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 〈◊〉 Positive as well as Privative Part. CHAP. XVII Objections against the Positive Part of Oâ—â—â—al 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
extraordinary officer an Evangelist is not here to be disputed Paul writeth this Epistle to him concerning his end why he left him there and also exciteth him to a lively performance of his office especially in a sharp and severe rebuking of them because of their doting still about Jewish fables and ceremonies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 clearly without ambiguities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Varinus or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Hesychius or cuttingly as it were to go to the bottom of the putrified sore that no unsound core be left behind so Illyricus And to evidence the crime of the Cretians the more he brings a testimony from Epimenides whom he cals their Prophet by way of conception for they esteemed him so sacrificing to him for he pretended in furious fits to be like one acted with a divine spirit and rapture Now this famous brand he stigmatizeth the Cretians with That they were alwayes liars c. And although Epemenides being a Cretian it might be retorted that he lied in saying The Cretians were lyars yet the speech is to be understood not of every one but of the general part and therefore the Apostle saith This witnesse is true From whence Aquinas gathereth That wheresoever there is any truth a Doctor in the Church may make his use of it because all truth is of God The use here is not so much for confirmation as conviction if you ask Why must these Cretians be so sharply rebuked for their Doctrine about Jewish Ceremonies seeing Rom. 14. The Apostle doth there prescribe another deportment to such viz. of for bearance and condescension The Answer is Those that are there spoken of were such as did erre out of infirmity and weaknesse but these in Crete were such as did obstinately and pertinaciously defend these false Doctrines therefore they must be severely dealt with yet the end of this censure is medicinal That they may be sound in the faith all errour is a sicknesse and a disease The Apostle having thus informed about Titus his duty he proceedeth to some Doctrinal Instruction about those erroneous opinions instancing in one which was greatly controverted in the Infancy of the Church and that is about the choice of meats and abstinence from them To obviate any corrupt Doctrine herein he layeth down this weighty Proposition To the pure all things are pure that is to such who are sanctified by the Christan saith and are righly instructed in Christian liberty all things viz. of this kind not adultery fornication or such sinnes are pure to them they may lawfully use them Every creature as the Apostle elswhere being sanctified by the Word of God and prayer This Truth he amplifieth by the contrary Proposition To the defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure this is more then if he had said All things are unclean for that might have been limited as in the former to things of this kind but saying that nothing is pure to them is signified hereby that all is pitch as it were that the touch That like a Leper even good things do not purifie them but they defile them And then you have the cause and fountain of this Even their mind and conscience is defiled No wonder the streams are polluted when the fountains are By mind is meant the speculative part of our understanding by conscience the practical part and therefore having spoken of the pollution of the former we now proceed to the later This Text is deservedly brought by Protestant Authors to prove that all the actions of unregenerate persons and much more of Infidels are altogether sinne that there is not one truly-good action to be found amongst them and that because the mind and coscience is thus all over polluted The Popish Interpreters because they are for the Negative yea some going so farre as to plead for the salvation of Infidels though without the knowledge of Christ do limit the Text too much as if it were onely to be understood of those whose minds were not informed with true knowledge nor their consciences rightly guided in those Disputes about Judaical Ceremonies as if to such only all things were unclean but although these persons gave the occasion yet the Apostle maketh an universal Proposition and therefore he doth not onely say the defiled but unbehevers which comprehends all those that have no true knowledge of Christ and the reason is univocally belonging to every one for every mans mind and conscience without saith is polluted and cannot please God The Fountain thus cleared this streame of Doctrine floweth from it viz. That the consciences of all men by nature are polluted and defiled Even their mind and constience saith the Text signifying by that expression that there remaineth no hope as it were for them when the foundations are thus removed To this defiled conscience in Scripture is opposite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a good conscience 1 Pet. 3. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 3. 9 a pure or clean and that by the bloud of Christ Heb. 9. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 13. 18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 24. 16. And this kind of conscience onely those that are regenerate have But an evil conscience is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as here in the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Heb. 9. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 4. 2. There is also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a weak conscience but that the godly may have The conscience were are to treat upon is the defiled one and that not so much as made more impure and sinfull by voluntary impieties as what it is by nature in evey one And before we come to demonstrate the pollution of it it is good to take notice of the nature of it The New Testament useth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 about thirty times and that for conscience In the Old Testament the Hebrew word Madani is once rendred Eccles 10. by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but most commonly that which in the New Testament is called conscience in the old is called Leb the heart of a man So Davia's heart is said to smite him apponere ad cor and redire and cor are nothing but the acts of conscience and thus sometimes in the New Testament 1 John 3. 20. If our heart condemn us It 's observed that the first signification of the word Leb is a conspersion or meal sprinkled with water Thus the heart of a man is a lump as it were watered and sprinkled with some common principles and apprehensions about God and what is good and evil As for the nature of conscience it self it is not good to be too nice in Scholastical Disputes about it remembring that of Bernard There was Multum seientiae but param conscientiae in the world It 's disputed Whether conscience be a power or an habit or an act onely that it is not a power Aquinas proveth because that can never be removed or laid aside or changed whereas conscience may
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
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
