Haile thou sonne of Jupiter yea he sends into Greece that by a publique Edict he might be acknowledged for a god which the Lacedemonians in scoff did without scruple admit saying Qundoquidem Alexander vult esse Deus Deus esto Seeing Alexander will be god let him be one But the Athenians being more scrupulous or at least of greater hatred against him punished Demades the Orator for advising them to receive him as god for he had said Look Oye Athenians Nè dum coelum custodies terram amittatis while ye keep heaven ye loose the earth This carnal counsel is admired as infallible policy almost by all the Potentates of the world Thus you see what pride is latent in the will of a man and how farre it may rise by temptations though the experience of humane imbecillities may quickly rebuke such mad insolencies yet some excuse or other they use to put it off as when it thundered one asked Alexander wheather he could do so he put it of and said he would not terrifie his friends if you say this corruption of the will is not in every man by nature I grant it for the degree but it is habitually and radically there Let any man be put in such temptations as Herod and Alexander were and left alone to this inbred pride and original pollution it would break out into as great a flame Original sinne needeth time to conceive and bring forth its loathsome monsters 3. This pride of the will is seen In the presumption and boldness of it to inquire into the consels of his Majesty and to call God himself to account for his administrations Rom. 9. 20 who art thou O man that disputest against God O man that is spoken to humble and debase him Wilt thou call God to an account Shall God be thought unjust because thou canst not comprehend his depths Certainly God hath more power over us then the Potter over his clay for the Potter doth not make the materials of that he only tempreth it wheras God giveth us our very beings and therefore it is intolerable impudency for us to ask God why he made us so yet how proud and presumptousis man to dispute about Gods precedings whereas the great Governors of the world will not allow any Subject to say why dost thou so to them The Psalmist complaineth of this pride in some men Psal 12. 4. Our lips are our own who is Lord over us Thus Pharaoh said to Moses who is the Lord that I should obey him This pride in the will whereby men will audaciously intrude into things they know not hath made these heretiques in judgements the Pelagians and Socinians Their will doth not captivate their understanding to Gods Ipse dixit for us the Schoolemen observe truly in every act of faith there is required pia affectio and inclinatio voluntatis and when that is refractory and unsubmitting it causeth many damnable heresies in the judgement for it is the pertinacy of the will that doth greatly promote the making of an heretique Lastly This pride of the will is seen In raging and rebellious risings up against God in his proceedings against us In this the pride of the will doth sadly discover it self what rage what fretting and discontent do we find in our hearts when Gods will is to chastise or afflict us If we could bind the armes of the Omnipotent to prevent his blowes how ready is presumptuous man to do it It is therefore a great work of regeneration to mollity and soften the will to make it sacile and ductile so as to be in what forme God would have us to be When David had such holy power over his will 2 Sam. 15. 26 that in his miserable flight from Absalom he could say If ye have no delight in me behold here I am let him do to me as seemeth good to him he could abound and want be rich and poor a king and no king all in a day this argued the great work of sanctification upon his will This iron was now in the fire and so could be molleated as God would have it Thus in the fore mentioned instance of Paul when he cryed out Lord what wilt thou have me to do Here was a tender humble resignative of the whole will to God without any conditions or provisoes But oh the pride and unruliness of the will if left to its natural pollution When God shall any wayes bring his judgements upon us how impatiently do we rise against God even as if we would be revenged of his Majesty As it is said of the Thracians when it thundereth and lightneth they shoot against heaven as if they would bring God to order Xerxes scourged the sea and sent a Bill of defiance against the hill of Athos Augustus being beaten with a tempest at sea defied their god Neptune and caused his image to be taken down from the place where the rest of their gods were Yea Charron speaketh of a Christian King who having received a blow from God swore be would be revenged and gave a commandment that for ten yeares no man should pray to him or speak of him I tremble to mention these dreadfull instances but they are usefull to demonstrate what pride and unsubdued contumacy is in the will of man even against God himself when he crosseth us of our wills Yea do not the godly themselves though grace hath much mollified their will and made it in a great measure obsequious to God yet do they not mourne and pray and groane under the pride of their will do they not complain oh they cannot bring their will to Gods will They cannot be content and patient under Gods dispensations they fret they mutter they repine Is not all this because the will is proud the will doth not submit Heavenly skill and art to order thy will would make thee find rest in every estate ¶ 6. The Contumacy and Refractoriness of the Will ANother instance of the native pollution of the will is The contumacy and refrractioness of the will it is obstinate and inpenetrable The Scripture useth the word heart for the mind will and conscience not attending to philosophical distinctions so that the stony heart the uncircumcised heart is the same with a stubborn and disobedient will Thus the Scripture putteth the whole cause of a man 's not conversion of his not repenting upon the resractory will in a man especially Levit. 26. 14. If ye will not hearken to me and will not do these Commandments vers 18. If ye will not for all this hearken to me vers 23. If ye will not be reformed but will walk contrary to me Observe how all is put upon the will so that if their will had been pliable and ready then the whole work of Conversion and Reformation had been accomplished So Matth. 21. 29. The disobedient sonne returneth this answer to his father I will not This contumacy therefore of the will may be called the bad tree
thy soul are left still yet they are so corrupted and vitiated that in a moral consideration there is nothing whole or sound in them Secondly From hence it is That it hath as it were an universal guilt it makes the understanding guilty the will guilty the affections guilty even guilt all over Every actual sinne hath its proper formal guilt the guilt of theft is one thing the guilt of adultery is another thing but now original sinne is as it were an universal guilt As God is that bonum in quo omnia bona so in some sense original sinne is that malum in quo omnia mala not onely effectively of which in the next place but because of the general guilt accompanying For as it hath a general maculam so it must have suitably a general reatum This is greatly to be laid to heart for as original righteousness was not the perfection and glory of one faculty only but the universal rectitude and general harmony of the whole man Thus original sinne is not any particular guilt of one kind of sinne but it 's the ataxy the dissolution of that curious workmanship which God at first made in man and so is a general guilt and therefore the more are we to bewail this condition saying Lord It is not one or many sins it is not this or that peculiar guilt I am to humble my self for but I am all over guilty as the Land of Israel is said to be Isa 1. 6. From the sole of the foot to the head there is no soundness nothing but wounds and putrifying sores Thus are we to judge of our selves in respect of this overspreading contagion Thirdly We are greatly to bewail and humble our selves under this birth-pollution Because it 's the fountain and root of all the actual evil we do commit This is enough if there were no external temptations to plunge us into all impiety I shall not here dispute it rigidly Whether every sinne committed because of that original defilement within us of that we are to speak hereafter It is enough that the Scripture doth attribute all actual evil to this as the cause Jam. 1. 17. Every one is tempted and drawn aside by the lust which is within him and out of the evil heart as an evil treasure our Saviour saith Mat. 12. 35. proceed all evil thoughts words and actions Thus also Genes 6. The imaginations of the thoughts of a mans heart are evil and that continually but of this more in its time onely take notice of this consideration in this place as a full and clear ground why thou shouldst with all thy might all the dayes thou livest abhorre thy self and loath thy self It 's from this original sinne David's adultery and murder did flow And thus there is no actual iniquity which lieth as a load upon thee but it did flow from this bitter fountain at first Wilt thou therefore condemn the fruit of a Tree and not much rather the root Wilt thou abhorre the stream and not much rather the fountain Oh remember that here lieth the strength and power of sinne and therefore the strength of thy sorrow ought to bend that way likewise Fourthly We are deeply to humble our selves for this birth contagion Because in it self it is a most grievous and hainous sinne It 's a dispute Whether original sinne be not gravissimum peccatum the heaviest and greatest sinne that is It is true indeed many sins may exceed this in several respects but yet if we lay all things together we have cause to judge it the heaviest sinne that is For although Bellarmine minceth the matter and saith it is minimum peccatum the least sinne in this respect though he acknowledge it very hainous otherwayes because it hath minimum de voluntario yet we must not judge of the greatness of a sinne by a Philosophical notion but according to the judgement of God who best knoweth the hainous nature and guilt of sinne now by Gods punishing of it in such a manner it appeareth to be the greatest sin the event doth demonstrate it In that we read not of any sinne punished by God in such an high degree as original sinne was in Adam our first parent in whose loms we are For whereas all other sinnes bring only the temporal and spiritual curse upon the offender himself this doth upon all mankind Indeed God doth visit sometimes the sins of Parents to the third and fourth generation but here it is as long as there shall be a generation And besides it 's not onely temporal evils we suffer for Adam's sinne in which respect many may suffer for other mens sinnes as in Achan and David's case but it is in spiritual destruction likewise all mankind is obnoxious to eternal damnation for this transgression That therefore must needs be an horrid sinne and of a crimson nature for which we see God to be so sevre yea not only mankind but all the creatures likewise are cursed for this so that had not God provided a new Covenant of grace for some of mankind thus fallen the whole race of men would have been eternally damned and that for this sinne alone though there had not been one actual sinne committeed in the world by any one man since the fall Oh then tremble under this consideration because the anger of God is thus stirred up against that one sin morethan all the sins that are committed For though the sinne against the holy Ghost be in this respect more terrible than original sinne because God will never pardon that whereas original sinne is pardoned to all believers and as Antiquity hath thought even to Adam himself yet in other respects original sinne is in a more extense and universal manner cursed than that Do not then go to extenuate this sinne to say It was but the eating of some for bidden fruit or original sinne it hath none of my will I cannot help it for we joyn original imputed and inherent at this time together because of their inseparable connexion but rather consider the great anger of God that is gone out against all mankind because of it and then thou wilt look on it with the same abborring eye that God himself doth Fifthly We are greatly to bewail this original defilement Because it makes us wholly incurable it depriveth us of all spiritual ability and power to recover our selves We are thus shapen in iniquity and so must live and die and go to hell in it if Gods grace doth not interpose Doth not Job Chap. 14. 4. make it impossible for any man to bring a clean thing out of an unclean So that all mankind is born in an absolute impotency to help it self if we would give thousands of worlds to come out of this lost estate we could not help ourselves Hence it is that the Scripture attributeth all the good we have to the alone free grace of God Sixthly We are to bewail it Because it makes us sensless stupid
Bondage is It s being carried out unto sinne voluntarily and with delight ¶ 9. Thirdly It is evident by its utter impotency to any thing that is spiritual Here is shewed wherein that inability consists ¶ 10. That man naturally loves his thraldom to sin and contradicts the means of Deliverance ¶ 11. It s Bondage is seen in its Concupiscential Affection to some creature or other never being able to lift it self up to God ¶ 12. That when it doth endeavour to overcome any sinne it is by falling into another ¶ 13. The more means of grace to free us the more our slavery appears ¶ 14. The Necessity of a Redeemer demonstrates our thraldome to sinne ¶ 15. An Examination of the Descriptions and Definitions of Freedom or Liberty of Will which many Writers give it Shewing That none of them are any wayes agreeing to the Will unsanctified CHAP. V. Of the Pollution of the Affections Col. 3. 2. Set your Affections upon things above not on things on the earth SECT I. The Text opened SECT II. Of the Nature of the Affections SECT III. How the Affections are treated of severally by the Philosopher the Physician the Oratour and the Divine SECT IV. The Natural Pollution of the Affections is manifested 1. In the Dominion and Tyranny they have over the Understanding and Will ¶ 2. Secondly In regard of the first motions and risings of them ¶ 3. Thirdly In respect of their Progress and Degrees ¶ 4. Fourthly In respect of the Continuance or Duration of them SECT V. They are wholly displaced from their right Object SECT VI. Their sinfulness is discovered in respect of the End and Use for which God ingraffed them in our Natures SECT VII And in their Motion and Tendency thereunto SECT VIII In respect of the Contrariety and Opposition of them one to another SECT IX The Pollution of the Affections in respect of the Conflict between the natural Conscience and them SECT X. In respect of the great Distractions they fill us with in holy Duties SECT XI Their Deformity and Contrariety to the Rule and Exemplary Patern SECT XII Their Dulness and senslesness though the Understanding declare the good to be imbraced SECT XIII The Affections being drawn out in holy Duties from corrupt Motiveâ— shews the Pollution of them SECT XIV That they are more zealously carried out to any false way than to the Truths of God SECT XV. They are for the most part in-lets to all sinne in the Soul SECT XVI The Privacy of them SECT XVII Their hurtfull Effects upon a mans Body SECT XVIII The sad Effects they have upon others SECT XIX And how readily they receive the Devils Temptations CHAP. VI. The Sinfulness of the Imaginative Power of the Soul Gen. 6. 5. And God saw that every Imagination of the thoughts of mans heart was only evil and that continually SECT 1. The Text explained and vindicated against D. J. Taylor Grotius the Papists and Socinians SECT II. Of the Nature of the Imagination in a man SECT III. 1. The Natural Sinfulnesse of the Imagination appears in its making Idols Supports and vain Conceits whereby it pleaseth it self SECT IV. 2. In respect of its Defect from that end and use which God did intend in the Creation of man with such a power SECT V. 3. Restlesnesse SECT VI. 4. Universality Multitude and Disorder of the Imaginations SECT VII 5. Their Roving and Wandring up and down without any fixed way SECT VIII 6. Their Impertinency and Unreasonableness SECT IX 7. The Imagination eclypseth and for the most part keeps out the Understanding SECT IX In the Imaginations for the most part are conceived all actual impieties SECT X. That many times Sinne is acted by the Imagination with Delight and Content without any relation at all to the external actings of Sinne. SECT XI It s Propensity to all evil both towards God and man SECT XII It continually invents new sins or occasions of sins SECT XIII The Sinfulness of the Imagination manifesteth it self in reference to the Word of God and the ministerial preaching thereof SECT XIV It is more affected with Appearances then Realities SECT XV. It s Sinfulness in respect of fear and the workings of Conscience SECT XVI Of the Actings of the Imagination in Dreams SECT XVII The Imagination is not in that orderly Subordination to the rational part of man as it was in the Primitive Condition SECT XVIII It is according to Austin's Judgement the great instrument of conveying Original Sinne to the Child SECT XIX How prone it is to receive the Devils Impressions and Suggestions SECT XX. Some Corollaries from the Premisses CHAP. VII Of the last Subject of Inhesion or seat of Original Sinne viz. the Body of a man 1 Thess 5. 23. And the very God of peace sanctifie you wholly and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and Body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ SECT II. The Text explained SECT III. Scripture-proofs of the sinfull Pollution of the Body SECT IV. The sinfulness of the Body discovered in particulars ¶ 1. It is not now instrumental and serviceable to the Soul in holy Approaches to God but on the contrary a clog and burden ¶ 2. It doth positively affect and defile the Soul ¶ 3. A man acts more according to the Body and the Inclinations thereof then the mind with the Dictates thereof ¶ 4. The Body by Original Sinne is made a Tempter and a Seducer ¶ 5. It doth objectively occasion much sinne to the Soul ¶ 6. It s indisposition to any service of God ¶ 7. How easily the Body is moved and stirred by the passions and affections thereof ¶ 8. The Body when sanctified is become no lesse glorious then the Temple of the holy Ghost CHAP. VIII Of the Subject of Predication Shewing that every one of mankind Christ only excepted is involved in this sinne and misery Luk. 1. 35 Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God SECT I. The Text explained SECT II. The Aggravations of Original Sinne. ¶ 1. The Aggravation of Adam's Actual Transgression ¶ 2. The Aggravation of Original Sinne inherent ¶ 3. An Objection Answered SECT III. That every one by Nature hath his peculiar Original Sinne. SECT IV. That Original Sinne in every one doth vent it self betimes SECT V. How soon a Child may commit Actual Sinne. SECT VI. Whether Original Sinne be alike in all CHAP. X. A Justification of Gods shutting up all under Sinne for the Sinne of Adam in the sense of the Reformed Churches against the Exceptions of D. J. Taylor and others Gal. 3. 24. But the Scripture hath concluded all under sinne that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe SECT I. The Text explained SECT II. Prâ—positions to direct us in this great Point of Gods Proceedings as to the matter of Original Sinne. SECT III. Objections Answered The Contents of the
Fourth Part. TReating of the Effects of Original Sinne. CHAP. I. Of that Propensity that is in every one by Nature to sinne Job 15. 16. How much more abominable and filthy is man which drinketh iniquity like water SECT I. The Text explained and vindicated from Socinian Exceptions SECT II. How much is implied in this Metaphor Man drinketh iniquity like water SECT III. Some Demonstrations to prove that there is such an impetuous Inclination in man to sinne SECT IV. The true Causes of this Proneness and the false ones assigned by the Adversaries examined CHAP. II. The second immediate Effect of Original Sinne is the Causality which it hath in respect of all other sins Jam. 1. 14. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed SECT I. The Text explained setting forth the generation of Sinne. SECT II. That Original Sinne is the Cause of all Actual Evil cleared by several Propositions which may serve for Antidotes against many Errours ¶ 2. Of the Motions of the heart to sinne not consented unto as an immediate Effect of Original Sinne. ¶ 3. How many wayes the Soul may become guilty of sinne in respect of the Thoughts and motions of the heart CHAP. III. Of the Combate between the Flesh and the Spirit as the Effect of Original Sinne so that the Godliest man cannot do any holy Duty perfectly in this life Gal. 5. 17. For the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and these are contrary one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would SECT I. The Text explained and vindicated from corrupt Interpretations SECT II. Several Propositions clearing the truth about the Combate between the Flesh and Spirit in a Godly man SECT III. A Consideration of that part of the seventh Chapter to the Romans which treats of the Conflict within a man Shewing against Amyraldus and others that it must be a regenerate person only of whom those things are spoken ¶ 4. The several wayes whereby Original Sinne doth hinder the Godly in their Religious Progress whereby they are sinfull and imperfect ¶ 5. Objections against the Reliques of Sin in a regenerate man answered ¶ 8. The several Conflicts that may be in a man ¶ 10. How the Combate in a Godly man between the Flesh and Spirit may be discerned from other Conflicts ¶ 10. Of the Regenerates freedome from the Dominion of sinne and whether it be by the Suppression of it or by the Abolishing part of it CHAP. IV. Of Death coming upon all men as another Effect of Original Sinne. 1 Cor. 15. 22. For as in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive SECT II. Death an Effect of Original Sinne explained in divers Propositions ¶ 2. How many wayes a thing may be said to be Immortal and in which of them man is so ¶ 4. Distinctions about Mortality and that in several respects Adam may be said to be created Mortal and Immortal ¶ 7. The several Grounds assigned by Schoolmen of Adam's Immortality rejected and some Causes held forth by the Orthodox SECT III. Arguments to prove That through Adam's sinne we are made sinners and so Mortal SECT IV. Arguments brought to prove That Adam was made Mortal answered SECT V. Whether Adam's sinne was onely an occasion of Gods punishing all mankind resolved against D. J. Taylor SECT VI. Whether Death may be attributed to mans constitution considered in his meer Naturals against D. J. Taylor and the Socinians CHAP. V. Eternal Damnation another Effect of Original Sinne. Ephes 2. 3. And were by nature the children of wrath as well as others SECT I. What is meant by Wrath in this Text. SECT II. What is meant by Nature SECT III. That by nature through the original sinne we are born in all are heirs of Gods wrath all are obnoxious to eternal damnation SECT IV. What is comprehended in this Expression Children of wrath SECT V. Some Propositions in order to the proving That the wrath of God is due to all mankind because of Original Sinne. SECT VI. Arguments to prove it SECT VII Some Conclusions deduceable from the Doctrine of the damnableness of Original Sinne. SECT VIII A Consideration of their Opinion that hold an Universal Removal of the Guilt of Original Sinne from all mankind by Christs Death Answering their Arguments among which that from the Antithesis or Opposition which the Apostle maketh Rom. 5. between the first Adam and the second Adam SECT IX Of the state of Infants that die in their Infancy before they are capable of any Actual Transgressions and that die before Baptisme A TREATISE OF Original Sinne. PART I. CHAP. I. The first Text to prove Original Sinne improved and vindicated SECT I. EPHES. 2. 3. And were by nature the children of wrath as well as others THE true Doctrine of Original Corruption is of so great concernment that Austin thought De Peccato Orig. contra Pelag. Celest 2. cap. 24. the Summe of Religion to consist in knowing of this as the effect of the first Adam and also of Christ the second Adam with all his glorious benefits Though therefore Coelestius of old thought it to be but Recquaestionis not fides Ibidem cap. 4. And others of late have wholly rejected it as Austin's figment yet certainly the true way of Humiliation for sinne or Justification by Christ cannot be firmly established unless the true Doctrine of this be laid as a Foundation-stone in the building Now because original sinne is used ambiguously by Divines sometimes for Adam's first sinne imputed unto us for Omnes homines fuerunt ille unus homo he was the common Person representing all mankind as is in time to be shewed And this for distinction sake is called Originale originans or Originale imputatum And sometimes it 's taken passively for the effect of that first sinne of Adam viz. The total and universal pollution of all mankind inherently through sinne which is called Originale originatum or inherens I shall treat of it in this later acception as being of great practical improvement many wayes SECT II. ANd because in Theological Debates two Questions are necessary The An sit and the Quid sit Whether there be such a thing and What it is and in both these the truth of God meeteth with many adversaries I shall first insist on the Quod sit That there is such a natural and cursed pollution upon every one that is born in an ordinary way The first Text I shall fasten this Truth upon is this I have mentioned which deservedly both by Ancient and Modern Writers is thought to have a pregnant and evident demonstration That there is such a natural contagion upon all To understand this the better take notice of the Coherence briefly The Apostles scope is to incite the Ephesians to Thankfulness by the consideration of that great love and infinit mercy vouchsafed to them by God and because the Sunne is most
Free-will and so the praise shall be given partly to our selves and partly to God But above all he that doth either deny or diminish the guilt and contagion of this sinne can never exalt Christ in all his Offices as he ought to do He that denieth the disease must needs derogate from the Physician The whole need not the Physician saith our Saviour Matth. 9. 12. And therefore it 's of great consequence to be fully perswaded about the depth breadth and length of this sinne that thereby we may be able to comprehend the dimensions of Christs love to us Not that Christ came only to take away the guilt of original sin as some Papists affirm but because this is the womb wherein all other sins are conceived This is the wound of the whole nature actual sins only infect the person of a man We may then easily see the necessity of being truly informed about this Subject for this is like miscarriage in the first concoction which cannot be amended by that which followeth And therefore this consideration should quicken you up in a diligent attention to the whole Doctrine which shall be delivered about it SECT III. IN the next place we are to shew you of what practical advantage it is for all to be fully informed about this native contagion and leprosie we bring with us into the world And First He that doth truly believe in this point will quickly silence all those impatient if not blasphemous complaints that are uttered by many against nature because as they say it is such an hard step-mother to mankind Non tam editi quum ejecti said the Heathen I call them blasphemous complaints because what is spoken against Nature redounds upon God the Author of Nature Hence in the Scripture what Nature doth God is said to do Now then if we consider what impatient expostulations the Heathens have made why man of all creatures should be by Nature most miserable No true answer could ever be given to satisfie but this because man comes sinfull into the world The young ones of beasts and birds are not so miserable as our Infants because not corrupted with evil in their Natures as they are So that if we see our very Infants which yet as the Scripture saith cannot discern between the right hand and left and have not done actual good or evil subject to grievous diseases and death it self Wonder not at this for they have in themselves through their native sinfulness a desert not only of this pain but eternal torments in hell Hence it is that the Scripture instructs us in that which all Philosophy could never inform us viz. the cause and original of all those diseases and pains yea of death it self which reigneth over all mankind Insomuch that thereby we see though there were not one actual sinne in the world though all men had no more sinne upon them then what they had in the womb and in the cradle yet there was demerit enough of that vengeance of God which upon mans transgression was threatned in the Word Gen. 6. 5. The main cause why God brought that universal deluge upon the whole world was not so much their actual wickedness as such but because it came from a polluted fountain which would never be wholly cleansed Their hearts were so many shops wherein were constantly formed all manner of impieties yea by this we see not only the miseries upon man but all the bondage an vanity that is upon the whole world That there are any barrenness any famines that the ground brings forth thorns and thistles that the woman brings forth with so much labour and forrow all these things come by original sinne God did not at first create things in such disorder and confusion If therefore thou wouldst quiet thy heart under all tumults and vexing thoughts to see the manifold mischiefs and miseries mankind is subject unto This Grave jugum super filios Adam as Austin often out of Ecclesiasticus this heavy yoke upon the sons of Adam have recourse to a serious meditation about original sin Secondly The true knowledge of this natural defilement will also satisfie us in those doubtfull Questions which some have greatly tormented themselves with viz. How sinne comes to be in the world And whence it is Austin in his seventh Book of his Confessions and fifth Chapter doth there bewail before God the great agonies and troubles of mind he was in about the beginning of sinne whence it did arise For seeing every thing that God made was exceeding good this exceedingly puzzled him to know how evil should be Yea this knot was so hard to unty in some mens judgments that it made many of the Marcionites heresie who because they saw men commit evil as soon as they were born and yet withall being convinced That God was good and could not be the beginning of evil They therefore maintained two principles of all things the one good of all good things The other evil of evil things Thus men have wonderfully plunged themselves into boggs and quagmires of danger and destruction because not acquainted with this main Truth of Original sin Thirdly For want of knowledge herein that main duty so much commended both by Scripture and the Heathens viz. To know our selves can never be put in practice The Heathen said è Coelo descendit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And as for the Scripture How often is it required That we should search and try our hearts That we should examine our selves and commune with our own hearts and be still Psal 4. Now these duties can never be effectually done without a firm belief of that desperate pollution which is in our heart And till we acknowledge with Jerem. 17. The heart is deceitfull above all things and desperately wicked Who can know it Yea we see David Psal 19. 13. though a godly man and much enlightned thereby being enabled to make deep search into his soul and having the Sun beams could discern those atoms and motes of sinne which man in the dark could not do yet he crieth out Who can understand his errors Cleanse me from secret sins that is such sins that lie latent and lurking in my heart that never yet I could find out If then this duty be so great of knowing our selves that some make all Religion to be in these two things The knowledge of our selves and of God then how necessary is it that we should be thorowly acquainted with this heart and nature-sinfulness for without this we can never know how vile and loathsom we are Our actual impieties though never so gross and numerous do not demonstrate our loathsomness so much as this bitter and sour leven within These are the stream that is the fountain These are the effects that is the cause Therefore the greatest strength of our wickedness lieth in a defiled Nature as you see in a Serpent or Toad that venom it sends forth at any time is nothing to the venom in
