thing or object The object of righteousnesse being the Law it doth follow that the object of sin is the Law also but what Law Both the Law of nature which God had prescribed unto every thing in nature to be observed by them as being unto God most honorable and to themselves most proper and behoofefull Those rules and limitations those orders and prescriptions which the wisdome of God had proposed and imprinted upon all creatures either of the preservation of their being or the destruction of their sexes or the propagation of their kinds or the moderation of their power and manner of working or the manifestation of his own Almighty power wisdome and glory the same are termed Lawes So He made a Law for the rain said Job Job 2.8 And he gave a decree unto the Sea that the waves should not passe his commandment And by this Law it is that heavie bodies move downwards but light bodies ascend upward that the motion of the Heavens are circular and that every thing observes that manner of motion and working which is peculiar and proper unto his kind Now creatures having their several degrees of perfection and Law being as it were the several rules and spurrs thereof it will follow The persecter any creature is the more general and of larger excellency are those Laws by which the same is guided So we see that Minerals are of a perfecter constitution and being then simple bodies as Air or Water or Earth or Plants are perfecter then Stones and Beasts are more perfect then Plants and that Man is more perfect then all So that every one of these in their severall kinds have more or lesse notion motion belonging unto them and accordingly are subject to more or lesse Laws Now men being as it were a compendium or Epitome or abbreviature of all the creatures of God and participating of all the perfections hath so many actions and operations proper unto him as makes him subject to all the lawes not only to the part of natures law that concerns only his reasonable Soul and will and is therefore called the morall Law but likewise unto all the subordinate parts that may any waies concern his inferior parts and faculties so that not only the Soul the understanding but the senses and humors yea the very whole proportion and constitution of the body and every particular therein had their severall prescriptions and motions peculiar unto themselves which both for ability and power and end and all other circumstances they ought to have observed exactly and could not transgresse without sin So that first hearing of the subject of sin namely the law of nature That Law which Almighty God had prescribed universally unto all things in nature to be observed let us proceed unto the farther search thereof And therefore in the second place we say that the form of righteousnesse is the observation of this Law and hence we insert tanquam formale peccati that the transgression of the law is as it were the form of sin For so 1 John 3.8 defineth that sin is the transgression of the Law that it is an aberration and excursion out of the bonds and prescripts of Gods Law 1. John 3.4 3ly The materiall causes of Righteousnesse were the actions and operations faculties and parts of man and therefore we must propose them also tanquam materiale peccati as the matter and subject of sin For look how the parts and faculties both of Soul and body were ordered and framed and beautified and exercised in Righteousnesse So likewise the same parts and faculties both of Soul and body are confused distempered deformed and perverted by iniquity and sin For the efficient cause of righteousnesse being liberum arbitrium hominis the free will of man it must needs follow that the efficient cause of sin must needs be the same or else could not be said to be our sin for that which makes a work to be our work is because it proceeds from our own will for sin in the formes and abstracted nature thereof namely as it is the transgression of the Law may be and is in beasts and other creatures yet cannot be said to be the sin of the creature because it proceeds not from will in the creature for the creature is subject to vanity saith the Apostle Rom. 8.20 Neither is it sufficient to make a work ours unlesse it proceed freely from us without any necessity compelling us unto for then the act would be attributed as much yea principally to the necessity and we should be but as instruments thereof That therefore is the efficient of sin unto man which doth appropriate sin unto man and that doth appropriate sin unto him which is the principal facultie by which he worketh namely Liberum Arbitrium his free will Lastly the finall cause or effect of righteousnesse was joy and peace and comfort and contentation and perfection and all the happinesse which the soul and body of man was capable of So è contrario for rectum est Index sui obliqui we most still measure that which is crooked by that which is streight the final cause and effect of sin is sorrow affliction crosses and destruction and all the miseries in this life and in the life to come For as malum culpae was the privation of bonum morale so malum poenae is the privation of bonum delectabile As sin was the privation of righteousnesse so effect of sin is the privation of happinesse which is the fruit of righteousnesse For all the miseries and pains that