God I answer The Meritorious cause is Adam's disobedience by his transgression he demerited this for all that should come of him And if you say Who putteth the sinne in I answer There is no efficient cause that putteth it in It is enough that God doth justly refuse to give or continue his Image And this being denied the soul because a subject either of holinesse or sinne when wanting one must necessarily fall into the other Thus it is with the souls being polluted as it is with night there is no efficient cause of the night only the withdrawing of the Sunne necessarily maketh it So God doth nothing positively to make the soul sinfull but according to his just appointment at first denieth that righteousnesse which Adam wilfully put away from himself and his posterity So that we may as easily conceive of every childs souls pollution by sinne as of Adam and Eve themselves God made them righteous but upon their transgression they became unclean and sinfull How was this God in justice denied the continuance of this holinesse to them any longer so that they became sinfull not because God infused evil but denied him that righteousnesse to them This may fully satisfie the sober and modest minded man Therefore the last Proposition is That we cannot say the soul being pure in it self cometh into the body and so is insected As if some wine should be put in a poisoned vessel for the soul and the body do mutually infect one another not physically by contact but morally For the soul being destitute of the Image of God in all its operations is sinfull and so all the bodily actions are polluted And then again the body that having lost the properties it had before the fall is a clod and a burden to the soul Thus they doe mutually help to damne one another the soul polluteth the body and the body that again polluteth the soul And thus those two which at first God put together in so near an union to make man happy are now so defiled that both from soul and from body the matter of his damnation doth arise It is true we may say inchoatively Sinne it in the body before enlivened by the soul in which sense David bewailed his being conceived in sinne but explicitely and formally it cannot be and therefore we are not to conceive sinne in the body before the soul be united or in the soul before the body be joyned to it but as soon as they both became man then they are under the just curse of God and the soul being blind and the body same they both fall into that eternal pit of damnation if the grace of God deliver not I may in time shew how many wayes the soul defileth the body and the body againe infecteth the soul viz. in a moral sense and therefore let this suffice for the present Onely from what hath been said let us turn our Disputation into Deploration Let the head busied to argue be now as much exercised to weep Jeremiah wished his head was a fountain of tears for the slain of his people and that was but a temporal death and that of one Nation only How much more may we desir so for the spiritual death and that of all in the world Say unto all Heretical Teachers Get ye behind me Satans you hinder and trouble me in my humiliation Is not the Infant new born swadled and bound up hand and feet and so lieth crying A sad representation that so God might bind every one and send him crying to Hell Thus original sinne opened Hell kindled the fire of Hell there was no Hell till this was committed Oh grievous necessity and unhappy condition we are all born in Antequam peccemus peccato constringimur antequam delinquimus delicto tenemur This even this seriously considered should make us have no rest till we be put into the second Adam in whom we have Justification and Salvation A TREATISE OF Original Sin The Third Part. HANDLING The Subject of ORIGINAL SINN IN What Part it doth reside and what Powers of the Soul are corrupted by it By Anthony Burgess ANCHORA SPEI LONDON Printed in the Year 1658. A TREATISE OF Original Sinne. PART III. CHAP. I. Of the Pollution of the Mind with Original Sinne. SECT I. EPHES. 4. 23. And be ye renewed in the spirit of your mind COncerning our Subject of Original Sinne these particulars have been largely treated on viz. That it is What it is and How it is communicated The next thing therefore in our method to be considered is The Subject of Inhesion wherein it is in what part it doth reside and what powers of the soul are corrupted by it There is indeed made by Divines a two fold Subject of original sinne 1. Of Predication the persons in whom it is affirmed to be and that is in all who naturally come of Adam Christ only is excepted And in this there is not much controversie onely the Francisean Papists opposing the Dominicans do hotly contend that the Virgin Mary was by special priviledge exempted from original sinne Scotus seemeth to be the first that made it received as a kind of an Ecclesiastical opinion whereas formerly it was but thought doubtfull or at most probable It is not worth the while to trouble you with this and I may have occasion ere the subject be dispatched to say what will be necessary to it I shall therefore proceed to that which is more practical and profitable even to search into the seat and bowels of this original sinne that we may be fully informed no part of the soul is free from this pestilence To which truth the Text in hand will contribute great assistance And For the Coherence of it briefly take notice that the Apostle at the 17th verse giveth a short but dreadfull Description of a Gentile conversation or the life of one without the knowledge of Christ wherein you may observe a three-fold ignorance or blindness upon all such so impossible is it that of themselves they should ever come to see There is a natural blindness a voluntary contracted blindness and a Judicial one inflicted on them by God for abuse of natural light These there are mentioned in the 18th verse And in this vers 19. we have the formidable consequence declared That being past feeling no remorse of conscience in them They give up themselves to all wickednesse with greedinesse Oh that this were only among Pagans But how many have this natural voluntary and judicial blindness and obstinacy upon them under the light of the Gospel Yea their eyes are more blinded and hearts more hardned where the means of grace have been contemned then in the places where the name of Christ hath not been known This black condition of Heathens being described he compareth those of Christians with it and so we have darkness and light here set together And this the Apostle declareth vers 20. But ye have not so learned Christ Christ
teacheth no such wickednesse yet because many may have a bare knowledge and a vain empty profession of Christ and live such Paganish lives he addeth a corrective to his speech which is worthy of all attention If so be ye have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus This is an excellent limitation men may know Christ professe Christ and yet not do it as the truth is in Jesus that is not to obey the Doctrine of Christ as he hath commanded Christ never required that thou shouldst only make a profession of faith in him and then for thy life that that may be full of vice and corruption know if you do so you know not the truth as it is in Jesus Christ We have a like expression Colos 1. 6. where the godly are said To know the grace of God in truth◠and Tit. 1. 1. There is the acknowledging of the truth after godlinesse Oh let such hear and let their ears tingle and their hearts tremble who come to Church profess Christ and yet runne in all excesse of riot What doth any knowledge profit if it be not of the truth as it is in Jesus if it be not an acknowledgment after godlinesse thou deniest the faith and art indeed worse then an Heathen There is Theologia rationalia and experimentalis as Gerson or Theologia docens and utens It is this later viz. an exercised experimental Divinity that maketh a Divine properly Therefore Amesius his definition of Theologia is good that it is Doctrius Deo vivendi a Doctrine whereby we are taught to live unto God Every wicked Christian is worse then a Pagan But who will believe this report Now that we may know what it is to know truth as it is in Jesus he instanceth in a twosold effect or demonstration thereof The first is To put off the old man with the decitfull lusts thereof This old man you heard is original sinne this must be mortified with the immediate issues thereof So that a true knowledge of Christ doth not only cleanse the strems but the fountain also doth not onely change the conversation of a man but the heart the affections the whole man It goeth to the root as well as the branches And the second effect is in the Text To be renewed in the spirit of your mind wherein we are to observe the Duty and the Subject of it The Duty is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To be renewed We read it Imperatively but in the Greek it is the Infinitive mood as also the Duty to put off mentioned ver 22. is in the same mood for these Infinitives do relate to the Verb being taught as the truth is in Christ to be taught to put off to be taught to be renewed If so be we conceive of those to whom Paul writeth as converted already then this duty of renovation is to be understood of further increased and degrees To be more renewed every day for it is usual with the Apostle to write to those who are supposed to be in the state of grace that they should be more sanctified and reconciled to God To be renewed is to have the mind indowed with new Properties and Qualities for ignorance knowledge for atheism and unbelief faith for sinfull and vain thoughts gracious and holy ones c. So that there are two extreame errours in the expounding of this 1. Of the Illyricans who as they held sinne to be the substance of a man so this renovation they must hold to be substantial not accidental But it 's absurd to say a man must have a new soul essentially in regeneration The other extream is of Socinians for they holding There is no such thing as original sinne they must needs say That this renovation is only in regard of contracted sinne and external impiety in the life not in respect of any inbred and inherent pollution in the mind But this also is against the Scripture The second thing in the Text is the Subject of this renovation The spirit of your mind Concerning the difference between spirit and mind many thoughts have been but either it is an Hebraism and is no more then the mind which is a spirit or else spirit is taken for that which is the most sublime noble and also most active and vigorous in a man Thus Job 20. 