its nature If you look upon a Cain a Judas though his outside be so detestable yet his inwards are much more abominable so that a mans heart is like Peters great sheet which he saw in a vision Acts 11. 6. which was full of four-footed beasts and wild beasts and creeping things all unclean such a receptacle is mans soul of all impiety A man cannot tell what is in the sea what monsters are in the bottom of it by looking upon the superficies of the water which covers it so neither canst thou tell all that horrid deformity and wretchedness which is in thy heart by beholding thine outward impieties Oh then that you would turn your eyes inward as it were an introversion is necessary Then you will say O Lord before I knew the Nature of original sinne I was not perswaded of my vileness of my foulness Oh now I see that I am beyond all expression sinfull now I see every day I am more and more abominable O Lord formerly I thought all my sinne was in some words in some actions or in some vile thoughts but now I see this was the least part of all that evil that was in me Now I am amazed astonished to see what a sea of corruption is within me now I can never go to the bottom now I find something like hell within me sparks of lust that are unquenchable Fourthly Where there is not a true knowledge of this native corruption there our Humiliation and Repentance can never be deep enough for it 's not enough to be humbled for our actual sinnes unless also we go to the cause and root of all When a godly man would repent of his lusts of his unbelief or any other actual transgression he stayeth not in the confession of and bewailing those particular sins but he goeth to the polluted fountain to the bitter spring from whence those bitter streams flow and commonly this is a difference between an Ahabs Humiliation and a Davids Ahab humbleth himself only for his actual impieties and that because of judgments threatned and impending over him but David even when he heareth God had forgiven his iniquity yet hath great humiliation for his sinnes and Psal 51. thinketh it not enough to bewail his adultery and murder but to confess That in iniquity he was conceived his actual sinnes carried him to the original Thus Paul also Rom. 7 when he miserably complaineth of that impotency in him to do good that he could never do any good as perfectly fully purely and cheerfully as he ought to do presently he goeth to the cause of all this deordination the Law of sinne within him that original sinne which was like a Law within him commanding him to think to desire to do sinfully and obeyed it in all though against his will insomuch that he saith He was carnal and sold under sinne This the Apostle doth complain of as the heaviest burden of all So that an unregenerate man may by the light of nature bewail and complain of his actual impieties he may cry out Oh wretched man that I am for being such a beast such a devil so exorbitant and excessive but whether he can do this for the body of sinne within him as Paul did that may justly be questioned And therefore you see then the troubles and workings of conscience in some men to miscarry greatly They seem to be in pain and travails of soul but all cometh to nothing Oh how many in times of danger and under fear of death do sadly cry out of such sins they have committed Oh the promises and resolutions they make if ever God give them recovery again But all this passeth away even as mans life it self like a vapour like a tale that is told And one cause of the rottenness and defect of this humiliation is because it did not go to the bottom of the soare there was the inward and deep corruption of original sin that such never took any notice of and so in all his sorrow did omit that which is the most aggravating cause of all grief and trembling O Lord I have not only done this wicked thing but I had an heart an inclination of soul to carry me to it and therefore actual sinnes though ten thousands of them they pass away the guilt only remaining but this original pravity continueth in the pollution of it Fifthly Ignorance of original sinne makes us also mistake in the crucifying and mortifying of sinne No man can truly and spiritually leave a sinne unless he doth conquer it and subdue it in some measure in the original and root of it and this is a sure difference between a regenerate and unregenerate man about leaving or forsaking of sinne They both may give over their wonted actual impieties They both may have escaped the pollution of the world and that through the knowledge of the Gospel 2 Pet. 2. 20. but the one leaveth only the acts of sinne the other mortifieth it gradually though not totally in the cause and inclination of the soul Thus Paul Rom. 7. though he complain of those actual stirrings and impetuous motions of sinne yet withall he can truly say I delight in the Law of God in the inner man Now no hypocrite or unregenerate man can say so Though he be outwardly washed yet he hath a swinish nature still his inward parts are as loathsom as noisom as ever before Though there be a fair skinne drawn over the wound yet in the bottom there is as much corruption and putrefaction as ever before Samson's hair is only cut it 's not plucked up by the root so that it 's not enough to have given over thy former profaneness Thou thankest God thou art not the man once thou wert Oh but consider whether sinne in the root of it as well as in the branches of it doth wither and die daily A disease is not cured till the cause of it be in some measure at least removed As long as originall sinne is not in some degree mortified thy old sins or some other will break out as violently as ever here is the fountain and root of all within thee Sixthly He that is ignorant of the nature and extent of this natural defilement he must needs grosly mistake about the nature of conversion and be wholly ignorant of what regeneration is As you see in Nicodemus John 3. 6. though a master in Israel yet grosly mistaking about a new-birth and what was the reason of it That appeareth by our Saviours argument to prove the necessity of it Whatsoever is born of the flesh is flesh implying by this That if Nicodemus had known that by natural generation he was nothing but flesh that is sinne and evil his soul his mind his conscience all was flesh in this sense as well as his body then he would quickly have discerned the necessity of being born again then he would not have continued a day an hour a moment in such a dangerous condition And what
not the effect of it Because we are thus sinful and polluted by nature therefore all our actions are likewise so polluted Now then if the Scripture make it such an impossible thing for a man accustomed only to evil to become a changed man that impossibility lieth upon a man who is naturally so For though custom be called a second Nature yet certainly the first Nature is more implanted and so more active in a man This particular therefore may greatly humble a man in that sinne is so deeply rooted in him it 's worse than an habit or custom of sinning It goeth as neer to thy very essence and substance as it can do and yet not be thy substance Therefore the Scripture cals it Flesh and blood The members of a man The Law of sinne in his flesh If a man hath a thorn in his flesh how restless and pained is he Paul compared that heavy temptation he grapled with to a Thorn in the flesh but although by nature we have this thorn not only in our sides but even all over the whole man yet we can lie down in ease and live in pleasure as if nothing ailed us but this is one deadly effect of original sinne that it takes away all sense and feeling whether there be any such thing or no. Oh then let the thoughts of this sinne go as deep into thee as the sinne it self Sinne is got into thy heart let sorrow get thither Sinne hath entred into thy bowels and filled the whole man brimme full as we say Oh let shame and holy confusion be as deep and as complete in thee SECT VIII SEventhly This naturality will appear If we consider that original righteousness which God created man in For our original sinne comes in the place thereof and such a perfection as that was to the soul such a defect is this to us Now the Orthodox do maintain against Papists That that original righteousness was not a supernatural perfection superadded to mans nature but a due and natural perfection concreated with him For as Adam being made to glorifie God was thereby to have a rational soul so also such perfection in that soul which might make him capable of his end otherwise man would have been created in a more imperfect and ignoble condition than any creature It is true indeed That Righteousness and Holiness Adam had which the Scripture cals Gods Image did not flow from the principles of nature neither was it a natural consequent thereof but yet it was a moral condition or perfection due to Adam supposing God created him to such an end and therefore we are not to conceive of that Image of God as an infused habit or habits which were to rectifie and guide the natural faculties and affections of the soul which otherwise would move in repugnancy and contrariety to one another but as a natural rectitude and innate ability of those powers and affections of the soul to move regularly and subordinately to Gods will Though therefore in respect of God that Righteousness Adam had might be called supernatural because it was his gift yet in respect of man the subject so it was connatural and a suitable perfection to his nature This being taken for a sure Truth then it will exceedingly help us to the true understanding of the naturality of this evil for original sinne succeeding in the stead thereof is not as some Papists affirm like the taking of cloaths from a man and so leaving him naked or like the taking away of a bridle from an horse all which are superadded and external helps as it were but it 's like death that takes away the life of a man in respect of what is holy and godly and like an heavy disease that doth much hinder and debilitate even the natural operations This original sinne then is like the spoiling of an instrument of Musick or the deordination of a Clock or Watch when not able to perform their proper service they were made for So that original sinne is partly the want of this original Righteousness that was so connatural and partly thereby a propensity and inclination to all evil For as when the harmony of the humours is dissolved presently diseases arise in the body Thus when that admirable rectitude which was at first in the whole man was broken then all inordinacy all perversness and crookedness presently began to possess the whole man As then original Righteousness was not as an infused habit but the faculties of the soul duly constituted whereby they did regularly move in their several wayes so original sin is not to be conceived like some acquired habit polluting the powers of the soul but as the internal defect and imperfection that is cleaving to them Even as the paralitical hand whensoever it moveth doth it with feebleness and trembling wanting some strength within If therefore we would truly judge of the horrible nature of this sinne we must throughly understand the excellency and wonderful nature of that original Righteousness which is now lost then all things in the soul were in an admirable subordination to that which is holy and although the sensitive appetite was then carried out to some sensible object yet it was with a subordination to the understanding so that in that state of integrity there did not need as the Papists say Righteousness as a bridle to curb in the passions and affections which otherwise would be inordinate for this were to attribute a proneness to sinne in us to God himself for he is the author of every thing which is natural in us but all the affections and sensitive motions were then subjected to the command of reason so that Adam had power to love when and as long and in what measure he pleased All the affections of his soul were both quoad originem gradum and progressum under his dominion Even as the Artificer can make his Clock strike when and as many times as he pleaseth But wo be unto us all this excellent harmony and subordination is now lost and our affections they captivate and rule over our judgments and all this is because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there wants something within as he said of his Image that he could not make stand because it wanted life within SECT IX EIghthly That this original sinne is a natural evil appeareth From the work of grace sanctifying which is the proper remedy to cure this imbred defilement For the grace of Regeneration is chiefly and principally intended to subdue sinne as it did corrupt the nature and so by consequence as we were personally corrupted Therefore the tree must first be made good ere the fruit can be good as the tree is in its nature evil and then it brings forth evil fruit So that God in vouchsafing of this grace of Regeneration doth not principally intend to make thee leave thy actual sinnes for that is by consequence only but to make thy nature better to repair his Image in thee
mind and spirit therefore the Spirit lusteth against it That it is a punishment is manifest by the event for upon Adam's disobedience he lost Gods Image and so hath blindness in mind perversness in his will and a disorder over the whole man in which dreadfull and horrible estate we all succeed him and this the Text in hand speaketh to That it is the cause of sinne is manifest Gen. 6. 5. for from that corrupt heart of man it is That the imaginations of a mans heart are only evil and that continually This is a furnace red hot which alwayes sends forth those sparks Thus you see that original sinne is all these three a sin a punishment and a cause of sin 3. It is very clear and plain by Scripture that God doth punish one sinne by another So that when a man hath committed one sinne he is justly given up by God to commit more Amongst the many instances that may be given I shall pitch on two only 2 Thess 2. 10 11. where you have a sinne mentioned that God will punish viz. They received not the truth of God in love A sinne that is very ordinary But then observe how dreadfully God punisheth this God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lie This is their punishment a spiritual punishment more than any corporal one and that this is a sinne as well as a punishment is plain Because to believe a lie is a sinne to take falshood for truth the delusions of the Devil for the voice of Gods Spirit This is a sinne and a very hainous one The other instance is Rom. 1. 21. where you have the Heathens sinnes mentioned Because that when they knew God they glorified him not c. There you have their punishment to be given up to uncleanness to all vile lusts and sins against nature None can deny but these were sinnes and that they were a punishment for corrupting their natural light implanted in them is plain for the Apostle vers 24 26 28. saith For this cause or therefore God gave them up to these lusts and vers 27. the expression is observable That they received in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet Hearken to this with both ears and tremble all you who live under Gospel light if natural light corrupted bring such heavy soul-judgments no wonder if supernatural And therefore if you see men notwithstanding all the preaching of Gods word yet given up to be beastly sots or obstinate malicious men in their wickedness Wonder not at it for they receive in themselves a just recompence for the abusing of that light God hath vouchsafed to them Many other instances there are wherein it is plain That God makes one sinne a punishment of another Yea it 's said That every sinne since the first is both a sinne and a punishment Therefore the want of Gods Imagine us as soon as we are born with a proneness to all evil may be the punishment of Adam's actual disobedience and yet a sinne in us 4. As for the distinction assigned between sinne and punishment the one voluntary and an action the other involuntary and a passion Though there be learned men both Papists and Protestants viz. Vasquez and Twisse who disprove this by instances yet if it be granted it will not hinder or enervate our Position That original inherent sinne is both a sinne and a punishment also For when the learned say That sinne may be a punishment of a sinne they do not mean sin quâ sinne peccatum quâ peccatum for that is wholly of man but peccatum quâ poena as a judgment it is of God To understand this therefore take notice That in sinne there is the Obliquity and the Action to which this Obliquity is annexed Now sinne in the Obliquity of it so it is not a punishment but in the action or materiale of it to which it doth adhere As for instance Those vile and unclean lusts the Heathens were given up unto were a punishment of their rebellion unto the light Now as they were sinnes in their formality so they were onely permissivè and ordinativè of God but take the Actions substracted to that Obliquity which was in them so they were efficienter of God and he gave them up to their lusts 2. When God doth punish one sinne with another the meaning is not as if he did infuse this wickedness but only he denieth that mollifying and softning grace which if a man had he would resist the temptations of sinne as in this particular of original sinne You must not conceive of God in the Creation of the soul as if a man were pouring poison in a vessel so he did put sinne into our natures but he denieth to give and continue that Righteousness Adam had and then our souls do necessarily receive the clean contrary darkness for light Atheism for faith disorder for order Even as if God should withdraw the Sunne at noon-day continue the light thereof no longer to us it would upon that subduction be immediately dark there needed no other cause to introduce it Thus it is here upon Adam's fall God denying to continue his Image and original righteousness in us original sinne without any other positive cause cometh in the stead thereof and therefore we are not as Austin of old well observed to seek after the causa efficiens but deficiens peccati sin hath no efficient but deficient cause Therefore thirdly In this original sinne we may consider that which is peccatum and so it 's evil and that which is poena and so it 's good For as you look-on it being the deprivation of that rectitude which ought to be in a man so it is a sinne but as you consider it to be the denying of that holiness on Gods part which once we had so it 's poena or rather punitio The denying of this Image o◠God at first was punitio but this loss continued is poena so that the want and loss of that righteousness which once we enjoyed if considered on Gods part who continueth his denial of it is a just punishment and a good thing ordained by God but if you consider it as inherent in man who hath deserved this at Gods hand so it 's an evil and properly a sin in him 4. The same thing may be a sinne and a punishment also in divers respects As it may be a sinne in respect of a sinner but a punishment in respect of others Thus Absolom's sinne was a sinne in respect of himself but a punishment in respect of David So Parents sinnes may be sinnes in respect of themselves but punishments in respect of their children and we are especially to take heed of such sinnes as are not our sinnes onely but others punishments such are passions and unmortified anger this is a sinne to thee and a punishment to others 5. Every sinne is a punishment in this respect That it brings anxiety terror and fear
the natural Law which was at first in the Creation of man but that primordial and original Law is the same for substance with the moral though differing in some respects To the Argument therefore we say First That as this original sinne is voluntary voluntate causae which was Adam's will so it is also against a Law which was enjoyned Adam For although Adam had not a Law upon him in respect of the beginning or original of the righteousness he had he being created in that and so was not capable of any Law yet in respect of the preservation and continuation of this for himself and his posterity so he had a Law imposed on him and therefore violating of that Law we in him also did violate it You see then this original sin is a transgression of that Law which Adam was under viz. the continuation of the righteousness he was created in both for himself and his posterity Secondly Even by the moral Law or the Decalogue this original corruption is forbidden The Apostle Rom. 7. sheweth That he had not known lust to be a sinne had not the Law said Theu shalt not lust So that as the Law forbiddeth actual lusting thus it doth also the principle and root of it for the Law is spiritual and in its obligation reacheth to the fountain and root of all sin it doth not only prohibit the sinfull motions of thy soul but the cause of all these Even as when it commands any holy duty to love God for instance it requireth that inward sanctification of the whole man whereby he is inabled to love God upon right and induring grounds otherwise if this were not so the habits of sinne would not be against Gods Law nor the habits of Grace required by it as therefore it was with Adam his actual transgression was directly and immediately forbidden by the Law of God but that habital depravation of the whole man which came thereupon was forbidden remotely and by consequence Thus it is with that native contagion we are born in and this should teach us in every sin we commit to think the Law doth not forbid and condemn this actual sin only but the very inward principle of it say to thy self Alas I should not only be without such vain thoughts such vain affections but without an inclination thereunto Therefore mark the Apostle reasoning Ephes 4. 22 24 25. When he had exhorted them to put off the old man that is original sinne and to put on the new man which is the Image of God immediately opposing that See what he inferreth thereupon Wherefore put away lying they must leave that actual sinne because they have in measure subdued original sinne Thus it holds in all other sins put away pride earthliness prophaneness because the old man is first put away in some degrees But oh how little do men attend to this They think of their actual sins they say This I have done is against Gods Law but go no deeper they do not further consider but God forbids and layeth his axe to the root as well as the branches the fruit Thirdly A sinne doth not therefore cease to be a sin because the Law doth not now forbid it it was enough if it were once forbidden and contrary to Gods Law otherwise we might say That all sins which are past are no sins for the Law doth not require that what hath been done should be undone again or not to be done for that is impossible ex natura rei If therefore ever original sinne hath been under a Law prohibitive of it that is enough to make it a sin though now it cannot be helped Hence Almain the Schoolman hath a distinction of Debitum praecepti and Debitum statuti which other Schoolmen also mention now they apply it thus To be born without sin is not say they Debitum praecepti it doth not become due by any precept or command but it is Debitum statuti that is God had first appointed such an order that whosoever should come of Adam should be born in that righteousness which Adam was created in and was to preserve for himself and his posterity so that though there be no direct Praeceptum divinum yet they say there is Ordinatio divina that we should have been born without sinne Although we need not runne to this because it is now against the moral Law of God as you heard proved SECT VI. ANother Objection is from the Justice Equity and Righteousness of God as also his Mercy and Goodness How can it be thought consonant to any of these attributes that we should be involved in guilt and sinne because of anothers especially they urge that Ezek. 18. 18 19. where God saith The child shall not bear the sins of his father and the Lord doth it to stop their prophane caâ—il against his wayes as if they were not equal because the fathers did eat sour grapes and the childrens teeth were set on edge The Remonstrants are so confident that in their Apology cap. 7. they say Neither Scripture nor Gods Truth nor his Justice nor his Mercy and Equity nor the Nature of sinne will permit this To answer this First It is not my purpose at this time to enter into that great Debate Whether the sins of parents are punished in their children And it so How it stands with the Justice of God It is plain That in the second Commandment it is said That God being a jealous God because of Idolatry he will visit the sins of such persons to the third and fourth generation The same likewise is attributed unto God Exod. 34. 7. when his glorious Properties are described experience also in the destruction of Sedom and Gomorrah as also in the drowning of the world doth abundantly testifie this For no doubt there was in those places as God said of Ninevch many little ones that did not know the right hand from the left and so could not have any consent to the actual iniquities of their Parents To reconcile therefore that place of Ezek. 18. where God saith The child shall not bear the iniquity of his Father with those former places hath exercised the thoughts of the most learned men variously endeavouring to unty that knot Though I find some of late understanding that of Ezekiel only for that particular occasion as it did concern the Jews in their particular judgment of Captivity who complained that for their fathers iniquities they were transported into a strange Land So that they think it not to be extended universally but limited to that people only and at that time and that alone to that Land of Israel because they were driven from their own Countrey But whether this Interpretation will abide firm or no it is certain that the Text doth not militate against our cause in hand For 1. As hath been shewed There is not the same reason of parents since Adam 's fall as of Adam for he was a common person and
education or to be candidates of the true faith is not enough but both are requisite as Tertullian of old mentioned both seminis praerogativa and institutionis disciplina Though therefore children of both or one believing parent are in this sense clean and holy yet by nature they are unclean neither doth this external holiness deliver them from inward contagion Yea suppose some should be regenerated in the very womb as John Baptist was yet this Text holdeth true in him for he was by nature unclean he had not the holy Ghost by natural descension from his parents for then all children should be so sanctified but it was Gods grace and power that made him clean of unclean John Baptist therefore was conceived in sinne and by nature a child of wrath but the grace of God made him clean yet not totally and perfectly as if no uncleanness was in him for even Job though in so high a degree sanctified yet speaks this truth in the Text to himself as then and at that time considered not to what he was once before his conversion but even in that renewed estate he was in if God should cast his eyes upon him and judge him with severity he would find much uncleanness adhering unto him The second Objection is propounded by Socinus who saith It cannot be conceived that one actual transgression of Adam should infect the whole nature of man one Act cannot contract an habit of sinne So then he saith It 's impossible that one sinfull act should all ever defile Adam and make him totally sinfull much lesse that it should infect the whole nature of man And the Remonstrants they pursue this Argument If say they Apolog pro Confessione exam Cens cap. 7. pag. 85. that one act of sinne did expel all grave in Adam then it did it either quatenus peccatum as it was a sinne and if so then every little sinne the godly man commits much more grosse sinnes would cast him out of all grace would root out the seed of God in him which yet say they the Calvinists will in no wise endure Or it cometh so from some peculiar ordination and divine appointment of God If so they bid us bring out that order and manifest such an appointment that one sinne onely should deprive a man of the whole Image of God when now one sinne doth not or cannot extirpate the habit of grace but every godly man hath sinne and grace also in him To this many things are to be answered First That it is a vain and an absurd thing to give leave to our humane reasonings that such a thing cannot be when the event discovers it is so It is plain That upon Adam's actual transgression he was deprived of the Image of God he was created in Adam therefore having lost that spiritual and supernatural life we need not curiously dispute how one stab as it were of sin could kill him Certainly even the least sin is present poison and would kill immediately if Gods grace did not prevent Secondly That one sinne may suddenly deprive the subject of all Grace it hath appeareth plainly in those Apostate Angels Did not the first sinne which was in them a thought or an act of the will what it was it is disputed Did not that immediately throw them out of their divine and blessed Habitations And by that one and first sinne was not a glorious Angel made immediately a black Devil It is true indeed We cannot say the Devils have original sinne In this sense As if because when the first Angel sinned all the rest sinned in him as if all their wils were bound up in him No They all stood upon their own bottom they all sinned personally and voluntarily by their own actual transgression though happily it might be by imitation and consent to him that first sinned yet for all this we see plainly that in every Apostate Angel one sinne was enough to deprive him of all the good he had and to fill him with such inveterate enmity to all goodness That the Devil though of such natural light in his conscience yet is not able to do one good work or have the least holy thought Thirdly Sinne doth expel grace both formally or as some call it efficiently and meritoriously also it expels it formally as darkness doth light as diseases do sickness or death life and meritoriously deserving that God should deprive us of all holiness and deny any further grace to us The Remonstrants they call this folly and absurdity to say Sinne expels grace actually and meritoriously also For if it do actually what need is there of meritoriously If a man actually put out his eyes it 's absurd to say he deserveth by that to have them put out Or if a man wilfully throw away his garments making himself naked that he deserveth to be naked But these instances do no wayes enervate this Truth for in that sinne doth thus actually and meritoriously also deprive us of grace we see the hainousness of it one sheweth how sinne is in it's own self like poison that presently kils and the other how odious it is to God that if it did not of it self deprive us of spiritual life yet it doth so provoke God that because of it God would not continue his daily grace to us Besides though sinne doth formally expel the grace that is inherent in us yet Gods grace without us his preventing cooperating and continuing grace without which we could not abide a moment in the state of grace that it chaseth away meritoriously only So that Adam in his first sinne did both chase away the Image of God in him and deserve that God should withdraw his assisting and preserving grace without which he could not have continued in his good estate yea sinne doth so meritoriously expel grace that could Adam by his own power have immediately recovered himself and instated himself into the condition he was in yet he deserved for that former transgression that God should have outed him of all As they say A man that hangeth himself if it were possible 〈…〉 to live presently again the Law would adjudge him to death for 〈…〉 of himself Therefore in the last place you see why every sinne in a godly man no 〈◊〉 it be a gross sinne doth not immediately deprive him of all grace as we see it did in Adam and the Apostate Angels Not that sinne in it self would not do so in them as well as in those but because God entred into a gracious Covenant and Promise with every believer through Christ to perpetuate his interest and union with him so that if he fall he shall have grace to recover himself neither will every spark of grace within him be suffered wholly to be extinguished although in Adam there was a peculiar reason why his sinne did infect all mankind because as Aquinas saith well Adam in quantum fuit principium 〈◊〉 naturae habuit rationem causae universalis ex
depriving us of all spiritual sense and feeling So that by it we are put into this sad perpiexity for none need or are bound more to bewail this sinne than an unregenerate man and yet he cannot send forth the least sigh and groan because of it So that hereby we have contracted such an unavoidable exigency upon us that we cannot turn our selves any way mourn and cry we must for this pollution yet mourn and cry we cannot because this is one inseparable effect of it to take away all tendernesse and mourning Hence the stony heart mentioned by Ezekiel Chap. 11. 18. is in a great measure original sinne Till therefore we are regenerated as we see in David Job and Paul we cannot truly mourn under it Lastly This is a work to do as long as we live Because it 's inseparable from our natures while we live in this world God indeed could in our life time wholly free us from it as well as at death but he lets these reliques continue that our tryumph at the Day of Judgement may be the greater Vivum captivum reservantur ad tryumphum Captives are preserved alive for the greater trymph And the rather God doth this that so even his very Pauls his most eminent and choicest servants may have matter of debasement within themselves and more earnestly groan for a day of Redemption A TREATISE OF Original Sin The Second Part. SHEWING VVhat ORIGINAL SINNE is AND How it is Communicated By Anthony Burgess ANCHORA SPEI LONDON Printed in the Year 1658. A TREATISE OF Original Sinne. PART II. CHAP. I. Of the Name Old-man given to Original Sinne SECT I. ROM 6. 6. Knowing this that our Old-man is crucified with Christ c. IN the beginning of the Chapter the Apostle informeth us That no Gospel priviledges or Evangelical grace amplified to the highest may encourage to sinne for the Apostle maketh an Objection himself from the Doctrine he delivered If grace abound where sinne doth abound then why may not we sinne more that grace may abound more Thus there have alwayes been some who have turned bread into stones and fish into serpents making the grace of God to exclude our duty and a tender care against sinne But the Apostle as if blasphemy were in this Objection tryeth out God forbid You see with what indignation and detestation we should look upon all those Doctrines which under pretence of advancing Grace do cry down Duties and an holy life making it a legal and a servile thing Now the Apostle bringeth an Argument against indulgence in sinne notwithstanding Gods grace Because we are dead to it and then how can we live to it Would it not be a monstrous and an afrighting sight to see dead men come out of their graves to live and walk amongst us Thus also it ought to be no less wonderfull yea terrible to see a Christian give himself to any evil way And that we are dead to sinne he proveth by our Baptism concerning which he speaks admirable and sublime matter So that if we consider what great things are here spoken of it we may wonder to see how cold and rare our meditations are about it for he makes it to be that Sacrament in the right use whereof we put on Christ yea that thereby we are ingraffed and implanted into him Hence ver 5. he useth that word of being planted into him a metaphor from the Husbandman who by planting his Science into another stock doth thereby make it partake of the life or death of the Tree if the Tree liveth that liveth if the Tree dieth that dieth so it is with us and Christ By the phrase then is intended no more than our communion with and interest in Christ and that both in his death and his resurrection For you must know that the Scripture doth not only make Christs death and resurrection to be the cause of the death of our sins and of our spiritual resurrection to holiness but also makes them types and resemblances of such things in us That as Christ died in his passible body so we should die to sinne and as Christ after his death did rise again to glory and immortality thus we should rise out of sinne to walk in newness of life and both these are signified in Baptism 1. Our Communion with Christ in the efficacy of his death and resurrection 2. The Representation of this that what was corporally done to Christ should be spiritually fulfilled in us and therefore some think that the Apostle doth allude to that primitive Rite and Custom which was in baptizing when the baptized party was first put under the water for a little season which represented Christs burial and our death to sinne 2. There was the emersion or rising again out of the waters which signified Christs Resurrection and also our rising again to holiness and godliness This is the Summe of the Apostles discourse concerning Baptism in its sacramental signification which he amplifieth further in my Text and that as a reason why we should not live to sinne who were baptized into Christ viz. Because our Old man is crucified with Christ Both because Christ in being crucified did subdue thereby the dominion of sinne and also we are to do to the body of sinne within us what was done to Christs body to crucifie it and thereby to destroy it There is nothing more to be enquired into in the Text but what is meant by our Oldman They limit it too much that understand it only of the habit or acquired custom of sinne which we live in before Regeneration as Grotius seemeth to understand But we are to take it as both Popish and Protestant Commentators do interpret it for that vicious and corrupt nature which we all derive from Adam putting it self forth into several lusts and ungodly actions wherby there is an habituated inveterated custom at last in sin so that although we may understand lusts and actual impieties with long custom therin under the phrase of the Old man yet principally and chiefly we are to interpret it of that polluted nature we have from Adam and this will easily appear to be so if you consider the other two places where this expression is used Ephes 4. 22. That ye put off the Old man c. and that ye put on the New man Col. 3. 9 10. Ye have put off the Old man with his deeds and have put on the New man Where 1. You see the Old man is distinguished from the effects and deeds of it which are actual sins And then 2. Old man and New man are made two immediate opposites now the New man is plainly expressed by the Apostle what it is viz. not so much actual holiness as the Image of God repaired in us so that as the New man is the Image of God and that holy nature repaired in us so the Old man is the contrary to this viz. a deprivation of that Image of God and and an universal
