are ignorantis and concupiscentia Ignorance and Concupiscence Ignorance by that we know not God the true and chiefest good but every creature yea every lust is represented as good and lovely as in the dark night a white rotten post or a glow-worm will shine and appear something It is the not knowing of God as revealed in the Scripture which maketh us set up so many Idols in our hearts The other daughter is Concupiscence and this may be called Sheol because it is alwayes asking and craving insomuch that a man is insatibly carried out all his life long to one sinne or other he still cryeth Give give Now what a miserable creature is man that is thus greedy of that which is destructive of him If you should hear a man calling importunately for poison he will eat nothing but poison Is not such an one desperate set to ruine himself Thus is with every natural man he can never sinne enough as if he thought he could never damn himself enough How happy are the creatures comparatively herein to man Their appetites are moderated and they desire nothing that is hurtfull but man never stayeth himself in his lusts and withall he is wholly carried out to such things as will inevitably damn him Sixthly A thirsty man drinking down water doth it to refresh himself never attending whether it be wholsom or destructive to him How many have got their mortal bane by drinking to quench their raging heat within The Hydropical man will call for his drink though thereby he is ruined and this doth fitly resemble that cursed appetite in us to sinne though it damnus We look onely to the bait not to the hook to the pleasures of sinne the sweetness of sinne not at all considering what buterness thus will bring at the later end Is not this the miserable estate of man by nature Doth he look any further then to satisfie this corrupt thirst within him Doth he think will thus be for my good will this be in stead of God and Heaven to me Hence also it is that he is carried out to sinne from a voluntary principle within Even as a thirstly man needeth not to be hired or compelled to drink he hath that within him which will instigate him Thus it is in every man by nature though there should be no Devil to tempt him yet that corrupt frame within would provoke him to all evil It is from this that though hell and damnation be threatned though this sword of Gods anger hang over his head yet he will drink of this water Lastly There is denoted in this similitude That a man by committing of sinne is thereby inclined to sinne the more It doth not satisfie but increase the lust more As a man in distempered heat doth not allay it by drinking but enstameth it the more as a little water thrown on the fire intendeth the heat thereof Thus by drinking in of the water of sinne a man becomes more thirstly after it and so to his corrupt inclination there is added also a corrupt custom and these two cords are not easily broken it must be the grace of God alone that can set us at liberty Hence we have that expression concerning a stubborn obstinate man in his way of sinning Deut. 29. 19. That he addeth drunkennesse to thirst And so again Thirst to drunkennesse thus he is alwayes in vehement motions after sinne and the more he swalloweth it down and is inebriated with it the thirstier still he groweth according to that known Rule Quò plus suxt potae plus siâ—iuntur aquae It is true that proverbial expression used by Moses in the Text named is very obscure and is greatly vexed Delrio upon the place giveth fifteen Interpretations and Bonfrerius offereth one of his own Grotius goeth along with those that â—â—â—erstand the abstracts for concretes and so apply it to two different persâ—â—â— ut that of Calvins seemeth most probable which I have mentioned that it denoteth a man by custom in sinne to be more vehemently inclined thereunto Even as drunkennesse doth not quench the thirst but maketh a man more thirsty afterwards and this agreeth wholly with my purpose SECT III. Some Demonstrations proving that there is such an impetuous inclination in man to sin THat there is such an universal propensity in all manking is confirmed by experience and acknowledged by the adversaris to original sinne Let us bring some few demonstrations à posteriori that they may fully prove the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That there is such an impetuous inclination in man to sinne And First The testimony of the Scripture may be instar omnium in this point that doth sufficiently attest the general pollution of all men by their evil doings Not to bring in that fore-mentioned place Psal 14. 2 3. where God is said to look from Heaven upon the children of men and he could not behold one that did good no not one It was not upon Judea only but upon the children of men and he could not find one good We may take in many other places to confirm this How quickly had all mankind corrupted it self as appeareth Gen. 6. 12. God looked upon the earth and behold it was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted his way before God Here we see not long after the Creation how all the world was quickly become abominable in his eyes All flesh had corrupted his way every man had defiled himself Yea so great it was that vers 5. Every imagination of man was only evil and that continually Now whence should all this evil arise Must not the fountain needs be bitter from which so many bitter streams flow Could so many thorns grow from men if they were grapes If so be there were the seeds of virtue in men by nature as they say or at least man is by nature indifferent either to good or evil yea more inclining to good How cometh it about that alwayes evil should prevail How is it that good doth not sometimes take place Why is there not an age to be recorded wherein we may say all flesh had made their wayes holy and that every imagination of the thoughts of mans heart was onely good continually Why should not there be some ages wherein God might look from Heaven and see none that did evil no not one The pure Naturalists are never able to answer this satisfactorily for if man be by nature as well without vice or virtue ready and capable to receive either as his will shall carry him Why is it that this will of man doth never prevail universally in some age to make all good Why should sinne alwayes get the upper hand and supplant virtue as it were so as to come out first Neither can that be a refuge in this Text which sometimes they runne unto That long custom in sinning for many ages together and evil examples so long confirmed from age to age dâ— cause such a torrent of impiety For not to speak at this
Ecclesiastical word only to call it a natural evil they did not presume for fear of the Marcionites who held That there was an evil Nature as well as the good And the Pelagians accused the Orthodox for Manicheism in this point because they held the propagation of this corruption by Nature Therefore they avoided the term of a Natural evil yet Austin at last did use it and indeed it is a very proper and fit name for it hereby differencing it from all actual voluntary and personal sinnes as also from sinne by imitation and custom for Aristotle makes a distinction of things that are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib Ethic. 2. cap. 1. where he sheweth what is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by nature as the stone to descend and the fire to ascend is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so according to him who knew nothing of original sinne we are neither good or evil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by nature And withall this Text doth fully warrant the expression If we are by Nature sinnefull then there is a natural evil Not that God put it at first into our Natures or that it is our substantial Nature but we have it by Natural Propagation Let us therefore consider How much is implied in this expression SECT II. ANd first It may well be called Natural because it doth infect the whole Nature of Mankind It 's a defilement that followeth our specifical not individual being Even as we call death natural because it followeth all mankind Rich men die and poor men die learned men die and foolish None are exempted from it Thus also it is with this sinne All that are born in a natural way of mankind have this contagion The sonnes of Noblemen and Princes though they glory in their blood and their descent yet they are as full of sin and the children of wrath as well as the children of the basest so that though in civil respects they boast of their birth and are above others yet in a theological and divine respect all are alike yea the children of godly parents though they have a promise to their seed and in that respect their children are said to be holy 1 Cor. 7. yet they come into the world with inherent corruption in them They do not generate their children as godly men but corrupt men as Austin of old expressed it A circumcised man begat a child uncircumcised and the Husbandman though he soweth his seed out of the chaff and husk yet that brings up others with chaff and husk upon it Well therefore may we call it a natural sinne because it doth extend to the whole humane Nature as it is in every one that partaketh of it in a natural way So that as Divines do distinguish of infirmities and evils There are some that are specifical which follow the Species as death and some are accidental which follow the individual nature Thus there are some sinnes which follow the particular nature of a man and these are actual sinnes Every man is not a drunkard an adulterer but some are defiled one way some another but then there is a sinne which followeth the whole and universal nature of man and this is original sinne though every man be not guilty of such or such a particular sinne yet all are of original sinne And therefore the Schoolmen say Actual sinne doth corrumpere personam but original Naturam actual sins corrupt the person original the nature SECT III. WE are declaring the Naturality of this Original sinne not as if it were ingredient into or constitutive of our nature but an universal and inseparable pollution adhering to it as they say of death as though it be praeter Naturam or contra yet if we do regard the principles of mortality which are in every man so death is natural Come we therefore to a second demonstration of the Naturality of this evil and that is seen In that it is the inward principle of all the sinfull motions of the soul and that perâ—se not per accidens This is a great part of that definition which Aristotle giveth of Nature now we may in a moral sense apply it to our purpose First I say It 's the inward principle of all the sinfull motions and workings of the Soul For as the nature of the stone is the cause of its motion downward as the nature of the fire is the cause of the fires motions and operations Thus is original sinne the intrinsecal cause and root of all the actual evil we are guilty of It is farre from me to justifie Flacius his discourse or opinion of original sin making it the natural substance of a man and not an accident though he so expresseth himself that some think its his Logical and Metaphysical errour rather than Theological Only that which I aim at is to shew That this birth-sinne is naturally ours because from it doth flow all the sinnefull and evil operations of the whole man So that we may say as it is natural to the stone to descend to the sparks to flie upwards so it is natural to man to think evil to speak evil and to do evil Aristotle observeth Lib. 2. Ethic. cap. 1. this as one property of things by nature that there the principles are before the actions A man hath the power to see or hear before he can actually do either but in moral things the actions are before the habits As it is natural to the Toad to vent poison and not honey so when a man sinneth it 's from his own it 's natural to him but when inabled to do any thing that is good this is wholly of grace Now I say It 's an inward principle of all sinne within us to distinguish it from external cause viz. the devil or wicked men who sometimes may tempt and cause to sinne Therefore the devil is called The tempter Mat. 4. 3. Insomuch that it is made a Question Whether there be any sinne a man commits that the Devil hath not tempted unto but that I attend not to at this time This is enough that the Devil is but an outward cause of sinne and therefore were there not that original filth in us his sparks could never kindle a fire he cannot compell or force to sinne In somuch that whatsoever sinne we do commit we are not to lay the fault principally upon the Devil but our own corrupt hearts Though Ananias lied against the holy Ghost because the Devil had filled his heart And Judas betrayed Christ because Satan had entred into his heart yet the devil could not have come into their hearts had they not been of uncleane and corrupt Constitutions before it was an evil heart and therefore the devil took possession of it The Apostle James cap. 1. 14. doth notably discover the true cause and natural fountain of all the evil committed by us and that is The lust and concupiscence that is within
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