3. we have the spirit of understanding And Isa 11. 2. The spirit of wisdom the spirit of counsel and the spirit of knowledge Yea it is sometime applied to the vigorous and high actings of evil as Hos 4. 12. The spirit of whoredom And the spirit of whoredoms Hosea 5. 4. So that when the Apostle doth not say Be renewed in your mind but in the spirit of your mind This supposeth That what is most choise excellent and noble even in the rational part of a man called for its dignity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet this is all over polluted by original sinne and so needeth a renovation As for those who by the spirit would understand the holy Ghost that is most absurd For how can we be renewed in that SECT II. THe Text thus opened we may see two Doctrines in the womb of it the first implied and supposed viz. 1. That the mind of every man in all the choise operations thereof is wholly polluted and stained 2. Because it is thus polluted that needs regeneration and renovation as well as any other parts The former Doctrine is only to my subject in hand for now my work is to shew you Wherein this contagion doth discover it self And I shall begin with that which hath the greatest dignity in a man and if that hath not escaped pollution much lesse may we think the other parts have And if the eye be dark how great must our darknesse be And before we speak particularly to that let us say something in the general about the subject wherein this original sinne is seated SECT III. FIrst There hath been some who have not so much seated it in the soul as made the very soul and substance of a man to be original sinne So that we might properly and truly say Man was sinne it self The Author of this was Flaccius Illyricus who in many things is to be praised for his diligence and industry but he was of a turbulent spirit very restless insomuch that in his studies at first he was so greatly tempted that many times publick prayer was made for him in the solemn Assemblies Vide Horned Sum. Controv. de Lutheranismo This man out of great earnestness to oppose Papists yea and the Lutheran Strigelius who extenuated original sinne fell into another extream making it to be the very substance of man It is true Some have excused him as thinking his opinion was sound onely his words were obscure and dangerous for he doth often distinguish between the Homo Physicus and the Homo Theologicus he maketh the Theological man as he is in such a consideration to be onely sinfull But surely it is
as easie to understand Epicurus his Atoms Pythagoras his numbers Plato's Aristotle's Entelechias as Illirieus his Homo theologicus in the way he layeth it down denying all along that original sinne is an accident This opinion made a great rent among the Lutherans whereof some were called Substantiarii others Accidentarii as Coceius the Papist relateth Coccius Thes de peccato but this is to be refused with great indignation Original sinne is most intimately cleaving to us inseparably joyned to the nature of man yet it is not the nature of man for then Christ could not have taken our nature without sin Though therefore it be seated in the soul and that most tenaciously yet it is not the essence of a man But of this more in its time Secondly It is also a great Dispute among the Schoolmen Whether original sinne be immediately and proximely seated in the essence of the soul or in the powers of it Whether because it is first in the essence of the soul therefore the understanding and will are corrupted Or Whether these powers are first polluted and infected by it But this is founded upon a philosophical Dispute Whether the soul and the faculties thereof are distinguished And therefore I shall not trouble you with it Thirdly Some Papists have limited original sinne onely to the affections to the inferiour and sensitive part of a man as if sinne were not in the understanding and reason at all but in the affections and fleshly part onely But the more learned of the Papists gainsay this and do acknowledge that the mind as well as other parts is polluted with this leprosie SECT IV. Wherein Original Sinne hath infected the minds of all men THese things premised Let us consider Wherein original sinne hath infected the minds of all men so that in respect thereof that is to be renewed And First Horrible ignorance of God and the things of salvation doth cover the soul of every man by nature even as darknesse was upon the face of the deep Thus Rom. 3. you heard the Apostle pronounceth generally There is Rome that understandeth or seeketh after God No not one Hence also Ephes 5. 8. unconverted persons are said to be darknesse in the very abstract and that both because of their original and acquired blindness of mind upon them What could the wisest and most learned of the world do in respect of any knowledge of Christ if this were not revealed for this cause it is called the Ministery and the Gospel is constantly compared to light and all the world is said To sit in darkness till this doth arise so that our minds are by nature wholly ignorant about our selves about God and Christ which made our Saviour say to Peter upon his confession That flesh and blend had not revealed this to him whereas then in the state of integrity our minds were as gloriously filled with all perfections and abilities as the firmament with slarres there was sapience in respect of God science in respect of all natural things to be known and prudence in respect of all things to be done now our eie is put out and like Sampson the Philistims can do what they please with us for this respect it is that every creature is better then man they have a natural instinct whereby they know what is proper for them Opera natura sunt opera artis or intelligeniae They have as much knowledge sensitive I mean as they were made with at first even the least creatures and most despicable yea God is maximus in minimus most wonder full in the least things which made Austin preferre Fly before the Sunne and that he did more admire Opera Formicarum then Onera Camelorum the wise workes of the Ant before the heavy burdens of Camels Thus all creatures have a suteable knowledge for their end in their way only man is in horrible darkness and is absolutely ignorant about God or his own happiness Therefore those opinions of some who attribute a possibility of salvation to Heathens by the natural knowledge they have do in effect make void Christ and the Gospel Secondly Original sinne doth not only deprive us of all knowledge of God in a saving way but also filleth us with error and positive mistakes whereby we have not only unbelief but misbelief our condition were not so universally miserable if so be our mindes were only in a not knowing or meer privative ignorance about God but oh the gross soul and absurd perswasions men have naturally about God! The Atheisme naturally that is in us either denying or doubting about God but especially the false and absurd representations of God to us It is from the error in mans mind that Polytheisme hath so abounded perswading themselves of many gods yea the idolatry that hath filled the pagarish world and under subtile distractions hath invaded the Church also doth abundantly proclaim original ignorance and error in us about divine things yea the wiser men as the Apostle observeth Rom. 1. They became the more foolish in their imaginations turning the image of God into the likeness of the vilest creatures But before we proceed we must answer an Objection that may be made to the Doctrine delivered for it will easily be said That the corruption hitherto mentioned in the understanding is actual sinne rather then original Ignorance Atheisme I dolatrical thoughts of God these must necessarily be judged actual and if it be so Why do we ascribe this to original And indeed this Objection is commonly made by Papists against the Positions and Confessions which the Protestants have made about original sinne for when they discribe the nature of it they usually instance in particulars as horrible ignorance Atheism and dissidence in the mind c. To this the Papists reply saying We confound actual and original sinne yea when we bring that famous place Gen. 5. 