pollution of all the whole man So that whereas sometimes the word Old is used absolutely as the old Serpent there is no new Serpent which is the Devil So here it s used comparatively and called Old in respect of the New man the work of grace succeeding therein SECT II. HAving therefore hitherto shewed the Quod sit of original sinne That there is such a thing maugre all adversaries and that by the mouth of two witnesses out of the New Testament and two out of the Old not but that there are many more only I shall God willing treat on them upon some different notions I now come to inform you of the Quid sit What it is for here is much opposition likewise And because in knowing what a thing is there is the Quid nominis and Quid rei what the name is and what the thing is I shall first beginne with what the Name is for that way Socrates did use to commend from the name to go to the nature of a thing And whereas this native-pollution hath Scripture names Ecclesiastical used by the Fathers and Scholastical used by the Schoolmen yea the Rabbins say it hath seven names in the Old Testament I shall only pitch on the Bible names and that not universally but upon some eminent and chief ones which it hath in the Scripture from which alone we shall be best able to discern the nature of it The first whereof is here in the Text wherein it is called the Old man From whence observe That the natural or birth-pollution we are barn in is called by the Scripture The Old man that is in us Several names indeed the Scripture giveth it and some are applied to it by Divines of which yet some question may be made as when Christ is said to be the Lamb that takes away the sinne of the world John 1. 29. By that they say is meant original sinne for that is not so much my sinne or thy sinne as the sinne of the world and therefore he speaketh in the singular number The sinne not the sins of the world but this is not so probable for Christ came into the world to take away not only original sinne as some Papists have thought but actual also Others apply that of Heb. 10. to it The sinne that doth so easily beset us And indeed that is a very proper word to explain original sinne but whether the Apostles scope be so immediately to point at that may be further enquired into I shall therefore take only some few clear and undoubted Titles that the Scripture giveth to it of which this in the Text is a notable one The old man And before we inform you how comprehensive this is let us remove a twofold mistake or erroneous apprehension that may be about it SECT III. Two Mistakes removed THe first is that of Flaccius Illyricus who because the Scripture useth such concrete and substantive terms about original sinne calling it a man a body therefore he erred in a contrary extremity to the Pelagians and some Pontificians making original sinne not to be an accident but the essence and substance of the soul but of this more when we come to search out the nature of it only you must know that original sinne is not the substance of a man but an universal disease adhering to it as the Leprosie in a Leper it 's not his body it 's not his corpulent essence the body is one thing the Leprosie is another thing and thus in man his soul and body are one thing his original corruption is another thing Though as in an universal Leprosie you cannot touch one part of the body but it is infected so neither can we name one part of the soul but it is polluted we must therefore distinguish between nature and sinne to avoid Flaccianism yet we must not separate or divide one from the other to avoid Pelagianism but of this more in its time Secondly We must not conceive that it 's called the Old man because of any impotency or weakness as if it were not able to put forth into vigorous acts and lively lustings of sinne as old men have all their natural strength and vigour decaying No though it be called the Old man in us yet it 's constantly working drawing aside captivating and enflaming of us yea making warre daily against any thing of God within us These things premised let us consider why the Scripture giveth it such a name for it might seem a very harsh exposition to call that which is an accident or a quality in a man by the name of an Old man SECT IV. Why Original Sinne is called Man THerefore let us see the reason why it 's called Man and then the Old man original sinne may be called a Man First Because that so farre as we are men quanti sumus we are all over polluted So that the old man is the whole man polluted in this sinne before he be regenerated Insomuch that this phrase may sadly and deeply humble us that the Scripture gives the name of man to sinne as if that were all we are Hence as you have heard to walk as a man to speak as a man is to do a thing sinfully as farre as thy humanity reacheth so farre thy pollution reacheth So that the very calling of thee a man may greatly debase thee for though thou art a rich man a great man yet this Old man doth infect thee Secondly In that original sinne is called a Man there is implied the Subject of it to be every man as well as every part of man Totus homo and totum hominis yea ad omnis homo not one exempted that is by natural propagation So that every little Infant hath this Man in it Every one that needeth a Christ that wanteth a Saviour hath this Old man abiding in him Thirdly It 's called Man Because of the heap or collection of all sinne that is in it For as a man is not one part of the body the finger the eye or the hand but the whole Compages and Fabrick of all the parts united together Thus original sinne is not one particular sinne but the mass or spawn of all It 's not a stream but the ocean and therefore this sheweth the horridness also of it that it is the womb wherein all sinne is conceived Let a man be totally cleansed from this as the glorified Saints in Heaven are and then no actual sin can come from him Lastly It 's called a Man Because of the intimate and tenacious adhesion of it to the whole man there being no way to sever our Natures and that while we abide in these mortal bodies So that it supposeth sinne to be in us as fire in the iron when it is red hot though there is some dissimilitude also that we cannot see the colour and substance of the iron for the fire nothing appeareth but fire Iron though of it self black and cold yet by the fire in
it is altered so the soul of a man yea the whole man that was at first made upright and holy now through this pollution manifests nothing thereof yea the clean contrary in stead of the Image of God there is the image of the Devil there appeareth nothing but of the sinne and the Devil in a man for if Paul could say He no longer lived but Christ in him Gal. 2. 20. when yet grace was not full and complete in him How much rather may we while abiding in our natural estate say We no longer live but sinne in us for sinne moveth all and doth all having full dominion over us SECT V. Why it is called Old-man IN the second place It may be called the Old man First Because it came from Adam the first man and most antient Thus it is a sinne of great antiquity it hath been in the world ever since Adam's transgression Most things have had their times and their seasons but this hath been alwayes There was never any age wherein men were not born sinfull though some actual sins have abounded more at one time than another though Adam be dead thousands of years ago yet the sin liveth and is propagated 2. It is Old Because it is from every mans particular beginning Thou canst not think of the number of thy years or how old thou art but thou mayest with groans remember also that sinne is just as old as thou art Hast thou lived to threescore or an hundred years even thus old sinne is Alas we are apt to complain of old age to count it a disease we say Alas now our best time is gone we are weak old men Oh but there is an old man within that is more to be lamented 3. It 's the Old man Because of the crast and subtil wayes that this sinne hath within us Insomuch that Jeremiah complaineth Chap 17. None can find out the depth of sinne none but God can search thy heart This is the old subtil fox within thee and therefore it 's said to deceive and to tempt us 4. It 's the Old man Because it is to be renewed That which is old saith the Apostle is to vanish away The Old Testament was removed that the New might succeed Thus the Old man is to die is to continue no longer that the New may be established in us Lastly It 's called the Old man Because there is no loveliness or comeliness in it For old age is like winter making the blossoms of beauty to fall Thus the name Old man argueth the uncomeliness of it Vse Of Instruction To acquaint your selves with this Old man in you young and old rich and poor all have this Old man that will at last betray and damn you Oh consider you carry your own bane about with you out of thy own bowels thy own heart will arise that which will destroy thee and this Old man is in every one The Pharisees told the blind man He was wholly born in sinnes They thought it was the condition of some miserable afflicted people to be so born but it is the condition of all and therefore expect no heaven or slavation till this Old man be crucified and the New man repaired in thee CHAP. II. Of the Name Law of Sinne given to Original Sinne. SECT I. ROM 7. 25. So then with the mind I myself serve the Law of God but with the flesh the Law of Sinne. THis Chapter is the common seat and proper place wherein the nature of original inherent sinne is expresly handled so that he who by reading of this Chapter shall not be convinced that there is such a thing as original sinne and that in some measure putting it self forth in the godly to their great grief and misery I think we may say he would not believe any such thing though men should rise from the dead and come and preach it to us I shall in time God willing fully improve the chief matter herein contained for herein is described that Christian conflict which is in all the godly between the regenerate and unregenerate part as also the consequents thereof For the present I must take two Hypotheses or Suppositions for granted which in time God willing I shall fully prove The first is That the Apostle speaking of such a sharp combate within him between the Law of his mind and the Law of sinne doth not assume the person of another as of a carnal unregenerate man or a Legalist convinced by the Doctrine of the Law yet his heart carrying him in the clean contrary way but speak it of his own Person and that as regenerated The former way go the Arminians and some Papists and all Socinians but the later way generally go the Protestants even as Austin of old retracting the former opinion he once had yea the best and choisest Commentators of the Papists Salmeron Pererius Estius and Lapide c. do adhere to this Exposition So that you must not think that the combate here spoken of is like that which Aristotle describes his incontinent person by that doth like videre and Probare meliora but deteriora sequi which is only a fight between an inlightned conscience and a corrupt heart Nor 2. Is it like those preparatory and initial works anteceding sometimes conversion which Austin doth notably speak of in himself desiring to be freed from sinne and yet afraid his prayer should be heard so that he was alwayes going but yet never did thorowly go to God till at last he found that gratia Dei vorti cordis which no hard heart can resist because it is given on purpose to take away the hard heart But the Apostle doth here not only doctrinally affirm such a thing as original sinne but experimentally he declareth the actings of it So that he doth not only write a doctrinal and dogmatical Truth but also an History of what he observed in himself The second Supposition to be granted is that by flesh the Apostle doth not only mean the sensitive or sensual part but the whole man so farre as corrupted So that with the Apostle the soul is flesh the understanding the will are flesh because all are corrupted with original sinne Of which more in its time These two things premised you may know that this Text read is the Epilogue or summary Conclusion which the Apostle makes from that doctrinal and practical discourse about himself to wit that there are two principles in him two selves two men as it were There was both a sweet fountain and bitter within him and from these did flow two suitable streams The Law of the mind did incline him to serve the Law of God but the Law in his members the Law of sin Not that the Law of sinne and members are two distinct things as Calvin and Beza thought making the Law of sinne to be original sinne the Law in the members to be the actings and stirrings of this in the whole man for ver 23. The Law
strengthen and inable it to be more vigorous and operative we may put more wood to this fire and so make it more dreadfull Even as these Pharisees though they were by nature the Serpents seed yet because of their voluntary and contracted malicious disposition in them superadded to the former our Saviour calleth them Generation of vipers Now although the Pharisees had this two-fold evil heart naturally and voluntarily yet I shall of the former onely and so handle it not as relating to the Pharisees but as it is a general Truth to be affirmed of every one till renewed by grace that he hath an evil treasure an evil heart within him And from thence observe That original sinne is the evil treasure that is in a mans heart Sometimes the heart it self is said to be evil to be desperately wicked but then it 's not taken physically as it 's a corpulent substance in a man but morally or theologically as it is the seat and principle of all evil For as the Sea hath all the Rivers in it from which they come and to which they return again so the heart is the fountain of all evil and all evil is seated in it coming from the heart and going back again to it But let us open this treasure which is not like the opening of that Alablaster Box which perfumed the whole house but like the opening of a noisom Sepulchre or dunghil from whence cometh only what is loathsome Therefore it 's not called a treasure in a good sense as commonly the word is used for we do not use to treasure up vile and loathsom things but because in a treasure there is plenty and fulness therefore is this evil heart this original pollution called a treasure and that very properly for these resemblances SECT II. How Original Sinne resembles a Treasure FIrst A treasure hath fulness and abundance A poor man that hath only money enough to discharge his daily expences is not said to have a treasure for that denoteth abundance more than enough Thus is original sinne deservedly called a treasure because it 's a fulness of wickedness As in Christ the treasures of wisdom are said to be in him Col. 2. 3. So in every man there is a treasure of folly and wickedness so that every man is rich enough to sinne let him be never so poor never so straitned not a morsel of meat to eat not a farthing to buy any thing with yet he hath a rich heart a full heart to sinne he is never destitute of plenty and power to do that which consideration should greatly humble thee to think in stead of that good treasure which God once put into my heart being throughly furnished with every grace now there is a treasure of evil now darkness is where all that light was evil and nothing but evil where all that good was Though thou art a rich man and a great man glorying in thy treasures of wealth yet the treasures of evil in thy heart may make thee fear and tremble Secondly Here is denoted in this expression That all sinne is potentially and seminally in our hearts For it 's not said to be an evil heart in some respect and as to some actings but indefinitely and generally an evil treasure of the heart Hence Rom. 3. 14 15. There are in man by nature crimson actual sins of the greatest guilt viz. The poison of Asps is under their tongues their mouth is full of cursing their feet are swift to shed blood c. These sins which some few of mankind only and those the worst of men do ordinarily commit yet they are attributed to every man by nature And why because there is the treasure of these in his heart you cannot name the vilest actions that are though for the present like Hazael thou wouldst defie such things saying Am I a dog a devil that I should do them yet did not God bind up this treasure of evil in thee as he doth the clouds that are his treasures of rain thou wouldst quickly be overwhelmed with them what trembling should this make in a mans heart when he shall consider there is not the vilest and most prophane atheistical man breathing but thy heart would carry thee out to do the like did not God say to this sea of corruption within thee Hitherto thou shalt go and no further It is because of this that David and other eminent godly men have fallen into such gross and loathsom sins that you would have thought they had not been in the least danger of that they were as farre from as the East from the West yet how quickly could these materials for sinne in their hearts ripen and break out into a flame How quickly did even the green Tree burn What then would the dry Tree do Look then upon thy self as the vilest sinner in the world in respect of thy principles and propencity to all sin Say it is not because I have a better nature I have less original sin in me but because God is pleased to put a restraint upon me Certainly if this will not make us like Job abhorre our selves as it were upon the dunghill what will Thirdly In that original sinne is compared to a treasure there is denoted the inexhausted nature of it though we sinne never so much yet the stock of sin is not quite spent As God because he hath a treasure of mercy and therefore said to be rich in grace though he sheweth never so much mercy and vouchsafeth never so much grace yet his treasure is not impoverished thereby he is as fully able to bestow fresh grace and new mercy to thee as if this were the first time that ever he began to be mercifull Thus though with great disproportion it is with a man that hath this evil treasure in his heart Though he sinne all the day long though from this abundance his mind thinketh his tongue speaketh his hand acteth that which is evil yet still his corruption is not abated yea it is the more strenghned and increased As it is with poisonous creatures though they vent never so much poison yet they cannot cast out the root and cause of it as long as they live So though a natural man be all the day long sending forth nothing but sinne and folly yet his heart is as full as ever this fountain is not dried up Therefore although it may fall out that many bodily sinnes cannot be any longer committed because the body groweth old and infirm yet this original sin is never weakned while a man is unregenerated but in a natural man though an hundred years old yet it is as vigorous and active as in youthfull sins It is reported of a liberal Emperour who was much in free munificence that he would say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Draw from me as from the River Nilus meaning that he would never be weary that he was like a fountain of which all travellers might drink yet he be as
thee What shall God give all these names to it to make thee afraid and to groan under it yet shall thy heart continue still like the rock and adamant 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 sonne in his own likeness and after his Image and called his name Seth. MOses in this Chapter giveth a brief and summary capitulation of the Lives and Deaths of the Patriarchs unto Noah mentioning these heads 1. That God made man 2. That he made him in time 3. After his own Image 4. Male and Female 5. He blessed them 6. The imposition of the name Adam to Eve as well as to Adam And this he calleth The Book of the generations of Adam viz. His succession with all his acts of his Life and also his Death otherwise Adam had no generation but was created by God The Hebrew word though sometimes it signifieth a Book or Epistle yet in the general it is no more than a Catalogue or Rehearsal as it is here and so is to be interpreted in some other places the neglect whereof hath in part made an occasion of dispute Whether any Canonical Books be lost or no as Numb 21. 14. whereas the word there is not to be taken for an Historical Volume but the Enumeration or Rehearsal of the ways of the Lord In the next place he proceedeth to Seth not but that Adam had other sons only he mentioneth him as the future head of humane posterity upon the drowning of the world Now concerning him we have his name he was called Seth. There were Heretiques called Sethiani who attributed unto him more than a man but the holy Ghost doth antidote against that opinion by informing of us that he was begotten in a sinfull mortal estate 2. Of whom he was begotten and that is of Adam 3. How or in what manner and that is After Adams Image in his own likeness Adam was created after the Image and likeness of God that is in a most perfect and compleat resemblance for Image and likeness do not differ though the Schoolmen attempt to difference them but it is an Hebraism putting two Substantives together for aggravation sake and it is as much here as an Image exceeding like Thus Adam was made in respect of his soul qualified with holiness like God but in the Text Seth is said to be begotten of Adam in Adam's Image not in Gods that is in a corrupt miserable and mortal estate For whereas Adam was by Nature a man by Condition the Lord and Chief in whom humane Posterity was to be reckoned of As also in respect of corruption now polluted having lost Gods Image Seth was after Adam 's own likenesse in all these three particulars That he was a man like him none can doubt That he was like Adam in respect of his Headship to his Posterity is plain because Abel was dead and Cain with his Posterity was to be destroyed in the floud Not that this is the whole Image or likenesse here spoken of That as Adam was the first Head of mankind so Seth was to be of those who should be preserved in the flood as some would have it For such a resemblance would have been more eminently in Noah who in the Ark seemed to be the common Parent of mankind Therefore in the third place This Image or likenesse to Adam is mentioned eppositely to that Image of God which Adam was created in And if you object Why is it not as Well said of Abel or Cain that Adam begat them after his own Image as well as Seth The Answer is plain Moses in this Historical Capitulation doth not mention all in a Family but such who were onely by a direct Line to descend to their Posterity and to be an Head to that Now not Abel or Cain but Seth was appointed by God in this place And that we might know in what manner all Generations are to descend from him the Scripture doth here inform us That we must not think that Seth had from Adam the Image of God or would propagate it to others but now he and we are as Adam after his fall sinfull and mortal For although the Church hath generally thought of Adam that he did repent and was saved for we doe not reade afterwards of any grosse sinne he committed and God made the glorious Promise of a Saviour to him yet he did not beget Seth as he was regenerated but as a man and so being fallen from that Covenant he was first placed in his personal grace afterwards could not be conveyed to his Posterity as his sinne while a common Parent was We see then though Adam was godly and Seth was likewise holy yet for all that he was born without the Image of God and in a polluted estate Besides therefore in this place is a seasonable mentioning of the likenesse and Image Adam begat Seth in because Moses being here to capitulate their several Generations which doth imply their mortality doth opportunely give the cause of it So that Snecanin Method Distri Cause Sol. dam. cap. 3. his opinion which he offereth to the learned to judge Whether by Adam's Image be not meant his repaired Image with the corrupted one being now assumed unto Gods favour seemeth directly to oppose the Text which calleth it Adam's own Image not Gods SECT II. What Original Sinne is SEeing therefore we have handled the Quid nominis of Original sinne what the chief Names are which the Scripture giveth unto it We come to consider the Quid Rei the Nature and Definition of it And whereas some make it it consist onely in the meer privation of Gods Image Others in a positive inclination unto all evil We shall take in both for although as Calvin well saith He that affirmeth Original sinne to be the privation of Gods Image speaks the whole Nature of it Yet because that doth not so fully and particularly represent the loathsomnesse of it therefore it 's necessary with the Scripture to consider both the Privative and Positive part of original sinne I shall beginne with the Privative part That original sinne is the privation of that original Righteousnesse and glorious Image of God which was at first put into us And this the holy Ghost meaneth when he saith Adam begat Seth after his own likenesse and Image From whence observe That we are by nature without the Image of God we were created in and this is a great part of our original sinne This truth of the losse of Gods Image in us is of very great concernment and therefore to be improved both Doctrinally and Practically It is the greatest losse that ever besell mankind and oh our carnal and dull hearts which can bewail the losse of health of wealth of any outward comfort but this which is the greatest losse of all viz. the Image of God which we should bewail all our life time
the very first yeeld themselves up to the Devil but they did repell the Devils temptations awbile neither was it the inordinate desire of the forbidden fruit that was his first sinne but pride and unbelief not believing the threatnings of God and affecting to be like God and such sinnes do quickly and easily penetrate into the best and noblest subjects as you see in the Angels themselves those sublime and admirable spiritual substances yet how quickly did such kind of sinnes enter into them and defile them all over So that we are to look to those spiritual secret sinnes which did induce Adam to eat of the forbidden fruit Lastly It 's objected by them and the same Argument also is improved by Bellarmine That man consisting of a soul a spiritual substance and of a body which is a sensible corporeal substance when these two are united in one person it 's impossible but the spiritual part should incline one way and the sensitive another The rational part that desireth a spiritual good and the sensitive part that which is sensible and these are contrary But the answer is that though these inclinations are divers yet they are not contrary but where sin hath made an Ataxy As God at first ordained the will which is appetitus rationalis to follow the understanding so he did also our affections to follow both of them so that there was an essential subordination of the affectionate part to the rational even as we see the members of the body do readily move at the command of the soul or as in perfect mixt bodies though there be contrary qualities yet by the temperament of that body their contrariety is removed and certainly the Angels sinned who yet had not any sensitive appetite to rebell against the rational therefore it was not from this necessarily that Adam did sinne Thus in Christ there was no repugnancy between grace and nature for when he said Father if it be possible let this Cup passe away This was not an absolute desire of his humane nature but a conditional one and still with submission therefore he addeth Neverthelesse thy will be done and the Saints in Heaven when they shall have re-assumed their bodies will not find any contrariety between the rational and sensitive appetite And thus you see that Adam was created in this holy estate Lastly This holiness and righteousness in a well explained sense was not supernatural but natural The Remonstrants they make this dispute about original righteousnesse inepta absurda absurd and foolish Therefore they deny any infused or concreated habits also and say The rectitude of the faculties was enough But the Orthodox say Adam could not be created without such habits or principles of holinesse within him because he was created for the enjoyment of God and therefore they call it natural not as flowing from the principles of nature but as a moral condition necessary to qualifie him for his end and therefore it was given to whole mankind in Adam and would have been naturally propagated and whereas the Remonstrants ask To what purpose or use is such original righteousnesse For if it did not necessarily and immutably determine Adams will to good than this original righteousnesse did need another and so in infinitum or if it did then How came it about that Adam did sinne To this subtilty it is answered That this original righteousnesse was not to determine the will of Adam necessarily but to incline and sortifie Adams will the more strongly and easily to do what was good So that although it did not absolutely take away Adams mutability and liberty yet it did heighten and raise up the faculties of his soul to what was good yet this was not a superadded grace to Adam as actual confirmation in holines would have been but a natural and due qualification preparing him for communion with God So that the discourse about man in his pure naturals without this original righteousnesse is an house that hath not so much as a sandy foundation it being without any foundation at all God having put his Image into man as Phydias did his into Minerva's shield that none could take that out but he must also destroy that shield Thus the Devil could not prevail with Adam to sinne but by the losse of Gods Image CHAP. XII A further Consideration of the Image of God which Man was created in Shewing what particular Graces Adam's Soul was adorn'd with SECT I. WE are discovering the Nature of that Image God created us in at first that so we may see how great our losse is The last particular was The naturality and supernaturality of it in divers respects And this is the more to be observed because while the Orthodox oppose the Socinians who affirm Nothing but a natural and simple innocency in Adam without any infused or concreated habits of holinesse or any thing supernatural in him You would think they joyn with the Papists who dogmatize That all the holinesse Adam had was supernatural Again while the same Orthodox oppose Papists because of this opinion one would think they joyned with the Socinians who say Adam had nothing in him but what was natural whereas the truth consists between these and therefore original righteousnesse was supernatural to Adam if you respect the principle from whence it did flow it was immediately from God not from principles of nature and this opposeth the Socinian yet if you do consider Adam the subject of this righteousnesse and the end for which he was created so it was a perfection due to him and in that respect called natural otherwise had not God invested mans nature with this and concreated this perfection with him the noblest of visible creatures had been dealt worst with SECT II. YEt in the second place Though this Image of God was natural to Adam yet we must not say that he had nothing supernatural that there was nothing by way of superadded grace to him Even as in Adam although we deny that he was created in pure naturals yet we say that Adam in some respect may be said in Paradise to live an animal life as well as he was created immortal Adam was made free from death he had not any proxim or immediate cause of death yet he was not made immortal as the glorified Saints in Heaven shall be for their bodies are made then spiritual not animal as the Apostle distinguisheth whereas Adam's body was in this sense animal that it did need meat and drink as also it was for generation to procreate and propagate a posterity which argued the animality of Adams body but not the mortality of it as the Socinians say unless we mean such an immortality as our bodies shall have in Heaven Thus though Adam was created immortal upon supposition of his obedience yet that doth not exclude wholly an animal life or natural as the Apostle expresly saith 1 Cor. 15 46. That was not first which is spiritual but that