is the Image of God but as he is the second Person in the Trinity in respect of the Father but that is adequately and essentially so we are not the image of God but in great imperfection because we do not essentially participate of it Christ in respect of the Divine Nature is the Image of God but never said in Scripture to be made after it for that would be an imperfection yet if we speak of the humane nature of Christ we may say that it is created after Gods Image because God filled it with holinesse Hence some Durat de Imag. Dei lib. 1. pag. 7. expound that Ephes 4. of putting on the new man to be meant of Christ Christ say they is the new man paralleling it with Rom. 13. where we are exhorted to put on the Lord Jesus Christ Now howsoever some of the Ancients have made it very dangerous to say Adam and in him all mankind lost the Image of God yet that hath its truth no further than if we limit the Image of God to the essentials of mans soul as endowed with intelligence and immortality for it we take it in respect of gracious qualifications so it cannot be denied but that Adam was not more naked bodily in his Creation than after his fall his soul was made naked of all righteousness only Adam did blush and was ashamed after his sinne at his nakedness running from God because afraid whereas at our soul-poverty and nakedness we have no sad and grievous thoughts thinking with our selves How shall we come in our spiritual nakedness unto the most great and holy God That therefore we may be the more affectionately possessed in our thoughts about this loss Let us consider the several aggravations of it SECT II. The Ends for which God made Man lost by the losse of Original Righteousnesse FIrst The losse of this righteousness doth deprive us of the end for which God made us So that whereas before sinne God looked on Adam and saw he was exceeding good after his fall he seeth him to be exceeding evil and full of sinne Let us instance in some choice ends for which God made man in his own Image thus with righteousness and holiness As 1. Therefore was he made thus holy To have communion with and enjoyment of so holy a God When God had made all the creatures yet he saith There was not a meet help and comfort for him one in his own Image and likeness therefore he makes a woman of the same nature with him yet still among all creatures though we adde Angels to them there was not an adequate and sufficient object to fill his heart with delight therefore God was his utmost end So that although he had Paradise a place of delight to live in Though his state was not capable of any misery or fear from the creature yet that which was Adam's happiness was to enjoy God in these Now who can bewail our loss in this respect We are now propense to the contrary end of our Creation we wholly descend downwards who were made to ascend upwards Adam found the favour of God in all the creatures It was not this or that comfort but God in and by them that did draw out his heart But oh the misery and captivity we are in to self-love to the love of the creature Neither are we able by nature to lift up the heart above them to God in them no more than the worm can flie like an Eagle towards Heaven Oh groan under this and say My heart was not once such a lump of earth such an heavy stone as now I find it There was not then any such complaints heard Lord I can love Paradise I can love my wife but I cannot love thee but the clean contrary I love them because I love thee and I could not love them but because I love thee This Captivity and bondage our souls are in to the creature should make us mourn more grievously than ever the Israelites did under the Egyptians oppression What a shame is it to have a body that looketh upward to Heaven and a soul that looketh downward to earth How doth the constitution of thy body agree with the condition of thy soul Thy face is upward Os homini sublime dedit Coelumque tueri But thy soul that is pressed down in all its propensions and affections to the creatures and how contrary then are we to the end of our Creation which is the enjoying of God Adam had that which Alexander so ambitiously desired viz. the dominion over the whole world and yet he had as great dominion also over his own heart so that God was all in all to him If David though of the corrupted posterity of Adam but regenerated could say Whom have I in haven but thee and there is none in earth in comparison of thee How much more could Adam in that glorious state of integrity 2. Another end in Adam's Creation after the Image of God was to be is the glory and praise of Gods Name For as the Angels who also were made after Gods Image their constant work was to praise and glorifie God Thus Adam being made like another Angel was made full of holiness that upon the Earth he might as the Angels do in Heaven sing holy holy holy unto the Lord As some great Kings of the Earth when they have built some great City or Town they cause their Image or Picture to be set up in some eminent place for the monument of themselves who were such great Benefactors Thus God when he had made this great and glorious world he puts man into it as his Image that thereby his praise and goodness should be constantly declared but since Adam his fall all mankind is now a reproach and dishonour to God Their thoughts their affections their lives are so many dishonourable and reproachfull passages against him God doth not look upon us now as his workmanship but as the devils he feeth not his Image but the Devils in us Moses saith that when God saw how all men had corrupted themselves it repented him that be made man and it grieved him at his heart Gen. 6. 6. What a wonderfull expression is this God cannot repent or grieve at any thing properly but the Scripture speaketh thus after the manner of men to shew how exceedingly displeasing and offensive mans fall was that it had been better he had never been created than prove such an Apostate It is true God knew how to work a greater good out of sinne than sinne could be an evil but this no thank to Adam's sin and disobedience The good wrought thereby cometh wholly from the gracious power of God so that Adam's sinne of it self did disanull the end of his Creation and brought all things into confusion Take every man by nature what a beast and devil is he what an enemy to God what an adversary to every thing of God so that whereas he was made to
time of the cause of such evil customs and examples How came they at first Whence did they arise but from polluted originals This will not answer the Text in hand for that speaketh of the first age before the drowning of the world which yet is called the world of the ungodly 2 Pet. 2. 5. It was the world of ungodly in the first age and still in the later ages it is the world of ungodly Yea this is still applied to that remnant of mankind which escaped the deluge when there were but eight persons Gen. 8. It 's there said That the imagination of mans heart was 〈◊〉 his youth It is strange therefore that if good seed was naturally sown in 〈◊〉 that nothing but tares should come up every where in stead thereof But let us take notice of another place of Scripture confirming the universal overslowing of iniquity and that is David's complaint which he so sadly poureth forth calling upon God to help and to redress it Psal 12. 1. Help Lord for the godlyman ceaseth the faithfull fail from among the children of man They speak vanity every one with his neighbour It is true here are some supposed to be godly and faithfull but they are few comparatively to the ungodly as flowers to the weeds as jewels to the sand on the seashore and those that were so it was not from nature but the grace of God that sanctified and prepared them But if you do regard the general the Psalmist is so affectionately moved with the overflowing of evil that he seeth no help but in God himself and this is the more to be aggravated because the people of Israel were the Church of God they had the Prophets of God they had Gods wonderfull presence amongst them and yet for all that this garden so planted and dressed by God did become a wildernesse If then where there are many external and powerfull means to subdue and conquer that innate corruption yet it break out so violently What if man were left to himself How abominable and vile would he prove And was not this the perpetual complaint of all the Prophets successively that every one did turn aside to their evil wayes that they did preach in vain that there was no soundnesse amongst them a sinfull Nation a seed of evil-doers The more they were stricken the more they revolted The whole head was sick and the whole heart faint as Isaiah most affectionately bewalleth it Chap. 1. 4 5. What a strong demonstration then is this of the imbred corruption of mankind that under all the means of grace doth yet overflow in impicties I shall not mention any more Texts for this purpose The whole scope of the Scripture being to declare mans sinfulness and extoll Gods grace Secondly This universal propensity to sinne in all mankind is likewise attested unto even by the very Heathens It 's true they knew nothing of Adams tall nor of the propagation of this hereditary pollution yet the sinfulness it self they perceived and groaned under it Even Grotius himself who would elude the pregnant Texts of Scripture for original sinne by the Rhetoricians trope of Hyperbole yet doth bring in many passages out of the Heathens acknowledging such a depravation of mans nature out of Heriocles the Philosopher Jamblichus that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it 's implanted and ingraffed in us to sinne Comment in Luc. cap. 2. ver 22. as also De Jure botli as paci lib. 2. Yea out of Aristotle who held this indifferency in mans nature he brings that expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is imbred in a man to gain-say reason Thus the very Heathens though they knew not the cause yet could not but confess that vitium ingenita infirmitatis the vitious imbred infirmity that is in every man Yea their Poets have acknowledged better Divinity then some later writers in the Church witness those sayings Quantuns mortalia peceatora coecae noctis habent and another Vitiis neme sine nascitur A third Terras Astraeae reliquit fergning our originals to be of stones Inde genus duri sumus Homines suâ naturâ sunt malis as Plato We might be large also in bringing the witnesses of others Nihil homine miserius superbius said Pliny simul atque ediâ—i sumus and Tully In omni continuò pravitate versamur c. And what is that saying Humanum est errare but according to Divinity Humanum est peccare Thus the light of nature though but like that of the Owl to the Sunne could perceive something in this kind Now this testimony is the more to be regarded because it is so imbred a desire in us to make our selves as lovely as may be and to hide every thing that is deformed Thirdly 〈◊〉 principle also in all Nations to have Magistrates and Laws to have prisonâ—â—â—gibbets whereby punishment may be inflicted upon offenders doth palpably demonstrate what a pronenesse there is in man to sinne For those provisoes do suppose that man doth restrain himself from evil only for fear of punishment If so be that there were such a natural purity in man Why should there be such jealousies such fears of man Homo homini lupus Why are there provided such severe punishments to awe wicked men but that mans nature is out of credit it is supposed to do all the evil it can if it have any impunity Certainly it is not for good that Mastives are tied up that Bears and Lions are kept up in grates This argueth how cruel they would be if let loose Thus also it is with mankind all the severe Laws and punishments which are in all estates established do demonstrate how wild and outragious man is if left alone to himself In his younger yeares he hath the rod when growne up prisons and gallows and in his old age death and hell to awe him against sinne Fourthly The necessary of Education and Chastisement to young children doth also declare that they are prone to vice It cannot be denied but supposing Adam had continued in integrity and procreated children they would have needed instruction and information but then withall it must be granted that this was a meer innocent nesciency in them and therefore as the body had been prepared so the soul without any difficulty would with all aptnesse and readinesse have received all the good seed sown into it whereas now in young ones there is a difficulty to understand holy things they are unteachable and untractable yea there is also a contrariety and an aversnesse to that which is good Now if they were in a meer purity of nature as the Adversaries suggest it they were in such an equal indifferency and capacity of virtue or vice Why should not they need education and Masters to teach them evil as well as good Yea why should they not be more ready to good then evil seeing they say there are igniculi virtutum sparks of virtue lying
as a truth to stick in our mind alwayes That God will bring every work unto judgement and thus much for his first reason His second reason is no less nocent The cause of iniquity is not because nature is originally corrupted but because Gods Lawes command such things which are a restraint to the indifferent and otherwise lawfull inclinations of nature Idem ibidem pag. 415 so that our unwillingness and averseness cometh by occasion of the law coming cross upon our nature not because our nature is contrary to God but because God was pleased to superinduce some Commandments contrary to our nature if God had commanded as to eat the best meats and drink the richest wines as long as they could please us I suppose original sinne would not be thought to have hindered us from obedience Thus he in a most prophane and unsavoury manner For First Here again God is made the occasion of all the universal impiety in mankind man may plead my nature is good my inclinations are lawfull but God hath superinduced austere commands he maketh those things sinnes which would not have been sinnes Thus this man doth directly teach the world to lay all their wickedness upon God he is an hard master he is too severe otherwise our natures would do well enough But Secondly He betrayeth much ignorance or concealeth his knowledge that he will not distinguish between moral precepts and meer positive ones or as Whitaker out of Hugo Pracepta Naturae and Praecepta Disciplinae De pecato orig lib. 1. cap. 14. commands of Natural Duties and prohibitions of Intrinsecal evils or such as are meerly Positive and for Discipline-sake Some things we grant are indeed meerly evil because prohibited some things are evil and therefore prohibited Although this must be remembred That a man doth never break a positive command but thereby also he doth a moral command likewise Now let this Patron of Nature answer to this Question Why is there in man-kind such inclinations to those sins that are morally and intrinsically evil Is he of that opinion that nothing is good or evil internally But as Mayro the Schoolman saith God might have made a Law that whosoever should praise him should be damned and whosoever should dishonour him should be saved On monstrous Divinity that maketh virtue and vice nothing in it self If God had pleased vices might have been virtues and virtues vices It is from God that maketh such things to be sins that otherwise would be lawfull This symbolizeth with Diagoras the Atheist first called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and afterwards 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for his opinion was That a wise man might as time served give himself to theft or adultery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesych de viris illustribus Titulo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for none of such things were in their nature filthy if you take away popular opinions But I will not charge this opinion on the Author only he should not have spoken so confusedly If this be true it is not a vain wish with him who addicted to a sinne cryed out Vtinam hoc non esset peccare Lastly Even those inclinations that are in men to lawfull things are vitiated and corrupted No man desireth to eat to drink no man desireth health or wealth naturally as he ought to do I doubt this Author as all the Pelagians formerly do not attend to the exactnesse of a good work They forget Austin's old Rule grounded upon Scripture That duties are to be esteemed not by the acts but by their ends Is there any man eateth or drinketh or inclineth to do these things for the glory of God as we are commanded 1 Cor. 9. 