6. The imaginations of the thoughts of the heart are onely evil and that continually to prove original sinne they reply the same thing to that Text also Therefore to clear this we are to know that it is true Atheisme ignorance these are actual sinnes as they are put in exercise but yet when we ascribe them to original sinne we do not so much mean the actual exercise of these evils as the Proneness and propensity of the heart to them So that our meaning is The heart of it self is prone to all these actual wickednesses Therefore though we name these as actual yet you must understand them habitually and seminally there being an inclination to all that impiety Only the reason why we describe original sinne thus as if it were actual pollution it is Because that it is a principle alwaies acting it never ceaseth the sparkes of this lust are like those of hell which never go out as the heart of a man naturally never ceaseth its motion so neither doth the evil heart of a man This difficulty being removed let us proceed to discover
a vanity upon mans mind To be pleased with stories and merry tales more then a powerfull and divine Sermon Is not this because mans mind is vain Since mans fall as the will though a noble part of the soul yet doth act dependently and slavishly to the sensitive appetite we will not what is good and the acceptable will of God but what our sinful affections suggest to us so the understanding though the satred faculty as it were of the soul yet acts dependently on the fancie and so what tickleth and pleaseth that the mind also is most affected with Austin did much confess and bewail this vanity of his mind whereby he did disdain the simplicity of the Scripture and desired to hear that eloquent Ambrose not out of love to matter but to words This is a childish vanity like Children that delight in a Book for the pictures that are in it not the matter contained therein This vain mind hath sometimes affected both Preacher and Hearer what applauded Sermons have there been and yet nothing in them but descanting upon words and affecting a verbal pomp being like the Nightingale Vox preterea nihil like Puppets stuft with bumbast having no life at all within them and all was accounted prating that was not such a wordy preaching And truely this vanity hath much infected the mind of hearers men coming to the Word preached not as to hear the Oracles of God with fear and trembling but as to the Schooles of oratory looking to the powdring of their words and the dressing of the language as much as to the setting and ordering of their own hair Is not this a great evil and vanity thus to regard the healing of the finger when the heart is deadly sick If thy mind be renewed in this it will also appear and for that vanity there will be solid gravity Fifthly Original sinne filleth the mind with exceeding great folly So that no man born a natural fool is more to be pitied then every man who by nature is a spiritual fool Those conceited wise ones of the world who condemne the godly for a company of fools they are fools in the highest degree as may easily be evinced If so be Job 4. 18. God is said To charge his Angels with folly and that as some expound even the good Angels themselves because that wisedome they have comparatively to Gods is but folly how much more is this true of man fallen who hath lost that wisedome God once bestowed upon him If you ask Wherein doth a natural mans folly appear Truly in every thing he doth Eccl. 10. 3 His wisdom faileth him and he saith to every one he is a fool Every oath every lie every drunken fit proclaimeth a man to be but a fool If he had the wisedome of Gods Word he could never do so especially the folly of man by nature is seen these waies 1. In making himself merry with sinne It is jollity and sport to him to be fullfilling the lusts of the flesh and is not this folly to be playing with the flames of hell as you see fools go laughing to the stocks so do they to hell Prov. 10. 23 It is a sport to a fool to do mischief herein then thy foolish mind is seen that thou canst laugh and sport it so in the actings of sinne which are the preparatoryes to those everlasting burnings in hell 2. Thy folly by nature is seen In preferring a creature before God what is this but the fools bable before the Tower of London as the Proverb is yet this folly is bound up in every man till grace make him wiser he loveth the creature more then God he had rather have a drop then the ocean earth then heaven dirt then gold Is not this greater folly then can be expressed yet till regenerated such a fool thou art though thou art never so wise in thy own conceit 3. We are naturally foolish In that we attend only to those things that are for the present and never at all look to eternity becoming herein like bruit beasts that regard only what is before them Moses doth in the name of God wish Oh that my people were wise Deut. 32. 29. that they would understand their latter end It is wisdome to look to the future hence they say Prudens is qussi porro videns he seeth a farre off but take any natural man doth all the wisdome he hath ever make him to attend to eternity what will become of him at the day of judgement now he is at ease and in good liking but what shall he do when that great day shall come he is farre from Hierem's temper thinking he heard alwaies that terrible noise sounding in his eares Arise and come to judgement Oh thy folly then who dost in effect say Give me that which is sweet here though hereafter I be tormented to all eternity 4. Thy folly is abundantly discovered in this that thou takest no paines to know the best things the chiefest things the things that most concerne thee Naturally thou knowest nothing of God or Christ or the way to heaven which yet is the proper end for which God made thee if folly did not reign in thy understanding thou wouldst not be so careless herein Thou art carefull to know how to live in this world but not how to live eternally in the world to come Thou knowest how to buy and sell how to plough and sow but knowest not the principles of Religion which must save thee Doth not this proclaim thy folly 5. Original sinne is discovered in our foolish mind By the inconsiderateness that it is guilty of It 's want of consideration that damneth a man Intellectus cogitabundus est principium omnis boni Psal 50. Oh consider this ye that forget God Did a man consider the majesty of God the dreadfullness of hell â—he shortness of the pleasures of sinne the mortality of the body and the immortality of the soul How could he sinne This foolish inconsiderateness maketh man though mortal to procrastinate his conversion he is alwaies beginning to repent beginning to reforme Inter caetera mala hoc habet stultitia seâ—per incipit vivere 6. Not to inlarge in this Thy folly in thy mind is seen By thy imprudence and injudiciousness Thou dost not judge godliness the favour of God and grace better then the whole world as the child thinketh his nut better then gold Sapiens est cui res sapiunt prout sunt if thou wert wise things would savour to thee as they are earthly as earthly heavenly as heavenly so that the folly of man naturally is seen in this that he savoureth not the things of God he hath no judgement to esteem of the true pearl and therefore will not part with the least thing to obtain it Sixthly The mind hath lost its superiority in respect of the other parts of the soul and its subordination to God both which were the great perfections thereof For