glorifie and honour God all his whole work and life is now to dishonour him and reproach his holy Name Herein then lieth the misery of this losse of the Image of God that we are fallen from our end we are of our selves salt that hath lost its favourinesse we are fit for nothing but eternal torments SECT III. The Harmony and Subordination in Mans Nature dissolved by the loss of Gods Image IN the second place This losse is to be aggravated because of the Nature of it which is the deordination and dissolution of all that Harmony and Subordination which was in mans nature That admirable and composed order which was in the whole man is now wholly broken so that the mind and will is against God and the affections and passions against them A three-fold Subordination there was in man The first of the intellectual and rational part unto God The mind clearly knowing him and the will readily submitting unto him The second was A regular Subordination of all the passions and affections unto the mind so that there did not from the sensible part arise any thing that was unbeseeming and contrary to the rational Hence it was that the Scripture taketh notice of Adam and Eve in their privitive Condition that though naked yet they were not ashamed There being a full purity and simplicity in their natures whereby nothing could arise to disturb all those superiour operations At sin expresseth it well Even saith he as Paradise the place wherein Adam was created had neither heat or cold but an excellent temperament excluding the hurtfull excess of either so also the soul of Adam was without any excessive passion or inordinate motion but all things did sweetly and amicably concur in obedience to the mind The third and last Subordination was of the body both to the rationall and sensitive principles There was a preparednesse in the body of Adam as there was in Christ whereby he did readily do the Will of God and sound the body not obstructing or weighing of it down Now let us consider this three-fold cord which did bind Adam's whole man unto that which is good which was easily broken and then as when the flood-gates are open the streams of water violently rush forth hurrying all away Thus it is with mankind This order being dissolved the whole heart of man is as unruly as the Sea and whereas that hath its natural bounds Hitherto it shall go and no further The heart of man is boundlesse and hath no stops of it self only the infinite God of Heaven he ruleth and ordereth it as he pleaseth Consider the first breach and mourn under that Is it nothing to have the mind of man which hath as many thoughts almost as there are sands upon the Sea shore and yet not to have one of these rise in the soul with subordination to God What a sad bondage is this that our thoughts are no more under our command than the flying birds in the air Do not either sinfull thoughts or if good come in so unseasonably upon thee that they carry away thy soul prisoner Oh this losse of the obedience of the mind to Gods Law in all the thoughts thereof ought to be no mean matter of debasement Not to find one good thought of all those Iliades Chiliades and Myriades of thoughts which thou hast but to have rebellion in them against God What sad impression should it make on thee In the will also those motion and incompleat velleities yea acts of consent in the will which arise in the soul as so many swarms of flies in the air Are not these also so many armies of lusts against God whereas in the state of integrity there would not have risen the least distemper The second breach Is not that also as terrible and powerfull For are not all our affections and passions like so many dogs to Action like so many Locusts and Caterpillers in Egypt like so many flies and hornets till by grace they are crucified What man is there in whom if God should let any one passion or affection have dominion over him that it would not immediately destroy him So that the power of original corruption is more manifested in the affections and passions than any subject else Lastly The disorder which is in the body in respect of its instrumental serviceablenesse unto God can never be enough lamented Do not pains and diseases in the body much indispose in holy things Do not dulnesse drousinesse and wearinesse hinder a man so that when he would religiously serve the Lord this body will not let him Now all this evil and misery is come upon us because we have lost the Image of God As God in nature doth not suffer any vocuum or redundans so neither did he in respect of the frame of the soul at the first There was nothing defective and nothing excessive SECT IV. The Properties of this Losse THirdly This losse by original corruption of Gods Image is exceeding great in the properties of it For 1. It is a spiritual losse principally and chiefly The loss of Gods favour of all holiness is wholly spiritual and did tend to make a man spiritually happy So that if you should compare all the temporal losses that ever have been in the world with this first and spiritual one it would be but as the mole-hill to an high mountain If then our eyes were opened if we were able rightly to judge or losses for this we should mourn more than for any evil that ever befell us or others 〈◊〉 messengers that came with such sad tidings one upon another is nothing to this message that we bring thee But who will believe this report 2. As it is a spiritual loss so it is an universal loss The whole world is in a lost state by losing this Image of God Every creature hath lost in this universal losse The earth hath lost its fruitfulness yea the whole Creation groaneth and is in bondage subject to vanity because of this Thus all the creatures they lose by it yea every thing in man loseth The mind its light the will its holiness the affections their order and the body its soundness and immortality If all the creatures were turned into tongues they would proclaim the loss of their primitive glory and beauty because of this sinne 3. It 's not only universal But it 's the cause of all the temporal losses that we have For death in which is comprehended all kind of evil came in upon the loss of this Image So that if we are sensible of any temporal loss How much more of this spiritual one which is the cause and root of all Therefore is the body pained therefore it dieth because this Image of God is lost therefore do we loose parents and children therefore is the whole world a valley of tears because of this losse If then any private losse be so bitter unto thee how much more ought this to be which putteth a
Pharisee to boast saying He was not a prophane grosse sinner like a Publican he did not wallow in bodily sinnes of the flesh for he was dangerously diseased with soul sinnes The flesh there made him abominable in the eyes of God for that which they did so highly exalt it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before God What an heavy and sad deceit will this prove when thou shalâ— find that wherein thou blessest thy self and applaudest thy self in will be thy condemnation as Christ told the Pharisees Moses in whom ye trust he will condemn you Oh that this Truth might be like a sword piercing into the secrets of your heart How wilt thou be overwhelmed when that which thou hopest will save thee that will damn thee There is a carnal Religion there is a fleshly devotion in which men putting their confidence may thereby be condemned as well as by grosse prophanenesse Certainly this confidence in what religious duties we perform as some at the last day will plead Have not we prophesied and wrought miracles in thy Name doth insensibly and incurably damn the greatest part of formal Christians and it is very hard to make them discern or judge themselves carnal in this To trust in the arm of flesh they will acknowledge quickly to be a sinne but to trust and rest in the holy duties they have performed out of this sinne no sonnes of Boanerges can awaken them Fourthly A man is naturally carnal in all his religious performances Because when he dâ—h them it is not out of any love to God to exalt and honour him but out of love to himself thinking thereby to aveiâ— some judgement or other It is true we deny not but it's lawfull to serve God to be humbled for sinne with respect to our own good that we may escape temporal evil but yet we are not to do it principally and chiefly for this we are not to uti Deo and frui Creaturis to enjoy the creatures for themselves as the utmost end and make use of God only for our outward help as John 6. 26. our Saviour told the multitude that followed him That they did seek him only because they did eat of the loaves and were siled This is a fundamental principle of flesh in every man by nature not to love himself subordinately to God but God subordinately to himself which is a sinne of a very high nature and immediately opposing the great majesty of God They worship God upon no other reason then what some Heathens did sacrifice to the Devils Tantùm ne noceant That they might do them no hurt I 〈◊〉 not then out of any love to God or desire to magnifie him but wholly for their own ends and hence it is that they alter and change the worship and wayes of God as they please and as it serveth for any political interest as you see in Jeroboam and other wicked Kings Whence is all this but because they make themselves the Alpha and Omega Et Deus non erit Dens nisi homini placuerit How could men thus break the statutes and ordinances of God but because they make their own advantages the supreme Law as if God were for them and they not for him Hence it is also that the Scripture complaineth so much of men Walking in their own Imaginations And Jeroboam 1 King 12. 33. is branded for this that he set up such a worship and Ministry that he had devised of his own heart This then is a sure demonstration of our fleshly minds that in our worship and duties we regard not divine Institutions and Gods Rule but attend only to what is subservient to our purpose Now the foundation of all this is because we do not look upon God as supreme to whom all our senses should bow but referre him and his glory to our selves The Apostle 2 Cor. 5. 16. speaketh of knowing Christ after the flesh and so there is also a knowing of God after the flesh which is when we doe not things purely and sincerely out of respect to his Name but for our own profit and benefit Take heed then of this fleshly frame in thy approaches to God Fifthly The fleshly mind of a man is seen in his spiritual transactions between God and himself In that he doth wholly conceive and imagine such a God and Christ not as the Scripture represents but as he would have and doth most suit with his carnal disposition This is greatly to be observed for because of this though they hear never so much of God and Christ yet because they think them to be such as they would have a God of their own making a Christ of their own making therefore they never truly repent or turn unto God for concerning God they conceive him as altogether mercifull They never think he is a just and holy God They attend not to the sury and vengeance which the Scripture saith is in him against obstinate and impenitent sinners but apprehend him to be one that loveth them and will save them though they go on in all rebellious wayes against him The Psalmist doth notably speak to this purpose Psal 50. 21. where having spoken of such hypocrites that will come and worship God though they retain their old lusts and live in all impurity he addeth Thou thoughtest I was altogether such an one as thy self They thought God was not provoked with such abominations they thought God would not be angry with them as if he were like themselves And doth not this still continue true in most prophane men Why is it that they do not tremble under the name and thoughts of God Why is it that they roar not out with fear lest God should damn them Is it not because they make a God like themselves They love themselves and acquit themselves they easily think well of themselvs and therefore they think God will do so also and thus they do likewise with Christ They represent him to be a Saviour and a Saviour only They consider not that he died to conquer the Devil to make us a peculiar people zealous of good works They attend not to the purifying and cleansing power of Christs death from the strength and power of lusts within as well as from the guilt and damnation by it which being so they can trust in Christ and put their whole hope in Christ although they live in all disobedience at the same time and therefore whereas we might wonder how prophane men can live as they do Where are their thoughts of God and Christ Why are they not stricken with astonishment when they hear of them Alas you may cease to wonder for the Scripture God the Scripture-Christ in the Scripture-way they do not think of but a God and a Christ which is a meer Idol in their own hearts set up by themselves Sixthly The fleshly mind of a man is seen in running into extreams and so never submitting themselves to Gods word which is alwayes the same So
it compell us to think of it as more than a mâ—er bare simple privation for in the Text it is called Flesh in other places Lust the Old man the Body of sinne which emphatical expressions are for this end to make us conceive of the deep and most real pollution it bringeth upon us Insomuch that we are not to extenuate and diminish the nature of it but as the scope of the Scripture is to aggravate it under the most substantial and powerfull names that are so we also are accordingly to judge of it It is true Illyricus out of a vehement opposition to Papists and Synergists did wring the Scripture till bloud came out of it in stead of milk for he would understand these places mentioned about original sinne almost literally as if sinne were our very substance and essence whereas if he had gone no further then to say that the Scripture by these names doth intend not onely the meer privation of good by this original pollution but also a positive pronenese and a continual activity unto all evil than he had hit the mark The Scripture Names then are only considerable for the holy Ghost doth not use them in vain but thereby would startle and amaze us that we may consider that we are without and what evil doth abide in us Secondly This is proved from Scripture-affirmation about the state of all men It doth not onely describe man privatively that he is without God without Christ but also pesitively that he is an enemy to God and cannot be subject to him Rom. 3 10 11. to the 18. verse The holy Apostle applying several passages out of the old Scripture to all men by nature instanceth both in privatives and positives also Privatives There is none that understandeth there is none that seeketh God there is none that doth good there is no fear of God before their eyes But is this all No he addeth Their throat is an open Sepulchre the poison of Aspes is under their lips their feet are swift to shed bloud c. Here you see the nature of every man is abominable loathsome and ready to commit the foulest sinnes if he be not stopt yea the Scripture is more oftener expressing this Positive part of original sinne then the Privative Genes 5. Genes 8. 21. The imagination of a mans heart is said to be onely evil and that from his youth Eliphaz also in Job 15. saith How abominable is man who drinketh down iniquity like water Thus you see the Scripture represents us in a farre more loathsome vile and poisonous nature than we are apt to believe concerning our selves When Austine maintained this Doctrine Pelagius would say This was to accuse mans nature Lib. 1. de Naturâ Gratiâ But this is indeed the onely way to set up the grace of Christ our Physician for the whole need not a Physicias Neither saith Austin are we so to exalt God a Creator as to make a Saviour wholly superfluous It is true therefore which the same Author saith That when we have to do with such who deny the necessity of grace by Christ making free will of it self sufficient to what is holy and all because they deny any such thing as original sinne we are not so much saith he to deal in Disputations with them as prayers for them that their eyes might be opened to know themselves and that the stony heart may be taken from them for if once they had the sense and feeling of this they would quickly confesse both original sinne and Christs grace Thirdly Original sinne is positive Because the Scripture attributes positive and efficatious actions to it which meer and bare privations are not capable of The seventh Chapter of the Romans speaketh fully to this what expressions and that in allusion to military affairs doth the Apostle use concerning this sinne inhabiting in him For vers 23. he complaineth of this Law of sinne that it doth warre against him and bring him into captivity which phrases denote That this original sinne is not a sluggish idle privation but withall it connoteth an impetuous repugnancy to any thing that is holy This also the Apostle confirmeth Gal. 5. 17. where the flesh is said to lust against the Spirit shall we think then that the holy Ghost speaketh of this activity and working of sinne in us that we should apprehend no more than the absence of Gods Image within us Let us then aggravate the hainnousnesse of it as we see the Scripture doth and deeply humble our selves under it Shall it be a small thing to have such an impetuous active principle in us against what is holy That which we should imbrace and close with as the most excellent that we flie from and are most averse to as if it were the greatest evil and would be to our utter undoing Fourthly If vicious habits that are acquired by customary practice of evil are not meer and simple privations but do also include in them a propensity to evil then it followeth that original sinne likewise is not a meer privation For we are to conceive of original sinne as an innate and imbred habit as the other are acquired Now it 's plain That all vicious moral habits they are not a meer negation or absence of such virtues but doâ— also incline and dispose the subject to vicious actions easily and with delight So that we must needs attribute as much Postivenesse if not more to original sinne then to vicious acquired habits And the truth is This is a closer Leprosie infecting of us then such habits for this we have as soon as we are born this is twisted within our bowels this can never be wholly shaken off whereas accustomed sinnes they are perfectly overcome by the work of Regeneration For this is the difference between acquired habits of sinne and original corruption In Regeneration seeing the Image of God is put into us which is the substance of all holy habits the contrary habits are presently excluded and the sinnes the godly afterwords commit are not from their former habits of sinne but from the reliques of original corruption whatsoever the Remonstrants say to the contrary But Regeneration doth not totally exclude original sinne onely diminisheth the strength of it So that this original corruption will abide in some measure in us even while we carry this mortal body about with us And if the Prophet made it such an impossible thing for men habituated in sinne to be converted as when he saith If a Leopard can change his skinne then may you learne to doe well who are accustomed to doe evil Jerem. 13. 23. What then shall he said of us who are borne in evil Customary sinnes are but the Leopards skinne original sinne is like the Leopards nature Lastly This positive inclination doth necessarily follow from the privation of this Image of God if the due summetry and excellent Harmony which was at first in the soul be taken away then all the faculties and
not onely teach us there is such a sin but that it was so hainous and abominable in the eyes of God that no sin hath ever been punished like this SECT III. THirdly Those reliques of the Image of God and some implanted dictates and notions with a natural conscience accusing and excusing These do demonstrate that there was a glorious Image of God in us but we have lost it There is something in all men by nature whereby they are convinced of a God have remorse upon sinne and tremble much when they are dying Now what are all these but the rubbidge and obscure remnants of that holy estate we were created in So that as when any famous building or great City are brought to ruine yet commonly there remain some fragments or others that witness there was such a famous place once Thus those implanted Dictates of conscience those natural apprehensions about a God though they are very confused and cannot be a star to guide us to Christ yet they remain as monuments of that spiritual excellent building It is true Illyricus out of his vehement desire to aggravate original sin in us denieth that those common notions about God or good and evil are naturally in us but that they are de novo infused into us by God and manifested wherein also he hath some followers but if such natural dictates remain in the Devils which is plain because otherwise they could not be so tormented for their wickedness as they are why should it be denied to man The Socinian also denieth any implanted notion about a God and that the knowledge of him comes by observation of the creatures and also by education and tradition but experience as well as Scripture confuteth this in which respect Tertullian said O animan naturaliter Christianum It 's true some more orthodox dispute Whether the faculty of the understanding in its operations only continueth or that there are habitual principles inhering in it It is enough that there remaineth a conscience in man which like Job's messenger can inform us though very obscurely of that sad loss which hath befallen us SECT IV. FOurthly This may evidently convince us of our original pollution That it is farre worse with man now in respect of the end he was created unto and the nature he was constituted in then with any other creatures This plainly argueth mans apostasie from God for all creatures in their kind live proportionably and obtain their end which is usefulness and serviceableness to man only man neither liveth according to his nature rightly considered and withall doth miserably fall short of that glorious end for which God made him If you consider man in his nature he is a reasonable creature and so ought to walk according to the principles of reason to do nothing against the rules thereof now all men are by original corruption become like bruit beasts that have no understanding Hence the Scripture doth so often compare them to beasts yea prefer beasts before them The sluggard is commanded to go to the Ant Israel is said to be worse than the Stork that knoweth her season and the Ox or Ass that know their masters crib Why doth the Scripture speak thus but to shew that beasts do in their kind surpass man in his kind Every wicked man is called a fool and a simple one because when he sinneth he goeth against the dictates of true reason and this is the condition of all men till regenerated by grace they do not consider what God made them for or why they have immortal and rational soules Take the Drunkard is not he worse then a beast doth the beast drink any more then will suffice nature insomuch that we may truly say all by nature are become spiritual monsters for as a monster in nature is when nature is deficient or redundant in her operations and so worketh not regularly Thus also when a man doth not keep the rules of reason and live as one who hath a rational soul he becomes like a monster and so ought to abhor himself Oh then loath thy self and say every creature liveth like its kind The horse doth as an horse should do the ox as the ox should do but I miserable and wretched sinner do nothing that a man should do Again The beasts and so all creatures although they are subject to vanity and groan under a curse because of mans sin yet they do not fall short of the end they were intended for God he made man to serve him and all the creaturs to serve man and thus they do still though a great part of this dominion man bath by his sin justly deprived himself of yet the Sun giveth light to him The earth brings forth her fruit for him some living creatures are daily slain for his food and cloathing what shoals of fish and flocks of birds do at some seasons of the year present themselves as if they should say here we appear to serve you and this is the utmost perfection they were made for But come to man he was made to serve the Lord therefore did God furnish him with all these mercies that he might the more willingly and diligently obey him but instead of God he serveth Gods enemies he serves sin in the Insts thereof he serveth the devil in his desires Thus of all the creatures God made next to the devils man is in the most bitter and undone estate So that this must needs stop thy mouth against all cavils if there be no original sin Why is man worst in his kind than any other creature in their kind Yea see the most savage beasts agree well enough with one another one Wolf with another one Tyger with another yet one man is a Wolf and a Devil to another When did you ever hear of a company of Bears going out to fight with another company of Bears Yet what is more ordinary than to hear of one army of men going out to kill and slaughter another Can we say God made man thus vile and sinfull What intollerable blasphemy would it be Oh then let us roll our selves in the dust Let us say we are not worthy the name of men we are become beasts yea worse than beasts Say not This is to vilifie and to debase man too much No this is the only way to perform that duty which not only Scripture but even Heathens have admired as revealed from Heaven Noscâ— teipsum Know thy self Doth not that expression in Job abundantly confirm this Chap. 11. 12. Vain man would be wise though man be born like a wild asses colt A colt the asses-colt and a wild asses-colt such a stupid senssess thing is man though he would be wise SECT V. 5. MAn is originally defiled Because that which is the most noble and excellent part in him is captivated and inslaved to what is inferiour unto it This was so greatly considered of by the Platonists as you heard that therefore they thought the souls
some would absurdly question it That without the knowledge of Christ and faith in him none can be saved And that none by nature can come to this knowledge then it followeth undeniably that damnable ignorance doth cover the face of our souls as darkness did the deep at first That there is a very Chaos in our souls Oh then that we had knowledge to know our ignorance Oh that the dark dungeon we are shut up in might not be so pleasing to us In that the Gospel is called a mystery In that flesh and blood doth not reveal the things of Christ to us this sheweth our wretched estate in sin Adam had knowledge about the meanes rending to everlasting happiness otherwise God would have made him imperfect but now we are ignorant of Christ the way All that live in the Church had it not been for revealed light would have groped in darkness as we see all Heathens and Pagans do If therefore you would see what our natures are of themselves consider the Sanages the Indians the Pagans of the world who as to any right knowledge of God have little more then bruit beasts we cannot so well see what mans nature is of it self who live in the Church because there is the light of the Gospel and many times godly education and Christian institution of us while young doth restrain sinne otherwise if there were not this planting and watering of us we should not know any more about Christ then the most rude Barbarian that is Take off then those ornaments those supernaturall additaments that God hath put upon us who live under the Gospel and then our nakedness and deformity will plainly appear Fifthly The wofull captivity and bondage we are in to Satan by nature doth also manifest our originall defilement For were we not cast off by God did not sinne make us like hell why could so many legious of Devils dwell in us Eph 2 The prince of darkness the god of this world is said to rule in the hearts of the disobedient and such we are all by nature yea we are till regenerated in the snares of the Devil and taken captive at his will Therefore when Christ sent his Disciples to preach he said He saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven Thus the Devil hath his throne in all mens hearts till Christ who is stronger cast him out It is trne by wicked and ungodly customes in sinne The Devil taketh further possession as we see in Ananias and in Judas The Devil is said to enter into him after the eating of the sop not but that he was before in him only he had more power and strength over him Thus he doth possess the souls of all that are born till regenerated and by frequent actings of sinne he setleth his kingdome more firmely Lastly This may fully discover our originall pollution In that even in respect of naturall things we are much weakened and debilitated our understandings are not able to find out even naturall truths Insomuch that there was a famous sect of the Academicks who held That nihil scitur we know nothing at all Even Aristotle who is prophanely made to be by some the same in naturalls which Christ was in supernaturall yea Scaliger calls him Vltimus Musarum conatus as if nature her self could not send forth a greater Artist yet his known saying That our understandings in respect of the celestiall bodies especially are but noctuae ad solem owles to the Sunne makes it appear that we are ignorant of more things then we know yea and which is greatly to be bewailed The more learning and parts men have had they have been more mischiefed by them insomuch that meer Ideots and naturall fooles have been less wicked then they so that humane abilities when polished by arts have been like wine to a feavourish man like a sword in a mad mans hand neither did God ever choose many of the wise men of the world Austin being filled with humane eloquence this was a great prejudice to him in imbracing Christianity he contemned the simplicity of the Scripture dedignabar esse parvulus as he confessed And Scotus who for his acute understanding was called Doctor subtilis yet the great Historian Jovius giveth this censure of him That he was ad ludibrium Theologiae natus born to make Religion a scorn and a reproach because he could dispute every point probably on all sides And memorable is that of profound Bradwardine who before he was cordially affected with the grace of God confesseth That when he heard Paul's Epistles read he did dispise them because Paul had not metaphisicum ingenium a metaphysicall head Thus you see that even those poor abilities that with much labour are attained make us the worse for them CHAP. XXII A Comparison and Opposition between the first and second Adam as introductory to this Question How this Corruption is propagated SECT I. 1 COR. 15. 49. And as we have born the Image of the earthy we shall also bear the Image of the heavenly THe Apostles chief scope in this Chapter is to corroborate and establish one main Fundamental Article and Principle in Religion which is the Resurrection of the dead This Truth as it is Fiducia Christianorum the very confidence and life of believers so it hath been opposed and denied by many as most absurd and fabulous Insomuch that what Tertullian said concerning Christ who is God becoming man and crucified for us Prorsus credibile quia impossibile the same may be applied to this Truth Therefore it is the Object of Faith because reason cannot comprehend it Now among many other Arguments by which the Apostle statuminateth this Doctrine Christ's Resurrection is most palmarious For although to Heathens this Argument would not be valid yet to the Corinthians who either doubted of or denied the Resurrection but did not wholly abandon the Christian Faith this reason would be very cogent So that the Corinthians either doubt or infidelity in this Point hath made this Doctrine the more unquestionably true so that doubts and heresies have been over-ruled by God to make Truth more orient like the file to rusty iron and like the shaking of the Tree which maketh the root faster and deeper But whereas the Doubt may be Wherein lieth the strength of this Argument Christ is risen therefore his members or all that are his shall rise For you must know the Apostle's Arguments doe principally prove the blessed and happy Resurrection of the Just the Wicked they shall rise but by the power of Christ as a Judge not as members united to him their Head At the twentieth verse he giveth us a two-fold reason of that connexion First Christ is the first-fruits now the first fruits sanctified the whole crop of Corn and although they were taken before the rest yet this did assure that all would be taken in its time Thus Christ being the first fruits did sanctifie all his people and his Resurrection was an assured
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 consequent from the former viz. The Privacy and Propriety of it For whereas by the primitive Institution our will is to be commensurated and regulated by the will of God now it naturally abhorreth and refuseth any such agreement as if our will were to take place of Gods will as if the prayer were that our will not Gods will might be done In this is an Abysse of all evil that our will naturally inclineth to be independent on Gods will we would have that a measure and rule even to Gods will that God should not will but what we would have Oh horrible blasphemy and confusion for the humane will of the Lord Christ was not a rule and measure of things to be done being the will of a creature therefore he prayeth Not my will but thy will be done Luk. 26. 39. If then Christs humane will was to be regulated by that superiour and increated will how much more is the will of a sinfull and corrupt man This then is that which maketh the whole soul like a Blackmoor This is the essence as it were of all sinne A mans own will not Gods will is regarded but a mans own proper will is wholly followed we would give Laws to God and not God to us Whensoever thy heart is carried out to lusts to any wickedness What is this but to exalt thy will and to depress the will of God Hath God said Be not proud thou wilt be proud Hath God said Swear not thou wilt swear Thus all sinne is nothing but a mans own will lifted up against the will of God No wonder then if one said Cesset voluntas propria non ardebit gâ—henna Let there be no longer our own will and there will be no longer any hell It 's this proper private will of ours that was the cause of hell Adam and Eve they preferred their will before Gods will and that brought in death and demnation Therefore regeneration is the writing of Gods Law in our hearts whereby we come to say as Christ I come to do thy will O God and Paul immediately upon his conversion saith Lord what wilt thou have me do he giveth up his will as a blanck on which God may write his will O Lord there shall not be any longer my will to persecute my will to oppose thy Church I will break this will of mine renounce this will of mine Thus as a vessel melted in the fire may be put into any forme or fashion the artificer pleaseth so was it with Paul's will This proper private will of thine likewise maketh all the trouble and misery thou meetest with it is thy own will that maketh thee to walk so heavily and discontentedly for were thy will resigned up into Gods were thou able to say in all things the will of the Lord be done I have no will but what God would have me to exercise this would keep thee in a quiet calm frame all the day long whereas now all the dispute and contention is whether thy will or Gods will must give place to each other Oh vain and wretched man how long shall this self-will of thine be thy ruine Is it not reason that the will of the creature should give place to the will of the Creator as the starres do not appear when the Sunne beginneth to arise ¶ 5. The Pride and Haughtiness of the Will THirdly The great and notable pollution of the Will Is the pride and haughtiness of it not only refusing subjection to the Will of God and to be under that as hath been shewed but in some remarkable particulars The first whereof is an affectation of equality with God himself Thus the will of a poor weak wretch that cannot turn a white hair into black whose breath is in his nostrils that hath the same originals for his body as a worm hath yet the aspireth after a Deity and would be like God himself As 1. in attempting to make gods and then to worship them What pride and vanity is in man to take upon him to make what he intends to worship so that what man pleaseth shall be a god and what pleaseth him not shall be none Deus non erit Deus nisi homini placuerit Thus whereas God at first made man after his image now man maketh God after his image Besides the horrible blindness that is upon the mind in this thing there is also pride and arrogancy of the will what is this but to assume superiority over their own gods which yet they worship and adore But 2. This pride of the will is more conspicuously manifested In affecting to be like the true God not to endure him to be a superior above us While our first parents had not any internal pollution at all upon them yet this sinne did presently insinuate them whereby they aspired after a Deity therefore the Devil tempted them with this sutable bait Ye shall be like Gods knowing good and evil That sinne of Adam hath still a more peculiar impression upon mankind Whence came that abominable and blasphemous custome into the world of deifying men which they called Daimons but from that inbred pride of the will desiring to be like God Ezek. 28. 2. Thus it was with that Prince of Tyrus he lifted up himself and said I am a god I sit in the seat of God thou hast ser thine heart as the heart of God What detestable and loath some arroganacy is here Oh the patience of God that doth not immediately consume such a wretch as he did Herod who sinned not so highly for he did not proclaim he was God only the people by way of flattering cryed out the voice of God and not of man which because he did not disclaim but secretly owned therefore was such a remarkable punishment inflicted upon him We see from these instances what pride lurketh in mans will there is the cockatrice egg which may quickly prove to be a flying Serpent This pride is thought also to be the sinne of the Devil whereby he was not contented with the station God had put him but was ambitious of a divine nature as if he with Christ might think it no robbery to be equal with God This unspeakable arrogancy did shew it self notoriously in some great Potentates of the world Caius Caesar especially for which cause Grotius though absurdly maketh him to be the Antichrist that did exalt himself above all that is called God This madness of pride was as visible in Alexander who though sometimes through the consciousness of humane imbecillity as when he was wounded and saw bloud fall from him would refuse such a thought yet at other times he did industriously affect to be related among the number of the Gods and to have divine worship performed to him and as the sonne of Jupiter Hammon would be pictured with hornes and Jupiters Preist meeting of him instead of that form 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did purposely mistake saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