31. Lastly He runneth to evil examples the similitude of Adams transgression as if that moved those to sinne who happily never heard of him errour false principles c. And from the enumeration of many particulars applieth that of Job Chap. 14. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean which Text might justly have affrighted him in what he delivereth for there Job speaks of one in his very first birth and as is added Ne infans unius diei not an Infant a day old is free from this uncleannesse What can evil examples and wicked customs do to pollute a child new born It is true the Socinians grant That where parents are habituated in evil customs the children may derive from them an inclination also unto sinne But if so then this very thing will puzzle them as much as they endeavour to perplex the Orthodox with difficulties about the transmission of original sinne For How do Parents accustomed to sinne convey this evil disposition either by the soul or by the body And what they would answer themselves in such an asserted propagation the same we may for all mankind in general But 2. This is no sufficient answer for still the Question is not satisfied Men say they are thus inclinded to evil because of wicked customs and examples But how came these customs Cain had no example before him of murder yet he committeth it These evill examples then and wicked customs seeing they must have an original to come from it cannot be any thing else but the depraved nature of mankind And certainly the Apostle James doth attribute all evil committed to that lust which is within a man Jam. 1. 14. So that if there were no other occasion or temptation this is enough to set the whole course of the soul on fire And this is the next particular to be considered which I shall handle as a second Immediate Effect of original sinne CHAP. II. The second Immediate Effect of Original Sinne is the Causality which it hath in respect of all other Sinnes SECT I. The Text explained setting forth the Generation of Sinne. JAM 1. 14. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed THe next Immediate Effect of Original sinne which cometh under consideration is The Causality that it hath in respect of all other sins This is the dunghill in which the whole serpentine brood of all actual sinnes is conveived and brought forth Insomuch that when you see all the abominable impieties that fill the whole world with irreligion to God and injustice to man If you ask whence ariseth this monster How cometh all this wickedness to be committed The Answer is easie from that original concupiscence that hot Aetna which is in a man that never ceaseth from sending forth such continual flames of iniquity Now this truth will excellently be discovered from the Text in hand for it is the Apostles scope in this and the adjacent verses to take off all men from that wicked way they are so prone unto viz. to lay the blame of their iniquities and to ascribe the cause of them to any yea to God rather than to themselves They will rather make God then themselves the Author of all that evil they do commit We have this from Adam who
of this to tender hearts and ears is confutation enough For is not this truly and properly to make God the Author of sinne that he put a rebellious thorn in our sides at first and that because we are his creatures made of a soul and a body therefore we must necessarily be divided within our selves Thus those who charge original sinne with Manichism do herein exceed the Manichees themselves for they attribute this evil in a man to an evil principle but these make the good and holy God to be the Author of this rebellion Neither is it any evasion to say This rebellion of the sensitive part is no sinne unless it be consented unto for it is such which is contrary to the Law of God it is to be resisted and fought against And certainly that demonstrateth the evil nature thereof Luther indeed speaks of a Franciscan which maketh this concupiscence to be a natural good in a man as it is in the fire to burn or the Sunne to shine But certainly such qualities or actions are not to be resisted or fought against as these are How can that be good which is confessed to be a sinne if consented unto ¶ 4. VVHen we say the flesh and the Spirit do thus conflict with one another you must not understand it of them as two naked bare qualities in a man but as actuated and quickned from without For the gracious habit in a man is not able to act and put it self forth vigorously without the Spirit of God exciting and quickning of it And although inherent sinne of it self be active and vigorous yet the Devil also he continually is tempting and blowing upon this fire to make it flame the more impetuously So that we are not to look upon these simply as in themselves but as subservient to the Spirit of God and the Devil The Spirit of God by grace in the heart doth promote the Kingdom of God and the Devil by suggestions doth advance the kingdom of Satan in our hearts So that grace and sinne are like the Deputies and Vicegerents in our souls to those Champions that are without us Now because the Spirit of God is stronger and above the Devil therefore it is that the flesh shall at last surely be conquered Nay if the godly at any time fail if sinne at any time overcome it is not because the Spirit of God could not overcome it but because he is a free agent and communicateth his assistance more or lesse as he pleaseth only in this combat the godly are to assure themselves that they shall overcome all at last that the very root of sinne will be wholly taken away never to trouble or imbitter the soul any more ¶ 5. FIfthly In natural and corrupt men there is no sense or feeling of any such conflict They never groan and mourn under such wrestlings and agonies within them and the reason is because they are altogether flesh and flesh doth not oppose flesh neither is Satan set against Satan It is true there is in some natural vicious men sometimes a combate between their conscience and their appetite their hearts carry them on violently to sinne but their consciences do check them and they feel a remorse within them but this is farre different from that spiritual conflict which the Apostle doth here describe and is to be found only in such men who have the Spirit of God No wonderthen if there be so many who look upon this as a figment if so many even learned men write and speak so ignorantly and advisedly about it for this truth is best acknowledged by experience It 's not the Theologia ratiocinativa but experimentalis as Gerson divideth Divinity that will bring us to a full knowledge of this It cannot then but be expected that you should see men live at ease and have much quietness and security in their own breasts thanking God as if their souls hearts and all were good within them all were as they desire it for the strong man the Devil keepeth all quiet flesh would not oppose flesh It is true one sinne may oppose another covetoufness drunkenness and so a man who would commit them both be divided within himself one sinne draweth one way and another sinne the other way but still in the general here is an agreement all is sinne all tendeth one way still and therefore is not like this combate in the Text but of this more in its time ¶ 6. SIxthly In all regenerate persons though never so highly sanctified there is a conflict more or less It is true some are more holy then others some are babes and some are strong men some are spiritual some in a comparative sence are carnal some are weak some are strong and according to the measure of grace they have received so is this conflict more or less Amyraldus a much admired Writer by some neither do I detract from that worth which is due to him doth industriously set himself Constd cap. 7. ad Rom. to expound the 7th of the Romans of a person not regenerated but in a legal state yet disclaiming Arminianisme and Socinianisme which Exposition being offensive and excepted against as justly it might by William Rivet he maketh a replication thereunto wherein he delivereth many novel assertions Among which this may be one That making four ranks or classes of Christians he apprehendeth the first to be such who have attained to so high a degree of sanctification that they consult and deliberate of nothing but from the habit of grace that is within them and that this conflict within a man is rather to be referred to the legal work upon a man then the Evangelical condition we are put into hence he understands this Text not universally but particularly of the Galathians who were then in that state viz. a legal one not Evangelical which he thinketh the next Verse will confirme where the Apostle saith If ye be led of the Spirit ye are not under the law now of this sort who may be apprehended ordinarily to live without such a combate he placeth the Apostles especially when plentifully endowed with the Spirit of God after Christs resurrection and for Paul he is so far ravished with the Idea of godliness represented in his life that he saith Consid in cap. 7. ad Rom. cap. 74. if God had pleased so to adorne Paul with the gifts of the Spirit that in this life he should attain to that perfection which other believers have only in heaven none might find fault herein The general rules he goeth upon and others though disclaimed by him is because there are many places of Scripture which shew that some godly persons are victorious and tryumphing above this conflict as when this Apostle saith afterwards ver 24. They that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof and Rom. 8. 2. The law of the Spirit of life in Jesus Christ hath made me free from the law of sin
in this matter Annotat in cap. 5. of the Romans for in his paraphrase on the 12 Verse he makes death and mortality to come upon all men by Adam's disobedience because all that were born after were sinners that is born after the likeness and image of Adam And again on Verse 14 death came on the world because all men are Adam 's posterity and begotten after the image and similitude of a sinful parent By this we see the cause of death is put upon that image and likeness we are now born in to our sinful parent which is nothing els but our original corruption Let not this consideration of our sinful soules and mortal bodies pass away before it hath wrought some affectionate influence upon our soules Cogita temcrtuum brevi moriturum Every pain every â—ch is a memento to esse hominem That is an effectual expression of Job cap. 17. 14. I said to corruption thou art my father and to the worm thou art my mother and sister You see your alliance and kindred though never so great it is your brother-worm your sister-worm Job giveth the wormes this title because his body was shortly to be consumed by them and thereby a most intimate conjunction with them would follow Post Genesim sequitur Exodui was an elegant allusion of one of the Ancients yea the life that we do live is so full of miseries that Solomon accounteth it better not to have been born and the Heathen said Quem Deus amat moritur juvenis which should humble us under the cause of this sinne SECT VI. Q. Whether Death may not be attributed to mans constitution considered in his meer naturalls I Proceed to the second and last Question which is May not death be attributed to mans constitution considered in his meer naturals Is there not a middle state to be conceived between a state of grace and sinne viz. a state of pure naturals by which death would have come upon mankind though there had been no sinne at all This indeed is the sigment of some Popish Writers who make Adam upon his transgression to be deprived of his supernaturals and so cast into his naturals although generally with the Papists this state of pure naturals is but in the imagination only they dispute of such things as possible but de facto they say man was created in holiness and after his fall he was plunged into original sinne Now the Socinians they do peremptorily dispute for this condition of meer naturals de facto that Adam was created a meer man without either sinne or holiness but in a middle neutral way being capable of either as his free will should determine him This state of meer nature is likewise a very pleasing Doctrine to the late Writer so oftern mentioned it helpeth him in many difficulties Death passed upon all men that is the generality of mankind all that lived in their sinne The others that died before died in their nature not in their sinne neither Adam's nor their own save only that Adam brought it upon them or rather lest it to them himself being disrobed of all that which could hinder it Thus he Answer to a Letter pag. 49. This is consonant to those who say as Bellarmine and others that man fallen and man standing differ as a cloathed and and naked man Adam was cloathed with grace and other supernatural endowments but when sinning he was divested of all these and so left naked in his meer natural Thus they hold this state of meer naturals to be a state of negation not privation God taking from man not that which was a connatural perfection to him but what was meerly gratuitous The late Writer useth this comperison of Moses his face shining and then afterwards the withdrawing of this lustre Now as Moses his face had the natural perfection of a face though the glorious superadditaments were removed thus it is with man though fallen he hath his meer naturals still and so is not in a death of sinne or necessity of transgressing the Law of God but though without the aid of supernaturals he cannot obtain the kingome of heaven yet by these pure naturals he is free in his birth from any sinful pollution saith the known Adversary to this truth Thus he that calleth original sinne a meer non ens he layeth the foundation of his Discourse upon a meer non entity Now if you ask what cometh to man by these meer naturals he will answer death Yea that which is remarkable is the long Catalogue of many sad imperfections