most arrogantly say That Christ was beholding to him for this Dispute that he owed as it were his Divine Nature to his learning as if he had not been God if he had not proved it upon which blasphemy he was immediately stricken with ignorance and such sottishnesse that he was afterwards taught the Lords Prayer by a little childe This pride of minde is worse then all other pride And certainly that is a great effect of original sinne upon us that we are apt to take such contemplative delight about our own notions and apprehensions being therein guilty of spiritual fornication This pride of minde is seen also in owning and defending even the truths of God not as his but as they are our own opinions out of which we may raise our owne glory whereas truth is not mine of thine or a third mans but the Lords Cave ne privatum dixeris ne à veritate privemur Eleventhly Original sinne polluteth the mind in regard of the difference and diversity of thoughts and judgements of men in the things of God Had Adam continued in the state of integrity all had been of one mind of one way In Heaven also when all imperfection shall be done away they shall all think and speak the same things but now there are divisions and different ways in Religion one admiring that which another condemneth which proclaimeth that man hath a Babel upon his understanding It is no wonder that among Philosophers there were such infinite Sects for if you view that part of the world which owneth the Christian Religion what varieties what differences what oppositions are there and that though we have the Scripture to guide us This doth evidently manifest That the mind of man is filled with deep pollution by original sinne Twelfthly The horrible pollution of the mind is seen in its aptnesse to receive all the Devils impressions and delusions so that the most horrid and dreadfull blasphemies that can be imagined have yet been entertained and broached by some men Now the Devil could never possesse the mind of a man so but because of this original corruption Some there were called Caiani that boasted of Cain and commended Esau yea Judas and that he did not sinne in betraying Christ Some have called the holy Trinity Triceps Cerberus Some have thought themselves Christ and the Spirit of God Now how could these devillish delusions be ever believed if the mind had been free from sinne The Enthusiasmes The Revelations that the Monasterii Anabaptis as also John of Leiden pretended to upon which they acted resolutely and violently may abundantly teach us what monstrous births the minde of a man will deliver if left to it self So that what is said of the Devil incubus bodily is much more true of the minde What will not the understanding of a man believe and be resolute for when it hath once Pleniorem gratiam à Diabolo obtained more of the Devils grace as Tertullian speaks ironically of some Heretiques De praesc Thirteenthly In this is original pollution discovered that the knowledge we have and the light we enjoy whether imbred or acquired without Gods grace we are the worse for it So that our understanding in us is but like a sword in a mad mans hand by it we fight against God and set with all enmity against divine things The more knowledge without grace the greater opposition to Christ The learned men very often have been the Patriarchs of all heresies They brought in a Stoieum Platonicum Dialecticum Christianismum as Tertullian speaketh They brought in a Platonical an Aristotolical Christianity Insomuch that Religion hath suffered farre more from unsound learning then ignorance though indeed sanctified learning hath been greatly instrumental to propagate the Kingdome of Christ Lastly The mind is polluted and weakned by original sinne even in the knowledge of natural things Insomuch that there is little or nothing known certainly by us Our knowledge cometh in by the senses and they as Philo alludeth like Lot's children make their father drunk they hinder us of true knowledge The Academici thought nothing was known certainly in natural things And Cerda on Tertullian makes Lactantius and Arnobius to incline to that opinion Certainly our knowledge in natural things is very weak and confused The Devil indeed though he hath lost all spiritual knowledge yea and as some say is wounded much in his natural abilities yet still he retaineth much knowledge called therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but man hath a body that doth much clogg and presse down his soul and hence his ignorance is greater Thus we have in a short Table represented the manifold pollution upon mans understanding by original sinne more particulars happily might have been instanced but these may suffice to make us astonished and amazed at our selves Oh how incurable art thou when thy mind is thus defiled that is the watchman in thy soul to keep off all sinne and if the watchman be blind how hopeless is it It 's this that makes such an obstruction in conversion which is wrought first upon the mind while therefore that ignorance that folly that unbelief reigneth there no Ministry no Preaching doth any good Oh that thou didst know thy ignorance what a beast thou art How foolish and destitute of all true wisdom How quickly then wouldst thou spread out thy arms to receive Christ in the fulnesse of his Offices Yea it 's the corruption on your minds that makes you not able to understand even this Sermon Oh then be as those blind men crying and praying Lord that we might receive our sight 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 troubled and awakened SECT I. TIT. 1. 15. But even their mind and conscience is desiled HItherto we have been discovering original sinne as seated in the understanding the Metropolis as it were of the soul We now proceed to manifest it as polluting the Conscience of every man by nature and certainly this is more lamentable and dreadfull then the former For if the understanding be amongst the other powers of the soul as gold amongst other metals conscience is the pearl or diamond in that gold If the understanding be the eye of the soul conscience is the apple of the eye who would not think that our conscience like Job's messenger had escaped in the fall of Adam bringing us tidings of all the spiritual loss we had thereby only that was not hurt but this Text will inform us That from the head to the sole of the feet as it were there was no place free but that we are totum vnlnus so many Lazarus's not one place without these spiritual ulcers For the understanding of the Text we may take notice that Titus exercising his ministerial office now at Crete whether as a setled officer and Metropolitan which some highly contend for or rather as a temporary and
notorious and most ungodly enemies of the Church because the seed and root of these is in all so we may appropriate this feared conscience to every man naturally whereby a man commits gross and foul sinnes and yet finds not one prick or stab at his heart for it What made David when he had numbered the people to have his heart smite him presently but because his conscience was sanctified and made tender by God whereas thou canst a thousand times fall into the same gross-sinnes and thy conscience giveth thee not one lash for it Is not this because thy conscience is stupified so that it hath made thee in all thy sinnes as Lot was when made drunk by his daughters He knew not in the morning what he had done Thus with the same stupidity and sottishness dost thou act sinne it cometh from thee as excrements from a dying person and thou hast no apprehension of them as in sleep the stomack doth digest that meat which if waking would so molest it that there would be no ease till exonerated Thus while conscience is asleep those things are committed which if it were tender it would with fear and trembling fly from O men bitterly to be lamented and mourned over Conscience which is set as a schoolemaster to direct and reproove thee is become a flatterer or rather lieth stark dead within thee that the Devil and sinne in all the lusts thereof may hurry thee whether they please and conscience doth not contradict so that you may as well offer light to the blind speech to the deaf wisedome to the bruit beast as publish the great truths and commands of God to them while conscience is thus stupified within them Therefore in conversion the first work of grace is to make this