a mutable creature as is to be shewed Such a determination to good only was in Christ also from his perfection and is likewise in the Angels confirmed and Saints glorified here is no power to sinne yet have they liberty in an eminent degree though determined to good onely On the contrary the Devils and damned men they are necessarily determined to that which is evil they cannot but hate God they are not able to have one good thought or one good desire to all eternity yet all this is done freely by them Now as the determination to good did arise from perfection from the strong principles of holinesse within so in these their necessary determination to evil doth arise from that power of iniquity and sinne they are delivered up unto In this necessity of sinning are all natural men till regenerated absolutely plunged into and that from the dominion which sinne hath over them Onely herein they differ from the Devils and damned men they are in their termino in their journeys end and so are not in a capacity of being ever freed from this necessity and thraldome to sinne There will never be a converted Devil or a converted man in hell their state is unchangeable and they can never be recovered but with wicked men in this life God hath dealt in many plentifull wayes of mercy so that though for the present determined only to evil all the day long though for the present under the chains and bonds of sinne Yet the grace of God may deliver them out of this prison and set them at liberty but till this be they are as the Devils carried out necessarily in all hatred unto God and this determination to one is from imperfection Lastly There is a determination to one from principles of Nature without reason and judgement and where such is there cannot be any liberty for reason and judgement is the root of liberty though it be formally in the will By this then you see That this necessity of sinning doth not take away the natural freedome that is in the will so that a man and a beast should be both alike Luther De Servo Arbit indeed wished that the word Necessity might be laid aside Neither doth Bradwardine like that expression Necessitas immutabilitatis as applied to man but in the sense all that are Orthodox do agree ¶ 8. The second Argument of the Servitude of the Will is its being carried out unto sinne voluntarily and with delight SEcondly This necessity of sinning doth not at all take off from the voluntarinesse and delight therein but every natural man is carried out so voluntarily and readily unto every sinne suggesting it self as if there were no necessity at all Hence man by nature is said To swallow down iniquity like water Job 15. 16 Even as the feavorish or Hydropical man is never satiated with water Therefore the necessity of sinning is never to be opposed to his willingness and freedom for though a man hath no freedom to good yet he hath to evil Eoque magis libera quo magis Ancilla the more he is subject to sinne the more enslaved to it by his delight therein the freer he is to act it We must not then imagine such a necessity of sinning in a man as if that did compel and force a man against his inclination and desire You must not think that it is thus with a man as if he could say O Lord my will is set against sinne I utterly abhorre and detect it but I am necessitated to do it for the will being corrupted doth with all propensity and delight rejoyce in the accomplishing of that which is evil ¶ 9. 3. The Bondage of the Will is evident by its utter impotency to any thing that is Spiritual And wherein that inability consists THirdly This bondage of the will to sinne is evidently manifested in its utter impotency and inability to any thing that is spiritual It 's like Samson that hath lost its strength God made man right whereby he had an ability to do any thing that was holy there could not be an instance in any duty though in the highest degree which Adam had not a power to do and now he is so greatly polluted that there is not the greatest sinne possibly to be committed by the vilest of men but every man hath the seed and root thereof within him for this reason man by nature is not onely compared to the blind and deaf but also to such who are wholly dead in sinne So that as the dead man hath no power to raise himself so neither hath a man who is spiritually dead in his sinnes That this Truth may greatly humble us Let us consider wherein this absolute impotency to what is holy is in every man for this is a great part of the demonstration of our spiritual bondage to sinne and Satan And First Such is the thraldom of the will That a man by nature cannot resist the least temptation to sinne much lesse the greatest without the special grace of God helping at that time We matter not those Pelagian Doctors who hold a man by his own power may resist lesse temptations yea more grievous ones though not continually for when our Saviour teacheth us to pray That we may not be lead into temptation doth not that imply whatsoever is a temptation whether it be small or great if the Lord leave us thereunto we presently are overcome by it Certainly if Adam while retaining his integrity in a temptation and that about so small a matter comparatively for want of actual corroborating grace was overtaken by it Is it any wonder that we who have no inward spiritual principle of holiness within us but are filled with all evil and corruption that we are reeds shaken with every wind The rotten Apple must fall at every blast Know then that it is either sanctifying or restraining grace that keeps thee from every snare of sinne thou meetest with Thou wouldst every hour fall into the mire did not that uphold These Dalilahs would make thee sleep in their laps and then as Jael to Sicera so would they do to thee Herein is our bondage discovered Secondly Our thraldome is manifested In that we are not able of our selves to have one good thought in reference to our eternal salvation But if any serious apprehension if any godly meditation be in thy soul it is the grace of God that doth breath it into thee The wilderness of thy heart cannot bring forth such roses Thus the Apostle We are not able of our selves 2 Cor. 3. 5. to think any thing as of our selves Though the Apostle speaketh it occasionally in his ministerial imployment yet it holdeth generally true of every one of thy self then thy heart is like a noisome dung-hill nothing but unsavoury thoughts doe arise from it but if at any time any good motion any sad and serious thought stirreth within thee know this cometh from without it is put into thee as
the cup of gold in Benjamin's sack and therefore this must greatly debase us Thirdly We are not able of our selves to have the least desire or longing after grace and a state of holinesse Not only Pelagianism but Semi-pelagianism is a dangerous rock to be avoided The later made our desires to begin and then Gods grace to succeed and accomplish But there is not so much as the least groan the least desire can arise in thy heart Oh that God would change me Oh that I were in the state of those that do truly fear God! And the reason is because the Scripture describeth us by nature to be dead in sinne and compareth the work of grace to a spiritual resurrection Oh how great is thy bondage which doth so farre oppress thee that thou canst not so much as long for any freedom Oh hopeless and wretched man if left to himself Fourthly From this followeth the next demonstration of our vassalage and spiritual impotency That we cannot pray to God that he would deliver us out of this misery No natural man can pray it is the grace of God that doth inable thereunto he may utter the words of prayer he may repeat the expressions but alas he doth not he cannot pray as God requireth and so as he will accept of it The Apostle is clear for this Rom. 8. 26. The Spirit helpeth our infirmities for we know not what to pray for as we ought Is not this unspeakable misery who needeth to pray more then thou and yet thou canst not pray Thou art sinning thou art dying thou are damning and yet canst not pray Is not thy heart like an adamant if this break thee not Fifthly Such is our impotency and bondage That we are not able to affect our selves with the fear and terrour of the Law thereby to be convinced and humbled in our selves If we cannot do the preparatories for grace much lesse grace it self if we cannot do the lesse How shall we do the greater Now one great preparatory work is To have a divine and powerfull fear in our souls by reason of the Law whereby we are afraid of hell of the day of Judgement and cannot have any rest in our spirits because of this Now this is wrought by the Spirit of God in a preparatory way Rom. 8. 15. It is called The Spirit of bondage And Joh. 14. The Spirit doth convince the world of sinne So that in and through the preaching of the Law and discovery of sinne the Spirit of God doth awaken and terrifie the conscience of a man maketh him afraid that he cannot eat or drink or take the delight he used to do It is true the slavish sinfulness of this fear the Spirit of God doth not work but the heart being like a mudded pool when it is moved such slavish fears will arise likewise But how farre is every natural man from this he is secure and jolly blessing and applauding himself crying peace peace all is at quiet within him because the strong man doth keep the house It is the voice of the Lord only that can make these mountains to quake and melt Sixthly Such is our weakness That we cannot barden or soften our hearts in the least manner but they remain obdurate and like brasse and iron Thy heart is like a stone within thee and thou art no wayes able to mollifie it Therefore God maketh it his work and he graciously promiseth I will take away the heart of stone Ezek. 11. 19. and give an heart of flesh As if God had said I know this work is above you you are not able to do it And certainly if the godly themselves because of the remainders of original corruption doe complain of the hardnesse of their hearts cannot mollifie or soften them as they desire Is it any wonder if the wicked man be not able to remove the stone from him Seventhly A man cannot by the power of nature believe no not so much as with an historical faith till grace prepare the heart therein Now faith is the first foundation-stone Heb. 11. He that cometh to God must believe he is and so he must believe the truth about Christ But we see by the Pharisees who heard Christ preach saw the wonderfull miracles he did yet in stead of believing in him did deride and oppose him so that all the acts of faith whether dogmatical or saving we are enabled unto only by the grace of God Matth. 13. 11. To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven but not to them Thus Act. 18. 27. the Disciples are said to believe through grace faith then is the gift of God not the work of mans free-will And if he cannot do this it is plain he cannot move one foot of himself towards Heaven Lastly Such is our impotency That when grace is offered and tendered to us the will of it self hath no power to consent to it or make improvement of it It can and oft doth resist and refuse grace but of it self it cannot imbrace it It is true Papists and Arminians plead hard for this power of the will but this is to give more to mans will then to Gods grace this is to make man to differ himself from others It might be thought that the will indeed cannot chuse Christ or receive him as a Lord because there is no revelation or manifestation of a Christ They are a people happily who sit in darkness and have no light and therefore though they may have an inward power to see yet for want of light to actuate the medium they cannot so that the defect ariseth not from the power within but the manifestation of the object without And this indeed is gratly to be considered whether an Infidel or Pagan for example doth not believe because there is no proposition of the object in the Ministry otherwise if he enjoyed that then he had power over his own to assent to it Now even the Pelagians themselves and their followers yea even all that give not grace its full due yet thus farre they do acknowledge there must be a doctrinal revelation by the Spirit of God of the truths to be acknowledged and when this light is set as it were upon the Candlestick then a man of his own self is able to see but such is the corruption of man that not only grace must bring in the light but it must also give the eye to see So that the work of Gods grace is both objective and subjective objective in revealing the object and subjective in preparing and fitting the subject It being the Lord who doth give the seeing eye and the hearing ear Prov. 20. 12. Yea the Arminians go further acknowledging that grace doth irresistibly work upon the understanding of a man for it being a passive faculty it cannot withstand its illumination but the will that retaineth its indifferency when grace hath done all it will do This therfore is granted That without the
ability to do any thing that is truly godly If we take notice of all those wayes wherein learned men do place liberty or freedome of will we shall find evidently that none of these descriptions or definitions are any wayes competent to the will while it is unsanctified For First if that opinion be received which Bellarmine and others follow That liberty is radically in the understanding though formally in the will that is the reason of the wils liberty is from the understanding which doth propound several objects and thereupon the will is indeterminate whereas in beasts their appetite is plainly limited because they want reason as it is arbitrium so they say it is in intellectu as liberum so in voluntate Now I say let this be received for I do not dispute the truth of it then we must say The will hath no liberty to what is good because it faileth in the root The streame cannot runne when the spring is dried up for if we take the understanding in respect of spiritual and heavenly things so it is altogether darkened and blinded Therefore there is the grace of illumination required that it may know and believe the things of God without which men love and delight in darkness rather then light The things of God are said to be foolishness to a natural man so that all the while a man hath no more then nature in him he is like those birds that can see in the night but are blind in the day They have quick and sharp apprehensions in worldly and earthly matters but are altogether stupid and sensless in regard of heavenly How then can the will be free when the mind is altogether dark for God in conversion when he will set the will and affections at liberty from sinne begins first in the understanding light in the mind is first created there are holy thoughts and spiritual convictions wrought in the soul and by this light the other parts of the soul they come to be sanctified now then if there be not so much as this antecedaneous work upon the mind the will is as yet very farre from the Kingdom of heaven Wonder not then if ye see unregenerate men walking and stumbling in the dark that you see them so captivated unto every lust you may as soon remove a mountain out of its place as take them off from their iniquities For how can it be otherwise while the will hath no guid to lead it none to informe it concerning the evil and danger of those wayes it is going in If there be no light in the mind there is no liberty in the will so that hereby both horse and rider are as it were thrown into the sea Secondly If to be that liberty doth consist in an active indifferency to good or evil then the will is not free because the former part of this description upon Scripture-grounds can no wayes be accommodated to the will This description is generally received and applauded by Arminians and Jesuites as the best though Gibieus saith it is the worst making the very formal nature of liberty to consist herein that when all requisites to an action are supposed yet the will can do or not do and this they extend even to spiritual objects to that great work of conversion affirming when grace doth assist and help all it can so that Ex parte Dei all things are ready that do concurre to our conversion yet the will because it is free retaineth an active indifferency either to accept of this grace offered or to reject it This description we do no wayes acknowledge as that which depriveth God Christ and the glorified Saints from liberty and besides liberty being perfection and so in the most perfect manner in the most perfect subjects this doth debase it making a defect part of this perfection It is wholly absurd to make a power to sinne part of liberty Indeed this was a concomitant of Adam's liberty but not because liberty but because his will was mutable and changeable so that if he had been corroborated and confirmed in grace he had not put forth any such experience of his liberty well though we cannot assent to it yet let it be supposed to be true The Scripture is very clear and pregnant That a man hath no such indifferent power in him to good or evil Indeed to evil that he is carried out unto with all delight he can of himself kill himself but he cannot of himself give life to himself But as for the other part to be able to love what is good to believe and to turn himself unto God this is above his power for the order of nature and of grace differ as much as the order of sense and reason so that as the sensitive faculty cannot put forth acts of reason the eie cannot discourse and reason so neither can the rational faculties put forth the acts of grace which come from a divine nature and that which is borne from above All these places which describe man in a spiritual sense to be blind in mind deaf in eares and hardned in understanding yea which say he is dead in sinne and therefore the work of conversion is compared to regeneration and to a resurrection all these do plainly declare that the will hath no activity at all as to the first beginnings of grace It is true indeed there are commands to repent to be converted yea we are bid to choose life and death but there are none of these duties commanded which in other places are not made the gracious gifts of God so that to repent to be converted they are promised by God as the workings of his grace whereby they are both duties and gifts Although the Arminian thinketh that impossible They are duties because we are the people who do believe and do repent and are commanded thereunto They are also gifts because it is the grace of God alone that doth enable thereunto when therefore you read of such commands you must not think that they imply our power and ability for then grace would be wholly excluded seeing these Texts speak absolutely as if a good work were wholly done by our own power whereas the Arminian and Papist will not wholly exclude grace and so these Texts would prove more then they contend for But such commands are still imposed upon us by God to shew what doth belong to him what he may justly expect from us for seeing he created man with full power and ability to keep these commands if man wilfully cast himself into an utter impotency God hath not thereby lost the right of commanding though we have the power of obeying Besides by these Commands as we are to know our duty so thereby also we are provoked to be deeply humbled under our great inability seeing our selves treasuring up wrath every day and preparing more torments for our selves unlesse the grace of God doth deliver us Yea by these commands God doth work grace they are
to excessive anger What torments and vexations doth it work making thy soul like an hell for the present if to excessive fear and sorrow Will not these be like rottennesse in thy bones immediately In how many particulars may thy condemnation arise Thy love may damn thee thy fear may damn thee thy anger may damn thee or any other affection which yet do continually work in thy soul SECT III. How the Affections are treated of severally by the Philosopher the Physitian the Oratour and the Divine THirdly These affections may be treated of in several respects but what is most advantagious to the soul is to handle them as a Divine enlightned and directed by the Word of God 1. The Natural Philosopher he is to treat of them while he writeth De animâ of the soul and certainly the nature of them is as necessary to be known as any other part of men Hence it is said Aristotle did write a book of these nature affections but it is lost The Philosopher he discourseth of them but as to their natural being not at all regarding the holy mortifying of them and therefore a man may be an excellent Philosopher but yet a slave to his corrupt affections 2. The Physitian he also treateth of the affections Galen wrote a Book concerning the curing of them but he also considers them onely as they make for or against the health of the body they attend not to the souls hurt how much the salvation of that is indamaged thereby onely they treat of them as they are hurtfull in the body Erasistratus discovered the inordinate love of a great man by his pulse Amnon did pine and consume away by his inordinate affection to Tamar Therefore the Physitian he considers them no further then how they may be cured that the health of the body may be preserved And indeed this is also a good Argument in Divinity to urge that you must take heed of the sinnes of the passions for they torment the body indispose the body they kill they body Worldly sorrow worketh death so doth worldly anger and worldly fear But of this hereafter 3. The Rhetorician and Oratour he also writeth of the affections as Aristotle in his Rhetoricks Now the Oratour he discourses of them no further than as they may be stirred up or composed by Rhetorical speeches how to put his Auditors into love anger fear and grief as he pleaseth for it is a special part in Oratory to bow the affections This was represented in Orphens harp which is said to make beasts follow him yea very trees and stones that is Oratory doth civilize and perswade the most rude and savage Now although those who write of the method of preaching do much commend this gift in a Minister of the Gospel to be able to stirre up and quicken the affectionate part yet the grace of God is required to go along herein For it is easie for a Tully or Demosthenes to stirre up the affections of their Auditors when they declaimed about such civil and temporal matters that they saw themselves deeply concerned in The very principles of nature did instigate them to this but we preach of supernatural things and the matters we press are distastfull and contrary to flesh and bloud therefore no wonder if men hear without affection and go away without any raised affection at all 4. There is the Moral Philosopher and he looketh upon it as his most proper work to handle the affections for what hath moral virtue to do but to moderate the affections that we do not over-love or over-fear This is the proper work of the Moral Philosopher but neither is this handling of them high enough for a Divine The curing and ordering of them which Moralists do prescribe is but to drive out one sinne with another so that their virtues were but vices if you regard the principles and ends of their actions Therefore In the last place The Divine or Minister of God he is to preach of them and he only can do it satisfactorily having Gods Word to direct him for by that we find they are out of all order by that we find they are to be mortified by that we find only the Spirit of Christ not the power of nature is able to subdue them The true knowledge therefore about the pollution of them will greatly conduce to our humiliation and sanctification SECT IV. The Natural Pollution of the Affections is manifest in the Dominion and Tyranny they have over the Understanding and Will ¶ 1. SOmething being already premised about the nature of the Affections we shall in the next place consider the horrible and general depravation of them and that originally First The great pollution of them is evidently and palpably manifested in the dominion and tyranny they have over the understanding and will which are the superiour magistrates as it were in the soul Thus the Sunne and Starres in the souls orbs are obscured and obnubilated by the misty vapours and fogs which arise from this dung-hill A man doth now for the most part reason believe and will according to his affections and passions Aristotle observed this That Prout quisque affectus est it a judicat As every man is affected so he judgeth They are sinfull affections which make the erroneous and heretical judgements that are they are sinfull affections which make the rash corrupt and uncharitable judgements that are Thus the vanity may be observed in the soul which Solomon took notice of to be sometimes in the world Princes go on foot and servants ride on horsback God did at first implant affections in us for great usefulness and serviceableness that thereby we might be more inflamed and quickned up in the service of God They were appointed to be hand-maidens to the rational powers of the soul but now they are become Hagars to this Sarab yea they are become like Antichrist for they lift themselves up above all that is called God in the soul The understanding and conscience is made to us as God appointed Moses to Pharaoh it is ordained as a god to us but these passions will be exalted above it and so man is led not by reason not by conscience but by affections This is the very reason why either in matters of faith towards God or in matters of transactions with men our judgements are seldome partly and sincerely carried out to the truth but some affection or other doth turn the balance in all things Therefore as Abraham was to go out of his own Countrey and so to worship God in a right manner Thus if we would ever have a sound faith a right judgement we must come out of all affections that may prepossess us What a wofull aggravation of our sinfull misery is this that our affections should come thus boldly and set themselves in the throne of the soul that they should bid us judge and we judge that they should bid us believe and we believe So that we
to remove SECT V. They are wholly displaced from their right Objects THirdly The great sinfulness of the affections is seen In that they are wholly displaced from their right Objects The objects for which they were made and on which they were to settle is God himself and all other things in reference to him our love God onely challengeth in that command Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy heart and soul c. Our hatred that is properly to be against sin because it dishonours God our sorrow it is principally to be because of our offences to him so that there is not any affection we have but it doth either primarily or secondarily relate to God but who can bewail the great desolation that is now fallen upon us Every affection is now taken off its proper center In stead of loving of God we love the world we love our pleasures rather then God Instead of hating of sinne we hate God and cannot abide his pure and holy Law and Nature Thus we fear not whom we ought to fear viz. God That can destroy both soul and body in hell and what we ought not to fear there we are afraid as the frowns and displeasure of men when we are to do our duties Our sorrow likewise is not that also corrupted How melting and grieved are we in any temporal loss in any worldly evil but then for the loss of God and his favour by our iniquities there our bowels never move within us Thus our affections out of all order to their proper objects ought to be groaned under more than if all our bones were out of joynt for that is only a bodily evil hindring a natural motion this is a spiritual one depriving us of our enjoyment of God This particular pollution it is that the Text doth immediately drive at when it commands us To set our affections above it plainly sheweth where they are naturally viz. upon things of the earth and therefore as it was Christs divine power that made the woman bowed down with her infirmity for so many years to be strait Thus it must also be the mighty and gracious power of God to raise up these affections that are crawling on the ground to heavenly things Possess then thy soul throughly with this great evil that thou hast not one affection within thee that can go to its proper object but some thing moveth it from Go to the vain and fading creatures If these affections be the pedes animae the feet of the soul then with Asa thou hast a sad disease in thy feet and if thy whole body else were clean these feet would need a daily purifying SECT VI. The sinfulness of the Affections is discovered in respect of the End and Use for which God ingraffed them in our Natures FOurthly Their sinfulness is discovered in respect of the object about which So also in respect of the end and use for which God first ingraffed them into our Natures They were given at first to be like the wheels to the Chariots like wings to the bird To facilitate and make easie our approaches to God the soul had these to be like Elijah's fiery chariot to mount to Heaven and therefore we see where the affections of men are vehement and hot they conquer all difficulties that Adam might in body and soul draw nigh to God that God might be glorified in both therefore had he these bodily affections And we see David though restored to this holy Image but in part yet he could say His soul and his flesh did rejoyce in the Lord his flesh desired God as well as his soul that is his affections were exceedingly moved after God as Psal 84. 2. For the soul being the form of the body whatsoever that doth intensly desire by way of a sympathy or subordination there is a proportionable effect wrought in the inferiour sensitive part As Aaron's oyl poured on his head did descend to his skirts Thus by way of redundancy what the superiour part of the soul is affected with the inferiour also doth receive and by this means the work of grace in the superiour part is more confirmed and strengthned and the heat below doth encrease the heat above Thus you see that these affections had by their primitive nature a great serviceablenesse to promote the glory of God to prepare and raise up men to that duty But now these affections are the great impediments and clogs to the soul that if at any time it would sâ—ar up to Heaven if light within doth instigate to draw nigh to God These affections do immediately contradict and interpose and the reason is because they are ingaged to contrary objects so that when we would love God love to the world that presently stoppeth and hinders it when we should delight and rejoyce in holy things worldly and earthly delights they do immediately like the string to the birds feet pull down to the ground again Hence it is that you many times see men have great light in their minds great convictions upon their consciences they know they live in sinfull wayes they know they do what they ought not to do yea they will sometimes complain and grieve bitterly because they are thus captivated to those lusts which they are convinced will damn them at last but what is the snare that holdeth them so fast What are the chains upon them that bind them thus hand and soot even their sinfull and inordinate affections their carnal love their carnal delight keepeth conscience prisoner and will not let it do its duty Oh that we could humble our selves under this that what was wine is now become poison that what we had to further us to Heaven doth hurry us to hell that our affections should carry us to sinne that were for God that they should drive us to hell which were to further us to Heaven Oh think of this consider it and bewail it Many things lose their use and they only become unprofitable they do not hurt by that degeneration as salt when it hath lost its seasoning but now these affections are not onely unprofitable they will not help to what is good but are pernicious and damnable we that were of our selves falling into hell they thrust us and move us headlong to it so that they seem to be in us what the Devils were in the herd of Swine These are the wild horses that tare thy soul in so many pieces Thus our gold is become dross SECT VII When the Affections are set upon inferiour objects that are lawfull yet they are greatly corrupted in their Motion and Tendency thereunto IN the next place If the inferiour objects they are placed upon be lawfull and allowable yet they are greatly corrupted in their motion and tendency thereunto For they are carried out excessively and immederately They do unlawfully move to lawful things As man â—ands corrupted by nature his affections are defiled two wayes in respect of the objects For sometimes