containing three or four Pages that is brought in by him Vnum Necessar cap. 6. Sect. 7. a great part whereof he saith is our natural impotency and the other brought in by our own folly As for that which is our natural impotency man being thereby in body and soul so imperfect it is he saith as if a man should describe the condition of a Mole or a Bat concerning whose imperfections no other cause is to be enquired of but the Will of God who giveth his gifts as he pleaseth and is unjust to no man by giving or not giving any certain proportion of good things To the same purpose he speaketh also in another place further explicat pag. 475. Adam's sinne left us in pure naturals disrobed of such aides extraordinary as Adam had But certainly there are few Readers who shall consider what is by him made to be the natural impotency of man in soul and body but must conclude he is most injurious to the goodness wisdomè and justice of God in making man of such miserable pure naturals yea that it is a position worse then Manicheisme for the Manichees seeing such evils upon mankind attributed them to some evil principle but this man layeth all upon the good and most holy God It is Gods will alone not mans inherent corruption that exposeth him to so many unspeakable imperfections It is well observed by Jansenius who hath one Book only de statu purae nature opposing the Jesuites and old Schoolmen in their sigment upon a state of meer naturals that this opinion was brought into the Church of God out of Aristotle and that it is the principles of his Philosophy which have thus obscured the true Doctrine of original sinne I shall breifly lay down some Arguments against any such supposed condition of meer nature from whence they say we have ignorance in the mind rebellion against the Spirit and also death it self but without sinne And Arg. 1. The first is grounded upon a rule in reason That every subject capable of two immediate contraries must necessarily have one or the other A man must either be sick or well either alive or dead there is no middle estate between them thus it is with man he must either be holy or sinful he must either be in a state of grace or a state of iniquity The Scripture giveth not the least hint of any such pure naturals Indeed a man may in
soul the rational the irascible and the concupiscible which he calleth indignativum concupiscentivum In the irascible he speaketh of a good indignation and an evil one applying this Text to the later Cerda his Commentator illustrating this saith Tertullian's meaning is That we are by nature children to our passions we are not at our own disposing we are under their power adding That Paul mentioneth wrath rather than any other affection because of that anger and fury by which he once persecuted the Church of God Thus he mentioning also another Exposition That by anger is to be understood the Devil who may so be called because of the cruelty he exerciseth upon men but this is so improbable that it needeth no refutation The wrath then is Gods wrath which like himself is infinite and the effects thereof intollerable So that it is as much as to be Children of hell children of everlasting damnation even whatsoever the wrath of God may bring upon a man in this world and the world to come SECT II. What is meant by Nature THe second Question is What is meant by Nature As for those who would have it to signifie no more then prorstus and vere altogether or indeed we have heretofore confuted yet granting that this is part of the lease but not the principal For we are to take nature here for our birth-descent as appeareth partly because the Apostle useth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which doth more properly relate to our nativity whereas before he calleth the children of disobedience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 partly because the Apostles order is observable for in the original it is We were children by nature of anger that is natural children opposed to adopted ones and partly because the Iews pretended holiness by their nativity because they were the seed of Abraham which pride the Apostle would here abate making them equal herein to the Heathen Idolaters Neither by nature are we to understand custome only as if the Apostle meant by it the constant custome of our actual iniquities which useth to be called a second nature we are made children of wrath for the Apostle doth no where use the word so no not in that place 1 Cor. 11. 14. Doth not nature 〈◊〉 you c. For nature is taken both for the first principles and also the immediate conclusions deduced from them which later the Apostle doth call nature Therefore it is matter of wonder that the late Annotator in his paraphrase on Ephes 2. should take in the orthodox sense viz. And were born and lived and continued in a damning condition as all other Heathens did observe that born in a damning condition should yet referre to his notes on 1 Cor. 11. where he seemeth to contradict any such birth-damnation from this of the 2d to the Ephesians For he would understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the national custome of Idolatry amongst the Heathens and if so then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not to relate to our nativity or birth as some translate it which he also noteth in the margin But though custome may be called nature yet there is commonly some limiting expression as when he quoteth out of Galen that customs are acquired natures or out of Aristotle custome is like nature Here are restrictive expressions whereas Paul speaketh absolutely And as for that instance which the learned Annotator hath out of Suidas which the late Writer maketh use of for the corrupting of this Text Vnum Necessar cap. 6. Sect. 2. it doth very fairly make against them For Suidas upon the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inlarging himself and particularly making it to signifie the principle of motion and rest of a thing essentially and not by accident alluding happily to Aristotles definition doth after this adde But when the Apostle saith we we were by nature the children of wrath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he doth not speak of nature in this sense because this would be the fault of him that created us All which is very true and doth directly oppose Manicheism We do not say there is any evil nature or that the primordials of our nature were thus corrupted They that hold pure naturals cannot answer this reason of Suidas it doth militate against them But we affirm this corruption of our nature came in by Adam's voluntary transgression So that in this sense we call it naturale malum as Austin and quodammod◠naturale as Tertullian So Suidas his meaning seemeth to be That the wrath of God is not naturally due to us as the creatures have their natural principles of motion and rest within them but that Suidas doth not by nature wholly mean an evil custome appeareth in that he saith two things are implied in this expression The first is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an in dwelling abiding evil affection by which we may very genuinely understand that innate corruption in us that sinne which dwelleth in us And The second is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A continual and wicked custome These are not to be confounded as the same thing but one is the cause of the other Original sinne is that evil in-dwelling affection from whence proceedeth evil customs in sin But it is not worth the while to examine what the opinion of Suidas was in this particular Varinus doth better discourse upon the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 making it to be the individual property of a thing as the fire to burn and saith it differeth from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for this is the essence of a thing and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the power or efficacy of a thing and thus from him we may say original sinne is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though still we must remember that it is not a primordial but a contracted property It 's made so upon Adam's transgression 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 NOw my purpose is to insist chiefly upon the Predicate in ths Propositon We are children of Wrath and that by nature even of Gods wrath So that thus Text doth contain the heavy doom of all mankind For it 's observed to be the form of speech which the Jewish Judges used when they passed sentence upon any capital offenders to pronounce That such were the sons of death From hence we may observe That by nature through the original sinne we are born in all are heirs of Gods wrath all are obnoxious to eternal damnation This is the most bitter herb in all this discourse of original sinne Here all the adversaries to it seem to be most impatient when you utter such words as these by nature deserving damnation as soon as ever we are born before any actual sinne committed it is just with God to throw us into hell that every Infant is obnoxious to
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
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
Even as when the Prophet Elisha would make the waters sweet he threw salt into the spring and fountain of them Thus because it 's from a polluted nature that all our actual sinnes flow therefore grace regenerating is principally ordered to take away or conquer that by degrees which is the cause of all If this be so then let us consider What this grace is which doth inable us to do any thing after a godly and holy manner This is a supernatural gift of God and an insused quality into the soul whereby it 's inabled to work above its own proper and natural operations If then to do any thing that is good be wholly of grace it 's Gods gift then to sin is natural and proper to thee The Scripture is copious and plentiful in affirming this That Christ as our head is the cause of all our supernatural actings We receive of his fulness and so are inabled by him Grace then being supernatural to love God to repent of sin to do any thing spiritually being thus wholly above nature it necessarily followeth that when we sin and do evil that we do it naturally SECT X. NInthly The Nature of a thing if compounded and not simple is the complex of the whole The nature of a man is not his hands or his eyes only but his soul and his whole body Thus the nature of original Righteousness was not the perfection of one single faculty the understanding only the will only but it was the complete harmonical rectitude of the whole man called therefore the Image of God Now as the Image of a man is not one limb or member but the pourtraiture of the whole So neither was the Image of God in Adam one grace or some few graces but the perfection of every part Light in the mind holiness in the will order and regularity in the affections Thus it is on the contrary with original sinne it 's called The old man and it 's said to have mâ—mbers by which is implied that it 's not any single sinne or a defect and pollution in one faculty of the soul but it 's universal over all Hence our Saviour saith John 3. Whatsoever is born of the flesh is flesh it is wholly corrupted it is all over sinful So then when we say it 's natural this implieth That it is a Leprosie all over us as farre as our physical being extends Thus also in a moral sense doth our sinful Being inlarge it self Therefore our natural estate is not compared only to a blind man or a deaf man what wants the use of some faculties but unto death it self that depriveth of the use of all The naturality then of this sinne doth denote both the inward inheston as also the universal diffusion of it nothing within a man being free from this contagion SECT XI LAstly The Naturality of this evil doth appear In the great easiness promptitude and delight a man naturally finds to sin This is a way to discover what is natural if the actions be easie ready and with delight This discovers they flow from Nature but what is of art that is with difficulty and much observation We need not hire or teach a man to eat or drink these are natural actions and are accompanied with delight And thus the Naturality of this birth-sinne is notably manifested with what ease pleasure and inward readiness is a man carried out to sinne from his youth up Eliphaz speaks notably of this Job 15. 16. How much more abominable and filthy is man which drinketh iniquity like water like a Leviathan that is said to drink up the river and hasteth not You see he cals every man by nature abominable and filthy which is discovered by this He drinketh iniquity like water as a dropsie or feavorish man that is scorched with heat within doth with greediness and delight pour down water and the more he drinketh the thirstier he is and he never saith he hath enough Thus it is with filthy and corrupted man he doth with earnestness and delight fulfill the lust of the flesh he is never satisfied Every man in the world hath a Sheol within him that is alwayes craving and saying Give Give as hell hath unquenchable sparks of fire such an hell is in every mans heart As our Saviour said It 's my meat and drink to do my Fathers will Thus it is every mans meat and drink by nature to be doing the Devils will Do ye not see it in children how of themselves they are prone to any impiety but call them to learn or to be instructed then there is much aversness All this ariseth from the natural evil within us CHAP. IV. Objections against the Naturality of Original Sinne answered SECT I. THe Naturality of original sinne hath been in divers respects asserted I shall therefore conclude this Text with answers to some Objections that are made against this Doctrine I do not mean against original sinne it self for they are various so unwilling is man to be convinced that he is wholly sinful but against the Naturality of it which this Text doth affirm Neither shall I take in all Objections of this kind because they will be met with on some other Texts only I shall pitch upon one or two whereby your understandings may be more fully cleared in this point and so I shall part with this Text. First therefore it hath been enviously of old objected against this Truth That if there were such a natural pollution adhering to all mankind this would redound to the dishonour of God who is the Author of man This Argument the Pelagians of old insulted with If say they any man hold God is the maker of man presently he is called a Pelagian for thus they flourished If there be original sinne either the parents that beget or the children that are begotten or God the Creator of the soul and in a peculiar manner forming all the parts of our body must be the cause of this sinne This Objection they thought unanswerable unless we should charge God with being the Author of this original defilement Hence it is that they charged Manâ—cheism upon the Orthodox as if they thought that Nature it self was evil Five things there were that these Hereticks did usually commend Nature Marriage the Law Free-will and Holiness none of which they thought could be maintained unless we deny original sinne But when these Arguments are fully searched into there will appear no matter of boasting Let us call the first to account and examine Whether the Doctrine of original corruption doth charge God foolishly or no Whether hereby all the sinne in the world will be laid upon God Now there is a three sold charge drawn up against this Truth as it relateth to God 1. That it makes him the Author of this sinne 2. That it makes him unjust imputing that sinne of Adam to us and punishing us because of it when we had no being or any will of our own