tender and sensible even of the least sinne SECT III. The Blindness and Stupidity of Conscience discovered in the several Offices and actings of it THirdly Because this pollution of the conscience is expressed in the general viz. blindness and stupidity Let us examine how this sinfullness is seen in the several offices and actings of conscience for which God hath placed it in the soul And 1. One main work of conscience is to apply what we read in the Scripture as generally spoken conscience is to apply it in particular When it readeth the threatnings and cursings of the law to such sinnes as thou art guilty of then conscience is to say This belongeth to me This curse This burden is my curse it 's my burden Because David did not let his conscience do its duty in application David could condemne sinne in general His wrath is kindled against such sinners as himself in the general Nathan was forced to be in stead of conscience to him saying Thou art the man Thus conscience if not polluted when it heareth any woe denounced against such and such sinnes then that stands up and saith Thou art the man hence God giveth the commands by particular application Thou shalt not commit adultery Thou shalt not steal that conscience may say This Commandment belongs to me As natural bodies they act by a corporal contact so the Scripture worketh upon the soul by a spiritual contact and that is the application of conscience Insomuch that if we do a thousand times read over the Scriptures if we hear Sermons upon Sermons all our life if conscience doth not apply all becomes ineffectual And this may answer that Question How it cometh to pass that a man can commit those sinnes which he knoweth to be sinnes which his conscience tells him are sinnes Who are there so much stupified and besotted by sinne that do not in the general know that the waies they live in are wicked that they provoke God that they ought not to do so How then is it possible that they should close with those sinnes that they know to be so seeing the will cannot will evil as it is evil Now the Answer is This ariseth from the defect of conscience she doth not particularly make such a powerfull application pro hic nunc as it ought to do There is therefore a general knowledge an habitual knowledge of such things to be sinnes yea it may be a particular apprehension that they are now sinning and offending God but this is onely a speculative apprehension it 's not a practical one produced by conscience in thee Oh therefore that all our Auditors were delivered from this original pollution of conscience for therefore we preach in vain and you hear in vain because no application is made to your own hearts None brings the truth the command the threatning to his own soul saying This is my portion none so guilty as I am in this particular and thus as she said to the Prophet Thou hast brought my sinnes to my mind or as the woman of Samaria concerning Christ He had told her of all that she had done Thus faith the applying conscience This Sermon brings my sinnes to my mind This Sermon tels me of the wickednesse at such a time committed by me It was the Prophets complaint of his hearers None said What have I done They did not make a particular application Therefore till the grace of God quicken the conscience making thee to cry out What shall I do I have sinned Gods Word hath found me out It is me the Law condemneth It is me that the curses belong to as if I were mentioned and named as if I had heard a voice from Heaven saying Thou Thomas Thou John here is thy sin here is thy doom Till I say this be done all thy knowledge in the general all the Texts of Scripture in thy memory they have no influence at all Secondly Herein is the corruption of the conscience naturally seen That though it doth apply yet it is in so weak and cold a manner that it hath lost its activity and predominancy over the affections and the will of a man insomuch that though conscience do speak do rebuke do apply yet a man careth not for it The affections and the will are not kept in awe by it Thus although conscience in many doth not so much as stirre it is stark dead yet in many it doth sometimes apply bringing home the Word of God to the heart so that he cannot but confesse if he doth thus and thus he sinneth but then conscience is too weak affections and passions like Amnon to Tamar are too strong and consuperate her whether she will or no Is not this the dreadfull condition of many who frequent our Congregations whose consciences condemn them daily Thou art such a sinner thy wayes are damnable but they slight and despise these applications of conscience as rude Scholars the authority of their Master what care they for the Monitor in their breast Like Balaam they will press forward to their wickedness though conscience stand like an Angel with a sword in his hand to stop in the way Rom. 1. 18. The Apostle speaketh excellently to this
in the sight of God we speak in Christ Here was conscience and pure conscience as to any fundamental deficiency yet not perfectly pure for Gal. 5. he saith The flesh lusteth against the Spirit so that wheresoever the Spirit is there the flesh in some measure lusteth against it Oh them let even the most holy bewail original sinne in their consciences even in this respect That councel given by Paul to godly servants Colos 3. 17 18. That what they did they should do it in singlenesse of heart fearing God They should do it heartily as unto God not unto men The same are all the people of God bound to do in their service to God Oh how unworthy is it in religious duties to have an eye to man who will praise or dispraise if conscience were the motive thou wouldst neither care for good or bad report And this pure conscientious working is especially to be attended unto by such who are in publick Office The Civil Magistrate if he punish an offender not because he deserveth it but from malice or other sinister respects Though he cry out and pretend conscience and justice a thousand times over yet God looketh upon him as an unjust Magistrate though the thing he doth is just Thus it is also in the Ministers of the Gospel if they preach the Word diligently and constantly but yet the principal motives are either vain glory or a mereenary respect unto the profit and temporal advantage more then the soules of people and the glory of God here also that is done which conscience requireth but not upon conscientious motives we doe not these things as of God in the sight of God But I must not be too long in this particular although indeed we can never say enough herein it is such a close insinuating sinne into all mens breasts Secondly The natural conscience is grievously polluted by original sinne in regard of the limited and partial conviction or illumination that it is apt to receive Conscience will receive light but at a little cranny or hole it will be convinced to doe some things especially if of no great consequence but the greater and more weighty things they are apt to neglect This dough-baked conscience that is hot on one side and cold on the other is the temper of most men How seemingly religious and zealous in some particulars And then for dutâ—ies of greater concernment they are like clods of earth Our Saviour charged this partial conscience upon the Pharisees Luke 11. 42. They tished mint and rue but the things of mercy and judgement they neglected The Chief-priests also they were afraid of defiling themselves by entring into the common-hall and yet had no scruple about shedding the innocent bloud of our Lord Christ And what is more ordinary then this May ye not observe many persons as much moved with rage upon the removal of any needlesse or superstitious Ceremonies as the Athenians were about their Diana and yet for grosse prophanenesse and all manner of excessive riot they are never moved at that they have no zeal for God's glory though iniquity abound in every place Doth not all this discover the hypocrisie and rottennesse of such a conscience Take heed then thy conscience is not like some creatures begotten of putride matter that in their former part have life but in their later have nothing but earth or slime So in some part thy conscience is alive and in other things it is dead If thy conscience tell thee It 's thy duty to pray to hear to keep up Family-duties and yet withall suffereth thee to do unjust unclean and other dishonest things of impiety This is not right it is not regenerated as yet So on the other side If conscience bid thee Be just and upright in all thy dealings be mercifull and tender to fit objects of charity and herein thou art ready but thy conscience doth not at all presse thee to the duties of the first Table to sanctifie the Sabbath to keep up Family-duties to walk contrary to the sinfull course of the world then it is plain that as yet thy conscience is in the gall of bitternesse it hath but some partial conviction not a total and plenary one Thirdly The conscience of a natural man in this also is greatly polluted In that it is very severe and easily accusing of other mens sinnes but it is blind about its own it seeth no evil in it self while it can aggravate the sinnes of others Thus conscience as in other respects so in this also is like the eye which can see all other things but not it self Matth. 