hath or shal ever befal man are no positive thing but a meer privation of that goodnesse which was created in him As for example If sharp needles shall be thrust under the nails it is nothing but the violent disorder and disturbance of the frame of nature in those parts If our hands or feet should be dipt in boyling lead it were but the violent distemper of heat in these members and so of other torments which are all privations Neither did the eye see nor hath ear heard nor did ever possibly enter into the heart of man the joyes that are prepared for the righteous All things in the world are too low to expresse them So on the contrary it will follow that neither eye nor ear or heart hath either seen or can imagine those pains that are prepared for sinners all things in this world are too short to resemble them For as the choice and pretious stones mentioned Rev. 2. are there used to represent the new Jerusalem and the beauty and joyes thereof which are far more excellent and of an higher and transcendent qualitie So under reformation of better judgment I suppose that the fire which the spirit of God in the Scripture makes choice of to expresse the torments of Hel is not material fire but being the most violent and consuming element is used only as the fittest thing to represent those unconceivable pains For I conceive those
should live in that perfection and happinesse whereof by nature they were capable There is no imperfection in any creature but man is guilty thereof as being by his sin For cursed is the earth and all things therein for mans sake and why for mans sake but for sin and what is that cursing but the substraction and deprivation of the Lords protection and guidance of the creatures in the lawes and rules of natures law Rightly therefore saies the Prophet I was shapen c. And not only therein doth expresse the whole ground and Original cause of his disease but he adds also that in sin his Mother warmed and cherished him up both root and branches were sinful In consideration whereof it will appear that as the structure and composition of man is most admirable so the corruption of sin in man is most damnable as being a general disturbance of the whole course of nature a pestilent infection universally diffused over all the faculties both of Soul and body For as nature hath severall degrees of perfection and still the former is the ground of the latter so also have these degrees their degrees of infection and still the latter is enforced by the former 1. The first degree of natural perfection in man is esse consisting in the constitution and temperature of the body which is the ground of all motions and life 2. The second is Vegetare by receiving nourishment to encrease and grow to perfection in himselfe 3. The third is Sentire an abilitie to discern and know all outward and corporeal objects and their simple qualities 4. The fourth is ratiocinari by discourse of reason in the contemplation of outward things and to draw out such rules and directions for this life as are consonant to that law which God had established in all things 5. Secundum rationem agere to work and frame all his actions according to their destinated ends namely the preservation of natures perfection and the glory of natures God Now as these degrees of naturall perfection have their dependance the one upon the other in their order so likewise in the infection and diffusion of sin upon the natural qualities do the vital faculties depend upon the vital the animal upon the animal the rationall upon the rational the moral c. 1. For the first if there be an intemperate mixture of cold and heat in the natural constitution as hath been declared there is then do the vital faculties fail in the exercise of tâ—eir functions as too much heat doth inflame the blood encrease choler drie the braine too much cold doth beget melancholy augment flegme hinder digestion dul the spirits and such like 2. If the vital faculties be disordered the animal are distempered thereby as the over abundance of ill humors doth send up noysom and unwholesome fumes into the head which do stupifie the sense dul the imagination and hurt the memory so that if the fantasie and memory be any way impaired then in the third place the reasonable soul is greatly disabled in the exercise of her faculties And lastly if reason be absurd and defect in that it is not able to direct how then can the will execute or perform any thing that is agreeable to Gods Law Behold how great a flame a little fire kindleth for the natural temperature of the first qualities heat and cold c. though in mens ordinary imaginations they are things of small moment or respect and nothing so material and worthy as the superior faculties yet are they so necessary and of such force in the whole frame and constitution of man that upon their goodn sse doth the goodnesse of all the rest depend no otherwise then as the spring or poize in a curious clock which seems to be dull and of no great necessity and yet it is of the greatest power as that which moves all the rest of the wheels for the perfection of a clock is to keep its time and due howers but if the spring or poize be disordered all the rest is disordered if it be too strong then the howers are too short and if slack and loose then are they too long So the natural