punishment the punishment of another Besides that it is sinne inherent in us and not only imputed appears by David's acknowledgement Psal 51. In sinne was I born and in iniquity did my mother conceive me But of this more in time You see by what hath been said That our original sinne is more than meer guilt or Adam's actual sinne imputed to us it denoteth withall an inherent contagion of the whole man Therefore it is absurdly and falsly said by that late Writer It may be called original guilt rather than original sin SECT V. IN the fourth place there are those yet who draw a more narrow line in this matter than the former For when this Question is put Whether original inherent sin be truly and properly a sin They then distinguish between Peccatum and Vitium It is vitium say they but not peccatum or when it is called peccatum it is in a large sense not strictly and properly For with these nothing is a sinne properly but some action repugning to the word of God and because original sinne cannot be an action therefore say they it 's not properly a sinne In which sense they deny habits of sinne to be peccata but only vitia Though this be to play with words seeing the same thing is intended And although Austin abstaineth much from the word peccatum as if that alwayes did suppose a reatus yet that is a needless scrupulosity men may use words as they please Therefore Hierom thought Vide Whitak de peccato orig lib. 3. cap 6. vitium was more than peccatum contrary to Austins notion when he said Some man might be found without vice but not without sinne They say indeed a thing may repugn the Law of God three wayes Either Efficienter so the Devils and wicked men do yet they are not sinnes 2. Materially and thus the act of every sinne doth 3. Formally and so the obliquity in the act only doth and this they make only truly and properly a sinne But whether this will stand good or no will be examined in the Objections As also that Assertion of a learned man Molinaus vide infra That original sinne is condemned by the Law but not prohibited it being absurd as he thinks to appoint a Law for one grown up that he should have been born without sinne It is true in assigning the proper notion of sinne to it hath some great difficulty Neither doth it become us to be over-curious in this point above what is written remembring that original sinne came in by desiring too much knowledge I shall therefore treat of it so farre as it may tend to edification not to satisfie curiosity For when Austin was puzled with such doubts he brings that known Apologie Epist 29. of one who fell into a deep pit and being ready to be suffocated he crieth out to one passing by to help him out The man asketh him How he came in Do not saith he stand disputing of that but help me out Thus saith he every man being fallen into this deep pit of original sinne it 's not for us to be curiously and tediously inquiting how we came in but speedily seek for the grace of God to deliver us our CHAP. VIII That the inward Contagion which we have from Adam's Disobedience is truly and properly a Sinne. THerefore in the fifth place This sinne whereby we are infected from Adam's disobedience is truly and properly a sinne we are truly and inherently made sinners by Adam A man is not more properly and really made a sinner by any actual transgressions he doth commit then he is by his original sinne he is born in Insomuch that though an Infant knoweth not what he doth nor is capable of acts of reason when he is born yet he is properly and formally a sinner and the discovery of this will make much for our humiliation and Christs Exaltation Now that it is truly and properly a sin appeareth by these Arguments Argum. 1. That the Scipture speaking of it doth constantly call it so and therefore we are not to recede from the proper interpretation unless some weighty reasons compelâ—us What a poor and weak thing is it to deny original sinne to be imputable to us or to have the proper essence of evil because with Aristotle none are blamed for those things they have by nature or are not in their own power For it 's plain Aristotle understood nothing of this original pollution and by his Philosophy we must also quit many fundamental points in our Christian saith It is enough that the Scripture speaking of it and that purposely doth call it sinne as Psal 51. this Chapter of Romans and Chap. 7. often It 's the Law of sinne working in us So that this want of Gods Image and an inclination to evil is not to be considered as a meer punishment or as a spiritual disease and weakness upon nature but no sinne at all For it 's as truly a sinne as an actual sinne yea in some respects it is a more grievous and heavy sinne than actual sinnes as is to be shewed For the cause hath more in it than the effect It is from this evil heart that all actual evils do flow Argum. 2. It 's truly and properly a sin Because thereby a man is made obnoxious to death and eternal condemnation The wages of sinne is death and by nature we are children of wrath If then for this inherent corruption we die we are subject to miseries to Gods wrath and the curse of the Law then it must necessarily follow that this is truly and properly a sin Argum. 3. That which is made opposite to Righteousness that is truly and properly sinne For not punishment and Righteousnesse but sinne and Righteousnesse are two immediate Contraries Now it 's plain That this inherent corruption makes us sinners so that we need to be made righteous by Christ Argum. 4. The Apostle distinguisheth Adam 's imputed sinne and inherent sinne as two sinnes and so they have a two-fold distinct guilt as is to be shewed though some think it hard to say so Thus the Apostle By one mans offence sinne entred into the world Therefore Adam's actual sinne and that sinne which entred thereby are two distinct sinnes and differ as the cause and the effect By imputed sinne we are said to sinne in him actually as it were because his will was our will but by inherent sinne we are made sinners by intrinsecal pollution Argum. 5. This original inherent sinne is truly and properly a sinne Because it is to be mortified to be crucified We are to subdue the reign of it in our hearts which could not be if it were not properly a sin Argum. 6. It is a true and proper sinne Because by this our persons are made unclean so that naturally we cannot please God We are corrupt fountains we are bad trees and all this before we commit any actual sin Argum. 7. If Adam had stood that which would have been
of sinne is expresly said to be in the members And whereas the Apostle in that verse saith He seeth a Law in his members bringing him into captivity to the Law of sinne that doth not argue a distinction between these but according to the use of the Scripture the Antecedent is repeated for the Relative the sense being That the Law of his members did bring Paul into captivity to it notwithstanding the Law of the mind with in him as Gen. 9. 16. I will remember saith God himself the everlasting Covenant between God that is my self and every living creature We see then in these words that the Apostle giveth another name to that original sinne which dwelleth in him he calleth it very emphatically The Law of sinne in him Original corruption is even in Paul though converted how much more in all unregenerate persons by way of a Law From whence observe That the Scripture cals original sin the Law of sin Within us SECT II. TO understand this take notice of these things First The Apostle in his Epistles doth delight to use the word Law and that when speaking of contrary things The Law of God the Law of Works This he mentioneth properly but then he cals it The Law of faith because the Hebrew word for Law signifieth no more than Doctrine for Torath either comes they say from a word that signifieth to appoint or teach or from a word that signifieth to rain because saith Chemnitius as the raine is gathered together in the clouds not to be kept there but to be emptied on the earth that so it may be made fruitfull Thus the Law of God was appointed by God not meerly to be written in the Bible but also to be implanted in our hearts The word then in the Hebrew signifying Doctrine in the general no wonder if the Gospel be called The Law of Faith So Regeneration Rom. 8. is called The Law of the Spirit of life as in other places it is The Law of God written in our hearts but the Apostle doth not only apply it to these things but especially in this Chapter he cals it The Law of sinne not sin only but the Law of sinne and the Law in our members why the Apostle doth so you shall hear anon Only In the second place you must consider when the Apostle cals it The Law of sinne it is in an improper and abusive or allusive sense for a Law properly is only of that which is good the matter of a Law must be honest and just because a Law is pars juris and Jus is à justo Therefore Aquinas saith That unjust Laws are rather violentia than leges Yea Tully saith Such Decrees are neither Leges nor ne appellandae quidem yet the Scripture speaks of some who make iniquity a Law Psal 99. 20. or who frame mischief for a Law Tacitus complaineth of the multitude of Laws in his time and saith The Commonwealth groaned ut flagitiis ita legibus So that although the properties of a Law are to be good and profitable yet by allusion all unjust and hurtfull Decrees are called Laws and thus the Apostle cals it the Law of sinne alluding to those properties or effects which a Law hath What the Law of God doth in a regenerate man the contrary doth the Law of sinne in a natural man SECT III. Original Sinne compared to a Law in five respects ORiginal sinne therefore may be compared to a Law in these respects First A Law doth teach and direct Lex est lux It informeth and teacheth what is to be done Thus the Schoolmen they make Direction the first thing necessary to a Law The work of grace in a godly man is called by the Apostle The Law of the mind in this Chapter Because grace within a man doth teach and direct him what to do Hence 1 John 2. 27. the godly man is said to have an anointing within him The Law of God is written in his inward parts and so from within as well as by the Word without they are taught what to do Thus on the contrary the Law of sinne in a natural man doth teach and prompt him to all kind of evil This Law of sinne doth not indeed teach what we ought to do but it doth wonderfully suggest all kind of wickedness to us and from this cause it is that you see children no sooner able to act but they can with all readiness runne into evil sinnes that they have not seen committed before their eyes they can with much dexterity accomplish What a deal of instruction and admonition is requisite to nurture your young ones in the fear of the Lord And all is little enough And why is this The Law of God is not in their hearts they have not that in them which would direct and teach holiness But on the other side children need not to be taught wickedness you need not instruct them how to sinne they have much artifice and cunning in an evil way And why so The Law of sinne is in them this is that they are bred with So that as the young ones of Foxes and Serpents though they have no teacher yet from the Law of nature within them they grow subtil and crafty in their mischievous wayes Thus the Law of sinne doth in every man he is ingenious and wise to do evil As the ground ere it will bring forth corn doth need much labour and tillage but of it self bringeth forth bryars and thorns Thus all by nature are so foolish and blind that without heavenly education and institution you cannot bring them to that which is holy but of their own selves men have subtilty and abilities to frame mischievous things And why is all this They have a Law of sinne within them which directs suggests and informeth to do much evil So that we are not to put all upon the Devil to say He put it into my minde he suggested such thoughts to me No the Law of sinne within thee can sufficiently prompt thee to all evil Secondly A Law doth not onely teach but it doth instigate and incline it presseth and provoketh to the things commanded by it Thus the Law of the mind in a godly man doth greatly instigate and provoke him to what is good It is like a goad in his side it is like fire in his bowels he must do that which is good else he cannot have any rest within him You read when David refrained for a while from speaking good at last he could hold no longer but the fire did break out So Paul 2 Cor. 5. The love of Christ constraineth us Thus the true believer he hath a principle of grace within him which is like a Law upon him he cannot do otherwise he must obey it Thus on the contrary Original sinne in a natural man is like a Law within him it provoketh him it enflameth him to all evil Whensoever any holy duty is pressed upon him this Law of sinne stirreth him