7. 3. Such a corrupt conscience likewise our Saviour chargeth upon the Pharisees when he calleth them Hypocrites and biddeth them Pull out the beam in their own and then the more in other mens The Apostle also Rom. 2. 1. beginneth that Chapter Therefore thou art inexcusable O man who judgest others and doest the same things thy self What is more ordinary then this to be Eagle-eyed to spie out the faults and sinnes of others and as blind as a mole about thy self David was very zealous against that injurious man Nathan represented in a Parable and in the mean while did not think that he was the man that this was his sinne Judah also was severe against Tamar who had played the whore till she sent him the staff and bracelets that he might see he was the man Thus you see even godly men are greatly blinded about themselves no wonder then if the natural man be wholly in darknesse Oh then pray and again pray for light to shine into thy own heart Let conscience turn its eyes inward once more know the worst by thy self Think with Paul I am the greatest of all sinners with Tertullian Peccator sum omnium natorum a sinner with the brand and mark of all sins on me at least in motion and inclination say I see those sins in my self which the world doth not none can judge and condemn me more then I can do my self but the contrary is in every mans natural conscience he thinketh himself better then others he blesseth himself in his good heart and is a severe censurer of other mens sinnes Thus he hath those Lamiae of eyes that he taketh up when he goeth abroad and layeth aside when he cometh home Fourthly The conscience naturally is defiled Because of the ease and security it hath though if it were awakened and could do its duty it would not let thee have any rest day or night And this is one of the main particulars wherein original sinne discovers it self in the conscience all life all spiritual tendernesse and apprehension is taken away that whereas conscience is especially seen in the reflex acts of the soul To know our knowledge to judge the actions of the mind and the heart yea and to judge those judgments now we can no more do these things then very beasts do and by reason of this there is a great
feel the burden of sinne These hopefull workings I say do at last end in a sensless stupidity Pharaoh for a while and so also Belshazzar and Felix trembled Conscience in these did give some sharp stings but alas it came to no good use so rare a thing is it to come in a gracious manner out of these waves and stormes upon thy soul Experience also doth give in full testimony to this How many do we see that for some time yea it may be yeares have had as it were an hell within them They have eat their bread and drunk their drink with trembling and astonishment They have been even distracted with the terrors of the Lord but if you observe the later end of such they have at last grown secure and stupid as if the Spirit of God had never visited them in such a dreadfull manner So that we may say to many What is become of those troubles thou didst once groan under Where are those feares those cries those agonies thou hadst then Where are those zealous and fervent workings of heart which did so burn within thee once Alas after these meltings and thawings a greater frost and cold hath come upon them That as sometimes frequent and constant aguish fits do at last end in a consumption Thus frequent troubles of conscience upon some fits and seasons do sometimes end in a plain dedolency and stupidity of conscience never to be troubled more God hath left thee to be like an Adaman◠and stone so that though thou sinnest never so grosly yet now thy conscience is seared and thou canst be bold and rejoycing in the midst of thy impieties Thus you see it 's a great consequence for any one labouring under the troubles of conscience diligently to consider how he cometh out of them for now is the time of saving or damning of thee now is the time thou art in the fire either to be purged and refined or to be consumed Oh pray and get all thy godly friends to pray that these troubles may be sanctifie that they may be blessed to make a through change upon thee Better never have had such a wounded conscience such a troubled heart and then to returne to thy vomit again for every sinne committed by thee after these troubles hath an high and bloudy aggravation Thou knowest how bitter sinne is Thou hast tasted what gall and wormewood is in it Thou hast been in the very jawes of hell hast had some experience of what even the damned feel and wilt thou go to such sinnes again wilt thou put these Adders into thy breast again that have almost stung thee even to despair Therefore set a Selah an accent as it were upon this particular thou who hast been a troubled sinner and see how thou comest to be freed from this spiritual pain A great Difference between a troubled Conscience and a regenerate Conscience IN the second place You must know That there is a great difference between a troubled conscience and a regenerated or sanstified conscience The conscience may be exceedingly troubled about sinne have no peace or rest because of sinne yet be in the state of original pollution yet be destitute of the Spirit of Christ This mistake is very frequent many judging the troubles of conscience they once had to be the time of their conversion to God though ever since they have lived very negligently and carelesly without the strict and lively conformity of their lives to the rule whereas we see in Cain in Judas these had even earthquakes as it were upon their consciences They had more trouble then they could bear yet none can say they had a regenerated conscience It is true indeed these troubles of conscience may be introductory and preparatory to the work of conversion but if ye stay in these and think to have had these is enough ye grosly deceive your own soules Act. 2. 37 38. When Peter did in such a particular and powerfull manner set home upon the Jews that grievous sinne of killing the Lord Christ it is said They were pricked in heart Here their consciences were awakened here were nailes as it were fastened by the Master of their Assembly into their soules yet when they cry out saying What shall we do Peter doth direct them to a further duty which is to repent Those troubles then those feares and agonies were not enough a further thing was requisite for their conversion Thou then who art troubled rest not in these think not this is all but Press forward for regeneration without this though these troubles did fill thy soul as much as the Lecusts did Aegypt yet thou wouldst go from begun torments here to consummate torments hereafter It is true a gracious regenerated conscience may have its great troubles and agonies be in unspeakable disquietings but I speak of such who are yet only in innitiatory troubles who are as yet but in the wilderness journying towards Canaan all these troubles do not inferre regeneration but are therefore brought upon thee that thou maist be provoked to inquire after this new creature What may be the Causes of the trouble of Conscience which yet are short of true saving Motives IN the third place take notice of what may be the cause and motives which may make thy conscience awakened and troubled which yet are not from true saving principles 1. The commission of some gross and hainous sinne against conscience this may work much terror The very natural light of consciene in this particular is able to fill the soul with