faculties if too cold then all the rest are dâ—stitute and too remiss if tooo hot then are they too violent and redundant for the disposition and perfection of the Soules working dependeth principally upon the bodies temperature For as the eye the intâ—rmedium that which is interposed betwixt the eye and the object be thick as in a mist it is obscured and the sight made imperfect So the Soul if the Organs those instruments by which it works be disordered and distempered is disabled in the exercise and use of its faculties As for example we see in a drunken man when the stomach is oppressed with a thick and strong moisture the heat of the liver by concoction and digestion rarifies the same there riseth such a fume no otherwise then we see in a boyling pot which ascending up into the head doth so stupifie and distemper the brain the Organ of the understanding imagination and discourse that man thereby that distempers himselfe doth quite lose the use of his reason and the chief faculty of his soul and becomes for the time if not worse even a very beast Even so every man by the distempered mixture of corrupted nature is made either more or lesse defective in the use of the soules vigour and power by how much more or lesse the instruments and organs by which the soul worketh are polluted and distempered From hence it is we see that some men are more quick and active of apprehension and conceit others likewise are stupid and of duller capacity which only proceeds from the good or evil disposition of the parts of the body yea the very best and purest that is begotten by the corrupt generation of man is infinitely farre short of that puritie and quicknesse of capacitie which man by his creation naturally was endued withall From hence therefore may appear the vanity of the Pelagians arguments intending to prove that sin is only learned by imitation because the body cannot work upon the Soul which is a Spirit for though the bodie cannot work upon the substance of the soul yet can it hinder and disorder the operations of the Soul which it is to perform in and by the body for by the bodies corruption and disordered distemper there is either irregularity or iniquity in the manner or confusion and ataxie in the order but especially excesse or defect in them sure of every facultie of and action of man As for example if we survey some particulars and first in those faculties which are called concupiscibles as hunger a natural appetite to create for sustenance and preservation of life and being cannot doe it without sin not that the desire of meat or action of eating is sinfull for it is natural and all that is natural is good as being the work of God but
the irregularitie and disorder of the desire and act is sin either we eat too much or are not contented with that which will suffice nature or desire that which is unwholsome or loath that which would best nourish us or in some measure and degree or other of gluttony the law that is those rules and limitations which God had prescribed in nature unto that facultie is transgressed So thirst becomes drunkennesse and that same cupiditas venerea is changed into lust and so by excesse is made sloth and so of the rest Secondly consider the faculties called Irascibiles and there we see that joy by excesse is turned into voluptuousnesse and sorrow into anxiety that fear becomes horror and anger is turned into fury â—nd hatred into malice 3. Proceed we unto the reasonable faculties and see how hope exceeds by presumption how mercy becomes foolish pitty how zeal runs into superstition and knowledge into heresie and so of all the faculties of man Neither do these only transgresse the law of God by exceeding their limits and prescriptions but also being defective in the measure and intention thereof so fear offends by security and anger by stupidity so hope oftentimes becomes despair and mercy is turned into crueltie so the defect of zeal is dulnesse of spirit and the defect of knowledge is ignorance so of all the rest which I may not now enumerate their inordinate motion is the transgression of the law either on the right hand or on the left either in excesse or defect of their functions and operations so vertue consists in medio as it is in the mean between them of the moderation of these excesses and the supplies of these desires are called vertues or graces by their several effidients vertues by moralists in so much as by education and by the light and strength of nature they are in some measure corrected and graces by Divines because by the power of Gods gratious spirit they are reformed So that to draw all into a sum we may reduce Original sin unto these three hâ—â—d 1. Reatus inobedient to guiltinesse of disobedience against Gods law 2. Defectus boni a defect or wâ—nâ— of all goodnesse in our selves 3. Proclivitas ad malum an inclination unto wickednesse in all things we go about to do The first in respect of the time past the second or the time present and the third of the time to come The one by imputation the other by inhaesion the last by inclination Being in the first place made guilty of sin by the just imputation of the willfull disobedience of our first Parents because we were then in their loins as parts of them that now descend from them and sprung out of them 2 Being thereby made