is flesh as well as spirit in the best performances This close subtil insinuating nature of original sinne is the cause why a godly man can never know the bottom of his heart This makes so many hypocrites and apostates This is it that makes a man so uncertain about himself for when he hath done all that we would think there were no danger yet some embers or other may lie as it were under the ashes and set all on flame Lastly When it saith Evil is present with us that denoteth the molesting and retarding nature of it stopping us in all the good we would do This is that especially for which Paul makes this sad complaint so that he cannot step one step but sinne puls him back again This is the milstone about the neck This is the clog and burden upon every man Oh Lord I would even flie up into heaven but this burden doth press me down When we would runne our spiritual race this makes us halt Vse Of Instruction to abhorre all such Doctrines as teach a perfection that holdeth We may attain to be without sin in this life Some Anabaptists and Papists though so extreamly contrary yet have understood that place Ephes 5. 27. Not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing to be fulfilled in this life forgetting the words before that he might present it to himself a glorious Church so that till this be done it is not without spot And near to these are such who though sinne be every way present in them yet because of their pharisaical and doubled minds as Paul once was they do not discover or feel any such thing But let the tender enlightned heart go into Gods presence and sadly bewail himself saying O Lord How ill is it with me What shall I think or say of my self How unspeakable is my misery I might have thought all sin within me even dead and buried But oh how it stirreth Oh how ready is it to put forth it self Lord I know not how to live with this burden and yet I cannot live without it I should utterly faint but that thy grace is sufficient for me CHAP. V. Of that Name The Sinne that doth so easily beset us given to Original Sinne. SECT I. HEB. 12. 1. And the Sinne which doth so easily beset us THe Apostle from those several Examples of many Worthies recorded in the former Chapter which he cals A Cloud of Witnesses partly for the multitude of them and partly for Direction As the Israelites had a Cloud to guide them in the wilderderness doth inferre a conclusion by way of Incouragement to go on constantly in the way of Christianity which he doth here as in other places compare to a running in the race This similitude sheweth the Difficulty in the race the Earnestness the Fortitude and Patience that ought to be in such who will be saved What an antidote should the meditation of this expression be against all dulness slothfulness and negligence whose life is like a running in a race to Heaven Now the Apostle following this Metaphor exhorts to lay aside all those burdens that may hinder us in this work It would be 〈◊〉 in him who is to runne a race to put burdens upon his back and lay as many heavy weights upon himself as he can No lesse absurd are they who give way to sinne in the lusts thereof and yet hope to arrive at Heaven Now the burden we are to lay aside is expressed in two words 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 weight by this is meant all actual sinne especially love and cares about the world for the earth is an element that descends downward and so he who hath an earthly heart cannot but have his soul presse downward 2. There is the Root and cause of this expressed in that phrase The sinne that doth so easily beset us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word is but once used and that in this place it 's a two fold compound and so the more emphatical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much here as easie and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that it is a sinne which besetteth and compasseth us about and that very easily it finds no resistance neither have we any power to withstand it Some understand this of actual sinnes but not only Protestant Interpreters but even some Papists also Ribera and others understand it of Concupiscence within us The word is made a Metaphor several wayes Erasmus renders it Tenaciter adhaerentem That sinne which doth so tenaciously adhere to us making it an Allâ—sion to Ezekiel Chap. 24. where there is a Pot set on the fire yet all the fire and burning cannot get off the rust and filth that cleaveth to it Gretius makes it to respect Lament 1. 14. where there are yokes and bands mentioned about the neck which are impediments to the beast in his going Others they make the Metaphor from a Wall or an hedge that stops the passenger in his way Yea Lapide following others makes it to be the outward temptations or the dangers that are in the way by enemies and adversaries to the Truth but the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not well agree to that Hesichius rendereth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Varinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If we compare this expression with what Paul saith of himself Rom. 7 concerning original sinne keeping and pressing him down we may well with Beza put a procul dubto upon that exposition which doth apply it to original sinne for that indeed is the onely weight that doth constantly and perpetually beset us and hinder us in our way to Heaven and that with all ease and facility Observe then That original sinne is the sinne which doth so easily beset us That doth circumcingere as Beza saith bind us up strait and close that our limbs are not expedite and free to runne our holy race So that it is with us as a racer that hath his arms or legs bound his garments so strait-laced to him that he cannot have that liberty and freedom to runne as he doth desire Some consider the word as it did allude to a milstone about the neck plunging us down into the Sea SECT II. What is implied in that Expression So easily beset us LEt us take notice What is contained in this excellent and emphatical word And First There is implied our utmost impotency and inability to shake off the power of it For although the Apostle exhorteth us to lay it aside yet that must be understood as a duty alwayes in doing that we are neverable to compleatfully and perfectly You see though they are godly to whom he writeth and they are already in the race yet it is their work daily to be unburdenning of themselves When therefore it 's called The sinne so easily besetting us hereby is taught us our inability and insufficiency to withstand it Insomuch that all those Doctrines which teach Free-will and a power to do what is good are justly to be
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
estate but are now fallen into extream poverty such can tell you by experience what a plentifull life they once lived Job could tell us what honour once he had and the abundance he enjoyed even when he sate scraping himself upon the dunghill he could experimentally compare his former estate and that together but so cannot we Indeed those common 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or dictates of nature whereby our consciences have some light to discern between good and evil may serve for some kind of conviction that once God did create us in a more knowing and holy estate but what it was and fully to conceive of it that we cannot do Hence In the second place It 's a very necessary thing in all men to be often meditating upon these two states and conditions of man his created state and his fallen estate his primitive condition and his present condition To compare the light men with his darknesse now his holinesse then with his impurity now his immortality then with his mortality now his Communion with God then and his estrangement or contrariety now for hereby his heart will be the more deeply humbled under his present miserable condition Those that make them both alike or assign a very little difference they neither duly consider what a glorious thing Gods Image was we were created in nor how deep and universal our pollution is Oh how dishonourable and dblasphemous is it to think we come out of Gods hands as we are now that at the first we had inclinations to sinne that there was a rebellion in us to what is good What is this but to say God made us at first the children of his wrath Oh pray that the scales may fall from thy eyes that thou beest not delivered up to this dangerous errour which is the broad way to perdition In the third place To understand the nature of that Image of God man was created in you must take heed of the Socinian Position who say God made man meerly an innocent even as a young child that he had not in his creation any holinesse infused into him but he was in a neutral and indifferent disposition to be actually good or wicked as his free-will did determine But this is to diminish the goodnesse of God who made man in such a distinguishing character to all other creatures except Angels for Angels and men they only were created after the Image of God That Adam was not created in such a negative frame of soul appeareth in that the Image of God is expresly said by Paul to consist in righteousnesse and true holinesse Now righteousnesse is more than a not being evil it denoteth an inherent positive perfection in the soul Hence Eccl 7. 30 God is there said To make man righteous The word Jashar is generally used to signifie as much as holy clean and pure It is not therefore for us to contradict so plain Texts of Scripture Hence the Psalmist Psal 8. 5. doth admire the goodnesse of God and his works to man especially in this That he hath made him but a little lower than Angels Oh then admire that glorious excellency God did at first put us into We were at first made but a little lower than those glorious Angels of God Therefore Chrysostem called Adam an earthly Angel Now compare thy present estate with this of Adams Art thou like an Angel Have Angels such blindnesse of mind such aversnesse to what is good such rebellious and unmortified thoughts in them as thou hast Nay Art thou not rather a Devil for pride for malice for opposition to what is good Was it thus with us from the beginning They therefore do most unthankfully rob God of all that glory and honour which is due to him that will affirm That God made him in such an indifferent neutral state neither righteous or unrighteous Surely then God could not have looked upon all the things that were made with that approbation They were exceeding god For though other creatures might be good in their kind with a natural goodnesse yet Adam was in his kind with a moral goodnesse Neither will the Socinian evasion help That by good there is meant convenient beautifull and proper for its end For let no more be granted but that it 's enough If Adam was not created with holinesse in his soul he was not made good in their sense that is not sutable and sit for his end For being created to know and love God and thereby to have a comfortable enjoyment of him How could he do this without wisdom in his mind and holinesse in his will And certainly we may not think that God gave every creature a goodnesse in its kind to obtain its particular end and not adorn man the noblest of visible creatures for his peculiar end The Scripture then is clear That man was at first made such an holy and blessed creature Let us consider what Reasons are objected against it by the Socinian party And First say they Adam could not be holy till he had done some actual holiness how could he be denominated righteous say they till he had acted something that was righteous But this argueth great ignorance as if there were no righteousnesse but what is acquired as if there were no infused habits of holinesse which denominate a man so before he doth that which is holy Were not the Angels made holy in their Creation before they acted what was holinesse Is not Christ himself Luke 1. called the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the holy thing before he did actually that which was holy yea the contrary is true therefore did Adam that which was actually holy because he was habitually holy As the Tree is first good and then the fruit good Adam then before his fall had both original and actual holinesse but the latter was an effect of the former and therefore he did one because he had the other Secondly It is objected by them That if Adam was made in the Image of God like him holy as he is holy then Adam could not sinne he would be impeceable even as God is But this is a weak cavil For though man be made holy as God is yet that is not by equality but proportion onely Were not the Angels made holy and yet for all that they sinned He then that is essentially and infinitely holy cannot sinne yea a creature when confirmed in holinesse by God cannot sinne as the elect Angels and glorified Saints but Adam though he was made holy yet was in a mutable and changeable estate and therefore he might sinne Quest But you will say Why did not this original Righteousnesse so farre defend him that he did not withstand the Devil more strongly he seemed to have little or no grace that was so easily ensnared by Satan and that in such a little matter when he enjoyed so much outward felicity Answ But to this we may answer That Adam and Eve they did not at
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