feares Rom. 2. The Heathens had their consciences acusing of them We read of Nero that after he had killed his mother Agrippina he was so terrified in his conscience that he never dared to offer sacrifices to the Gods because of the guilt upon him yea and as Tertullian lib. de animâ cap. 44. observeth from Suetonius after this parricide he who in his former times never used to dreame it 's noted of him as a rare and strange thing was constantly terrified in his dreames with sad imaginations Thus you see natural conscience upon the committing of some gross sinne hath power of it self to recoil and with heavy terror to overwhelm a man Some also do relate of Constantine that having been the cause of the death of his eldest sonne Crispus upon groundless suspicious was greatly tormented in his conscience not knowing what to do and thereupon was advised to receive the Christian Religion in which alone there could be found an expiation for so foul an offence 2. The trouble of conscience may arise from some heavy and grievous judgement that hath overtaken us Conscience may lie asleep may yeares the sinnes thou hast committed long agoe may be almost forgotten and yet some judgement and calamity falling upon thee afterwards may bring them to mind Thus Joseph's brethren whose consciences were so stupid as you heard that upon the throwing of their brother into the pit they could sit down as
if nothing aâ—led 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
effectual the concupiscible part now this kingdome is divided against it self our fear doth put out our joy we do not take that quiet delight which might be in having any temporal good because we are so molested with feares lest we should loose it How often are we distracted Inter spem metum between hope and fear Thus these affections that by their primitive institution were all of one accord they all mutually assisted one another now they are become like contrary winds hope driveth one way fear another love one way anger another so that by this meanes every man is miserably tormented within himself There is an heartquake as well as an earthquake and as this later is produced by winds got into the bowels of the earth which cannot find any vent Thus it is with these passions of man they are all pent up as it were close in his heart one is ready violently to break out one way another another way so that no sea is more tossed up and down when contrary Euroclydons fall upon it then the heart of man while moved with different passions It 's the contrariety of thy passions maketh all thy discontents and all the turmoiles that are in thy soul thy love that haleth thee one way thy anger draggeth another way Thus thou art like one that is to be torn in peices by wild horses one draweth one limb asunder another teareth another part asunder so that thy soul is become like the Levites wife's body that was cut into so many peices Adam in respect of his affectionate part was like the upper region where there is no molestation or confusion but now that part in us is like the middle region where tempests and stormes thundring and lightning are daily produced SECT IX The Pollution of the Affections in respect of the Conflict between the natural Conscience and Them AGain The great and notorious pollution of the affections doth appear In that fight and conflict which is between the natural conscience and them so that no sooner doth the reason and affections of men begin to work in them but presently there is a civil warre begun in a man his mind that inclineth one way and his affections they carry another way The very Heathens acknowledged this as Aristotle in his incontinent person and the Poet in his Medea Video meliora probeque deteriora sequor yea there are some interpreters Socinians and Papists and Arminians to whom also Amyraldus in this particular adjoyneth himself though disalowing their other opinions that would have the Apostles complaint which he maketh Rom 7 to be nothing more then the contrariety of the mind and affections in an unregenerate man especially when the mind is legally convinced and that hath some powerfull influence upon it and among other reasons he giveth this that it would be very injurious to regenerating grace as if that could or did carry a man no further the Aristotle's incontinent person was wheras indeed convinced of better things but had no power to follow them But there is a two-fold conflict and combate to be acknowledged The first a natural one betwen conscience and affections The other a spiritual one and that is not between these several powers in the soul but between the regenerate part in every particular and the unregenerate so that there is not only spiritual light against corrupt affections but affections sanctified against unsanctified ones they have love against love fear against fear hope against hope This opposition in the regenerate man is universal whereas this natural conflict is seated only in some particular parts of the soul The Apostle Rom. 7 doth speak of this spiritual fight in himself as regenerate as appeareth because he saith In the inward man he delighted in the Law of God which no unregenerate man can do and although the Apostles and some other eminent and godly men may attain to farre higher degrees of greace then others yet it may not be thought that there is any godly man living or did live that doth not more or less find this combate of flesh and spirit in him Certainly if it should be so in any man we might say that in that man original sinne was quite subdued the flux of bloud was wholly dried up in them but that is the prerogative of heaven But our work is to consider the sad difference that is now brought upon all men by original corruption between the rational and affective part our very constitution is in discord there is no more agreement then between fire and water Even as in the Romane Governement there was commonly perpetual opposition between the Senatus and the Plebs The Senate and the common People they were very difficultly ever reconciled Thus in man his intellectual and sensitive part they are carried out to contrary objects one inviting to one way another to another Indeed even the rational part is in the Scripture sence become flesh that is wholly corrupt and mindeth only sinful things yet this corruption doth not put out those natural dictates and practical maxims which conscience hath against which the affections of men do naturally so rebell It is true that there are some who have so hardned themselves in evil by a voluntary obstinateness and are made such bruits in their lusts that they have none of this conflict at all they are hurried on with all delight to sinne and have not so much as the least regreet within themselves but this is acquired partly by the just judgement of God upon mans wilful impiety being from him delivered up to such a senslessnes otherwise there is in all such a fundamental contrariety between the superior and inferior part of his soul that there is no rest within It is true the Papists and so the Socinians they affirme his repugnancy to have been in Adam in the state of integrity yea a Remonstrant attributeth it blasphemously to Christ himself but seeing that God made man right this rectitude is to be understood universal and that could not be without an admirable harmony and agreement between the spiritual and sensitive part in a man There are some also who place the hurt that we have by original sinne in this affectionate part only as if the mind and the will they did escape in Adams fall and no sinne infected them only the sensitive part becomes all over poisoned but the contrary to this hath already been demonstrated yet we grant that in the affectionate part is the Serpents brood there are the Cockatrices eggs that is the womb wherein many sinnes even all the bodily ones are conceived and brought forth SECT X. The Sinfulness of these Affections is seen in the great Distractions they fill us with when we are to set upon any holy Duties FUrther The sinfulnesse of these affections is seen in the great distractions they fill us with when we are to set upon any holy Duty What is the reason we do not make God the delight of our soul
be an occasion to â—ull 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 sâ—ur 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 〈…〉 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