Doctrine about the sinfulnesse of the Imaginative power should have preceded because they have such an immediate connexion with the will belonging to the appetitive part of a man The next seat of original sinne in man I shall consider of is the Fancy which we shall find to be instrumental to great iniquities because in it self it is polluted sinfully To which truth this Text will give in a full and pregnant testimony To open which you must understand that we have here related the Cause of that universal and dreadfull judgement which God brought upon the whole world The cause was that universal and desperate wickednesse whereby all flesh had corrupted their wayes The long-suffering of God would bear no longer especially they being so often admonished by Noah the preacher of righteousnesse Thus the general actual impieties every where abounding on the face of the earth is the proxim and immediate cause of drowning of the world Secondly We have the remote and mediate cause which is internal and that is the universal sinfulnesse of every mans heart by nature which is alwayes emptying it self into sinfull thoughts and lusts so that it is never quiet or like a fountain sealed up but diffusing it self into poisonous streams There are always sparks flying out of this furnace Now this natural pollution is described in the most emphatical manner that can be There are some who complain that we are too tragical in explaining the nature of original sinne that we aggravate it too much but if we consider the scope of the holy Ghost in this place we will easily be perswaded that none can say enough in this particular For 1. Here is the heart said to be evil that which is the very life of man and is the fountain of all actions and motions Not the eyes or the tongue but the heart which is the whole of man which implieth also that he sinneth not by example and outward temptation only but from an inward principle 2. In this heart that is said to be evil which we would think is not capable of sinne at least of very little the thoughts not onely the affections or the will the appetitive parts of the soul but the sublime and apprehensive 3. He doth not only say the thoughts but the imagination the very first rising and framing of them It is a Metaphor from the Potter who doth frame his vessels upon a wheel in what shape he pleaseth Thus the heart of man is continually shaping and effigiating some thoughts or other Now these are not onely sinfull when formed and it may be consented unto but the very first fashioning of them even as they rise immediately from the heart are sinfull If we explain it as others do who observe this word signifieth to frame a thing with curious art and industry then it aggravateth likewise informing of us that those thoughts which are polished by us in the most accurate manner they are altogether evil 4. Here is the Vniversality Every Imagination In those millions and millions of thoughts which arise in a man like the motes in the air there is not one good thought all and every imagination 5. Here is not onely the extension of this sinne to every thought but the intention likewise It is onely evil there is no good at all in it Godly men in their best actions have some sinfulnesse adhering to them There is some water in their best wine but here is all drosse and no gold at all only evil Lastly Here is the Aggravation of it from the perpetuity It is thus only evil and that continually Thus the holy Ghost which is truth it self represents our Blackmore natures to humble and debase man as also to justifie God under any effects of his wrath and vengeance that he may bring upon us How wretched then are the attempts of some Writers who lay out the utmost of their power and wit to make this sinne nothing at all as Doctor Taylor and as Papists or to have very little guilt in it If you say This Text speaketh of actual sinnes of evil imaginations I grant it but as flowing from original pollution it speaketh of bitter fruit but as flowing from that bitter root within And 〈…〉 the Scripture use to speak of this sinne commonly as putting it self 〈…〉 immediate evil motions because though original sinne be not peccatum 〈◊〉 yet it is peccatum actuosum as hath been said It is an acting and an active sinne though not actual Pererius would evade this Text by having it to be an hyperbole or else to be true only of some particular wicked men the Gyants in those dayes As for the hyperbole which both Papists and Socinians so often flie unto when the Scripture doth intend to exagerate this sinne we shall easily in time convince of the falshood and vanity of such an exception And as for the second particular we will readily grant That the actual impiety of all men generally was exceedingly heightned so that this gave the occasion to mention that internal corruption which is upon all mankind but yet we must necessarily say that besides those actual impieties original sinne is also aimed at as being the cause of them for the scope of Moses is to give an universal cause of that universal judgement seeing therefore the deluge drowned Infants as well as grown persons and they could not be guilty of actual impieties it remaineth that the native pollution they were born in was the cause of their destruction and indeed original sinne did greatly aggravate those actual wickednesses for hereby was demonstrated the incurableness of their natures No patience no mercy would do them any good for they are not only evil but their hearts the fountain of all was evil likewise and then how could grapes ever grow from such thorns Neither may we limit it as some would to particular great sinners who then lived because Chap. 8. 21. we have the same sentence in effect repeated when yet the wicked men of the world were destroyed when those eight persons onely were alive and preserved God giveth this character of mans nature Besides it is spoken indefinitely the imagination of mans heart not of those men or of such particular men Why this very reason should be used Gen. 8. 21. that God would not destroy the world any more which is in this Text brought for the destruction of it is to be shewed when we come to treat of the effects of original sinne In the mean time Let us consider what a late Writer Doctor Jer. Taylor of Repent Chap. 6. who useth to sharpen his weapons at the Philistims forges the Papists and commonly the worst of them as also the Socinians with whom we reckon Grotius from these I say he delivereth his poisonous assertions First It is pretended That the Scripture maketh this their own fault and not Adam's because vers 12. it is said All flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth But This is very feeble
grace to sanctifie them and prepare them for any heavenly duty Prov. 20. 12. The hearing ear and seeing eye the Lord hath made even both of them Let the Use be even to amaze and astonish thee with the thoughts of this universal pollution upon thee the soul in all the parts thereof the body in all the members thereof Nothing clean and pure but all over leprous and ulcerous How canst thou any longer delight and put confidence in thy self Why doest thou not with Job sit abhorring of thy self and his indeed were ulcers of the body only and they were a disease but not sinne whereas thou art all over in soul and body thus defiled and that in a proper sinfull way Oh that the Spirit of God would convince all of this sinne The Prophet Isaiah was to cry All flesh is grasse and the floâ—rer thereof fadeth away to prepare for Christ but in that was chiefly comprehended All flesh is sinne and the fruit thereof damnation What though this be harsh and unpleasing to flesh and bloud What though many erroneous spirits deny it or extenuate it yet seeing the Scripture is so clear and evident with which every man that hath experience of his own heart doth also willingly concurre Believe it seriously and humble your selves deeply think not transient and superficial thoughts will prevail as the weighnness of the matter doth require If ever thy heart can be broken and softned let it be discovered here rise with the thoughts of it walk with the thoughts of it and leave it not till thou find the belief thereof drive thee out of thy self with fear and trembling finding no rest till thou art interessed in Christ CHAP. VIII Of the Subject of Predication Shewing that every one of Mankinde Christ onely excepted is involved in this common sinne and misery SECT I. The Text opened and vindicated LUKE 1. 35. Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Sonne of God WE have at large though not according to the desert thereof described and amplified the subject of original sinne wherein it is seated By which it appeareth that man all over is become corrupted both the totus homo and the totum hominus the whole man and the whole of man The next thing to be considered is the omnis homo or the Subject of predication as Divines call it The former being called the Subject of Inhesion Our work then is to shew That Christ onely excepted every one of mankind is involved in this common sinne and misery there is none that can plead any exemption from it For seeing it is made the peculiar priviledge of Christ to be so born because conceived after a miraculous manner it therefore necessarily followeth that all others are comprehended under this guilt Though you may see some men from the youth up lesse vicious then others more ingenuous and civil then others yet even these are by nature all over sinfull so that there is no such thing as a natural probity and goodness of which the Socinians dispute as in time is to be shewed That it is the prerogative of Christ only to be freed not only from all actual sinne but also original and birth-sinne is evident by this Text which containeth an answer of the Angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary who with some trouble and amazement had questioned how she should conceive a Sonne who knew not a man The Angels answer consisteth in the information of the manner how it shall be and the consequent issue and event thereof The Manner is expressed in the efficient cause and his efficacy The Efficient cause is said to be the holy Ghost and the power of the Highest A person not the vertue only of God as the Socinians blaspheme as appeareth â—n that we are baptized into the name of the holy Ghost who is reckoned one of the three with the Father and Sonne as also by the personal operations and characters attributed to him which cannot be cluded with the figure of a Proso 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some endeavour It is true The works of God ad extra are common to all the three Persons yet there is a peculiar order and appropriation and therefore the preparing and forming of Christs body out of the Virgin Mary is peculiarly ascribed unto the holy Ghost The Efficacy is set down in two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is to be understood of the operation of the holy Ghost not his essence for that is every where The like expression though to another purpose is Acts 1. 8. The second word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning which there is more difficulty The word in the New Testament is applied to a Cloud covering a man with a Dative Case though Favorinus and Stephanus make it to have usually an Accusative Matth. 17. 5. Mark 9. 7. and Acts 5. 15. such an overshadowing as they expected virtue and efficacy thereby So Heysichius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Old Testament by the Septnagint it is often rendreed for defence and protection because in these hot Countreys the shadows of trees were a great preservation against the extream scorchings of heat And in this sense rather then in any other we take the word in the Text that the holy Ghost should protect and defend her not only in the inabling of her against nature to conceive without a man but also against all accusations and dangers she was to be exposed unto by this means Thus Virgil used the word Et magnum Reginae nomen obumbrat Others which may be additional to the former render it The holy Ghost shall fill her with glory therefore she is said to be highly favoured And thus also among Poets the word is said to be used Olympiacis umbratur tempora ramis Stat. Some make it to be as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if the meaning were the holy Ghost should as it were pourtray and draw the lineaments of the body Others make it an allusion to the hen which by covering her egg doth by the heat thereof produce a live young one to which also the Scripture is said to allude Genes 1. 2. when it is said The Spirit moved or was incumbent as the water Thus by the power of the holy Ghost in an unspeakable manner the body of Christ was formed of the mass and fleshly substance administred by the Virgin Mary But this we are to take heed of lest the mind of man should apprehend any indecent thing in this great mystery Therefore Smalcius the Socinian his assertion is to be rejected with great abomination that feared not to affirm That by this expression is secretly and modestly implied the work of the holy Ghost as supplying the place of a man his blasphemous and abominable expressions I shall not relate Smal. refut Smigl cap. 17 18 19. We shall then keep to the first interpretation understanding it of Help and Protection in this wonderfull work The
even as Rebeckah when her twinnes did strive in the womb this was an extraordinary prognostick caused in a supernatural way by God And although Calvin on the place saith That it is natural to the fruit of the womb to leap or move when the mother is moved with joy yet he acknowledgeth that Luke doth here note some extraordinary thing and that this leaping was by the secret motion of the Spirit of God which doth detect the horrible impudence and slander of Maldonate who is not ashamed to say That Calvin doth own nothing besides what is natural in this for which in derision he calleth him pius autor we see by this how little we may trust such men We must then conclude even the babe at that time was affected with joy upon the Virgin Mary's coming to his mother and this supposeth that the child also was filled with the Holy Ghost yea v. 15. it is expresly said of John That he should be filled with the holy Ghost from the womb But if this be granted then it is greatly controverted Whether the babe did this with sense and knowledge that Christ was present or whether it was by the motion of the Spirit of God in the child that knowing nothing at all There are probable arguments on both sides The Lutherans they do greedily imbrace that opinion that maketh the child while in the womb to have actual faith and knowledge of Christ and from thence they do peremptorily conclude That Infants have actual sinnes and that they may have actual faith and other graces but this is against experience and if we do grant that John had such actual knowledge of Christ yet this was extraordinary and miraculous and must no more be attributed to all children then speaking to all Asses because Balaam's once did Many Authors conclude that John did rejoyce with some sense and apprehension and for this reason he is said to be filled with the Holy Ghost and joy must arise from some knowledge and apprehension neither say they will it follow from hence that he did not loose this actual knowledge afterwards but had it alwayes while an Infant for we see the Prophets though men grown up yet had not the spirit of prophecy at all times But come we to our business Let it be granted that John had actual faith that he was filled with the Holy Ghost that doth not hinder but that by nature he was a child of wrath and full of sinne for this grace is bestowed upon him when by nature sinfull and doth no more argue he had no sinne in him before then persons grown up have not when the Holy Ghost was poured on them And although it be said He was filled with the Holy Ghost that doth not imply that all sinne was wholly taken out of him no more then the Apostles and all others were quite purged from sinne when they are said to be filled with the Holy Ghost Besides the Scripture as Calvin considereth well doth not say John was filled with the Holy Ghost in the womb but from his mothers womb which he thus expounds That John the Baptist did betimes even from his Infancy manifest what an excellent Prophet he was like to be because the Spirit of God did even then give many Demonstrations thereof and thus though not so extraordinarily God sometimes doth give to some his sanctifying Spirit even from the cradle almost they begin betimes to put forth many excellent signs of that grace which will flourish more in their elder yeares Timothy from a child is said to have the knowledg of the Scriptures from a Child 2 Tim. 3. 15. And some have the fear of God planted so early in their hearts that they cannot know any remarkable time of their conversion yea they cannot remember but that alwayes they had such a tenderness about sinne and love to good things yet we must not think for all this they were not born in sinne we must not say of them as was said of Bonaventure for his hopefullness in his youth In hoc homine non peccavit Adam No these have by nature the same seed of all impiety and their younger yeares would have demonstrated this poison as well as it doth in others but the grace of God doth prevent Oh let such Obadiah's that can say They feared God from the youth admire the goodness of God to them he might have suffered that original sinne in thee to make thee wallow in such mire and filthy lusts as other young persons do Oh take heed of thinking thou hast a better nature then they that thou hast not so much original sinne in thee as others but walk humbly lest God sometime or other leave thee to let thee see what is in thy heart that all the sparkes of original sinne are not put out and then though to thy great grief thou be convinced there is a such a thing in thee SECT III. IT is the peculiar and incommunicable prerogative of Christ alone in respect of his humane nature to be exempted from original sinne as you have heard And therefore it 's an inseparable and inevitable property following every one of mankind As it is said of Justification by Christ Bond and free Jew and Grecian all are out Gal. 3. 28. So there is neither rich or poor Christian or Heathen Noble or ignoble civil or prophane male or female but all are one in original sinne because all are of Adam by natural generation and thereby original sin is propagated to all which Doctrine is to be explicated in more propositions And First Though our natural generation from corrupted Parents be the means by which we all are born polluted and depraved yet this doth not exclude the justice of God and his righteous Decree that from a sinfull fountain shall arise such polluted streams from such a bitter root also bitter fruit but doth necessarily presuppose it So that the just judgement of God in punishing of all mankind for Adam's first transgression must alwayes be acknowledged and we must not separate the natural propagation of sinne from the sentence and Decree of God For if this were the only reason that we became guilty of Adam's sinne because in his lions then all Adam's other sinnes should be made ours as well as that first act of disobedience in eating of the foridden fruit and the sinnes of our immediate parents in whose loines we were should be transmitted to us as well as Adam's yea happily if this were so then the longer original sinne hath been propagated it would still grow more evil and thereby men in the later age of the world become more polluted with original sinne then men in the former age but Cain and Abel who were the immediate off-spring of Adam were as deeply plunged in this native defilement as any are now Therefore some learned men though in this Controversie they do allow the phrase of the Propagation of original sinne because commonly used yet would gladly have
there must necessarily be some reason either expresly or tacitly implied for God is here declaring his purpose to take a more gracious and mercifull way now that he had given such a dreadfull demonstration of his justice and anger against sinne already Some then make the reason to be ab incommdo that if God should destroy the world because of mans original corruption breaking forth daily there would never be an end we should have flouds upon flouds Therefore as the Psalmist saith He remembreth that we are but dust he knoweth our frame Psal 103. 14. therefore he will not alwayes pour cut his wrath Thus say they it is here and this is probable Others make it an Argument ab aeqno to which Pererius inclineth as if God did hereby declare That being man is thus originally polluted and incurably sinfull as to his own power therefore God would pity him so that though formerly God looked upon it as the matter of his wrath now as the matter of pity being sinne maketh us miserable so some think David Psal 51. urgeth his natural corruption as an Argument to move God to pity him but this is not so probable because this doth directly contradict Gods former proceedings when his wrath was poured out on the world because of this sinne breaking forth into actual rebellions I rather therefore go with those that take the particle Ci adversatively Although God would not again destroy the world although mankind was of such a corrupt frame and thus it is to be taken in many places the neglect whereof hath caused many Disputes about some Texts of Scripture whereas the rendring of this particle adversatively would easily have cleared it as might be shewed if it were to my purpose Vide Tarn Exerc. In the next place we are to consider the words absolutely and they are very emphatical the Heart the Imagination and is evil In the former place Chap. 6. 5. there is a greater aggravation Every Imagination and only evil and all the day long but one supposeth the other here in this Text in stead of continually or every day as in the Original we have From the youth and therefore doth more palpably demonstrate the original filth or all men by nature Neither can the Adversaries to this Doctrine of original sinne put in the exception to this place as they did to the former for there they would evade by saying it was spoken of those evil and wicked men who had in a more notorious manner corrupted all their doings But how can they open their mouth against this place for God speaketh this as true at that present of all mankind by nature when yet the great prophane ones were destroyed and Noah with his family was preserved So that this is a perpetual and inseparable qualification from the nature of man more than actual death For Enoch and Elijah did not actually die yet they were born with original sinne As for some Expositors who would limit to the time of youth when a man is past his Infantia and Pueritia his infancy and childhood arrived at his Adolescentia his youth that is not to be admitted for the word is to be applied to his whole time since he was born The word Nagnar doth signifie one cast or shut out and properly belongeth to a new born Infant and so doth signifie the tender Infancy of a child although we grant that it is sometimes extended to the youth as Genes 37. Joseph is called Nagnar a youth when he was seventeen years old feeding the flock So 1 Kings 3. sometimes it 's applied to a Disciple or Servant because they were ordinarily young 2 King 9. Isa 37. which the Septuagint render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it is applied to Christ and therefore whereas Acts 4. 27. it is rendred Thy holy child Jesus Some think it better according to the use of the word by the Septuagint Thy holy servant for so Christ is sometimes in respect of his Mediatory Office called the servant of God But it is plain that children are capable of sinne before their youth and therefore we are not to limit it but to expound if of their very first being in original sinne which doth vent it self actually in after years Some make the Plural number to be observable they render it à pueritiis as containing the whole age of a man from his tender years till he be grown up Hence Grotius will extend it to the very time from the womb but then runneth to his Socinian Hyperbole which hath been sufficiently confuted To determine the time indeed when Infants begin to be capable of actual sinnes is very difficult but that is not my work here Now though it is said to be evil from the youth yet that is some limitation It is not evil from Gods first creation of mans heart not from its original being and therefore the essence of a man is not evil So that it is an horrible calumny of Tirinus the Jesuite upon this place to say That from this Text Luther and Calvin do inferre That the heart of a man is essentially evil Illyricus his dotage is sufficiently disowned by them As then the Leprosie got into the wals of the house and that could not be scraped off there was no way to get it out but by demolishing the wall yet was not to be attributed to the Artificer that made the wall but to some other supervenient cause So likewise neither is original sinne though now so closely adhering to mans nature to be attributed to God who first created mankind but to Adam's voluntary Apostasie from God The Text thus explained there are two Doctrines contained in it First Original sinne is an heavy and grievous sinne Secondly That there is a particular original sinne in every one which breaketh out into its actings betimes From which we shall take occasion to discourse of the equality and inequality of original sinne in every man Let us begin with the first Original sinne is a most grievous and heavy sinne In the Text is put an Although upon it God will not destroy the world although this sinne be in man implying the infinite mercy of God that is not provoked by this utterly to cut of mankind Hic est insiguis locus de peccato originali c. saith Luther on the place This is a famous place concerning original sinne which whosoever extenuateth saith he like blind men in the Sunne they do truly erre and do not see what they daily doe and may have experience of It is from our senslesnesse and stupidity or rather from our self-love and pharisaical disposition that we do not more afflict our selves under the apprehension of it for this is the highest offence the like whereof said Luther unless in the Devils cannot be found SECT II. The Aggravaiions of Original Sinne. ¶ 1. Of Adam's Actual Transgression NOw for the aggravation of original sinne we may speak either of Adams actual iransgression which is our
of them plead hard that it doth not deserve hell and eternal damnation But no wonder this is done in Babylon seeing in Jerusalem there are such oppugnators and extenuators of it vs if the Welsh Pelagius had not been enough there is now a new English one started up who what with some absurd opinions from the Socinians some from the most Heterodox of the Papists as Durand Pigbius Catharinus c. and many things from the old Pelagian hath stuffed his late writings with much glory and pomp of words especially against this original sinne what with his Hyperbolyes and Metonymyes it is made no sinne but an original curse rather then original sinne Answ to the Letter of Rom. so pleasing it is to be Pigmilions and to fall in love with our own purity unwilling to be shut up under sinne that the gracious mercy of God may be alone exalted And as the Socinians plead their reverence and zeal of honour to the Father while they deny the Deity of the Son so here is pleaded much reverence and tender regard to the Justice Mercy and Goodness of God much zeal to holiness and piety as if the Doctrine of original sinne did undermine all these But of these cavills in time for the present let us not judge of sinne and the guilt thereof by humane principles and phylosophical Arguments but by the Word of God And First The hainousness of it doth appear as heretofore hath been hinted In that it is not like any actual sinne that hath its proper specifical guilt and so is opposite to one vertue only and thereby doth contaminate but one power of the soul but it is the universal dissolution and deordination of all the parts of the soul Vncleanness hath the guilt of that sinne only and is opposed to that particular grace of chastity and so of every sinne else but now this hereditary defilement is contrary to that original righteousness God created man in and as that was not one single habit of grace but the systeme of all Thus original sinne is not one particular sinne but the comprehension of all It is the sinne of the mind of the will of the affection of the body of the whole man so that as when we would aggravate the goodness of God we say all the particular respective goodnesses in the creatures are eminently contained in God so we may say all the particular pollutions and guilt which is in respective sinnes is eminently contained in this so that if there could be a summum malum in man though that is impossible because malum moris fundatur in bono naturae this original sinne would be it Look upon this original sinne then as the deordination of the whole man as that which maketh every part of thee sinfull and cursed as that which maketh thee to bear the image of a Devil who once hadst the glorious and holy Image of God Secondly This sinne is greatly to be aggravated Because it is the root and cause of all actual sinnes Some question Whether all our actual sinnes proceed from this fountain or no And certainly we may conclude that all kind of actual sinne whether internal or external soul sinnes or body-sinnes do either mediately or immediately flow from it This is the evil treasure of the heart Mat. 12. 35. Hence one of the Names that original sinne hath is Fomes peccati because that is the womb in which all sinnes are conceived The Apostle James fully confirmeth this Chap. 1. 14. Every man is tempted and drawn aside by his own lust neither is it any wonder that many sinnes being in their particular nature opposite to one another that yet they should all come from one common principle seeing they all have the same generical nature of filthiness and the particularization of them is according to several temptations Even as out of the same dunghill several kinds of vermine which are produced out of putrid matter may be brought forth so that all the streames of iniquity do meet in this ocean they all come from this root even as all men do from Adam Not that the most flagitious crimes are instantly committed but by degrees they do at last biggen into such enormities if then that Rule be true That there is more in the cause then in the effect and what is causa causae is causa causati then certainly may all our iniquities be reduced to this as the fountain hence David Psal 51. in his humiliation for his murder doth go up to the cause of all even that he was born in iniquity Thirdly It is to be aggravated In the incurableness of it for though Adam had power to cast himself into this defiled condition yet he had no power to recover himself out of it as Austin expresseth it A living man may kill himself but when dead he cannot recover himself to life This you heard is made part of the reason why God would not proceed to destroy the world again although mans corrupt heart is so corrupt even because there was no hope that any judgments would cure them They would proceed still further in impieties all that water did not wash the Blackmore nature of man hence it is that the grace of God whereby we are quickened out of this death is wholly supernatural It 's no wonder that they who are doting to set up the Idol of free-will do begin to lay their foundation in this that there is no such thing as this natural pravity in man But there was no more in man to recover him out of this original filth then is in the Devils to restore them to their pristine felicity So that thy actual sinnes are not alone to be humbled for were it possible for thee to live with this sinne alone thou didst need the grace of Christ to redeem thee from this bondage Fourthly Herein also it is unspeakably to be aggravated That it taketh away all spiritual sense and feeling It 's the spiritual death of the soul we are dead men by nature in respect of spiritual things and therefore though exposed to all the curses in the Law yet we feel nothing we do not tremble and cry out for help The Physitian seeketh us not we him grace finds us out not we grace and hence it is that we think we have no such thing as original sinne in us Oh it is an heavy temptation to be given up unto to think there is no such thing as original sinne that we have no such enmity against God naturally in our hearts Wo be to that man who begineth to think this thing little or none at all What can we pray for such a man but that which the Prophet did for the Syrians when they were brought into the midst of their enemies Lord open their eyes saith he which when done they saw themselves in the midst of their adversaries and so looked upon themselvet but as so many dead men Thus if the Spirit of God by the Word make
