as David at another time Psal 19. crieth out Who can understand his errors when he hath set himself with his whole might to sathom all the evil that is in him yet he cannot do it Hence Jeremiah Chap. 17. speaking of this deceitfull and desperate heart of man because of the native pollution of it saith Who can know it And then answers It 's God alone that searcheth it God knoweth the depth of all that evil which no man can reach unto Lastly It may be a note of Caution
of it or like one Intellectus agens as some Philosophers dreamed but it is in every man that cometh in the world every one that is born hath his birth-corruption Therefore David doth not speak of that iniquity as it is in all mankind but as it was his case and as he was born in it So that it is not enough for you to say It is true it cannot be denied but that all are sinfull by nature but you must come home to your own heart you must take notice of the dung-hill and hell that is in your own hearts Thus the Apostle Paul as you heard Ephes 2. 3. to humble them and to lay them low that they might see all the unworthiness and guilt that was upon them before the grace of God was effectual in them he informeth them not onely of those grosse actual impieties they had walked in but that they were by nature the children of wrath But you may see this duty of bitter and deep humiliation because of original sinne notably expressed in Paul Rom. 7. most of that Chapter is spent in sad groans and complaints because of its still working and acting in him It was the sense of this made him cry out Oh miserable man that I am Dost thou therefore flatter thy self as if there were no such law of sinne prevailing upon thee when thou shalt see Paul thus sadly afflicted because of it Therefore it is that I added in the Doctrine We are to bewail and acknowledge it all our lives For Paul speaks here whatsoever Papists and Arminians say to the contrary in the person of a regenerate man Who did delight in the Law of God in the inward man and yet these thorns were in his side Original sinne in the lusts thereof was too active whereby he could not do the good he would and when he did he did it not so purely and perfectly as he ought So that you see the work you are to do as long as you live Though regenerated though sanctified you are to bewail this sinne yea none but the truly godly do lay it seriously to heart Natural men they either do not believe such a thing or they have not the sense of it which would wound them at the very heart Therefore we read only of regenerate men as David Job and Paul who because of this birth-pollution do humble themselves so low under Gods hand But let us search into this truth SECT V. Which needed not to have been if Adam had stood FIrst Take notice That had Adam stood in the integrity God made him in had he preserved the Image of God for himself and for his posterity then there had been no occasion no just cause for such self-abhorrency as doth now necessarily lie upon us Adam did not hide himself and runne from God neither was he ashamed of himself till sinne had made this dreadfull breach In that happy time of mans innocency there was no place for tears or repentance There was no complaining or grieving because of a Law of sinne hurrying them whither they would not then Adam's heart was in his own power he could joy and delight in God as he pleased but since that first transgression there hath become that grievous ataxy and sad disorder and confusion under which we are to mourn and groan as long as we live for as we necessarily have corruptible bodies which will be pained and diseased as long as we are on the earth so we have also defiled and depraved soules which will alwaies be matter of grief and sorrow to every gracious heart so that they must necessarily cry out Oh Lord I would fain be better I desire to be better but this corrupted heart and nature of mine will not let me The Socinians who affirm That Adam even in the first Creation had such a repugnancy planted in him and a contrariety between the mind and the sensible part that this prevailing made him thereby to commit that transgression do reproach God the maker of man and make him the Author of sinne So then this necessity of confession and acknowledgment of our native pollution was not from the beginning but upon Adam's transgression SECT VI. We must be humbled for a two-fold Original sinne and seek from Christ a two-fold Righteousness SEcondly When we say That original sinne is to be matter of our humiliation and sorrow we must understand that two-fold Original sinne heretofore mentioned viz. Adam 's actual sin imputed to us and that inherent or in-dwelling sin we are born in For seeing the guilt of both doth redound upon our persons accordingly ought our humiliation and debasement to be Yea Piscator thinketh David confesseth both these in this verse In the first place In iniquity was I shapen or born as he interprets it viz. in Adam's iniquity And in the second place in or with for so some render it sinne did my mother conceive me which is to be understood of that imbred pollution howsoever it be here it is plain Rom. 5. that the Apostle debaseth and humbleth us under this two-fold consideration first That we all sinned in him there is the imputed sinne And secondly That by his disobedience we are made sinners there is our birth-sin So that those who would hunger and thirst after Christ finding a need of him must seek for a two-fold benefit by Christ answering this two-fold evil First the grace of Justification to take away the guilt of all sinne and then of Sanctification in some measure to overcome the power of it that as we have by the first Adam imputed and inherent sinne so by the second Adam imputed and inherent righteousness SECT VII The Different Opinions of Men about Humiliation for Original Sinne. THirdly There are those who make such an humiliation and debasement as David here professeth altogether needless and superfluous but they go upon different grounds For First All such who do absolutely deny any such thing they must needs acknowledge all such confessions to be lies and falshoods that it is but taking of Gods name in vain when we confess such a thing by our selves if it be not indeed in us For if Adam should have said Behold God created me in iniquity and formed me in sinne would not this have been horrible lying to God and blaspheming of his Name No less is it If their Position be true That we are born in the same condition and estate that Adam was created in derogatory to God and a bold presumptuous lie for men in their prayers to acknowledge such a sinne dwelling in them when indeed it doth not So then if this be true That we are not born in original sinne then David doth in this penitential Psalm fearfully abuse the Name of God speaking that which is a lie and a most abominable untruth But whose fore-head is so hardned as to affirm this Yet all such who deny there is any birth-sinne they must also say there is no confession to be made
of sinne is expresly said to be in the members And whereas the Apostle in that verse saith He seeth a Law in his members bringing him into captivity to the Law of sinne that doth not argue a distinction between these but according to the use of the Scripture the Antecedent is repeated for the Relative the sense being That the Law of his members did bring Paul into captivity to it notwithstanding the Law of the mind with in him as Gen. 9. 16. I will remember saith God himself the everlasting Covenant between God that is my self and every living creature We see then in these words that the Apostle giveth another name to that original sinne which dwelleth in him he calleth it very emphatically The Law of sinne in him Original corruption is even in Paul though converted how much more in all unregenerate persons by way of a Law From whence observe That the Scripture cals original sin the Law of sin Within us SECT II. TO understand this take notice of these things First The Apostle in his Epistles doth delight to use the word Law and that when speaking of contrary things The Law of God the Law of Works This he mentioneth properly but then he cals it The Law of faith because the Hebrew word for Law signifieth no more than Doctrine for Torath either comes they say from a word that signifieth to appoint or teach or from a word that signifieth to rain because saith Chemnitius as the raine is gathered together in the clouds not to be kept there but to be emptied on the earth that so it may be made fruitfull Thus the Law of God was appointed by God not meerly to be written in the Bible but also to be implanted in our hearts The word then in the Hebrew signifying Doctrine in the general no wonder if the Gospel be called The Law of Faith So Regeneration Rom. 8. is called The Law of the Spirit of life as in other places it is The Law of God written in our hearts but the Apostle doth not only apply it to these things but especially in this Chapter he cals it The Law of sinne not sin only but the Law of sinne and the Law in our members why the Apostle doth so you shall hear anon Only In the second place you must consider when the Apostle cals it The Law of sinne it is in an improper and abusive or allusive sense for a Law properly is only of that which is good the matter of a Law must be honest and just because a Law is pars juris and Jus is à justo Therefore Aquinas saith That unjust Laws are rather violentia than leges Yea Tully saith Such Decrees are neither Leges nor ne appellandae quidem yet the Scripture speaks of some who make iniquity a Law Psal 99. 20. or who frame mischief for a Law Tacitus complaineth of the multitude of Laws in his time and saith The Commonwealth groaned ut flagitiis ita legibus So that although the properties of a Law are to be good and profitable yet by allusion all unjust and hurtfull Decrees are called Laws and thus the Apostle cals it the Law of sinne alluding to those properties or effects which a Law hath What the Law of God doth in a regenerate man the contrary doth the Law of sinne in a natural man SECT III. Original Sinne compared to a Law in five respects ORiginal sinne therefore may be compared to a Law in these respects First A Law doth teach and direct Lex est lux It informeth and teacheth what is to be done Thus the Schoolmen they make Direction the first thing necessary to a Law The work of grace in a godly man is called by the Apostle The Law of the mind in this Chapter Because grace within a man doth teach and direct him what to do Hence 1 John 2. 27. the godly man is said to have an anointing within him The Law of God is written in his inward parts and so from within as well as by the Word without they are taught what to do Thus on the contrary the Law of sinne in a natural man doth teach and prompt him to all kind of evil This Law of sinne doth not indeed teach what we ought to do but it doth wonderfully suggest all kind of wickedness to us and from this cause it is that you see children no sooner able to act but they can with all readiness runne into evil sinnes that they have not seen committed before their eyes they can with much dexterity accomplish What a deal of instruction and admonition is requisite to nurture your young ones in the fear of the Lord And all is little enough And why is this The Law of God is not in their hearts they have not that in them which would direct and teach holiness But on the other side children need not to be taught wickedness you need not instruct them how to sinne they have much artifice and cunning in an evil way And why so The Law of sinne is in them this is that they are bred with So that as the young ones of Foxes and Serpents though they have no teacher yet from the Law of nature within them they grow subtil and crafty in their mischievous wayes Thus the Law of sinne doth in every man he is ingenious and wise to do evil As the ground ere it will bring forth corn doth need much labour and tillage but of it self bringeth forth bryars and thorns Thus all by nature are so foolish and blind that without heavenly education and institution you cannot bring them to that which is holy but of their own selves men have subtilty and abilities to frame mischievous things And why is all this They have a Law of sinne within them which directs suggests and informeth to do much evil So that we are not to put all upon the Devil to say He put it into my minde he suggested such thoughts to me No the Law of sinne within thee can sufficiently prompt thee to all evil Secondly A Law doth not onely teach but it doth instigate and incline it presseth and provoketh to the things commanded by it Thus the Law of the mind in a godly man doth greatly instigate and provoke him to what is good It is like a goad in his side it is like fire in his bowels he must do that which is good else he cannot have any rest within him You read when David refrained for a while from speaking good at last he could hold no longer but the fire did break out So Paul 2 Cor. 5. The love of Christ constraineth us Thus the true believer he hath a principle of grace within him which is like a Law upon him he cannot do otherwise he must obey it Thus on the contrary Original sinne in a natural man is like a Law within him it provoketh him it enflameth him to all evil Whensoever any holy duty is pressed upon him this Law of sinne stirreth him
regarded neither is that Exposition to be endured of that late Writer with whom we have so often to do As if the Apostle meant That death relatively to Adams sinne had no effect further then to Moses and there it ceased for this doth palpably contradict the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. 22. where by Adam all are said to die Therefore by those who sinne not after the similitude of Adams transgression Some understand it thus viz. not so capitally and atrociously as he did for he sinned against an express Law but the Apostle speaketh of such who sinned without such a declared Law as Hos 6. 7. They like men have transgressed in the original like Adam Many Expositors make it the proper name of Adam hereby the Prophet aggravating their sin That as Adam in Paradise did voluntarily transgress Gods Law So the Jews in the good Land God had given them did treacherously against him But Mercer rejecteth this because in the Hebrew it is not Câhadam with ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã emphatical as it is commonly applied to Adam There is such an expression in Job which some understand of Adam Job 31. 33. where it is translated If I covered my transgressions as Adam or as in the margin After the manner of men This interpretation may be admitted as part but 2. we are to understand it more largely of all those who sinne without a Law revealed for the Apostle had said That sinne is not imputed viz. to a mans conscience where there is no Law men are apt to be secure in sinne when there is no Law expresly threatning them Now saith the Apostle let none think so For as death so sinne was in the world before Moses his time though there was not such severe precepts against it and therefore those who had not such an express command as Adam had yet death and sinne was imputed to them So that by this is understood That all those who live out of the Church all Heathens and Pagans who have not the revealed will of God to walk by even those who never heard of Adam and so could not imitate him in sinning are in this clause comprehended Lastly By this also is declared That all Infants though they cannot actually sinne yet because of original sinne death reigneth over them likewise Though Calvin think the former sort chiefly aimed at yet he confesseth Infants are herein included Thus we have finished this Text the Doctrine whereof should make the world a valley of tears in respect of godly humiliation as it is indeed in respect of miseries As the shadow followeth the body so should holy sorrow the truth of this point Believe it and tremble for it is every ones case she out of thy self to that Saviour who delivereth from original sinne as well as actual This is most properly the sinne of the world CHAP. IX The Qualities or Adjuncts of Original Sinne. SECT I. The Text explained GEN. 8. 21. And the Lord said in his heart I will not again curse the ground any more for mans sake for the imagination of mans heart is evil from his youth I Have formerly treated on that parallel Text to this Gen. 6. 5. but wholly to another purpose Though therefore this be of great affinity with the former yet I shall deliver altogether new matter from it From the two-fold Subject of original sinne of Inhesion and Predication I proceed to the consideration of the Qualities and Adjuncts of it and begin with this Text which containeth a gracious promise from God never to bring such an universal deluge or any other general judgement upon the world for mans sake any more This promise is made a consequent of Gods Reconciliation with Noah upon whose Sacrifice it is said God smelled a sweet savour speaking after the manner of men not that God did regard the material Sacrifice for the smell of that must needs be distastfull and unsavoury but because Noah did it with a pure and holy heart and withall chiefly because this Sacrifice of Noah was typical of Christs sacrificing himself in time by whom alone God becometh propitious For Christs offering up of himself is said to be Ephes 5. 2. A Sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour which was chiefly in the Eucharistical Sacrifices not that Christs death is compared to them only as the Socinians would have it but principally and chiefly to the Expiatory Sacrifices as appeareth in the Epistle to the Hebrews only in Christs death there was that which was in Eucharistical Offerings a sweet savour unto God whereby he became propitious unto mankind God being thus graciously pleased we have this promise of God declared in the Text wherein is considerable First The Cause of it and that is Gods Deceree The Lord said in his heart that is an expression after the manner of men For you must not conceive of God as changing his mind or altering his purposes upon better considerations or as if he took up a contrary resolution to that when he intended to destroy the world but this is wholly spoken to our capacity By this is meant no more then Gods purpose and secret Decree which yet he manifested to the comfort of Noah and therefore we have Moses recording of it Secondly There is the object matter of this promise and that is two-fold I will not curse the ground neither will I smite any more every living thing as I have done God cursed the ground at first upon Adam's fall but this is meant of the Deluge as appeareth by the other particular for by that general floud it is conceived the ground was made worse then before The meaning then is That God will not bring any more universal judgement not but that particular Towns or Nations may be consumed by water or other punishments but there shall not be such a general one by water any more no nor any general punishment For what comfort would it have been to Noah if that the world should be preserved only from drowing if it might have been destroyed any other way Therefore when at the Day of Judgement the whole world shall either be destroyed or renewed by fire that will not be so much by way of punishment to the inhabitants as to change its use and to prepare for the great alteration that God is then to make Thirdly There is the aggravation of this mercy God will do this Though the imagination of mans heart be evil This clause is to be considered first as a Reason then Absolutely in it self If as a reason then here is the difficulty taken notice of how it can be made the ground why God will not destroy the world seeing formerly Chap. 6. 5. it is there made the only reason why he would destroy it can it be the motive for two contrary effects Some therefore do not make it a reason at all but part only of the description of Gods promise he will not destroy the earth again for this sinfull disposition but
under his power though there were no actual sinnes committed by us then let us not matter the speculations of Philosophers nor the Political sentences of Civil Magistrates for by these nothing is accounted culpable but what is voluntary by our own personal will Hence Austin explained that assertion of his when dealing against the Manichees Vsque adeò peccatum est voluntarium c. Voluntariness is so necessary to the being of a sinne that it cannot be any sinne if this be wanting in this saith he all Laws all Nations all Governours c. do agree The Pelagians commended this of Austin and improved it against him but in his explication of himself he calleth it Politica sententia This is true according to the political Laws of Governours and withall agreeth to actual sins But the truth about original sinne meerly by revelation we need not then regard what Aristotle and other Philosophers say in this matter who as they knew nothing of the creation of Adam so neither of his fall and this caution is necessary to every one that would not be deceived in this point Secondly Although in one particular respect this sinne may not be so hainous as others yet in many other respects it doth farre exceed and they are abundantly compensative for that one consideration It is true This sin hath nothing of our own personal voluntariness yea if a man should now consent to this birth-defilement and even rejoyce because he was born thus estranged from God this subsequent will would not make original sin to be a voluntary sin unto him for this is an actual sinne committed a new by the personal will of a sinner But though this be granted yet there are many other respect which do exceedingly aggravate it even those we have mentioned before Hence a learned Schoolman Dela Rua contra Theolog. cont 2. speaking of the comparisons made by Aquinas and others of original sinne with venial ones excuseth them saying They must not be understood in that respect as original sinne is a mortal one for so it doth infinitely exceed any venial one but in that respect as original sinne is not contracted by our own proper action but by Adam in whose will our wils were contained What then though in one particular this sinne may not be so hainous as others yet look upon the many other respects wherein it doth exceed all other hainous sinnes and then you will be compelled to acknowledge the weightinesse thereof Thirdly The chiefest and highest aggravation of a sinne is from the contrariety of it to the Law of God for seeing the Apostle doth define sinne 1 John 3. 4. to be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The transgression of the Law then the more irregularity there is in sinne the greater is that sinne Now this ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã it is either habitual or actual and if habitual sins are greater then actual because of the greater dissonancy to Gods Law then must original be more then habitual and so greater then all sins if then we compare original sinne with the Law we shall find it contrary to it in the highest manner that can be For Gods Law doth not require only actual obedience but such obedience flowing from a pure and holy heart and holiness in the heart is more answerable to the Law then holiness in actions Thus on the contrary sinne in the habitual inclination of a man is more opposite to Gods holy Law then the expression of it in several actings If then the Apostle define a sinne by the contrariety of it to Gods Law not by knowledge or voluntariness then where there is the greatest obliquity and declension from this rule though there be not so much voluntariness there is the greater evil So that this respect may silence all those cavils and disputes which are usually brought in to diminish the guilt of this sinne still have recourse to the Law of God and there thou wilt find that whereas actual sins are respectively against respective commands this is against every Law It is against the whole Law and therefore hath as much evil in it in some sense as the Law hath good So that the Use is To exhort every one who would have his heart deeply affected in this point who would be humbled greatly because his sinne is great to take off his thoughts from all those Philosophical or humane arguments which are apt to lessen it Because a Magistrate will not put a man to death unless where he is guilty by some voluntary personal act of his own do not thou therefore think it cruel and unjust with God if he condemn for that sinne wherein though we have not own proper will ingredient yet by imputation it is voluntary But of this more when we are to justifie God in these proceedings against cavilling Sophisters SECT III. That every one by Nature hath his peculiar proper Original Sinne. THe second Doctrine offereth it self in the next place to be considered of which is That every one by nature hath his peculiar proper original sinne which doth betimes vent it self into actual evil For the Text speaketh universally there is not any to be exempted It is made a Question in the Schools Whether there be many or one original sinne onely Aquinas bringeth two Arguments for more original sinnes than one The one is from the Text according to the Vulgar Translation Psal 51. 5. where it is rendred In sinnes did my mother conceive me in the Plural number And then the second from Reason because there being many actual sinnes it cannot seem rational that one original sinne should incline to them all seeing many times these sinnes flow from contrary principle How may it be thought this one sinne should carry a man out concupiscentially to so many contrary lusts Therefore that this truth may be fully demonstrated let us consider these Propositions First That such who deny any original inherent corruption and make Adam 's actual sinne to be ours onely by imputation as Pighius and Catharinus they will say That there is but one original sinne which is by imputation made every mans Even as by the light of one Sunne every man seeth or as some Philosophers say there is one common Intelleotus agens by which all men are inabled to understand So that by this opinion every man hath not his peculiar inherent defilement but that one actual transgression by imputation is made the one common sinne of mankind Now although this is to be granted That Adam's actual sinne is made ours which Chamier and some French Protestants following him do dangerously deny yet the Texts heretofore brought in this point do evidently convince That every one hath his peculiar native defilement that he is born in So that original sinne though it may be called one in specie and proportione yet when we come to every particular man he hath his numerical and individual original sinne in him Although therefore there be as many original sinnes
and thereby avoid the temptation to be transported by curious and unnecessary Questions but above all this will prepare to exalt Christ in his Mediatory Office This will be the foundation to build the free and unsearchable riches of Gods grace upon Insomuch that the whole summe of Religion doth consist in the cause of the first and second Adam I shall trouble thee no further only my desire is That the Reader would pass by candidly the Errata he will often meet with in the printing by reason of my distance from the Press as also the mispointings which many times obscure the sense Now the Father of Spirits mould and fashion our hearts according as every divine Truth requireth and make us to gather and hive up Honey from every Flower in his Garden that so our Christianity may not be speculative and from Books only but experimental and savourily affecting the heart which only bringeth hope of eternal life is the prayer of Thine in Christ Jesus ANTHONY BURGESSE Sutton Coldfield Aug. 19. 1658. To the Reader AS for making the Table and prefixing the Contents before the Chapters Sections and Paragraphs of this Book the Reverend Author committed that task to a Friend who desireth the Reader to pardon any failings that he shall discover in them ERRATA PAg. 62. l. 24. for Gnanon r Gnavon p. 68. l. 36. for strictly for r. strictlyâ largely for p. 69. l. 26. for quantum libet praeferimus r. quantumlibet profecimus l. 27. for cogitate r. cogitata p. 71. l. 40. for because r. âe because p. 72. l. 18. for are r. were p. 73. l. 14. for reservantur r. reservatur p. 80. l. 13. for ad r. and. p. 82. l. 31. for vorti cordis r. vorticordis p. 85. for coactivum r. coactivam p. 88. l. 27. for Echineips r Echineis p. 92. l. 30. for balbutiri r. balbutire l. 34. for ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã r. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã p. 94. l. 41. for ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã r. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã l. 45. dele to p. 95. l. 16. for is r. it is p. 97. l. 10. for ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã r. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã p. 107. l. 10. for outward r. outwardly p. 121. l. 28. for ãâã r. ne p. 122. l. 6. for fabula r. tabula l. 8. for imitation r. mutation p. 219. l. 32. for Monasterii Anabaptis r. âunster Anabaptists p. 221. l. 26. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã p. 225. l. 12. for ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã r. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã p. 286. l. 27. for rei r. ãâã p. 307. l. 34. for thereby r. there The Analysis of this Book This Treatise of Original Sinne shews 1. That it is by pregnant Texts vindicated from false Glosses 2. What it is both Name especially the Scripture names Thing Privative and Positive 3. How it comes to be communicated with a consideration of the original of the Soul 4. It s Subject of Inhesion General the whole man In particular The Mind Conscience Memory Will. Affections Imagination Body Predication Every one Christ excepted 5. Its Qualities or Adjuncts The greatnesse Of Adam's Actual transgression which is our original imputed sinne Of our Original Sinne inherent in us The Propriety in every one The Activity The Equality in all A Justification of Gods shutting up all under sinne for the sin of Adam 6. The Immediate Effects of it Propensity to Sinne. The Cause of all Actual sins The Combate between the flesh and Spirit in the godly Death Eternal Damnation THE CONTENTS OF THIS BOOK PART I. PRoving the total and universal Pollution of all Mankind inherently through Sinne. CHAP. I. The first Text to prove Original Sinne improved and vindicated viz. Ephes 2. 3. And were by nature the children of wrath as well as others CHAP. II. Of the Name Original Sinne and of the Utility and Necessity of being clearly and powerfully informed about this Subject CHAP. III. Demonstrations of the Naturality of this sinne that we have it by Natural Propagation CHAP. IV. Objections against the Naturality of Original Sinne answered CHAP. V. A second Text to prove Original Sinne opened and vindicated viz. Rom. 5. 19. For as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners c. CHAP. VI. Whether we are sinners by Natural Propagation or by Imitation CHAP. VII Of the Souls inward filth and defilement by Original Sinne. CHAP. VIII That the inward Contagion that we have from Adam's Disobedience is truly and properly a sinne CHAP. IX Objections Answered CHAP. X. A third Text to make good this Fundamental Point improved and vindicated viz. Job 14. 4. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean Not one SECT II. A three-fold Uncleanness SECT III. A Comparison between mans moral Uncleanness and Levitical Uncleanness SECT IV. What is comprehended in this expression Uncleanness SECT V. Objections against mans Natural Uncleanness answered CHAP. XI A fourth Text to prove Original Sinne opened and vindicated viz. Psal 51. 5. Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sinne did my mother conceive me SECT II. Objections answered SECT III. More Advantages accruing from the Belief and Meditation of this Truth SECT IV. That we are to bewail this Original Sinne all our dayes SECT V. Which needed not to have been if Adam had stood SECT VI. We must be humbled for a two-fold Original Sinne and seek from Christ a two-fold Righteousnesse SECT VII The different opinions of men about humiliation for Original Sinne. SECT VIII Repentance may be taken either largely or strictly SECT IX The Difference between godly Sorrow for Original Sinne and for Actual SECT X. Reasons why we must be humbled for Original Sinne. The Contents of the Second Part. SHewing that Original Sinne is and how it is communicated CHAP. I. Of the Name Old-man given to Original Sin Rom. 6. 6. Knowing this that if our old-man be crucified with Christ c. SECT IV. Why it is called Man SECT V. Why it is called Old-Man CHAP. II. Of the Name Law of Sin given to Original Sinne. Rom. 7. 25. But with the flesh the Law of sinne SECT III. Original Sinne compared to a Law in five Respects CHAP. III. Of the Name The Sinne that dwelleth in us given to Original Sinne. Rom. 7. 17. It is no more I but sinne that dwelleth in me CHAP. IV. Of the Epithete Evil is present with us given to Original Sinne. Rom. 7. 21. That when I would do good evil is present with me CHAP. V. Of that Name The Sin that doth so easily beset us given to Original Sinne. Hebr. 12. 1. And the sinne that doth so easily beset us SECT II. What is implied in that expression SECT III. How many wayes Original Sinne is a Burden and an Hinderance unto us CHAP. VI. Of the Name Evil Treasure of the Heart given to Original Sinne. Matth. 12. 35. And an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth evil things SECT II. How Original
Sinne resembles a Treasure CHAP. VII Of the Name Body given to Original Sin Rom. 8. 13. But if you through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live SECT II. What is implied by the word Mortifie SECT V. Why Original Sinne is called a Body CHAP. VIII Of the Privative Part of Original Sinne. SECT I. Of Adam's begetting Seth in his own likeness Gen. 5. 3. And Adam begat a son in his own likeness after his Image and called his name Seth. SECT II. What Original Sin is as to the Privative Part of it CHAP. IX Wherein the making man after Gods Image did consist CHAP. X. Corollaries informing us of the Nature and Aggravations of our loss by sinne and shewing what were the most excellent and choice parts of that Original Righteousness that we are deprived of CHAP. XI A further Consideration of Original Righteousness proving the thing and answering Objections against it CHAP. XII More Propositions about the Nature of the Image of God which man was created in Shewing what particular graces Adam's soul was adorned with CHAP. XIII Reasons to prove That the Privation of Original Righteousness is truly and properly a sin in us CHAP. XIV The Aggravations of the losse of Gods Image SECT II. By the losse of Original Righteousness Gods end in making man was lost SECT III. The Harmony and Subordination in mans Nature dissolved SECT IV. The Properties of this loss CHAP. XV. Of the Positive Part of original Corruption John 3. 6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh SECT II. Of the use of the word Flesh in Scripture and why original Corruption is called by that Name SECT III. How carnal the Soul is in its actings about spiritual objects CHAP. XVI Reasons demonstrating the Positive Part of Original Sinne and why Divines make Original Sinne to have ãâã Positive as well as Privative Part. CHAP. XVII Objections against the Positive Part of Oâââal Sinne answered CHAP. XVIII A Second Text to prove Original Sinne to be Positive opened and vindicated Rom. 7. 7. For I had not known lust except the Law had said Thou shalt not covet SECT II. The word Lust expounded SECT VI. A Three-fold Appetite in man SECT VIII A Consideration of this Concupiscence in reference to the four-fold estate of man SECT X. Why Original Sinne is called Concupiscence or Lust CHAP. XIX The Description of Original Sinne. CHAP. XX. A clear and full knowledge of Original Sinne can be obtained onely by Scripture-light SECT II. Whether the wisest Heathens had any knowledge of this Pollution CHAP. XXI That Reason when once enlightned by the Scriptures may be very powerfull to convince us of this Natural Pollution CHAP. XXII A Comparison and Opposition between the first and second Adam as introductory to this Question How this corruption is propagated 1 Cor. 15. 49. As we have borne the Image of the earthly we shall also bear the Image of the heavenly CHAP. XXIII The various Opinions Objections and Doubts about the manner how the Soul comes to be polluted CHAP. XXIV That the Soul is neither by Eduction or Traduction but by Introduction or Immediate Infusion proved by Texts of Scripture and Arguments from Scripture SECT V. The Authors Apology for handling this great Question SECT VI. Propositions to clear the Doctrine of the Propagation of Original Sin notwithstanding the Souls Creation The Contents of the Third Part. HAndling the Subject of Inhesion CHAP. I. Of the Pollution of the Mind with Original Sinne. Ephes 4. 23. And be ye renewed in the Spirit of your Mind CHAP. II. Of Original Sinne polluting the Conscience Setting forth the Defilement of Conscience as it is Quiet Stupid and Senslesse and also when it is troublea and awakened Tit. 1. 15. But even their mind and Conscience is defiled CHAP. III. Of the Pollution of the Memory 2 Pet. 1. 12. I will not be negligent to put you alwayes in Remembrance of these things c. SECT II. What we mean by Memory SECT III. A Two-fold weaknesse of the Memory SECT V. It s great Usefulnesse SECT VI. Of the Nature of it SECT VII Demonstrations of the Pollution of it SECT VIII Instances of the Pollution of the Memory 1. In forgetting the Objects that we should have in our Memory both Superiour and Inferiour SECT X. 2. In respect of its inward vitiosity adhering to it 3. In not attaining its End 4. In that it is made subservient to the corrupt frame and inclination of our hearts 5. It is not subject to our will and power Hence 6. We remember things that we would not CHAP. IV. Of the Pollution of the Will of Man by Original Sinne. John 1. 13. Which were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God SECT II. Propositions concerning the Nature of the Will SECT III. ¶ 1. The Corruption of the Will in all its several operations ¶ 2. It s Corruption in its General Act which is called Volition ¶ 3. In its absolute and efficacious willing of a thing ¶ 4. In its Act of Fruition ¶ 5. In its Act of Intention ¶ 6. In its Act of Election or Chusing ¶ 7. In its losse of that Aptitude and readinesse it should have to follow the Deliberation and Advice of the Understanding ¶ 8. In its Act of Consent SECT IV. The Desilement of the Will in its Affections and Properties or the sinfull Adjuncts inseparably cleaving unto it Rom. 9. 16. So then it is not of him that willeth or of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy ¶ 1. This Scripture opened vindicated and improved ¶ 2. The Will is so fallen from its primitive honour that it s not worthy to be called Will but Lust ¶ 3. It s wholly perverted about the Ultimate End ¶ 4. It s Privacy and Propriety ¶ 5. It s Pride and Haughtiness ¶ 6. It s Contumacy and Refractoriness ¶ 7. It s Enmity and Contrariety to Gods will ¶ 8. It s Rebellion against the light of the Mind and slavery to the sensitive part in a man ¶ 9. It s Mutability and Inconstancy SECT V. Of the Natural Servitude and Bondage of the Will with a brief Discussion of the Point of Free-will John 8. 35. If the Sonne therefore shall make you free ye shall be free indeed ¶ 2. The Text opened ¶ 3. Of the several kinds of Freedom which the Scripture speaketh of ¶ 4. The Names the Scripture expresseth that by which we call Free-will ¶ 5. Some observations concerning the Promoters of the Doctrine of Free-will How unpleasing the contrary Doctrine is to flesh and blood with some advice about it ¶ 6. The first Demonstration of the slavery of the Will is from the Necessity of sinning that every man is plunged into ¶ 7. That a Necessary Determination may arise several wayes some whereof are very consistent with liberty yea the more necessary the more free ¶ 8. The second Argument of its
its nature If you look upon a Cain a Judas though his outside be so detestable yet his inwards are much more abominable so that a mans heart is like Peters great sheet which he saw in a vision Acts 11. 6. which was full of four-footed beasts and wild beasts and creeping things all unclean such a receptacle is mans soul of all impiety A man cannot tell what is in the sea what monsters are in the bottom of it by looking upon the superficies of the water which covers it so neither canst thou tell all that horrid deformity and wretchedness which is in thy heart by beholding thine outward impieties Oh then that you would turn your eyes inward as it were an introversion is necessary Then you will say O Lord before I knew the Nature of original sinne I was not perswaded of my vileness of my foulness Oh now I see that I am beyond all expression sinfull now I see every day I am more and more abominable O Lord formerly I thought all my sinne was in some words in some actions or in some vile thoughts but now I see this was the least part of all that evil that was in me Now I am amazed astonished to see what a sea of corruption is within me now I can never go to the bottom now I find something like hell within me sparks of lust that are unquenchable Fourthly Where there is not a true knowledge of this native corruption there our Humiliation and Repentance can never be deep enough for it 's not enough to be humbled for our actual sinnes unless also we go to the cause and root of all When a godly man would repent of his lusts of his unbelief or any other actual transgression he stayeth not in the confession of and bewailing those particular sins but he goeth to the polluted fountain to the bitter spring from whence those bitter streams flow and commonly this is a difference between an Ahabs Humiliation and a Davids Ahab humbleth himself only for his actual impieties and that because of judgments threatned and impending over him but David even when he heareth God had forgiven his iniquity yet hath great humiliation for his sinnes and Psal 51. thinketh it not enough to bewail his adultery and murder but to confess That in iniquity he was conceived his actual sinnes carried him to the original Thus Paul also Rom. 7 when he miserably complaineth of that impotency in him to do good that he could never do any good as perfectly fully purely and cheerfully as he ought to do presently he goeth to the cause of all this deordination the Law of sinne within him that original sinne which was like a Law within him commanding him to think to desire to do sinfully and obeyed it in all though against his will insomuch that he saith He was carnal and sold under sinne This the Apostle doth complain of as the heaviest burden of all So that an unregenerate man may by the light of nature bewail and complain of his actual impieties he may cry out Oh wretched man that I am for being such a beast such a devil so exorbitant and excessive but whether he can do this for the body of sinne within him as Paul did that may justly be questioned And therefore you see then the troubles and workings of conscience in some men to miscarry greatly They seem to be in pain and travails of soul but all cometh to nothing Oh how many in times of danger and under fear of death do sadly cry out of such sins they have committed Oh the promises and resolutions they make if ever God give them recovery again But all this passeth away even as mans life it self like a vapour like a tale that is told And one cause of the rottenness and defect of this humiliation is because it did not go to the bottom of the soare there was the inward and deep corruption of original sin that such never took any notice of and so in all his sorrow did omit that which is the most aggravating cause of all grief and trembling O Lord I have not only done this wicked thing but I had an heart an inclination of soul to carry me to it and therefore actual sinnes though ten thousands of them they pass away the guilt only remaining but this original pravity continueth in the pollution of it Fifthly Ignorance of original sinne makes us also mistake in the crucifying and mortifying of sinne No man can truly and spiritually leave a sinne unless he doth conquer it and subdue it in some measure in the original and root of it and this is a sure difference between a regenerate and unregenerate man about leaving or forsaking of sinne They both may give over their wonted actual impieties They both may have escaped the pollution of the world and that through the knowledge of the Gospel 2 Pet. 2. 20. but the one leaveth only the acts of sinne the other mortifieth it gradually though not totally in the cause and inclination of the soul Thus Paul Rom. 7. though he complain of those actual stirrings and impetuous motions of sinne yet withall he can truly say I delight in the Law of God in the inner man Now no hypocrite or unregenerate man can say so Though he be outwardly washed yet he hath a swinish nature still his inward parts are as loathsom as noisom as ever before Though there be a fair skinne drawn over the wound yet in the bottom there is as much corruption and putrefaction as ever before Samson's hair is only cut it 's not plucked up by the root so that it 's not enough to have given over thy former profaneness Thou thankest God thou art not the man once thou wert Oh but consider whether sinne in the root of it as well as in the branches of it doth wither and die daily A disease is not cured till the cause of it be in some measure at least removed As long as originall sinne is not in some degree mortified thy old sins or some other will break out as violently as ever here is the fountain and root of all within thee Sixthly He that is ignorant of the nature and extent of this natural defilement he must needs grosly mistake about the nature of conversion and be wholly ignorant of what regeneration is As you see in Nicodemus John 3. 6. though a master in Israel yet grosly mistaking about a new-birth and what was the reason of it That appeareth by our Saviours argument to prove the necessity of it Whatsoever is born of the flesh is flesh implying by this That if Nicodemus had known that by natural generation he was nothing but flesh that is sinne and evil his soul his mind his conscience all was flesh in this sense as well as his body then he would quickly have discerned the necessity of being born again then he would not have continued a day an hour a moment in such a dangerous condition And what
is the cause that most people are still such sots and sensless men about regeneration Yea learned and knowing men are as blind and bruitish in this as the simple and poor people are doth not all arise from this That they feel not neither do perceive that original sin like a leprosie hath run over the whole man both soul and body especially there would not be these three mistakes about the work of grace which are very common As 1. A Philosophical Reformation by the Dictates and Principles of Moralists such as Plutarch and Seneca give would not be taken for Regeneration For although their sayings and directions are admired and there may be some good use of them yet they do not go to the root of the matter they are not an antidote against original sinne that defileth the nature and therefore cannot promote Regeneration which doth properly cure that in some degree Aristotles way to make a man a virtuous man viz. by frequent and constant actions at lest to acquire an habit is absurd and repugnant to Scripture for by that the tree must be made good and a man must be born again ere he can do any thing holily Hence God promiseth to give a new heart to take away the heart of stone and then to cause us to walk in all holiness Ezek. 11. 19. These divine principles must be infused before there can be holy actions So 2. Civility and an ingenuous temperate disposition will be but a glistering dunghill a painted sepulchre when original sinne is known He will presently see for all his civil and inoffensive life his heart is full of all noisomness Therefore civil men of all men do most need this light to shine into their brests we are ready to think of our selves because so harmless and innocent as was said of Bonaventure In hoc homine non peccavit Adam such were born without sinne and brought better natures into the world than others but if you search into the Scriptures it will appear that all are born children of wrath and are equally destitute of that image of God and then as when the pillars of an house are removed the house it self must fall into its own rubbidge Thus when that primitive righteousness was lost man is prone to runne into all evil and every man would be like a Judas or a Cain even the most civil man that is did not God restrain original sin 3. Gifts and abilities which many have in religious exercises will presently be seen not to be Regeneration Though we should preach with the tongue of Angels though admirable in prayer and other holy duties yet these and original sin in the power of it may stand together and so many looking to the flowers but not the dead corpse they are upon conclude themselves to be alive when indeed they are dead SECT IV. I Shall mention some few more spiritual Advantages that come by the full and undoubted perswasion of this original corruption for so of old we are advised Firmissimè texe nullatenus dubita c. Believe most firmly and doubt not in the least manner but that by Adam's sinne all his posterity becomes sinfull and obnoxious to Gods wrath And First upon the Knowledg of originall sinne we evidently see our impossibility to keep the Law of God That when the Law requireth a love of God with all our heart mind and strength and also doth prohibit all kind of lust and sinfull concupiscence even in the very first motions and stirrings of it The Law I say requiring such universal perfection and we being wholly dead in sinne upon the comparing of the Law with our condition we cannot but conclude That we fail in all things That the Law is spiritual but we are carnal And if he be cursed that doth not continue in all things the Law requireth how accursed must he be that is not able to perform any one thing All those opinions that diminish original sinne do also plead for a possibility of keeping Gods Commandments Now this self-flattery is imbred in all Do not most of our common people think they keep the Commandments of God Do they believe that the curses of the Law do belong to them every hour Oh if such convictions were upon them how greatly would it humble them and make them debased before God but they trust in this they readily and confidently say with that young man All these have I kept from my youth up Mat. 9 20. Oh then inform thy self more about this natural defilement and loathsomness that is upon thee and then thou wilt find the Law to accuse and condemn thee in all things Secondly The right knowledge of this will make even the godly and regenerate though in some measure delivered from the power and dominion of it yet to see that because of its stirrings and actings in them there is imperfection in every thing they do And truly this is one of the most profitable effects of true knowledge herein for hereby a godly man is made to go out of all his graces and his duties hereby he is afraid of the iniquity of his holy things and cals his very righteousness a menstruous ragge This is clear in Paul Rom. 7. How sadly doth he complain of the vigorous actings of this original sinne in him For the present I take it as granted that that part of the Chapter must be understood of a regenerate person though vehemently denied by some as is in time to be shewed That Law of sinne was alwayes moving when he set himself to any thing that was holy he desired to obey the Law perfectly to love God compleatly but this Law of sinne would not let him So that because of this natural defilement evil is mixed with all the good we do insomuch that there would be a woe and a curse to all our gracious acts if strictly examined Thus it is with a godly man in this life as those Hetruscan-robbers reported of by Aristotle and mentioned by Austin who would take some live men and bind them to the dead men which was a miserable way of perishing Even thus it is here original corruption is constantly adhering and inseparably to him who is alive in holiness and by this means there is unbelief in his faith coldness in his zeal dulness in his fervency Insomuch that the Apostle crieth out of himself Oh wretched man that I am And that because of this very thing the Papists though they hold original sinne yet maintaining That after Baptism it 's quite taken away and that though there be some languor and difficulty in a man in respect of what is good yet if we do not consent to these motions of lusts within us they are not truly and properly sins do consequentially conclude that there is not necessarily dross and sinne in every holy duty we do but the evidence of Rom. 7. is too great to be contradicted So that preaching of original sinne is not only necessary
to the unregenerate but even to the most holy and godliest man that liveth Let him desire to know more of it for it may do him also much good and this is the reason why the more godly any are the more they are displeased with themselves and do the more highly esteem of Christ not but that they grow in grace only they grow also in the discoveries of more filth and unworthiness in themselves Thirdly By the true knowledge of this we come to be acquainted with that combate and conflict that is between the flesh and the spirit so much spoken of by Divines who usually say In every godly man there are two men two I's as the Apostle Rom. 7. distinguisheth I Paul carnal sold under sinne doing the things I would not and I Paul spiritual delighting in the Law of God in the inwardman and thanking God the Father through Christ because freed from condemnation That Paul did not speak of this combate while unregenerate as a Legalist as some say but as truly converted will appear if we consider that in another place Gal. 5. 17. the Apostle speaks of all the godly as thus exercised The flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh So that whatsoever is done holily and godlily it is alwayes cum luctâ carnis and therefore grace is the mortifying of the flesh Now our sins will not be put to death without some pain and reluctancy to the carnal part Therefore this is a perpetual concomitant of every godly man he hath a combate and spiritual conflicting within him and this makes him often in so many agonies this makes him so earnestly watching and praying against all temptations now come we to natural people they feel not the least strugling within them all is quiet and at ease because they are wholly in their original sinne they were born in And this makes it plain likewise that all their praying hearing all the religious duties they ever performed were never done in an holy and godly manner because there was no reluctancy or inward combate but they did them in a customary formal way without any spiritual life or motion for flesh will not fight against flesh Indeed there is a combate between conscience in its conviction and corruption even in some unregenerate men as in Aristotle's incontinent man as distinguished from his intemperate and that is known of Medea video meliora proboque deteriora sequor I see and approve better things but follow the worse And some would have Paul's combate to be no other because he cals it The Law of his mind fighting with the Law in his members but that is not cogent as is more largely to be shewed in its time Though therefore there be a reluctancy in some unregenerate men yet that is not like the conflict in the godly because amongst other differences this is one principal The godly man being regenerated in every part of the soul though not perfectly his will is sanctified as well as his mind Hence the combate and opposition in a godly man is between the same faculty sanctified and the flesh still abiding in that part his holy will against his corrupt will so that not only his mind and conscience is against sinne but his will also so farre as sanctified Hence the same Apostle makes the opposition between will and will What I would not that I do and though captivated by lust yet at that very time delighting in the Law of God in the inward man whereas in unregenerate men they have only an opposition between their conscience and their heart The mind suggests one thing but the will and affections wholly incline another way Therefore that light in their consciences is a trouble and vexation to them they do all they can to extinguish it The Doctrine then of original corruption informing us That it abideth still in a man while he liveth upon the earth doth inform the truly godly that they must alwayes expect agonies and conflicts within like fire and water met together so will grace and corruption be Therefore by this very combat we may discern true grace and it 's counterfeit for presumption which would be thought faith is easie we find no opposition to it but faith is put forth with much difficulty so godly sorrow put forth upon pure and spiritual motives is greatly assaulted by the flesh within us but worldly sorrow or mourning though for sinne because of temporal judgments only that is easie we are carried to it from a propensity within from a love to our selves Hence lastly The main and principal effect of the true knowledge of our original defilement is to bring the soul humbled and burdened under it to a true and real esteem of Christ and his Grace So much as we take off from original sinne making it either no sinne or the least sinne or quite abolished after Baptism so much do we take off from the grace of God in Christ Hence the Apostle Rom. 5. when he maketh that famous opposition between the first Adam and the second the gift of grace by one and the condemnation by the other he pitcheth upon that first disobedience by which we are made sinners as the original of all that calamity we are plunged into and therefore the same Paul when he poured out a large complaint about this Law of sinne working in him at the close of all he runneth to Jesus Christ Rom. 7. 35. It is the true knowledge of this only that will make us see the necessity of Christ all the day long and in every duty in every performance As we have none speak so much of Grace and Christ as Paul so none speaks so largely and fully about original sinne In the fifth Chapter of the Romans he asserts the Doctrine of it and in the seventh Chapter he declares the power of it which he felt experimentally in himself though regenerated Do not then think this is a Philosophical dispute or that to erre in this is like erring in those points wherein one Christian is to bear with another but with Austin account it a fundamental and that to deny it is to overthrow that Law whereby we are Christians CHAP. III. Demonstrations of the Naturality of this Sinne That we have it by Naturall Propagation SECT I. BEing then thus informed of the Usefulness and Necessity of true Knowledge in this matter Let us have your ready and diligent attention in prosecuting that matter which relateth to it And so I come to that notion which this Text fastens upon it that it is a Natural sin that we have it by natural Propagation In the Scripture and by the Ancients before Austin's time it had many names The Law of sinne The Old man The Flesh The old stroke of the Serpent an hereditary evil The tradux mali But in his time for better obviating the Hereticks who would allow the former names it was by him called Original sinne and ever since made an
Even as when the Prophet Elisha would make the waters sweet he threw salt into the spring and fountain of them Thus because it 's from a polluted nature that all our actual sinnes flow therefore grace regenerating is principally ordered to take away or conquer that by degrees which is the cause of all If this be so then let us consider What this grace is which doth inable us to do any thing after a godly and holy manner This is a supernatural gift of God and an insused quality into the soul whereby it 's inabled to work above its own proper and natural operations If then to do any thing that is good be wholly of grace it 's Gods gift then to sin is natural and proper to thee The Scripture is copious and plentiful in affirming this That Christ as our head is the cause of all our supernatural actings We receive of his fulness and so are inabled by him Grace then being supernatural to love God to repent of sin to do any thing spiritually being thus wholly above nature it necessarily followeth that when we sin and do evil that we do it naturally SECT X. NInthly The Nature of a thing if compounded and not simple is the complex of the whole The nature of a man is not his hands or his eyes only but his soul and his whole body Thus the nature of original Righteousness was not the perfection of one single faculty the understanding only the will only but it was the complete harmonical rectitude of the whole man called therefore the Image of God Now as the Image of a man is not one limb or member but the pourtraiture of the whole So neither was the Image of God in Adam one grace or some few graces but the perfection of every part Light in the mind holiness in the will order and regularity in the affections Thus it is on the contrary with original sinne it 's called The old man and it 's said to have mâmbers by which is implied that it 's not any single sinne or a defect and pollution in one faculty of the soul but it 's universal over all Hence our Saviour saith John 3. Whatsoever is born of the flesh is flesh it is wholly corrupted it is all over sinful So then when we say it 's natural this implieth That it is a Leprosie all over us as farre as our physical being extends Thus also in a moral sense doth our sinful Being inlarge it self Therefore our natural estate is not compared only to a blind man or a deaf man what wants the use of some faculties but unto death it self that depriveth of the use of all The naturality then of this sinne doth denote both the inward inheston as also the universal diffusion of it nothing within a man being free from this contagion SECT XI LAstly The Naturality of this evil doth appear In the great easiness promptitude and delight a man naturally finds to sin This is a way to discover what is natural if the actions be easie ready and with delight This discovers they flow from Nature but what is of art that is with difficulty and much observation We need not hire or teach a man to eat or drink these are natural actions and are accompanied with delight And thus the Naturality of this birth-sinne is notably manifested with what ease pleasure and inward readiness is a man carried out to sinne from his youth up Eliphaz speaks notably of this Job 15. 16. How much more abominable and filthy is man which drinketh iniquity like water like a Leviathan that is said to drink up the river and hasteth not You see he cals every man by nature abominable and filthy which is discovered by this He drinketh iniquity like water as a dropsie or feavorish man that is scorched with heat within doth with greediness and delight pour down water and the more he drinketh the thirstier he is and he never saith he hath enough Thus it is with filthy and corrupted man he doth with earnestness and delight fulfill the lust of the flesh he is never satisfied Every man in the world hath a Sheol within him that is alwayes craving and saying Give Give as hell hath unquenchable sparks of fire such an hell is in every mans heart As our Saviour said It 's my meat and drink to do my Fathers will Thus it is every mans meat and drink by nature to be doing the Devils will Do ye not see it in children how of themselves they are prone to any impiety but call them to learn or to be instructed then there is much aversness All this ariseth from the natural evil within us CHAP. IV. Objections against the Naturality of Original Sinne answered SECT I. THe Naturality of original sinne hath been in divers respects asserted I shall therefore conclude this Text with answers to some Objections that are made against this Doctrine I do not mean against original sinne it self for they are various so unwilling is man to be convinced that he is wholly sinful but against the Naturality of it which this Text doth affirm Neither shall I take in all Objections of this kind because they will be met with on some other Texts only I shall pitch upon one or two whereby your understandings may be more fully cleared in this point and so I shall part with this Text. First therefore it hath been enviously of old objected against this Truth That if there were such a natural pollution adhering to all mankind this would redound to the dishonour of God who is the Author of man This Argument the Pelagians of old insulted with If say they any man hold God is the maker of man presently he is called a Pelagian for thus they flourished If there be original sinne either the parents that beget or the children that are begotten or God the Creator of the soul and in a peculiar manner forming all the parts of our body must be the cause of this sinne This Objection they thought unanswerable unless we should charge God with being the Author of this original defilement Hence it is that they charged Manâcheism upon the Orthodox as if they thought that Nature it self was evil Five things there were that these Hereticks did usually commend Nature Marriage the Law Free-will and Holiness none of which they thought could be maintained unless we deny original sinne But when these Arguments are fully searched into there will appear no matter of boasting Let us call the first to account and examine Whether the Doctrine of original corruption doth charge God foolishly or no Whether hereby all the sinne in the world will be laid upon God Now there is a three sold charge drawn up against this Truth as it relateth to God 1. That it makes him the Author of this sinne 2. That it makes him unjust imputing that sinne of Adam to us and punishing us because of it when we had no being or any will of our own