deficient and deprived of all righteousnesse which God had created in us and that happinesse that was intended for us Lastly being then wickedly disposed there being in every part of us as well inferior of the body as superior of the soul a disposition or propensity an inclination or proclivity to erre from the rules of Gods Law wherby we our selves every one of us shall effect or bring to perfection our own finall overthrow or destruction unlesse by the mercy of God it be prevented This is the Catastrophe this is the universall Corruption and subversion of man being every way sinfull both in Semine in Embrione and in Homine Sinfull in his Conception and shaping sinfull in his growth and encreasing and also sinfull in his strength and perfection of being and that not in any mean or remisse degree but in every one of these sin being out of measure sinfull All this and much more then this was the sorrowfull and penitent soul of the Prophet strongly possest and afflicted with all in his deep meditation of sin in this place Where he saith I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me And thus having briefly run over the matter and unfolded the scope and sense of the Text as well as my understanding would serve and therein propounded onely matter of Instruction for the information of our understanding teaching us what we are to know It remains in the next place that we collect out of the precedent discourse such morall documents for the reformation of our lives as may direct us what we are to do Out of which though I may observe many yet I will pitch my thoughts onely upon those two 1. That the dearest Saints so well as the greatest sinners are in their Infancy Originally sinfull 2. That the sin which we are from our very infancy stained withall is conveyed by our Parents unto us Concerning the first Truth you have it here confirmed by the confession of one that is recorded to be a man after Gods own heart and thereby reputed to be a most dear Saint yet for all that pleads not immunity from sin in his very infancie but saith that he was shapen in iniquity and in sin did his mother conceive him Of the same mind with David the Father was Solomon the Son Prov. 22.15 where he laies it down as an undeniable Axiome That foolishnesse is bound up in the heart of a child By which phrase is meant nothing but wickednesse and finn which is on a child as a fardle or pack on a horse back which he can never of himself shake off And this is the ground why the Lord himself speaketh of the whole Nation of the Jewes which were then the onely Church hee had in the world Esay 48.8 Thou wast called a transgressor from the womb Though they were a people in Covenant with God yet in their infancy in the womb a transgressor yea out of the womb so visibly before Circumcision transgressors also According to that of Saint Paul Eph. 2.3 We are all by nature the children of wrath as wel as others Though the chosen of God yet herein can plead no more priviledge from the exemption of this inbred pollution then Judas himself could whom our Saviour calls no lesse then a Devill Ioh. 8.44 Have not I chosen twelve and one of them is a Devill Hence is that of Aug. damnati antequam nati And therefore by some Originall sin is concluded to be not onely a privation but a corrupt habit like unto a disease which beside the privation of health hath humores malé dispositos the humors ill disposed whence it cometh to passe that the imagination of mans heart as the Lord speaks Gen. 8.21 vs evill from his very youth there is a nature prone There is in him a naturall pronesse and disposition to every thing that is evill as there is in the youngest whelp of a Lion or Bear or a Woolfe to cruelty or in the very egge of a Cockatrice before it be hatched which is the comparison which the Holy Ghost useth Esay 59.5 whereupon saies Aug. Concupiscentia lex peccati cum parvulis nascitur Concupiscence which is the Law of sinne is even born with Children And
manifest their visibilitie of membership in the Church of Christ which thing maketh greatly for the confirmation of the strength of their Parents for the present and their future comfort afterwards that as they are by nature so filthy and loathsome in the sight of God so the Lord hath in the blood of Jesus Christ whereof the water in Baptisme is a sign and seal provided a laver to wash and clense them in even the laver of regeneration which as Saint Paul cals it Tit. 3.5 yea a fountain opened as the Prophet speaks Zach. 13.1 for sin and for uncleannesse sufficient to clense them of all this filthinesse and corruption of their nature But here perchance may some object Obj. If Baptisme be so necessary what ground or precept have you for it out of Gods word Ans I answer this will appear unto us Mat. 28.19 where Christ commands his Disciples and in them all Ministers successively unto the end of the world to go and disciple all nations Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost which words of our saviour are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 teach but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is make Disciples which is by by being admitted into Christs School their parents giving their names to Christ both for themselves and their families And in Christs precept teaching doth not go before