second place there is the Universality 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is more emphatical then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All things not all men This expression is used to shew that not only all men but all their actions studies endeavours every thing belonging to them as it were is thus sinfull and damnable although Grotius maketh the Substantive understood to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the third place we have the Cause appointing and declaring of this and that is the Scripture It is usual to attribute those things which belong to God unto the Scripture because that is the sentence of God that declareth the will of God Thus Gal. 3. 8. The Scripture fore-seeing that God would justifie the Heathen c. that is God by his Word fore-telling what he would do Thus Rom. 9. 17. The Scripture saith unto Pharaoh For this same purpose have I raised thee up c. that is God by the Scripture manifested his will and purpose concerning Pharaoh So that in this place we are to conceive of God wisely and righteously ordering this way that all mankind shall fall into a stat of sin condemnation that so a way may be made open for the advancement of the grace of the Gospel Not that God did necessitate Adam to sinne or did infuse any evil into him but be falling by his own voluntary transgression and thereby plunging all his posterity into this wretched estate God who could have prevented this fall of Adam did not because not bound to it give him that grace which would actually have confirmed him although he bestowed on him grace sufficient enough to inable him to stand God I say did righteously and wisely permit this fall of his thereby to work out a greater good then the sinne of Adam could be an evil Thus God may be called the cause appointing and ordering of all this evil of mankind partly permissivè by leaving Adam to his own will and partly directivè and ordinativè being not a bare spectator or sufferer of this apostasie but also a righteous director and ordainer of it to blessed and heavenly ends Though therefore God is here said to shut up all mankind into this prison yet he is no more cause of the evil which brought this desolation then a Magistrate is of the wickedness of such a Malefactor whom he throweth into prison Yea Gods ordering of this fall of Adam unto such righteous ends doth therein demonstrate his Mercy and his Justice So that although sinne be evil yet the punishing of this is good as also the working of a better good then the evil is evil is a demonstration of the infinite wisdom of God As God doth it thus as the chief cause so the Scripture is said to shut us up under sinne instrumentally because that declareth the curse of God due unto us And that upon a two-fold account both because of the actual impieties all do commit as also because of that original filthiness and pollution we are born in Now it is my purpose to treat of Gods righteous dispensation towards mankind in this particular only because some do rise up with great zeal for the righteousness honour and glory of God in this point as if the Doctrine delivered by the Orthodox herein were altogether injurious and derogatory to him Hence the late known Adversary to this fundamental Truth about original sinne delivers himself thus Answer to a Letter pag. 23 24 To say that for Adam's sinne it is just in God to condemn Infants to the eternal flames of hell and to say that concupiscence or natural inclinations before they passe unto act could bring eternal condemnation c. are two such horrid propositions that if any Church in the world would expresly affirme them I for my part should think it unlawfull to communicate with her in the defence or profession of either and think it would be the greatest temptation in the world to make men not to love God of whom they speak such horrid things Thus he most horribly Now although these two Propositions are set down by him odiously and captiously not fully expressing the Doctrine of the Reformed Churches yet it is plain that he striketh at those Positions which are for the substance of them maintained by all Protestant Churches and doth thereby publiquely professe his separation from and non-communion with all Protestant Churches and particularly with the Church of England in that 9th Article which he doth so cruelly tear and mangle that it may not appear to be what indeed it is Our work therefore shall be from this Text to declare from Scripture-ground the holiness wisdome and righteousness of God in his proceedings thus with mankind for Adam's sinne For although all grown persons are shut up under actual sins as well as original yet here is comprehended both seeing it doth extend to all that may have salvation by Christ out of which number Infants are not to be excluded Therefore Bellarmine bringeth this Text amongst others to prove that there is an original sinne that all are born in And so we observe That God for righteous and wise ends manifested in the Scripture hath shut up all mankind in a state of sinne and damnation That God who could have preserved Adam in the state of happinesse and continued it to all his posterity so that thereby no sinne or condemnation would have come upon any one man for there would then none have done evil no not one hath ordered the contrary way suffering man to fall and thereby all mankind to be in a state of condemnation whereby also sin is so predominant that now there is none that doth good no not one The Scripture doth in other places with much exactnesse and diligence take notice of the proceeding of God in this way as Rom. 3. 9. The Apostle dividing all mankind into Jews and Gentiles sheweth that though there may be many differences in several respects yet as to a state of sin by nature and so a necessity of justification by Christ all were alike Therefore saith he We have before proved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word is very emphatical some make it to charge complain and in an heavy manner to accuse So that to be by nature of our selves in a state of wrath not being able without the grace of Christ to avoid this condemnation is the greatest guilt that we can be charged with It ought not to seem a light and contemptible thing that we come thus cursed in the world But because men may be accused falsly and the Pelagians charge us with laying a false curse upon mankind hence the Greek word signifieth more viz. so to charge a thing upon a man as by strong reasons to prove it to shew clearly the causes and grounds of it therefore our Translators render it We have before proved So that the Apostles meaning is We have not only said thus but we have proved A Metaphor say some from those who have cast up
as it is impossible for a man to catch hold of his own shadow but the more he stretchedth out to take it the farther it flieth from him So it 's concerning the Nature Attributes and wayes of God the more we think to apprehend them the higher they soar from our reach But of this more in the prosecution of the point SECT II. Propositions to direct us about this great Point of Gods proceedings as to the matter of Original Sinne. VVE are to treat on Gods righteous proceedings as to the matter of original sinne and that we may be the better directed herein Let us lay down these Propositions First He that would not dangerously erre about this fundamental truth must take heed of yeelding himself up to humane and philosophical arguments A man that would rightly know the magnitude of the Sunne must not judge by his sense but by an artificial instrument for the principles of art will correct sense So he that will fully understand the wisdom and righteousness of God in involving all mankind in Adam's sinne must not judge by humane reasons but Scripture demonstrations for the principles of faith will rectifie those of reason So that if you ask What is the bitter root of all that bitter fruit I mean corrupt doctrinal opinions about original sinne We may readily answer The inordinate attending to humane reasonings As the Pelagians of old did first urge Reason and then Authority of Scripture whereas that Embleme of Nazianzene is alwayes to be remembred Theologia nostra est Pythagorica our Divinity is Pythagorical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus saith the Lord is in stead of all scientifical demonstrations The Pelagians and their followers are much alike in the point of original sinne as the Arians and Socinians in the matter of the Deity of Christ As the Socinians call the Deity of Christ Somnium Athanasii Athanasius his dream so do these original sinne Augustine's figment As they say The Fathers before Athanasius his time and the Council of Nice spake more temperately about the Trinity so do these also of the Ancients before Austin's time concerning original sinne And as there are one or two philosophical principles which plunged them into those damnable heresies about the Trinity and Christ's Deity viz. That Qua sunt eadem uni tertio sunt eadem inter se and Vna subsistentia non potest terminare duas naturas one subsistency cannot terminate two natures So that Rule Omne peccatum est voluntarium Every sinne must be voluntary is the very foundation upon which all errours about original sinne are superstructed If then we would be guided into the truth let us become humble Disciples of Christ hearkning to what the Word saith of our condition by nature and there be established though reason like Job's wife tempt thee to charge God foolishly It is true we may by reason defend the justice of God in these proceedings but it must be reason built upon faith not faith upon reason let faith lay the foundation then reason may confirme and adorne It is Stella his comparison Takes the mould of the earth from the root of the tree that is decaying and put your compost and dung to it and after that throw in your would again and then that will be exceedingly advantagious to help the fruitfulness of the tree which was an impediment before Thus reason superadded will illustrate faith whereas if laid as a foundation-stone it will indanger all But that which doth for the most part corrupt us is We first receive opinions according to humane perswasions and then going to the Scripture we think that speaketh according to our prepossessed imaginations Philosophers were the Patriarches of Heretiques Placonical Phylosophy in the Fathers and Aristotelical in the Schoolemen hath wonderfully debased the pure gold of divine truths 2. He that would not dangerously erre in this necessary point he must mortifie self-love he must above all things take breed of a self-righteousness and self-admiration For our corruption herein is that which maketh us to judge every thing unjust in God that is not pleasing to us we will rather naturally accuse God a thousand times over then accuse or condemne our selves As the love of God had supreme dominion in Adam's heart while in the state of integrity so in man fallen on the contrary self-love is that which keepeth the principality in our souls so that whatsoever we now love it is because we love our selves Why doth the covetous man love wealth but because he loveth himself Why doth the ambitious man honours the voluptuous man pleasures but because he loveth himself yea this extends to God also we love nothing of God but for our selves as if God were for us not we for God Hence it is that we would have a god like us we make an Idol-god in our hearts instead of the true God That which God chargeth upon some sinners Psal 50. 21. is true of all by nature Thou thoughtest I was such an one as thy self now this is the rotten core in every mans heart we think God to be like our selves to do as we would have him do and therefore we make that injustice in him which we would not have him do No wonder then if men be generally so averse to this Truth about original sinne for how can a man be naturally willing that this should be true I am born in a state of sinne I am by nature a child of wrath Can such a bitter pill as this be easily swallowed down how stiffely will men dispute and cavil ere they will be convinced of this Deformed faces are not willing to look in this glass Therefore it is a good similitude which Cortesius the Schooleman 2. Sentent distinc 7. pag. 48. who affecteth to turn all School-language into a polite flile useth concerning Pelagians denying original sinne he compareth them to Dogs that cannot endure the halter they are tied by and therefore all their endeavour is to gnaw the cord in pieces that they may runne loose Thus saith he do these corrupt Doctors they are unwilling to be bound in this chain No man can endure this cord whereby folly is bound up in his heart and therefore they strive to teare it in pieces They would gladly believe there is no such thing but the Scripture-truth will abide firme whether thou believest it or not Thou art by nature in an undone and a damnable estate whether thou will be perswaded of it or no. Therefore In the third place Seeing this Doctrine of original sinne and Gods proceedings therein are principally made known to us by Scripture-revelation It is our wisdome to keep close to what is written and not to give way to such curious Disputations that will never have an end If so be the disciples of Plato would silence themselves with this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here Plato doth command us to stay to rest and dispute no further if I say this would immediately stop their mouthes
past time We grant it therefore that Paul saith this of himself though regenerated that he was sold under sin But then we say The expressions above named and this is not a like here it is in a passive sense there in an active sense of those wicked men it is said They sold themselves which denoteth their wilfulnes and obstinacy of this he was sold which implieth it to be done against his will as captives are there it is absolutely here it is limited to the flesh And if this phrase did denote a wicked man in an high degree then how can they apply it to a man under legal convictions and in a preparatory way to conversion It would be very hard to say of such men that they sold themselves to do evil Besides there is a two-fold bondage and captivity under sin even as the Israelites had a two-fold one they were born in that of Egypt and another they voluntarily by their sin sell into which was that of Babylon Thus there is a bondage unto sin we are all born in for in Adam we were all sold to sinne and so needed a Christ Redermer And secondly there is a bondage unto sinne by our own voluntary transgressions It is true a regenerate person cannot be sold under sinne in this later sence but he is in the former and so it is no more injurious unto the grace of God as Austin noteth then that he is yet mortal and corruptible Thus you have this great and necessary truth established Paul speaketh here of a regenerate person and that not only of him as he is in the lowest estate and initials of grace as Musculus thinketh but of every godly person while in this life even the most perfect that is though this conflict be more applicable to some then others yea if we do regard the exact purity of the law the most holy do most humble themselves under it ¶ 4. The several Wayes whereby Original Sinne doth hinder the godly in their Religious Progress whereby they are sinful and imperfect THe next Proposition in order is That this flesh this original sinne in a man doth several wayes hinder the godly in their religious progress whereby they are sinful and imperfect whereby every one is forced to cry out as he O me nunquam sapientem so O me nunquam pium Oh me never godly never believing never answering the holy Law of God! This treacherous enemy within us is so multiforme putteth it self Chamelion-like into so many shapes that the most holy men have cause to be alwayes on their guard to keep continual watch lest sometime or other this Daliah betray them into the hands of the Philistines How were it possible that some eminent servants of God as David and Peter have fallen so grievously and committed such sinnes which some Heathens by the light of nature would have abhorred but that there is this fuel and spawn of sinne abiding in every regenerate person It may well be affirmed that the reliquiae peccati originalis the reliques of original sinne are in the most holy for as when an house hath been for the greatest part consumed but at last the fire is quenched yet there remains some little sparks and embers which cause a constant watch lest they kindle and consume whatsoever is left yet undestroyed Such care and fear ought the godly to have lest the remaining corruption break out suddainly and so destroy them I shall instance in some particulars whereby original sinne doth thus hinder and retard the work of grace in us As First This flesh within the godly maketh us imperfect in this life by its strong opposition and contrary thwarting it hath to the grace of God within us These two saith the Text are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are two adversaries daily combating with one another Insomuch that what the Spirit saith do the flesh saith do it not Thus original corruption is like Solomons brawling woman whose contentions are a continual dropping Prov. 19. 13. What rest can such a man have no more then he that lyeth in his bed and hath constant droppings of rain upon him Such a disturber and farre more troublesome inmate is original sinne to a believer grace hath no rest no quietnes but the flesh is alwayes raising up oppositions against it alwayes crossing it what the Spirit would not that the flesh would Therefore Rom. 7. 23. the Apostle expresseth the violent actings thereof by military termes it warreth and it bringeth into captivity In this sence we may say the flesh is Satan for that is an adversary in our way that riseth up and stoppeth us in our spiritual progress It is true the natural and carnal man findeth no such opposition he never cryeth out Oh how hard a thing is it to be heavenly minded to be godly indeed to live a life of faith how difficult to live and die upon Scripture and spiritual grounds for all is flesh within dead men feel no pain they find no opposition Mortuus non belligerat is the Proverb but the godly are in continual exercises no sooner doth grace begin to work but the flesh presently beginneth to counter-work Secondly The flesh doth retard and hinder the work of grace by subtil allurements and enticements Thus as the Devil sometimes appeareth as a roaring Lion and sometimes again as a glistering Serpent and in this latter way is most dangerous so it is with this flesh within us sometimes it grosly and violently opposeth the grace of God at other times it craftily insinuateth It readily interposeth it propounds many sweet baits thus what it cannot do as a Lion it accomplisheth as a Fox so that what counsell is given Mis. 75. Keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lyeth in thy bosome implying there would be treachery in the nearest relations This is much more to be observed against original sinne that lyeth in thy own bosome yea it is thy own self and therefore how easily may it perswade thee yea no temptations without could do thee any hurt did not this flesh within betray all Thus it craftily insinuateth and surprizeth the strongesth holds of the soul before we are aware so you heard from that of James 1. 17. Every man is tempted and drawen aside with his own lust Sweet poison doth more easily destroy white powder that giveth no noise more certainly kills and this is the Reason why the godly may be carried away to sinne of profit and pleasure and not judge them to be so their hearts may not condemne them and all because the flesh can so bewitch us it doth cast such mists before our eyes that we are not able to discern between things that differ Thirdly The flesh within us doth keep off grace from its perfect work by depressing it and weighing it down that when grace would lift up the soul to heaven that is like a milstone about our neck and pulleth us back again it is lime to the birds wings it
a two-fold part of the soul the rational and that which hath not reason or which doth repugn reason The rational part saith he Lib. 1. Ethic. cap. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth provoke and incite to what is good but the rebellious part gain-sayeth Even as in the paralytical parts of the body when a man would move such to the right side they fall to the left side Now this Discourse of Aristotles we acknowledge as having some truth for even Heathens have by nature their consciences accusing or excusing of them Rom. 2. 15. But Papists and others do horribly perveâ—t this when they bring it into Divinity and so put a new piece of garment into the old thereby making a rent because there is no agreement with them otherwise we grant such a combate yea it is in too many men whose convictions are strong but their lusts stronger and no doubt this is in a regenerate person so farre as nature still abideth in him but such mens dislike and renitency of conscience doth not excuse them though they be not such great sinners as those that sinne without any remorse yet their condition is damnable Though such have many good sentences and you shall hear many good speeches come from them yet they are still under the bondage of sinne for though they have a knowledge condemning their sinne yet it is but universal when they come to the particular then they are carried away or their knowledge is but habitually in them not actually as with drunken men or men in a sleep so that the good sayings they utter they have no practical application of them and therefore compared by Aristotle Lib. 7. to a City which was derided by this saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The City consulteth and adviseth that yet regardeth not Laws or like such who did utter Empedocles his grave sentences A sad thing it is And oh how often is it for some men to speak excellent religious truths in discourse of which they have no practical power Solomon hath two excellent expressions to this purpose Prov. 26. 7. The legs of the lame are not equal so is a parable in the mouth of fools As the legs of a lame man being not equal make the going uncomely so it is when a man hath good speeches but evil actions Again vers 9. As a thorn goeth up into the hand of a drunkard so is a parable in the mouth of fools As a drunkard feeleth not the sharpness of a thorn running into his hand so neither doth such an incontinent person the power and efficacy of the most excellent and savoury truths which he speaketh yet all the while such convictions of light are upon man there is the more hope and he may be the more easily cured insomuch that he is not as evil as a man habituated and sensless in his sinne Hence Aristotle saith That though an incontinent person doth the same things with an intemperate yet he is not an intemperate person as was said of the Milesians They are not fools but they do the things that fools do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. 7. Ethic. cap. 9. ¶ 9. Another Combate in those within the Church which yet may not be godly IN the second place There is a second Conflict that is in those who are in the Church of God and are in a preparatory way to conversion These besides the natural light of conscience have the supernatural light of the Word which doth powerfully awaken them enlighten and humble them so that they feel a troublesome warre within themselves yet for the present obtain not that grace which setteth them at full freedom Many men before their conversion have been in this soul-fight a long time Prudentius the Christian Poet hath his Psycomachia wherein some sins and virtue as chastity and uncleanness covetousness and liberality are brought in combating with one another And thus many times some godly persons in their unregenerate time have been entangled in some special lust or other There are many assaults and skirmishes ere the work of grace doth take full possession Austin doth excellently declare this in his own experience lib. 8. Confess Velle meum tenebat inimicus meus c. My enemy did take hold of my will and made a chain thereof whereby he was fast bound and hereupon he did sigh and groan to be delivered being ligatus non ferro alieno but ferreâ meâ voluntate bound with his iron will In these aestuations of spirit he lay wearying himself till at last the grace of God came in with full power upon him making a through change cutting off the fetters that were upon his soul ¶ 10. Of the Combate in the godly between the Flesh and the Spirit and how it may be discerned from the former IN the third place There is the Combate in regenerate persons between the work of grace and the flesh in them The former was only between the natural conscience and lust The second between the Spirit of God but moving and working only in a man and his corruption The last between the Spirit of God inhabiting and dwelling in a man and the flesh in him So that if a Christian ask How shall I know whether the combate I feel be between the Spirit and the flesh or conscience and my lust Though practical Divines give many differences yet briefly in these three particulars one conflict may be discovered from the other 1. From the principle and root In the godly this ariseth from a total renovation or the Image of God placed in a man In the other it is only from partial illumination or natural light 2. In the motive This combate in the godly is upon holy grounds out of hatred to sinne out of love to that which is holy In the other it is out of terrour and slavish fear it is because they would not be damned it is because of horrour upon them not any delight in God 3. In the manner In the other the fight is between two parts of the soul only the mind against the appetite or if there be any work upon the heart it is but transitory and vanishing whereas in the godly man this combate is universal he hath will against will love against love as well as his mind against these Thus Austin ibidem speaketh of the two wils he had his carnal will and his spiritual will his meaning is that because his will was not so full and efficacious as it should therefore he had two wils as it were Non igitur monstrum c. saith he It is not therefore a monster partly to will and partly to will but the sickness of the mind that cannot rise up fully to what is good and therefore there are two wils because one is not wholly and fully carried out to that which is good This expression of Austin fully answereth that Objection when they demand How can the will will and nill at the same time It is a contradiction
to say so But Austin answereth It 's therefore called two wils or therefore it is said to will and nill because it doth will sickly and faintly It 's not so throughly and totally carried out to God as it ought to be and this halting like that of Jacobs thigh will go with us to the grave Thus we are as weak men that are partly well and partly sick as the twy-light when it is partly light and partly darkness or as wine mingled with water not that in such a mixture we are able to say this part is water and the other part is meer wine So we must not think that in a regenerate man one part is meerly spiritual the other meerly carnal but the corruption in a man doth adhere to every part that is sanctified and therefore as the principle is mixed so are the actions which flow from it But it is time to hasten to the last Proposition which is ¶ 10. Of the Regenerates Freedome from the Dominion of sinne And whether it be by the Suppression of it or by the Abolishing part of it THat though original sinne be in a regenerate person yet it is not in its dominion there it is in part abolished For there are these things to be considered in this inbred defilement there is 1. The Guilt 2. The Dominion and both these are removed in a regenerate person 3. There is the sense or presence of it and that is not taken away but by death 4. Some adde the Root of it and that they say is not destroyed till the body be consumed to ashes For although it be true that death putteth an end to all sinne yet that must be understood of an ultimate and final death otherwise if it be a dispensatory death as it was to Lazarus and some others as that did not put a period to their bodily miseries when they lived again so neither did it to sinfulness in their souls But even Lazarus and such like persons raised upon a special economy were regenerated but in part and this conflict of flesh and Spirit was in them and so they needed to pray for forgiveness of sinne But though we must acknowledge that original sinne hath not the power in a godly man it once had All the difficulty is Whether it be by suppression of it onely or abolishing part of it and if original sinne be in part diminished How can the whole of it be propagated to the child Or why may not the last part of it be consumed in this life It may be this Question may be more subtil then profitable Scotus as Pererius alledgeth him in Rom. cap. 7. thinketh that in a godly man original sinne is not at all abated onely grace is every day augmented and so that cannot weigh us down as it did before As saith he if an Eagle should have any weight upon her but the strength of her wings be increased then though the weight were not diminished yet because her strength is increased it would not hinder her in flying But to answer this Question we must conclude that in regeneration original sinne is more then suppressed there is a qualitative change and so a diminishing of darknesse in the mind by light of evil in the will by holinesse So that the encreasing of these graces do necessarily argue the decreasing of original sinn And For this purpose the Scripture useth those termes of crucifying and mortifying onely when we say original sinne is diminished You must not understand it hath quantative parts as if they were cut off by degrees but potestative that is the power and efficacy of original sinne is not so lively so vehement as it was once yet where it is thus weakned a regenerate person begetteth a sonne in an unregenerate estate because he is the sonne of Adam fallen and is not a father as he is godly but as he is a man Now though it doth thus tenaciously adhere unto us yet death will give it a final and full blow not death meerly as it is a dissolution in a natural way so that Castellio doth absurdly endeavour to perplex this Doctrine with curious interrogatories but as the nature of it is altered by Christ the Spirit of God putting forth its greatest efficacy at that time Yea though a godly man should be so overcome by a disease that he were not able to act faith in Christ at that time for the utter subduing of sinne in him yet his faith formerly put forth on Christ for that purpose and the promise of God at that time will effectually conquer all This being so how ought the godly gladly to submit to death The terrible vizour of it is now taken away No vain thoughts no wordly or distempered affections shall ever molest thee more It is not death to thee but to thy sinne It is not a death to thy graces and comforts but to thy corruptions Miseria non home moritur said the Martyr when he was to die It is misery not man that dieth CHAP. IV. Of Death coming upon all men as another Effect of Original Sinne. SECT I. The Text explained 1 COR. 15. 22. For as in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive THe chief scope of the Apostle in this Chapter as was formerly declared from the 49th verse is to establish that fundamental and necessary Article of the Resurrection of the dead which because of the incredibility of it to meer humane reason was much derided by the Heatheus and Paul for the preaching thereof was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 17. 18. A trifling babler Hence because of the difficulty to receive this truth Synesius was ordained Bishop though as yet not perswaded of the Doctrine which afterwards by the grace of God towards him he did acknowledge Yea it 's observed That the Philosophers when made Christians received this as the last Article of their Christian faith because so contrary to those Philosophical principles they had been accustomed unto The Sadduces also denied this main Article but they might be supposed to do it upon corrupt grounds futable to their lusts for being though not so numerous nor so applauded for piety by the people as the Pharisees were yet for the most part the richest and most wealthy they imbraced that opinion which denied the Resurrection as being more convenient for their carnal hearts and that they might with more delight and security give themselves up to this present world But the Apostle doth here most industriously and powerfully confirm this Doctrine which if not true all our Christian Religion would be in vain The principal Argument to prove this Doctrine is from the Resurrection of Christ For the rising as our Head it necessarily followeth his members should also rise to such glory and immortality So that Christs Resurrection doth necessarily inferre outs which made the primitive Christians so affected with it that in their ordianry salutations whenmeeting with one another they did use to
Kingdom of Heaven who yet they said received no poluâ—◠〈◊〉 hurt by Adam but how much more shall the grace of God abound through Christ to many The how much more lieth not in the number but in the nature of these gracious effect which come by Christ though to some onely for that the Apostle doth not intend an excess of Chriss grace in respect of the number it is plain because that had been impossible there could have been but an equality at most If it should be granted That Christ hath reconciled all those that Adam lost this would be an equality only we could not say Christ redeemed more than Adam destroyed for that could not have been therefore it is plain that the superabundance attributed by the Apostle to Christ in respect of Justification is to be understood intensively not extensively in respect of the nature of those blessed effects we receive by him and so indeed there is a great transcendency in Christ in respect of Adam For 1. By Christ we have vivification and quickning to grace and glory whereas by Adam we have sinne and condemnation Now it is farre easier to occasion the damnation of many then to procure the salvation of one To justifie and save one man is more than to destroy all mankind As we see amongst men it 's easier to destroy a thing then to build it up one man may kill many men but yet the same man cannot bring any one of those to life again If therefore Christ had saved but one of all mankind he was infinitely to be exalted above Adam by whose disobedience mankind was plunged into a perishing estate So that if we do compare Death with Life Heaven with Hell Damnation with Salvation and that the one cometh from a deficient cause the other from an efficient we must necessarily conclude that Christ hath infinitely the preheminence above Adam 2. There are some that distinguish between the sufficiency and worth that is in Christs mediation and the actual application of it Now say they the second Adam was infinately more able to save then Adam to destroy and that if we respect the number of men for Christ is able to save a thousand of worlds besides this if there were so many and therefore if we speak of Christ in respect of his sufficiency Adam in a destructing way is no more comparable to Christ in a saving way then a drop to the ocean or a sinite to an infinite For the obedience of Christ is the obedience of God and man Now though this answer may in a good explained sense be received yet I shall not so much avouch it partly because the distinction is made use of to a farre other end then the Orthodox do intend and then partly because the Apostle doth not here attend in his comparison so much to what is sufficient in Christ as to what is actual not so much to what he is able to do as what he will do It 's efficacy not sufficiency the Apostle aimeth at therefore we stick to the former answer though in many other respects the excellency of the second Adam to the first night be declared which are not here to be repeated only that one the Apostle instanceth in is not to be passed over which is that it is but one offence to condemnation whereas the grace of Christ extendeth to the abolishing of many offences that one sinne is enough to damn but the grace of Christ appeareth not only to the abolition of that but also all offences that do actually flow from it Thus every godly soul may comfortably improve this truth that there is more in Christ to save then is in all sinne whether original or actual to damn Christ is more able to justifie then Adam is to condemn Therefore some Schoolmen deny that Adam's sinne did demerit the death and damnation of all mankind it deserved his own damnation and his own death only All other mens deaths and other mens damnation have for their meritorious cause their original sin inherent in them Adam did not meritoriously deserve these but when fallen then his posterity descending from him did naturally fall into such a corrupted estate as he himself was plunged into and the reason they give of this is because no meer man can either mâ—rerâ—â— or demereri for the whole nature of mankind if Adam had stood all his posterity would have been holy and happy but we cannot say Adam would have merited this for all mankind for that is a peculiar thing to Christ only which is incommunicable to a meer man to merit for the whole race of mankind And although there is a great difference between merit and demerit a man may put himself into a demerit of eternal glory but not into a merit yet in this they are alike This reasoning of some Schoolmen admitted which seemeth very plausible then it necessarily followeth that Christs power to save is superlative more than Adams to destroy Lastly That Christ in his efficacy of grace doth exceed Adam in his condemning guilt appeareth In that at last he will utterly remove original sin from all that are his members and so totally vanquish it that it shall not remain in the least spot thereof Although Christ came into the world to take away all sin yet some Schoolmen conclude that principally it was to deliver us from original sin Because saith Suarez De Incar Christi this is the cause and the root of all actual iniquities It is not enough for Christ to purge us from our actual impieties but he also intends to heal our natures Now because original sin infecteth the nature chiefly as it is in persons so also doth Christ principally intend the sanctification of our natures And although this be not presently and immediatly done yet it wil at last be done in that good time he hath appointed for that end Those indeed that limit the efficacy of Christs grace to original sin only as if actual sins were to be removed by our voluntary penances and satisfaction they make Christ but a same Saviour and a semi mediator But yet it may well be affirmed because this original corruption is the pollution of the nature and is the cause of all actual defilements therfore the bloud of Christ doth in the most principal place cleanse from this And therefore this should exceedingly comfort the godly who groan under the reliques of this defilement upon them that Christ will never leave them till he hath restored them perfectly to their primitive integrity for this end he came into the world so that he would be but an impefect Saviour if he should not at last cure thee of this nature-defilement for this lieth upon him to do that he bring al things to their former yea a better perfection that so all may admire the goodness wisdom and mercy of God in Christ and that all cavillers may stop their mouths who usually demand Why did God suffer Adam to fall