punishment the punishment of another Besides that it is sinne inherent in us and not only imputed appears by David's acknowledgement Psal 51. In sinne was I born and in iniquity did my mother conceive me But of this more in time You see by what hath been said That our original sinne is more than meer guilt or Adam's actual sinne imputed to us it denoteth withall an inherent contagion of the whole man Therefore it is absurdly and falsly said by that late Writer It may be called original guilt rather than original sin SECT V. IN the fourth place there are those yet who draw a more narrow line in this matter than the former For when this Question is put Whether original inherent sin be truly and properly a sin They then distinguish between Peccatum and Vitium It is vitium say they but not peccatum or when it is called peccatum it is in a large sense not strictly and properly For with these nothing is a sinne properly but some action repugning to the word of God and because original sinne cannot be an action therefore say they it 's not properly a sinne In which sense they deny habits of sinne to be peccata but only vitia Though this be to play with words seeing the same thing is intended And although Austin abstaineth much from the word peccatum as if that alwayes did suppose a reatus yet that is a needless scrupulosity men may use words as they please Therefore Hierom thought Vide Whitak de peccato orig lib. 3. cap 6. vitium was more than peccatum contrary to Austins notion when he said Some man might be found without vice but not without sinne They say indeed a thing may repugn the Law of God three wayes Either Efficienter so the Devils and wicked men do yet they are not sinnes 2. Materially and thus the act of every sinne doth 3. Formally and so the obliquity in the act only doth and this they make only truly and properly a sinne But whether this will stand good or no will be examined in the Objections As also that Assertion of a learned man Molinaus vide infra That original sinne is condemned by the Law but not prohibited it being absurd as he thinks to appoint a Law for one grown up that he should have been born without sinne It is true in assigning the proper notion of sinne to it hath some great difficulty Neither doth it become us to be over-curious in this point above what is written remembring that original sinne came in by desiring too much knowledge I shall therefore treat of it so farre as it may tend to edification not to satisfie curiosity For when Austin was puzled with such doubts he brings that known Apologie Epist 29. of one who fell into a deep pit and being ready to be suffocated he crieth out to one passing by to help him out The man asketh him How he came in Do not saith he stand disputing of that but help me out Thus saith he every man being fallen into this deep pit of original sinne it 's not for us to be curiously and tediously inquiting how we came in but speedily seek for the grace of God to deliver us our CHAP. VIII That the inward Contagion which we have from Adam's Disobedience is truly and properly a Sinne. THerefore in the fifth place This sinne whereby we are infected from Adam's disobedience is truly and properly a sinne we are truly and inherently made sinners by Adam A man is not more properly and really made a sinner by any actual transgressions he doth commit then he is by his original sinne he is born in Insomuch that though an Infant knoweth not what he doth nor is capable of acts of reason when he is born yet he is properly and formally a sinner and the discovery of this will make much for our humiliation and Christs Exaltation Now that it is truly and properly a sin appeareth by these Arguments Argum. 1. That the Scipture speaking of it doth constantly call it so and therefore we are not to recede from the proper interpretation unless some weighty reasons compelâus What a poor and weak thing is it to deny original sinne to be imputable to us or to have the proper essence of evil because with Aristotle none are blamed for those things they have by nature or are not in their own power For it 's plain Aristotle understood nothing of this original pollution and by his Philosophy we must also quit many fundamental points in our Christian saith It is enough that the Scripture speaking of it and that purposely doth call it sinne as Psal 51. this Chapter of Romans and Chap. 7. often It 's the Law of sinne working in us So that this want of Gods Image and an inclination to evil is not to be considered as a meer punishment or as a spiritual disease and weakness upon nature but no sinne at all For it 's as truly a sinne as an actual sinne yea in some respects it is a more grievous and heavy sinne than actual sinnes as is to be shewed For the cause hath more in it than the effect It is from this evil heart that all actual evils do flow Argum. 2. It 's truly and properly a sin Because thereby a man is made obnoxious to death and eternal condemnation The wages of sinne is death and by nature we are children of wrath If then for this inherent corruption we die we are subject to miseries to Gods wrath and the curse of the Law then it must necessarily follow that this is truly and properly a sin Argum. 3. That which is made opposite to Righteousness that is truly and properly sinne For not punishment and Righteousnesse but sinne and Righteousnesse are two immediate Contraries Now it 's plain That this inherent corruption makes us sinners so that we need to be made righteous by Christ Argum. 4. The Apostle distinguisheth Adam 's imputed sinne and inherent sinne as two sinnes and so they have a two-fold distinct guilt as is to be shewed though some think it hard to say so Thus the Apostle By one mans offence sinne entred into the world Therefore Adam's actual sinne and that sinne which entred thereby are two distinct sinnes and differ as the cause and the effect By imputed sinne we are said to sinne in him actually as it were because his will was our will but by inherent sinne we are made sinners by intrinsecal pollution Argum. 5. This original inherent sinne is truly and properly a sinne Because it is to be mortified to be crucified We are to subdue the reign of it in our hearts which could not be if it were not properly a sin Argum. 6. It is a true and proper sinne Because by this our persons are made unclean so that naturally we cannot please God We are corrupt fountains we are bad trees and all this before we commit any actual sin Argum. 7. If Adam had stood that which would have been
communicated to his posterity would have been truly and properly holiness An Infant new born would have been called righteous in a proper sense Therefore are we now born sinfull in a true and proper respect Argum. 8. This is a sinne properly Because it is against the Law of God We want that perfection which we ought to have we are bound not only to actual obedience but to do this from an holy and unspotted principle within Therefore it is truly said Original sinne is in some sense forbidden in every Commandment and original Righteousness is commanded in all but because this is so much vexed by Objections we are to speak more to it in answer to them We have brought in several Arguments to prove original sinne to be a sinne properly and truly so and this was the rather to be done because of some Papists but especially Socinians and Arminians with the Pelagians of old denying it to be so But from Scripture it is clear that it is as true a sinne as actual and therefore that division of sinne into original and actual is of an univocal genus into its species both the members of that division partaking in a proper manner of the nature of sinne It being therefore the foundation of this point and all our fabrick which in times shall be raised being bottomed of this we shall ex abundanti offer two or three Arguments more to prove that it is a sinne not in a large or a metonymical lense but rigidly and properly And the first in order is Argum 9. From the necessity of Infants in respect of a Saviour Those Infants that die in their Infancy and go to heaven cannot obtain this glorious benefit but by Christ If therefore Christ be a Saviour to some Infants then they are lost and undone in themselves But not for any actual sinnes Therefore for original This fully demonstrates every Infant though but a day but an hour old to be truly a sinner Why Because even they need Christ a Saviour if they had no sinne they needed not a Jesus And this must necessarily be confessed That either Infants cannot be saved and are not to be accounted of the people of God and of his Church or if they be that they have sinne from which they are to be cleansed and saved The former is rarely asserted and therefore the later must be granted And indeed when the Scripture saith Matth. 1. 21. Christ is called Jesus Because he shall save his people from their sinnes As also Ephes 5. 25 26. Christ is said to give himself for his Church that he may cleanse it so as to be without spot or wrinkle Either we must say Infants are none of Christs people they belong not at all to his Church or if they do they have true and proper sinne in them which the Scripture cals uncleanness and it is evidently applied to Infants in that sense Job 14. 4. Job 15. 14. who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean And who is is born of a woman that he should be righteous Where to be unclean is made directly opposite to be righteous Therefore when the Pelagians of old would evade this Argument saying Infants needed a Christ to bring them to the Kingdom of Heaven though they had no sinne Austin well urged That they divided those two names of our Saviour Christ and Jesus making him a Christ where he was not a Jesus Certainly to be a Saviour of Infants implieth in themselves they are lest Argum. 10. Hence in the next place The initial Sacrament which God hath appointed alwayes in his Church for Infants doth fully demonstrate they have sinne in a proper formal sense viz. Sinne to be remitted and to be abolished In the Old Testament every Infant eight dayes old was to be circumcised and that Sacrament did plainly declare the sinne and corruption that was in them though so young for Rom. 4. Circumcision was a Seal of the Righteousness by Faith which is a Gospel-righteousness by Christ whereas if they had no sinne within such a Seal would have been ridiculous and absurd As for Christ who though he had no sinne yet was circumcised and baptized that was upon another account for having voluntarily made himself subject to the Law it beloved him to fulfill all the Righteousness thereof but Infants have not that consideration If then Infants needed a righteousness through faith this plainly demonstrated they had nothing but sinne in themselves besides The cutting of the fore skin in the Sacrament of Circumcision did denote the throwing away of that inherent pollution of their Natures Deut. 10. 16. Therefore Deut. 30. 6. God promiseth to circumcise their heart which was to regenerate them of which Circumcision was a sign Hence Rom. 2. 28 29. the Apostle distinguisheth of a Circumcision of the flesh and a Circumcision of the spirit If then Infants needed a Circumcision of the Spirit If they needed that the sinfull fore-skin of their heart should be cut off of which their external Circumcision applied to them was a Seal it followeth unquestionably that they had an universal pollution all over them before they had committed any actual sinne Thus also for Baptism an initiating Sacrament in the New Testament that is to be applied to Infants For though Anabaptists do now deny it yet the Pelagians of old though so exceedingly pressed by this Argument That Infants were baptized for Remission of sinne but it could not be actual therefore it was original which was in them They never dared to deny their Baptism but ranne to other evasions I take it for a Truth at this time because so fully proved by those who have writ on this Subject That Infants are to be baptized and if so it 's also plain by Scripture That Baptism in the nature of it signifieth Remission of sinnes and Regeneration which priviledges if Infants want they must necessarily have that which is truly and properly a sin Argum. 11. Lastly Every Infant new born comes into the world with that which is truly and formally a sinne Because the Scripture makes it the peculiar Character and property of Christ that he was wholly without sinne Therefore the Angel in his discourse to Mary cals him the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that holy thing which shall be born of thee Luke 1. 35. And the Apostle telleth us It behoved us to have such an High priest who was tempted like us in all things sin only excepted Heb. 4. 15. These places do clear that Christ only was born without sinne and all others are polluted with it And the reason why Christ is exempted is because he was not of Adam Quoad seminalem rationem but corpulatam substantiam as the Schoolmen say He was not the sonne of Adam by natural generation but by a miraculous conception It is true The Evangelist Luke reckoning up Christs Genealogy ascends up to Adam as if he were the sonne of Adam but that is because he was the supposed
how the Pelagians made use of it he answereth That this is to be understood of actual sinne not original sinne Every actual sinne must be voluntary it 's not necessary original sinne should be personally and formally so Again he limits that Rule to such sins as are meerly sins not punishments also but original sin is both a sin and punishment Lastly He grants this to be true amongst the Laws of men and therefore cals it politica sententia And no wonder if Philosophers required a formal will in every sin else not to make it imputable because they were wholly ignorant of this Truth But in the last place our Divines do deny that voluntariness is requisite to every actual sinne for there are sinnes of ignorance for which Sacrifices were to be offered And David prayeth to be cleansed from secret sins which he did not know and if so they must be involuntary yea Paul expresly cals that a sin Rom. 7. which yet was against his will although it may be granted that even in these there is some kind of voluntarines For a thing may be voluntary either in its cause or in it self or absolutely involuntary but comparatively voluntary as when we do things for fear or there may be a mixture of voluntarines and involuntarines which Paul seemeth to acknowledge in himself yet still the proper notion of a sinne lieth in the contrariety of it to the Law of God Therefore John defineth sinne by that whether it be voluntary or not he doth not take notice of This is acknowledged by some Scholastical Writers especially Holkot De imputabilitate peccati answereth this Objection fully to our purpose where he positively affirmeth That sinne is not therefore imputable unto us because it was in the power of the will but as righteousness is therefore praise-worthy because it is righteousness so unrighteousness is therefore culpable and damnable because it is unrighteousness that is if I may interpret him because it 's against a Law Hence he proceedeth to shew That a thing is not righteous or vnrighteous meerly because it was in the power of the will for the will of a child would have been made righteous by God sine proprie motu without any proper motion of the childs will And then why may it not as well be sinfull without any such voluntary motion in an Infant So that he concludeth It 's as proper to original sinne to be naturally contracteâ or derived from another without any proper act of the will as it is to an actual sinne to have the will one way or other consenting to it Even as in the state of integrity original righteousness in Infants would have been propagated but actuall Righteousness voluntarily performed And these things may satisfie this first Objection yet hereafter we shall speak more to this SECT II. THe second Objection is in effect to this sense What is a punishment cannot be a sinne But the deprivation of Gods Image in man upon Adam's disobedience is a punishment And therefore it cannot be a sinne Original sinne if not totally yet principally consists in the losse of that original Righteousnesse and rectitude which God made man in Seeing therefore the privation of this came upon man by way of punishment when Adam transgressed We cannot conceive it say they to be a sinne also for a punishment and a sinne are wholly contradictory a sinne must be voluntary a punishment involuntary a sinne is an action and a punishment is a passion a sinne is an evil and God cannot be the author of it a punishment is good and an act of Justice so that God cannot be said to permit that but to inflict it This Argument at the first view hath likewise some colour but upon the examination of it it will quickly vanish I shall not answer in a large dispute about that famous Question Whether the same thing may be a sin and a punishment Or whether God doth punish one sin with another but shall speak as much briefly as is convenient for this Objection And First You must know that Arminius began to dislike this Doctrine of original sinne Respons ad Artic. 31. which was mentioned in their publique Catechism upon this very reason because it was a punishment and he gave this Reason to the Minister then conferring with him Because if God did punish Adam's sinne with this sinne then he must punish this with another and that other with another and so there must be a processus in infinitum But his followers the Remonstrants in their Apology for their Confession contra Censuram seem to disclaim this opinion That our original corruption is either malum culpae or poenae properly so called Because where there is an evil of punishment it must be for some sinne But Infants have committed no voluntary sinne and therefore could not deserve such a punishment So that they profess themselves to be of Zuinglius his mind whether he retracted it or not afterwards they are not certain viz. That it is a morbus a vitium a languor an imbecillity of nature but neither the evil of sinne or punishment Some Papists as Pighius Catharinus Mayro and some Scotists hold That native pollution to be no sinne because it 's a punishment and that for Adam's sinne imputed to all concluding on this That it cannot be a sinne because it 's a punishment The Socinians they say The necessity of dying with other punishments is the punishment of Adam's sinne and therefore that repugnancy and contrariety which is between the flesh and the Spirit is from our very Creation The sensitive appetite rebels against the rational from the very first Creation of man and would have been whether Adam had sinned or no yea it was from this vehement opposition of the appetite to reason that he did sin I shall consider the strength of their Objection as it lieth in this The same thing cannot be a sin and a punishment too The Remonstrants affirm this and Papists likewise but with some explication And 1. It is confessed That there are some punishments of sinne which are not sinne as when God for Adam's disobedience hath made man obnoxious to miseries to sickness and death These are not sinnes It comes from sinne to have pain and to die but they are not sinnes and the Reason is Because these are malum naturale not morale they are a natural evil not a moral In the second place Austin saith and he saith it truly from Scripture That original inherent sinne which he calleth concupiscence is both a sinne a punishment of sinne and a cause of sin Even as blindness of mind or hardness of heart is both a sinne a punishment and a cause of further sinne Lib. 5. contra Juhan cap. 3. That it is a sinne appeareth by the many Texts already brought And Austin's Reason in that place is very cogent Quia inest illi inobedientia contra dominatum mentis There is in it a disobedience against the dominion of
with it a guilt of conscience is contracted upon every sinne Thus some expound that known saying of Austin Jussisti Domine sic est ut omnis animus inordinatus sit sibi ipsi poena O Lord thou hast so commanded and thus it is that a soul immoderate any way should be a punishment to it self Thus as the moral Philosophers say Virtus est sibiipsi praemium so peccatum est sibiipsi poena Virtue is a reward to it self because it brings sweetness and comfort of conscience so a sinne is a punishment to it self because it brings terror and fear with it Lastly The same thing may be both a sinne and a punishment both poena damni and poena sensus a punishment of loss and so every sinne in that it is a sin depriveth the soul of that spiritual good and glory which it ought to have and so is a kind of disease or death it self and then in some sins they are a punishment of sense as in envy and anger Thus when Ahitophel and Judas hanged themselves their self-murder was both a sinne and a punishment of loss and sense also SECT III. IN the third place it is objected If original inherent sinne be made a distinct sin from Adam's imputed sinne we do needlesly make two guilts and so multiply sins without necessity for all the guilt that is in Adam's sinne imputed the corruption of Nature which floweth immediately from it doth not make a new sin but makes the former more hainous As if say they a man should by some sin lose his eyes that act whereby he put out his eyes was a sinne but then it 's not a new distinct sin in him to be without eyes Or if a Commander who had a Castle to keep upon which depended the good of a Town adjacent if he prove persidious and give it up to the enemy his perfidious act at first is all the sinne if the Town adjacent have much misery thereby it is an aggravation of his sin but it doth not make him guilty of two sins This hath made some think That our original pollution as distinct from Adam's sinne imputed is not a sinne and that whensoever the Fathers call it a sinne they understand it as connexed with Adam's sinne Thus the learned Vossius in his Pelagian History But the truth no doubt is on their side who hold a twofold distinct guilt That Adams sinne imputed to us and that inherent are two distinct sins though one doth necessarily imply an order to another and the later is alwayes to be looked upon as a relative to the former Neither doth that similitude of a man wilfully putting his eyes out make to this purpose For when a man hath lost his eyes there is a natural impotency ever to have them again Neither is there any obligation or Law binding him thereunto But besides the guilt of imputed sinne we are bound to have that inherent rectitude we once lost and therefore being defective in that we ought to have it 's truly a sinne The loss of a mans eyes is malum naturale this is morale And thus Aristotle determined that a drunken man who committed any sin worthy of punishment was to be twice punished both for his drunkenness and the other sinne committed Thus Rivet also in the matter of Lot's Incest which he committed while he was so drunk that he could not tell what he did inclineth to their opinion who say That Lot's Incest was not only a punishment of his drunkenness and so an aggravation of his sinne but truly and properly Incest so that he had two sins and was twice guilty Some learned men do determine That if a man commit such a sin upon which other sins do usually follow though while they do them they cannot avoid them not knowing what they do yet those subsequent sins are to be charged upon them besides the first that was the cause of all as murder is to be charged as a distinct sin upon a drunkard though happily in his drunkenness he knew not that he committed such a sin SECT IV. ARe we all guilty of sinne as soon as we are born This should teach us Humiliation and Patience under the death or miseries of our Infants we are ready to say Why are such poor Innocents exposed to such calamities The knowledge of original sinne will stop thy mouth herein When Titus the Emperour was dying who for his good and sweet Government was called Deliciae generis humani he quarrelled with the gods because he thought they did eripere vitam immerenti he deserved not to die he thought death was a wrong to him but had he understood original sinne he would have seen his desert of it though he had never committed any actual impiety Pliny likewise if he had known this would not have uttered that foolish complaint That homo was animal infaeliciter natum which did cum suppliciis vitam auspicari unam tantum ob culpam quia natum est that did begin his life with miseries and punish us for this fault only because he was born No The Scripture would have informed him it was because he was born in sinne This is the rise and spring of all mans calamity SECT V. I Shall at this time conclude this famous and noble Text wherein we have the Doctrine of original sinne so evidently asserted notwithstanding all the fogs and mists that some have indeavoured to bring upon it The remaining work is to dissolve some further Objections that are laid in the way as stumbling-blocks which when removed we shall proceed to the practical improvement of it In the next place therefore this is thought a powerfull weapon against this Truth viz. It cannot be truly and properly a sinne because it is not against any Law The Apostle makes contrariety to the Law to be of the essence of sinne If therefore Infants new-born or before they are born are not under a Law then they are not capable of any sinne and truly it hath a seeming absurdity to say Infants are commanded by Gods Law to be born without sinne seeing that is no more in their power than to be born This consideration did press that learned Divine Molinaus Enodatio graviss Quaest de peccato origin pag. 130. to acknowledge That no such Law was upon Infants and therefore he saith That the Law doth condemn original sinne but not prohibit it But this seemeth very strange For how can the Law condemn a thing but because it is against it And how can it be against it but because it doth prohibit If therefore the meaning of that learned man be that original sinne is not immediately and proximely forbidden that is readily granted for so only actual sins are but mediately and remotely both the habits of sinne and original must necessarily be prohibited if they be condemned The learned Vossius also affirmeth That original sinne is not forbidden by the moral Law though he confesseth it is by
therefore Christ and he are compared as the two fountains and universal principles of all For which reasons also it is that the Apostle doth here call him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Type of him that was to come Insomuch that we may easily see why there is a difference between Adam and other parents So that although the child dieth not for his parents sins yet he doth and most for Adams Learned men use to illustrate our being in Adam and sinning in him for which our punishment is just and due by that of the Apostle Heb 7. 9 10 where Levi is said to pay Tyths to Melchizedech long before he was born because he was in Abrakams lâins And although it may be granted that there is some disproportion Abraham not being such a common parent to Levi as Adam was to all mankind yet Sceinus his exception is very frivolous The Apostle saith he useth that diminutive phrase ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as I may so say which doth demonstrate that it was not a proper saying To this we answer That if you do regard Levies actual paying of Tyths as it he had an actual existence then there was some impropriety which made the Apostle use that phrase but not in regard of the truth of his paying in a moral consideration Thus when we say All sinned in Adam we may well use that phrase and speak thus As we may so say we did all actually will Adam's sinne we did all actually transgress that Commandment Thus it is a diminutive expression in relation to our actual existence but not to our sinne For by Gods Covenant we were looked upon as in him Though I must consess that is a very absurd and forced expositiof Catharinus Opusc de peceât orig whose opinion is That all our original sinne is Adams actual sinne made ours and referreth that expression of Christ to Nathaneel Joh. 1. 49. When thou wast under the fig-tree I saw thee to Nathaneels being in Adam while he did eat of the forbidden âruit which some say was a fig-tree Howsoever it be you see that place in Ezekiel doth not reach to our case in hand 2. That place will overthrow the Socinians themselves also For they grant That by Adam 's sinne death though otherwise natural is now made necessary and penal insomuch that we actually die because of Adam's disobedience And 3. That place in Ezekiel it is commonly interpreted thus The child shall not bear the Fathers siane viz. if he be innocent and not guilty of it as well as his Father I do not discuss whether this be the full interpretation of that place But if it be so then our punishment because of Adam hath no injustice in it because by that actual transgression of Adam we are made sinners as well as he and so have in our selves though new born a just desert of all the wages of sin The Infant dying because of that particular inherent sin which is in him so that it is both Adams and his own in several respects In the second place to answer this Argument take notice That though it be of the will of God that Adams sin is made ours for if he pleased he might have done otherwise Yet we are not to say as the Remonstrants That God imputeth this sinne to mankind meerly because he will as if the thing in it self were indifferent Even as God appointed things should be unclean in the Old Testament meerly and solely from his will because he had appointed so for it is from his Justice also such is the hatred of God against sinne and withall dealing with Adam according to the Covenant of works the curse of that if violated would descend from parents to children as appeareth in Moses his curses pronounced against those that should not continue in the Law it was to them and their children Therefore some learned men expound that passage of Gods saying The child shall not die for the iniquity of his Father which is also mentioned Jer. 31. 29. to belong to the Evangelical Covenant but according to the Legal Covenant the child must suffer with the father and this interpretation they urge because v. 31 32. presently followeth the declaration of Gods Evangelical Covenant he will make with his people But let this prove as it can this we must conclude of That God doth not impute Adams sinne to us meerly because he will but because of his Justice also inclining him thereunto So that the Remonstrants speak too slightly of it as if it were only a dispensative imputation to make way for grace through Christ But I shall hereafter have occasion to speak more fully to this particular as also to the other Objections which may again frequently interpose themselves Vse Of Instruction from all these subtil and specious Arguments against it and that in all ages we may see the subtilty and craft of Satan who would gladly have this Doctrine wholly buried for man is naturally proud and self-righteous hardly brought to be thought so miserable a sinner If therefore any Doctors shall arise that shall likewise plead for such a supposed innocency and freedom How welcome and suitable is this to flesh and bloud Therefore look upon this Doctrine as a Fundamental Truth specially in reference to the practice of godliness and acknowledge it the good hand of God that as there have been any subtil and bold to deny it in any age so he hath raised up eminent and choice men in the same ages to propugn this Doctrine especially do thou often compare thy foul nature with the pure rule of Gods Law Be not like the Elephant which they say before it drinketh bemuddeth the waters that it may not see his own deformity CHAP. X. A Third Text brought to make good this Fundamental Point about Original Sinne improved and vindicated SECT I. JOE 14. 4. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean Not one THough other pregnant Texts in the New Testament may be brought to confirm this Necessary and Fundamental Truth about original sinne yet I shall forbear them till I come to the handling of the Nature of it or what it is For that is not true of the Remonstrants which say Original sinne can be proved only by two or three places although if there were no more it 's certain that out of the mouth of two or three such Divine Witnesses the Doctrine about it may be established I come therefore and select one or two places out of the Old Testament that so you may see this Truth was alwayes acknowledged in the Church of God and that even in the times of the Old Testament where divine light and knowledge was not so plentifully communicated yet there was full and clear evidence about this The Text I have read is deservedly both by the ancient and later Writers esteemed a powerfull place to prove our natural uncleannesse and sinnefulnesse To understand it therefore consider That whereas Job in the former
uncleannesses We read Levit. 12. That a woman upon her bringing forth a child was guilty of Insomuch that in the legal dispensation every woman that brought forth a child was to be separated so many dayes as unclean to be kept from the publick worship of God and at last to bring an offering for to cleanse her Now it 's disputed why God appointed such a law about a womans uncleanness and purification in bringing forth children Although some as Bonfretius and Grotius make it to no more signification than of other impurities that were legall yet Austin of old and Calvin are very positive that this was to informe them of the cursed and sinnefull estate that the child was brought into the world with The father and mother saith Calvin by this ceremony were taught with what humiliation and sorrow they ought to look upon that natural pollution the infant was born in and in his comment on the place he insinuateth two Answers to those two Objections that are made against the typifying of original sinne thereby as that this uncleanness and so purification did belong to the child as well as the mother For the Objectors say It could not denote original sin because it related to the mother only and not to the child but Calvin saith it belongeth to both and that by Luk. 2. 22. it may be proved And Grotius preferreth those Copies which have the plural number ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã their purification relating to the child as well as the mother But Junius doth more probably think it belonged only to the mother Another Objection is That the mother was longer unclean by a female than a male which if it were for original sinne would argue the female had more of it than the male To this Calvin giveth this conjecture That therefore there might be so much spiritual signification to the female that so the defect in circumcision the females not being to be circumcised might be made up this way But the difference of time is commonly attributed to a physical consideration Howsoever these Answers be yet Junius as well as Calvin doth acknowledge This was done because of original sinne though he had actual sins also As for the Virgin Mary who offered according to the Law when her time of purification was expired Luke 2. 22. if it did relate to the child as well as the mother that did not argue Christ to be born in sinne no more than circumcision argued a duty of putting off the foreskin of the heart in him but it was to fulfill all righteousness he being now made subject to the Law Not that such a ceremonial uncleanness is still under the Gospel-times as some ignorant superstitious women think for all such ceremonial Rites were abolished by Christs coming into the world onely in the general that Ceremony in the Jewish Church did teach us the nature of birth-pollution 3. There is a moral uncleanness and that is sinne which is a pollution of the soul making it abominable and loathsom in the eyes of God and this uncleanness is upon every Infant though but a day or an hour old and of this uncleanness the Text speaketh SECT III. A Comparison between Mans Moral Uncleanness and Levitical Uncleanness TO understand the foulness of it let us first compare our spiritual uncleanness with the worst legal uncleanness in the Law even that of Leprosie and we shall see how fitly they agree For 1. The legal unclean especially the Leper he was to keep aloof off from all men and company even his wife and children only such as were to provide necessaries for them and to cry He was unclean unclean In what a sad and miserable condition did such an unclean person apprehend himself to be no body to come near him none to have any civil commerce with him but to sit pining and mourning alone Thus ought every man in this original pollution for by it he hath deserved to be deprived of every comfort he is now cursed by the Law with all curses thereof so that no creature in the world might give him any creature The whole creation began to groan as soon as man fell Hence it is that though we truly say Every man though in his natural condition hath a civil right to the comforts he enjoyeth yet he hath not an holy and sanctified right being not in Christ so that what is our due by nature as soon as we are born is hell and damnation the wrath and anger of God Though we should beg here as Dives did in hell for a drop of water it might be denied us Oh miserable then and unclean man who is thus to stand aloof off from all creatures and comforts saying Wo unto me for I am unclean 2. The legal unclean person did make unclean every thing that be touched whatsoever he laid his hand upon that was presently made unclean yea as appeareth Hag. 2. If he did touch any holy thing he made that unclean the holy thing did not sanctifie him Now is not this too true in every man who is by nature spiritually unclean The Apostle speaks this with evident conviction to all that will not wilfully shut their eyes Tit. 1. 15. Vnto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure So then what a loathsom Leprosie of sinne is upon every one by nature that he defileth all he medleth with if he eat he makes it unclean eating if he work he makes it unclean working yea if he prayeth if he heareth he makes it unclean and impure praying and hearing to him Oh what a thunder-bolt should this be in our ears What a polluted wretch am I that in all places at all times in every thing I do have this uncleanesse upon me The uncleanness every man is born in hath been partly considered and a comparison made between every man in his natural estate and the ceremonial unclean person in the old legal constitution Now that we may be the more affected with this lamentable and wofull condition we are all born in Let us consider it absolutely in it self The uncleanness in the Text is not a natural or ceremonial but moral uncleanness For although with us in our common speech and sometimes in the Scripture uncleanness is taken more strictly for the pollution of the body in any unlawfull way yet it is here taken largely for sinne in the general and therefore to be righteous is the opposite to it as Job 15. In this sense it is used Zech. 13. 1. where a fountain is said to be set open for sinne and uncleanness Seeing therefore the holy Ghost doth pronounce us all by nature to be unclean yea so unclean that no power either humane or Angelical can make us clean but it is God alone that maketh grapes to grow of these thorns or rather turns thorns into vines Let us examine what is comprehended in this expression unclean SECT IV. What is comprehended in this Expression Uncleanness FIrst There is evidently
of it neither are we to humble our selves because of it Secondly Others there are that though they hold it to be a sinne yet they say it was absolutely forgiven in Baptism and if it was then totally forgiven what necessity is thereof confession and acknowledging it afterwards That original sinne was forgiven to all that were baptized was the opinion of Austin who yet did more earnestly propugn this Doctrine of original sinne than any of the Fathers Yea in his time these two seemed to be Catholick Doctrines of the whole Church viz. an universal efficacy of Baptism in all Infants baptized to purge away original sinne as also the necessity of damnation of those Infants which died without it The Papists also they generally conclude That this original sinne is forgiven to all baptized persons and Socinus in his Exposition of this place approveth this Position That it is not to be confessed Yea it cannot be denied but that some learned Protestants adversaries both to Papists and Arminians as Davenant Ward have affirmed also That all baptized persons have their original sinne forgiven them and so dying in their infancy must without doubt be saved Thirdly There are others and such are the Remonstrants who affirm That upon Adam's fall God entring into a new Covenant of Grace with fallen mankind by Christ our Mediator Therefore it is they say that none is damned for original sinne no not Heathens or their children but that by the second Adam viz. Christ there is taken off all that guilt which came by Adam's transgression So that in this respect they make the children of Heathens and believers all alike So that by these mens Positions though going upon several grounds we see it affirmed That original sinne is pardoned and that before there is any confession humiliation and sorrow for it Whether indeed though it be pardoned some of the fore-mentioned Authors will not hold it necessary to confess it and to beg for the pardon of it may well be doubted I say some of them For how prophanely and arrogantly doth a Remonstrant Adolphus Venator in his Apologia contra Ministros Dordracenos speak in this matter as he is cited by Sandaus the Jesuite for I have not the Book it self in his Hydrus Hollanda lib. 2. cap. 20. pag. 268. where when from the diversity of opinions about original sinne he concludeth There is scarce any certainty about it addeth Etiam hinc intelligi potest nihil esse quia nemo in se reperiat morsum conscientiae vel accusationem suiipsius ob peccatum ante quinquies mille quingentos annos in Paradiso comissum Ego saltem non sensi nec credo Derdracenes fratres propter illud vel ingentem conscientiae stimulum persensisse vel copiam lachrymarum profudisse How wretchedly doth this man speak Certainly David and Paul had other apprehensions of this original sinne with the immediate effects thereof For the Orthodox hold against the Antinomians That though our sins be pardoned yet we may yea ought upon special occasions to confess them and to renew our humiliation again for them as David prayeth God would not remember the sinnes of his youth and here in this Psalm he prayeth to be purged and washed which relateth to all that uncleanness both original and actual he had formerly confessed Thus Paul also doth several times with humiliation and self-debasement make mention of his former persecutions and blasphemies he had been guilty of Fourthly Whatsoever may be the opinions of men about this sinne either denying it wholly or making it universally pardoned to all mankind or at least to some when baptized of which more is to be said when we treat of the effects of original sinne Yet from this example of David and from other Texts of Scripture we see It is our duty as long as we live in this world to groan under it and bewail our miserable condition because of it SECT VIII Repentance may be taken either largely or strictly LEt therefore David's example here in the Text be more to thee than what ten thousand cavillers may say unto thee onely you must know that when we speak of sorrow and repentance about this sinne we may take repentance largely or strictly for any kind of holy sorrow and humiliaton of soul and that because God is displeased with us because we have that which is contrary to his holy Law and so is offensive to him and damnable to us and in this respect we are in a deep measure to humble our selves for original sinne as being a most grievous and hainous sinne the guilt whereof would press us into the lowest hell did not Gods grace interpose or else it may be strictly taken for a change of our mind or an alteration of that purpose and will we once had Now in this strict sense though it be our duty with sorrow to be humbled for original sinne yet we cannot be properly said to repent of it because it was not a sinne ever committed by us personally or through our own actual will So that although we may not so properly it may be exhort men to repent of this original sinne yet we must press them to a deep and daily humiliation under it and that not as a punishment or an affliction only but as a true and proper sin So that as without confession and sorrow no actual sinne will be forgiven unto a man so neither will original sinne and therefore we do by consequence in the Lords Prayer when we say Forgive us our sinnes pray not onely for the pardon of actual sinnes but original also whatsoever the Remonstrants say neither is their Argument against it of any worth when they say then the meaning likewise is in the clause following That we forgive men their trespasses and their original corruption against us for the comparison lieth not in the Nature of the sins but the manner of forgiveness otherwise when the Church prayeth for the pardon of Idolatry or any sinne against the first Table adding As we forgive others the meaning should be As we forgive them their Idolatries or sins against the first Table which would be absurd and blasphemous Besides we are not onely to forgive the actual trespasses of those who wrong us but even their thoughts and inclinations to hate us If therefore original sinne be a sinne and will damn us without Christs bloud and Gods gracious pardon thereby then we pray for the pardon of ãâã in the Lords Prayer and we are all our life long because of the reliques of it in us to humble ourselves because of it And although because Wallaeus an eminent Divine spake of Reliquiae peccats originalis The Remonstrants call it an absurd phrase For what is meant say they by these reliques of original sinne either actual sinnes or original If original why then are they called the reliques of it Yet we may say The phrase is very proper for it supposeth original sinne not to be wholly extinct
it is altered so the soul of a man yea the whole man that was at first made upright and holy now through this pollution manifests nothing thereof yea the clean contrary in stead of the Image of God there is the image of the Devil there appeareth nothing but of the sinne and the Devil in a man for if Paul could say He no longer lived but Christ in him Gal. 2. 20. when yet grace was not full and complete in him How much rather may we while abiding in our natural estate say We no longer live but sinne in us for sinne moveth all and doth all having full dominion over us SECT V. Why it is called Old-man IN the second place It may be called the Old man First Because it came from Adam the first man and most antient Thus it is a sinne of great antiquity it hath been in the world ever since Adam's transgression Most things have had their times and their seasons but this hath been alwayes There was never any age wherein men were not born sinfull though some actual sins have abounded more at one time than another though Adam be dead thousands of years ago yet the sin liveth and is propagated 2. It is Old Because it is from every mans particular beginning Thou canst not think of the number of thy years or how old thou art but thou mayest with groans remember also that sinne is just as old as thou art Hast thou lived to threescore or an hundred years even thus old sinne is Alas we are apt to complain of old age to count it a disease we say Alas now our best time is gone we are weak old men Oh but there is an old man within that is more to be lamented 3. It 's the Old man Because of the crast and subtil wayes that this sinne hath within us Insomuch that Jeremiah complaineth Chap 17. None can find out the depth of sinne none but God can search thy heart This is the old subtil fox within thee and therefore it 's said to deceive and to tempt us 4. It 's the Old man Because it is to be renewed That which is old saith the Apostle is to vanish away The Old Testament was removed that the New might succeed Thus the Old man is to die is to continue no longer that the New may be established in us Lastly It 's called the Old man Because there is no loveliness or comeliness in it For old age is like winter making the blossoms of beauty to fall Thus the name Old man argueth the uncomeliness of it Vse Of Instruction To acquaint your selves with this Old man in you young and old rich and poor all have this Old man that will at last betray and damn you Oh consider you carry your own bane about with you out of thy own bowels thy own heart will arise that which will destroy thee and this Old man is in every one The Pharisees told the blind man He was wholly born in sinnes They thought it was the condition of some miserable afflicted people to be so born but it is the condition of all and therefore expect no heaven or slavation till this Old man be crucified and the New man repaired in thee CHAP. II. Of the Name Law of Sinne given to Original Sinne. SECT I. ROM 7. 25. So then with the mind I myself serve the Law of God but with the flesh the Law of Sinne. THis Chapter is the common seat and proper place wherein the nature of original inherent sinne is expresly handled so that he who by reading of this Chapter shall not be convinced that there is such a thing as original sinne and that in some measure putting it self forth in the godly to their great grief and misery I think we may say he would not believe any such thing though men should rise from the dead and come and preach it to us I shall in time God willing fully improve the chief matter herein contained for herein is described that Christian conflict which is in all the godly between the regenerate and unregenerate part as also the consequents thereof For the present I must take two Hypotheses or Suppositions for granted which in time God willing I shall fully prove The first is That the Apostle speaking of such a sharp combate within him between the Law of his mind and the Law of sinne doth not assume the person of another as of a carnal unregenerate man or a Legalist convinced by the Doctrine of the Law yet his heart carrying him in the clean contrary way but speak it of his own Person and that as regenerated The former way go the Arminians and some Papists and all Socinians but the later way generally go the Protestants even as Austin of old retracting the former opinion he once had yea the best and choisest Commentators of the Papists Salmeron Pererius Estius and Lapide c. do adhere to this Exposition So that you must not think that the combate here spoken of is like that which Aristotle describes his incontinent person by that doth like videre and Probare meliora but deteriora sequi which is only a fight between an inlightned conscience and a corrupt heart Nor 2. Is it like those preparatory and initial works anteceding sometimes conversion which Austin doth notably speak of in himself desiring to be freed from sinne and yet afraid his prayer should be heard so that he was alwayes going but yet never did thorowly go to God till at last he found that gratia Dei vorti cordis which no hard heart can resist because it is given on purpose to take away the hard heart But the Apostle doth here not only doctrinally affirm such a thing as original sinne but experimentally he declareth the actings of it So that he doth not only write a doctrinal and dogmatical Truth but also an History of what he observed in himself The second Supposition to be granted is that by flesh the Apostle doth not only mean the sensitive or sensual part but the whole man so farre as corrupted So that with the Apostle the soul is flesh the understanding the will are flesh because all are corrupted with original sinne Of which more in its time These two things premised you may know that this Text read is the Epilogue or summary Conclusion which the Apostle makes from that doctrinal and practical discourse about himself to wit that there are two principles in him two selves two men as it were There was both a sweet fountain and bitter within him and from these did flow two suitable streams The Law of the mind did incline him to serve the Law of God but the Law in his members the Law of sin Not that the Law of sinne and members are two distinct things as Calvin and Beza thought making the Law of sinne to be original sinne the Law in the members to be the actings and stirrings of this in the whole man for ver 23. The Law
check and bitter reluctancy sometimes so that they can say sometimes I do the things I allow not yea I hate When the Apostle Rom. Chap. 1. and Chap. 2. speaketh of some Heathens that had their consciences accusing of them and that they detained the truth in unrighteousnesse he supposeth That those who yet never tasted of the power of the Gospel may have such truth and light in their consciences that it shall suggest what is to be done yet love to their lusts will hurry them the contrary way but as in time is to be shewed the combate between reason and the sensitive appetite is a farre different thing from the conflict between the flesh and the spirit in the godly Neither secondly must you understand Paul speaking of gross and foul sins as if when he said The evil he would not that he doth were to be understood of scandalous and wicked enormities No but it is to be interpreted of those motions to sinne and constant infirmities which cleave to the most holy Let not therefore any prophane person that customarily walloweth in his impieties excuse himself with this It is true I am such a beast I do such soul things sometimes but I may say with Paul The things that I allow not yea that I hate those I do This is to turn honey into poyson This is to make the Scripture an incentive to thy impiety No Paul and such as thou art differ as much as the Sunne and a dunghill Paul did not mean the drunkenness the uncleanness that he would not do that he did but he meaneth such corruptions and infirmities that immediately flow from the polluted nature within us from which we are never throughly cleansed in this life Thirdly Neither when the Apostle saith The good he would that he doth not and the evil he would not that he doth Is thus to be so understood as if it were perpetual and in every particular act as if sinne had alwayes the better and grace the worse as if in no action he did grace did conquer sinne for in other places the godly are said to have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof As also That sinne shall not have dominion over them but sometimes in some temptations they are captivated against their wils Fourthly Neither may you thus understand Paul when he saith He would do good but evil stops him as if he had only the sluggards will and wish who would eat but doth not labour who would be rich but yet lets his field be full of briars and thorns such velleities and incompleat wishes many formal Christians have so that such lazy and sluggish desires without efficacious operations are not to shroud themselves under Paul's expression Lastly Therefore Paul's meaning is That the good which he would do be cannot do it perfectly he cannot do it with that alacrity and fervency as he would do Though the flesh do not wholly conquer the spirit yet it doth stop and hinder it Therefore Nazianzen calls it the Echineips the fish that stops the ship that it doth not go so speedily though it doth not drown it SECT II. In what sense those words It is not I but sinne that dwels in me are to be understood THis premised we may take notice of an inference or conclusion that the Apostle draweth from this Now then it 's no more I that do it but sinne that dwels in me which he speaketh not as excusing or putting off the blame from himself but to difference and to distinguish these two principles that are within him the regenerate and unregenerate So farre as he is regenerate he doth not do these things neither are they to be charged upon him he speaks it to distinguish not excuse which is the rather to be observed because of those Carpocrations of old and Libertines of late who excuse all their impieties saying It is not they that do such things but the flesh within them and so make a mock of all sinne yea some of late have arrived to such horrid blasphemy as to say It 's not they that do such and such evil actions but God in them Neither doth the Apostle lay the fault upon the Devil it was not his but the Devil as many are apt to do but upon that fountain and root of all the bitterness in his heart and life which is original corruption here described to be the sinne dwelling in him From whence observe That original sinne is an inherent in-dwelling sinne in us It is the sinne that sticketh fast to our Natures and dwels in us Some will confess That there is original imputed sin but not inherent where doth the Scripture call it so say they But first They grant original imputed sinne yet Where doth the Scripture call it imputed sinne And secondly we say The Scripture cals it inherent in this Text The sinne that dwelleth in us that is the same in sense with the sinne inherent in us So then original sinne is the sinne that dwelleth inheretit and abideth in us To open thus First Take notice That there are three kinds of sinnes as to our purpose Original Habitual and Actual Actual sinnes are all such which are a transgression of Gods Law whether by thought word or deed for the sinnes of the mind and the heart are actual sinnes though never committed bodily and externally Now these actual sinnes they cannot be called sinnes that dwell in us for they are transient and when committed they are passed away onely the guilt remaineth viz. An obligation to eternal wrath Neither doth the Apostle so much complain in this Chapter of the actings of sinne though that be part as the Law of sinne in his members which is the fountain of all In the next place There are Habitual sinnes such as are acquired by frequent acts and daily commissions of sinne and these indeed must be confessed to be in-dwelling and fixed sinnes in us and these habits of sinne do much intend and strengthen our original corruption making it more vigorous and if so be that custom be a second nature how miserable is an unfegerate man who hath as it were a two-fold nature inclining him to sinne Original corruption which is like an innate habit and custome in sinne which is like an acquired So that as the Scripture speaks of some who are twice dead so we may say These are twice alive in respect of their vigorous propensity to sinne Therefore the Scripture speaks sometimes of men that have these double chains of wickedness upon them Thus when the Apostle Rom. 3. 10 11 12 c. doth from several places in the Old Testament apply those things which are spoken of men in an high nature flagitious to every one by nature that doth comprehend both their innate and acquired impiety and therefore might well by the Apostle be applied to all because all by nature would be carried out to such enormous rebellions The Psalmist because of original and habitual sinne
in some persons hath a notable expression Psal 5. 9. Their inward part is very wickednesse or wickednesses as in the Hebrew Their inward part is nothing but wickednesse Now although therefore habitual sinnes may truly be called sinnes dwelling in us yet the Apostle doth not speak here of such habitual sinnes for he speaks all along of one sinne as the mother as the fountain and root of all And besides Paul speaking in the person of a regenerate man could not complain of the acquired habits of sinne within him for in Regeneration there is an expulsion of all habitual sinne and in this sense Those that are born of God are said not to sinne viz. habitually and customarily as wicked men do although some actual sins and those of a very hainous nature may consist with the work of grace yet habites of sinne and habits of grace can no more consist together than light and darkness It is evident then that the Apostle not meaning habitual sinne must understand original in the immediate actings and workings of it for this will alwayes be a troublesome and molesting inmate This is not conquered but with the last enemy death it self SECT III. Why Original Corruption is called The Inherent or In-dwelling Sinne. THis premised Let us consider why original corruption is called the Inherent and In-dwelling Sinne and that even in a godly man And first The Apostle cals it the sinne ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Because of the propriety and proper right it hath to us As a man is said to dwell in his house because he hath a right to it and it is his own This original sinne is in every man as in its proper place as the stone doth rest in its center and will not move further So that as hell is said to be the proper place of Judas He went saith the Text to his own place Thus is the heart and soul of a man the proper and fit subject for all the natural impiety that cleaveth to us and therefore though the Devil be also said To rule in the hearts of wicked men he dwels also in them as well as sinne for which he is compared to an armed man keeping the house yet this is more extrinsecal and from without The Devil could not find a room ready swept and garnished for him but because of this native pollution Hence the Apostle doth not in this Chapter complain of the Devil but sin dwelling in him He doth not say I would do good but the Devil hinders me though that be sometimes true but sin dwelling in him Secondly This expression of sinne dwelling in a man denoteth The quiet and peaceable possession it hath in man by nature it dwels there as in its own house nothing to disturb or molest it Hence it is That all things are so quiet in a natural man there is nothing troubles him he is not disquieted in his conscience he feeleth no such burden or weight within him as Paul here complaineth of so that you would think many civil and natural men in a more holy condition than Paul They will thank God They have a good heart and all is quiet within them but this is not because original sinne doth not dwell and live and work in them but because they are sensless and stupid sinne is in its proper place and so there is no trouble and restlesness in their conscience Therefore it s thy want of experimental discoveries that makes thee question original sinne otherwise thy own heart would be in stead of all books to thee in this particular Indeed in godly men though sinne dwelleth in them yet it hath not peaceable possession it is as a tyrant in them Therefore the regenerate part maketh many oppositions and great resistances There is praying watching and fasting against it They are as sollicitous to have it quite expelled as some were to have Christ cast out the Devils from their possessed friends otherwise in the natural man original sin prevaileth all over and there is no noise no opposition yea great delight and content there is in subjection thereunto so that they resist Grace and the Spirit of God by the Word which would subdue sinne in them So that there is a great difference between the Inâdwelling of original sinne in a natural man and a regenerate In the former it dwelleth indeed but as the Jebusites in Canaan upon hard terms as the Gibeonites were in subjection to the Israelites It is true Arminius In Cap. 7. ad Rom. pag. 696. from this expression of sinne dwelling in Paul doth think a firm argument may be drawn to prove that he discourseth of an unregenerate person Because saith he the word to dwell doth in its proper signification and in the use of the Scripture signifie a full and powerfull dominion and therefore rejecteth that distinction of Peccatum dominans or regnans which is said to be in wicked men and inhabitans which is in the godly he would have it called inexistens not inhabitans But we have shewed That sinne is said to dwell in a man not because of its dominion in a godly man but because of its fixed inseparability and from this word a servant who hath no rule in an house is called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 1. Pet. 2. 18. Thirdly The word doth denote permanency and a fixed abode in us it is not for a night or year but our whole life dwelling in us So that sinne is not in a mans heart as a pilgrim as a stranger that is presently to remove but it hath taken up a fixed abode in us here it dwels and here it will dwell you see our holy Apostle sadly complaining of this inseparability of it from him as long as he lâveth Actual sinnes they are committed and so passe away yea when pardoned it is as if they had never been but original sinne is like Samson's hair though cut it will grow again and be as strong as ever till it be plucked up by the roots Fourthly In this expression is denoted the latency also and security of it it dwels in us and it 's called The Law in our members The chief actings and stirrings of it are in the inward man Therefore it is that the natural man the Pharisaical and hypocritical man know nothing of it Paul while a Pharisee and so zealous against grosse sinne abounding in external obedience yet knew not lust to be a sinne neither was he so sensible of such a load and burden within him Vse 1. Of Instruction not to think imputed original sinne or Adam's actual transgression made ours to be all the original sin we have No you may see there is an in-dwelling sinne an inherent corruption from whence floweth all that actual filth which is in our lives And why is it that we hear no more groaning and labouring under it Is it not because the spiritual life of grace is not within them Oh why are all things so still and peaceable within thee