that whereas in some the fleshly mind of man runneth out into superstitious and excessive wayes of devotion which God never required so in others again it acteth the clean contrary way pretending to Enthusiasts Revelations and strange raptures and impulses of soul and herein they think they are the only spiritual men and that all others are in the flesh but strong delusions under the pretence of Revelations Apparitions and visions have been no new thing in the Church of God neither are we to stagger in our saith because of these things for the flesh excited by the Devil may vent it self in these extasies and raptures as well as in superstitions yea which is further to be observed a man may be altogether fleshly while he pretends to an high spiritual way of subduing and keeping down the flesh Col. 2. 23. Those who were puft up in their fleshly minds about Angel-worship yet are said to have a shew of humility in not sparing the body and this we may say to those deluded Papists who macerate and excruciate the flesh of the body it would be better if they did cast out at the same time their fleshly mind Seventhly A natural man in his most religious deportment is only fleshly Because whatsoever he doth in these things he is furthered only by natural strength For being without the grace of God either in his understanding or his will hence it is that he can rise no higher than natural reason natural conscience and natural will doth enable him unto and these being altogether polluted by sinne in stead of furthering they are an hindrance and opposition to him If therefore you ask From what principles and by what strength doth a natural man draw nigh to God The answer is only by that power which he hath of himself The grace of God which alone can elevate the soul to God that he is wholly destitute of And although it must be granted that there are some common principles and dictates in all about God and moral good things yet these are never improved any otherwise but from carnal principles and to carnal ends And thus much may suffice for this branch viz. The carnality of a man by original sinne in his most religious offices and duties In the last general place Man may justly be said to be all over sinfull and flesh only Because all his care his thoughts are only for his body and sensible things in the mean while neglecting God and his immortal soul I shall conclude with this because all else comprehended in this name will come in at some other seasonable time By nature we are in the flesh we walk after it we make provision for it so that we willingly lose God and our souls to save and preserve that Who is there that will believe our Saviour saying What will it profit a man to winne the whole world and lose his own soul Mat. 16. 26. What complaints and accusations may the soul make against us when the body hath said Feed me Cloath me you have done it But when the soul hath famished and been perishing you have not heard the cries of it Oh men only flesh and utterly devoid of all spiritual power CHAP. XVI Reasons demonstrating the Positive Part of Original Sinne. SECT I. HItherto we have been informed out of this Text what is comprehended in the word Flesh attributed to every one that is in a natural way born of mankind We now proceed to that Truth for which it was designedly pitcht upon viz. That Original sin is not only a Privation of Gods Image but doth cannote also a Positive inclination and an impetuous propensity to every thing that is evil For this Question is agitated between some Papists and the Protestants They asserting That the whole nature of original sinne lieth in the privation of Gods Image But the Orthodox they say That although original sinne is privative yet it is not meerly privative but doth include in it as the materiale that habitual crookedness and perversnes which is in all the faculties of the soul And thus the Protestants do almost in effect say the same with Aquinas who calleth original corruption a corrupt habit not a meer privation for privations are of two sorts either simple that imply onely a privation as blindnesse and death or compounded and mixed which besides the meer privation do denote some materiale or substratum with it Thus Aquinas compareth original sinne to a sickness or disease which doth not only signifie a privation of health but also the humours excessively overflowing and thereby dissolving the due temperament of the body Such a privation is original sinne a mixt or compounded privation that besides the absence of what righteousness is due denoteth also a propensity and violent inclination unto that which is evil It is true indeed if we come punctually to examine how the will is disobedient and how the affections are so disorderly we cannot resolve into any thing but this privation the understanding is therefore darkness and erroneous because without its primitive light The will is crooked and perverse because without its primitive rectitude So that Calvin saith well He that cals it the privation of Gods Image saith the whole nature of it yet when we speak of the privative part of it only we do not so fully and significantly expresse the dreadfull pollution of it Even as concerning vicious habits in morality intemperance injustice it is not enough to say they are the privation of those virtues which are immediately contrary to them but they do denote also such an inclination in a man that thereby he is carried out to those vicious of such habits constantly and with delight SECT II. Why Divines make Original Sinne to have its Positive as well as Privative Part. THe Reason why our Divines make original sinne to have its Positive as well as Privative part is to obviate that errour of the Papists who supposing original righteousness to be only by way of a bridle in Adam to curb and subjugate the inferiour part to the superiour of the soul when Adam lost this they conceive mankind hath not any further pollution upon it but that meer losse Insomuch that they say Man is now as if God had created him in his pure naturals without any supernaturals The Socinians likewise they deny any such pollution and make us to be born in the same condition Adam was created in death as a punishment only accepted meerly without either sinne or righteousnesse like Aristotles Obrasa Tabula in a neutral indifferent way Now to confront such dangerous opinions we say That by our birth-sinne we are not only deprived of Gods Image but are in an habitual inclination to all evil which is also active and repugnant to all good SECT III. Reasons to evince the Positive part of Original Sinne. NOw that we are to judge of it thus will appear from Scripture upon these grounds First The names that the Scripture attributeth to
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
powers of the soul must necessarily move sinfully and inordinately The soul of a man is alwayes working one way or other if then it hath lost original righteousnesse it cannot but be hurried on to what is evil as if you take away the pillar on which a stone liethh presently that will fall to the ground If you spoil the strings of musical instruments immediately they make a jarre and ingratefull noise upon every moving of them The soul of a man is a subject immediately susceptible of righteousnesse or corruption and if it lose its righteousnesse then by natural necessity corruption cometh in the room of it and so when the understanding acts it acteth sinfully when the will moveth it moveth sinfully So that we may well say with Austin to the Pelagian demanding How this corruption could come into us for God was good and nature good Quid quaeris latentem rimum cum habes apertam jannam Not a cranny but a gate or door is open for this corruption to seize upon us SECT IV. Application BEfore we come to answer the Objections Let us affect our hearts with it and labour to be humbled under the consideration of this positivenesse and efficacy of it For first Hereby we see that if it be not restrained and stopped by God we know not where we should stay in any sinne What Cain's what Judas's would we not prove Who can say Hitherto I will goe in sinne and no further for there is a fountain within thee that would quickly overflow all This active root of bitternesse this four leaven within thee would quickly make thy life like Job's body full of ulcers and noisome sores If thou art not plunged in the same mire and filth as others are doe not say Thou hast lesse of this corruption than they Thou art borne more innocent than they onely God stops thee as he did Balaam from doing such wickednesse as thy heart is forward enough unto No Serpent is fuller of poyson no Toad of venome than thou art of sinne which thou wouldst be constantly committing were not some stop put in the way Secondly In that sinne is thus positive and inclining thee thou art the more to admire the grace of God if that work a contrary inclination and propensity in thee If thou art brought with Paul To delight in the Law of God in the inward man If thy heart pants after God as the Hart after the waters which once delighted in sinne which once longed after nothing but the satisfying of the flesh Oh admire this gracious miraculous work of God upon thy soul who hath made thee to differ thus from thy selfe The time was once when thou rejoycedst in those sinnes that are now matter of shame and trembling to thee The time was when thy heart was affected with no other good than that of the creature Thou didst know no other desire no other but that but now God hath made iron to swimme he hath made the Blackmoor white Oh blesse God for the least desires and affections which thou hast at any time for that which is good for this cometh not from thee it is put into thee by the grace of God Lastly Consider that this positivenesse of sinne in thee doth not onely manifest it self in an impetuous inclination to all evil but also a violent resistance of whatsoever is good The Apostle Rom. 8. calleth it Enmity against God and Rom. 7. he complaineth of it as warring and fighting against the Law of his minde And certainly this is a very great aggravation not onely to be without what is good but to be a desperate enemy and a violent opposer of it both in others as also to that which the Spirit of God by the Word would worke in our own hearts not onely without the remedy but full of enmity against it Doth not this make our condition unspeakably wretched Certainly this is the highest aggravation in original sinne that we are not onely unable to what is good but we are with anger and rage carried out against it as if good were the onely evil and sweetnesse the onely bitternesse CHAP. XVII Objections against the Positive Part of Original Sinne answered SECT I. Cautions Premised THere remain only some Objections against this Truth but before we answer them take notice First That although we say original sinne is more than a privation of that Righteousnesse which ought to be in man yet We do not make it to be like some infecting corporeal quality in the body that hereby should vitiate the soul and as it were poison that Lombard and some others especially Ariminensis Distinct 30. They seem to deliver their opinion so as rejecting Anselm's definition of original sinne making it to be want of that original righteousnesse which ought to be in us and do declare it to be a morbida qualitas some kinde of pestilential and infecting quality abiding in the body and thereby affecting the soul As when the body is in some phrenetical and mad distempers the soul is thereby disturbed in all its operations so that these make the want of original righteousness to be the effect of original sinne not the nature of it saying upon Adam's sinne Man becoming thus defiled God refused to continue this righteousness to him any longer But if these Schoolmen be further questioned How such a diseased pestilential quality should be in the body Some say it was from the forbidden fruit that that had such a noxious effect with it but that is rejected because that was made of God and all was exceeding good Arimineâ—sis therefore following as he thinketh Austin maketh this venemous quality in a mans body to have its original from the hissing and breath as it were of the Serpent he conceiveth that by their discourse with the Serpent there came from it such an infectious air as might contaminate the whole body and he saith Austin speaks of some who from the very hissing and air from Serpents have been poisoned But the Protestants they do not hold it any positive quality in this sense for this is to make the body the first and chiefest subject of original sinne and so to convey it to the soul whereas indeed the soul is primarily and principally the seat of original sinne We therefore reject this as coming too near Manicheism as if there were some evil and infectious qualities in the very nature and substance of a man Secondly It must be remembred what hath been said before That when we come to give a particular reason why the understanding or will are propense to any evil We can assign only a privative cause viz. Because it wants that rectitude which would regulate it as if a ship it's Anselm's comparison were without Pilot and Governour of tacklings let loose into the whole Ocean it would be violently hurried up and down till it be destroyed Thus man without this Image of God would be tossed up and down by every lust never resting till he had
entertain Insomuch that every man by nature may say he no longer liveth but sinne in him and the Devil in him Hereby thy heart may be called hell yea and Legion because many Devils do rule in thee Oh that God would make this Truth like a two-edged sword in our hearts that we may not rest day or night till God hath delivered us from this wretched estate Pray for it groan for it all the day long CHAP. XX. A clear and full Knowledge of Original Sinne can be obtained only by Scripture Light SECT I. A Full and large information concerning the whole Nature of original sinne both in the Privative and Positive part thereof hath been delivered to which this Text hath been very usefull There remaineth one thing more in it which is very considerable and that is the way or means how Paul cometh to be thus convinced of that sinfulnesse which he did not acknowledge before and that is said to be by the Law In what sense Paul said He knew not lust to be sinne hath already been declared There remaineth therefore this Doctrine to be observed viz. That original sinne in the immediate effect thereof is truly and fully known onely by the light of Gods word None are ever clearly and throughly perswaded of such an universal horrid defilement but those who look into the pure glass of Gods word This Paul acknowledgeth in himself and yet no Heathen he lived under the light of the Word but following traditional expositions from his fathers and wanting the Spirit of God to enlighten him therefore he was wholly stupid and senslesse in this matter as therefore the Doctrine of Christ and Evangelical grace is a mystery so is also this Doctrine about original sinne SECT II. Whether the wisest Heathens had any Knowledge of this Pollution BUt because this matter is under Debate and Question let us further enquire into it examining Whether the wisest Heathens had any knowledge of this natural pollution the Word doth so fully inform us in And First As for that original sinne called originans viz. Adam's actual transgression made ours by Gods will and appointment through imputation that is wholly known by revelation so that no Heathens by the highest improvement and cultivage of nature could ever discern such things That God made Adam righteous giving him a command of tryal in obedience or disobedience whereof all his posterity should be involved this they had not the least him of and the reason is Because the truth of such things lieth not in nature neither have second causes the least demonstration of this but it is wholly discovered as a matter of fact by the Scripture So that we Christians ought the more to bless God for the sight of his Word seeing thereby a very Ideot amongst us may know more then the wisest Aristotle or Plato amongst the Heathens Secondly As for original inherent sinne it must necessarily be granted That even the Heathens had some general confused knowledge about a mans natural defilement Hence was their custom of a solemn washing and lustration of their Infants in a religious way implying hereby that they came into the world polluted and needed the propitious