hath made thee a child of such special favour and mercy SECT IX Of the state of Infants that die in their Infancy before they are capable of any Actual Transgressions and that die before Baptisme THe next particular in order to be treated upon is concerning the state of those Infants who die in their Infancy before they are capable of any actual transgression These having only original sinne upon them what may we conclude about their final estate for we will take for granted that the Doctrine of the Lutherans is to be exploded who hold that Infants have actual sinnes and that some do partake of actual grace this is repugnant to reason and experience Now to proceed more orderly in this point we are to take notice of these ensuing particulars First That it is one thing to be a child of wrath by nature and another thing to be reprobated for ever by God never to be admitted into his favour When the Apostle calleth us children of wrath the meaning is not as if there were a final and total rejection from all grace for then the meaning would be that all men are damned which is manifestly contradicted by many places in Scripture Though therefore all Infants are by nature the children of wrath yet all are not reprobated though all deserve to be damned yet all are not actually damned Secondly We are to know that those who hold some Infants dying in their original sinne to be damned do yet acknowledge that it is as Austin calleth it mitissima omnium poena the mildest of all punishments because they have no actual sinnes joyned with their original to encrease the torments of hell It is true we told you original sinne in the nature of it is very great and hainous even so great that none are able to express the loathsomness thereof yet because it hath this diminishing circumstance that it is not voluntary personally in an Infant therefore we may conclude that they have lesser torments in hell then Adult persons For that there are degrees of torments in hell some punished more extreamly then others is acknowledged by all though some learned men question whether there be any degrees of glory in heaven Thirdly As for the Doctrine of the learned about the state of Infants dying in their Infancy there are several opinions Some hold that all Infants dying so whether in the Church or out of the Church whether of believing or unbelieving parents are saved They think this opinion doth most suit with the goodness and mercy of God of this opinion are not only the Heterodox Doctors but even learned Junius in his answer to Puccius Zuinglius also is alledged for this Others they make a distinction of Infants dying in their Infancy For either they die without Baptisme or with Baptisme if without Baptisme then they conclude of their damnation and in this rigid way Austin went and many follow him yea Austin thought that if they died without the Sacrament of the Lords Supper also for at that age it was generally held that both the Sacraments were necessary to salvation and therefore both to be applyed to Infants But then for these Infants who die partakers of Baptisme they concluded undoubtedly of their salvation this being their Doctrine that Baptisme doth wash away original sinne The Papists they all agreeing in this likewise that Baptism is necessary necessitate medii to salvation either really or in voto in desire and because an Infant dying without Baptisme cannot have a desire thereunto Hence they conclude of eternal death as a punishment unto such yet Elisius a Papist in his piorum clypeus c. Quest 10. Art 3. is very bold saying that opinion which many Divines and the Church holdeth concerning the state of Infants dying without Baptisme according to the ordinary law est saâ—â—dura onerosa is very hard and burdensome and not conformable to the precepts of Christ which are sweet and easy and therefore he alledgeth Gerson and Cajetan for this opinion which he is so farre from judging heretical that he calls it pietati conformis but generally the Papists go otherwise But then they differ amongst themselves Some of them as Catharinus place Infants so dying in a terrestrial Paradise where they have a natural though not a supernatural happiness Opus de statu parv Others make their condition more miserable viz. that they have the privative part of eternal death though not the positive they have the poena damni the punishment of loss though not of sense they are shut out from enjoying God but yet they say this will not work any sorrow in them because they know that they were not in a capacity for enjoying the face of God as say they a Country Peasant is not grieved because he is not a King because he never was in any probability for such a dignity But as a Popish Writer Flor. Conrius Archip. Thuani observeth confuting his own party and rigidly following Austin in a Tractate joyned to Jansenius his Works These Infants saith he knowing that they are shut from the face of God must needs be exceedingly grieved because in Adam they had a capacity to enjoy God even as a poor man may mourn that he is not a King when his ancestors had a right to it but sinfully lost it and this is the case of all Infants so that it is a meer figment that many Papists have to make an half hell and a semi-damnation as if we might be deprived of Gods favour and not be positively damned It is true here also the Papists are divided Bellarmine maketh five divers opinions concerning the state of dying Infants and he joyneth with those that hold they have inward sorrow in that eternal death but yet not so great as to be called hell fire or the worm of conscience For this end they write and speak so much of a limbus Infantum a border or fringe as it were in hell where Infants are all disposed being without the Vision of God yet not tormented with boddy pain but there is no Scripture for such a place and therefore we leave this limbus to these limbatis pontificiis who love to enlarge their limbos and simbrias as one saith Lastly There are others and they distinguish of Infants dying either they are such as are within the Covenant and are of believing parents and of such they conclude their salvation for they look upon their federation as an external sign of their election but then for all such as die without the Covenant the children of Pagans they say that by the Scripture they cannot conclude of any hope of salvation for them Thus you see into how many divers wayes they go who handle this Question I might adde another opinion mentioned by Vorstius Anti Bellar. in Quâ—rt Tom. Censur ad Thes Duodes of some who affirm Infants do wholly perish as beasts but saith he these are not to be accounted inter Evangelicos amongst the Evangelical Churches
degree laid in the dust that thy will and desires may be accomplished Farre be this from thee Surely the great and high thoughts we ought to have of Gods wisdom goodness and holiness ought to keep us from opening our mouths any more in this point saying As I leave my self so my children in the hands of God who disposeth all things according to his own will And as we say of the nature of God he is that Bonum quo nihil melius cogitari potest The same must we apply to all his dispensations likewise Furthermore we are to remember That whatsoever the first Adam hath brought upon mankind the second Adam will totally and fully remove in all that are his members Insomuch that at the last there shall not remain as it were an hoof of any of these calamities That original corruption within thee shall no longer tempt thee incessantly like Joseph's Mistress saying Come and lie with me we shall then in the issue of all have more cause to rejoyce because of Christ and the benefits by him then ever we were cast down and dejected because of the transgression of the first Adam and the unspeakable evil that came by him So that if these particulars be duly considered every believer may with comfort and quietness sit down under this truth while men of pharisaical and self-justifying spirits rage and revile at these things But you will say Grant that there is such a thing as Original Sinne and that we have delivered nothing but Scripture truth in this point yet may we not be too tragical in exclamations about it As there are those who erre in the defect so are there not many that do offend in the excess that make it more hainous then it is This is the last Question wherewith I shall conclude this Subject And First All the Popish Arminian Socinian party with their adherents look upon the Calvinists as excessive in this point hence are there several complaints of them about this matter in all their works But certainly if we do regard the scope of the Scripture it is wholly to debase man and exalt Christ To discover our incurable and sinfull estate that thereby Christ may be the more magnified which is done by nothing so much as to make known that horrid pollution which is upon all by nature And certainly that one Text Genes 6. 5. affirming The thoughts of the imagination of a mans heart to be only evil and that continually speaketh more emphatically the deplored and sinfull estate of man then ever any Calvinist hath yet exprest Yet though this be so we grant that some may go too farre in their opinions and expressions about original sinne though for the most part such is a mans self-fulness and self-righteousness that Pelagianism is likelier to poison the world then Flacciâ—â—ism We must know therefore that one Illyricus a Lutheran in opposition to Victorinus Strigelius a Lutheran also but a Synergist holding the will of man to concurre actively with the grace of God to a mans conversion and thereby extenuating original sinne This Illyricus I say out of a vehement opposition to that party and the School-Doctrine about original sinne making it to be an accident in a man did fall into another extream saying That original sinne was a substantial evil in a man and that the very substantial form of a man was now made sinfull This Illyricus was a man of a very turbulent and unquiet spirit a desperate enemy to Melancthon whose heart it is said he broke Melch. Adam in vita Illyrici At first he was well reputed of by the Orthodox and being sadly tempted in his spirit about sinne and the wrath of God but afterwards delivered from it it was judged so great a mercy that thanks was given to God in the publick Congregation for his behalf but afterwards among other erroneous assertions he maintained That original sinne was a substantial evil in a man We may read his whole opinion with the declaration of himself and his Arguments in his Tractate on purpose concerning this point Clavis Script 2d parte Tractat. 6. de originali peccato wherein he hath many absurd and monstrous expressions Although it must be acknowledged that with that dung and filth he hath there is also some gold Some there are that wholly excuse him saying That his words only were improper but that his sense was orthodox and that out of hatred to that Doctrine which extenuateth original sinne he would pretending the Scripture for his Rule use substantive expressions to declare the nature of it But whatsoever his end may be certainly his sense and opinion as declared in his words is justly to be condemned and exploded For by Adam's fall he maketh a substantial change to be made upon a man That the Image of God is turned into the image of the Devil not accidentally but substantially as when wine is made vinegar or when the parts of a statue or house that were built in some comely harmony representing some glorious thing they should be pulled down and built into another deformed shape As suppose the Image of some comely person should be pulled in pieces and made the image of an horrible Dragon or Serpent He distinguisheth of the material substance of a man and his formal He granteth That the matrial substance of a man still remaineth our body and parts thereof but the formal substance is altered As when a vessel that was once made a vessel of honour is afterwards made a vessel of dishonour the material substance is the same but not the formal He doth no wayes endure that we should call original sinne an accident for he saith This sinne is a transcendent and is in all predicaments it 's sometimes a quality sometimes an action c. sometimes a substance Neither will he distinguish between the substance of a man and his sin adhering thereto between the subject and the privation in it between the abstract and concrete God he saith is angry with concretes punisheth concretes not abstracts and therefore he saith Those that distinguish between the substance of a man and his sinne do as the Alchimists separating from the oyl oleity from a stone lapideity so these from Adam Adameity Thus he and much more But certainly herein he betrayeth horrible ignorance in Philosophy and Theology for both these will necessitate us to distinguish between the substance of a man and the sinfull privation in him otherwise Christ could not have taken the same nature with us upon him sinne only excepted and regeneration would be a substantial change not a qualitative Neither by this opinion could the same substantial bodies be said to be glorified in Heaven So that as the Leprosie in the body is not the body neither is original sinne in man the nature of man and therefore when we read that the flesh and spirit are opposite that opposition must be understood in praedicamento qualitatis not substantiae The greatest support
it the mother of many errors 6 The cause of all miseries 7 Worse than actual 8 Ignorance thereof the cause why men understand not the work of conversion 9 Inseparably adheres to the best 11 A natural evil and how with the several names it hath had 13 The difilement of our specifical being 14 The inward principle of all sinfull motions ib. Flacius his opinion concerning it ib. Is alwayes putting it self forth 16 Neerer to us than actual or habitual sin 18 What it is 19 20 Why compared to death 21 Objections answered 22 Pelagians and Socinians opinion of it 28 Propagated ib. Is an internal and natural depravation of the whole man 32 Adams sin imputed to us is not all our Original sin ib. Of that opinion that Original sinne is vitium but not peccatum 33 Truly and properly a sin 34 Against the Law 35 How voluntary 39 Arminius and the Remonstrants disagree about Original sin 40 Arminius Remorstrants Zuinglius Papists Scotists and Socinians opinions of it 40 A sin a punishment and a cause of sin 41 Original inherent sin and Adams imputed sin are two distinct sins 43 Against the Law and how 44 45 Acknowledged in Old Testament times 48 Remonstrants confess it may be proved by two or three places of Scripture ib. Compared to a leprosie 51 Makes us leathsom to God as soon as born 52 Why called uncleanness ib. Should make us vile in our own eyes ib. Put a man by nature into worse condition than beasts 53 Makes us like the Devils ib. Pollutes our duties and makes us unfit and unworthy to draw nigh to God in duties 54 Makes us to be in the most immediate contrariety to God that can be ib. The denial of it charged upon Calvinists by the Lutherans 56 Acknowledged by the Rabbins and Fathers 62 Meditation thereon wherein advantagious 64 Not one universal thing of general influence but a particular thing in particular men 65 To be bewailed even by those that are regenerate ib. A two-fold Original sin 66 The different opinions of men about humiliation for it 67 In what sense it is to be repented of 68 Papists against sorrow for it 69 Several opinions concerning the pardon of it 67 68 69 Wherein repentance and the pardon of Original and actual sin do differ 70 It is an universal defilement 71 And an universal guilt ib. And the fountain and root of all actual sin ib. And the greatest sin 72 Inseparable from our natures while we live 73 Of the Scripture names of it 79 Not the essence or substance of the soul ib. Why called the old man 80 Improperly called a Law 83 Why called a Law 84 Instructs a man in all evil ib. Inclineth and provoketh to all evil ib. Compelleth to all evil 85 Why called the inherent or in-dwelling sin 90 How it dwels in the regenerate ib. Active and ever stirring 94 Is of an insinuating and contaminating nature 95 Depriveth both of power and will to do good 97 98 Inclines the heart to the creature 98 Resisteth all profers of grace 99 Weakens the principles of grace 100 Why called a treasure 102 An inexhausted stock 103 The cause of all pleasure in sin 104 Called a body and why 105 107 Shews it self outwardly in all our actions 107 Cannot be mortified without pain ib. A reality yet not a substance 108 Not a single sin but a lump of all evil ib. Inclineth only to carnal earthly and bodily things 109 Seth born in Original sinne 110 111 Deprives of more than external happiness and immortality against Socinians 117 Many Papists deny the positive part of it 136 Hath infected all men 137 Positive as well as privative 144 And the reasons thereof 145 Produceth positive sinfull actions 146 Sticks closer then vicious habits ib. Not a pestilential quality in the body 149 Is properly concupiscence or lust 157 And in what sense 159 And why so called 162 It is ignorant also ib. Defined 164 The whole man and the whole of man the subject thereof ib. Propagated and communicated to all Adams posterity 165 Truly known only by Scripture-light 167 How farre Heathens were ignorant thereof 168 The propagation thereof by the souls creation 199 Hath fill'd us with errour 211 And with curiosity 212 And vanity 213 And folly 214 Polluting the conscience how and wherein 221 Polluteth the memory 249 Polluteth the will 268 The affections 325 The imagination 348 The body of a man 392 And every one of mankind 387 Not the children of the most godly or the Virgin Mary excepted but only Christ 387. to 401 Original sin imputed the aggravations of it 405 Inherent the aggravation of it 407 It defiles all the parts of the soul is the root and cause of all actual sin is incurable taketh away all spiritual sense and feeling is habitual radicated in the soul 407. to 410 Objections against the hainousnesse of this sin Every one hath his proper Original sin 412 Vents it self betimes 415 Is alike in all 419 The immediate effects of Original sinne are mans propensity to sin 437. to 455 Is the cause of all other sine 455 Evil motions not consented unto and lusts consented unto 464 The combat between the flesh and spirit 474 Death 505 Eternal damnation 526 P Pray A Natural man cannot Pray 314 Pride Pride the cause of most heresies 218 Propagation Propagation of sin 397 Punishment The same thing may be a Punishment and a sin 41 R Redeemer THe necessity of a Redeemer demonstrates our thraldom to sin 319 Reformation A carnal mans Reformation is but the avoiding of one sin by another 318 Regenerate A sure difference between a Regenerate and unregenerate man 9 Regeneration Three sorts of mistaken Regeneration 10 Reliques Reliques of sin 474 Remember Whence is it that we Remember things when we would not 266 Righteousness Original Righteousness not given to Adam as a curb to the inferiour faculties 25 The difficulty of Rom. 5. 26 Original Righteousness the privation of it a sin 130 We were deprived of it by Adam 131 Vniversally lost 135 The losse of it the cause of all temporal losses ib. The privation of it doth necessarily inferre the presence of all sin in a subject susceptible 202 S Sacraments ONe end of the Sacraments 255 Sanctification Sanctification two fold 391 Satan All by nature in bondage to Satan 370 Scripture Scripture discovers us to our selves better then light of nature or Philosophy 161 168 The end of its being written 253 Self-knowing Self knowing a great duty and the hinderance of it 8 Sensless We are altogether Sensless as to any spiritual concernment 176 Sin A man naturally can do nothing but sin 15 16 The reason why all men do not commit all Sins though inclinable thereto 17 Men lie under a necessity of sinning yet this necessity is consistent with voluntarinesse 18 Sin delightfull to men 21 How Sin is natural to us 24 Christ only born without Sin and how 37. 390 Sin is what
there as you see Paul doth Rom. 7. Let it not be thought that thou art freed from all sinne because thou doest withstand them thou doest not own them For although this will keep them from being imputed unto thee yet in themselves they are sinnes they are damnable God might throw thee into hell for the meer having of them God might justly say I sowed good seed in thy soul but how come these tares there These thoughts these motions are none of my planting I created them not Therefore the very having of them in thy soul is a sinne against God though never expressed in action and the reason hereof is from the exact spirituality of the Law of God There is this great difference between God and all political Law-giver these later forbid only the external action they do not prohibit the inward will or desire What Law-giver amongst men was ever so absurd as to say you shall not cover or desire such a thing But if men do outwardly offend then they are obnoxious to punishment But it is otherwise with God in his Laws who is the Father of Spirits and searcheth our hearts therefore his Law doth principally reach to the heart to make that a good treasure to have the tree first good and then to make the fruit answerable thereunto 2. We offend against God not only by having of these motions stirring in us but much more when they delight us when we find a complacency and sweetness in the thinking of them when they affect us so that we roll them like honey under the tongue And truly in this respect the godly soul is even amazed and astonished to see how vile it is and how abominable For what innumerable pleasing delightsome motions do arise in thy soul all the day long either about unlawfull objects or if lawfull in an inordinate and sinfull manner Are not these more then the hairs of thy head in number Now concerning these delightfull pleasing motions of the soul in a sinfull way observe these Rules 1. That a man may be carried out in these delightfull objects either by a meer affection of complacency and pleasure or by an efficacious act and purpose of the will to accomplish such a sinne as in uncleannesse The corrupt heart may delight it self in lascivious apprehensions and defile it self exceedingly in that way but yet have no efficacious will to commit the sinne yea as we told you would not for a world commit it either for shame or for punishment or some other respects For sinne hath then got strong power over us and we are left by God when we are boldly carried on to commit such leudness It is therefore necessary for the spiritual and heart-Christian to observe the former as well as the later Do there not arise contemplative delightsome thoughts about sinfull objects Are they not rolled up and down in thy heart though thou hast no purpose to effect them Oh be ashamed and blush to have such an impure soul Is this soul fit for communion with God Is this the temple of the holy Ghost Rule 2. The object of these delighting pleasing motions may either be the sinnes themselves desired and inclined after or They may be the meer thoughts and apprehensions of them For the soul being a spiritual substance hath power to reflect upon its own acts and operations to know it knoweth to think what it thinketh And therupon because as Aquinas saith Delectatio sequitur operationem Delight followeth operation we may take great pleasure in our thoughts and even be drunken with delight therein This is especially to be seen in heretical and erroneous persons Men who are proud of their opinions their notions their own conceptions and inventions What infinite pleasure and content do such men take in the thoughts about their own thoughts and apprehensions More sometimes then the greatest Monarchs can do in their earthly greatness It behoveth therefore men of parts and gifts men of learning and extraordinary activity of wit to take heed of lust within carrying them out to pride and delight in their own selves Rule 3. These motions of delight and pleasure in the soul are of a large extent We are not to limit them only to bodily lusts or ambitious desires for as large as the command of God is so large is this way of delightsome motions in the soul by contrariety thereunto As the Law of God is divided into two Tables and therein are required all the duties we own to God and man So likewise hereby are forbidden all the pleasing lusts and thoughts of the soul which oppose these duties And if a man be a searcher of his own heart he cannot but take notice how often these sinfull motions of his soul sometimes empty themselves in reference to God and sometimes towards our neighbour Towards God and thus we have delightfull motions in our own self-trusting and confidence in the creature we love and rejoyce in humane comforts to the excluding and shutting out of God himself especially in holy duties in the observance of his own day and Ordinances How many pleasing distracting and wandring motions do then seize upon us so that commonly we never find our selves more molested by them then when we are in a most heavenly and holy manner to approach unto him And for the duties towards our Neighbour there arise many pleasing evil motions of soul to envy at his good to be glad at the evil which befalleth him to have uncharitable and suspitious thoughts towards him Thus where ever any actual sin may be committed either against God or man there may and do pleasing and delightfull thoughts arise before and prepare the way for them Lastly Cajetan giveth a good Rule Summula Tit. Delectatio concerning these motions of delight within us that in them we are to consider the Occasion the Liberty and the Intention about them The occasion Thus if we do put our selves into such companies go to see such sights read such books hear such unsavoury discourse as may stirre up our hearts to these sinfull motions then our sinne is the greater and we shall be found the more guilty before God Such is our corrupt nature that we need not adde oil to that fire within us Even in lawfull and just duties yea in our most holy and heavenly performances these sinfull motions arise to disturb and distract our souls as if mens did come of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Moon as some affirm because of the divers shapes and vicissitude it is often put into We ought therefore to be farre from adding fuel to this fire by going to unlawfull sights to wicked companions thereby to provoke that corruption within us Again We are to consider what Liberty and power we have to subdue them and represse them some rise more suddenly then others and some again appear so that we have time to consider of the danger of them the damnable nature of them Now the more time we have to
deliberate and to consider about the sinfulness and wickedness of them how much God is offended how loathsom and abominable they are in his eyes and yet we suffer them to lodge there the greater is our condemnation Lastly The Intention and end of such thoughts is to be considered for alwayes cogitatio mali is not mala cogitatio the thought of evil is not an evil thought When men think of sinne to repent of it to detest it to reform it sinne is in their mind then but because there are no delightfull motions to it therefore it is not evil So if a Minister preach against adultery or any other sinne he cannot but think of the nature of it and what it is yet because his intention in thinking of it is to make men abhorre and leave it therefore it is good and lawfull So that meer thoughts about sinne are not alwayes sinne but when accompanied with some affections and inclinations thereunto Onely it is good to inform you That such is our deceitfulness of heart that many times we think it lawfull to rejoyce and delight in some profit and emolument that may come by another mans sinne or some evil upon him when indeed we are glad of the sin or evil it self If a man by telling a lie should save thy estate or life How hard is it not to delight in the sinne because thou hast profit by it Thus unnatural children may rejoyce in the death of their parents whereby they come to inherit their estates and yet please themselves that they not rejoyce in their death but the profit that cometh thereby to them There are many practical instances in this case and therefore we must look our hearts do not deceive us therein For it is very difficult to have any advantage by another mans sinne or evil and not to have a secret and tacit will thereof And thus much for the Rules about delightfull motions to sin We proceed to a third particular whereby we may sinne against God by these motions of sinne within us and that is When we are carelesse and negligent about them they trouble us not they grieve us not How many are there that regard the thoughts and motions of their soul no more then the fowls that flie over their heads It argueth an unregenerate heart an heart not acquainted with the power of godliness that doth not mourn and grieve under them How greatly was the Apostle Paul Rom. 7. afflicted by them This made him long for Christ and Heaven where he should be annoyed with them no more This negligence about them is that which maketh thee also careless to repress and conquer them They may lodge whole dayes and nights in thy soul and thou never seekest to expel them out Thus thy heart is like the sluggards field full of bryars and thorns Oh that God would give you seeing eyes and tender hearts then you would find that even an hair hath its shadow even the least motion to sinne hath its sting and bitterness with it and above all sinfull motions look to those that arise in thee because good things are urged and commanded to thee For this is the desperate incurable evil our souls that good things stirre up sinfull lusts within us not indeed properly and directly but occasionally and by accident Thus the Apostle bewaileth the motions of lusts within him from this account Rom. 7. 8. Sinne taking occasion by the commandment wrought all manner of concupiscence within him Thus the good and spiritual Law made him more carnal and sinfull And what is more often then to have powerfull preaching godly and wholsome reproofs stirre up the evil motions of men against them Thus the more remedies are applied to us the more corrupt we grow We might be voluminous in this soul-searching point but we must conclude Let the Use be Seeing that a man is thus tempted from his own lust within him we cannot lay the cause on the Devil himself though he be a Tempter then it 's our duty to look to what is within Those embers within us will quickly set all on fire Say not this or that moved me blame not this or that estate but thy corrupt lust within This is as Luther said in Genes Chap. 13. to be like the fool that stood in the Sunne bowed down and then complained his shadow was crooked It is not thy riches nor thy poverty not thy health or sickness no condition or temptation whatsoever but the true proper cause is this maternal lust which lieth in our bosoms How little is this truth attendeth unto with the Pharisees we more regard to cleanse the outside than the inside Mat. 23. 25. The mistake herein brought those many rigid and ausiere disciplinary wayes in Popery as if from the externals we must cure the heart and not by curing the heart thereby cleanse the outwards The Franciscan will not so much as touch silver The Carthusians will not eat a bit of flesh though their lives depend upon it What folly is this Meat and money are the good creatures of God if we do abuse them they are not to be blamed but our corrupt lusts within If a whorish woman wear gold and precious stones to allure others they are in themselves good though she abuse them to an ill end And thus all the comforts and mercies we enjoy are Gods good gifts and it is not the actual abdication of the use of them but the mortifying of our lust within that will make us please God CHAP. III. Of the Combate between the Flesh and the Spirit as the Effect of Original Sinne so that the Godliest man cannot do any holy Duty perfectly in this life SECT I. The Text explained and vindicated from corrupt Interpretations GAL. 5. 17. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would THe Apostle in the verses before admonished them about the use of their liberty that it should not be turned into licentiousness but that they make love the Rule thereof For though in respect of the right of my Christian liberty my conscience is to regard none but God yet the use and exercise of it must be regulated by love and prudence according as the edification of our brother doth require As a remedy therefore to refrain from all excess therein he giveth us an excellent precept with an emphatical Introduction thereunto This I say then that is This is the summe the main the all in all in these cases Then you have the Antidote it self Walk in the Spirit The only way to prevent all those importunate temptations of the flesh is to give up your selves to the Spirit to obtain the direction and illumination thereof as also the inclination and powerfull operation of it whereby we may be established in that which is good To know what is good and then to be inabled to do it