to send them to hell they think but what can be spoken more terribly against man in regard of original sinne then God himself here speaks where every word is like so much thunder and lightning as is to be shewed Only for the present purpose observe that he saith Every imagination of the thought of a mans heart is evil Imagination or framing and fashioning the heart of a man is compared to a shop of wickedness and every thing framed or fashioned there is only evil Sinne then is present in a powerfull manner when there cannot so much as rise a motion in thee a stirring of thy soul though never so involuntary and indeliberate but it is only evil Oh it was not thus in the state of integrity then every imagination every motion was good and only good but now our gold is become dross and wine water Let a natural man observe his heart and he shall see what riseth first in his soul is all filth like the muddy fountain it comes from Yea even in a godly man How many thoughts and motions rise up in his heart that he abhorreth and trembleth at It is true sometimes the devil injecteth vile and blasphemous thoughts so that his heart is not at all active in them and therefore are not sinnes but compared to the Cup in Benjamin's sack they knew not how it came there and it is a great dexterity in casuistical Divinity so to direct a Christin that he may know when such motions arise from the devil alone so that they are my afflictions but not sinnes or when they come from my heart and so are truly imputable to me of which in its due time it may be but for the present we may sigh and groan under this consideration That evil is so present with us that nothing riseth up in the heart sooner than sinne Secondly In that evil is said to be present to Paul there is denoted the universal and diffusca presene of it Paul doth not say it 's present in one part in one faculty but to me that is in every part susceptible of sinne Therefore it is called The Law in his members because it putteth forth its efficacy every where sinne is present in the mind by atheism unbelief c. in the will by obstinacy and obdurateness in the affections by inordinacy and confusion yea sinne is present in the eye in the tongue So that the Apostle meaneth this original sinne is of such an universal extent that it is present in every part in him For you must not think as some Papists do That original sinne is only in the inferiour sensitive part of a man but it is principally and chiefly in the intellectual and most noble part the mind and the understanding and indeed because it 's so predominant therefore is conversion so difficult for the Ministry bringing arguments and convictions out of Gods word The sinne that is present in the understanding putteth a man upon atheistical cavils and carnal disputes whereby he shuts himself up voluntarily in his darkness rather than he will receive light Thirdly In that evil is said to be present with us here is denoted the continual assaulting and vigorous acting of it at all times Though original sinne be not an actual sinne yet it is an active sinne Hence Paul attributeth such actions to it as if it were some mighty imperious and conquering tyrant he saith it doth ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã It warreth against him it leadeth him into captivity Do not then think this sinne hath a meer bare sluggish presence is if it lay asleep in thee No it is daily assaulting thee it 's continually pulling thee down As the heart and pulse are in continual motion thus is original sin within thee Therefore our imaginations are not only said to be only evil Gen. 6. 5. but also continually Thy soul never acteth but it acteth sinfully and corruptly It is true while men are in their natural estate They are dead in sinne and so they find not feel not these stirrings neither do they groan under them but there are innumerable Myriads of sinfull motions in thee to sinne though thou doest not apprehend them As a man shut up in a dark dungeon full of Toads and noisom vermin he seeth nothing till light come into the place and then he trembleth being afraid to stay there any longer such a loathsom dungeon is every mans heart naturally Oh the atheism vanity wickedness that is bound up therein but thou dost not know or believe any such thing because dead in sin Fourthly There is implied the facility and easiness in sinning The way to sinne is no narrow or strait way There needeth not much striving to enter therein for it 's ready at hand May not all find if they will search this readiness of sin at all time Why is thy heart so quickly moved and drawn out to any earthly or sinfull pleasure but it 's a long while ere thou canst make any fire or kindle a flame in thy soul to that which is good Thy soul is a dry Tree to the former but a green Tree to the later as the Scripture speaks concerning the righteousness of faith It 's night thee Thou needest not say Who shall go into the deep for it Rom. 10 c. Thus it is true of sin in thee thou needest no instruction no masters thou needest not fetch devils from hell to commit sinne for that is alwayes present with thee Hence Eliphaz compareth it Job 15. to drinking of water when a man is scorched with thirst If you see there are many who by a natural conscience are so convinced that they are difficulty brought to commit some sinnes especially gross ones It is no contradiction for a man to be all over polluted and prone to sinne notwithstanding such dictates of conscience implanted in all men This is plain That sin ss so present that without any difficulty or pain we are carried out to sinne so that the kingdom of hell doth not like the kingdom of Heaven need any violence to take it Fifthly When evil is said to be present there is denoted the subtile and daily insinuation of it into all that we do It 's in a man like leaven that sends forth its fourness into all the meal it leaveth not the least part unleavened This sinne is like a Dalilah in Samson's heart it is alwayes enticing and tempting of thee and therefore it 's called by the name of lust or concupiscence and Jam. 1. 17. there it 's said ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to intice by setting baits for us Hence in Jer. 17. the wickedness of the heart is expressed by this That it is deceitfull above all things who can think that the wise holy God made us with such hearts at first No but upon the first transgression came this desolation upon us Because then evil is thus present with us hence every holy duty is contaminated hence there
have a contrariety to it and why is it that a man should thus naturally be an enemy to his own peace Is it not because of this imbred sin working in us 2. If the Spirit of God go further and doth not outwardly teach onely but inwardly and spiritually also changing even the whole man making it a new creature yet because this corruption is not quite rooted out it doth continually gain say and withstand that Law of the mind within us Whence then is it that such rebellion and opposition is within thee to every good thing Is it not because original sinne hath put thee into this disorder Thirdly It is an impediment alliciendo and inescando It doth ensnare and allure the heart so that while the soul should pursue the race that throweth in the way some alluring objects or others and thereby it is stopt in its course As the Heathens speak of golden Apples cast in the way to hinder one that was swiftly running in the race He that runneth in a race must not step out of the way to gather every flower that groweth by the way-side nor is he to stand still and refresh his eyes with pleasant objects Thus neither ought we in our way to Heaven but this original corruption bewitches and enticeth the heart with many deceitfull and alluring lusts So that by this means we are for the most part in golden sweet dreams promising this and that comfort to our selves till at last with Dives we awaken in hell and see our selves bereaved of all happiness The Apostle James doth fully confirm this secret bewitching way of original sinne within us which he calleth lust Jam. 1. 14. So that marvel not to see thy self drowned in all the pleasures of sinne to be sucking down the comforts of earthly things with all delight for this lust within thee this bewitching Dalilah in thy breast puts thee into a sweet sleep and so heavenly things have no relish no taste to thy appetite but the things of the world are sweeter than the honey-comb Oh why is it that sinne which is indeed full of stings and bitterness should be so sweet Why should it be such a pleasing thing to go in the wayes that lead to hell and damnation that when thou art sinning it is as thou wouldst have it Is not all this because sin hath insnared and inticed thee Lastly Sinne is a burden to the soul in our race debilitando By weakning and debilitating the principles of grace within us So that although we are regenerated and sanctified yet because original sinne doth intimately adhere even to the very habits of grace within us so that they are not perfect and pure Hence it is that their actings are more remisse and languid we cannot love God perfectly we cannot have pure and sinnelesse actions because we have not pure and sinnelesse principles So that whereas some have thought that there is not such a spiritual conflict in a godly man as we speak of because that would make the will to will and nill at the same time two contrary things they do not rightly understand this Assertion for it 's not from contrariety of volitions but because the will being not perfectly healed willeth good things remisly and faintly not with that perfection or freedom and alacrity as it ought to do Vse Of Instruction Every day to bewail this depraved estate of thine more and more We take thee as Ezekiel was in another case and cause thee to see every day more and more abomination Thou hast not heard all the worst nor have we discovered all the worst that is in us yea we are never able to goe to the bottome of it This original sinne is an unsearchable Mystery It is a long while ere we come to know any thing of it and longer ere we come to know the breadth and length of it Know this sufficiently and then be in love with thy self or trust in thy good heart and thy own righteousness if thou canst CHAP. VI. Of the Name Evil Treasure of the Heart given to Original Sinne. SECT I. MAT. 12. 35. And an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth evil things THese words are part of an Apologetical Answer that our Saviour made against the Pharisees who were guilty of blaspheming the holy Ghost because they did maliciously oppose the known truth and what was done by the Spirit of God attributing it to the power of the devil And in this Apology the fervency and zeal of our Saviour doth appear in the compellation he giveth them Generation of vipers Here you see That it is not alwayes railing and indiscreet zeal to call wicked men by such names that their sinnes do deserve In the next place he giveth the reason of this their blasphemy it is no wonder if they speak ill who have ill and naughty hearts which he expresseth emphatically 1. By an interrogation How can ye 2. By the impossibility How can ye 3. From the matter mentioned he doth not say How can ye being evil de good things but speak We might think wicked men might easily forbear evil words though not evil actions but their heart is first set on fire with hell and then the tongue The Physician discovers how the heart is by the tongue and so doth Religion also Now that good words cannot proceed from a bad heart viz. naturally for on purpose and artificially many evil-minded men may speak religiously and men may have butter words whose hearts are like swords our Saviour proveth from the common and even proverbial rule A good man hath a good heart and a good treasure and so of this sweet fountain cannot come bitter streams But a bad man hath an evil treasure in his heart and so from these thorns men cannot gather grapes nor from these thistles figs we see here then a good man and a bad diversified by that which is wholly hidden and secret not known to any but God till he discover it by words or actions Now this evil treasure in every mans heart is two-fold 1. That which is Natural that which he cometh into the world with thus every man hath an inexhausted treasure of wickedness which he spends upon all his life time and yet never cometh to the bottom of it And in this sense our Divines do well prove That no natural or unregenerate man is able to do any thing though never so little that is good because he is a bad Tree and being also of the seed of Serpents there cannot come any honey or sweet thing from him 2. There is an acquired and increased treasure of sinne which a man storeth up by daily custom in sinne so that he becometh to have two treasures of evil in his soul as if one were not enough natural and voluntary innate and voluntarily contracted For you must know That original sinne though it be a full fountain of poison ready of it self to overflow yet custom in sin doth
full as ever Thus it is with this treasure of original sinne all the sins that have come from it to this day have not at all diminished the fountain it 's as full and as overflowing as ever yea as sudden showrs make the rivers fuller causing a flood Thus do all actual and customary sins they make this original corruption like Nebuchadnezzar's fornace seven times hotter than it was before Fourthly In that it is called a treasure we thereby see the delight and pleasure that we naturally take in what is sinfull Our Saviour saith Where a mans treasure is there his heart is also how much more when this treasure is his heart when his heart and treasure is all one Therefore this expression doth denote the futable and pleasing nature of sinne to us it sheweth that what water is to the hydropical man as Job 15. so is sinne to a man by nature Hence Heb. 11. they are called The pleasures of sinne Who would think so you would rather think we might as well say The pleasures of hell and the pleasures of damnation that a man would be as willing to be damned as to sinne But thus sweet and pleasing is sinne to every man by nature because his heart is upon it it is a treasure to him That as the godly account Gods will sweeter than the honey-comb so do they the will and lusts of sinne Do ye not pity such who are so distempered in their palate that they cannot forbear eating those things which will be their death at last How much more miserable is man to whom nothing is so pleasant so much sought after as that which will prove his eternal damnation And certainly if sinne be not such a delight to thee naturally how cometh it about that no threatning no fear of hell all the curses in the Law denounced against thee cannot make thee forbear If you regard sinne in its own nature so the Scripture represents it most irksom and loathsom comparing it to gall to a bitter root to mire to vomit And who can desire to swallow down these things But because original sinne hath infected all hath made us like so many beasts therefore what is in it self abominable to our corrupt natures is become exceeding pleasant Fifthly Because it 's a treasure therefore it is that every day there cometh from us some new corruption or other some new sinne or other to be matter of condemnation to us That when we might think if once we had got our hearts to such a frame if once we could subdue such a corruption then we hope we should be at some ease but no sooner have we obtained such desires but this treasure of evil poureth out new matter of sorrow corruptions rise fresh again when we began to hope all were dead So that the soul begins to be even hopeless crying out O Lord how long When shall this bloudy flux be stopped When shall it once be that I may be quiet and free from this molesting enemy within But it is with thy heart as with the sea when one wave is over presently there cometh another and again another and it cannot be otherwise as long as this treasure is in us as Job saith Chap. 14. A Tree though the boughes of it be cut yet the root will spring again and be as big as ever if suffered to grow Thus original sin though it may be mortified and crucified in some measure though there may be much stopping and abating the strength of it by grace yet because the root is there still it will quickly sprout again Hence are the godly put upon those duties of crucifying and mortifying the flesh because they will have this work to do as long as they live there is a treasure and so out of this as the good Scribe cut of his good treasure Mat. 13. 52. doth bring out new and old thus doth he old lusts and new Vse Of Instruction Have we all by nature an evil treasure in our hearts then see why it is that thou art alwayes sinning that thou art never weary that all the world cannot change thee or make thee of another mind Is it not this evil treasure within As it is a treasure of sinne so it is of wrath and punishment Rom. 2. some are said To treasure up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath and this is thy case and never do thou flatter thy self because thou dost not feel and perceive any such evil upon thee for therein art thou the more miserable Treasures use to be hidden and secret therefore in the Scripture called hidden treasures and thus is this treasure of evil in thy heart it is hidden from thee thou dost not know it till God open thy eyes till he give a tender heart CHAP. VII Of the Name Body given to Original Sinne. SECT I. ROM 8. 13. But if ye through the Spirit doe mortifie the deeds of the Body ye shall live I Come now to the last Name I shall insist upon that the Scripture giveth original sinne and that is a Body For although the most famous and notable name is flesh yet because that will most properly be considered when we speak of the Nature and Definition of it I shall put it off till that time Only we must necessarily take notice of this Title given to it here and elswhere viz. a Body Not that this word is to foment the Illyrican absurdity That original sinne is not an accident but a substance but hereby is manifested the real and powerfull efficacy of it upon the whole man For the coherence of the words the Apostle at vers 12. from that glorious and precious Doctrine of Justification by Faith and also Sanctification begunne in us doth inferre this Exhortation by way of Conclusion That therefore we are not Debtors to the Flesh we have received such great and unspeakable favours from God that we owe all to him as for sinne called here the Flesh we owe nothing at all to that sinne will not justifie us sinne will not save us Neither hath the Devil shewed that love to us which Christ hath done By this then we see That though Justification and Gospel-mercies be not for any works or merits of ours yet Believers are to study and abound in holiness as that which Christ aimed at by the work of Redemption as well as our Justification Now for this reluctancy against and mortification of sinne the Apostle useth several Arguments as in the Text the danger that will accrew even to the godly If they live after the flesh they shall die that is eternally The godly need this goad to prick them forward they must not please themselves as if because they were elected justified they may live as they list and walk after the flesh No if they do so they shall surely be damned SECT II. What is implied by the word Mortifie BUt on the contrary If they mortifie the deeds of the body by the Spirit they shall
live where you have the duty supposed to mortifie that implieth it is not enough to forbear from the actings of sinne but they must kill it Sinne may be left upon many considerations yet not mortified Look therefore that sinne be dead in thee and not asleepy or onely restrained for a season Again To mortifie signifieth the pain and renitency that is in the unregenerate part against this Duty A wicked man had almost as willingly be killed as leave his lusts This sheweth how fast sinne is rooted in us more than a tooth in the jaw or the soul in the body and if any of these are not taken away without much pain and trouble no wonder if the leaving of our corruptions be so troublesom to us Lastly This word supposeth It 's a constant work we are alwayes mortifying alwayes crucifying This is spoken to comfort the godly that they should not wholly be dejected if they find some actings and stirrings of sinne still within them SECT III. SEcondly There is the Object of this Duty and that is The deeds of the body Many translate it The deeds of the flesh for that which was called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã before is here called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Now this body is not only sinne putting it self forth in bodily actions but it is the same with flesh which is original corruption defiling the whole man So that the body here as Beza doth well observe is The whole man in soul and body while unregenerate for the flesh the body here spoken of by the Apostle is in the soul as well as body it is every thing that is opposite to God in a man whether it be in his mind or in his flesh So that Austin said The Epicurean he saith Frui carne meâ est bonum to enjoy the flesh is good The Stock he saith Frui mente meâ est bonum to enjoy my mind is good but both are deceived for to enjoy God only is good and both the body and the mind are all over defiled with sin SECT IV. LAstly There is the Efficient Cause by which we mortifie the deeds of the body and that is the Spirit It 's not our power but Gods Spirit that conquereth these lusts for us Observe That original sinne is a body in us It is a body both in our soul and body it 's called a body not properly as if it were a substance but metaphorically and allusively So Rom. 6. 6. it 's called The body of sinne and certainly it may as well be called so as flesh and the old man SECT V. Why Original Sinne is called a Body BUt let us consider Why it hath such a name given to it And First It is to shew That original sinne doth not lie latent in our breasts but putteth it self forth visibly in all the operations of the body That as the Godhead is said to dwell in Christ boaâly and the Word was made flesh because the Divine Nature which is immaterial and invisible did through the body become as it were visible Thus we may say Original sinne dwelleth in us bodily and that it is made our flesh because in and through all bodily actions it doth manifest it self both to our selves and others It is then the body of sinne because it makes it self outward visible and doth as it were incarnate sinne hence it is called the outward man Indeed it is disputed whether 2 Cor. 4. 16. where the Apostle saith Though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed daily By outward man there is meant the body only or original sinne in the bodily deeds thereof Most do interpret it of the body only yet Paraeus understands it of original sinne with the body That as the body and original corruptions with the effects thereof are constantly dying being mortified by the Spirit of God so the inward man which is the work of grace is daily more confirmed Howsoever this be yet it is plain Rom. 7. 22. That the work of grace within us being called the inward man that by opposition original corruption must be the outward man and therefore called The Law in our members It is thought by Nerimbergius that the Apostle taketh this distinction of an outward and inward man from Plato out of whom he quoteth a place with some vicinity to Paul's expression This is certain That original sinne may well be called a body and the Law in our members because by these it doth so palpably put forth its self Insomuch that we may wonder any will not believe there is original sinne for it is obvious to the sense they may behold the effects of it that as you may know a man hath a soul because he speaketh and laugheth though you cannot see the soul Thus though you cannot see original sinne yet because as soon as ever the child can speak or do any thing you see vanity and sinne put forth it self therefore you may conclude there is original sinne Thou then that wilt not be convinced of it by Scripture by reasons and several Authorities we send thee to experience You cannot go from house to house from Town to Town from company to company but you may see the effects and actings of original sinne If you say It 's mens actual sins and custom therein that makes them so vile It is true But still we ask Whence came the custom Whence came they to have those actings Certainly those streams could not have been polluted if the fountain had not been and if original sinne did not infect our natures why should not men generally as well act that which is good and obtain a custom in that which is commendable Therefore experience thy eyes thy ears may convince thee of this bodily sinne Secondly The Apostle calleth it a Body to answer those other expressions that he useth about it for he often calleth upon us to mortifie to kill to crucifie this original sinne Now to mortifie and crucifie are properly relating to a Body we do not say properly accidents or qualities are crucified To make therefore the expression harmonious he calleth it a Body Howsoever therefore it is with our natural body that no man ever yet hated his own flesh we are to nourish and cherish that and it would be murder to mortifie that body yet this Body of sinne is to be kept under we are not to spare it but by the Spirit of God to be constantly crucifying of it neither let that discourage thee because as you heard this will be painfull and grievous to flesh and blood for you must conclude upon this That the way to Heaven is narrow and straight there must be constant violence and opposition to all natural inclinations Every godly man may well be called a Martyr for though he may feel no pain in the killing of his natural body yet he must and will feel much exercise in killing the body of sinne but better endure some grief here than eternal torments hereafter
Our Saviour speaks to this twice as it 's mentioned by the Evangelist Matthew Chap. 5. 30 18. 3. It is better saith he to go halt and blind into life than with two hands and eyes to be cast into everlasting fire Think then whether will be more burdensom to leave the pleasures of sinne here or hereafter to be tormented to all eternity Thirdly Original sinne may be called a Body To shew the reality of it that it is not a meer fancy or humane figment as some call it or a non ens as the late Writer D. J. T. Answ to a letter We know the Scripture and so our use of speech opposeth a body to a shadow The Legal Rites are called a shadow and Christ the body Thus original sinne it is not the shadow or the notion of a sinne it liveth and moveth as well as actual it provoketh God it curseth and damneth as well as actual sins So that we are not to flight it or to be fearless of it but rather to tremble under it as the fountain of all our evil and calamity The word Body is sometimes taken for that which is substantial and real in which sense some have excused Tertullian and others that attributed a body to God and Angels as if they intended nothing but a real substance as the aâiome of the Stoicks was Omne quod est est corpus Hence they made Virtues and the Arts Bodies But whatsoever their intentions might be the expression is dangerous for God is a Spirit but there is no danger to call original sinne a Body thereby to express the full and real nature of it and thus farre Illyricus his intention was good though his opinion was absurd to amplifie those terms the Scripture giveth to original sinne in opposition to Popery wherein they speak so coldly and formally of it only that he should therefore make it to be more than an accident even the substance of a man in a theological consideration hence he did overthrow all Philosophy and Divinity So that properly the Lutheran Poet cannot be excused when he saith Ipse Deo eoram sine Christo culpa scelumque Ipse ego peccatum sum proprieque vocer In a figurative expression it may pass but he intended Flaccianism hence Contzen speaks of Illyricus by scorn Cujus vel substantia est peccatum Yet thus much we must take notice of That the Scripture doth not in vain use such substantive names about our natural defilement for hereby it doth aggravate it and would have us also know the greatness and vileness of it For how few are there till sanctified and enlightned by the Spirit of God that do bewail this as an heavy burden They can complain of the pains the aches the troubles of their natural body but do not at all regard this body of sin whereas to a spiritual tender heart this body of sinne is farre more grievous than any bodily diseases or death it self yea death is therefore welcome to them because that alone will free from this body of sinne so that they shall never be molested with it more Fourthly Original sinne is called the Body of sinne Because it is a mass of sin a lump of all evil It is not one sinne but all sinne seminally And this seemeth to be the most formal and express reason why the Apostle giveth it this name calling it a Body and attributing members to it for as a body is not one member or one part but the whole compounded of all Thus is original sinne it is not the defilement or pollution in one part of the soul but it diffuseth it self through all It is a body of sinne and herein it doth exceed all actual transgressions and for this reason we ought the more to grieve and mourn under it The body is heavier than one part why are actual sins a load upon thee but this which is the cause of all and comprehends all thou art never affected with O pray more for the Spirit of conviction by the Word Look oftner into the pure glass of the Law Compare thy universal deformity with that exact purity It is for want of this the pharisaical and the natural man is so self-confident trusteth so much in his own heart doth so easily perswade himself of Gods love whereas if we come to a Christian like Paul complaining of this Law of sinne within him finding it captivating and haling of him whither he would not then we have much a do to comfort such an one all our work is to make him have any hope in Christ he thinketh none are so bad as he that the very devils have not worse in them than he feeleth in himself and all this is because original sinne is such a loathsom dunghill in his brest that as those who have putrified arms or other parts of their body they cannot endure themselves they would flie from themselves Thus it is with them because of this original pollution Fifthly Original sinne may be called a Body Because it inclineth onely to carnal earthly and bodily things not at all savouring the things of God and his Spirit Hence it is called so often the flesh because it only carrieth a man to fleshly things being contrary to God and full of enmity to his will as Rom. 8. And doth not experience confirm this Take any man till renewed by grace and all the bent and impulse of his soul are to such things alone that are earthy and sensual Jam. 3. 17. The Apostle James doth there excellently describe the nature of all natural wisdom It is earthy sensual and devilish Every one by nature is both beastly and devillish This body of sinne presseth him down to the earth and hell Insomuch that you may as soon see a worm flying in the air like a bird as a man abiding in this natural pollution having his conversation in heaven So that being made thus bodily and carnal all the spiritual things of God are both above our apprehension and contrary to our affections Now this very particular if there were no more is as deep as the Sea and containeth unspeakable matter of humiliation viz. That by this natural pollution we are destitute of Gods Spirit Spiritual things are no more apprehended by us than melody by the deaf ear Do ye not see wise men learned men yea great Scholars when you come to discourse with them about spiritual things they are very fools and are as blind as moles that live wholly in the earth But of this more in the effects of original sin Lastly In the Scripture Body is used sometimes for the strength and power of a thing And thus original sinne is the body as that which giveth life and motion to all actual sins Let the Use be greatly to humble thee under this notion Gods word gives original sinne This sinfull body It troubleth thee thou hast a mortal body a corruptible body but above all this body of sinne should be a burden to
put forth those acts from the habits of faith and repentance he was created in as some have said but the whole Image of God being lost every gracious habit or act was then supernatural to him which before was natural Yet Suarez in his Disputations concerning the Creation of man saith That even the habits of repentance and mercy were in the state of integrity reducible into some acts though not into all as if I should sin I would abhorre it and bewail it if there were any miserable I would relieve him which saith he are not meer conditional acts in the understanding but presuppose a purpose in the will Again saith he Adam from those habits had a complacency in his mind and an approbation of such acts when they could be performed by him in a sutable state But I presse not these things Now although the habit of justifying Faith and Repentance were in Adam yet we cannot say They were in the Angels or in Christ because these were in a condition that did repugne the very habit of such acts as well as the acts themselves Thus by these Rules we see there is no kinde of grace imaginable but Adam's soul was adorned with it one way or other Oh then take up bitter lamentation and like Rachel refuse to be comforted because our loss is unspeakably greater than hers There remaineth not one grace of those glorious ones mentioned now in us and in stead of a power to any thing that was good we have an utter impotency thereunto and a proneness unto evil But you may ask How can original six be said to consist in this privation of original righteousnesse seeing that seemeth to be Gods act to deprive us of it and not ours To this the Answer is That we are not to conceive of God taking away this righteousnesse from us as if one man should spoil another of his garments but man by sinning did exclude and shut it out from his soul and having thus provoked God then God doth not continue and vouchsafe that grace to him which Adam had thus repelled so that God is not as an efficient infusing wickednesse into Adam's heart but he denieth that holinesse to him which by sinne was repelled as if a man should shut out the light from him and keep himself in the dark But I have spoken more fully already to this Objection CHAP. XIII Reason to prove That the Privation of Original Righteousnesse is truly and properly a Sinne in us SECT I. I Shall adde that there are four Reasons why this Privation of Original Righteousnesse is truly and properly a sinne in us And First Because the soul is a Subject fit and prepared for to receive this Righteousnesse This rectitude you heard was a moral perfection necessarily required in man The soul of a man cannot be in a neutral condition it must either have holiness or sinne in it As the air doth necessarily receive either light or darkness The body is either sick or well if then the soul be such a fit and capable subject of holiness when it is deprived of it it wants that which is sutable and connatural to it Insomuch that for the soul to be without this holiness it 's against the nature of it Why should such a spot and a blemish be in so glorious a creature How came spots in this Sunne As Idolaters are condemned because they turned the glory of God into the Image of a beast that eateth hay No lesse is done by Adam's Apostasie upon us all for we who were made Gods Image are now become like beast without understanding and yet this consideration will not debase and humble us Secondly This Privation is a sinne Because it is against the Law of God which requireth habitual holinesse in us It requireth the continuance in that state which God created us in This Definition of original sinne that it is a Privation of that rectitude which ought to be in us was first assigned by Anselme and Occham thought it insufficient unlesse there was added ãâã the Description a Privation arising from the sinne of another Because saith he Adam upon his sinne lost this Righteousnesse which ought to be in him yet we cannot say he had original sinne because it did not arise from a sinne of another but from his own transgression This is a needlesse subtilty for it was original sinne in Adam yea and in Eve though they did not derive it from one another because they did actively communicate this unto all their Posterity This Privation then of all glorious holinesse being against the Law of God as we have formerly shewed therefore it makes a man truly sinfull Thirdly It is a sinne Because Adam our Head and common Trustes once had this Righteousnesse So that it is a Righteousnesse which we were once actually possessed of in our Head God did not only say Let us make man after our Image but he did put it into execution he did make him after his image So that it 's a righteousnesse that we once had which now we have lost Lastly It is a sinne Because by Adam our Head we were deprived of it The Apostle saith positively Rom. 5 That by one sinne came upon all inasmuch as all have sinned viz. in him and by him Hence it is That his losing of this Image is our losing of it as really as if we had actually and personally deprived our selves of it And thus much shall suffice for the Doctrinal part of it but because it 's good to have our affections wrought upon as well as our judgements informed The next work shall be to give the Aggravations of this losse that so we may make a full improvement of this Truth CHAP. XIV The Aggravations of our Losse of GODS Image SECT I. I Shall conclude this Text with that particular Observation about it that relateth to the privative part in original corruption for we have abbreviated that vast and large Subject of original righteousnesse into a little compasse briefly informing concerning the Nature of it For howsoever Epiphanius as Pererius and Suarez say thought that it was impossible for any to determine wherein the Image of God doth consist yet Paul doth sufficiently explain Moses in this particular So that we need not run to those forced expositions of some who will have man in respect of his bodily constitution to bear the Image of God Therefore some say God did assume an humane shape and in that did make man whereby man in a bodily manner was made after his Image Others That it was so said Let us make man after our own Image in reference to the Incarnation of Christ who was in time to be made man For we have already heard that it was righteousnesse and holinesse in the soul which made man to be after Gods Image So that the Image of God was not in the body but as in signe a sign and demonstration of that Image in the soul It is true Christ
whereas the reason they give why by flesh cannot be meant wholly sinfull Because say they then in the opposition by Spirit would be meant wholly spirituall whereas the Orthodox do acknowledge a conflict with the Spirit and the flesh abiding in every regenerate man But to this the Answer is That the abstract is put for the concrete spirit for spiritual so that the Subject in the Proposition Born of the Spirit Spirit is the holy Spirit of God and the Predicate is made spirit Spirit is to be understood of that spiritual and heavenly nature wrought in us by him And although he who is made thus spiritual is not purely and absolutely so yet the Spirit will in time subdue and wholly conquer the flesh in which sense Gal. 5. They that are Christs are said to have crucified the flesh with the lusts thereof Although there be the reliques and remainders of it still in the most holy The Text then being thus vindicated the Observation is That all men born in a natural way are not only without the Image of God but thereby also are positively polluted and made all over flesh and sinfull SECT II. Of the use of the word Flesh in Scripture And why Original Corruption is called by that name TO discover this in the first place It is good to take notice of the use of the word Flesh in Scripture for the mis-understanding or mis-applying of it hath brought in a world of mischief The Papists by Flesh I mean some of them understanding only the bruitish and sensitive part as if sinne were onely resident there and the rational part were free and pure but this is a very great errour For besides the general use of the word Flesh in the Scripture there is two more pertinent to our purpose 1. Flesh is sometimes taken for that which is weak and frail Isa 31. Their horses are flesh and not spirit Psal 78. He remembred they were but flesh And 2. It is often taken for sinfulness and corruption Thus Gal. 5. The works of the flesh are opposite to the works of the Spirit and men who are in the Flesh Rom. 8. cannot please God Gal. 3. Who having begun in the Spirit will ye end in the flesh To be in the flesh and in the Spirit are made two opposite beings by the Apostle Insomuch that we may make it a sure Rule That wheresoever flesh is opposed to the Spirit of God or its spiritual operations that then flesh is used for that which is evil and sinfull and thus it is in the Text. The true notion therefore of the word Flesh being retained Let us consider Why original sinne is thus called Flesh And First It is called so Because of its opposition to what is spiritual Whatsoever the Spirit of God revealeth to be believed or commands to be obeyed it is wholly contradicted by man while abiding in the flesh Thus the Apostle Rom. 8. The wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God You see here is not only a meer privation of what is spiritual but a positive enmity and frowardness against God and therefore we do not speak enough to describe the fulness of our natural evil when we say that we came naked into the world without the Image of God and his Spirit for original sinne hath a contrariety in it against God it puts a man upon hatred of whatsoever is holy therefore the Apostle addeth Rom. 8. 5. It is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be Oh then that God would make our hearts more of flesh in the Prophet Ezekiels sense viz. tender and melting under considerations of how much flesh is in both mind and heart in the Apostles sense Would thy self-righteousness thy self-love thy self-fulness continue any longer if thou didst thus judge and believe concerning thy self Oh what a noisom carkass what a loathsom monster wouldst thou be in thy own eyes if thou didst consider the positive frowardness and opposition which is in thee to what is holy And therefore even in the regenerate Gal. 5. 17. The Flesh is said to lust against the spirit Search then into thy heart and say From whence doth arise these gainsayings and oppositions which are in me to what is holy Why should not heavenly and spiritual things be as welcome pleasing and delightfull to me as sinfull and wordly objects Is not all this because thou art Flesh Certainly there is a thousand times more reason for thee to imbrace spiritual objects than earthly They have more real excellent and enduring good in them then all the pleasures of sinne if put together but it is because thou art flesh that thy heart is naturally so full of enmity against whatsoever is spiritual And although this natural enmity be encreased in thee by voluntary wickedness yet that which cleaveth to thee as soon as thou hast a being is enough to make thee refuse the word of God the Ministry inviting of thee and to slight every Sermon thou hearest or every affliction God layeth upon thee for thy sinne mourn then under this enmity this Law of sinne that rebelleth against the Spirit of God This may sensibly and evidently teach thee that thy natural corruption is more than a meer want of the Image of God Secondly In that original corruption is called flesh is manifested That even the whole intellectual and sublimer parts of a man are become sinfull We see our Saviour saith That which is born of flesh is flesh nothing is excepted so that whereas some would have it the rational part The mind and understanding not to be comprehended under this flesh we say the contrary according to Scripture That in the soul and faculties thereof there is originally sinne chiefly seated There is the spring and fountain from whence issue all the streams of sinne into the lower parts of the soul Thus when the Apostle reckons up the works of the flesh Gal. 5. 19 20. There are Idolatry and Heresies numbered with the rest which must needs be sins of the mind How often doth the Scripture speak of darkness ignorance folly and blindness in the minds of all men by nature Col. 2. 18. There it 's called a fleshly mind and certainly if the mind must be renewed as the Scripture speaks Rom. 12. 2. Col. 3. Eph. 4. 23. it necessarily followeth that it is fleshly and sinfull Behold then what a fountain of evil and misery springs out from us in this respect which may overwhelm us For though the inferior parts of the soul had been throughly infected with this Leprosie yet if the superiour and chief parts had not been contaminated there would have been hopes that those Sun-beams would have dispelled such misty clouds but seeing that the eye is become dark How great is our darkness and salt it self having lost its seasoning all must become loathsom and unprofitable Not only thy eyes thy ears not only thy affections and passions of love fear anger c. which are the
it compell us to think of it as more than a mâer bare simple privation for in the Text it is called Flesh in other places Lust the Old man the Body of sinne which emphatical expressions are for this end to make us conceive of the deep and most real pollution it bringeth upon us Insomuch that we are not to extenuate and diminish the nature of it but as the scope of the Scripture is to aggravate it under the most substantial and powerfull names that are so we also are accordingly to judge of it It is true Illyricus out of a vehement opposition to Papists and Synergists did wring the Scripture till bloud came out of it in stead of milk for he would understand these places mentioned about original sinne almost literally as if sinne were our very substance and essence whereas if he had gone no further then to say that the Scripture by these names doth intend not onely the meer privation of good by this original pollution but also a positive pronenese and a continual activity unto all evil than he had hit the mark The Scripture Names then are only considerable for the holy Ghost doth not use them in vain but thereby would startle and amaze us that we may consider that we are without and what evil doth abide in us Secondly This is proved from Scripture-affirmation about the state of all men It doth not onely describe man privatively that he is without God without Christ but also pesitively that he is an enemy to God and cannot be subject to him Rom. 3 10 11. to the 18. verse The holy Apostle applying several passages out of the old Scripture to all men by nature instanceth both in privatives and positives also Privatives There is none that understandeth there is none that seeketh God there is none that doth good there is no fear of God before their eyes But is this all No he addeth Their throat is an open Sepulchre the poison of Aspes is under their lips their feet are swift to shed bloud c. Here you see the nature of every man is abominable loathsome and ready to commit the foulest sinnes if he be not stopt yea the Scripture is more oftener expressing this Positive part of original sinne then the Privative Genes 5. Genes 8. 21. The imagination of a mans heart is said to be onely evil and that from his youth Eliphaz also in Job 15. saith How abominable is man who drinketh down iniquity like water Thus you see the Scripture represents us in a farre more loathsome vile and poisonous nature than we are apt to believe concerning our selves When Austine maintained this Doctrine Pelagius would say This was to accuse mans nature Lib. 1. de Naturâ Gratiâ But this is indeed the onely way to set up the grace of Christ our Physician for the whole need not a Physicias Neither saith Austin are we so to exalt God a Creator as to make a Saviour wholly superfluous It is true therefore which the same Author saith That when we have to do with such who deny the necessity of grace by Christ making free will of it self sufficient to what is holy and all because they deny any such thing as original sinne we are not so much saith he to deal in Disputations with them as prayers for them that their eyes might be opened to know themselves and that the stony heart may be taken from them for if once they had the sense and feeling of this they would quickly confesse both original sinne and Christs grace Thirdly Original sinne is positive Because the Scripture attributes positive and efficatious actions to it which meer and bare privations are not capable of The seventh Chapter of the Romans speaketh fully to this what expressions and that in allusion to military affairs doth the Apostle use concerning this sinne inhabiting in him For vers 23. he complaineth of this Law of sinne that it doth warre against him and bring him into captivity which phrases denote That this original sinne is not a sluggish idle privation but withall it connoteth an impetuous repugnancy to any thing that is holy This also the Apostle confirmeth Gal. 5. 17. where the flesh is said to lust against the Spirit shall we think then that the holy Ghost speaketh of this activity and working of sinne in us that we should apprehend no more than the absence of Gods Image within us Let us then aggravate the hainnousnesse of it as we see the Scripture doth and deeply humble our selves under it Shall it be a small thing to have such an impetuous active principle in us against what is holy That which we should imbrace and close with as the most excellent that we flie from and are most averse to as if it were the greatest evil and would be to our utter undoing Fourthly If vicious habits that are acquired by customary practice of evil are not meer and simple privations but do also include in them a propensity to evil then it followeth that original sinne likewise is not a meer privation For we are to conceive of original sinne as an innate and imbred habit as the other are acquired Now it 's plain That all vicious moral habits they are not a meer negation or absence of such virtues but doâ also incline and dispose the subject to vicious actions easily and with delight So that we must needs attribute as much Postivenesse if not more to original sinne then to vicious acquired habits And the truth is This is a closer Leprosie infecting of us then such habits for this we have as soon as we are born this is twisted within our bowels this can never be wholly shaken off whereas accustomed sinnes they are perfectly overcome by the work of Regeneration For this is the difference between acquired habits of sinne and original corruption In Regeneration seeing the Image of God is put into us which is the substance of all holy habits the contrary habits are presently excluded and the sinnes the godly afterwords commit are not from their former habits of sinne but from the reliques of original corruption whatsoever the Remonstrants say to the contrary But Regeneration doth not totally exclude original sinne onely diminisheth the strength of it So that this original corruption will abide in some measure in us even while we carry this mortal body about with us And if the Prophet made it such an impossible thing for men habituated in sinne to be converted as when he saith If a Leopard can change his skinne then may you learne to doe well who are accustomed to doe evil Jerem. 13. 23. What then shall he said of us who are borne in evil Customary sinnes are but the Leopards skinne original sinne is like the Leopards nature Lastly This positive inclination doth necessarily follow from the privation of this Image of God if the due summetry and excellent Harmony which was at first in the soul be taken away then all the faculties and
powers of the soul must necessarily move sinfully and inordinately The soul of a man is alwayes working one way or other if then it hath lost original righteousnesse it cannot but be hurried on to what is evil as if you take away the pillar on which a stone liethh presently that will fall to the ground If you spoil the strings of musical instruments immediately they make a jarre and ingratefull noise upon every moving of them The soul of a man is a subject immediately susceptible of righteousnesse or corruption and if it lose its righteousnesse then by natural necessity corruption cometh in the room of it and so when the understanding acts it acteth sinfully when the will moveth it moveth sinfully So that we may well say with Austin to the Pelagian demanding How this corruption could come into us for God was good and nature good Quid quaeris latentem rimum cum habes apertam jannam Not a cranny but a gate or door is open for this corruption to seize upon us SECT IV. Application BEfore we come to answer the Objections Let us affect our hearts with it and labour to be humbled under the consideration of this positivenesse and efficacy of it For first Hereby we see that if it be not restrained and stopped by God we know not where we should stay in any sinne What Cain's what Judas's would we not prove Who can say Hitherto I will goe in sinne and no further for there is a fountain within thee that would quickly overflow all This active root of bitternesse this four leaven within thee would quickly make thy life like Job's body full of ulcers and noisome sores If thou art not plunged in the same mire and filth as others are doe not say Thou hast lesse of this corruption than they Thou art borne more innocent than they onely God stops thee as he did Balaam from doing such wickednesse as thy heart is forward enough unto No Serpent is fuller of poyson no Toad of venome than thou art of sinne which thou wouldst be constantly committing were not some stop put in the way Secondly In that sinne is thus positive and inclining thee thou art the more to admire the grace of God if that work a contrary inclination and propensity in thee If thou art brought with Paul To delight in the Law of God in the inward man If thy heart pants after God as the Hart after the waters which once delighted in sinne which once longed after nothing but the satisfying of the flesh Oh admire this gracious miraculous work of God upon thy soul who hath made thee to differ thus from thy selfe The time was once when thou rejoycedst in those sinnes that are now matter of shame and trembling to thee The time was when thy heart was affected with no other good than that of the creature Thou didst know no other desire no other but that but now God hath made iron to swimme he hath made the Blackmoor white Oh blesse God for the least desires and affections which thou hast at any time for that which is good for this cometh not from thee it is put into thee by the grace of God Lastly Consider that this positivenesse of sinne in thee doth not onely manifest it self in an impetuous inclination to all evil but also a violent resistance of whatsoever is good The Apostle Rom. 8. calleth it Enmity against God and Rom. 7. he complaineth of it as warring and fighting against the Law of his minde And certainly this is a very great aggravation not onely to be without what is good but to be a desperate enemy and a violent opposer of it both in others as also to that which the Spirit of God by the Word would worke in our own hearts not onely without the remedy but full of enmity against it Doth not this make our condition unspeakably wretched Certainly this is the highest aggravation in original sinne that we are not onely unable to what is good but we are with anger and rage carried out against it as if good were the onely evil and sweetnesse the onely bitternesse CHAP. XVII Objections against the Positive Part of Original Sinne answered SECT I. Cautions Premised THere remain only some Objections against this Truth but before we answer them take notice First That although we say original sinne is more than a privation of that Righteousnesse which ought to be in man yet We do not make it to be like some infecting corporeal quality in the body that hereby should vitiate the soul and as it were poison that Lombard and some others especially Ariminensis Distinct 30. They seem to deliver their opinion so as rejecting Anselm's definition of original sinne making it to be want of that original righteousnesse which ought to be in us and do declare it to be a morbida qualitas some kinde of pestilential and infecting quality abiding in the body and thereby affecting the soul As when the body is in some phrenetical and mad distempers the soul is thereby disturbed in all its operations so that these make the want of original righteousness to be the effect of original sinne not the nature of it saying upon Adam's sinne Man becoming thus defiled God refused to continue this righteousness to him any longer But if these Schoolmen be further questioned How such a diseased pestilential quality should be in the body Some say it was from the forbidden fruit that that had such a noxious effect with it but that is rejected because that was made of God and all was exceeding good Arimineâsis therefore following as he thinketh Austin maketh this venemous quality in a mans body to have its original from the hissing and breath as it were of the Serpent he conceiveth that by their discourse with the Serpent there came from it such an infectious air as might contaminate the whole body and he saith Austin speaks of some who from the very hissing and air from Serpents have been poisoned But the Protestants they do not hold it any positive quality in this sense for this is to make the body the first and chiefest subject of original sinne and so to convey it to the soul whereas indeed the soul is primarily and principally the seat of original sinne We therefore reject this as coming too near Manicheism as if there were some evil and infectious qualities in the very nature and substance of a man Secondly It must be remembred what hath been said before That when we come to give a particular reason why the understanding or will are propense to any evil We can assign only a privative cause viz. Because it wants that rectitude which would regulate it as if a ship it's Anselm's comparison were without Pilot and Governour of tacklings let loose into the whole Ocean it would be violently hurried up and down till it be destroyed Thus man without this Image of God would be tossed up and down by every lust never resting till he had
hurled himself into hell yet though we cannot give any more than a privative cause there is also a positive propensity to all evil connoted As in a wicked action of murder or drunkenness if you go to give a reason why such actions are sinnes we must say from the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is in them that want of order which the Law requireth There is a privation of that rectitude the Law commands yet those sinnes do imply also the material and substrate acts as well as the obliquity In every sinne of commission there is that which is positive as well as privative Though the ratio formalis of the sinne be a privation and thus it is in original sinne the whole nature of it comprehends both a want of Gods Image and a constant inclination to all impiety Though the privative be the cause of the positive Indeed Rolloc De vocatione cap. 25. de peccat orig maketh a three-fold matter and a three-fold form in original sinne The three-fold matter he assigneth to be a defection from God a want of original righteousness and a positive quality which succeedeth in the room of holinesse To which three-fold matter he attributeth a three fold form or ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in which the nature of sinne consists Now these material parts of original sinne are so many entities being good in themselves and coming from God the Author of nature but how Apostasie and want of original righteousness can be positive entities and good of themselves I cannot understand or how carentia justitiae originalis should have the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for its form when that it self is the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and so a form have a form seemeth irrational to conceive SECT II. THese two things thus premised the plain and obvious Objection is That if original sinne be positive then it 's good and so of God because omne ens est bonum every being is good and then as Austin Omne bonum est vel Deus vel à Deo all good is either God himself or of God Would it not then be blasphemy to make God the Authour of it and if it have a positive being then certainly it must come from God the Author of all being But to this several Answers may be returned First That though original sinne should be granted to be positive yet for all that God would not be made the Author of sinne Because as it's sinne it doth arise from man There are some great Schoolmen as Cajetan and others that hold sinnes of commission have a positive real being as sinnes They deny that the nature of such sinnes lieth formally in a privation but in a positive relative contrariety to the Law of God and when urged with this Argument That then such sinnes have their being immediately from God as all other created beings have They will answer That God is indeed the efficient of every being but not of every modus or relative respect of that being As for example when a man eateth and drinketh this eating and drinking they are from God but then take them under this relative respect as they are vital and formal actions of man so they cannot be attributed to God for then we might say God doth eat and drink yea in those gracious acts when we do believe and repent God is the efficient cause of them yet as they do formally and vitally flow from us so they are not to be attributed to God for God doth not repent or believe Thus it may be said That though God be efficiently the cause of all positive being yet as some being hath a relative respect to the second cause working so it cannot be attributed to God neither is this any imperfection but a perfection in God because Deus non potest supplers vicem materialis aut formalis causae Therefore saith Curiel a positive Doctor for the positive nature of sinnes of Commission Lectur 6. in Thom. pag. 300. That it may be granted the will is prima moralis causa peccati as we may say a man is the first cause of sight per modum videntis because he is not subordinate to any other cause which doth produce this sight viz. formally a sight and saith he the like is in all other vital actions But I need not run into this thorny thicket to hide my self from the force of this Objection Secondly There are some learned Protestants that do distinguish of ens or being That ens is either created as the works of the six dayes or generated as mankind and the animate creatures or made as artificial things or prepared as Heaven and Hell or introduced as sinne for it 's said of sinne that it's ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã So that upon this distinction they will say That God is the cause of all made and created beings but not of introduced beings such as sinne is because that came in by Satans temptation and mans disobedience But this distinction hath scarce so much as a sandy foundation for though it be an introduced being yet because a being it is a creature and so must come from God the chief being according to that of the Evangelist John 1. All things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made For that which is ens only by participation must be reduced to that which is ens per essentiam Therefore In the third place We must speak of original sinne as we do of vicious habits and of actual sinnes The material and substrate of them being a good of nature is of God but the vitiosity and obliquity that is of man when a man moveth his tongue to curse and swear or his hand to murder another As they are actions they are of God For in him we live and move and have our being but as evil adhereth to them so they are of man Thus it is in original sinne when we say there is a positive inclination in mans heart to all evil The meaning is That the understanding and will as they are faculties and as they do act thus farre they are of God but as they cannot but act sinfully and offend in every motion so it 's of Adam's disobedience to understand then to think to will to love these are of God but to love what is evil and contrary to Gods Word or to love excessively and immoderately that which we are to do in subordination only this is of our selves A second Objection is That if original sinne be like a vicious habit in a man then it cannot be transmitted unto posterity for habits they say are personal things No father doth communicate to his childe any habits either virtuous or vicious But to this it 's answered That original sinne is not an acquired habit of sinne but an innate and imbred one in us So that as if Adam had stood original righteousnesse which was like a concreated habit in man would have been communicated to all his posterity