but follow baptizing ver 20. teaching them to observe all things c. which is punctually observed in the children of the faithfull who after they are baptized when they come to years of discretion are taught to observe all things whatsoever Christ hath commanded Obj. Though this be the command of Christ for the institution of Baptisme yet there is not one word of Infants nor any command giving for baptizing them Ans I answer a thing may be said to be commanded in Scripture two waies 1. Literally Syllabically terminis terminantibus in expresse termes 2. Implicitely by way of implication by good consequence though in the former sense Infant-Baptisme is not commanded yet in the latter it appears to be by promises proportions example and considerations of the like grounds and causes comparing Scripture with Scripture and look what can be thus proved is as strong and valid as though it were commanded in so many syllables and letters What command is there for women to partake of the Lords supper yet the proportion of the Lords Supper with the Passeover makes it lawfull What expresse command is there for a Sabbath in the new Testament yet by consequential grounds it doth appear to be so The least filings of gold is gold as well as the whole tag so whatsoever is drawn out of Scripture by just consequence and deduction is as well the word of God as that which is an expresse commandement or example in Scripture Tombes exam p. 110. 111. yea a learned Anabaptist doth confesse that a command by way of implication is equivalent to a command Now that Infants are thus included will appear in the word Nations and Them whereof Infants being an essential part without whom a Nation cannnot subsist are inclusively and collectively under the comprise of Christs command Yea 1 Cor. 10.1 2. to the 7th there you shall find a clear place à Typo ad veritatem from the type to the truth from the signes in the Law to the thing signified in the Gospel Aug. in Johan tract 26. sacramenta illa fuerunt in signis diversa in rebus quae significabantur paria that Infants are to be baptized For saies the Apostle all our Fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea and were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the Sea c. which cloud and seawere types of our baptism and did shadow it out unto us and by this all is meant all our Fathers which synechdochically is to be understood of all the people of Israel both young old men women and children they all were baptized unto Moses 1. under the conduct or guidance of Moses or into the Doctrine or law of Moses even the children as well as the parents as will appear Exod. 12.37 for we cannot imagine them so unnatural as to leave their children behind them in the wildernesse so that it appears plainly their Baptisme being the same in substance and signification as ours was that even children by name are within the compasse of Christs command Obj. How can such be baptized that are not capable of baptism who have not understanding to know any benefit by it Ans There is a two-fold incapacitie 1. Total Capaces sunt spiritus fidei per quem animos accipiunt esse spirituale ac supernaturale e. as in stocks and stones which have no life nor reasonable soul for the spirit to work upon as Infants have 2. Partial or a proximate incapacitie which are in Infants who though for the present are uncapable of actual faith and repentance yet not of the principal and root of both as they have in them a principal and root of reason though for the present they cannot act it Besides they are capable of Baptism as well as Circumcision under the law since they are meerly passive in both For what is circumcision but the same in substance with baptisme which the Apostle calls the seal of righteousnesse which is by faith Shall then the Gospel put them in a worse condition then they were before this were to abridge the mercie of Christ and draw it into a narrower compasse then he intended who to shew his mercy to Infants did take them into his armes and blessed them Mark 10.14 If then they were capable of blessing when they were not able to go but must be brought to Christ being such as of whom peculiarly the Kingdome of God consists Mat. 10.6 What then hinders but that they may be capable of the early charitie of the Church in bringing and admitting them to baptisme though they doe not understand the vow and receive benefit and advantage by partaking of it and rather when it is remembered that Christ baptized not at all and so thought not to baptize these did yet afford the ceremonie to them and in the antient Church was preparatorie and antecedent to baptisme viz. imposition of hands and blessing them which they being capable of shews them to be in as great a capacity of baptisme it being a passive ordinance when the person baptized is a meer patient as in the case of circumcision But to admit all further objections for the clearing of this truth it being already manifest from the capacity of Infants and the command of Christ it is sufficient to justifie the practise of Apostolicall Ministers in the advancement of this Ordinance for the good of them If any desire to be further satisfied hee may confer with the learned worthies of these times as Reverend Featly Reverend Baxter learned Hamond who have so clear'd this truth