thus it is no wonder if original sinne which doth so tenaciously and inwardly adhere to all natures be transmitted to every one born in a natural way The last Objection is That there is no necessity of supposing such an habitual vitiosity in a man It 's enough say they that a man be deprived of the Image of God and when that is lost of it 's own self man's nature is prone to evil It needs no habitual inclination to weigh him down as if a wild beast be tied in cords and chains lose him unty him and of himself he will runne into wild and untamed actions But to answer this First The Papists they cannot consequentially to their principles say thus For they hold That if this Image of God be removed he doth continue in his pure naturals there is no sinne inhering in him upon the meer losse of that For they confesse That although by acting from his pure naturals he could not deserve Heaven or love God as a supernatural end yet in an inferiour way as the ultimate natural end so he might love God and that above all other things But secondly That is granted This positive inclination to all evil followeth necessarily from the removal of this Image of God from us If the Sunne be removed then necessarily darknesse doth cover the face of the soul If the loco-motive faculty be interrupted then there is nothing but halting and lamenesse Disturb the harmony and good temperament of the humours and then immediately diseases and pains do surprize the whole man It cannot therefore be avoided that when this disorder is come upon the soul but that our lusts break out as at a flood-gate and we are in a spiritual deluge all over covered with the waters of sin but then here is a positive as well as a privative Besides It is not for us to be curious in giving a reason of such positive corruption in a man by nature it is enough that Gods word is so clear and full in the discovery of it that he must needs wilfully shut his eyes that will not be convinced by the light of Gods word herein And this may suffice to dispel that darknesse which some would have covered this Truth with and as for what knowledge about this positivenesse of original corruption is further necessary We shall then take notice of it when we speak of original sinne as it is called lust or concupiscence SECT III. LEt therefore the Use from the former Doctrine delivered be To affectus and wound us at the very heart that we are thus all over covered with sin that we have not an understanding but to sin a will but to sin an heart but to sin May not this be like a two edged sword within thee What will fire thee out of all thy self-confidence thy self-righteousnesse if this doe not What delight what comfort canst thou take by beholding thy self by looking on thy self thus corrupted and depraved And the rather let this consideration go to the very bottom of thy soul Because First Thy propensity and inclination is to that onely which God onely hateth which God onely loatheth and hath decreed to punish with his utmost wrath to all eternity Consider that sinne is the greatest evil All the temporal evils in the world are but the effect of it that is the cause Now can it ever humble thee enough to think that the whole bent and constant tendency of thy soul is unto that which is the most abominable in the eyes of God Thou canst not do that which is more destructive to thy own soul and more dishonouring unto God then by committing sinne and yet thou canst do nothing else thou delightest in nothing else Thy heart will not let thee do any thing else Look over thy whole life take notice how many years thou hast lived and yet if not regenerated and delivered in some measure from the power of original corruption thou hast done nothing but sinned Every thought hath been a sinne every motion a sinne within thee and yet sinne is the greatest evil and that alone which God hateth Secondly If yet thy heart be hard and nothing will enter take a second naile or wedge to drive into thee and that is being thus all over carried out to sinne not the least good able to rise in thy heart that hereby the very plain Image of the Devil is drawn over thee Hence it is that wicked men are said to be of their Father the Devil and he is said to rule in the hearts of the children of disobedience Ephes 2. What a wofull change is this to be turned from a Sonne of God to become a Devil While Adam retained the Image of God God abode with him and in him there was a near union with God but upon his Apostasie the Devil taketh possession of all and so now man is in a near union with the Devil Every mans soul is now the Devils Castle his proper habitation The Spirit of God is chaced away and now thy heart is made an habitation for these Satyrs Thy soul is become like an howling wildernesse wherein lodge all beastly lusts whatsoever Thou that wouldst account it horrible injury to be called beast and Devil yet thy original sinne maketh thee no lesse Thirdly This further may break thy heart if it be not yet broken enough that hereby thou art utterly impotent and unable to help thy self out of this lost condition For how can a dead man help himselfe to live again How can thy crooked heart be ever made straight unlesse a greater power than that subdue it If thou didst judge thy condition an hopelesse one as to all humane considerations then thou wouldest tremble and have no rest in thy selfe till God had delivered thee out of it Lastly Let this also further work to thy Humiliation that being thus positively inclined to all evil not onely proper and sutable temptations draw out thy sinnes but even all holy and godly remedies appointed by God they do increase this corruption the more And is not that man miserable whose very remedies make him more miserable Doth not the Apostle complain sadly of that Law of sinne in him even in this respect that by this means the Law wrought in him all evil The more holy and spiritual the Law was the more carnal and sinfull was he thereby occasioned to be Oh then What wilt thou do when good things make thee evil spiritual things make thee more carnal CHAP. XVIII A second Text to prove Original Sinne to be Positive opened and vindicated SECT I. ROM 7. 7. For I had not known lust except the Law had said Thou shalt not covet WE are discovering the Nature of original sinne in the Positive part of it For although Corvinus the Remonstrant cavilleth at the Division of original sinne into two parts therein gratifying the Papists as it were yet we see the Scripture speaking of it fully as having these two parts And whereas
he saith The Positive inclination to evil must be the effect of the privation of original righteousnesse and so not a part of original because an effect cannot be a part of its cause It 's answered first That sometimes there is a division of a common thing as into two parts when yet one is the effect of the other as when malum is divided into malum culpae and malum poena the evil of punishment is necessarily the effect of the evil of sinne But Secondly Though an inclination to evil may be the effect of the privation of original righteousnesse yet for all that it may be part of original sinne which is the whole consisting of both these Even as according to some learned Divines Remission of sinne is part of Justification although it be an effect of the imputation of Christs Righteousnesse which is also another part of our Justification SECT II. The word Lust expounded HAving therefore considered this Title or Name given to original sinne viz. Flesh which doth denote the Positivenesse of it I come to a second which shall also be the last and that is the word lust or concupiscence which both in the Scripture and in the writings of several Authors is attributed to it For which purpose the Text pitched upon is very usefull To understand which consider that the Apostle having asserted some things which in an outward appearance did seem to dishonour the Law he maketh this Objection to himself Is the Law sinne A cause of sinne and so sinne and God the Law-giver a commander of sinne To which he answers ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã by defiance God forbid and in the next place giveth a reason why the Law cannot be the cause of sinne because that doth discover and detect sinne that judgeth and damneth it therefore it cannot be the cause of sinne and that the Law is the manifester and reprover of sinne he instanceth in himself and his own experience I had not known lust to be sinne except the Law had said Thou shalt not covet Now ere we can understand this Text we must answer some Questions And First It 's demanded What is meant by the Law here Some say the Law of Nature which is not so probable Others the written Law of Moses and this is most probable by the whole context But yet some though they understand it of the Law of Moses yet they do not mean any particular command but the Law in the general saying the Apostle useth ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for all one As if the meaning were The Law in general did not only forbid sinfull actions but also inward lust and motions of the soul thereunto as our Saviour fully expoundeth it Matth. 5. Others they understand this Law of a particular Commandment viz. the tenth and therefore Beza observeth the Article ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã by this or by that Commandment in particular And this seemeth most probable because they are the very words of the tenth Commandment But secondly If the Apostle alledge that command Why doth he instance onely in the sinne forbidden not mentioning the objects that are specified in the command Thy neighbours Oxe or his Asse c The Answer is that is not material for the Apostle speaking of lusts in the heart what latent and unknown sins they were without the light of the Law it was enough to name the sinne it self seeing the objects about which they are conversant are of all sorts and can hardly be numbred In the third place It 's doubted how the Apostle could say that he did not know lust to be sinne but by the Law of Moses seeing that by the very Law of nature even Heathens have condemned inward lusts and unjust thoughts and plots though but in the soul and never put into practice Aquinas makes the meaning of it as if Paul's sense was He did not know lust to be sinne as it was an offence to God and a dishonour to him because the Law of Moses represents the sinfulness of these lusts in a more divine and dreadfull way then the Law of nature doth Grotius maketh the sense thus Paul did not know lust but by Gods Law because the Laws of men punish nothing but sinfull actions never at all medling with the thoughts and purposes of the heart Beza expounds the expression comparatively I had not known lust to be sinne viz. so evidently so fully so unquestionably as I did when I understood the Law But the general Interpretation is That the Apostle speaketh here of his thoughts and knowledge while he was a Pharisee and it 's plain by our Saviours correcting of pharisaical glosses about the Law Matth. 5. That they thought the Law did onely require external obedience and whatsoever thoughts or sinfull lusts men had so that they did not break out into the practice of them they were not guilty of sinne He did not then know lust to be sinne following the traditional exposition of his Masters till he came to understand the Law aright Another Question of greater consequence is What is meant by lust Thou shalt not covet for the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã though in Exod. 20. there be the same Hebrew word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã yet Deut. 5. 21. There is another Hebrew expression which is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which because in Hithpael and so of a reciprocal signification they translate fecit se concupiscere to stirre up a mans self to desire and thereby say such lusts are only forbidden that a man nourisheth and yeelds himself up unto but that rule is not a general one see Prov. 23. 3. Some limit this Commandment too much as it did only command contentation of spirit and that we should not sinfully desire that which others have But the Apostle doth plainly extend it further than so The Papists they likewise limit it too much making only those lusts andmotions of sinne which we consent to to be forbidden denying that those motions to evil which arise antecedently to our reason and will to be truly sinnes hence is their Rule concerning them Non sensus but consensus is that which doth damn which in a good sense we also will acknowledge to be true But we are not to limit Scripture where it hath not limited it self and therefore we conclude That the command doth forbid a threefold concupiscence or lust First That lust which is actually consented to though not breaking forth into act and if this were all the Law of God would hereby be exlted above all humane Laws which reach no further than external actions And how many are ignorant of at least not affected with the spiriruality of this Law in this particular Would they dare to entertain such heart-sinnes as they doe could they make their souls cages of uncleane unjust and ungodly thoughts as they do Secondly The Law goeth higher and doth not only forbid those lusts in thy heart which thou yeeldest consent unto
but all those suggestions and suddain surreptitious motions which do suddenly arise in thy soul though thou doest not consent to them yea though thou doest resist them hate them and pray against them for of such lusts Paul doth especially speak in this Chapter and the Law of nature did never condemn these for sinnes in any Heathens whereas the Apostle doth chiefly complain of these and that as sinnes properly so called for to be mortified and crucified as being contrary to the holy Law of God Lastly By lust is meant original sinne as being the fountain the root of all these lusts that hot furnace from which those sparks of sinfull motions do continually arise and that by lust is meant at least secondarily and by contequent original corruption is plain because this lust is the same with the Law of the members the Law of sinne and the sinne dwelling in him It is true he saith this sinne he complaineth of wrought in him all manner of concupiscence or lust But then we must distinguish between lust habitual and lust actual Lust habitual is original sinne and that is the cause of lusts actual And if you say Why doth the Apostle call original sinne lust as if it were an actual sinne The reason is as is further to be insisted on because it is a fountain alwayes running over It s not a sluggish dull habit but is continually venting it self forth into all poisonous and sinfull acts So that by lust forbidden in the Text is meant 1. Lusts consented to though not accomplished in act 2. Lusts arising in the soul but rejected and striven against Lastly Original sinne as the root of all In which sense the Apostle James Chap. 1. 14. calleth it likewise lust Some learned men there are that do not like it should be said original sinne is forbidden by the Law of God as Molineus Rivet in Expos Dec. Martinius in Exposit Decal although they grant the Law doth damn it and judge it But surely their meaning is no more as Martinius doth expresly afterwards affirm than that original sin is not primarily and directly forbidden but secondarily and by consequent As also that it is thus forbidden that we should not obey but resist it as Rivet But whereas they reason That a prohibition is not of those things that already are present in us but of what is future or may be that is no wayes solid because past sins and present actual sins are truly forbidden by the Law although the sinne past cannot but be past and the sinne present cannot but be present because quicquid est quando est necesse est esse Other learned men though they grant original sinne is truly and properly forbidden by the Law of God yet they say It is not in this Commandment partly because it 's forbidden in every Commandment for where any branch of sin is forbidden there the root also is forbidden and where pure streams of holiness are required there also a pure fountain of holiness Original righteousness is commanded and that partly because this tenth Commandment doth belong to the second Table onely whereas original sinne is not onely the cause of evil lusts towards man but also towards God Now in this we shall not much disagree For it must be granted That seeing an holy heart is required in every particular command it followeth That an evil sinfull heart is forbidden in every command and for the later we grant also That original sinne is not forbidden in this last Commandment in the universal latitude and utmost extent of it but so farre as it doth break out in sinfull lusts towards man SECT III. THese things being thus necessarily premised for the opening and vindication of the Text I proceed to the Doctrine which is That original sinne is truly and properly concupiscence or lust in a man This name doth plainly denote more than a meer privation for it evidently discovereth the nature of it to be in the carrying out of the soul in all its motions sinfully and inordinately as also that from this as a corrupted fountain do all those poisonous streams of actual lustings in the soul flow as Jam. 1. 14. where you have notably the rise of all actual sinne described how it cometh about that any one is enticed to do that which is wicked he cannot accuse God or the Devil but this lust within him But of that famous and excellent Text we are in time to speak This great Truth That original sinne is Lust or Concupiscence doth first deserve diligent and clear illustration and then practical amplification SECT IV. IN the first place consider That concupiscence or lust may be taken two wayes as was formerly hinted habitually and radically or actually the mother and the daughter the root and the fruit Now original sinne is lust not actually but radically It is that from which all actual lusts and desires have their immediate rise and in this sense it is commonly called the flesh and lusts are the sinfull issue of it Thus Gal. 5. 16. You shall not fulfill ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The lust of the flesh And again They that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the lusts thereof So Ephes 2. 3. here flesh and its lusts is original sinne with the immediate motions and outgoings thereof At other times original sinne is called sinne in the general to declare the emphatical sinfulness of it and then there are ascribed several lusts likewise to it Rom. 6. 12. Sinne must not reign in us that we should obey the lust thereof And Rom. 7. 8. Sinne wrought in me ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã all manner of concupiscence So that you see there is lust the cause and lust the effect lust the root and lust the branches the former is original sinne called excellently by the Apostle Jam. 1. 15. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã lust conceiving implying it is like the womb wherein all wickedness is first conceived and such a womb that like the grave never hath enough we may call it the Sheol in a man The Rabbius say well That concupiscentia doth aedificare inferos This lust in the several actings of it is that which maketh hell Though God never said Increase and multiply to it yet it filleth earth and hell with the effects thereof SECT V. SEcondly We are to understand that ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the general To desire in the abstract is indifferent neither good or bad but as diversified by the object In the Hebrew there are these words for concupiscence ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and that properperly signnifieth Lust as we take it in our common-English sense for the lusts of the body in an unclean manner Eccles 12. 5. the word is there used but translated by the Septnagint ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which hath exercised Criticks The root of the Hebrew word is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã from whence is Ebion poor needy from thence some Heretiques were called so as being destitute of
bodily part and the soul part and from the soul doth this poison fall to all the inferiour parts Therefore do not only complain of sinne and lust in thy material and sensitive part but look upon the strength and chief power of it as in thy immaterial and soul part for in all these this original lust this Law of sinne doth constantly dwel The Schoolmen they call this Fomes peccati because it doth fovere it 's like the cinders and ashes that keep alive the fire of sin within a man and the more dangerous and damnable it is by how much the more close and latent it is SECT VIII A Consideration of this Concupiscence in reference to the four-fold Estate of man 5. VVE are to consider this concupiscence or concupiscibili'y for we speak of the principle of lusting not actual lusting according to several states that man may be looked upon in AS First There was his Natura instituta his instituted nature at first and that was right and holy There was concupiscence and desiring of the several powers of his soul but in a good and orderly way It was not then as now the Superiora did not turpiter servire inferioribus or the inferiora contumaciter rebel against the superiour parts as is to be shewed in the next place In Adam there was no concupiscence in this sense The inferiour parts though they did desire a sensible object yet it was wholly in subordination and under the command of the superiour It 's true indeed Eve did look upon the forbidden fruit and saw it was good and pleasant whereupon she was tempted to eat of it but this did not arise from any original lust in her but from the mutability of her will being not confirmed in what was good Even as we see the Angels before their Apostasie had sinfull desires in their will through pride and affectation to be higher than they were yet this did not arise from original lust in them Although therefore both Socinians and some Papists do acknowledge man made with such a repugnancy of the sensitive appetite to the rational yea the former making it to be in Christ himself yet this is highly to dishonour God in the Creation of man Oh happy and blessed estate when there was such an universal harmony and due proportion in all the powers of the soul but miserum est illud verbum snisse may all mankind cry out in this particular Secondly There is Natura infecta and destituta infected Nature stript and denuded of all former holiness and excellency and here concupiscence is not onely in us but it doth reign and predominate over the whole man The harmony is totally dissolved and now the choice and sublime parts of the foul are made prostrate to the affectionate part as loathsom and abominable as when the Law forbiddeth to lie with a beast Now the mind and understanding is wholly set on work to dispute and argue for the carnal part Now the motions of the soule beginne in the carnal part and end in the intellectual whereas in the state of integrity the beginning and rise would first have been in the intellectual and so have descended to the sensitive part The motions thereof antecede all deliberation in the mind and a rectified choice in the will Thus the feet they guide the head and in this little world of man the earth moveth and the Heavens they stand still as some fancied in the great world now lust is by way of a Law ruling and commanding all things This is the unspeakable misery and bondage we are now plunged into Thirdly There is Natura restituta repaired nature by grace which the regenerate attain unto and these though they have not obtained concerning lust ne sit yet that ne regnet in them as Austin expresseth it though they cannot perfectly fulfill that command ne concupiscas yet they obey another post concupiscentias ne âas hence it is because of the actings and workings of original sinne still in the godly they are in a continual conflict they cannot do any thing perfectly they feel a clogge pressing them down when they are elevating themselves as Paul Rom 7. doth abundantly manifest The good he would do he cannot do Original sinne is like that Tree in Daniel Chap. 4. 23. Though there was a watcher from Heaven coming down to cut it down yet the stumps and root of the Tree were left with a band of iron and brass to denote the firm and immovable abiding of it Thus though the grace of God be still mortifying and subduing the lusts of the flesh yet the stumps seem to be bound with brasse and iron to us we are never able in this life wholly to extinguish it Lastly If you consider the perfected and glorified estate of the godly in Heaven then there will be a full and utter extirpation of this original sin The glorified bodies in Heaven though naked shall not be subject to shame and confusion as Adam and Eve were after their fall And among other reasons therefore doth the Lord suffer these reliques of corruption to abide in the most holy that so we may the more ardently and zealously long after that kingdom of glory when we shall be delivered from this sinfull soul and mortal body Then this command Thou shalt not lust will be perfectly accomplished whereas in this life it is a perpetual hand writing against us The Papists indeed do confess our lusts to be against this command but not ut praecipienti but ut indicanti as if God did not so much command us what we should do as by Doctrine inform what is good and excellent in it self Thus rather than they will be found guilty by this Law they will make it no Law and turn it from a precept into a meer doctrinal information But seeing one end of the Law is to convince us and aggravate our sinfulness to make us see our desperate diseased estate that thereby we may flie to Christ as the malefactor to the City of refuge let it be farre from us to extenuate or to lessen our sinfulness The Pharisees of old and all their successors in endeavouring to establish a righteousness by the Law have split themselves on this rock as if the Law had not holiness enough to command them but they were able to do more than that required But whence doth this Blind presumption arise Even from the ignorance of the power of original siane in us SECT IX 6 FRom these things concluded on we may see that the Scripture giveth us a better discovery of our selves than ever the light of nature or moral Philosophy could acquaint us with Aristotle teacheth us out of his School clean contrary Doctrine to this That we come into the world without virtue or vice Even as Pelagius said of old and the Schoolmen though they hold original sinne yet most of them by cleaving to Aristole's principles and so leaving the Scripture have advanced nature to
there is no love and also no hatred So that if we do not know how loathsom and vile this sinne is we are never able to bewail it and to humble our selves under it There are many Descriptions of it given by several Authors but that we may in a large and popular way comprehend all things in one Description that is necessary to understand the full nature of it we may take this delineation of it SECT II. ORiginal sinne is an horrid depravation and defilement of the whole man caused by the Devils temptation and our first Parents obedience thereunto and from them descending by propagation to all his Posterity being stript of Gods glorious Image whereby they are prone to all evil and so are under the bondage of the Devil and obnoxious to eternal wrath It is not my purpose in making this draught of it to attend unto the exact rules of Logick but so to compose it that every thing considerable to give the true knowledge of it may be comprized therein And First We say It 's a depravation and defilement which implieth the sinfulness of it that it is truly and properly a sinne And therefore sinne is truly and univocally divided into original and actual so that they who make it onely to be guilt without any inward contagion they do wholly erre from the Scripture they say not enough It is true Adam's sinne in the guilt of it is imputed unto us which made Ambrose of old say as Austin alledgeth him against the âelagians Morinus sum in Adamo ejectus sum in Paradiso in Adamo c. I am dead in Adam I am cast out of Paradise in Adam But we are not disputing of original imputed sinne but original inhering Therefore original inherent sinne is truly and properly a defilement upon us against the Law of God and this sinfull estate of all by nature should be farre more terrible unto us then our miserable and mortal estate Again When we call it a defilement we oppose their opinion who make it only morbus and not truly a sinne As also those who say It is the substance of a man for if so then Christ could not have taken our nature without sinne neither could there be glorified bodies in Heaven without sinne for all these have the humane nature of a man Further we say It 's an horrid depravation This Epithete is necessary to be added to awaken pharisaical and self-righteous persons it being so dreadfull an evil that we are never able to go to the depth of it Never therefore think of speak of original sinne but let thy heart tremble and let horrour and amazement take hold of thee because of it and this is put in the Description to obviate those opinions that make it the least of all sinnes Some complain That we are too severe and tragical in the aggravation of it but enough hath been already spoken out of Scripture to shew that neither heart can conceive or tongue express the foulness of it This is the general part of the Description Secondly You have the Subject of it and because the Subject thereof is twofold of Inhesion and of Predication In this part we have the Subject wherein it is and that is totus homo and totum hominis the whole man and the whole of man there being no part free from this contagion so that it 's repletively and diffusively in all the parts of soul and body though eminently and principally in the mind and will and the whole heart It 's true sinne is not properly seated in the body the eyes or hand or in the sensitive part yet participatively and subordinately as they are instruments to the soul in its actings so they are said to be sinfull Thus there are lustfull eyes cursing tongues unclean bodies There are sinfull imaginations and fancies because these are the organs by which the soul putteth forth its wickedness So that the body is like a broken spoiled instrument of musick and the soul like an unskilfull Artificer playing on it which causeth horrid and harsh sounds for pleasant melody But as God is every where yet in Heaven after a more glorious and signal manifestation of himself So on the contrary though original sinne be a Leprosie infecting the whole man yet it 's most principally in the intellectual and immaterial parts of the soul It 's horrible darknesse in the mind aversnesse in the will to all that is good and contumacy in the heart to whatsoever is holy And this part doth directly oppose all those who grant indeed original sinne but yet grant it wholly in the inferiour and sensitive part as if our reason and mind were like the Heavens of a quintessential frame in respect of any unholy contagion whereas indeed because these eyes of the soul are dark therefore is the whole body dark Because the Sunne and Moon and Starres as it were of this little world of man are turned into bloud therefore every part else is also become blood defiled and loathsom and this is the reason why so few do either believe or know this natural corruption because it benummeth us yea it taketh away all spiritual life so that we cannot discern of it The declaration of the cause of it followeth in this description where we have the external efficient cause and the internal The external was the Devil after his all and apostasie he endeavoured being a murderer from the beginning to destroy man also and accordingly he did prevail and thus by the Devil sinne came into the world yet he is the external cause onely he could not force or compel our first parents to sinne he did onely perswade and entice them Therefore the internal cause was the freedom of their will God created them in whereby they might either imbrace good or chuse evil which mutability was the cause of their apostasie It is true the dispute is very curious How Adam being created perfect could yeeld to sinne Whether did the defect arise in his will or understanding first But seeing it 's clear by Scripture that he did sinne and we feel the wofull effect of it Let us not busie our heads in metaphysical curiosities although I see the soundest Authors make the beginning of his sinne to be in inadvertency for his soul being finite while he earnestly intended to one thing he did not attend to another and so sinne was inchoatively first in his understanding not by errour or ignorance for Adam's understanding was free from that but by not attendency to all considerations and arguments as he ought to do Although it must be confest that the root and foundation of his sin was the vertibility of his will for as he might not sin so also he might sin he had then a posse peccare in him and so a defectibility from the Rule Thus although efficient causes use not to be put into exact definitions neither hath sin so properly efficient as deficient causes yet in large descriptions it is
him as Austin said they did rem scire but causam nescire they evidently saw we were miserable but they knew not the cause of it whereas original sin according to Scripture light though not personally voluntary yet is truly a sinne and maketh a man in a damnable estate Therefore the word original when we divide sinne into original and actual is not terminus restrictivus or diminuens as when we did divide ens into ens reale and rationis but terminus specificans as when animal is divided into rationale and irrationale both properly partaking of the general nature of sinne So that whatsoever apprehensions they had and complaints they made about man yet they did not believe he was born in sinne though experience told them he was in misery The Persians as Plesseus in the above-mentioned place saith had every year a solemn Feast wherein they did kill all the Serpents and wild beasts they could get and this Feast they called viâiorum interitum the slaying of their vices By which it doth appear that they had a guiltiness about their sinfull wayes and that none were exempted from being sinfull Yea Casaub Exârcit 16. ad Annal. Bar. pag. 391. speaking of the sacred mysteries among the Grecians the discharging whereof was called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã affirmeth That therefore they called the scope of those holy actions ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã because it was as they thought a perduction of the soul to that state in which it was before it descended into the body which he interpreteth of the state of perfection from which we fell in the old Adam so that even in this errour there was some truth which made Tertullian say Omnia adversus veritatem de ipsà veritate constructa esse operantibus aemulationem istam spiritibus erroris Thus you see how the wisest of the Heathens have been divided in this point Some making the soul of a man to come without vice or virtue as a blank fit to receive either Others acknowledging a disease and an infirmity upon the soul yet ignorant of the cause of it neither acknowledging it to be a sinne and so deserving punishment In the second place Although the Heathens did not see this sinne nor could truly bewail it yet so farre many of them were convinced that if they had any sinfull desires or lusting in the soul or any wicked thoughts in their hearts to which they gave consent that these were sinnes and wholly to be abstained from though they did not break forth into act Grotius in his Comment upon the 10th Commandment sheweth out of several Heathenish Writers That all secret lustings of the soul with consent thereunto were were wholly unlawfull Yea as one of them is there said to expresse it they are not so much as to covet a needle the least thing And as for Seneca he hath high assertions about the governing of our thoughts and ordering the inward affections of our souls so as that the gods as well as men may approve us Tully saith That an honest man would do no evil or unjust thing though he could have Gyges his ring which they feigned made a man invisible And this is the rather to be observed because herein they surpassed the Pharisees who though brought up under the Law and had constantly the word of God to guide them yet they did not think any covetings or lustings in the heart to be a transgression of the Law as appeareth by our Saviours information and exposition he gave them Matth. 5. And Josephus is said to deride Polybius the great Historian for making the gods to punish a King meerly because he had a purpose and an intent to commit some enormious iniquity Yea This principle of the Heathens may make many Christians ashamed and be greatly confounded who live as if their thoughts were free and their hearts were their own so that they might suffer any poisonous evil and malicious actings of soul to be within them and to put to check or controll upon them As they matter not original sinne so neither the immediate effects and working thereof Though their hearts be a den of theevish lusts and their souls like Peter's sheet wherein were a company of innumerable unclean creeping lusts yet so as their lives are unblameable they wholly justifie themselves but you are to know that the strength of sinne lieth in your hearts The least part of your evil is that which is visible in your lives SECT III. THirdly We see that original sinne is so hardly discernable that though men do enjoy the light of Gods Word yea and read it over and over again yet for all that they are not convinced of this native pollution We see in all the Heretiques that have been in all ages who have denied this original sinne they were summoned to answer the Word of God Scripture upon Scripture was brought to convince them but a veil was upon their eyes they would wrest and pervert the meaning of it rather than retract their errour so that Scripture-light objectively shining therein is not enough Paul is a clear instance in this he was most exact and strict about the Law yet wholly ignorant of this fundamental truth before he was converted he knew the Commandment Thou shalt not covet yet he did not fully and throughly attend thereunto Hence In the fourth place To have a full and clear understanding of this native defilement we are to implore the light of Gods Spirit The light of the Word is not enough unlesse the Spirit of God be efficacious to remove all errour and impediments as also to prepare and fit the soul to receive it Hence it 's made the work of Gods Spirit to lead into all truth if into all then into this while the eyes remain blind the Sunne with all its lustre can do no good It is true Gods Word is compared to a light and to a lamp but that is only objective without us there must be something subjectively within us that shall make a sutableness between the object and the faculty To be made then Orthodox and to have a sound judgement herein it must be wholly from the Spirit of God For why is it that when one heareth and readeth those Texts We are by nature the children of wrath Who can bring a clean thing out of unclean He adoreth the fulness of these Texts he is convinced of such heart-pollution and blesseth God for the knowledge of this truth But another he cavilleth at the Texts he derideth and scorneth at such a truth Is not this because the Spirit of God leadeth one into the truth and leaveth the other to his pride and blindness of mind SECT IV. FOurthly It is not enough to know this sinne in an orthodox speculative manner to acknowledge it so But we are also in a practical experimental manner to feel and bewail the power and burden of it And happily this may be part of Paul's meaning when he saith He did not
is causally and seminally in the first man so propagated from man to man but this hath deservedly been acknowledged the hardest knot to unty in all this doctrinal truth about original sinne how the soul can come to be polluted if created from God In this Argument The Pelagians did much tryumph and Austin was so puzled with it that he many times confesseth his ignorance at least his doubt in this point yea he saith That he could neither legendo erando or ratiocinando find out how the propagation of original sinne and the creation of the soul could be defended together But of this more in its time SECT II. The great Objections that are against asserting the Souls Creation IT is certain that here are dangerous rocks on both sides for if we say the soul is created then seeing God cannot but make every thing holy he cannot make a sinfull soul how then can it be infected with sinne Again if the soul be created then it was not virtually in Adam then it could not be said to sinne in him because it was never in him for why did not Christ sinne in him but because he was not seminally in him and if the soul was never radically in Adam how can it be polluted is it just with God to punish that with Adams sinne which never sinned in Adam If it be said that the soul when united to the body doth from that receive infection as if pure liquour were powred into a stinking vessel This will not solve but increase the doubt for a vessel indeed may pollute liquour because they are both bodies and so act by a corporall contact but the soul is a spirit and its a rule say they received by all that a body cannot act upon a spirit Besides sinne is properly in the soul and must from that be conveyed to the body The body whie without a soul is not capable of sinne no more then a bruit beast It hath no reason it is under no law how then can that communicate sinne to the soul when it hath none at all it self Thus you see what strong cords here are even that a Sampson can hardly break SECT III. Objections against holding that the Souls come by Generation Multiplication c. THen on the other side if you think that the only way to maintain the propagation of original corruption is to hold that the souls are not immediately created of God but either by generation or multiplication or some other way Then here also are more dangerous rocks for if we hold this we seem to contradict some strong Texts of Scripture that maketh God the immediate giver of the soul Besides we must then necessarily make it material yea though they who hold the traduction of the soul will not grant that consequence yet it cannot be avoided but what is generable is corruptible and so the soul must be mortall and that rule of Aquinas seemeth to carry much evident light with it Quod dependet a materiâ quoad fieri dependet quod existere This rule holds true in every thing else and why should it be denied about the soul if the soul in its beginning depends upon the body it cannot continue seperate from it and so be immortal SECT IV. THus you see there is a veil upon the face of this Doctrine But although modesty and sobriety be necessary in this point as also in the Doctrine of the Trinity and Christs incarnation yet as in them its necessary to search the Scriptures and so farre to improve the light shining from them that we may be able to convince heretical gainsayers Thus it is also in this truth so much knowledge as is not forbidden yea as is revealed in the Scripture let us thankfully acknowledge and humbly yet with diligence and constancy improve against those who by reason of these difficulties would overthrow the fundamental Truth it self we must not for some seeming Objections forsake the clear Texts of Scripture It commonly falleth out that almost in every great and fundamental truth in Religion as the Doctrine of the Trinity the Doctrine of Justification There is some Objection above all the rest that hath more difficulty in it then ordinary and so it is here but let us not be afraid to get Canaan because of some Anakims in the way SECT V. The severall Wayes that learned Men have gone to remove the aforesaid Difficulties TO guid you therefore in this wilderness to it let us consider what are the several waies that many either of learned or of corrupt judgements have said to the clearing of this And First There are and have been some in the Church following Origen who also followed Plato deriving many opinions from him who did thus think to make this truth easy By holding that the souls were created long before the bodies and that upon their evill and sinne committed they were adjudged to be put into bodies and so from hence it is that they say man is so propense to all evill Therefore they will not say That the souls of men are either by traduction or immediate creation and infusion into the body but that they were created long before the body and while preexistent before it they deserved to be put into this dark prison of the body There was one Vincentius Victor according to his name bold and audacious who disliked Austin for his cunctation and deliberation in the point of the traduction of the soul which occasioned Austin to write four Books De origine animae Now this Vincentius he affirmed That the soul was created before the body and did deserve to be made part of that man who is a sinner yea that it did deserve to be made peccatrix a sinner Some have also thought that this was a general received opinion amongst the Jewes and they proove it from that question proposed to Christ concerning the man born blind yea they were Christs Disciples that did make that question so that it seemeth they were still infected with that vulgar error for Joh. 92 They say Master who did sinne this man or his parents that he should be born blind They ask whether the sinnes of the mans parents or his own sinnes made him to be born blind now he could not have any sinnes before he was born unless his soul did preexist before his body and it seemeth the Pharisees concluded that they were his own sinnes for they say ver 34. Thou wast altogether born in sinnes They did not happily mean original sinne for they say sinnes which must be actual sinnes either his own or his parents But this opinion is so wicked and absurd that to name it is enough to refel it and for this monstrous figment might Origen be called Centaurus as well as for others Only two things are to be said to it First If souls for sinnes acted were adjudged to their bodies how is it that the Scripture giveth that command of Increase and multiply how is it
if nothing aâled them many yeares after when they were in anguish of mind by Joseph's severe carriage towards them Gen. 42. 21. Then they said one to another We are very guilty concerning our brother in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us and we would not hear therefore is this distress come upon us so that some unexpected calamity may be to us as the hand-writing on the will to Belshazzar making conscience to tremble within us 3. God as a just Judge can command these Hornets and Bees to arise in thy conscience It is plain Cain when he set himselfe to build Townes thought to remove that trembling which was upon him but he could not do it how many have set themselves with all the might they could to be delivered from this anguish of conscience and could not because God is greater then our conscience if he command terror and trembling none can expell it This troubled conscience is threatned as a curse to such who did break the Law of God Deut. 29. 65 67. The Lord shall give thee a trembling heart and sorrow of mind In the morning thou shalt say would God it were day for the fear of thy heart Here we may observe that God can when he pleaseth strike the heart of the most jolly and prophane sinner with such a trembling conscience that he shall not have rest day or night and when God after much patience abused doth smite the soul with such horror and astonishment many times This never tendeth to a gracious and Evangelical humiliation but as in Cain and Judas is the beginning even of hell it self in this life So fearfull a thing is it to fall into the hands of the living God when provoked Heb. 10. 31. For in such as ver 27. there is a certain fearfull looking for the indignation and wrath of God which will devour the adversaries 4. This troubled conscience may and doth often come by the Spirit of God convincing and reprooving by the Word especially the law discovered in the exactness and condemning power of it Joh. 16. 8. The Spirit of God doth reproove or convince the world of sinne Now conviction belongs to the conscience principally and indeed this is the ordinary way for the conversion of any Gods Spirit doth by the Law convince and awaken conscience making it unquiet and restless finding no bottome to stand upon it hath nothing but sinne no righteousness to be justified by the law condemneth justice arraigneth and he is overwhelmed not knowing what to doe This is the worke of Gods Spirit and of this some do expound that place Rom. 8. 15. Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but of adoption It is the same spirit which is called the spirit of bondage and of Adoption onely it 's called so from different operations It 's the spirit of bondage while by the Law it humbleth us filleth the conscience with fear and trembling not that the sinfulnesse or slavishnesse of these fears opposing the way of faith are of the Spirit but the tremblings themselves and it is the Spirit of Adoption when it rebuketh all tormenting fears giving Evangelical principles of Faith Love and Assurance Now these fears thus wrought by the Spirit of God in the Ministry of the Word though they be not alwaies necessary antecedents of conversion yet are sometimes ordained by God to be as it were a John Baptist to make way for Christ Lastly These troubles of conscience may arise through Gods permission from the Devil For when God leaveth thee to Satan's kingdome as it was the case of the incestuous person to be buffeted by him tempted by him you see he did so farre prevail with him that he was almost swallowed up with too much grief Therefore when God will evangelically compose the conscience by faith in Christs bloud he taketh off Satan again and suffereth him not to cast his fiery darts into us any longer The false wayes that the wounded Conscience is prone to take THese things explained Let us return to consider the pollution of natural conscience in the two particulars mentioned whereof The first is That the wounded conscience for sinne is very ready to use false remedies for its cure These stings he seeleth are intollerable he cannot live and be thus he taketh no pleasure in any thing he hath but he cometh not to true peace for either they go to carnal and sinfull wayes of pleasure so to remove their troubles or to superstitions and uncommanded wayes of devotion thinking thereby to be healed The former too many take who when troubled for sinne their hearts frequently smite them they call this Melancholly and Pusillanimity Tush they will not give way to such checks of conscience but they will go to their merry company they will drink it away they will rant it away or else they will goe to their merry pastimes and sports Thus as Herod sought to kill Jesus as soon as he was borne so do these strive to suffocate and stifle the very beginnings and risings of conscience within them Oh wretched men prepared for hell torments Though now thou stoppest the mouth of conscience yet hereafter it will be the gnawing worme It 's this troubled conscience that makes hell to be chiefly hell It 's not the flaming fire it 's not the torments of the body that are the chiefest of hels misery but the griping and torturing of conscience to all eternity This is the hell of hels Others when none of these means will rebuke the stormes and waves of their soul but they think they must perish then they set themselves upon some superstitious austere waies as in Popery to go on Pilgrimage to enter into some Monastery to undertake some bodily affliction and penalty and by these means they think to get peace of conscience but Luther found by experience the insufficiency of all these courses That all their Casuists were unwise Physicians and that they gave gall to drinke in stead of honey In the next place therefore This pollution of a troubled conscience is seen In it's opposition to Christ to an Evangelical Righteousnesse and the sway of believing Conscience is farre more polluted about Christ and receiving of him then about the commands and obedience thereunto for naturally there is something in conscience to do the things of the Law but the Gospel and the Doctrine about Christ is wholly supernatural and by revelation Hence although it is clear That the conscience truly humbled for sinne ought to believe in Christ for expiation thereof Yet how long doth the broken heart continue ignorant of this duty Their conscience troubleth them accuseth them for other sins but not for this of not particularly applying Christ to thy self for comfort whereas thou art bound in conscience to believe in Christ as well as repent of sinne I say thou art bound in conscience and if thou doest not by particular acts of faith receive Christ in
alwayes be in our minds Such signal and transcendent expressions of love would be with us rising and waking and going to bed That though the Devil and the world did never so importunately crowd in with their suggestions yet this should alwayes be uppermost in our hearts and affections but Christ by this very institution doth hereby manifest what dull and stupid memories we have and that about the greatest mercies that we are capable of Would it not be strange if a malefactor should forget his pardon or Rahab forget the scarlet threed in the window that was to be the preservative of her life yet our forgetfullness is greater when we do not remember our Saviour and his sufferings for us And for the other Sacrament of Baptism how greatly is our obligation by it forgotten how grosly we do forget that covenant with God and the dedication of us unto God renouncing the Devil and his lusts That was appointed to be a commemorative sign But how sinfull is our memory for we do as it were need another sign to put us in mind of that and so in infinitum what little power hath the memory of these Sacraments upon us Yea how little do they come in our mind thereby to improve our duties and consolations Lastly That our memories are naturally sinfull will appear If we consider how it was with Adam in the state of integrity he was made right Eccl. 7. which doth extend to the spiritual perfection of all the parts of his soul As his mind was indowed with all necessary light and knowledge so his memory also with all strength and vigor so that forgetfullness of any thing that was his duty was no more incident unto him then any other sinne It was not because naturally he had a bad or a forgetfull memory that made him break the Law of God for if God had created him found and perfect in all other parts of his soul only left him to a weak and frail memory he could not have been happy either in temporal or spiritual considerations As his soul was thus perfected so his body was in a found and well tempered constitution having no redundancy of humors thereby to hinder the operations of the soul by memory he was not subject to diseases or old age or any thing else that doth empair the memory of man but now our sun is become a dunghill and our gold dross As original sinne hath pestilentially insected all parts of the soul so the memory hath not escaped this pollution for where it is naturally able there it is spiritually impotent when it might remember if improved and put upon there is it negligent and careless how many say They cannot remember any good thing delivered to them press them about the Scripture and the good truths of God preached to them and they will justify themselves by pleading the badness of their memory whereas it is for want of a good heart and a good will if thy affections were ardent and burning about these things thy memory would be more retentive of good things then they are Besides little do you know what your memory would do if you did put it upon frequent exercise few know what their memories could do if exercised about holy things because few are industrious and active to put it on work Austin lib. 4 to de origine animae relateth of his friend Simplicius how he was desired to repeat verses out of Virgil backwards and forwards and also the Prose of Tully with an inversed order and this he did to their great admiration yet Austin saith That Simplicius did solemnly protest that he never did so before neither had he ever tried whether his memory were able for such an exercise or no. By this example we see that none know what their memories would do if they did more carefully and diligently put them upon it But grant that the memory be naturally impotent though this you heard be not formally a sinne yet it is the fruit of it and so matter of humiliation Learned men say That what fit constitution and temperature is required in the brain for a sound and solid judgement the contrary is for a good and strong memory and therefore they say it is that a strong judgement and a strong memory seldom go together As saith Erasmus the beast Lynx hath a most acute sight but is a most stupid and forgetfull creature Now if this be so then this ariseth from Adam's fall for no doubt Adam had both a perfect judgement and a perfect memory and it cometh through original sinne that the body is so distempered that what helpeth for one faculty of the soul impedeth and hindreth the other The Summe of this particular is That wherein our memories do now come short of that which Adam's memory while perfect was able to do that is either expresly and formally a sinne or the immediate issue and punishment of sinne SECT VIII Wherein the memory of man is polluted THis sure foundation then being said Let us proceed to shew Wherein the memory of man is so greatly polluted And that will appear First Very remarkably If you consider all the several objects which by the Scripture we are daily to have in our memory and we are naturally in a constant and daily forgetfulnesse of them Onely it is good to take notice of a distinction which Vossius De Origine Idolat lib. 1. cap. 11. observeth out of Bonaventure That there is a two-fold forgetfulnesse 1. When the very Species or Images of things are quite obliterated and deleted this may be called a natural forgetfulnesse 2. When though the Species be reteined and we do remember yet through carelesnesse and negligence we do not attend to that duty which should flow from our memory and this may be called a moral forgetfulnesse And indeed we have too much experience of this later kind of forgetfulnesse for how many are there that do remember Sermons that do carry in their minds several Texts of Scripture and that against those very sinnes they do commit daily Now in the Scripture language this is forgetfulnesse such are said not to remember because they do not what they ought to do upon their memory In both these considerations I shall speak of the pollution of the memory The first and most signal object of our memory which the Scripture speaketh of is God himself God is not only the object of our faith and of our love of our minds and wils but also of our memory We should alwaies keep up the remembrance of God in our thoughts and this would be a most potent Antidote against all kind of sinne Therefore is all evil committed because we do not remember God at that time Deut. 8. 18. Moses doth there command the people of Israel to take heed of trusting in their own righteousnesse and goodnesse or of attributing their wealth and riches to their own power But saith he thou shalt remember the Lord thy
record this day against you that I have set before you life and eath cursing and blessing therefore choose life Observe what should direct us in choosing viz. That which the servants of God deliver from the Word and so that which the mind of a man enlightned from thence doth declare to us and for defect herein it is that we choose evil and death for how often doth the Minister of the Gospel yea thy own conscience it may be within thee obtest and adjure thy will as herein the Text Moses did the people of Israel I call heaven and earth to witness saith conscience that I have shewed thee the good thou wert to do I have terrified and threatned thee with hell and that vengeance of God which will follow thee upon the commission of such sinnes Therefore look to thy election see again and again what it is that thou choosest But though all this be done yet the will will choose what affections say what sense suggesteth dealing herein like Rehoboam who would not hearken to the advice and direction of the ancient grave and wise counsellors thou plus valet umbrasenis quam gladius juvenus as the expression is in the civil law but he gave his ear to the yong men that flattered him and were brought up with him which proved to his desiruction Thus the will in its choice it maketh listneth not to what the mind doth with deliberation and prudence direct to but what the inferior appetite doth move unto that it followeth And this is the foundation of all those sad and unsuccesfull choices we make in the world this layeth work for that bitter repentance and confusion of soul which many fall into afterward Oh that I had never choosen this way Oh that I had never used such meanes Oh me never wise Oh foolish and wretched man that I am Especially this bitter bewailing and howling about what we have chosen will be discovered in hell what will those eternal yellings and everlasting roarings of soul be but to cry out Oh that I had never chosen to commit such sinnes Oh that I had never chosen such companions to acquaint with Thus the foolish and sinnefull choice thou makest in this life will be the oil as it were poured into those flames of fire in hell to make them burne seven times hotter Secondly The other particular wherein this corrupt frame of the will in election is seen is That in the meanes it doth choose it never considereth how just and lawfull and warrantable the meanes are but how usefull and therefore though God be offended though his Law be broken yet he will choose to do such things whereas we must know that God hath not only required the goodness of an end but also the lawfulness and goodness of the meanes and the sanctified will dareth not use an unlawfull medium to bring about the most desired good that is but the carnal heart taketh up that rule of the Atheistical Politian Quod utile est illud justum est That which is profitable that is just and righteous That famous act of the Athenians being provoked to it by Aristides the Just may shame many Christians when Themistocles had a stratagem in his head against their enemies telling the people he had a matter of great weight in his mind but it was not fit to be communicated to the people The people required him to impart it to Aristides who being acquainted with it declareth it to the people That Themistocle's counsell was utile but injustum profitable but unjust by which meanes the people would not pursue it Here was some restraint upon men by the very principles of a natural conscience but if the will be left to it self and God neither sanctifying or restrayning it it looketh only to the goodness and profitableness in means never to the lawfulness of them Some have disputed Whether it be not lawfull to perswade to use a less evil that a greater may be avoided They instance in Lot offering his daughters to the Sodomites to be abused by them rather then commit a more horrid impiety by abusing themselves with mankind as they thought those strangers to be but the Scripture rule is evident and undeniable We must not do evil that good may come of it Rom. 3. 8. Neither doth a less evil cease to be an evil though compared with a greater and therefore as in a Syllogisme if one of the premises be false there cannot be inferred a true conclusion è falso nil nisi falsum so also è malo nil nisi malum from an evil meanes there can never come but that which is evil though indeed God may by his omnipotent Power work good out of evil know then that it cometh from the pollution of thy will that thou darest make choice of means not because just or righteous but because profitable for that end thou desirest ¶ 8. The Pollution of the Will in its Acts of Consent VVE proceed to another act of the Will as it is exercised about the meanes which is called Consent for though in order of nature this doth precced election yet because I intend not to say much about it at this time because more will be spoken to it when I shall treat of the immediate effects of original sinne I therefore bring it in in this place And for to discover the sinfulness hereof we must know That the will hath a two-fold operation or motion in this respect for there are motus primo primi the immediate and first stirrings of the will antecedently to any deliberation or consent The natural man being wholly carnal cannot feel these no more then a blind man can discern the motes in the air when the Sunne-beames do enlighten it but the godly man as appeareth Rom. 7. he findeth such motions and insurrections of sinne within him and that against his will Now although it be true when there are such motions of the will but resisted and gainsayed they are not such sinnes as shall be imputed unto us and thus far Bernards expression is to be received Non necet sensus rei deest consensus yet they are in themselves truely and properly sinnes The Papists and Protestants are at great difference in this point The Romanists denying all such indeliberate motions antecedent to our consent to be properly sinnes but the Reformed do positively conclude they are and that because the Apostle Rom. 7. calleth them often sinnes and sinnes that are against the law and which ought to be mortified It is true we further adde when the sanctified soul doth withstand them cry out to God for aid against them as the maid in danger to be defloured if she called out for her help the Law of God did then free her so God also will through Christ forgive such sinfull motions of thy soul which appear in thy heart whether thou wilt or no yet for all this these stirrings of the will being inordinate and against the Law of God
a consequent from the former viz. The Privacy and Propriety of it For whereas by the primitive Institution our will is to be commensurated and regulated by the will of God now it naturally abhorreth and refuseth any such agreement as if our will were to take place of Gods will as if the prayer were that our will not Gods will might be done In this is an Abysse of all evil that our will naturally inclineth to be independent on Gods will we would have that a measure and rule even to Gods will that God should not will but what we would have Oh horrible blasphemy and confusion for the humane will of the Lord Christ was not a rule and measure of things to be done being the will of a creature therefore he prayeth Not my will but thy will be done Luk. 26. 39. If then Christs humane will was to be regulated by that superiour and increated will how much more is the will of a sinfull and corrupt man This then is that which maketh the whole soul like a Blackmoor This is the essence as it were of all sinne A mans own will not Gods will is regarded but a mans own proper will is wholly followed we would give Laws to God and not God to us Whensoever thy heart is carried out to lusts to any wickedness What is this but to exalt thy will and to depress the will of God Hath God said Be not proud thou wilt be proud Hath God said Swear not thou wilt swear Thus all sinne is nothing but a mans own will lifted up against the will of God No wonder then if one said Cesset voluntas propria non ardebit gâhenna Let there be no longer our own will and there will be no longer any hell It 's this proper private will of ours that was the cause of hell Adam and Eve they preferred their will before Gods will and that brought in death and demnation Therefore regeneration is the writing of Gods Law in our hearts whereby we come to say as Christ I come to do thy will O God and Paul immediately upon his conversion saith Lord what wilt thou have me do he giveth up his will as a blanck on which God may write his will O Lord there shall not be any longer my will to persecute my will to oppose thy Church I will break this will of mine renounce this will of mine Thus as a vessel melted in the fire may be put into any forme or fashion the artificer pleaseth so was it with Paul's will This proper private will of thine likewise maketh all the trouble and misery thou meetest with it is thy own will that maketh thee to walk so heavily and discontentedly for were thy will resigned up into Gods were thou able to say in all things the will of the Lord be done I have no will but what God would have me to exercise this would keep thee in a quiet calm frame all the day long whereas now all the dispute and contention is whether thy will or Gods will must give place to each other Oh vain and wretched man how long shall this self-will of thine be thy ruine Is it not reason that the will of the creature should give place to the will of the Creator as the starres do not appear when the Sunne beginneth to arise ¶ 5. The Pride and Haughtiness of the Will THirdly The great and notable pollution of the Will Is the pride and haughtiness of it not only refusing subjection to the Will of God and to be under that as hath been shewed but in some remarkable particulars The first whereof is an affectation of equality with God himself Thus the will of a poor weak wretch that cannot turn a white hair into black whose breath is in his nostrils that hath the same originals for his body as a worm hath yet the aspireth after a Deity and would be like God himself As 1. in attempting to make gods and then to worship them What pride and vanity is in man to take upon him to make what he intends to worship so that what man pleaseth shall be a god and what pleaseth him not shall be none Deus non erit Deus nisi homini placuerit Thus whereas God at first made man after his image now man maketh God after his image Besides the horrible blindness that is upon the mind in this thing there is also pride and arrogancy of the will what is this but to assume superiority over their own gods which yet they worship and adore But 2. This pride of the will is more conspicuously manifested In affecting to be like the true God not to endure him to be a superior above us While our first parents had not any internal pollution at all upon them yet this sinne did presently insinuate them whereby they aspired after a Deity therefore the Devil tempted them with this sutable bait Ye shall be like Gods knowing good and evil That sinne of Adam hath still a more peculiar impression upon mankind Whence came that abominable and blasphemous custome into the world of deifying men which they called Daimons but from that inbred pride of the will desiring to be like God Ezek. 28. 2. Thus it was with that Prince of Tyrus he lifted up himself and said I am a god I sit in the seat of God thou hast ser thine heart as the heart of God What detestable and loath some arroganacy is here Oh the patience of God that doth not immediately consume such a wretch as he did Herod who sinned not so highly for he did not proclaim he was God only the people by way of flattering cryed out the voice of God and not of man which because he did not disclaim but secretly owned therefore was such a remarkable punishment inflicted upon him We see from these instances what pride lurketh in mans will there is the cockatrice egg which may quickly prove to be a flying Serpent This pride is thought also to be the sinne of the Devil whereby he was not contented with the station God had put him but was ambitious of a divine nature as if he with Christ might think it no robbery to be equal with God This unspeakable arrogancy did shew it self notoriously in some great Potentates of the world Caius Caesar especially for which cause Grotius though absurdly maketh him to be the Antichrist that did exalt himself above all that is called God This madness of pride was as visible in Alexander who though sometimes through the consciousness of humane imbecillity as when he was wounded and saw bloud fall from him would refuse such a thought yet at other times he did industriously affect to be related among the number of the Gods and to have divine worship performed to him and as the sonne of Jupiter Hammon would be pictured with hornes and Jupiters Preist meeting of him instead of that form ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã did purposely mistake saying ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã
discovered under the means of grace and the light of the Gospel then under the light of nature meerly for such are said comparatively to sit in darkness and to have no light The more then the light of the Gospel doth appear the more any beams of truth do gloriously shine into thy breast and thou for all this gain-sayest them livest against them the more is thy will in a sinne This then doth greatly aggravate the polluted nature of the will that it can contradict the powerfull arguments of the soul when it was made subordinate to knowledge then to become tyrannical and usurping over it this argueth the will hath a peculiar infection in it insomuch that if it had never so much light yet that would be evil because it will be evil I know there are many learned men that say The will cannot but follow the practical dictate of the understanding There is say they a natural connexion between them so that if the will at any time offend it is because the light and conviction of the mind is faint and inefficacious But this opinion doth greatly retract from the nature of grace and the nature of our original sinne from grace as if that did sanctifie the understanding and affections only and from original sinne as if that were not seated in the will but in the other parts only whereas the will of a man may be called the throne of wickedness because from it properly all sinnes have their rise and being Do we not see this plainly in the Devils who are ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã greatly knowing and understanding yet no Devil is able to will what is good but willeth to sinne alwayes and cannot resrain it How cometh this about They do not want knowledge they are not capable of sinnes of ignorance and yet with what irreconcilable enmity is the Devil set against that which is good insomuch that he cannot all the day long but will those things that are offensive to God Although they know this is to their eternal torment By which you see how depraved and poisoned without Christ the will is though the understanding meet it like an Angel to stop this Balaam in wicked and unjust wayes Never then plead ignorance or plead passions for it is the defect and wickedness of the will that makes thee so vile But as the will in the upper region as it were is so much polluted so in the lower region also for if we consider it as bordering upon the affections there we shall find as horrible a sinne daily committed as when Gods Law sorbids a woman to fall down before a beast for when the will which is in it self a rational appetite shall make it self like one of the vile affections and passions what is this but a spiritual and unclean lust with a beast Lay then this more to heart than thou doest Think how horrid a sight it would be if thy body should become like a beasts and thou go on the ground as that doth what would then become of that Os sublime And is not this as bad when thy will is made a vassal to every inordinate affection Thou willest what thy passions call for yet thus it is with every one till grace doth elevate the will and set it in its proper throne ¶ 9. The Mutability and Inconstancy of the Will FOurthly The mutability and inconstancy of the will about what is holy is a great part of the original desolation upon it It is true Adam's will was mutable at the first Creation though he had full power and perfection to stand yet because his will was changeable therefore he fell from his holy estate and no wonder that Adam's will was mutable for the will of the Angels so greatly transcending man in glory was also vertible and changeable so that to have the will confirmed in what is good that it cannot fall into the contrary condition is a blessed and gracious priviledge vouchsafed by God alone Therefore there are no men though never so much sanctified but their wils would make them fall off from God did not God outwardly support him This natural mutability is in the will because it 's the will of a creature onely the will of God is immutable and unchangeable and this is onely a negative imperfection it is not a sinne but the inconstancy and changeablenesse that I now mention is a sinfull and corrupt one This mutability of the will and instability discovers it self in these particulars 1. In some great fears or judgements of God upon a man then though he hath no more but nature yet his will doth sometimes seem to yeeld and to melt before God Thus Pharaob's will Ahab's will did abate of their contumacy while the heavy rod of God was upon them but how quickly did they lick up their vomit again When the iron was taken out of the fire it grew as cold as ever And is not this inconstant will the ruine of many Oh that thou hadst such a will alwayes as thou hadst in such straits in such extremities then how happy wouldst thou be 2. This inconstancy of thy will appeareth to thy undoing When in some Ordinance the Word preached the Sacrament administred or reproof applied to thee then thou beginnest to yeeld then thou sayest I will do it I will be so no more I will become new but these April showrs hold for a season the winter will come when all will be frost and snow Mat. 21. 29. One of those sons who said to his father I go sir seeming to be very willing whereas on the other side I will not did quickly falsifie his Word So that he who refused at first proved better then he that seemed so forward and thus truly it falleth out sometimes that the later end is farre better of some who for a long while say they will not that are stubborn and rebellious but God afterwards maketh them to will then of such who give many fair promises now they will and then they will in such sickness they will in such a powerfull motion they will but afterwards they will not 3. The sinfull inconstancy of the will about holy things is When after a ready and willing profession of Christ in times of temptation and great extremities then they fall off and their fall is great This is because the will was not resolved and fixed that whatsoever should fall out yet they would not treacherously depart from God Act. 11. 23. Barnabas exhorted the Disciples That with purpose of heart they should cleave to God otherwise if the will be not stedfast and resolved every temptation is able to drive it back Lastly The lazy sluggish and half-desires of the will about good things manifest the inconstancy of it Jam. 1. A double-minded man and so a double-willed man is inconstant in all his wayes when the will is divided between the creature and the Creator or when like the sluggard he desireth meat but will not put forth his
furnace and house of bondage did cry and groan for a Redeemer but this is the unspeakable evil of this soul-bondage that we delight in it that we rejoyce in it all our indeavour and care is that we may not be set at liberty and have these chains taken off us From this explication observe That no man hath any liberty or freedom of will to what is good till Christ by his grace hath made him free We do not by freedom of will obtain grace but by grace we obtain freedom of will So that by the Scripture we have not any true ground for a liberum arbitrium but a liberatum in spiritual things There is no such thing as a free-will but a freed will in a passive sense and tunc est liberum when it is liberatum as Austin Then it 's actively free when it is first passively made free Rom. 6. 16. Being made free from sinne He doth not say you have made your selves free but ye are made frre by the grace of Christ And again vers 22. Ye are now made free from sinne and Rom. 8. 2. The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of sinne and death By which expressions is implied 1. That all men till sanctified are in an absolute vassalage and thraldom to sinne And 2. That it is onely the grace of Christ that doth deliver from this bondage It is Christ not our own will that maketh us free ¶ 3 Of the several Kinds of Freedome which the Scripture speaketh of TO enter into the depths of this Doctrine Consider What kinds of freedome the Scripture speaketh of and which is applicable to our purpose The Schooles have vast disputes about liberty and free-will What it is whether a compounded faculty or a simple one and whether a faculty or habit or act especially they digladiate about the definition of free-will what it is but if any thing shall be thought necessary to be said in this point it may be pertinently brought in when we shall answer such Objections as the Patrons of nature do use to bring in the behalf of Free-will only it is good to know that in the Scripture we find a civil liberty and a spiritual liberty spoken of a civil liberty Thus bond and free are often opposed Ephes 6. 8. Col. 3. 11. 1 Cor. 7. 22. But this is not to the Text nor to our purpose Therefore the Scripture speaketh much of a spiritual freedome and that is First In the translating of us out from the dominion of sinne and Satan into a gracious state of holiness and this is called by Divines Libertas gratia or as Austin libertas à peccato The freedome of grace of which those Texts speak that we mentioned before Secondly There is the Evangelical and Christian liberty whereby we are freed from many things of the law not only the curse of the moral law and the spirit of bondage which did accompany the legal administration thereof but also from the obligation unto and exercise of the ceremanial This Evangelical liberty is often commended in the Scripture as the glorious priviledge of the Christian Church which the legal Church wanted of this legal servitude and Evangelical freedome the Apostle Gal. 4 doth largely and most divinely treat This Christian liberty also from Jewish rites The Apostle Gal. 5. 1. ââhorteth us to stand fast in as being purchased for us by the death of Christ as a glorious priveledge only the Apostle Peter 1 Pet. 2. 16 giveth good advice That we turn not our liberty into licentiousness It is true the Apostle doth once use the word free abusively and improperly Rom. 6. 20 where the servants of sinne are said to be free from righteousness or to righteousness now this is improperly called a freedome for as the service of God is the truest freedome so freedome from holiness is the greatest slavery Although Austin doth from this Text make a division of liberty into two kinds which he maketh perpetual use of Libertas à peccate and Libertas a justitiâ The godly man hath the former liberty the sinner hath the latter but this latter is improperly called liberty Lastly There is a spiritual freedome mentioned by the Scripture as the utlimte and complete perfection of all when the soul shall be freed not only from the dominion of sinne but the presence of it all the reliques and remainders of it and the body shall be freed from death pain and all corroptibility Rom. 8. 2. This is called the glorious liberty of the sons of God and for this every godly man is to groan and mourn even as the woman in travel to be delivered This is called by Divines libertas gloriae and libertas à miserià But we are to speak of the liberty of grace and herein we are not to admire the Free-will of man but the free grace of God man hath no free-will to do that which is spiritual and holy Free-will is an Idol which the corrupt heart of man is apt to advance he is unwilling to be brought out of himself to be beholding to the grace of Christ only therefore Austin observed well That this truth is to be found out by prayer and supplication sooner then by disputation Did men commune with their own hearts did they observe the Abyss and depth of all evil that is in their corrupt will how intangled and in slaved to the creature they would quickly fall from disputation to humiliation and turne arguments into prayers ¶ 4. The Names which the Scripture expresseth that by which we call Free-Will THe next thing in our method that will be explicating of the Doctrine is to take notice of What names the Scripture useth to express this thing by that we call Free-will for free-will is not a Scripture name but Ecclesialsical yet the sence of it is in the Scripture for ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is often used in the Scripture to will and that in such things wherein freedome is necessarily supposed Luk. 22. 9. Where wilt thou that we prepare a place Joh. 9. 27. Wherefore would ye hear it again will ye also be his Disciple Act 7. 28 wilt thou kill me also c. and in many other places hence ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is used for the free-will of a man 1 Cor. 7. 37 and indeed it is disputed whether to do a thing voluntariè and liberè voluntarily and freely be not all one and so libertas and voluntas only voluntas denoteth the power and liberty the qualification of it in its working Jansenius is most consident that in Austin's constant dispute with the Pelagians liberum arbitrium is no more then voluntas and that to do a thing freely is no more then to do it voluntarily this he maintaineth against the Jesuites and withall wonders at a late Writer of their own whom he nameth not which writeth that the word servum arbitrium was not heard in the Church of God
the cup of gold in Benjamin's sack and therefore this must greatly debase us Thirdly We are not able of our selves to have the least desire or longing after grace and a state of holinesse Not only Pelagianism but Semi-pelagianism is a dangerous rock to be avoided The later made our desires to begin and then Gods grace to succeed and accomplish But there is not so much as the least groan the least desire can arise in thy heart Oh that God would change me Oh that I were in the state of those that do truly fear God! And the reason is because the Scripture describeth us by nature to be dead in sinne and compareth the work of grace to a spiritual resurrection Oh how great is thy bondage which doth so farre oppress thee that thou canst not so much as long for any freedom Oh hopeless and wretched man if left to himself Fourthly From this followeth the next demonstration of our vassalage and spiritual impotency That we cannot pray to God that he would deliver us out of this misery No natural man can pray it is the grace of God that doth inable thereunto he may utter the words of prayer he may repeat the expressions but alas he doth not he cannot pray as God requireth and so as he will accept of it The Apostle is clear for this Rom. 8. 26. The Spirit helpeth our infirmities for we know not what to pray for as we ought Is not this unspeakable misery who needeth to pray more then thou and yet thou canst not pray Thou art sinning thou art dying thou are damning and yet canst not pray Is not thy heart like an adamant if this break thee not Fifthly Such is our impotency and bondage That we are not able to affect our selves with the fear and terrour of the Law thereby to be convinced and humbled in our selves If we cannot do the preparatories for grace much lesse grace it self if we cannot do the lesse How shall we do the greater Now one great preparatory work is To have a divine and powerfull fear in our souls by reason of the Law whereby we are afraid of hell of the day of Judgement and cannot have any rest in our spirits because of this Now this is wrought by the Spirit of God in a preparatory way Rom. 8. 15. It is called The Spirit of bondage And Joh. 14. The Spirit doth convince the world of sinne So that in and through the preaching of the Law and discovery of sinne the Spirit of God doth awaken and terrifie the conscience of a man maketh him afraid that he cannot eat or drink or take the delight he used to do It is true the slavish sinfulness of this fear the Spirit of God doth not work but the heart being like a mudded pool when it is moved such slavish fears will arise likewise But how farre is every natural man from this he is secure and jolly blessing and applauding himself crying peace peace all is at quiet within him because the strong man doth keep the house It is the voice of the Lord only that can make these mountains to quake and melt Sixthly Such is our weakness That we cannot barden or soften our hearts in the least manner but they remain obdurate and like brasse and iron Thy heart is like a stone within thee and thou art no wayes able to mollifie it Therefore God maketh it his work and he graciously promiseth I will take away the heart of stone Ezek. 11. 19. and give an heart of flesh As if God had said I know this work is above you you are not able to do it And certainly if the godly themselves because of the remainders of original corruption doe complain of the hardnesse of their hearts cannot mollifie or soften them as they desire Is it any wonder if the wicked man be not able to remove the stone from him Seventhly A man cannot by the power of nature believe no not so much as with an historical faith till grace prepare the heart therein Now faith is the first foundation-stone Heb. 11. He that cometh to God must believe he is and so he must believe the truth about Christ But we see by the Pharisees who heard Christ preach saw the wonderfull miracles he did yet in stead of believing in him did deride and oppose him so that all the acts of faith whether dogmatical or saving we are enabled unto only by the grace of God Matth. 13. 11. To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven but not to them Thus Act. 18. 27. the Disciples are said to believe through grace faith then is the gift of God not the work of mans free-will And if he cannot do this it is plain he cannot move one foot of himself towards Heaven Lastly Such is our impotency That when grace is offered and tendered to us the will of it self hath no power to consent to it or make improvement of it It can and oft doth resist and refuse grace but of it self it cannot imbrace it It is true Papists and Arminians plead hard for this power of the will but this is to give more to mans will then to Gods grace this is to make man to differ himself from others It might be thought that the will indeed cannot chuse Christ or receive him as a Lord because there is no revelation or manifestation of a Christ They are a people happily who sit in darkness and have no light and therefore though they may have an inward power to see yet for want of light to actuate the medium they cannot so that the defect ariseth not from the power within but the manifestation of the object without And this indeed is gratly to be considered whether an Infidel or Pagan for example doth not believe because there is no proposition of the object in the Ministry otherwise if he enjoyed that then he had power over his own to assent to it Now even the Pelagians themselves and their followers yea even all that give not grace its full due yet thus farre they do acknowledge there must be a doctrinal revelation by the Spirit of God of the truths to be acknowledged and when this light is set as it were upon the Candlestick then a man of his own self is able to see but such is the corruption of man that not only grace must bring in the light but it must also give the eye to see So that the work of Gods grace is both objective and subjective objective in revealing the object and subjective in preparing and fitting the subject It being the Lord who doth give the seeing eye and the hearing ear Prov. 20. 12. Yea the Arminians go further acknowledging that grace doth irresistibly work upon the understanding of a man for it being a passive faculty it cannot withstand its illumination but the will that retaineth its indifferency when grace hath done all it will do This therfore is granted That without the
to remove SECT V. They are wholly displaced from their right Objects THirdly The great sinfulness of the affections is seen In that they are wholly displaced from their right Objects The objects for which they were made and on which they were to settle is God himself and all other things in reference to him our love God onely challengeth in that command Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy heart and soul c. Our hatred that is properly to be against sin because it dishonours God our sorrow it is principally to be because of our offences to him so that there is not any affection we have but it doth either primarily or secondarily relate to God but who can bewail the great desolation that is now fallen upon us Every affection is now taken off its proper center In stead of loving of God we love the world we love our pleasures rather then God Instead of hating of sinne we hate God and cannot abide his pure and holy Law and Nature Thus we fear not whom we ought to fear viz. God That can destroy both soul and body in hell and what we ought not to fear there we are afraid as the frowns and displeasure of men when we are to do our duties Our sorrow likewise is not that also corrupted How melting and grieved are we in any temporal loss in any worldly evil but then for the loss of God and his favour by our iniquities there our bowels never move within us Thus our affections out of all order to their proper objects ought to be groaned under more than if all our bones were out of joynt for that is only a bodily evil hindring a natural motion this is a spiritual one depriving us of our enjoyment of God This particular pollution it is that the Text doth immediately drive at when it commands us To set our affections above it plainly sheweth where they are naturally viz. upon things of the earth and therefore as it was Christs divine power that made the woman bowed down with her infirmity for so many years to be strait Thus it must also be the mighty and gracious power of God to raise up these affections that are crawling on the ground to heavenly things Possess then thy soul throughly with this great evil that thou hast not one affection within thee that can go to its proper object but some thing moveth it from Go to the vain and fading creatures If these affections be the pedes animae the feet of the soul then with Asa thou hast a sad disease in thy feet and if thy whole body else were clean these feet would need a daily purifying SECT VI. The sinfulness of the Affections is discovered in respect of the End and Use for which God ingraffed them in our Natures FOurthly Their sinfulness is discovered in respect of the object about which So also in respect of the end and use for which God first ingraffed them into our Natures They were given at first to be like the wheels to the Chariots like wings to the bird To facilitate and make easie our approaches to God the soul had these to be like Elijah's fiery chariot to mount to Heaven and therefore we see where the affections of men are vehement and hot they conquer all difficulties that Adam might in body and soul draw nigh to God that God might be glorified in both therefore had he these bodily affections And we see David though restored to this holy Image but in part yet he could say His soul and his flesh did rejoyce in the Lord his flesh desired God as well as his soul that is his affections were exceedingly moved after God as Psal 84. 2. For the soul being the form of the body whatsoever that doth intensly desire by way of a sympathy or subordination there is a proportionable effect wrought in the inferiour sensitive part As Aaron's oyl poured on his head did descend to his skirts Thus by way of redundancy what the superiour part of the soul is affected with the inferiour also doth receive and by this means the work of grace in the superiour part is more confirmed and strengthned and the heat below doth encrease the heat above Thus you see that these affections had by their primitive nature a great serviceablenesse to promote the glory of God to prepare and raise up men to that duty But now these affections are the great impediments and clogs to the soul that if at any time it would sâar up to Heaven if light within doth instigate to draw nigh to God These affections do immediately contradict and interpose and the reason is because they are ingaged to contrary objects so that when we would love God love to the world that presently stoppeth and hinders it when we should delight and rejoyce in holy things worldly and earthly delights they do immediately like the string to the birds feet pull down to the ground again Hence it is that you many times see men have great light in their minds great convictions upon their consciences they know they live in sinfull wayes they know they do what they ought not to do yea they will sometimes complain and grieve bitterly because they are thus captivated to those lusts which they are convinced will damn them at last but what is the snare that holdeth them so fast What are the chains upon them that bind them thus hand and soot even their sinfull and inordinate affections their carnal love their carnal delight keepeth conscience prisoner and will not let it do its duty Oh that we could humble our selves under this that what was wine is now become poison that what we had to further us to Heaven doth hurry us to hell that our affections should carry us to sinne that were for God that they should drive us to hell which were to further us to Heaven Oh think of this consider it and bewail it Many things lose their use and they only become unprofitable they do not hurt by that degeneration as salt when it hath lost its seasoning but now these affections are not onely unprofitable they will not help to what is good but are pernicious and damnable we that were of our selves falling into hell they thrust us and move us headlong to it so that they seem to be in us what the Devils were in the herd of Swine These are the wild horses that tare thy soul in so many pieces Thus our gold is become dross SECT VII When the Affections are set upon inferiour objects that are lawfull yet they are greatly corrupted in their Motion and Tendency thereunto IN the next place If the inferiour objects they are placed upon be lawfull and allowable yet they are greatly corrupted in their motion and tendency thereunto For they are carried out excessively and immederately They do unlawfully move to lawful things As man âands corrupted by nature his affections are defiled two wayes in respect of the objects For sometimes
covenant with his eyes because they would quickly carry sinne to the affections Vt vidi perii said he from seeing he came to perish but that was from seeing he came to be affected with the object and so perished This is notably expressed Jos 7. 20. 21 When Achan was tempted to steal the Babylonish garment he acknowledged that when he saw them that he coveted them and coveting of them made him steal them we may then conclude that there is scarce any sinne committed by thee but thy corrupt affections do begin it the frame as it were is first laid there all bodily sinnes of drunkenness and uncleaness It is plain that they are the product of sinful affections sinful love sinful desires sinful joyes and pleasures are the puddle as it were wherein these vermin are bred That as in muddy lakes frogs and toads are produced thus it is in these gross and polluted affections and it is no wonder that these come out from the affections seeing the sinnes of the more noble rational part are also procreated by these corrupt affections Heresies and Idolatry these are sinnes of the understanding yet they arise from sinful and inordinate affections The rushes grow in such miry places men seek after profit applause or other carnal advantages and thus these are like a bribe to blind the eies of wisdome so that it behooveth every one in the way of Religion that he professeth to consider whether they be pure conscientious grounds or corrupt affections that instigate therein There are very few that have the Scripture lay the first stone in the building of their faith their affections have first closed with an opinion their affections have secretly imbraced such a religious way and then they go to Scripture to confirme it Thus they bring Scripture to their affections not affections to Scripture thus as any little dust doth quickly hinder the eie in seeing so the least corrupting of the affections doth obnubilate the understanding and what the Sun and the Earth are in the great world the same is the sensitive part in man the little world and as their constant vapours and exhalations from the earth do frequently cloud the Sunne and deprive us of the comfortable light thereof so here our affections do continually ascend like so many smoaking vapours whereby we runne into dangerous wayes It is therefore a rare and a most blessed thing when a man is able to say O Lord it was no affection no passion no corrupt interest hath prevailed with me to take up this way to forsake my former opinions but the powerful light of the Scripture shining into my heart But these precious flowers are hardly to be found as affections corrupted do generally corrupt the understanding in matters of faith so also in matters of publique administration What is the reason of unjust Magistrates of unjust Officers that righteousness in places of judicatory is so often perverted is it not because affections do judge affections do determine how many times doth the Law say one thing conscience and righteousness say one thing but affections they cry another thing They were sinful and wicked affections that put the High Preist and Elders upon the condemning of Christ Pilate saw that they did it for envy and that is a compounded affection hence are those frequently commands to all that are concerned in righteous administrations to have covetousness to accept of no mens persons to do nothing for fear or favour what doth this signifie but that all justice and righteousness is perverted by sinful affections sinne is not punished offenders are not restrained wholesome Lawes are not put in execution because men are carried by sinneful affections Therefore in the Aereopagite Court which was so famous for integrity and their Decrees were reverenced like Oracles all causes were pleaded in the night in the dark that the Judge might not know who pleaded lest his affection might be pre-possessed and here all their pleadings were to be without any Preface or affectionate expressions all which shew how hardly it is to be a righteous man in his place while affections are not conquered SECT XVI The Privacy of the Affections ANother particular is The privacy of them they do inordinately impropriate all things to a mans self so that they are self-affections not affections for Gods glory or the publique good they are private affections not publique affections so that herein they are greatly distempered in that they are not carried out to the most common and universal good but to what is selfish and particular whereas if our affections did retain their primitive integrity they would have been in the first and most principal manner carried out to what is the chiefest and most principal object whereas naturally every man is a Nero and will ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Let Heaven and Earth be mingled together when I am dead And thus though God have no glory though the publique be ruined so as he have his self-affections promoted he mattereth not This is that which you have heard that man in his Apostasie from God did cadere à Deo in seipsum he fell from God into himself and hereupon referreth the whole world even God himself to his own welfare as if God were for him and he not made for God It was not thus from the beginning but as we see in natural things they all deny their particular motions to serve the publique or as Philosophers say about the Orbs they are carried on by the motion of the primum mobile even contrary to their particular motions Thus it was also in the first constitution of man yea better for the affections had no private particular propensity to any object which the rational part did not direct unto But oh the sad change that now sinne hath made upon our affections in this particular making them to monopolize all things and to preferre our selves more then the honour of God himself especially in two particulars we may greatly lament the sinne of our private affections in opposition to publique First The glory and honour of God is to be esteemed by us as infinitely more worthy then all the world then all Angels and men and therefore not to be affected to our selves more then that It will easily be granted That an infinite good is to be preferred before a finite one an univesal illimited one before what is particular and limited an ocean before a drop Now such is God comparatively to man yea to all the Nations of the world Isa 40. If then God be thus infinitely transcending us in goodnesse and our love is to be drawn out according to the goodnesse of the object if a greater good then a greater love if the greatest good then the greatest love then it followeth that our affections are to be carried out infinitely more to the honour of God then to our own glory If the people of Israel could say to their King because a publique person Thou art worth ten
yet because as you heard the mind acteth dependently upon the imagination therefore we conjoyn them together How polluted then must that fountain be which sends forth so many polluted streams Sinne as we told you may be a long while breeding here before it be compleatly formed and actuated yea and God beholdeth and taketh notice of thy sinnes thus prepared in thy imagination long before the commission of them We have a notable instance for this Deut. 31. 21. where Moses in the name of God testifying against the people of Israel that when they come into Canaan they do not fall off from God useth this expression For I know their imagination which they go about even now before I have brought them into the Land which I sware unto them God did before they come into Aegypt see what was working in their imaginations what they were making and fashioning in their hearts in which sense some expound that place of the Psalmist Thou knowest my thoughts afarre off Psal 139. 2. And this is good and profitable for us to consider we many times wonder to see how such gross and loathsom sinnes can come even from the godly themselves Alas marvel not at it these Serpents and Toads were a long while breeding in the imagination The pleasure or profit of such a sinne was often fancied before It was again and again committed in thy thoughts before it was expressed in thy life so that a man can never live unblameably in his life that doth not keep his imagination pure and clean Hence you have so often evil thoughts complained of as the root of all bitterness Jer. 4. 14. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge in thee Mark 15. 19. Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts As exhalations and vapours ascending from the earth which are scarce perceptible yet at last are congealed into thick and dismal clouds so those sins which while in the thoughts and imagination were scarce taken notice of do at last grow into soul and enormous transgressions SECT X. That many times sinne is acted by the Imagination with delight and content without any relation at all to the external Actings of sinne THirdly The sinfulness of the Imagination is further to be amplified In that many times sinne is acted with delight and content there without any relation at all to the external actings of sinne So that a man while unblameable in his life may yet have his imagination like a cage of unclean birds and this is commonly done when there are external impediments or some hinderances of committing the sinne outwardly The fear of mens laws outward reproach and shame want of opportunity may keep men off from the outward committing of some lust when yet at the same time their imaginations have the strong impressions of sinne upon them and so in their souls they become guilty before God The Adulterous man Is not his imagination full of uncleanness The proud man Is not his fancy lifted with high and towring conceits As the Apostle Peter speaketh of some whose eyes were full of adultery and that cannot cease from sinne 2 Pet. 2. 14. or as some read it according to the original Adulteresse imagination made them have her in their eyes continually though absent for if their eyes were their imaginations also must necessarily be because of the immediate natural connexion between them so then when there are no outward sores or ulcers to be seen upon a mans life yet his imagination may be a noisom dunghill what uncleanness fancied what high honours imagined that whereas thou art restrained from the actings of sinne yet thy heart burneth like an oven with lusts inwardly It is the emphatical similitude that the holy Ghost useth Hos 7. 8. They have made ready their heart like an oven The meaning is that as the oven heated is ready to bake any thing put therein so was the heart of those evil men prepared for any kind of naughtiness Some understand it of the adultery of the body only as if that were the sinne intended by the Prophet Others of the spiritual adultery of the soul by which name Idolatry is often called in Scripture Others referre it to both we may take it to be a proverbial expression denoting the readiness of a mans heart to commit any sinne that it lieth in the heart and the imagination day and night men highly sinning against God inwardly when outwardly they are restrained Know then that when the grace of sanctification shall renew thy spirit soul and body thou wilt then be very carefull to look to thy very imagination that no tickling fancies or conceits of any lust do defile thee thou wilt keep thy imagination as a precious Cabinet wherein precious pearls shall be treasured up not dirt and filth As we fitly use an expression concerning delight in sinne that it is the rolling of honey under the tongue so there is a rolling of sinne in the imagination with great titillation and pleasure when sinne cannot be committed in action we do it in our imagination Hence it is that by the imagination old men become guilty of their youthfull lusts when they have not bodies to be as instrumental to filthiness as they have been yet in their imaginations they can revive their by-past sinnes many years ago committed Thus men became as it were perpetual sinners in their imaginations Consider of this more seriously and pray for an holy chaste and pure imagination knowing thou hast to do with an omniscient God that knoweth what is working therein though it be hid from the world besides think not sinfull imaginations will escape the vengeance of God though no sutable operations of impiety do accompany them SECT XI It s Propensity to all evil both towards God and towards man NInthly Our Imagination is naturally corrupted Because of its propensity to all evil both towards God and towards man And First Towards God Let us take up that which was but glanced at before and that is How prone we are to provoke God in his worship declining from the true Rule and meerly because of our Imaginations The pleasing of them hath been the cause of all that displeasure which God ever had in his Church concerning the worshipping of him No sinne doth more provoke God then the corrupting of his worship to adulterate this is to meddle with the apple of his eye God beareth other sinnes a long while till his worship become to be corrupted and then he will endure no longer Now the original of all sinfulness in this kind hath been our imagination we have not attended to what God hath commanded we regard not his institutions but our own fancies the pleasing of them Hence when God promiseth a restauration to the people of Israel and a reformation from their former Idolatries he saith Neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart Jer. 3. 17. It was this Imagination carried them out to Idolatry whence came those goodly
second particular is the consequent and event thereof which is expressed 1. By note of Inference 2. The Subject And 3. The Predicate The Subject is That holy thing which shall be born of thee ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Present for the Future though some apply it not so properly to the conceiving ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã so Christ is called the Neuter gender is emphatical for though it be sometimes put for the Masculine as 1 John 5. 4. yet here it is emphatical to shew the extensiveness of Christs holiness that he is all over holy having not the least spot of sinne and that not only as God for so he is essentially and infinitely holy nor only by the personal Union with the Godhead but in his humane Nature both originally having no natural sinne in him and habitually and also actually in which sense he is every way holy The Predicate is He shall be called the Sonne of God that is he shall be indeed so and also famously and publiquely declared to be so And Lastly There is the note of Inference ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Therefore also At this the Socinians greatly catch for they denying Christ to be the Sonne of God by eternal generation say That he is called the Sonne of God for many other Reasons whereof one is gradual to another so that he was not compleatly the Sonne of God till after his Resurrection when he was indowed with that glorious power God had given him sitting down at the right hand of God Now the first reason why Christ is called the Sonne of God is say they not because of any eternal generation from the Father as if he had been God before he was man from all eternity but from this miraculous and wonderfull production in time And they affirm Nothing can be plainer because when he had said The holy Ghost should over shadow her then is added Therefore he should be called the Sonne of God The Remonstrants they do or at least seem to do hold Christ to be the Sonne of God by eternal generation and also to be called so for other causes also as viz. by this miraculous production And it may not be denied but Maldonate the Papist doth plead for this as the reason in the Text why he should be called the Sonne of God So that saith he if Christ had been a pure man yet by this miraculous production he would have been made the Sonne of God But Gontzen his fellow Jesuite doth answer his reason Zanchy also is too liberal in this point acknowledging that Christ is here to be called the Sonne of God because of this miraculous communication of an humane being to him But his is no wayes to be received for the note of inference is not from the holy Ghosts overshadowing as a cause of his filiation but as from the sign It is I say an argument not from the cause but the sign so that the meaning is This extraordinary way of conceiving without a man is a sign that he is the true God who was before promised by the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 9. That a Virgin should conceive and his Name should be called Immanuel God with us For that there is a respect to that Prophecy appeareth plainly by Mat. 1. 23. And indeed it must needs be so for Christ is never called the Son of God because born of a woman though in a miraculous manner but the Sonne of man alwayes And if this Exposition should be granted Christ would have two filiations one as whereby he was made the Sonne of God and another as whereby he was made the Sonne of man It is also absurd to say Christ may be called the Sonne of God for several causes when there is one true and proper one he that is a Sonne by natural generation cannot be by Adoption or any other adventitious cause Again That particle ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is urged both of old and late That also which is born of thee c. implying that he had no other being though now he assumed this Thus you have the Text vindicated only one thing more is to be observed the expression used by the Angel ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Which shall be born of thee doth fully demonstrate That Christ had a body framed by the holy Ghost of the substance of the Virgin Mary that he had not a phantastical body neither did he bring a body from Heaven and so passe through the Virgin Mary as some of old and late have dreamed Therefore Marcion who denied the true body of Christ and thereby also his Conception and Nativity did wholly evade this Chapter of Luke and would not receive it as Canonical being called by Tertullian Mus ponticus because of his corroding and gnawing out of Scripture as he pleased when he saw any place make against him The words thus explained Observe That Christ onely is born holy and that all the rest of mankind is polluted with sinne It is a saying Exceptio format regulam if then Christ be exempted so that it is his peculiar priviledge then certainly all the rest are included As there are some who make all men pure by nature So some have blasphemously vented That Christ had original sinne Yea a Remonstrant writeth That the humane nature of Christ had that fight and conflict in it which is between the reason and the appetite which we say must necessarly be sinne The Socinians they affirm That Christ had a holy of sinne but then by sinne they mean onely infirmities and weaknesses not that which is truly so for this alledging Heb. 7. 27. Heb. 9. 28. The true meaning whereof we shall give anon But with Christians we need not long to insist upon the proof of this That Christ was without all sinne either original or actual typified therein by the High Priest in the Law who had this written upon him Holinesse to the Lord and therefore he is not onely holy ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but also ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He that sanctifieth and maketh us holy by his bloud And therefore the Apostle demonstrateth his preheminency above all the Priests of the Law That they were to offer for their own sinnes as well as for the sinnes of the people but so it was not with him if he had had sinne in him he could not have been our Saviour but he would have needed a Saviour himself yea Dan. 9. 24. he is called Sanctum sanctorum the Holy of holies or most holy And to this truth the Scripture speaketh clearly not onely when it saith That be knew no sinne and that no guile was found in his mouth which happily might be thought to be limited only to actual sinne but also as to the original and radical evil of mans nature that though he be a man of like nature with us yet sinne is still exempted Rom. 8. 3. He sent his own Sonne in the likenesse of sinfull flesh not in the likeness of the flesh
a different original from us will not that necessarily involve him in Adam's sinne And if it be said that the power of the Holy Ghost sanctified that corpulent mass of which Christs body did consist that may happily free him from original inherent sinne but how can it from original imputed sinne Must not Christ be said to sinne in Adam though he had no inherent defilement because he was a man yea the Scripture doth not only make him a man but calleth him the seed of David and of Abraham that he came out of their loynes and which is more Luke reckoning the genealogy of Christ by his humane nature doth carry it up to Adam making him the son of Adam and if the son of Adam how could he not but sinne in Adam by imputation though he had none by inhesion This consideration hath so much strength that Bellarmine though he is laborious to prove that the Virgin Mary was exempted from original inherent sinne that she had an immaculate conception yet be confesseth she had original imputed sinne that she sinned in Adam because she was in Adam To answer then this Objection about Christ The Arminians as you heard glory in their invention of Arminius as if he only had found out the true answer to this and not the Reformed Divines The reason saith he of Christs immunity from all sinne by Adam was because Christ had his being not by vertue of that original blessing Increase and multiply but by a special promise made after Adam's fall so that Christs being is not supposed till Adam had fallen and then upon a special promise viz. The seed of the woman to bruise the head of the Serpent Gen. 3. 15. Christ is to become man Thus Christ could not be any way included in him This hath some truth in it though the answer be not every way cogent for Isaac was born as we argued formerly by a special promise there being no possibility for his existence in a natural way yet he was born in original sinne and although to me it seemeth most consonant to Scripture that Christ would not have been made man unless Adam had fallen because the end of his coming into the flesh is said to be a Saviour and a Redeemer yet there are men of great learning that hold Christ would have been made man howsoever though Adam had stood and to such this reason would be of no great validity But it must be confessed that Christ could not be included in Adam for the Scripture maketh him a publique person and head to believers as Adam was to all men hence he is called the second Adam so that Christ was a publique person and head as well as Adam and one publique person especially in an opposite way could not be represented by another Though this be so yet we shall adhere to the Answer that is commonly given by Reformed Divines That Christ therefore was free from sinne because conceived in that miraculous manner and though he had his being in respect of his corpulent substance from the Virgin Mary yet this was materially only not by way of efficiency and any active disposition so that Christ could not be said by imputation to be in Adam seeing there was no efficient disposition in Adam's posterity to cause his humane being That is justly rejected as a fond conceit of Galatinus and others who that they might maintain the flesh of Christ to be free from sinne as well in himself as parents affirm That God did in Adam design and seperate as it were some part of his substance that it might be preserved from the law of sinne and that this was successively transmitted even to the Virgin Mary that so of it Christs more pure body might be formed of which absurdity see Ferrins Sckolastic orthodox spec cap. 21. Let us now consider this Doctrine as it is exclusive of all other of mankind only Christ we say is free all the rest born of mankind in a natural way are all over defiled with this native pollution To clear this I shall proceed by several Propositions First That the only way by which original sinne as inherent is communicated to Adaems posterity is by natural generation Not indeed by generation simply for that is by Gods institution and a good thing in its kind but by the generation of a man that is fallen and corrupt some few have thought that if Adam had not fallen Adams posterity would have been multiplyed not by generation but by some other way which is a most irrational conceit If then Adams children abiding in integrity had been by generation then thereby would have been conveyed original righteousness and an holy nature as there is now a sinful and impure nature original sinne cometh then to us by generation from sinful parents so that if God should miraculously create some men de novo make children to Abraham out of stones these would have no original sinne neither if they should beget children would original sinne be transfused to them because these would not be in Adam as a corrupt root as for such a Question What if God should make a man or woman out of the rib or shoulder or any other part of man now fallen as Eve was at first made of a rib whether such a person would have original sinne It is a question of needless curiosity and so no Answer is to be formed to it This is enough That the ordinary way and meanes whereby we become polluted in sinne is because we are begotten and born of sinful parents as David acknowledgeth Psal 51. Austin indeed limiteth it to the libidinous disposition of mankind in begetting of children he seemeth to lay the whole cause upon that but he is carried out too immoderately in that point against the Pelagians for though parents should have no sinful actual lust yet because they are sinful originally this is enough to infect their posterity and if this were so it would follow That godly parents the more sanctified and mortified they were they would have children less infected with original sinne then the children of those who are grossely wicked and unclean It is then because we are born of parents polluted by Adam that we also are polluted as for that famous Question how original sinne should be communicated to the soul of a man by generation seeing that is created we have already spoken to that The summe whereof is That though we are to conceive of the soul as pure while coming from God yet considering it in termino as the part of man who descended from Adam so it is polluted not by any physical cause for that sinne cannot have but a moral one which is the first trangression of Adam for although that hath had no being these thousand yeares yet it is not requisite that a moral cause should exist to produce its effect Because then the soul in the same instance it is created it is also united as a forme to the
original imputed sinne or of that inherent corruption which we have from our birth and both do admit of great aggravations It is true some Orthodox Writers doe deny the imputation of Adam's actual disobedience unto us as Josua Placeus who bringeth many Arguments Thes Salm. Dis de statu hominis lapsi ante gratiam but my work is not to answer them I suppose it for granted as a necessary truth Concerning Adam's sinne which is thus ours by imputation Bellarmine maketh the Question An sit gravissimum Whether it was the greatest of all sinnes And he concludeth following the Schoolmen that absolutely it is not only respectively Secundum quid in some considerations which he mentioneth Bonaventure saith It is the greatest sinne extensive not intensive But we are to judge of the hainousness of sinne as we see God doth who esteemeth of sinne without any errour Now it is certain there was never any sinne that God punisheth as he doth this The sinne indeed against the holy Ghost in respect of the object matter of it and the inseparable concomitant of unpardonablenesse is greater as to a particular person but this being the sinne of the common nature of mankind doth bring all under the curse of God So that we may on the contrary to Bellarmine say That it is absolutely the highest sinne against God but in some respects it is not I shall be brief in aggravating of that not at all touching upon the other Question which hath more curiosity in it Whether Adam's sinne or Eve's was the greatest then edification Because our proper work is to speak of original inherent sinne yet it is good to affect our souls with the great guilt thereof for some have been ready to expostulate with God Why for such a small sinne as they call it no more then eating the forbidden fruit so many millions of persons even all the posterity of mankind should thereby be made children of wrath and obnoxious to eternal damnation Doth not the Pelagian opinion that holdeth it hurteth none but Adam himself and his posterity onely if they willingly imitate him agree more with the goodnesse of God But if we do seriously consider how much evil was in this one sinne which Tertullian maketh to be a breach of the whole Law of God we will then humble our selves and acknowledge the just hand of God For First This is hainously to be aggravated from the internal qualification of the subject Adam who did thus offend was made upright created in the Image of God In his understanding he had a large measure of light and knowledge For though the Socinians would have him a meer I deot and innocent yet it may easily be evidenced to the contrary The Image of God consisteth in the perfection of the mind as well as in holiness of the other parts of the soul Neither did Elâphaz in his discourse with Job apprehend such ignorance in Adam when he saith Art thou the first man was born Wast thou made before the hils Dost thou restrain wisdom to thy self Job 15. 7 8. implying that the first man was made full of knowledge If then Adam had such pure light in his mind this made his sinne the greater yea because of this light some have proceeded so far as to make Adam's sinne the sinne against the holy Ghost but I shall not affirm that Certainly in that Adam had so great knowledge this made his offence the more evil hence because there was no ignorance in his mind nor no passions in the sensitive part at that time to disturb him his sinne was meerly and totally voluntary and the more the will is in a sinne the greater it is Hence Rom. 5. It is called expresly disobedience By one mans disobedience Yea learned men say That this was the proper specifical sinne of Adam eveâ disobedience For although disobedience be in a large sense in every sinne yet this sinne of Adams was specifically disobedience for God gave him a positive command meerly that thereby Adam should testifie his obedience to him The thing in it self was not intrinsecally evil to eat of the forbidden fruit it was sinfull only because it was forbidden and by this God would have Adam demonstrate his homage to him but in offending he became guilty in a particular way of disobedience Secondly If you consider Adam in his external condition His fin is very great God placed him in Paradise put him into a most happy condition gave him the whole world for his portion Every thing was made for his use and delight now how intolerable was Adams ingratitude for so small a matter to rebell against God Therefore the smalness of the matter of the sinne doth not diminish but aggravate he might the more easily have refused the temptation so that this unthankfulness to God must highly provoke him Thirdly The sinne was an aggregate sinne It had many grievous sins ingredient into it It was a Beelzebub sin a big-bellied sinne full of many sins in the womb of it his sinne was not alone in the external eating of the forbidden fruit but in the internal causes that made him do so There was unbelief which was the foundation of all the other sinfulness he believeth the Devil rather then God There was pride and ambition He desired to be like God There was apostasie from God and communion with him There was the love of the creature more than of God and thereby there was the hatred of God Thus it was unum malum in quo omnia mala as God is unumbonum in quo omnia bona Lastly Not to insist on this because formerly spoken to There was the unspeakable hurt and damage which hereby he brought to his posterity Not to mention the curse upon the ground and every creature The damning of all his posterity in soul and body it the grace of God did not interpose It cannot be rationally conceived but that Adam knew he was a publique person that he was acquainted upon what terms he stood in reference to his posterity That the threatning did belong to all his as well as himself if he did eat of the forbidden fruit Now for Adam to be a murderer of so many souls and bodies to be the cause of temporal spiritual and eternal death to all mankind who can acknowledge but that this sinne is out of measure sinfull ¶ 2. The Aggravation of Original Sinne inherent in us OUr next work is to consider the aggravation of original sinne inherent in us and this is our duty to do that so being sensible of our own contagion we may not flatter our selves in the power of our free-will but fly alone to Christ who is a Phisitian and Saviour even to Infants as well as grown men and the rather we are to be serious and diligent in this because of all those prophane opinions which do either wholly deny it or in a great measure extenuate it Some Papists make it less then a venial sinne and many
in the world as there are men and women yet in one man or one woman there is but one original sinne Thus David Psal 51. 5. confessed his particular birth-sinne not that it was his case alone not that any other ought not say so as well as David but because this consideration doth most humble and affect a man for what is it to hear that in the general there is such a thing as original sinne unless a man make particular application to himself unless he bring it home to his own heart unless he cry out Ah wretched and undone sinner I even I am the man that am thus born in sinne even though there were no other men in the world yet I should be by nature the child of wrath And truly this is one reason of our large discoursing upon this point that you might at last bring this coal of fire as it were into your bosome to kindle there not only to think of the undone estate of mankind in the general but to think this is true of thee I am the man of whom all this evil is spoken Believe thy self to be such a Toad such a Devil Hearken to the Word more then to these flattering and soothing suggestions which thy own deluded heart or corrupt teachers may obtrude upon thee Secondly That although this original sinne be commonly called the sinne of the nature yet that is not to be so understood as if it were not also existent in the person and so a personal sinne Catharinus Opusc casu hominis confesseth he doth not understand how original sinne can be called the sinne of the nature for the nature is an abstract and it is a Chymerical sigment to say an universal nature is capable of sinne because Actiones sunt suppositorum and the late known Enemy to this truth doth as it were triumph in his Arguments against this expression when it is called The sinne of our Nature Further Explicat of the Doctrine of Orig. pag. 493. For while he is wresting and wrecking the miserable 9th Article of the Church of England adding and detracting Procrustus-like to make it commensurate to his prepossessed imagination although he should remember that according to the Civil Law no credit is to be given to confessions extorted upon the rack he positively dictates that sin is an affection of persons not of natures The humane nature cannot be said to be drunk or commit adultery Actiones sunt suppositorum and sin is a breach of the Law to which persons not natures are obliged This Argument I remember is urged also by some against Christs obedience that the Law did not bind his humane nature because it was not a person and therefore the command did not reach to him as he was man to do this or that But the answer is very obvious That although the Law doth immediately bind the persons yet mediately it doth also the nature Who can deny but that the Law to love God though immediately it be commanding the person Thou shalt love the Lord c yet thereby the soul of a man is also reached unto so that hatred of God in the soul as it is there inherent is forbidden mediately Otherwise there could be no habitual sins or graces because the command or threatning did no wayes reach to them In the next place to our purpose in hand concerning original sinne it is ignorantly objected That Actiones sunt suppositorum For we doe not say Original sinne is an action it is in the nature of habits So that this ariseth from a gross mistake That a child doth actually sinne in partaking of this nature-defilement We say it doth contrahere peccatum or receive this pollution with its nature not that it doth actually sinne in the reception of it But then 3. When it 's called the sinne of our nature it is not meant as if this nature did universally exist any where that indeed would be a meer Chimera or as if mans nature were any where but in a person But that wheresoever the nature of a man is any where subsistent in individuums there is also this corruption Even visibility and mortality are the universal properties of the nature of man There is no man but hath these affections So also is original sinne thus inseparably annexed to the nature of man wheresoever it doth particularly subsist To this purpose Julius Sirenius a Scholastical Writer Promptu Theolog. lib. 20. 22. When we say Original sinne is a siane of the humane nature Non ita velim intelligas quasi naturae per se considerata actio aliqua convenire possit c. do not understand it as if any action could agree to nature considered in it self for not the action which is of the suppositum but the modus agendi belongeth the nature existent in the suppositum for sin is not an action but the mode or rather the defect of the mode in an action The Sum is this A man is born thus in sin not because he is this or that person but because he is a man descending from lapsed Adam So that by this we see that it is the sin of our nature and yet so as it is the sin of every person new born but we are necessitated to call it the sin of our corrupt nature to distinguish it from all actual and habitual sinnes which are the sinnes of one person that they are not necessarily the sinnes of others Every man is not necessarily a proud man an unclean man but every one is thus a defiled man destite of the Image of God only this must alwayes be remembred That it is not our nature-sinne as we had it from Creation but as vitiated by Adam's voluntary transgression and if he would put it in the definition of man that he was animal rationale mortale we may adde ad peccata prenum prone and inclming to sinne for we must consider man otherwise in Divinity and by Scripture-light then we do in Philosphy Hence to be a man or to walk as a man in Scripture-phrase sometimes is to be sinfull and to do a thin sinfully You see then that upon good grounds original sinne is called the sinne of our natures and that as in actual sinnes the person doth defile the nature So on the contrary in original sinne the nature defileth the person for the humane species was in Adam as we say the whole species of the Sunne is in the Sunne though with some dissimilitude Hence it is that according to the Exposition of some learned men it is called The sinne of the world not my sinne or thy sinne but the sinne of the world John 1. 29. For this Rule is given that wheresoever ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is used with the emphatical Article in the Singular number as in this place there we must alwayes understand original sinne but perhaps that is no more true then another Rule viz. where the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã hath the Article ãâã
in every one by nature to what is good To consider this more throughly we are to take notice that original sinne doth not lye in a man asleep or like a sluggish and muddy pool that doth not send forth its noisome streames but by the Apostle Rom. 7. is described as a sinne that is alwayes acting and rebelling against the Law of God and therefore as soon as ever a child is capable of such sinfull actings this original sinne doth put forth it self it is not to be limited to yeares of discretion but even in the childhood of man much folly and vanity many actual motions of sinne do put forth themselves It 's often said by Divines that original sinne is peccatum actuosum though not actuale an active sinne though not an actual and this should make us look back to our very childhood and to mourn for all that folly and vanity we then committed How quickly did thy enmity to holy things begin to appear What a wild Asses Colt or what a young Serpent wast thou plainly manifesting that as thy parts of mind and strength of body should encrease so also would thy corruption break forth more powerfully But of this childhood-sinfulness more is to be spoken SECT V. How soon a Child may commit actual Sinne. WE are treating upon the second part of the Doctrine which is That the proper original sinne that is in every man doth break forth into actual evil betimes From the youth The word is observed by learned men to be used in the Plural number for Emphasis sake and therefore is not to be limited to such a time as when one cometh to years of discretion but even to our childhood therefore the Hebrew word is used of Infants as Moses Exod. 2. 6. and Sampson Jud. 13. 5. although we deny not but that it is also in Scripture applyed to those that are grown up Hence Divines have a Rule Secundum Hebraorum idioma Infans vocatur emnis filius ad comparationem parentum according to the Hebrew custome every son is called an Infant comparatively to his parents and happily we may adde a Disciple and servant respectly to their Superiours This word Obadiah applyeth to himself 1 Kings 18. 12. Thy servant feareth God from his youth This time then of sinning is to be extended further then usually it is imagined for commonly we look not upon the actions of young ones as sinnes till they come to some discretion or if we do we count them very little and venial they are matter of delight more then of humiliation so few are there who do rightly affect themselves with the vanity and folly as also enmity to holy things that they were guilty of even while little children But because this truth hath some difficulty in the doctrinal part thereof let us more exactly enquire into the nature of it which will be seen in several Propositions And First The Lutherans have a peculiar opinion that even Infants whether in the mothers womb or new born are guilty of actual sinnes for whereas they make the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Steg Photin dis de peccato Orig. Fewrborn disput 1a. to be applyed sometimes to the Infant in the womb Luk. 1. 41. sometimes to Infants new born 1 Pet. 2. 2. They conclude that even such as these before they have any use of reason are guilty of actual sinnes only concerning actual sinnes they distinguish that such are either taken strictly and precisely for those that came from deliberation and the will or largely for any motions or stirrings of the soul against Gods Law though without the act of will and reason and in this latter sense they say Infants partake of actual sinnes But although original sinne is an active quality in a man and doth begin to work very early yet it cannot be thought to produce actual sinne till the soul by its powers and faculties is able to produce operatins It is true we read of Timothy that he is said to know the Scriptures from ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but that doth signifie Timothy something grown up and attaining to some understanding for the Lutherans are too peremptory who think a place cannot be brought where ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã doth signifie a child something grown up Timothy therefore is said 2 Tim. 35. To know the Scriptures from a child because his godly Mother and Grandmother did as soon as he was able to receive instruct him in the faith which could not be while a meer Infant Therefore In the next place A second Proposition is That even in the state of integrity had not Adam fallen children new born would have been without actual knowledge as well as in corrupted nature they would not have been born with perfect use of their reason no more then they would have been born with perfect and compleat bodies for such could not have been contained in the womb We take it for granted though some have been for the negative that in the state of innocency there would have been multiplication of children by generation which appeareth in the Creation of a woman for a man and if so then that the children at that time born though they would have been free from original sinne and all the general effects thereof yet would not have been born in a perfect ability actually to use their reason Indeed the Scripture is wholly silent what would have been done if man had not fallen and therefore nothing can be certainly determined unless we had some divine revelation about it yet there is a good Rule given that we must think God would then keep to that ordinary way of nature which we now find except where sinne and the effects thereof have made a difference we are not to make miracles and extraordinary workings of God unless some necessity of reason compell thereunto and thus it would be here if children new born should have had perfect actual knowledge It is true Austin doth seem to incline Vide Augustin de peccator Mer. Rmeist lib. 1. cap. 35 36. especially cap. 37. that as soon as ever the children were come forth from the womb God would have made them great and perfect bodies as he did Eve of Adam's rib immediately or at least made them fit for all motions of the body but this is so improbable that Austin cannot be excused unless we think he spake it doubtingly and by way of inquisition yea not only concerning the body but even the soul also that a child is so long without the use of reason he seemeth to make it not from meer nature but vitiated and polluted This we say hath no probability for we must not think that God would have alwayes in the state of innocency wrought miraculously in the constant propagation of mankind It is true the blindness that is habitually upon the mind of every Infant whereby it is indisposed to receive the Truths of God when grown up would not then have been in Infants There
would not have been any privation of such light as was necessary but it would have been meer nesciency and so no sinne and therefore such a nesciency was in Christs humane nature while and Infant Luk. 2. 52. He encreased in wisdome and stature as also Isa 7. 15. Butter and honey shall be eat that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good that is he should eat on childrens usuall food till he did encrease in knowledge but all this was without sinne This Proposition may satisfie that Infants cannot have any actual sinne while meerly so because the want of use of reason in them is no sinfull imperfection neither are they under the commands of God to beleive and know him as also to love him with all their soul Therefore it is absurd in the Lutherans to say that these commands of actual knowledge fear or love do bind them while thus under a natural nesciency that floweth from their very nature as nature not as vitiated and defiled Prop. 3. The reason why Infants have not the actual use of reason as soon as they are born ariseth not from their soult but the constitution of their bodies As in natural fools mad men or men in sleep there is no defect in their souls but in the body which is the organical instrument of the soul Therefore when Infants die as soon as ever their souls are seperated from the body they have perfect knowledge and reason but the want of the use of reason ariseth from the abundance and overflowing of humours whereby the sensitive powers of the soul are make indisposed for their operations Prop. 4. Seeing therefore that the soul cometh to work rationally by the successive alteration of the complexion of the body as the organs are disposed which in some is sooner in some later it is impossible to give not only the metaphysical indivisible instant but even the moral time wherein a child doth first begin to have an actual sinne As we cannot observe it in our selves when we first had any use of reason so neither can we in another and therefore the limiting of the works of understanding to the fourth sixth or seven years is altogether uncertain only we are to conclude That children sinne long before they know what sinne is or can understand what it is to offend God for those peevish ãâã vexations which are in little ones even while sucking are not to be freed ãâã some kind of guilt for such things would not have been in the state of innocentâ And if you say Why should we think those are sins seeing they do not flew from the use of reason and free-will Therefore The fifth Proposition is That contrariety to the Law of God is of the essence of a sinne not voluntariness in actu secundo as they say as if immediately elicited by the will For habitual sins are not voluntary in that but because they are the effect produced by voluntary acts of sinning that did precede therefore they have as much voluntariness as is required to make an habitual sinne and thus original sinne with the immediate effects that flow thence have as much voluntarness as is required to make them sinnes for as habitual sinnes are therefore sins because contracted by our own personal will so original sinne is voluntary because descending upon as by his will who was our Head both quoad esse naturale and morale as it is in time more to be explained Therefore that Position of Socinians and others That nothing can be a sinne which is not committed by the voluntary consent of our own personal will is to be rejected as that false foundation upon which they build so many erroneous Doctrines The sixth Proposition is That even young children very early have imperfect workings of understanding and will So that those obscure actings of a rational soul begin farre sooner to put themselves forth then many do think Hence it is that they know and love those that give them suck we must then consider that there are imperfect workings of reason and perfect formed ones These later indeed are not so soon but the former are very early Lapide in Psal 25. speaketh out of Gregory of a child but five year old guilty of blasphemy And certainly Austin in his Confessions doth much bewail his sins while he was a child he was but tantillus puer yet tantus peccator a little boy but a great sinner This truth is very usefull not only to confute Pelagiant and Socinians who make in a child an indifferency to good or evil or with Aristotle a blank table to receive any impression but especially to quicken up Parents to their duty in diligent admonition and institution of them For Solamon wiser than any Pelagian saith Prov. 22. 15. Folly is bound up in the heart of a child The word signifieth is close bound to his soul as if it were with ropes Now if besides this natural folly there be wicked education and evil example this will be such a three-fold cord that will not easily be broken Oh then do not think it is no matter what children do their sins are but sports and jests you will not have them displeased or corrected for this is contrary also to Solomon's counsel Prov. 22. 5. Train up a child in the way he should go c. Some render it dedicate some instruct it cometh all to one sense but who must be thus trained Even a child in the Hebrew it is Gnal pene super es viae which causeth divers Interpretations Some understand it of the very first beginnings of a childs course when he in bivio whether he shall take to virtue or vice Some for the very time that any entrance can be made upon them for children are to learn many things by meer memory before they have understanding neither is that though in holy things a taking of Gods name in vain but a serving of God according to their capacity Some understand it according to the capacity of the child as a vessel with a narrow mouth must have liquour poured into it by degrees all these senses tend to the same purpose viz. that Parents should not put off the instruction of their children or to think because they are children therefore their sins are not to be much regarded for you have Job sharply bewailing these Job 13. 23. What were those iniquities for which God did so severely chastice Job Why did God write such bitter things against him it was because of the sins of his youth the same word in the Text And Psal 25. 7. David in great affection prayeth God would not remember the sins of his youth the same word also in the original as is in my Text And certainly we have a dreadfull example of Gods anger even against the sins of little children 2 King 2. 23. for such came out of the City and mocked the Prophet saying Go up thou bald head and there presently came two she-bears
that did tare in pieces two and fourty of them They were but little children and you would think none would regard what they said but behold the heavy judgement of God upon them Therefore let Parents be more deeply affected with the lies and sinfulness of their children then commonly they are The wicked man is said Job 20. 11. to have his bones full of his puerilities or as we translate it the sinne of his youth because sinne acted in the youth doth cleave more inseperably then other sins even as he who had been possessed with a Devil from his youth was more difficultly cured therefore the Text addeth Those sins lie down in the dust with him Thy youth-sins will go to the grave with thee if grace make not a powerfull change SECT VI. Whether Original Sinne be alike in All. THe last thing to be treated on is to answer that Question Whether original sinne be alike in all Do we not see some even from the very womb more propense to iniquities then others And if it be equal in all Why should not all be carried out to the same sins alike Why is not every one a Cain a Judas To this we answer these things 1. If we take original sinne for the privative part of it viz. the want of Gods Image so all are alike Every one hath equally lost this glorious Image of God none hath any more left of it in them then another Even as it is concerning those that are damned in hell They are all equal in their punishment in respect of the poena damni they lose the presence of the same God and are all alike cast out from his presence but there is a difference in respect of the poena sensus some have greater torments then others 2. Original sinne is alike in all in the positive part if you do respect the remote power of sinne that is there is in all equally an habitual conversion to the creature Even as all have the same remote power of dying alike though for the proxim power some die sooner and some later The seed then of all evil is alike in all all are equal in respect of the remote power of sinning 3. By original depravation all are alike in respect of the necessity of sinning There is no man in this lost estate but he doth necessarily sinne quoad specificationem as they say whatsoever he doth he sinneth though not quoad exercitium this sinne or that sinne one is more ingaged unto then another Neither is this necessity of sinning like the necessity of hunger and thirst for these are meer natural and not culpable but this necessity of sinning is voluntarily brought upon us and though it be necessary yet is voluntary and with delight also As Bernard expresseth it The voluntariness taketh not off from the necessity nor the necessity from the voluntariness and delight Lastly Original sinne is equal in all in respect of the merit and desert it deserveth death it deserveth hell There is none cometh into the world thus polluted but he is obnoxious to death and an heir of Gods wrath For although some are freed from hell yea and one or two have been preserved from death yet is wholly by the grace of God The desert of original sin is equal in all But then you will say How cometh it about that some are more viciously given then others some more propense to one sinne then another I answer 1. From the different complexions and constitutions of the body with their different temptations and external occasions of sinne as they meet with Though the remote power be equal in all yet the immediate and proxim disposition is the bodies complexion and other concurring circumstances For original righteousness being removed then a man is carried out to sinne violently according as his particular torrent may drive him Even as if the pillars or supporters of an house should fall to the ground every piece of wood would fall to the ground more heavily or lightly as the weight is or as you heard Aquinas his similitude when the mixt body is dissolved every element hath his proper motion the air ascends upward the earth downwards and this is the cause of the divers sins in the world and some mens particular inclinations to one sinne more than another And then 2. The grace of God either sanctifying or restraining doth also make a great difference It is God that saith to the sea of that corruption within thee Hitherto thou shalt go and no further Think not that thou hadst a better nature or lesse original sinne than Judas or Cain but God doth either change thy nature or else he doth several wayes restrain thee that thou canst not accomplish all that actual wickedness thy heart would carry thee unto CHAP. X. A Justification of Gods shutting up all under Sinne for the Sinne of Adam in the sense of all the Reformed Churches against the Exceptions of Dr J. T. and others SECT I. GAL. 3. 24. But the Scripture hath concluded all under sinne that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe THe Apostle having made an Objection against himself vers 21. Is the Law then against the promises of God He answereth it 1. With a detestation God forbid 2. He sheweth wherein the Law is so farre from being contrary that it is subservient to the Gospel Only we must distinguish of the use of the Law which is per se and which is per accidens The use of the Law per se is to give eternal life to such who have a perfect conformity thereunto but per accidens when it meeteth with lapsed man who must needs be cursed by it because he is so farre from continuing in all the duties thereof that he is not able to fulfill perfectly one iota or tittle thereof therefore it provoketh us to seek out for a Saviour as a man arrested for debt enquireth for some friend or surety to deliver him Now this subservient use of the Law is expressed in the Text mentioned wherein you have the condition of mankind declared viz. That they are shut up under sinne 2. The Universality All. 3. The Cause appointing and declaring of this The Scripture 4. The final Cause That the promise c. Let us briefly open the particulars And First The Condition of man is said to be shut up under sinne or concluded it is a Metaphor from those malefactors that are shut up in a prison and cannot come forth So that the word implieth partly the condemnation that is upon all mankind and partly the impossibility to escape it and then whereas it is said under sinne that denoteth both the guilt of it and the dominion of it and that both original sinne and actual for both are comprehended herein else Infants would be excluded from having an interest in Christ for whosoever are brought to Christ are necessarily supposed to be in a state of sinne Hence In the
their accounts and upon exact consideration do conclude this is the summe But what is that he hath proved even that all are under sinne not only actual for many were not guilty of those actual sinnes he enumerateth but under a state of sinne they could not avoid it because of the corrupt nature they bring with them into the world Therefore Contzer the Jesuite Comment in Rom. cap. 3. Quaest 3. making this Question How the Apostle could affirm those following sins reckoned by the Apostle of all men after he had given several interpretations concludeth that that is the best exposition and most consonant to the Text as also the scope of the Apostle and most apt to resell heresies which understandeth it of all men in respect of their nature and originals and by their works are made more sinfull for seeing all are under original sinne and by nature children of wrath when by age they can actually sinne they stirre up this hereditary evil in them That there is none righteous neither the Jew by the Mosaical Law nor the Gentile by the Heathen Law Thus even a Jesuite which may exceedingly shame our Britannus Coluber as Pelagius of old was called and may be transmitted to such who are guilty of Pelagius his errour by imitation Now that this Exposition given is most consonant to the Apostles scope is plain because if he did not so conclude by his Disputation That every one naturally not one excepted was thus under sinne then such exempted ones would not need justification by Christ Therefore observe at vers 19. how universally he expresseth himself That every mouth might be stopped It is taken from a guilty malefactor whose faults are so evidently proved that he cannot tell what to say he is condemned in his own conscience and thus ought every one to be partly by Scripture and partly by experience so fully convinced of his native-pollution and sinfulness that he cannot in the least manner boast of himself attribute any thing to his own power or complain of God The Metaphor is either from a beast that hath a muzzle or bridle put in his mouth or as Chrysostom from the torrent and streams of water which running violently are damned up And this denoteth how readily and impetuously a man is carried out to justifie himself to deny any such original pollution to quarrel and expostulate with God So that this being Gods end in suffering mankind to fall into this condemned estate even to stop mens mouths to convince them to humble them How inexcusable are those who from this very dispensation do take occasion to open their mouths and to plead the more pertinaciously for themselves The other general expression is no lesse observable That all the world may become guilty before God Oh the impudence of those fore-heads that dare plead not guilty as to a considerable part of the world But this of the Apostle is a very thunderbolt for the expression is taken from the malefactor who is found guilty and so lieth at the mercy of the Judge If he looketh upon his own demerits he can expect nothing but condemnation How happy were it if such who abound in Disputations for mans innocency by nature would at last turn it into holy accusations confesse themselves guilty justifie God and go out of themselves for if they be any of this world they must acknowledge themselves in this guilt which is not only actual but original also Hence at vers 23. All are said to come short of the glory of God By the glory of God some mean Eternal life the glory God will bestow upon us The word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is taken from those who runne in a race and fall short of the victory being left behind by those who out-runne them and this word signifieth how that men while by their natural strength they labour and runne and weary themselves expecting to obtain happiness all is but in vain for they fall short of glory Others understand it of grace which is glory begun every man by nature is destitute of grace Some understand it of glorying No man hath occasion to glory before God because he is wholly corrupt Others of God himself for with the Jews God is called Haccaved the glory Lastly Some of that Image of God in which man was created All these Interpretations do necessarily suppose one another and therefore by it is plainly demonstrated the sinfull wretched and impotent condition that every man is born in Another passage taking notice of this proceeding of God to suffer all men to become in a guilty estate that way thereby may be made for the advancement of his grace is Rom. 11. 32. where the Apostle treating of that sublime and high mystery why God did break off the natural branches for their unbelief and graft in others he saith God hath shut up all under unbelief that be might have mercy on all This indeed doth directly and chiefly speak of actual sinne therefore it is called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã unbelief or disobedience yet indirectly and by consequence there is supposed the bitter root of this rebellion which is both in Jew and Gentile now the Apostle saith God shut up all in this or into this for it is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Greek word implieth That God hath shut them up all together As if a Judge should shut up many malefactors together in a dark dungeon and because the Apostle is speaking of a very great mystery herein why God should by his free grace deliver some out of this prison and leave others therin we see how pathetically and powerfully he breaketh out into a divine acclamation concerning the incomprehensible judgements and ways of God as being that only which may silence all our humane reasonings in these cases There being no more certain way to become foolish and corrupt in our imaginations then when we do presumptuously adventure to judge of Gods proceedings according to our limited capacities for as it is with a man that shall fix his eyes too much upon the dazeling Sunne he is so farre from beholding the nature of it that he doth rather lose that ability to see which he had before Thus when men will too arrogantly dive into the reasons of Gods dispensations towards mankind he is so farre from getting a full knowledge thereof that many times for his pride he is left by God and those abilities which he had before are blasted Let us therefore with the Apostle in matters of this nature say How unsearchable are his judgements and his wayes past finding out ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a Metaphor from those subtil beasts that leave ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã no footsteps if possibly they can that so they may not be found out In this point therefore concerning original sinne content thy self with the revelation of the Doctrine that it is so and conclude there is no iniquity or injustice with God though this transcend thy investigation of it For
presumptuous opinion I may insist upon one for all Psal 14. 2. The Lord locked down from Heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand And vers 3. There is none that doth good no not one Think not that this is spoken of the Jews only it is spoken of all mankind God looked down upon the children of men and not on Judea only So that this sext is too true and all ages can give in their witness to it The Doctrinal Truth we are treating of is That man being by nature filthy and sinfull is thereby carried out with all inclination and delight to sinne Sinne is as sweet and as pleasant to a man by nature as water to a man scorched with thirst This expression is very emphatical it is usual with the Scripture to apply the Metaphor from corporeal hunger and thirst to the soul Hence Christ is compared both to bread and water and wine and saith in the workings thereof is compared to eating and drinking of him yea the graces of the soul whereby we are carried out intensively to holy things is compared to hunger and thirst Matth. 5. 6 Hence our Saviour to expresse his delight in doing of Gods will saith It is his meat to do the will of him that sent him John 4. 34. Thus then as the godly have a principle of grace within them whereby they hunger and thirst after more enjoyment of God so there is in a natural man a constant vehement appetite to sinne never being satisfied but in obeying the lusts thereof This propensity to sinne is here expressed by thirst provoking a man to drink with delight and abundantly you have the like expression used Job 34. 7. What man is like Job who drinketh scorning like water that is he delighteth in it he doth it easily he findeth no reluctancy nor remorse upon his coââââence SECT II. How much is implied in this Metaphor Man drinketh iniquity like water TO illustrate this Let us consider first how much is implied in the Metaphor that the Text here useth Man drinketh iniquity like water And First Here is denoted a vehement and violent appetite to sinne Thirst if extream is intollerable some say worse then hunger Hence Samson cried out of his thirst though so strong a man he was not able to bear it and Christ himself while upon the Crosse complained of no pain only said I thirst which denoteth the impetuousness of this appetite It is usually defined to be appetitus humidi frigidi an appetite of that which is moist and cold as hunger is calidi sicci of that which is hot and dry But the learned Vossius De Theol. Genili lib. 3. pag. 104. thinketh this definition though given by Aristrotle ought to be corrected because hungry men sometimes desire cold things to eat and thirstly sometimes hot things to drink Therefore he thinketh it more exact to define hunger an appetite humidi pinguis of that which is moist but nourishing and thirst humids aquei of that which is moist but meerly so For by satisfying of our thirst we are not properly nourished only thereby the meat we eat is disposed better to nourishment so that thereby the parts of the body which were dried are watered and the food more easily conveyed to its proper places yea he will not have hunger or thirst to be an appetite but a grief or dolor arising from the sense of feeling which is in the stomack though he granteth an appetite to follow this grief Howsoever this be in Philosophy yet we see thirst is an appetite or hath it necessarily following it There is also a kind of pain and grief whereby every part that is needy calleth for relief and thus it is in man by nature he being destitute of the Image of God and finding no happiness in him doth earnestly crave for some relief from the creatures he thirsteth after the pleasures and profits which are for bidden by Gods Words and thereupon his whole endeavour and study is to fulfill the lusts of this sinfull inclination within him That which is said of some particular sinners as to some lusts only Ephes 4. 19. They have given themselves to work at uncleanesse with greedinesse As also Jer. 8. 6. Every one turneth to his course viz. of wickednesse as the horse rusheth into the battel is true of all men naturally in respect of some sinne or other It is true those mentioned in these Texts had besides their natural inclination superadded inveterate and habituated customs in impiety and so they had their first and second nature also hurrying them away but yet the pollution of our nature alone is enough thus to precipitate us headlong into every evil way Do thou then consider thy self more and be acquainted with this pollution upon thee Oh what a drought is upon thy soul What vehement provocations from within to be continually doing that which is evil Secodly From this vehement inclination thus to sinne there is a restlesnesse and disquietnesse in us till we be satisfied we rage and oppose all those who will not give us to drink of this water How discontented are men at those means and wayes which God hath appointed to prevent sinne They love not the Law of God they love not the Word of God because it is holy and threatneth sinne They love not a faithfull and powerfull Ministry because ãâã work is against sinne They cannot endure the holy Orders and Disciplââ ãâã hath appointed in his Church because against sinne And why is all this but because there is a thirst within a scorching heat after it and therefore cannot endure to be hinred from the satisfying of it Thus by this means a man is put into a miserable perplexity if he doth not sinne he is mad and rageth and if he doth sinne he is miserable and undone As one in a Dropsie if he doth not drink he cannot bear it and if he doth he thereby increaseth his danger Thus every man is a miserable restlesse creature by nature wretched if he doth not sinne and wretched much more if he doth sinne what misery it is to have a scorching heat within a man and to have nothing to cool is parabolically represented by our Saviour in Divies while in hell Luke 16. 24. who desired Abraham to send Lazarus that he might dip his finger in water and cool his tongue though it were but a drop of water he was glad of it Thus it is proportionably with every man by nature having a vehement appetite to sinne and therefore much disquieted till they do accomplish it We read of a terrible judgement God brought upon the Isralites while in the wilderness Deut. 8. 15 which was by fiery Serpents that did sling them The Hebrew word for a Serpent signifieth thirst to which also the Greek name ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã doth answer they are called so because upon the stinging of a man he hath immediately such an inflammation
as a truth to stick in our mind alwayes That God will bring every work unto judgement and thus much for his first reason His second reason is no less nocent The cause of iniquity is not because nature is originally corrupted but because Gods Lawes command such things which are a restraint to the indifferent and otherwise lawfull inclinations of nature Idem ibidem pag. 415 so that our unwillingness and averseness cometh by occasion of the law coming cross upon our nature not because our nature is contrary to God but because God was pleased to superinduce some Commandments contrary to our nature if God had commanded as to eat the best meats and drink the richest wines as long as they could please us I suppose original sinne would not be thought to have hindered us from obedience Thus he in a most prophane and unsavoury manner For First Here again God is made the occasion of all the universal impiety in mankind man may plead my nature is good my inclinations are lawfull but God hath superinduced austere commands he maketh those things sinnes which would not have been sinnes Thus this man doth directly teach the world to lay all their wickedness upon God he is an hard master he is too severe otherwise our natures would do well enough But Secondly He betrayeth much ignorance or concealeth his knowledge that he will not distinguish between moral precepts and meer positive ones or as Whitaker out of Hugo Pracepta Naturae and Praecepta Disciplinae De pecato orig lib. 1. cap. 14. commands of Natural Duties and prohibitions of Intrinsecal evils or such as are meerly Positive and for Discipline-sake Some things we grant are indeed meerly evil because prohibited some things are evil and therefore prohibited Although this must be remembred That a man doth never break a positive command but thereby also he doth a moral command likewise Now let this Patron of Nature answer to this Question Why is there in man-kind such inclinations to those sins that are morally and intrinsically evil Is he of that opinion that nothing is good or evil internally But as Mayro the Schoolman saith God might have made a Law that whosoever should praise him should be damned and whosoever should dishonour him should be saved On monstrous Divinity that maketh virtue and vice nothing in it self If God had pleased vices might have been virtues and virtues vices It is from God that maketh such things to be sins that otherwise would be lawfull This symbolizeth with Diagoras the Atheist first called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and afterwards ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for his opinion was That a wise man might as time served give himself to theft or adultery ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Hesych de viris illustribus Titulo ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for none of such things were in their nature filthy if you take away popular opinions But I will not charge this opinion on the Author only he should not have spoken so confusedly If this be true it is not a vain wish with him who addicted to a sinne cryed out Vtinam hoc non esset peccare Lastly Even those inclinations that are in men to lawfull things are vitiated and corrupted No man desireth to eat to drink no man desireth health or wealth naturally as he ought to do I doubt this Author as all the Pelagians formerly do not attend to the exactnesse of a good work They forget Austin's old Rule grounded upon Scripture That duties are to be esteemed not by the acts but by their ends Is there any man eateth or drinketh or inclineth to do these things for the glory of God as we are commanded 1 Cor. 9. 31. Lastly He runneth to evil examples the similitude of Adams transgression as if that moved those to sinne who happily never heard of him errour false principles c. And from the enumeration of many particulars applieth that of Job Chap. 14. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean which Text might justly have affrighted him in what he delivereth for there Job speaks of one in his very first birth and as is added Ne infans unius diei not an Infant a day old is free from this uncleannesse What can evil examples and wicked customs do to pollute a child new born It is true the Socinians grant That where parents are habituated in evil customs the children may derive from them an inclination also unto sinne But if so then this very thing will puzzle them as much as they endeavour to perplex the Orthodox with difficulties about the transmission of original sinne For How do Parents accustomed to sinne convey this evil disposition either by the soul or by the body And what they would answer themselves in such an asserted propagation the same we may for all mankind in general But 2. This is no sufficient answer for still the Question is not satisfied Men say they are thus inclinded to evil because of wicked customs and examples But how came these customs Cain had no example before him of murder yet he committeth it These evill examples then and wicked customs seeing they must have an original to come from it cannot be any thing else but the depraved nature of mankind And certainly the Apostle James doth attribute all evil committed to that lust which is within a man Jam. 1. 14. So that if there were no other occasion or temptation this is enough to set the whole course of the soul on fire And this is the next particular to be considered which I shall handle as a second Immediate Effect of original sinne CHAP. II. The second Immediate Effect of Original Sinne is the Causality which it hath in respect of all other Sinnes SECT I. The Text explained setting forth the Generation of Sinne. JAM 1. 14. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed THe next Immediate Effect of Original sinne which cometh under consideration is The Causality that it hath in respect of all other sins This is the dunghill in which the whole serpentine brood of all actual sinnes is conveived and brought forth Insomuch that when you see all the abominable impieties that fill the whole world with irreligion to God and injustice to man If you ask whence ariseth this monster How cometh all this wickedness to be committed The Answer is easie from that original concupiscence that hot Aetna which is in a man that never ceaseth from sending forth such continual flames of iniquity Now this truth will excellently be discovered from the Text in hand for it is the Apostles scope in this and the adjacent verses to take off all men from that wicked way they are so prone unto viz. to lay the blame of their iniquities and to ascribe the cause of them to any yea to God rather than to themselves They will rather make God then themselves the Author of all that evil they do commit We have this from Adam who
nature worketh and when the Devil doth only assault and annoy us But that is not my business now It is enough to know That even from thy own unsanctified heart may arise vain thoughts blasphemous thoughts So that thy soul seemeth unto thee to be not only like a dunghill but an hell it self To these evil stirrings of sinne in the apprehensive part we may referre our sinful dreames even for them God might damn us Austin bewaileth and confesseth his dreames and yet our understanding and will do not so properly work at that time The other sort of workings of soul are such as are by way of love and desire when there arise in the heart some motions and affections to such an object Our hearts being now wholly destitute of the Image of God and sinne having full dominion over us no sooner doth any sinful object present it self but immediately the heart maketh towards it there is a propensity to embrace it Secondly These motions that do thus stirre in the heart are either such as they call motus primo primi or secundo primi the absolute meer first or first in a secondary order There may be difference in the explaining of these but the summe is this These motions are either such which do rise up in our hearts antecedently to any actings of the reason or will at all It was not in our power to repress them or to prevent them for original sin in a man doth not lie sluggish and bound up it is alwayes acting and moving and the immediate motions or first born of the soul are these first stirrings of heart preventing all deliberation and consultation Such a state indeed Adam was not created in nothing did rise up in him before his will and consent and so it was also with Christ But since we are plunged into this corrupt condition sinne hath got the whole mastery over us we are in a Babel and spiritual confusion Every sinful lust riseth in us before we have time to withstand it although if we had time such is our impotency and corruption now that we neither can or will gainsay the torrent of these motions It is true the Papists say they are no sinnes they are matter of exercise to us but they are not sinnes if not consented unto But the Apostle Rom. 7. doth often call them so and they are such as are contrary to the Law of God they are such as make a godly man groan under them and judge himself miserable thereby they are such as are to be crucified and mortified all which shew they have the true and proper nature of sinne So that it is a wonder those should deny these indeliberate motions to be sinne who hold original sinne to be properly and not equivocally a sinne For as it is enough to make original sinne voluntary because it is voluntarium voluntate ejus à quo not in quo est with the will of Adam from whence it descendeth though not with the will of him in which it inhereth Thus also it may be said of these involuntary motions they are of the same nature with original sinne For though they be actual yet flowing necessarily from the mother sinne and being withall a privation of that righteousness which ought to be in us they must be called sinnes as well as original And thus farre Henricus the Schooleman proceedeth as Vasquez alledgeth him Tom. 10. disput 106. to say That these first motions in persons not baptized are sinnes and that they want not such a voluntariness as is requisite to the nature of sinne partly because of the will of the first parents and partly because of the proper will of the man who hath them not because he doth not hinder these motions because he cannot alwayes do this but because he will not by baptisme be expiated from original sinne and consequently from the guilt of these sinnes This later reason we matter not the former hath good strength and is the same in effect with what we say Oh then that we were rightly considering of these things Those millions of thoughts and stirrings of heart which arise before reason and will are able to do any thing these are all sinnes these are contrary to the holy Law of God Adam had them not neither shall the glorified Saints in heaven be in the least manner molested with them How low and debased must thou be in thy own eyes For this it is that the godly go bowed down for this they mourn and pray these afflict them more then gross loathsome sinnes do prophane men the meer civil and formal man the self-righteous and confident man he knoweth none of these things he feeleth not this evil impure frame of his heart this maketh the way of godliness to be such a mystery such an unknown thing but to those that are believers indeed as they have other joyes other comforts then the world knoweth of so they have other motives of sorrow and humiliation then the natural man can understand But as for the first motions of the second sort they have some imperfect consent and complacency and therefore acknowledged by Gerson Compend Theol. to be sinnes yea the former kind of motions though so suddain are affirmed to be sinnes by several Schoolemn upon different reasons but venial as they call them For Henricus held they were mortal now to us all sinnes in their own nature are mortal Therefore all these motions which arise in the soul whether first or second being contrary to the holy Law of God which requireth pure streames and also a pure fountain and also being opposite to the Image of God we were created in must needs be truly sinnes for which we are to humble our selves and to pray continually for the mortification of them Thirdly These motions though they flow from original sinne as the universal cause yet there are particular causes that do excite and draw them forth And it is good to observe how many wayes original sinne being awakened doth produce these sinful motions thereof And 1. Sometimes they arise from the present sensible object that doth affect us Every object either of the eye or ear or touching doth presently work upon the soul not indeed efficiently as some have thought but only by way of alluring and enticing so that it is almost impossible for us either to hear or see any object and not have the first motions of the soul as suddain so sinful about them Oh the miserable depravation of mankind who hath sinne and hell entring into the soul by evey sense it hath there is not any sensible object but it is a snare to thee it stirreth up some sinful motion or other either love or anger joy or fear and all this before grace can work Hence the great work of Christianity is inward and spiritual it is soul-work to set a watch before eyes eares tongue and all the outward parts of the body that the soul be not sinfully disquieted For every
there as you see Paul doth Rom. 7. Let it not be thought that thou art freed from all sinne because thou doest withstand them thou doest not own them For although this will keep them from being imputed unto thee yet in themselves they are sinnes they are damnable God might throw thee into hell for the meer having of them God might justly say I sowed good seed in thy soul but how come these tares there These thoughts these motions are none of my planting I created them not Therefore the very having of them in thy soul is a sinne against God though never expressed in action and the reason hereof is from the exact spirituality of the Law of God There is this great difference between God and all political Law-giver these later forbid only the external action they do not prohibit the inward will or desire What Law-giver amongst men was ever so absurd as to say you shall not cover or desire such a thing But if men do outwardly offend then they are obnoxious to punishment But it is otherwise with God in his Laws who is the Father of Spirits and searcheth our hearts therefore his Law doth principally reach to the heart to make that a good treasure to have the tree first good and then to make the fruit answerable thereunto 2. We offend against God not only by having of these motions stirring in us but much more when they delight us when we find a complacency and sweetness in the thinking of them when they affect us so that we roll them like honey under the tongue And truly in this respect the godly soul is even amazed and astonished to see how vile it is and how abominable For what innumerable pleasing delightsome motions do arise in thy soul all the day long either about unlawfull objects or if lawfull in an inordinate and sinfull manner Are not these more then the hairs of thy head in number Now concerning these delightfull pleasing motions of the soul in a sinfull way observe these Rules 1. That a man may be carried out in these delightfull objects either by a meer affection of complacency and pleasure or by an efficacious act and purpose of the will to accomplish such a sinne as in uncleannesse The corrupt heart may delight it self in lascivious apprehensions and defile it self exceedingly in that way but yet have no efficacious will to commit the sinne yea as we told you would not for a world commit it either for shame or for punishment or some other respects For sinne hath then got strong power over us and we are left by God when we are boldly carried on to commit such leudness It is therefore necessary for the spiritual and heart-Christian to observe the former as well as the later Do there not arise contemplative delightsome thoughts about sinfull objects Are they not rolled up and down in thy heart though thou hast no purpose to effect them Oh be ashamed and blush to have such an impure soul Is this soul fit for communion with God Is this the temple of the holy Ghost Rule 2. The object of these delighting pleasing motions may either be the sinnes themselves desired and inclined after or They may be the meer thoughts and apprehensions of them For the soul being a spiritual substance hath power to reflect upon its own acts and operations to know it knoweth to think what it thinketh And therupon because as Aquinas saith Delectatio sequitur operationem Delight followeth operation we may take great pleasure in our thoughts and even be drunken with delight therein This is especially to be seen in heretical and erroneous persons Men who are proud of their opinions their notions their own conceptions and inventions What infinite pleasure and content do such men take in the thoughts about their own thoughts and apprehensions More sometimes then the greatest Monarchs can do in their earthly greatness It behoveth therefore men of parts and gifts men of learning and extraordinary activity of wit to take heed of lust within carrying them out to pride and delight in their own selves Rule 3. These motions of delight and pleasure in the soul are of a large extent We are not to limit them only to bodily lusts or ambitious desires for as large as the command of God is so large is this way of delightsome motions in the soul by contrariety thereunto As the Law of God is divided into two Tables and therein are required all the duties we own to God and man So likewise hereby are forbidden all the pleasing lusts and thoughts of the soul which oppose these duties And if a man be a searcher of his own heart he cannot but take notice how often these sinfull motions of his soul sometimes empty themselves in reference to God and sometimes towards our neighbour Towards God and thus we have delightfull motions in our own self-trusting and confidence in the creature we love and rejoyce in humane comforts to the excluding and shutting out of God himself especially in holy duties in the observance of his own day and Ordinances How many pleasing distracting and wandring motions do then seize upon us so that commonly we never find our selves more molested by them then when we are in a most heavenly and holy manner to approach unto him And for the duties towards our Neighbour there arise many pleasing evil motions of soul to envy at his good to be glad at the evil which befalleth him to have uncharitable and suspitious thoughts towards him Thus where ever any actual sin may be committed either against God or man there may and do pleasing and delightfull thoughts arise before and prepare the way for them Lastly Cajetan giveth a good Rule Summula Tit. Delectatio concerning these motions of delight within us that in them we are to consider the Occasion the Liberty and the Intention about them The occasion Thus if we do put our selves into such companies go to see such sights read such books hear such unsavoury discourse as may stirre up our hearts to these sinfull motions then our sinne is the greater and we shall be found the more guilty before God Such is our corrupt nature that we need not adde oil to that fire within us Even in lawfull and just duties yea in our most holy and heavenly performances these sinfull motions arise to disturb and distract our souls as if mens did come of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Moon as some affirm because of the divers shapes and vicissitude it is often put into We ought therefore to be farre from adding fuel to this fire by going to unlawfull sights to wicked companions thereby to provoke that corruption within us Again We are to consider what Liberty and power we have to subdue them and represse them some rise more suddenly then others and some again appear so that we have time to consider of the danger of them the damnable nature of them Now the more time we have to
deliberate and to consider about the sinfulness and wickedness of them how much God is offended how loathsom and abominable they are in his eyes and yet we suffer them to lodge there the greater is our condemnation Lastly The Intention and end of such thoughts is to be considered for alwayes cogitatio mali is not mala cogitatio the thought of evil is not an evil thought When men think of sinne to repent of it to detest it to reform it sinne is in their mind then but because there are no delightfull motions to it therefore it is not evil So if a Minister preach against adultery or any other sinne he cannot but think of the nature of it and what it is yet because his intention in thinking of it is to make men abhorre and leave it therefore it is good and lawfull So that meer thoughts about sinne are not alwayes sinne but when accompanied with some affections and inclinations thereunto Onely it is good to inform you That such is our deceitfulness of heart that many times we think it lawfull to rejoyce and delight in some profit and emolument that may come by another mans sinne or some evil upon him when indeed we are glad of the sin or evil it self If a man by telling a lie should save thy estate or life How hard is it not to delight in the sinne because thou hast profit by it Thus unnatural children may rejoyce in the death of their parents whereby they come to inherit their estates and yet please themselves that they not rejoyce in their death but the profit that cometh thereby to them There are many practical instances in this case and therefore we must look our hearts do not deceive us therein For it is very difficult to have any advantage by another mans sinne or evil and not to have a secret and tacit will thereof And thus much for the Rules about delightfull motions to sin We proceed to a third particular whereby we may sinne against God by these motions of sinne within us and that is When we are carelesse and negligent about them they trouble us not they grieve us not How many are there that regard the thoughts and motions of their soul no more then the fowls that flie over their heads It argueth an unregenerate heart an heart not acquainted with the power of godliness that doth not mourn and grieve under them How greatly was the Apostle Paul Rom. 7. afflicted by them This made him long for Christ and Heaven where he should be annoyed with them no more This negligence about them is that which maketh thee also careless to repress and conquer them They may lodge whole dayes and nights in thy soul and thou never seekest to expel them out Thus thy heart is like the sluggards field full of bryars and thorns Oh that God would give you seeing eyes and tender hearts then you would find that even an hair hath its shadow even the least motion to sinne hath its sting and bitterness with it and above all sinfull motions look to those that arise in thee because good things are urged and commanded to thee For this is the desperate incurable evil our souls that good things stirre up sinfull lusts within us not indeed properly and directly but occasionally and by accident Thus the Apostle bewaileth the motions of lusts within him from this account Rom. 7. 8. Sinne taking occasion by the commandment wrought all manner of concupiscence within him Thus the good and spiritual Law made him more carnal and sinfull And what is more often then to have powerfull preaching godly and wholsome reproofs stirre up the evil motions of men against them Thus the more remedies are applied to us the more corrupt we grow We might be voluminous in this soul-searching point but we must conclude Let the Use be Seeing that a man is thus tempted from his own lust within him we cannot lay the cause on the Devil himself though he be a Tempter then it 's our duty to look to what is within Those embers within us will quickly set all on fire Say not this or that moved me blame not this or that estate but thy corrupt lust within This is as Luther said in Genes Chap. 13. to be like the fool that stood in the Sunne bowed down and then complained his shadow was crooked It is not thy riches nor thy poverty not thy health or sickness no condition or temptation whatsoever but the true proper cause is this maternal lust which lieth in our bosoms How little is this truth attendeth unto with the Pharisees we more regard to cleanse the outside than the inside Mat. 23. 25. The mistake herein brought those many rigid and ausiere disciplinary wayes in Popery as if from the externals we must cure the heart and not by curing the heart thereby cleanse the outwards The Franciscan will not so much as touch silver The Carthusians will not eat a bit of flesh though their lives depend upon it What folly is this Meat and money are the good creatures of God if we do abuse them they are not to be blamed but our corrupt lusts within If a whorish woman wear gold and precious stones to allure others they are in themselves good though she abuse them to an ill end And thus all the comforts and mercies we enjoy are Gods good gifts and it is not the actual abdication of the use of them but the mortifying of our lust within that will make us please God CHAP. III. Of the Combate between the Flesh and the Spirit as the Effect of Original Sinne so that the Godliest man cannot do any holy Duty perfectly in this life SECT I. The Text explained and vindicated from corrupt Interpretations GAL. 5. 17. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would THe Apostle in the verses before admonished them about the use of their liberty that it should not be turned into licentiousness but that they make love the Rule thereof For though in respect of the right of my Christian liberty my conscience is to regard none but God yet the use and exercise of it must be regulated by love and prudence according as the edification of our brother doth require As a remedy therefore to refrain from all excess therein he giveth us an excellent precept with an emphatical Introduction thereunto This I say then that is This is the summe the main the all in all in these cases Then you have the Antidote it self Walk in the Spirit The only way to prevent all those importunate temptations of the flesh is to give up your selves to the Spirit to obtain the direction and illumination thereof as also the inclination and powerfull operation of it whereby we may be established in that which is good To know what is good and then to be inabled to do it
nature of the flesh and Spirit thus to oppose one another for this is say they against the nature of habits seeing it is the property of habits to make the will readily and willingly will and do those things which formerly were grievous and troublesome but the Scripture speaketh of the actual reluctancy it doth not say it may or it can but it doth lust and as for habits though we grant when these supernatural habits of grace are infused into the soul we are carried out with readiness delight and willingness in those holy duties which formerly were tedious and grievous unto us yet because neither the habits of grace are perfect within us nor the acts that flow from them therefore it is that there is a mixture of our dross with the spirits gold For although the habits of grace are immediately inspired or infused from God and so as they come from him are perfect yet because that is a true rule Quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis whatsoever is received is received according to the capacity and qualification of the subject Hence it is that these habits of grace are imperfect as received and seated in us and whereas again they reply that suppose this Text be understood of actual reluctancy yet it is not generally to be extended to all but limited to the Galathians who were but new converts but beginners and therefore had this fight within them that is also false The Apostle saith the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh in the general It is an universal Proposition neither is it any more to be limited to the Galathians then the duty enjoyned which is to walk in the Spirit so that as the duty belongeth to every godly man the reason likewise must and therefore the Apostle doth not say the flesh lusteth against the Spirit in you they put in vobis into the Text but speaketh universally of all that have the Spirit of God Besides this Text opposeth them for grant these Galathians were new converts yet the cause of the combate within them is not attributed to their former custome of impiety as they would have it but to the flesh which is original sinne within them when therefore a man is truly converted that difficulty to leave his former lusts doth not arise because the habits of sinne do still abide in him but because original sinne is still living in us and therefore according to the greater or lesser measure of grace healing and sanctifying of us so we find the greater opposition in parting with the sinnes we formerly committed ¶ 3. WE are to lay it down for a certain foundation to build upon as hath formerly been delivered That this spiritual conflict was not in the state of integrity Adam before his fall could not find such a rebellion in him for if so this would greatly have interrupted all his blessedness and withall such a duell within him and that necessarily flowing from his creation would have redounded to the great dishonour of God his Maker Now the Adversaries of original sinne whether Papists Remonstrants or Socinians who do usually traduce the orthodox Doctrine about it as if horribly injurious to God do in this particular farre transcend all such supposed reflections either upon the justice or mercy of God For they do boldly affirm That by the very natural constitution of man there is a necessary conflict between the rational and sensitive part only say the Papists original righteousness which the Socinian derideth as much as original sinne did keep down this repugnancy so that Adam had not any actual rebellion within though it was there potentially and radically Thus Soto though Stapleton fluctuateth and seemeth to be his Adversary therin expresly affirmeth Lib. de Naturâ Gratiâ c. 3. that the conflict mentioned by the Apostle Gal. 5. 17. is Homini â naturâ ingenita inbred in the very nature of a man which he would prove from a philosophical Discourse out of Aristotle who divideth man into two parts his rational and sensitive adding that the sensitive part obeyeth the rational not despotically as servants who have no right of their own do to their masters for so the members of the body only do serve the mind but politically and civilly as a Citizen doth his Prince in whose power it is to disobey But as Aristotle knew nothing of mans creation or the Image of God put upon him nor of his fall and the utter depravation of mans soul thereby so it would be absurd to runne to his darkness to fetch light about these things Hence also it is that the same Author Cap. 13. in another place compareth man fallen with man standing to some weighty piece that hangeth on high but is hindred that it cannot fall and the same piece when the impediment is removed For as such a piece of timber had the same proneness to fall to the ground while it was hindred as when the obstacle was removed only it did not actually fall Thus man abiding in his state of integrity had this principle within to carry him more affectionately to sensible things then spiritual only original righteousness did stop and hinder the actual motions thereof It is true that all Papists do not assert this repugnancy from our primitive constitution For Cajetan upon the place doth note truly Sermo est c. saith he The speech is of the flesh as infected with original sinne for thence the flesh lusteth against the Spirit not from the primary Creation Yea their admired Thomas a Kempis Pag. 77. for his practical devotion confesseth that Adam in the state of innocency had not this conflict And no wonder that Papists thus dogmatize when Arminius who useth to be very wary being he was the first that was to broach those dangerous errours the Devil delighting to use a Serpent not an Ass because he was more subtil then other beasts of the field yet asserteth that the inclination to sinne was in Adam before his fall Licet non ita vehemens inordinata ut nunc est although not so vehement and inordinate as now it is It is true the whole Paragraph is put by way of question but in the procedure thereof this is spoken affirmatively Articul perpendendi cap. de peccato originis And with the Socinians nothing is more ordinary then to affirm such a rebellion in man and that so peremptorily that from this they conclude Adam did sinne it was from his concupiscence that he did break the Law of God Yea some are not afraid to attribute this repugnancy and conflict to Christ as if when he prayed Father if it be possible let this Cup passe away that this came from the Agony between the rational and sensitive part within him It is wonder that these do not also hold that it will continue in Heaven also so that as long as man hath a soul and a body this opposition cannot be removed but surely the naming
of this to tender hearts and ears is confutation enough For is not this truly and properly to make God the Author of sinne that he put a rebellious thorn in our sides at first and that because we are his creatures made of a soul and a body therefore we must necessarily be divided within our selves Thus those who charge original sinne with Manichism do herein exceed the Manichees themselves for they attribute this evil in a man to an evil principle but these make the good and holy God to be the Author of this rebellion Neither is it any evasion to say This rebellion of the sensitive part is no sinne unless it be consented unto for it is such which is contrary to the Law of God it is to be resisted and fought against And certainly that demonstrateth the evil nature thereof Luther indeed speaks of a Franciscan which maketh this concupiscence to be a natural good in a man as it is in the fire to burn or the Sunne to shine But certainly such qualities or actions are not to be resisted or fought against as these are How can that be good which is confessed to be a sinne if consented unto ¶ 4. VVHen we say the flesh and the Spirit do thus conflict with one another you must not understand it of them as two naked bare qualities in a man but as actuated and quickned from without For the gracious habit in a man is not able to act and put it self forth vigorously without the Spirit of God exciting and quickning of it And although inherent sinne of it self be active and vigorous yet the Devil also he continually is tempting and blowing upon this fire to make it flame the more impetuously So that we are not to look upon these simply as in themselves but as subservient to the Spirit of God and the Devil The Spirit of God by grace in the heart doth promote the Kingdom of God and the Devil by suggestions doth advance the kingdom of Satan in our hearts So that grace and sinne are like the Deputies and Vicegerents in our souls to those Champions that are without us Now because the Spirit of God is stronger and above the Devil therefore it is that the flesh shall at last surely be conquered Nay if the godly at any time fail if sinne at any time overcome it is not because the Spirit of God could not overcome it but because he is a free agent and communicateth his assistance more or lesse as he pleaseth only in this combat the godly are to assure themselves that they shall overcome all at last that the very root of sinne will be wholly taken away never to trouble or imbitter the soul any more ¶ 5. FIfthly In natural and corrupt men there is no sense or feeling of any such conflict They never groan and mourn under such wrestlings and agonies within them and the reason is because they are altogether flesh and flesh doth not oppose flesh neither is Satan set against Satan It is true there is in some natural vicious men sometimes a combate between their conscience and their appetite their hearts carry them on violently to sinne but their consciences do check them and they feel a remorse within them but this is farre different from that spiritual conflict which the Apostle doth here describe and is to be found only in such men who have the Spirit of God No wonderthen if there be so many who look upon this as a figment if so many even learned men write and speak so ignorantly and advisedly about it for this truth is best acknowledged by experience It 's not the Theologia ratiocinativa but experimentalis as Gerson divideth Divinity that will bring us to a full knowledge of this It cannot then but be expected that you should see men live at ease and have much quietness and security in their own breasts thanking God as if their souls hearts and all were good within them all were as they desire it for the strong man the Devil keepeth all quiet flesh would not oppose flesh It is true one sinne may oppose another covetoufness drunkenness and so a man who would commit them both be divided within himself one sinne draweth one way and another sinne the other way but still in the general here is an agreement all is sinne all tendeth one way still and therefore is not like this combate in the Text but of this more in its time ¶ 6. SIxthly In all regenerate persons though never so highly sanctified there is a conflict more or less It is true some are more holy then others some are babes and some are strong men some are spiritual some in a comparative sence are carnal some are weak some are strong and according to the measure of grace they have received so is this conflict more or less Amyraldus a much admired Writer by some neither do I detract from that worth which is due to him doth industriously set himself Constd cap. 7. ad Rom. to expound the 7th of the Romans of a person not regenerated but in a legal state yet disclaiming Arminianisme and Socinianisme which Exposition being offensive and excepted against as justly it might by William Rivet he maketh a replication thereunto wherein he delivereth many novel assertions Among which this may be one That making four ranks or classes of Christians he apprehendeth the first to be such who have attained to so high a degree of sanctification that they consult and deliberate of nothing but from the habit of grace that is within them and that this conflict within a man is rather to be referred to the legal work upon a man then the Evangelical condition we are put into hence he understands this Text not universally but particularly of the Galathians who were then in that state viz. a legal one not Evangelical which he thinketh the next Verse will confirme where the Apostle saith If ye be led of the Spirit ye are not under the law now of this sort who may be apprehended ordinarily to live without such a combate he placeth the Apostles especially when plentifully endowed with the Spirit of God after Christs resurrection and for Paul he is so far ravished with the Idea of godliness represented in his life that he saith Consid in cap. 7. ad Rom. cap. 74. if God had pleased so to adorne Paul with the gifts of the Spirit that in this life he should attain to that perfection which other believers have only in heaven none might find fault herein The general rules he goeth upon and others though disclaimed by him is because there are many places of Scripture which shew that some godly persons are victorious and tryumphing above this conflict as when this Apostle saith afterwards ver 24. They that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof and Rom. 8. 2. The law of the Spirit of life in Jesus Christ hath made me free from the law of sin
and death So that they conclude it injurious and contumelious to Paul reproachfull to the grace of the Gospel and a palpable incouragement to sinne and wickedness to interpret the 7th of the Rom. of a regenerate person But because this is a truth of so special concernement we shall take these things in a more particular consideration for it would be found an heavy sinne lying upon most orthodox Teachers in the Reformed Church if they have constantly preached such a Doctrine as is injurious to Gods grace and an incentive to sinne as also slothfulness and negligence in holy duties for the present this Text will bear us out sufficiently that where ever the Spirit of God is in persons while in the way to heaven they have a contrary principle of the flesh within them whereby they are more humbled in themselves and do the more earnestly make their applications to the throne of grace and that all have such a conflict within them may appear by these following Reasons yea we may with Luther say so farre is it that any do attain to such a measure of grace as to be without this combate that the more holy and spiritual any are the more sensible they are of it for they have more illumination and so discover the exactness and spiritual latitude of the law more then formerly they did and also their hearts are more tender whereby they grow more sensible even of the least weight of any sinful motion though never so transient It is true the godly do grow in grace they get more mastery and power over the lustings of sinne within yet withall they grow in light and discovery about holiness they see it a more exact and perfect thing then they thought of they find the Law of God to be more comprehensive then they were aware of and therefore they are ready to cry out as Ignatius when ready to suffer Nunc incipio esse Christians Oh me never godly but beginning to be godly I believe but how great is my unbelief This Paul declareth Phil. 3. 12. Not as if I had already attained either were already perfect but I follow after c. Thus Paul is farre from owning such commendations which happily others may put upon him It is true indeed Amyraldus denyeth that any are absolutely perfect but yet he goeth beyond the bounds of truth in attributing too much to Paul or other Apostles which will appear First Because the most holy that are have used all meanes to mortifie and keep down the cause of these sinful motions If they did not continually throw water as it were upon those sparks within the most holy man would quickly be in a flame Even this Apostle Paul doth not he confess this of himself 1 Cor. 9. 27. I keep down my body and bring it into subjection c. He doth not mean the body as it is a meer natural substance for the glorified Saints will not keep down their bodyes but as it is corrupted and made a ready instrument to sin for though the Apostle call it not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã yet these are not opposite but suppose one another as Rom. 6. 12. Let not sinne reign in your mortal body and it is a very frigid and forced Exposition of Amyraldus as if the Apostle did understand it of the exposing his body to hunger and thirst and all dangerous persecutioâs for the Gospels sake For this was not Paul's voluntary keeping down of his body those persecutions and hardships to his body were against his will though he submitted to them when by Gods providence he was called thereunto but he speaketh here of that which he did readily and voluntarily lest from within should arise such motions to sinne as might destroy him yea it is plain that even in Paul there was a danger of the breakings forth of such lusts because 2 Cor. 12. God did in a special manner suffer him to be buffetted and exercised by Satan that he might not be lifted up through pride neither is this any excuse to say with Amyraldus That such sinnes are apt to breed in the most excellent dispositions for it is acknowledged by all that such sinnes have more guilt in them then bodily sinnes though not such infamy and disgrace amongst men Luther calleth them the sublimia peccat the sublime and high sins such the Devil was guilty of and they were the cause of his final overthrow and damnation If then the most godly have used all means to mortifie sinne within them it is plain they found a combate and that if sinne were let alone it would quickly get the upper hand Secondly That there is a conflict of sinne appeareth in those duties enjoyned to all the godly that they watch and pray that they put on the whole armour of Christ Yea the Disciples are commanded to take heed of drunkenness and surfetting and the cares of this world Luke 21. 34. and generally Paul's Epistles are full of admonitions and exhortations to give all diligence in the wayes of holinesse especially that command is very observable 2 Cor. 7. 1. Having these promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthinesse of flesh and spirits perfecting holinesse in the fear of God Here you see both flesh and spirit that is the rational and sensitive part have filthiness and that those who are truly godly are to be continually cleansing away this filthiness and to perfect what is out of order What godly man is there that can say This command doth not belong to me I am above it I need it not No lesse considerable is that command of Peter 1 Pet. 2. 11. Dearly beloved I beseech you as pilgrims and strangers abstain from fleshly lusts which warre against the soul Not as if this were wholly parallel with my Text as Carthusian is said to bring it in thereby proving that by flesh is meant the body and by spirit the soul but onely it sheweth that no godly man in this life is freed from a militant condition and that with his own flesh his own self which maketh the combate to be the more dangerous For this cause David though a man after Gods own heart though Gods servant in a special consideration yet prayeth Psal 19. 13. Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins which expression denoteth that even a godly man hath lust within him that would carry him out like an untamed horse to presumptuous sins did not the Lord keep him back But we need not bring more reasons to confirm that which experience doth so sadly testifie SECT III. A Consideration of that part of the seventh Chapter to the Romans which treats of the Conflict within a man Shewing against Amyraldus and others that it must be a regenerate person onely of whom those things are spoken ¶ 1. THe next Proposition that may give light to the weighty truth about the spiritual conflict that is in the most regenerate persons is this That besides the
reasons formerly produced and many others which might be named there are two famous places of Scripture which do most signally and eminently declare such a combate in the most holy men The first is this of my Text which hath sufficiently been explained and vindicated from corrupt Interpretations And truly the light of this Text shineth so clearly that there are very few who are not convinced that this speaketh of the fight which regenerate persons find in themselves between those two contrary principles of the Spirit and flesh which are within them The second place which doth so firmly establish such a conflict in those who by grace are made new creatures is Rom. 7. from v. 14. to the end of the Chapter where we have a most palpable delineation of this duel that is fought in the inwards of a godly man but that place is not so freely consented unto as this Text I am upon Now because the clearing of that is of special use and because it is of such affinity with my Text I shall inlarge my self for I will not call it a digression in the full explication of that part of the Chapter shewing How that it must be a regenerate person and him only of whom those things are there spoken And you will find that the distinct opening of that portion of Scripture will afford us many necessary things both for Instruction Consolation and Admonition and all immediately adhering to this point I am now upon This I intend to dispatch in several particulars which will be as so many branches growing from the flock of that Proposition I have already named And First You are to know that the Discourse which Paul there useth concerning the combate within himself is by some interpreted as if Paul though he name himself Yet doth not mean himself while regenerated but while unregenerated So that say they Paul doth therein take upon himself the person of one that is not yet in the state of grace This they conceive must necessarily be so because such a person is said to be carnal and sold under sinne The flesh is alwayes said to have the better whereas regenerate persons they have crucified the flesh and the Spirit And the Law of the Spirit of life hath freed them from the Law of sinne and death Rom. 8. 2. Onely when they expound it of an unregenerate person they distinguish of such 1. One who is grosly ignorant and prophane wallowing in his sinnes in a most senslesse and stupid manner whose conscience are wholly dead within them and such are carried out to sinne with all impetuousness having no check or remorse of conscience within them of such the Apostle doth not speak But 2. There are others who are in a Legal state under the powerfull convictions and operations of the Law as Amyraldus expresseth it Men who besides the meer knowledge of the Law have by the efficacy of Gods Spirit the convincing power of it so set home that now their inlightned minds do greatly incline them to that which is good but because their hearts are not sanctified their affections are not mortified therefore these lusts do hurry them away against those legal convictions that are upon them or as Arminius expresseth it in cap. 7. ad Rom. not in a much different way the Apostle speaketh of one who is in some preparatory way to conversion By the Law he is so farre wrought upon that he is afraid because of his sinnes he cryeth out of them mourneth because of them hath many wishes and desires Oh that I could leave these lusts I do not like or consent to such evil things that I do Thus this person is supposed to have a servile fear which is initial to the work of conversion And this frame of spirit although it be not regeneration yet is to be reckoned among the good and spiritual gifts of God This say they is the direct case of that person who is here described by Paul and it cannot be denied but that many of the Ancients and some later Writers have expounded it of a man under such legal convictions And although the Pelagians boasted That all Ecclesiastical Writers did interpret it of such a person yet Austin opposeth them therein instancing in some who did understand it of a person regenerated It is true Austin himself while younger did expound it of an unregenerate person I understood it saith he in that manner or rather I did not understand it But when he came to be elder and more exercised in the Scripture other Writers then he was compelled to yeeld to the truth and to interpret it of a person regenerate so that they caluminate Austin who make him flie to this Interpretation out of the heat of his Disputations with Pelagians taking this sense though formerly he had done the other as being more subservient to his present interest for he attributeth his change of mind to the truth of God in other Scriptures as also to the light he had from the tractates of other learned men Especially those places compelled and forced him as he saith viz Now I no longer do it but sinne within me and I delight in the Law of God in the inward man He that delighteth doth it not for fear of punishment but love of righteousness Vide August lib. 1. Retract c 23. c. 26. l. 3. contra Julianum c. 26. lib. 6. contra Julianum cap. 11. We grant indeed that there is such a legal state in which some men are that there are some who are miserably divided between their enlightned consciences and their corrupt lusts so that they do the they would not do Yea the godly themselves though they have a superiour and more subline combate yet because they have an unregenerate part within them therefore they sometimes have even this conflict between their consciences and some importuning corruptions but this is not remarkable in them comparatively to the other In the second place There are others who do zealously contend that that discourse cannot be applied to any but a regenerate person and to understand it otherwise would be to plunge the godly in a deep gulph of discouragements and to attribute such things to unregenerate persons which those that are truly sanctified cannot go beyond And this way Austin and others of old do willingly go Yea most of the Popish Interpreters Estius Contzen Pererius Sasbâlt c. Tolet is taken notice of as the most eminent dissenter The Lutherans also generally and the Calvinists yea most Protestant Writers Even Musculus whom the adversaries of this Interpretation do so much alledge in this point and labour to decline all suspicion by his name yet doth clearly and fully expound it of a man truly regenerated and converted but in the lowest degree and initials of grace although in the lowest form yet sanctified and regenerated he confesseth him to be Arminius and Amyraldus have indeed in a peculiar manner set themselves against this
Exposition Yea there is an English Writer who goeth so high as to call the explication of this portion of Scripture as spoken in the person of a regenerate man An encouragement of an evil life and a scorn cast upon the holy Ghost yea that it is verbum dictum contra Spiritum sanctum Vnum Necessarium chap. 7. pag. 456. But herein he followeth Arminius out of whom also he seemeth to borrow all that he hath in this point of any appearing strength and validity In cap. 7. ad Rom. where he would have it considered whether this fight described here in the Text can be attributed to the Spirit of God Citra apertam gratiae Christi ejus Spiritus contumeliam ignominiam And a little after Constabit diligenter inspicienti citra enorme Spiritus sancti dedecus illi luctam istam attribui non posse Thus Aristotles speech is very true ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Ethiâ lib. 7. cap. 10. Yea the late Annotatour is so farre from thinking That doing the ill we would not and the not doing the good we would to be a fit ingredient in the character of a regenerate man that he maketh it the aggravation of a wicked man Thus he saith The Heathens made the highest pitch of villany in Medeas person when she is said to see and like that which was good and do the direct contrary So that it should seem by this That the Annotatour would think Arminius and those who think this Discourse to be understood of a man in a preparatory way to conversion and as it were not farre from the kingdom of God to yeeld too much We must rather look upon it as spoken in the person of some enormious and transcendent sinner but I think herein he is primus and solus Besides his assertion is against Aristotle who writing of the incontinent person that in some respects knoweth the actions to be sinnes yet doth them saith notwithstanding that he is not a wicked man but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a semi-wicked man Ethic. lib. 7. cap. 9. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã But concerning this sinning against knowledge in a regenerate person as also the collation of him with an incontinent person more hereafter Only by the way we may wonder why the above mentioned Annotatour in his Annotations on this place is so industrious to prove this passage cannot be meant of a regenerate person from verse the eighth and the ninth in this Chapter where it 's said Sinne wrought all manner of concupiscence in him that sinne revived and he died For surely he cannot but know That none of the Dissenters from him in this Exposition do apply those verses to a regenerate man but that the application to such a person beginneth at the fourteenth verse or else as Calvin at the fifteenth verse But it is not so material to know what men say as what may be evinced out of the Chapter it self Only we may adde That the Socinian is likewise very stiff and zealous in the Interpretation of this Chapter concerning a non-regenerate person Yea the Polonian Knight that writeth the life of Socinus would have us take notice of a wonderfull work of God convincing an eminent man of this Exposition for thus he relateth Pag. 21. That anno 1585. in the Synod of Lublin the opinion of Socinus concerning the seventh of the Romans was exceedingly agitated and that one Nicolaus Zitinius being one of those Pastors who opposed the Socinian Exposition was desired to explain that Chapter contrary to the mind of Socinus which he stoutly managed till he came to those words I thank God through Jesus Christ and then standing like a man amazed What is that benefit saith he which drew from the Apostle so great thanks Was it that he was of necessity detained in such a servitude of sinne Certainly I cannot believe such a thing and thereupon gave thanks to God for the light shining upon him and freeing him from his errour and afterwards entred upon a contrary way of explaining it to the amazement of his own party But it had been well if this writer had set down the reasons which made such a change in that man Thirdly We cannot say it is heresie and an errour in fundamentals to expound this place of an unregenerate person yet as the grounds and reasons may be such an exposition may be either heretical or bordering thereupon For there are two principles which may be supposed upon which the Exposition of this Discourse concerning an unregenerate person may be built for either some will not understand it of a regenerate person Because they think it opposeth perfection in this life whereas they think a man may and ought to be altogether pure and without sinne in this life or else they do acknowledge the imperfection of out regeneration and the reliques of original sinne abiding in us whereby we are not able to answer the purity and holiness of the Law Only they think this is not a proper place to prove such a truth but is rather injurious to the grace of God working in believers And in the number of these later Arminius doth acknowledge himself Now if such men be real in what they say and do not secretly nourish some monster within till they have a fit time to bring it forth they are not much to be blamed For as long as they agree in the true Doctrine though they differ in the Texts that do prove it that is not so material Certainly Calvin was most unjustly traduced by Hunnius the Lutheran for Judaizing and denying the Trinity yet he did not think that Doctrine was to be proved out of every Text that the Ancients did make use of But then to deny the exposition of this place concerning a regenerate person Because they hold perfection in this life and an immunity from sinne for which end the Pelagians of old did seem to oppose it yea and that this perfection was to be obtained by our own free-will this may justly be looked upon as heretical Upon which account Castalio is inexcusable for he interpreteth it of an unregenerate man only subject to the Law meerly to establish perfection affirming that the old man is wholly crucified in this life denying Christs imputed righteousness and affirming men may be without sinne De Justific pag. 67. frequenter alibi This is certain that the true Exposition of this place doth powerfully overthrow the Doctrine of perfection in this life For if a Paul doth find this civil warre within himself if Paul creep thus upon the ground comparatively to the admirable holiness required in the Law who then may not have cause to be humbled for that spiritual agony he feeleth within himself Fourthly Although we affirm this later part of the Chapter is to be understood of a regenerate person yet we also acknowledge that a Minister is to manage this truth with much wisdom and dexterity that so the Doctrine of imperfection in regenerate persons may not
be an occasion to âull men a sleep in their lazinesse that hereby they do not content themselves with incompleat and sluggish wishes in the wayes of holinesse If any do abuse this Doctrine to lukewarmness or indulgence in sinfull wayes saying their estate is like Paul's the evil they would not do they do This is not the fault of the Doctrine but either of the Minister who doth not wisely dispense it or of the hearer who doth wilfully suck poison out of the sweet herb Even as the whole Doctrine of the Gospel and Gods grace may be abused to licentiousness It is true that the proper character of Christianity is That it is an acknowledgement of the truth which is after godlinesse Tit. 1. 1. And certainly there is no point may more quicken up to godliness sâur on the most holy to greater growth in piety then this truth about the imperfection of the graces that are in the best and also that we have a treacherous enemy within us the reliques of original sinne which without daily watching and praying will quickly plunge us into confusion Now the Minister of Christ will so handle this Exposition though of a regenerate person very profitably and advantagiously to the increase of godliness if he adde these qualifications to his Interpretation 1. That the evil which this person is said to do is not to be understood of grosse and enormieus crimes but partly of the very motions to sinne within us and sometimes a consent thereunto and it may fall out so as to be an acting of them in our lives but this is not of grosse sinnes or if of a foul sinne yet not continued in but with repentance and greater hatred recovered out of it Unlesse the Preacher do thus limit his Exposition he leaveth the battlements without rails he doth not fence against the pit wherein some may fall Let no man therefore think that this passage of Pauls is to be extended to grosse sinnes as if many prophane sinners who sinne and their consciences check them and then they sinne again and have remorse again could take any comfort from these places as if they might say with Paul It is not I but sinne that dwelleth in me The evil that I would not that I grieve for in the temptation I do Oh take heed of abusing the holy Word of God to such corrupt ends Austin some where speaketh to this occasion when this part of Paul's Epistle was read I fear saith he left this may be ill understood but let none think as if Paul 's meaning was he would be chaste but he was an adulterer he would be mercifull but he was cruel c. Thus it would be very dangerous to interpret this passage of grosse sinnes and yet it cannot be denied but that men who sinne grosly yet with some remorse and grief of conscience are apt to cover themselves with these fig-leaves and think this is sanctuary safe enough to runne unto that though they do sinne yet it is not with full consent and delight Arminius affirmeth in cap. 7. ad Rom. pag. 753. as he saith Verè sanctè That he had sometimes the experience of this that when some have been admonished that they would take heed of committing such a sin which they knew was forbidden by the Law They would answer with the Apostle To will was present with them but they knew not how to perform what they willed Yea he addeth He had this answer from one not when the sinne was committed but when he was forewarned that he should not commit it But the same Author goeth on and saith he knew both men and women young and old who when he had explained this Chapter in the sense he defendeth did plainly confess to him that they hitherto had been in this opinion that if they committed any sinne with reluctancy of their mind or omitted any duty the same regreeting of them they were not greatly to trouble themselves or grieve in this matter seeing they thought themselves like Paul therein and therefore gave him hearty thanks that he delivered him from that errour by his interpretation But what needeth all this if any read Calvins or other Expositions upon this place might they not have been fully satisfied that such persons offending in that manner viz. sinning having only terrour and contradiction from their conscience against the sinne they commit but their hearts otherwise carry them out to it do no wayes agree with the person here described whose heare and will is said to be against sinne as well as his mind and conscience We must not therefore understand it of gross sins especially of a continual custom therein No doubt but David did commit the adultery and murder he would not have done No doubt when Peter denied Christ he could say the evil that he would not do that he did but this was in suddain temptations This was not often or customary therefore they did recover out of them with bitter tears and sorrow We must therefore understand it chiefly of the motions and lustings of the heart to sinne and oftentimes a consenting thereunto yea and in lesser sinnes an acting thereupon so that it is no more in sense then what the Apostle Jam's saith In many things we offend all Chap. 3. 2. So that howsoever the Jesuites and Arminians would make Austins and the later Expositions to differ as if Austins were more innocent because he understood it only of motions to sinne which the godly man did suffer against his will within him but the later apply it even to actions yet who so diligently compareth them together cannot find any real difference for the summe of their Exposition is That the Law requiring such a perfect and pure holiness that is doth not allow of the least spot or blemish the most godly do find themselves so depressed and weighed down with that remainder of corruption that is within them that they come exceeding short of that excellent and perfect holiness and therefore do abhorre and loath themselves and judge themselves miserable while they carry about with them such a body of sinne Secondly and lastly This Exposition will be advantagiously managed for godliness ãâ¦ã also inform That Paul doth not here speak of every particular temptation as if in every conflict he had the worse and the flesh had the better but he speaks of good and evil in the general and that in the whole course of his conversation In the general his heart was set upon the good commanded and against the evil forbidden but yet he could never attain to his fulness of desire though in several combars the spirit might and did conquer the flesh And certainly the Arminians who will hold us to the rigid letter as if this person never had he better no not at any time in any sinne must take heed of that fault they charge upon us viz. that they be not injurious to the grace of God even according to their own
Exposition for they acknowledge those workings of the Law in this person against sinne are from the Spirit of God These are the good gift of God and although they come not from the Spirit as regenerating yet as moving and preparing the heart for Regeneration Now will it not be derogatory to say that in this conflict the Spirit of God is overcome in every conflict that at no time he cannot do the good he would This is to make the conflict of a man in this legal estate inferiour to Aristotle's incontinent person who hath only the meer light of natural reason to help him for he compareth Lib. 7. Ethic. cap. 9. intemperance to the disease of a Dropsie or Consumption because incurable but incontinency to the falling-sickness because curable And then because the former is continual the later sometimes only If then in very Heathens whose conflict is only between a natural conscience and their lusts conscience doth sometimes prevail their lusts do not alwayes overcome Shall we think lesse is done by the Spirit of God in them who are in this legal conflict It is true if we speak of perfect obedience to the Law of God so at all times in all things the Law of sinne within a godly man doth retard and make him to come short but then in particular combates there the flesh doth not alwayes prevail only the Apostle instanceth in the tyranny of sinne and not the dominion of grace because hereby he would inform the Jews how much they were to sigh and groan under this burden and thereupon to have higher thoughts of Christ For seeing there were two things that did keep them off from Christ The ignorance of the power of original sinne and a desire to find out a righteousness by the works of the Law The Apostle doth take an excellent way to cure them of these two evils by shewing what deep root original sinne hath in the most holy and how opposite and fighting it is against the grace of God within us insomuch that we cannot have our full comfort but in Christ alone ¶ 2. Reasons for this Exposition THat there is no godly man living free from this spiritual combate because of the flesh which still abideth in him hath been proved by Reasons and Scripture To this Text we have joyned Paul's Discourse Rom. 7. which you heard was to be understood of no other then a regenerate person But because such an Exposition as also the Doctrine of the imperfection of Regeneration may be abused You heard with what limitations that Chapter was to be interpreted though of a godly man It is remarkable what Austin saith in defence of himself expounding this place of a regenerate person whereas he had interpreted it otherwise formerly Non ego primus aut solus c. Lib. 6. contra Julianum lib. 11. He was not the first or only man that did interpret it so Yea he confesseth he understood it of unregenerated persons once himself and his greatest reason was because he thought Paul could not say of himself That he was carnal and sold under sinne but afterwards saith he Melioribus intelligentioribus cessi vel potius ipsi veritati c. The example of this excellent man might much convince but that prejudice doth blind mens eyes Let us see what Reasons are cogent for this Exposition First This is very considerable That the Apostle in the former verses speaking of himself useth the Preterperfect tense speakth of that which was past onely at the fourteenth verse there he changeth the tense and speaketh of the present time which may perswade us that he speaketh of himself what he was once before regenerated and what he hath experience of in himself though sanctified This changing of the time argueth a change also in the person for so his Discourse runneth from the seventh verse to the fourteenth I had not known lust and sinne wrought in me all manner of concupiscence I was alive without the Law once and sinne deceived me c. All these expressions are concerning what was done in him Then at the fourteenth verse with the rest following he speaketh of the present time I am carnal I do that which I allow not c. This altering of the time may incline us to think that it is very probable the Apostle doth compare his former estate of unregeneracy with the present of sanctification that he is now in It is true indeed we grant that the Apostle doth sometimes assume the person of another man he supposeth such a thing in himself which yet we must not conclude to be in him as Rom. 3. 7. For if the truth of God hath abounded more through my life unto his glory why yet am I judged as a sinner Here it is certain he personateth a wicked object or and caviller So 1 Cor. 13. 2. If I have all faith and not charity c. As also Gal. 2. 18. If what I have destroyed I build the same again I make my self a transgressor But who doth not see a vast difference between these expressions and Paul's Discourse in this Chapter For they are spoken hypothetically by way of supposition And therefore every one may perceive that the Apostle doth not intend an absolute speech of himself Had the Apostle used such conditional expressions here then there had been some colour If I do the evil I would not if I do not the good I would if I delight in the Law if the Law of God c. then we might have doubted whether he spake of himself or no. Or had the Apostle as absolutely and peremptorily spoken in those places as he doth here we should have wondred at it Should he after a large Discourse to that purpose have concluded So then I my self distroy what I have built it would have greatly amazed us As for that place insisted upon by so many 1 Cor. 4. 6. These things I have in a figure transferred to my self and Apollo c. and from thence gathering That it is ordinary with Paul by a figure to assume another habit as it were then his own Suppose it be granted Doth it therefore follow he doth here in this place What doth the Apostle never speak in his own person If we will not take this as spoken of himself Why do the Dissentients take the second verse in the next Chapter as to be understood of his own person The Law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath freed me from the Law of sinne and death Besides this very place maketh against them for when the Apostle doth thus assume a person he plainly discovereth he doth so you see he doth expresly say that what he did he did by a figure but here is not the least hint given of any such thing there is not a syllable by which we may gather any such transfiguration So that it is a wonder that the Apostle should continue in such a long discourse and that with so much vehemency
and yet give no discovery that he doth not mean it of himself especially when the Adversaries to this Exposition say That to understand it of Paul is so contumelious to the Spirit of God and so destructive to all godliness Certainly if so the Apostle would have manifested something to remove this stumbling block Although I may adde that even that very Text I have in a figure transferred to my self and Apollo c. doth not necessarily allude to that mention made of thââ 1 Cor. 2. 12. where speaking of their factions some said they were of Paul others of Apollo as if the Apostle did by figure use their names intending thereby the false Apostles for say they The Corinthians made their divisions by occasion of the false Apostles glorying in them and exalting them against those that were faithfull But if so what argument could there be in Paul's words Was Paul crucified for you Were you baptized in the name of Paul If he did mean false Apostles and not himself why should he thank God that he had baptized so few Therefore Pareus acknowledgeth that the common Interpretation of that Text as if Paul by a figure use his name and Apollo for the false Apostles is no wayes agreeable with the scope of the place For how could that be an example to teach them humility as he there enlargeth himself Heinsius also doth not like the translation of the Greek word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for such a transmutation of names and persons but maketh it the same with ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but enough of this 2. A second Argument is In that this person is said to hate evil not to will what is evil not to know or approve of it and then he is said to will that which is good Now this is the Description of godliness to love good and to hate evil It is true that in convinced men who yet retain their lusts as also in legal men they would not do the evil that they do but yet they cannot be said to hate it No they love their lusts therefore when any fear doth abate they presently fall unto those sinnes again but this man doth hate sinne So that in this property two things discover a regenerate person 1. That not only his conscience and his judgement is against sinne but his will his heart and affections also whereas in all unregenerate men their judgements and their consciences being enlightned and terrified maketh them afraid to commit sinne but their will then affections ãâã not against it And then secondly The Apostle speaketh generally of evil and good he doth not say I do this evil I would not or I do not this good that I would but evil and good indefinitely and this is only proper to the regenerate he only hateth all evil be only loveth all good whereas the unregenerate person doth hate only some evil and it is some good only that he would do though if a man truly hate any sinne he hateth all sin because odium is circa genus Thirdly This person must be a regenerate person because there are two distinct principles in him Sinne and He are made two different things vers 17. It is no more I that do it but sinne that dwelleth in me And ver 18. I know that in me that is my flesh dwelleth no good thing Here then are as it were two distinct persons this person hath two selfs which doth necessarily demonstrate that this is a sanctified person For can a man under legal convictions say It is not I but sinne within me Can he that hath only errors upon his soul say It is not I but sinne within me How absurd and false were that for their hearts are set upon evil only the terrours of the Law restrain them Now a man is what his heart is not what his conviction is It is true the Libertines did abuse this Doctrine and would thereby acquit themselves it was not they but the flesh Yea some blasphemously would attribute it to God himself but till a man be regenerated he hath but one self and that is the flesh But saith Arminius those legal preparatory workings by the Law are the good gift of God and are to be reckoned among the works of the Spirit and therefore the Apostle may oppose them and sinne together To this it is answered Though those legal operations are from Gods Spirit yet because the person is not regenerated he is still in the state of the flesh he is still without Christ and therefore cannot distinguish himself from the flesh within him As long as those good gifts of God are not in a subject regenerated the same person and the flesh are all one Yea though those good effects come from Gods Spirit and so are in themselves spiritual yet as they are in a person unregenerated they are improved carnally they are managed only to self-respects and thus temporary believers though they do enjoy the good and common gifts of Gods Spirit yet as they are in them they are carnally improved spiritual things being prostituted to temporal ends It is plain then that onely a godly man may say It is not I but sinne in me and thus Aquinas on the place saith it may be easily understood of a man in the state of grace and of a sinner it can be only interpreted extortè by violence His reason he goeth upon is because that a man is said to do which his reason doth not which his sensitive appetite inclineth unto because homo est id quod est secundum rationem By reason we must understand sanctified reason otherwise a mans reason is corrupted as well as his sensual part Besides there is a further Argument used by the Apostle in this distinction he maketh It is no more I that do it No more that implieth once it was he that did it formerly he could not make such a distinction as now he doth Fourthly The person here spoken of must needs be a regenerate person Because it is said He delighteth in the Law of God after the inward man ver 22. This is one of the places that compelled Austin to change his former opinion Certainly to delight in the Law of God is an inseparable property of a regenerate person David expresseth his holy and heavenly heart thereby yea the Greek word is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I delight with Arminius doth well observe the emphasis of the word for he maketh the Preposition ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã not redundant but significant So that the meaning is he delighteth in the Law of God that is he delighteth in Gods Law and Gods Law delighteth in him there is a mutual sympathy and delight as it were which maketh the reason the stronger for a regenerate person For can any but he delight in Gods Law and Gods Law as it were delight in him again It is true it is ãâã in the inward man but that is not a diminution but a specification of the cause
whereby he doth delight in Gods Law I will not say that the inward man doth alwayes signifie the regenerate man and so is the same with a new-creature For although some understand that place so 2 Cor. 4. 16. The outward man perisheth but the inward man is renewed daily yet happily the context may enforce it another way yet here it must be understood of the mind as regenerated because it is opposite to the flesh and so signifieth the same with the hidden man of the heart in which sense a Jew is called one inwardly because of the work of grace upon his soul Fifthly The sad complaint he maketh concerning his thraldom doth evidently shew that it is a regenerate person O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death If we take body for the material body which is mortal and so sinfull or else for that body of sinne which abideth in the godly it cometh much to one point It argueth that the person here spoken of feeling this weight this burden upon him is in sad agonies of soul judgeth himself miserable and wretched in this respect and thereupon doth earnestly groan for a total redemption he longs to be in heaven where no longer will evil be present with him where he shall do all the good and as perfectly as he would It is true a godly man cannot absolutely be called a wretched and miserable man but respectively quoad hoc and comparatively to that perfect holiness we shall have hereafter So we may justly account our selves miserable not so much from external evils as from the motions and stirrings of sinne within us that do press us down and thereby make our lives more disconsolate Hence it is that Austin calleth this Gemitum saactorum c. the sighs and groans of holy persons fighting against concupiscence within them Sixthly The affectionate rejoycing and assured confidence that he hath about the full deliverance of him from this bondage expressed in those words I thank God through Jesus Christ doth greatly establish this exposition also of a regenerate ate person It is true there is variety about reading of this passage however this plainly cometh from an heart affected with assurance of Gods grace to give him a full redemption though for the present he lie in sad conflicts and agonies This is so palpable a conviction that some of the Dissentients will make Paul here to speak in his own person as if he did give God thanks for that freedome which the person spoken before had not obtained Neither is it any wonder to see such a sudden change in Paul from groaning under misery presently to break forth into thanks and praises of God For we may often observe such ebbings and flowings in David's Psalms that we would hardly think the same Psalm made by the same man at the same time one verse speaking dejection and disconsolateness the next it may be strong confidence and rejoycing in God Lastly The conclusion which Paul maketh from this excellent experimental Discourse is fully to our purpose So then I my self serve the Law of God but with the flesh the law of sin To serve God and to serve the Law of God is all one and this none but a godly man doth Yea to serve him with the mind and the spirit is a choice expression of our grace But because this is not perfect and compleat he addeth He serveth also the flesh and the law of sin It is true None can serve God and mammon Christ and sin but yet where there is not a perfect freedom from thraldom to sin there though in the principal and chief manner we are carried out to serve God yet the flesh retardeth and so snatcheth to it some service you heard contraries might be together while they are in fight Neither is our redemption from sin full and total It is to be done successively and by degrees that so we may be the more humbled and grace exalted Besides that expression ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is emphatical this is used when Paul expresseth himself in some remarkable manner I the same and no other man as it is used in other places 2 Cor. 10. 1. Now I Paul my self beseech you c. 2 Cor. 12. 13. except it was because I my self was not burdensom to you Rom. 9. 3. I could wish that myself were accursed c. which is enough to convince such as are not refractory ¶ 3. Objections Answered I Shall now consider what is objected against this Interpretation and shall not attend to the general objections such as that That who are Christs and regenerated have higher things attributed to them They have crucified the flesh they have mortifiedeth old man c. As also this seemeth to be injurious to Gods grace it will encourage men in slothfulness and negligence c. for these shall be answered in the general I shall therefore only pitch upon two objections which the Adversaries insist upon The first is That this person here spoken of is said to be once without the Law which say they is the description of a Gentile in Paul 's language therefore he assumeth some other person then his own for Paul alwayes lived under the Law Austin indeed expounds it thus I did live once without the Law that is saith he when he was a child before he had the use of reason This is too harsh Therefore it is better answered The person here spoken of is not said to be without the Law which is indeed the description of a Gentile but that he was alive without the Law once that is he as all the Pharisees understood the Law of God as forbidding only external sins and Paul living unblameably as to that respect thought to have life and righteousness by the Law but when the commandment came in power to him and he was convinced that it did prohibit not only outward sins but inward lustings of heart then he began to find himself a greater sinner than he was aware of then he found the Law to be death to him so that he lived without the Law because he was not affected with the full and exact obligation therof The second thing much insisted upon is That the person here spoken of is said to be carnal and sold under sinne which they say is made by the Scripture a certain property of a wickedman Thus it is said of Ahab Thou hast sold thy self to do wickedly 1 Kin. 21. 10. yea of all the children of Israel 2 Kin. 17. 13. They caused their children to pass through the fire and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord. But first Calvin doth grant that this is spoken of Paul while unregenerate and therefore beginneth his Exposition at the 15th verse of a sanctified person yet that cannot well be because there the Apostle beginneth to alter the tense There he saith I am carnal I am sold under sinne whereas before he had used the
is the string to her feet This made Paul cry out of it as a weight lying upon him Rom. 7. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death yea Heb. 12. 1. it is called a weight now as that must needs be an impediment to any who run in a race no less burdensome is original sinne to a godly man in his way to heaven Fourthly It hinders the perfection of grace cooling and remitting the fervour and zeal thereof and herein chiefly the mischievous effect of original sinne is discovered it maketh the soul halt in his progress it allayeth the heat of grace it is like smoak to put out the fire The adversaries to this Truth say it is not intelligible how the Spirit can make us will one thing and the flesh another seeing a man hath but one will and he cannot velle nolle will and nill at the same time about the same object But they may know that by such expressions are chiefly meant That the hearrt of a man through this flesh within him is very faint and remiss in all its actions about that which is good when he doth will it it 's so inefficaciously so slluggishly so imperfectly that it may be called a nilling as well as a willing and this is the sad issue of original sinne it maketh us go halting to the grave it abateth that activity and zeal of spirit which ought to be in holy things Fifthly The flesh hindereth absolute compleatness of grace by soiling debasing and infecting our holy duties It is as some mud cast into a pure stream it is as some poison mingled with wine and for this it is that the most holy have prayed God would not enter into judgement with them because in his sight no flesh could be justified Psal 143. 2. For this the Scripture compareth even our righteous actions to a menstruous cloath Isa 30. 22. This is the frog that is drawen up with the pure water out of the well though our godly duties are not sinnes yet they are sinful they are damnable in themselves and therefore need the mercy of God to forgive the imperfections adhering to them Lastly The flesh is an hindrance in the way of grace by dividing and distracting of the heart In the stare of integrity when there was no such intestine warre then the whole strength of the soul emptied it self one way but now though grace hath for the main setled our hearts upon God yet the flesh interposeth that propoundeth other objects and thus because the pool runneth into divers streams it is not so full and plentifull so that it is impossible there should be any perfection where there is any distraction or division and therefore we may justly expostulate with all those who plead they are without sin Whether they never have so much as one wandring thought in any holy duty they go about If they should say they have not it is our duty to flee from such persons as are puffed up with such self-love and self-confidence that they know not or feel not what they are or do Such are like those distracted persons that conceit themselves Kings and Emperours when at the same time they are miserable and indigent Now by these several actings of the flesh within us the godly man may perceive what little cause he hath to trust in himself thou canst not be secure while in this mortal body the wound original sinne hath given thee is not wholly cured sometime or other this close secret enemy may rob thee of thy Pearls and Jewels if thou art not diligent in praying and watching over thy self In the next place I shall proceed to a second Proposition and therein shall answer such general Objections that may plausibly be urged against the actings of original sinne within us and thereby against the imperfection of regeneration for some have thought it no dangerous errour to plead for a perfection even in this life Therefore Arminius his heires Epistola dedecati ad cap. 7. ad Rom. say that the unseasonable and excessive urging of the constant imperfection of regenerate persons and the impossibility of keeping the Law in this life without adding what the godly might do by faith and the Spirit of Christ such a thought as this might easily enter into the hearts of the hearers that they can do no good at all and they adde the ancient Church thought not the question about the impossibility of the law to be reckoned among capital ones which is apparent say they from Austin which wisheth the Pelagians would acknowledge it might be performed by the grace of Christ and then there would be peace between them But certainly Austin may best explain himself De perfectione justitiae ad Caelestiam ad finem where he saith he knoweth some who hold there either have been or are some that were without sinne Quorum sententiam de bâc re non audeo reprehendere quanquam nec defendere valeam as he dared not reprove it so he could not defend it This is his modest expression but if Austin could not defend it I do not know who in that age could seeing Austin by the gloss in the Canon law hath justly the preheminence above all the Ancients for Disputations as Hierom for the Tongues and Gregory for Morals and certainly the places brought to prove this point do argue that no man is without sinne that none can be justified if God enter into judgement It was also Pelagins boast in that Epistle ad Demetriadem for it 's taken to be his That in the first place he doth enquire what men are able to do how farre their own power extendeth as if this foundation were not laid there could be no exhortation to godliness Hence the Pelagians charged it as a consequence upon the Doctrine of original sinne that it would work in men a despair about perfect righteousness lib secundo coutra Julianum in initio But of late Writers setting aside Papists Castellio for we must not call him Castalio seeing he bewaileth his pride Castel Defens page 356. for assuming that name to him from the fountain of Muses doth with the greatest earnestness propugn the perfection of regenerate persons and immunity from sinne understanding that prayer for pardoning of sinne like as that duty to forgive our enemies viz. when we have them This Writer calleth that question Whether a man may by the Spirit of God perfectly obey the law a very profitable question but addeth that the errour on the right hand viz. that we are able perfectly to fullfill it is farre less dangerous then the contrary for God will never find fault with that man who doth endeavour for a perfect obedience and that by the help of God De obedientiâ Deo praestandâ pag. 227 228. but his arguments are as weak as his affections are strong in this point ¶ 5. Objections against the Reliques of sinne in a regenerate man answered LEt us examine what
is usually objected against this truth And First The command of God requiring we should not lust and that we should love God with all our heart and all our soul and might From hence they argue if these two commands cannot be perfectly fullfilled why are they required of us To this it is answered that it must be granted no man living is able to answer the perfection and exactness of this law who can say he loveth God as much as the command requireth that he never faileth in the least degree who can say that he never finds any sinful motions any irregular workings of heart though he do not consent to them suppose that were alwayes true which is not to be granted yet such motions being in the heart the very having of them maketh us to fall short of the exactness of the law But yet these commands are necessary for the rule must alwayes be perfect not wanting or failing in any thing The command doth represent the perfect Idea of compleat righteousness as Statues that are erected up in high and eminent places are commonly of greater length then the ordinary stature of men is Thus it is one thing the righteousness commanded in the law and the participation of it in the subject that receiveth it according to its proper capacity The law then is perfect but we are imperfect true obedience and imperfect must not be confounded as Castellio most ignorantly doth and therefore abandoneth that opinion De Justificat pag. 46. which maketh imperfection a sinne but he calumniateth the orthodox when he saith we hold nothing a vertue but what is chiefest ibid. pag. 43. neither do we call that imperfection which may have a greater degree Adam was not imperfect because he had not so much holiness as the Angles have In heaven it may be judged that one Saint shall have more grace then another yet every one perfected in their measure and though it be so he that hath not so much holiness as the chiefest shall not be judged sinfully imperfect there is a negative imperfection and a privative this later is when the subiect doth not partake of what degrees it ought to do and then it is alwayes a sinne The starre hath not as much light as the Sunne but this is no privative imperfection because it is not bound to be the Sunne Now the command of God requireth of us the chiefest love that we can by grace put forth not the highest degree of love which is possible but what we are bound to do and any defect herein is a sinne We admit that all graces are not alike no more then all sinnes one may be more holy then another yet he that is the highest attainer doth not reach to the utmost of the command and therefore whatever falleth short of that is damnable deserving wrath of God Secondly When we say no man is able to fullfill the Law of God in this life because the flesh doth still abide in us We mean not as if this were so because God could not subdue it or sinne and the Devil were more potent then Christ but he hath in his Word declared that he will not give such a measure of grace in this life by the righteousness whereof we should be justified So that Castellio's exclamations in this case are ridiculous here is no injury done to the Spirit of God we do not make Christ a semi-Saviour for we readily grant That the Spirit of God could make us absolutely free from sinne in the twinkling of an eye In the hour of death we are immediately purged from all evil So that it 's plain the Spirit of God could make us thus compleat but he will not neither doth this tend to his dishonour no more than that we die that we are ââck and carry about with us corruptible bodies For did not Christ die that we might have glorious bodies that we might be redeemed from this corruption Yet this is not done immediately Seeing then Christ hath assured us that both soul and body shall be made perfectly holy and happy in time though it be not done as soon as we would have it we are not to cavil herein but satisfie our selves with the wisdom of God who doth every thing beautifull in his season It is true Christ when he cured bodily diseases he did perfectly cure them but doth it therefore follow that he must do so in soul-diseases as Castellio urgeth No certainly but rather as Christ though he healed some perfectly of their diseases yet he did not take away their mortality from them So though by the grace of God we have strength to overcome gross sinnes yet we are not made impeccable as the glorified Saints in Heaven are but there remaineth the fuell of sinne still within us not but that God could remove it as he could have inabled the Israelites to have conquered all the Canaanites but because he will not God could have made all the world at once but he proceeded by degrees and thus he doth in our sanctification So that herein we are daily taught to be humble in our selves and to depend alone upon the grace of God It is true if all sinne were removed and we confirmed in a state of grace then there would be no danger of pride as there is not in those who are made glorious in Heaven But were were we made perfect and delivered from all sinne yet abiding still in a mutable condition we should quickly be drunken with the thoughts of our own excellencies so that perfection while we are in the way would not be so advantagious unto us unless to perfection God should also add confirmation and this would be to confound Heaven and earth together And thus much for the first Objection ¶ 6. I Shall onely name a second Objection made in the general against the reliques of original corruption in a man though regenerated and thereby the imperfection of our renovation because this doth more properly belong to another head in Divinity which is much disputed viz. De Perfectione Justitia Of the Perfection of righteousness in this life The Objection which is plausibly and speciously urged against this truth is That this Doctrine is an enemy to a holy life it is pernicious to godlinesse that it is a pleading for sinne and an encouragement to men to content themselves in their formal and sluggish way because they cannot be perfect Thus it is thought we bring up an ill report about the way to Heaven as those Spies did about Canaan we discourage people making their hearts faint because of great Gyants that we say are in the way In this manner Julian the Pelagian old of calumniated Austin that he did in naturae invidiam malae conversationis sordes refundere that he did Peccantibus metum demere quorum obscenitatum Apostolorum sanctorum omnium injuriis he did consolari because he made Paul to speak those words The evil that I hate that I do of his
own person Yea he saith Austin's purpose was ad infereadum virtutibus bellum ad excidium civitatis Dei c. Lib. 3. contra Julianum cap. 26. What a boasting Goliah is here or a railing Rabshaheb as if the holding of this corruption adhering to a man though godly did proclaim war against all godliness and did overthrow the City of God Cassalio also maketh such preaching as this to be to sow thistles that we may reap figs It is to make God accept of blind and same Sactifices saith he Quinque Impedim pag. 11. 12. 19. that we are like children holding a bird whose legs are tied by a thred and letting her flie a little we presently pull her back again Thus we bid people obey ãâã Law of God and when a man endeavoureth to do it then they tell him he cannot Therefore saith he spend as much time to get perfect obedience as thou doest to get learning the knowledge of the tongue or as thou dost to get wealth and then thou wilt see we are not perfect because we do not spend so much time in this as in other things But this is to speak like a Philosopher rather than a Christian To the Objection we answer There is no injury to godlinesse offered by this truth First Because we say it is every mans sinne that he is not perfect therefore we ought to humble our selves under all our failings As it was the Israelites disobedience that they were not active to destroy every Canaanite whatsoever cometh short of the exact Rule of the Law is sinfull and thereby damnable Hence God is angry not only with gross sinnes but the imperfect graces of his people Revel 3. 2. I have not found thy works perfect ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã before God I here was much emptiness much vacuity the Church wanted solidity and fulness in her duties For this it is that the godly are subject to many afflictions and temptations they are under divers chastisements because all the drosse of corruption is not yet purged from them So that the godly man is so farre from delighting and contenting himself in these imperfections that he mourneth and groaneth under them Secondly Here is no impediment to godliness because we press it as a duty upon the godly to be pressing forward every day to be perfecting holinesse constantly and that they are to take heed of self-fulness or to rest contented in low principles Hence the Apostle Heb. 5. 11 12 13. and Chap. 6. 1. speaketh very terrible to such as remain in their rudiments as it were and are not carried out to perfection The Corinthians also 2 Cor. 7. 1. are commanded to perfect holinesse in the fear of God It is therefore our duty to endeavour after perfection as Paul professeth he did Phil. 3. though he had not attained unto it but yet when all is done Our perfection will be to bewail our imperfection we shall find absolute purity is Res voti magis quam eveniûs as Ambrose of old Hence the most godly have failed in the exercise of those graces which they have been most eminent in Abraham is called the father of the faithfull whose steps we are to follow yet through fear in his lying or equivocating he manifested unbelief Sarah is noted for obedience to her husband and propounded as a patern to all wives yet in what a sinfull and sad passion did she break out against Abraham when he was innocent and she was in all the fault that was about Hagar The Lord saith she judge between me and thee Gen. 16. 5. Thus David for his sincerity called a man after Gods own heart but how false and hyporitical in the matter of Vriah Here then is no encouragement to stand still we are not come to our races end we are to grow every day there is more to be done then yet we have performed and this striving after further holiness will be while we are in this life ¶ 7. The Objection return'd upon the Perfectionists THirdly Those that plead for perfection they hinder the progress of godliness they perswade men with foolish and ablurd conceits that they âay attain to perfection for when men do believe they are perfect What ââed they labour more if they be at the races end What need they runne still Nothing doth more destroy the life and power of godliness than such arrogant and proud conceits So that as Seneca said Many had been learned men if they had not been conceited of their learning so many might profitably proceed in the mortifying of sinne if they were not perswaded it was mortified already Thus these Perfectionists preach men into arrogant perswasions of their own righteousness and thereby hinder them from a true progress in holiness Besides such Doctrine is in an high degree injurious to the grace of the Gospel to our Evangelical Justification if we be whole we do not need the Physician Though God vouchsafe inherent grace to us so farre as to be delivered from the dominion of sin and also to be subduing of it daily yet the grace of God exalted in this life is by imputation The grace without us not the grace within us is that which doth justifie This is the grace so frequently spoken of in the New Testament and to which all the godly make their recourse under the guilt of sinne and the accusations of the Law whereas the Doctrine of Perfection wholly evacuateth this admirable and precious way of Gospel-grace But enough of this ¶ 8. The several Conflicts that may be in a man I Come to another Proposition which is That we may conceive of three conflicts and contrary lustings that may be in a man not at all naming that which is for the most part in every sinner that he would have the profit of a sinne the pleasure of a sinne but not the bitterness of it Such a conflict is in most sinners they would have the advantage by sinne but not the damage by it Thus Arianus Epictetus lib. 2. cap. 26. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Every sinne hath division in it self and so goeth on saying That every rational soul is obnoxi us to this fight The thief would not steal as it is a sinne but as it is profitable Hence it is that ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that what he would that he doth not and what he would not do that he doth which are almost the same words with the Apostle But this I do not insist on The first combate is That which may be in Heathens between their conscience and their appetite The light of nature inclining one way and their lust another way which is notably taken notice of by Aristotle a man in such a conflict is called by him an incontinent person as distinct from an intemperate who having the habit of sinne is carried out to the actings thereof without any remorse or regretings of conscience or reason To clear this he speaketh of
say Christus resurrexit Christ is risen For this end Christ is called The first fruit of them that slept vers 20. As the first fruits did sanctifie the whole harvest of corn that was afterwards to be gathered So did Christ rising all his members by his Resurrection assuring them of theirs Hence it is that the Apostles Arguments are not to prove the Resurrection of wicked men for they arise upon another account but onely of the godly who are his members and have an interest in his mediation It is indeed a Dispute Whether even wicked men do not rise by the virtue of Christs merit and his Resurrection Baldwine for determining the negative in locum is traduced by another Lutheran for Popery and Calvinism as introducing that Doctrine of the particularity of Christs death But certainly The wicked mans resurrection is not to be accounted in the number of any mercies and therefore not merited by Christ Hence it followeth necessarily that they rise not by any relation to Christ but by the power and justice of God because of that immutable and unchangeable Decree that every sinner unrepenting shall die both temporally and eternally which later could not be accomplished unlesse the bodies of wicked men were raised up to life again out of the dust Now our Apostle to prove Christ the cause of our Resurrection draweth an Argument from a comparison between Adam and him making them two originals and fountains but of contrary effects the one of death the other of life For as in Adam all die so in Christ all shall be made alive Not that all men universally shall be saved by Christ but the universal particle must be limited according to the subject matter in hand All that are in Christ all that are his members shall be made alive by him And therefore in the next verse it is so limited Christ the first-fruits and afterwards they that are Christs at his coming So that the sense is That as all Adams posterity die because of him so all that are Christs seed shall live by him For the expression in Adam and in Christ do denote a causality in them the one of death the other of life Therefore we must not think that the Apostle doth here only make a bare similitude and comparison shewing that as by Adam we die so by Christ we shall be made alive but it 's an Argument from the power and causality that is in one to the other The Apostle doth in the fifth of the Romans make the like comparison only there is this difference as Calvin observeth In that place the Apostle maketh the comparison chiefly in respect of spiritual effects death as it brings condemnation and life as it is accompanied with justification here and glorification hereafter This Text is greatly agitated in the controversie between Puccius and Socinus Vide Disput de statu primi hominis ante lapsum The former holding truly though he superaddeth many gross errors that Adam was not made mortal and that death came in only by sinne only he goeth absurdly beyond his bounds when he holdeth the beasts were also made immortal The later on the contrary he holdeth That Adam was made mortal that death in natural that though by sinne we are under a perpetual necessity of death which is an ambiguous phrase he useth yet death it self is natural He granteth That immature and violent death cometh by sinne but death as it is a meer dissolution of a person so it is from his primitive creation and constitution Therefore be would have this difference between the Text I am upon and Paul's Discourse in the fifth of the Romans viz. That there indeed he speaketh of the sinne of Adam by which we come to die But here he would have the Apostle consider Adam as he is by Creation and that being mortal from the beginning we also are mortal from him But who can perswade himself that these passages concerning the change of the body hereafter to what it is now It is sown in corruption it 's raised in corruption it is sowen in dishonour it is raised in glory it is sowen in weaknesse it is raised in power are to be understood of our bodies as at the first Creation and not as they are now by Adam's fall Our bodies are made corruptible and vile bodies by reason of sinne We must then understand the Apostle as speaking of Adam sinning though sinne be not here named So that the fifth of the Romans will excellently illustrate this place and that maketh the sense to be That Adam sinning by his sinne death entered upon all mankind so that death is not natural neither doth it arise from our first constitution but it cometh in wholly by sinne SECT II. Death an Effect of Original Sinne explained in divers Propositions HAving then heretofore spoken of some spiritual effects of original sinne and more might be named such as a necessity to sinne an impotency to all good senslesness and stupidity therein the aldom to Satan but I shall pass them by as being very proper to the Common-place of Divinity which is of the grace of God and mans free-will and shall proceed to the effects of original sinne that are of another nature and that is temporal and eternal death The former effects did so slow from original sinne as that also they are sinfull properties in a man but these are meerly punishments It is not our sinne that we are sick that we die but it is the effect From the words then we observe this truth and doctrine That death cometh upon all mankind because of our sinne we have originally from Adam It is true the Socinian will say We put more in the Doctrine then is in the Text but you heard the comparison used by the Apostle in the fifth of the Romans compared with this doth necessarily suppose death to be because of Adam's sinne not only as imputed unto us but because thereby we are made inherently sinfull This truth is of a very vast compasse but I shall consine my self within as narrow bounds as may be I shall follow my usual method to explicate this in several Propositions ¶ 1. FIrst This controversie about mans mortality is very famous in the Church and hath been of old solliciously disputed The Pelagians as they denied original sinne so consonantly to that falshood they affirmed That death was not the punishment of sinne but did arise by the necessity of our natural constitution Which Assertion was condemned by some Councils and the Laws of Emperours as injurious to God the Creator of men For this experience that Infants new born are subject to many miseries and death it self was a thorn in their sides which they could not endure in nor yet possibly pull out Sometimes with the Stocks they would deny death to be an evil Sometimes they would say Children in the womb are guilty of actual sinnes for which they deserved death but that which they did most constantly adhere
posse mori is known by all It is not then an absolute but a conditional immortality we speak of ¶ 3. Propos 3. ALthough we say that God made man immortal yet we grant that his body being made of the dust of the earth and compounded of contrary element it had therefore a remote power of death It was mortal in a remote sense only God making him in such an eminent manner and for so glorious an end there was no proxim and immediate disposition to death God indeed gave Adam his name whereas Adam imposed a name upon all other creatures but not himself and that from the originals he was made of to teach him humility even in that excellent estate yet he was not in an immediate disposition to death When Adam had transgressed Gods Law though he did not actually die upon it yet then he was put into a mortal state having the prepared causes of death within him but it was not so while he stood in the state of integrity then it was an immortal state now it is a mortal one I say state because even now though Adam hath brought sinne and death upon us yet in respect of the soul a man may be said to be immortal but then there was immortality in respect of soul and body the state he was created in did require it So that although death be the King of terrors yet indeed original sinne which is the cause of it should be more terrible unto us Now man by sinne is fallen the beasts could they speak would say Man is become like one of us yea worse for he carrieth about with him a sinfull soul and a mortal body ¶ 4. Distinctions about Mortality and that in several respects Adam may be said to be created mortal and immortal THe fourth Proposition is That from the former premisses it may be deducted that in several respects Adam may be said to be created mortal and immortal yet if we would speak absolutely to the question when demanding how Adam was created we must return Immortall Some indeed because mans mortalilty and immortality depended wholy upon his will as he did will to sinne or not to sinne so they have said he was neither made mortal or immortal but capable of either but that is not to speak consonantly to that excellency of state which Adam was created in for as Adam was created righteous not indifferent as the Socinians say neither good or bad but capacious of either qualification so he was also made immortal not in a neutral or middle state between mortal and immortal so that he had inchoate immortality upon his creation but not consummate or confirmed without respect to perseverance in his obedience for the state of integrity was as it were the beginning of that future state of glory Again Adam might be called mortal in respect of the orginals of his body being taken out of the dust of the earth but that was only in a remote power so God did so adorne him with excellent qualifications in soul and body that the remote power could never be brought into a proxime and immediate disposition much less into an actual death for a thinâ may be said to be mortal 1. In respect of the matter and thus indeed Adams body in a remote sence was corruptible 2. In respect of the forme Thus Philosophers say sublunary things are corruptible because the matter of them hath respect to divers formes whereas they call the heavens incorruptible because the matter is sufficiently actuated by one forme and hath no inclination to another and thus Adam might truly be said to be immortal for it was very congruous that a body should be united to the soul that was sutable to it for that being the form of a man and having an inclination or appetite to the body if man had been made mortal at first the natural appetite would in a great measure have been frustrated it being for a little season only united to the body and perpetually ever afterwards seperated from it Surely as an Artificer doth not use to put a precious Diamond or Pearl into a leaden Ring so neither would God at first joyn such a corruptible body to so glorious and an immortal soul 3. A thing may be said to be mortal in respect of efficiency and thus it is plain Adam was not made mortal for he might through the grace of God assisting have procured immortality to himself that threatening to Adam In the day he should eat of that forbidden fruit he should die the death Gen. 2 17. doth plainly demonstrate that had he not transgressed Gods command he should never have died 4. A thing may be said to be mortal in respect of its end Thus all the beasts of the field whatsoever Puccius thought are mortal because their end was for man to serve him so that it is a wild position to affirm as he doth that there shall be a resurrection of beasts as well as of men for they were made both in respect of matter form and end altogether mortal whereas Adam was made after the Image of God to have communion and fellowship with God and that for ever which could not be without immortality ¶ 5. Prop. 5. THe true causes of death are only revealed in Gods Word All Philosophers and Physitians they searched no further then into the proxim immediate causes of death which are either external or internal they looked no further and knew of no other thing but now by the Word of God we Christians come to know that there are three principal causes of death so that had not they been those intermedious and proxime causes of death had never been The first cause is only by occasion and temptation and that was the Devil he tempted our first parents and thereby was an occasion to let death into the world for this cause the Devil is called Joh. 8. 44. a murderer from the beginning it doth not so much relate to Cain as to Adams transgression yet the Scripture Rom. 5. doth not attribute death to the Devil but to one mans disobedience because Adams will was not forced by Satan he had power to have resisted his temptations only the Devil was the tempting cause The second and most proper cause of death was Adams disobedience so that death is a punishment of that sinne not a natural consequent of mans constitution The History of Adam as related by Moses doth evidently confirme this that there was no footstep of death till he transgressed Gods Law and upon that it was most just that he who had deprived himself of Gods Image which is the life of the soul should also be deprived of his soul which is the life of the body that as when he rebelled against God he presently felt an internal rebellion by lusts within and an external disobedience of all creatures whom he did rule over before by a pacifical dominion so also it was just that he who had deprived himself
2. 4. Luke 2. 25. The Scripture useth ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for quatentus as Rom. 11. 13. And indeed this is most consonant to the Apostles scope for why should Adam's sinne be brought in rather than other parents Were it not that we were considered in him under a common respect as one with him It is true Erasmus saith he doth not remember that ever he read ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã with a Dative case but Heb. 9. 17. may confute him And among prophane Authors ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã neither can ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Matth. 26. 50. be said by most men to signifie in as much For as De Dieu observeth the postpositive is for the demonstrative ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Art thou come for this as the other Evangelists Dost thou betray the sonne of man with a kisse Although if we should render it causaâly as the adversaries contend it would no wayes prejudice the truth we plead for seeing that the sinne here charged upon all mankind is because of Adam And therefore if we will make any rational coherence in the Apostles discourse it must be after this manner As by one man sinne entered into the world and death by sinne and so death passed upon all men as much as all have sinned that is all sinned in that one man for what sense it is to say That by one man sinne and death entred upon all because all sinned in themselves This would be a contradiction to lay the death of mankind upon Adam's sinne and upon all mens actual sinnes likewise Yea it is wholly repugnant to the Apostles scope who is comparing Adam and Christ not simply as two originals and beginnings but as two causes of death and life Indeed I would not much contend with any that would render the word causally and so make the verse an whole entire proposition in it self without any defective expression at all so that we understand all mens sinning to be interpreted of that which they are guilty of in Adam It is not worth time to take notice of the wild Divinity imposed upon this Discourse of Pauls by the late Writer Vnum Necessar pag. 365 who would have Death come upon mankind occasionally onely by Adam's sinne and that but till Moses his time and after Moses to come upon a new account by the Law promulged through his ministry The mentioning of this is confutation enough for here in this Text the Apostle doth make all mankind to die because of Adam And why may not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã here be the same with ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the Text. Another Text witnessing this truth is Rom. 6. 23. The wages of sinne is death Here death is not taken only for eternal death as the Socinians say because the opposite unto it is made eternal life but for both kinds of death eternal and temporal temporal death being the in-let of eternal and so contrary to eternal life Neither is that cavil of their worth any thing who would make the wages of sinne to be the Subject and not the Predicate because the Article ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is put to it but that is no sure Rule Sometimes the Article is put to the Predicate for some emphasis sake and not the Subject as I Cor. 9. 1. Are not ye ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã my work in the Lord Are ye not that eminent and conspicuous singular work of mine in the Lord We see then what it is that sinne deserveth even temporal and eternal death it cometh not from mans primitive constitution but Adam's transgression Therefore it is that we deserve many thousand deaths if it were possible for original sinne deserveth death every actual sinne deserveth death yea and hell also Oh how miserable is man who thus deserveth to die and to be damned over and over again Therefore the Apostle useth the plural number ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to signifie the manifold evils that are in this death The word properly signifieth that meat which was allowed souldiers for their service in warre We see then how fearfull we all are to be of sinne What wages wilt thou have for every pleasant every profitable sinne even death temporal and eternal The last Text I shall mention is that which Austin so much urgeth in this point Rom. 8. 10. The body is dead because of sinne which is chiefly to be understood of our mortal body now he saith it's dead because of the sentence of death passed it so that there is no way to escape it It is sinne then that maketh the body in a state of death that deserveth the whole harmony and good temperament of the body should be dissolved and therby follow a dissolution of the whole man For though sinne deserve death yet there must be thereby some ataxy or disorder made in the body of a man otherwise death would not follow So that though sinne be the meritorious cause yet several diseases the effect of sinne do actually cause death Not that sinne maketh a substantial change in a man but an accidental only Thus you see the Scripture constantly attributing death yea and our mortality and corruptibility to sinne onely and not to our natural constitution Therefore those are strange positions we meet with Vnum Necessar cap. 6. Sect. 1. pag. 371 372. That death came in not by any new sentence or change of nature for man was created mortal and that if Adam had not sinned he should have been immortal by grace that is by the use of the tree of life That to die is a punishment to some to others not It was a punishment to all that sinned before Moses and since upon the first it fell as a consequent of Gods anger upon Adam upon the later it fell as a consequent of that anger which was threatned in Moses Law but to those who sinned not at all as Infants and Ideots it was meerly a condition of their nature and no more a punishment then to be a child is But seeing he professeth himself to be of the same judgement with his incomparable Grotius let him consider how these positions agree with him who doth against Socinus industriously and solidly prove Defens fid de satisfac cap. 1. pag. 19 20 21. that death hath alwayes some respect of a punishment instancing in the Texts I have mentioned using such words Quidclarius Quis vel verba legens non videat hanc sententiam and Corinthians the words of my Text and an ad anussim respondereisti ad Romanos Yea he concludeth That it were easie to prove that it was the perpetual judgment of the ancient Jews and Christians that death of whatsoever kind it be viz. whether with violence or without violence was the punishment of sinne adding that the Christian Emperors did deservedly condemn beside other things this opinion of Pelagians that they held mortem non ex insidiis fluxisse peccati sed exegisse eam legem
in this matter Annotat in cap. 5. of the Romans for in his paraphrase on the 12 Verse he makes death and mortality to come upon all men by Adam's disobedience because all that were born after were sinners that is born after the likeness and image of Adam And again on Verse 14 death came on the world because all men are Adam 's posterity and begotten after the image and similitude of a sinful parent By this we see the cause of death is put upon that image and likeness we are now born in to our sinful parent which is nothing els but our original corruption Let not this consideration of our sinful soules and mortal bodies pass away before it hath wrought some affectionate influence upon our soules Cogita temcrtuum brevi moriturum Every pain every âch is a memento to esse hominem That is an effectual expression of Job cap. 17. 14. I said to corruption thou art my father and to the worm thou art my mother and sister You see your alliance and kindred though never so great it is your brother-worm your sister-worm Job giveth the wormes this title because his body was shortly to be consumed by them and thereby a most intimate conjunction with them would follow Post Genesim sequitur Exodui was an elegant allusion of one of the Ancients yea the life that we do live is so full of miseries that Solomon accounteth it better not to have been born and the Heathen said Quem Deus amat moritur juvenis which should humble us under the cause of this sinne SECT VI. Q. Whether Death may not be attributed to mans constitution considered in his meer naturalls I Proceed to the second and last Question which is May not death be attributed to mans constitution considered in his meer naturals Is there not a middle state to be conceived between a state of grace and sinne viz. a state of pure naturals by which death would have come upon mankind though there had been no sinne at all This indeed is the sigment of some Popish Writers who make Adam upon his transgression to be deprived of his supernaturals and so cast into his naturals although generally with the Papists this state of pure naturals is but in the imagination only they dispute of such things as possible but de facto they say man was created in holiness and after his fall he was plunged into original sinne Now the Socinians they do peremptorily dispute for this condition of meer naturals de facto that Adam was created a meer man without either sinne or holiness but in a middle neutral way being capable of either as his free will should determine him This state of meer nature is likewise a very pleasing Doctrine to the late Writer so oftern mentioned it helpeth him in many difficulties Death passed upon all men that is the generality of mankind all that lived in their sinne The others that died before died in their nature not in their sinne neither Adam's nor their own save only that Adam brought it upon them or rather lest it to them himself being disrobed of all that which could hinder it Thus he Answer to a Letter pag. 49. This is consonant to those who say as Bellarmine and others that man fallen and man standing differ as a cloathed and and naked man Adam was cloathed with grace and other supernatural endowments but when sinning he was divested of all these and so left naked in his meer natural Thus they hold this state of meer naturals to be a state of negation not privation God taking from man not that which was a connatural perfection to him but what was meerly gratuitous The late Writer useth this comperison of Moses his face shining and then afterwards the withdrawing of this lustre Now as Moses his face had the natural perfection of a face though the glorious superadditaments were removed thus it is with man though fallen he hath his meer naturals still and so is not in a death of sinne or necessity of transgressing the Law of God but though without the aid of supernaturals he cannot obtain the kingome of heaven yet by these pure naturals he is free in his birth from any sinful pollution saith the known Adversary to this truth Thus he that calleth original sinne a meer non ens he layeth the foundation of his Discourse upon a meer non entity Now if you ask what cometh to man by these meer naturals he will answer death Yea that which is remarkable is the long Catalogue of many sad imperfections containing three or four Pages that is brought in by him Vnum Necessar cap. 6. Sect. 7. a great part whereof he saith is our natural impotency and the other brought in by our own folly As for that which is our natural impotency man being thereby in body and soul so imperfect it is he saith as if a man should describe the condition of a Mole or a Bat concerning whose imperfections no other cause is to be enquired of but the Will of God who giveth his gifts as he pleaseth and is unjust to no man by giving or not giving any certain proportion of good things To the same purpose he speaketh also in another place further explicat pag. 475. Adam's sinne left us in pure naturals disrobed of such aides extraordinary as Adam had But certainly there are few Readers who shall consider what is by him made to be the natural impotency of man in soul and body but must conclude he is most injurious to the goodness wisdomè and justice of God in making man of such miserable pure naturals yea that it is a position worse then Manicheisme for the Manichees seeing such evils upon mankind attributed them to some evil principle but this man layeth all upon the good and most holy God It is Gods will alone not mans inherent corruption that exposeth him to so many unspeakable imperfections It is well observed by Jansenius who hath one Book only de statu purae nature opposing the Jesuites and old Schoolmen in their sigment upon a state of meer naturals that this opinion was brought into the Church of God out of Aristotle and that it is the principles of his Philosophy which have thus obscured the true Doctrine of original sinne I shall breifly lay down some Arguments against any such supposed condition of meer nature from whence they say we have ignorance in the mind rebellion against the Spirit and also death it self but without sinne And Arg. 1. The first is grounded upon a rule in reason That every subject capable of two immediate contraries must necessarily have one or the other A man must either be sick or well either alive or dead there is no middle estate between them thus it is with man he must either be holy or sinful he must either be in a state of grace or a state of iniquity The Scripture giveth not the least hint of any such pure naturals Indeed a man may in
Cor. 15. 56. which Austin expounds in this sense as that by sinne death is caused as that is called Poculum mortis a cup of death which causeth death or as some say The Tree of life is called so because it was the cause of life If then original sinne be a sinne it must have a sting and this sting is everlasting death So that if we attend to what the Scripture speaketh concerning us even in the womb and the cradle that we are in a state of sinne we must conclude because it is a sinne therefore it deserveth damnation Hence you heard the Apostle Rom. 5. expresly saith Judgement came by one to condemnation and Rom. 3. That the whole world is guilty before God Secondly The Scripture doth not only speak of this birth-pollution as a sinne but as an hainous sinne in its effects whereby it doth admis of many terrible aggravations as you have heard It is the Law in our members it 's the flesh tho body of sin the sin that doth so easily beset us the sin that warreth against the mind and the Spirit of God that captivateth even a godly man in some measure which maketh Paul groan under it and cry out of his miserable condition thereby so that it is not meerly a sinne but a sinne to be aggravated in many respects and therefore necessarily causing damnation unlesse God in his mercy prevent Let Bellarmine and others extenuate it making it lesse then the least sinne that is of which more afterwards let them talk of venial sinnes that do not in their own nature deserve hell yet because all sinne is a transgression of Gods Law the curse of God belongeth thereunto therefore it hath an infinite guilt in respect of the Majesty of God against whom it is committed and they who judge sinne little must also judge the Majesty of God to be little also What shall one respect of involuntariness which is in original sinne make it lesse then others when ãâ¦ã so many other respects some whereof do more immediately relate to the nature of sinne then voluntariness can do farre exceed other sinnes Thirdly Original sinne must needs deserve damnation because it needeth the bloud of Christ to purge away the guilt of it as well as actual sins Christ is a Saviours to Infants as well as to grown men and if he be a Saviour to them then they are sinners if he save them then they are lost As for that old evasion of the Pelagian Infants need Christ not to save them from sinne but to bring them to the Kingdom of Heaven it 's most absurd and ridiculous for the whole purpose of the Gospel is to shew That Christ came into the world to bring sinners to Heaven through his bloud his death was expiatory and by way of atonement therefore it did suppose sinne hence he is sad to be the Lamb of God that taketh away the sinne of the world John 1. 29. which is both original and actual Fourthly That eternal damnation belongeth to the sinne we are born in appeareth by those remedies of grace and Ordinances of salvation which were appointed by God both in the Old and New Testament for the taking away of this natural guilt Circumcision in the Old Testament did declare that by nature the heart was uncircumcised and that every one was destitute of any inherent righteousnesse hence circumcision is called The seal of the righteousnesse which is by faith Rom. 4. 11. To this Baptism doth answer in the New Testament the external never whereof with the formal Rite of Administration doth abundantly convince us of our spiritual uncleanness as also the need we have of the bloud of Christ and also of his Spirit for our cleansing Now because the known Adversary to this truth affirmly That he knoweth of no Church that in her Rituals doth confesse and bewail original sinne As also that we might see the Judgement of our first Reformers in England about Baptism as relating to original sinne It is good to observe what is set down in the Publique Administration of Baptism as by the Common-Prayer-Book was formerly to be used there the Minister useth this Introductory Forasmuch as all men be conceived and born in sinne adding from hence That none can enter into the kingdom of Heaven unlesse he be born again It is the sinne he is born in not pure Naturals as the Doctor saith that inferreth a necessity of regeneration Again In the Prayer for children to be baptized there is this passage That they coming to thy holy Baptism may receive remission of sins Now what sinnes can children have but their original It is spoken in the plural number because more than one child is supposed to be baptized Again in the same Prayer we meet with this Petition That they being delivered from thy wrath What can more ashame the Doctors opinion then this That which he accounteth so horrid is here plainly asserted That children are born under Gods wrath therefore prayer is made that they may be delivered from it Lastly In another Prayer after the Confession of Faith we have this Petition That the old Adam in these children may be so buried that the new man may be raised up in them Why doth he not seoff at this expression saying as he doth upon another occasion That they change the good old man with these things that he never thought of No doubt but he will force these passages by some violent Interpretation as he doth the 9th Article but certainly it would be more ingenuity in him to flie to his principles of liberty of prophesying rather then to wrest these publick professions of original sinne It is true the Ancients and so the Papists put too much upon Baptism For Austin thought every child dying without Baptism yea and without the participation of the Lords Supper was certainly damned But of this extream more afterwards It is enough for us That Christs Institution of such a Sacrament and that for Infants doth evidently proclaim our sinfulnesse by nature and therein our desert of eternal wrath Fifthly To original sinne there must needs belong eternal wrath because of the nature of it and inseperable effects flowing from it The nature of it is the spiritual death of the soul by this a man is alienated from all life of grace and therefore till the grace of God appear it 's true of all by nature as followeth in the Chapter where this Text is vers 12. Without Christ alient from the Commonwealth of Israel strangers from the Covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world Thus Davenant upon that Text Dead in sinne Col. 2. 13. saith All the sons of Adam are accounted dead first because they lie in a state of spiritual death having lost the Image of God and partly because they are under the guilt of eternal death being obnoxious to the wrath of God for by nature we are the children of wram If then original sinne put
of integrity 479 Nor is there sense or feeling of any such Conflict in a natural man 480 It 's in all that are sanctified 81 Conflict the several kinds 500 Conscience What Conscience is 223 Whence quietness of Conscience in unregenerate men 90 And whence troubles of Conscience in the regenerate ib. Erroneous Conscience ought to be obeyed 224 Conscience horribly blind and erroneous by nature 225 And senslesse 226 The defect of Conscience in its offices and actings 228 The corruption of Conscience in accusing and excusing 230 Of a counterfeit Conscience 233 Sinfull lust fancy and imagination custome and education mistaken for Conscience ib. Conscience severe against other mens sins blind about its own 236 Security of Conscience 237 The defilement of Conscience when troubled and awakened 238 The difference between a troubled and a regenerate Conscience 243 Causes of trouble of Conscience without regeneration ib. False cure of a wounded Conscience 245 Consent A two-fold Consent of the will expresse and formal or interpretative and virtual 287 Creation Christ had his soul by Creation and so we have ours 195 Creature Mans bondage to the Creature 317 D Damnation DAmnation due to all for original sinne 528 Death Death not natural to Adam before sin 31 115 Death and all other miseries come from sin 173 Devil The Devil cannot compell us to sinne 15 114 Difference Difference between original and actual sins 477 Difficulty Difficulty of turning to God whence 478 Doubtings Doubtings whence 241 Duties Imperfection in the best Duties 11 Of doing Duties for conscience sake 234 E Exorcisms EXorcisms used anciently at the Baptism of Infants 54 F Faculties SOme Faculties and imbred principles left in the soul after the fall 224 Mans best Faculties corrupted by sinne 139 Flesh Flesh and spirit in every godly man 11 How the word Flesh is used in Scripture 139 Flesh and spirit contrary ib. Forgetfulness Forgetfulness natural and moral 257 Forgetfulness of sin 260 Of usefull examples and former workings of Gods Spirit 261 Of our later end the day and death and judgement and the calamities of the Church 262 Freedom Several kinds of Freedom 306 Freedom from the dominion of sin whether it be by suppression or abolishing part of it 503 G Grace WHat sanctifying Grace is 20 Given not so much to curb actual sin as to cure the nature ib. Free Grace exalted by the Apostles 308 The Doctrine of free Grace unpleasing to flesh and bloud 310 The necessity of special Grace to help against temptations 314 H Habits THe Habits of sin forbidden and the Habits of grace required by the Law 45 Heathens Heathens how far ignorant of original sin 168 Condemn the lustings of the heart 169 Heresies Hereticks The Heresies of the Gnosticks Carpocratians Montanists and Donatists 225 The guilt and craft of Heretiques 303 I Jesus Christ JEsus Christ his conception miraculous 388 But framed of the substance of the Virgin 389 Why called the Son of God ib. Had a real body ib. Born holy and without sin 390 How he could be true man and yet free from sin 392 Ignorance A universal Ignorance upon a mans understanding 178 210 Image Gods Image in Adam not an infused habit or habits but a natural rectitude or connatural perfection to his nature 19 Why called Gods Image 21 The Image of God in man Reason and understanding one part of it 113 Holinesse and righteousnesse another part ib. Power to persevere in holinesse another part ib. A regular subordination of the affections to the rule of righteousnes another part 114 Primitive glory honour and immortality another part 115 Dominion and superiority another part yet not the only Image of God as the Socinians falsly ib. How man made in it 131 Imagination Imagination its nature 351 Its sinfulnesse in making Idols and conceits to please it self 352 And in its defect from the end of its being 353 By its restlesnesse 355 By their universality multitude disorder their roving and wandring their impertinency and unseasonablenesse 356 357 It eclipseth and keeps out the understanding 358 Conceiveth for the most part all actual transgressions 359 Acts sin with delight when there are no external actings 360 Its propensity to all evil 361 Is continually inventing new sins or occasions of sin 362 Vents its sinfulnesse in reference to the Word and the preaching of it 364 Mind more affected with appearances than realities 365 And in respect of fear and the workings of conscience 366 And its acting in dreams 367 Is not in subordination to the rational part of man 368 The instrument in Austins judgment of conveying sin to the child 368 Prone to receive the Devils temptations 369 Immortal How many wayes a thing may be said to be Immortal 509 Of Adams Immortality in the state of innocency 513 Impossibility Impossibility of mans loosing himself from the creature and return to God 371 Infants Infants deserve hell 7 Sinners 29 Cannot be saved without Christ 35 55 Infant-holinesse what it is 56 Infants defiled with original sin before born 62 Judgment Whence diversities of Judgment in the things of God 219 Justification Justification by imputed not inherent righteousnesse 29 K Knowing Known CVriosity and affection in all of Knowing what is not to be Known 184 Which comes from original sin 212 L Law THe Law impossible to be kept 10 A Law what 85 The Law requireth habitual holinesse 130 Forbids lust in the heart 156 Liberty Liberty of will nothing but voluntarinesse or complacency 132 Lust What Lust is 155 How distinguished 157 Lust considered according to the four-fold estate of man 160 Sinfull Lust utterly extirpated in heaven 161 M Man MAn by nature out of Gods favour 117 Man made to enjoy and glorifie God 132 133 How sin dissolved the harmony of Mans nature ib. Man unable to help himself out of his lost condition 153 Through sin it is worse with Man than other creatures 174 The nobler part of Man inslaved to the inferiour 175 Man utterly impotent to any spiritual good 177 By his fall became like the devil 183 Memory The pollution of it 247 What it is 250 A two-fold weaknesse of Memory natural and sinfull ib. The use and dignity of it 251 The nature of it 253 Discoveries of its pollution 253 Wherein it is polluted 257 Wherein it fails in respect of the objects ib. Hath much inward vitiosity adhering to it 263 Subservient to our corrupt hearts 265 Mind Whence the vanity and instability of the Mind 217 Ministry One end of the Ministry 255 N Natural EVery Natural man is carnal in the mysteries of Religion in religious worship in religious ordinances in religious performances 140 141 In spiritual transactions and religious deportment 142 143 Necessity What Necessity is consistent with freedom 312 O Original Sinne. THe necessity of knowing it 1 The term ambiguously used and how taken in this Treatise ib. That there is such a natural concontagion on all 2 Why called Original sin 5 Denial of
it the mother of many errors 6 The cause of all miseries 7 Worse than actual 8 Ignorance thereof the cause why men understand not the work of conversion 9 Inseparably adheres to the best 11 A natural evil and how with the several names it hath had 13 The difilement of our specifical being 14 The inward principle of all sinfull motions ib. Flacius his opinion concerning it ib. Is alwayes putting it self forth 16 Neerer to us than actual or habitual sin 18 What it is 19 20 Why compared to death 21 Objections answered 22 Pelagians and Socinians opinion of it 28 Propagated ib. Is an internal and natural depravation of the whole man 32 Adams sin imputed to us is not all our Original sin ib. Of that opinion that Original sinne is vitium but not peccatum 33 Truly and properly a sin 34 Against the Law 35 How voluntary 39 Arminius and the Remonstrants disagree about Original sin 40 Arminius Remorstrants Zuinglius Papists Scotists and Socinians opinions of it 40 A sin a punishment and a cause of sin 41 Original inherent sin and Adams imputed sin are two distinct sins 43 Against the Law and how 44 45 Acknowledged in Old Testament times 48 Remonstrants confess it may be proved by two or three places of Scripture ib. Compared to a leprosie 51 Makes us leathsom to God as soon as born 52 Why called uncleanness ib. Should make us vile in our own eyes ib. Put a man by nature into worse condition than beasts 53 Makes us like the Devils ib. Pollutes our duties and makes us unfit and unworthy to draw nigh to God in duties 54 Makes us to be in the most immediate contrariety to God that can be ib. The denial of it charged upon Calvinists by the Lutherans 56 Acknowledged by the Rabbins and Fathers 62 Meditation thereon wherein advantagious 64 Not one universal thing of general influence but a particular thing in particular men 65 To be bewailed even by those that are regenerate ib. A two-fold Original sin 66 The different opinions of men about humiliation for it 67 In what sense it is to be repented of 68 Papists against sorrow for it 69 Several opinions concerning the pardon of it 67 68 69 Wherein repentance and the pardon of Original and actual sin do differ 70 It is an universal defilement 71 And an universal guilt ib. And the fountain and root of all actual sin ib. And the greatest sin 72 Inseparable from our natures while we live 73 Of the Scripture names of it 79 Not the essence or substance of the soul ib. Why called the old man 80 Improperly called a Law 83 Why called a Law 84 Instructs a man in all evil ib. Inclineth and provoketh to all evil ib. Compelleth to all evil 85 Why called the inherent or in-dwelling sin 90 How it dwels in the regenerate ib. Active and ever stirring 94 Is of an insinuating and contaminating nature 95 Depriveth both of power and will to do good 97 98 Inclines the heart to the creature 98 Resisteth all profers of grace 99 Weakens the principles of grace 100 Why called a treasure 102 An inexhausted stock 103 The cause of all pleasure in sin 104 Called a body and why 105 107 Shews it self outwardly in all our actions 107 Cannot be mortified without pain ib. A reality yet not a substance 108 Not a single sin but a lump of all evil ib. Inclineth only to carnal earthly and bodily things 109 Seth born in Original sinne 110 111 Deprives of more than external happiness and immortality against Socinians 117 Many Papists deny the positive part of it 136 Hath infected all men 137 Positive as well as privative 144 And the reasons thereof 145 Produceth positive sinfull actions 146 Sticks closer then vicious habits ib. Not a pestilential quality in the body 149 Is properly concupiscence or lust 157 And in what sense 159 And why so called 162 It is ignorant also ib. Defined 164 The whole man and the whole of man the subject thereof ib. Propagated and communicated to all Adams posterity 165 Truly known only by Scripture-light 167 How farre Heathens were ignorant thereof 168 The propagation thereof by the souls creation 199 Hath fill'd us with errour 211 And with curiosity 212 And vanity 213 And folly 214 Polluting the conscience how and wherein 221 Polluteth the memory 249 Polluteth the will 268 The affections 325 The imagination 348 The body of a man 392 And every one of mankind 387 Not the children of the most godly or the Virgin Mary excepted but only Christ 387. to 401 Original sin imputed the aggravations of it 405 Inherent the aggravation of it 407 It defiles all the parts of the soul is the root and cause of all actual sin is incurable taketh away all spiritual sense and feeling is habitual radicated in the soul 407. to 410 Objections against the hainousnesse of this sin Every one hath his proper Original sin 412 Vents it self betimes 415 Is alike in all 419 The immediate effects of Original sinne are mans propensity to sin 437. to 455 Is the cause of all other sine 455 Evil motions not consented unto and lusts consented unto 464 The combat between the flesh and spirit 474 Death 505 Eternal damnation 526 P Pray A Natural man cannot Pray 314 Pride Pride the cause of most heresies 218 Propagation Propagation of sin 397 Punishment The same thing may be a Punishment and a sin 41 R Redeemer THe necessity of a Redeemer demonstrates our thraldom to sin 319 Reformation A carnal mans Reformation is but the avoiding of one sin by another 318 Regenerate A sure difference between a Regenerate and unregenerate man 9 Regeneration Three sorts of mistaken Regeneration 10 Reliques Reliques of sin 474 Remember Whence is it that we Remember things when we would not 266 Righteousness Original Righteousness not given to Adam as a curb to the inferiour faculties 25 The difficulty of Rom. 5. 26 Original Righteousness the privation of it a sin 130 We were deprived of it by Adam 131 Vniversally lost 135 The losse of it the cause of all temporal losses ib. The privation of it doth necessarily inferre the presence of all sin in a subject susceptible 202 S Sacraments ONe end of the Sacraments 255 Sanctification Sanctification two fold 391 Satan All by nature in bondage to Satan 370 Scripture Scripture discovers us to our selves better then light of nature or Philosophy 161 168 The end of its being written 253 Self-knowing Self knowing a great duty and the hinderance of it 8 Sensless We are altogether Sensless as to any spiritual concernment 176 Sin A man naturally can do nothing but sin 15 16 The reason why all men do not commit all Sins though inclinable thereto 17 Men lie under a necessity of sinning yet this necessity is consistent with voluntarinesse 18 Sin delightfull to men 21 How Sin is natural to us 24 Christ only born without Sin and how 37. 390 Sin is what