savour of their gods This solemn religious custom of theirs was some general confession of original sinne but as for the Philosophers who were the wisest and most learned of them some do speak more congruously to this point than others That noble and learned Plessâ—us in his Book of the Truth of the Christian Religion Pag. 377. which he endeavoureth to prove even from Heathinish Authors especially the Platonists doth alledge some things pertinently to our subject For Plato holding That the soul was put into the body as into a prison and a dungeon for former sinnes committed through he grosly erred in the foundation thinking souls pre-existent before the body and for faults committed then adjudged to the body as a place of prison which was an absurd errour yet there was some truth he did take notice of for observing that the soul which should rule and command the body was yet mancipated and enslaved to it he concluded there was some fore-going crime deserving this though he was wholly ignorant of Adam's fall Hence he saith That the soul hath lost and broken her wings which she had at first and thereby doth onely creep and crawl upon the ground Theâ—phrastus also Aristotle's Scholar was wont to say That the soul payeth a very dear rent for the house of her body the body is such a clog and impediment to it The Platonists do seem to acknowledge more truth herein then Aristotls for Aristotle doth expresly deny That either virtue or vice is in us by nature the very same thing which Pelagin afterwards did use to say Therefore the Schoolmen though enslaved to Aristotle yet when urging this Argument That there cannot be a sinne by birth in a man because no man is to be reproved or beaten for that which he hath by nature but rather to be pitied it is not his sinne but misery Which speech if true doth utterly contradict that of the Apostle We are by nature the children of wrath The Schoolmen I say though 〈◊〉 vasalized to Aristotle and alledging him oftner than Paul do answer that Argument thus It is no matter what Aristotle saith in this case because he knew nothing of original sinne Thus you see they are forced to leave him in this point and therefore Aristotle is more to be renounced in this point then any other Philosopher Grotius also Comment in 2d. Luc. v. 21. alledgeth several Hethenish Authors who lay down this for a Position that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is implanted and ingraffed into man to sinne Tully lib. 3. Tusc doth speak so fully to this purpose as if he had read what Moses speaketh of man by nature Simul ac editi sumus in lucem suscepti in omni continuè pravitate versamur c. as soon as ever we are born we are presently exercised in all manner of evil Vt poenè in lacte nutricis errorem suxisse videamur as if we sucked down errour with the nurses milk Here you see he speaketh something like to Moses when he saith Gen. 6. That the imagination of the thoughts of our hearts are only evil and that continually Although at the same time he seemeth to attribute this propensity to evil to wicked manner and depraved opinions for there he saith Nature hath given us of honesty parvulos igniculos and that there are ingeniis nostris semina innata virtutum But although some of their wisest men have confessed such a misery and infirmity upon us yet it may be doubted Whether they looked upon this as truly and properly sinne deserving punishment either from God or man They rather thought all sinne must be voluntary Hence Seneca Erras si existimas nobiscum nasci vitia supervenerunt ingesta sunt Indeed in their sad complaints concerning mans birth and all misery accompanying
remember then they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hence they say that sometimes a man thinketh he remembreth when he doth not yea he cannot tell whether he remembreth such a thing or no because say they the Phantasma is thus absolutely presented and not as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Even as a man may look upon a picture either absolutely as having such lineaments and colour or relatively as an Image whereby we come to remember such an one But these Philosophical notions about Phantasmata and Species are so obscure that it is better with Austin to acknowledge our ignorance of this noble and admirable power in the soul whereby it doth remember things whatsoever it be though given us as an admirable and usefull gift yet now it is grosly polluted and is the conserver of all evil and vanity SECT VII Demonstrations of the Pollution of the Memory THat the memory is thus polluted will appear 1. By several discoveries thereof And 2. By the particulars wherein In the former way herein we have a full demonstration of the depraved nature of our memory In that we need the Spirit of God to sanctifie and help it So that one work or office of the Spirit of God is to be a remembrancer unto us about holy things It 's the gift of Gods Spirit to give thee a good memory to make thee able to remember holy things This is clearly and unquestionably affirmed John 14. 26. The comforter which is the holy Ghost I will send in my name and he will teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you Here we see the Spirit of God hath a twofold office or work to do 1. To teach us holy things We are blind and unbelieving not knowing spiritual objects till Gods Spirit doth teach us But this is not all suppose we be taught and instructed is all done then Do we need the Spirit of God no more Yea. Therefore 2. The Spirit of God putteth it self forth in a further work which is to bring the things thus taught to our remembrance As then the mind in respect of understanding and knowing cannot do any thing about what is spiritual without the Spirit of God so neither can the mind about remembring Certainly if the memory of it self could do these things the Spirit of God would be in vain If the Moon and Starres could give so much light as to make a day the Sun would be in vain Hence the children of God do evidently find and feel the work of Gods Spirit upon their memories as well as their understandings for in their temptations how ready to be overwhelmed how ready to be swallowed up with such thoughts and then the Spirit of God doth seasonably re-mind the soul of such Promises of such comfortable Arguments So also upon the temptation to any sinne the Spirit of God doth interpose and prevent it by making them to remember such a threatning such a place of Scripture and this stoppeth them from the evil they were ready to do for they are the Disciples themselves though sanctified and made so eminent to whom this Spirit of remembrancing is promised as usefull and necessary If then the Spirits presence and assistance be thus necessary even to a regenerate mans memory this argueth the natural defilement and impotency of it to any good thing for where nature is able there the Spirit of God is not necessarily required A second Discovery of the pollution of the memory may be from the end of the Scripture why God would have it written so as to be a perpetual monument to his Church Among other ends this is one to be a memorial to us to put us in continual mind of the duties required of us Thus the Apostle Peter indeavoureth to make believers alwaies remembring of the Gospel by those Epistles he did write to them It is true the Orthodox do justly refuse that of Bellarmine who will make the Scripture to be onely utile communitorium as if that were the chief end why the Scriptures were written viz. to serve for our memory only and not to be a rule of our faith for he himself doth acknowledge it to be a partial rule But the principal and chief end why the Scriptures are delivered to the Church is to be a Canon and Rule to it so that the Church must not believe worship or live otherwise then the Scripture commands This is not a partial but a total Rule neither may any thing be added to it or detracted from it But yet we grant also That the Scripture may have other secondary and subservient ends whereof this is not the meanest to be usefull to our memory And certainly one great cause of so much evil committed by thee is forgetfulnesse of the Scripture The Apostle James Chap. 1. 25. doth notably instance to this purpose for he compareth a forgetfull hearer of the Word to one that looketh in the glasse and going away straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was If therefore we did abide and continue looking in this glasse take notice what we are by the direction of the Word how quickly would we reform He that doth make a practical use of remembring the Scripture so as to regulate and order his life accordingly can never miscarry To have the word of God in thy memory against such and such a temptation would prevent all the evil thou fallest into John 15. 20. when our Saviour would encourage his Disciples against the hatred of the world he saith Remember the Word that I said unto you the servant is not greater then his master Remember this truth and that will make thee suffer more willingly So John 16 4. These things have I told you that when the time shall come ye may remember that I told you of them To remember Scripture in the season to have the Word of God in thy mind when a temptation like Joseph's Mistress is soliciting of thee this will cause that no deadly thing shall hurt thee for the word of God is a two edged sword it 's an hammer it 's fire it 's the sword of the Spirit by it both the Devil and all temptations are subdued Christ overcame the Devil by Scripture Now if that be not in thy memory then it cannot be any waies serviceable to thee in the time of need Exercise your memories therefore in the Scripture and that not for memories sake much lesse for ostentation to shew what a good memory you have above others but for a practical and holy use Treasure up such a place against thy drunkennesse thy whoredoms Treasure up such a place against pride earthlinesse and covetous desires What a precious and excellent memory is that which is like a mine of gold or an Apothecaries shop that can from the Scripture presently fetch what Antidotes against sinne or cordials to revive that he pleaseth And truly our memory should be filled up only with Scripture considerations
is by the grace of God that we come to acknowledge the grace of God Error in mind is part of our bondage as well as lust in our heart It is therefore by th◠grace of God that we are delivered from both these thraldoms we have a freed mind from ignorance and a freed will from concupiscence It is the Spirit of God that leadeth us into all truth called therefore the Spirit of truth John 14. 17. It is by the grace of God that thou fallest not in this errour of advancing free-will It 's by the grace of God that thou art no Pelagian or Arminian It is this that maketh thee to differ from them Thy judgment thy heart would be self-confident herein did not the Spirit of God teach thee Lastly Consider that the grace of God is necessary to guide us in this point Because this Question hath alwayes seemed very difficult Austin acknowledged it so Hence he saith That when grace is defended we are thought to destroy free-will and when a free-will is acknowledged though in some sense onely we are thought to deny free-grace Indeed the Truth is not so difficult viz. that we have no spiritual liberty to what is good or that grace onely maketh the will free but how to reconcile this with the natural liberty of the will that it shall not be as a stock or stone that hath seemed to some even insoluble and therefore they advise to captivate our understandings in this point as we doe in the Doctrine of the Trinity however whether soluble or insoluble the difficulty argueth the necessity of Gods assistance while we preach and you hear about it ¶ 6. The first Demonstration of the slavery of the Will is from the Necessity of sinning that every man is plunged into SEveral particulars being premised as introductory to our intended matter our next work is to shew Wherein this servitude slavery of the will doth consist Not that you are to conceive of the will as some prisoner who is chained up in a dungeon that hath power to walk and run only those external impediments do hinder him which is Bellarmine's similitude about the inability of a natural man to supernatural good So the will hath some inward power and ability to do that which is holy onely there are lusts which are vincentes and vincientes as Austin expresseth conquering and binding this will that it cannot actually perform what internally it hath a power to do here is no such thing for we must conceive of this habitual depravation and defilement of the will in its state and condition more inward and deeply rooted in it First therefore That the will of man is destitute of any freedome to what is good appeareth In the Necessity of sinning that every man is plunged into that he cannot but sinne in all that he doth That as the Angels and Saints in Heaven have Beata Necessitas a blessed necessity of loving of God and delighting in him so that no temptation in the world can draw them off Thus every man by nature is in an unhappy and wretched necessity of sinning Dura Necessitas as Austin called it Insomuch that though the Scripture doth represent the things of Heaven in a most glorious manner to affect us yet we cannot be taken off from our sinne to love that Hence it is that every man till regenerated is compared to an evil tree and Tit. 1. they are said to be unclean and every thing made unclean to them The person being not accepted neither can any duties be This is our sad and miserable condition by nature But whose heart is throughly affected with it Thy eating thy drinking thy buying and selling yea thy praying and all other duties as they come from a man not sanctified by grace are sinnes in the eyes of God Think then to what an infinite aggravation they will arise and whether thou mayest not truly complain they are more then the sands upon the Sea-shore so that as the Toad and Serpent do necessarily vent what is poison and can never do that which is sweet and wholsom Thus no man in his natural estate can ever do any thing but be sinning and so damning of himself all the day long Onely when we say it is thus naturally necessary to a man to sinne in all things he doth you must know that we do not herein make him absolutely like a bruit beast which is not capable either of vice or virtue for this necessity is voluntarily brought by man upon himself he did wilfully strip himself of all power and ability to do that which is good and so having shut out the light from himself he doth necessarily remain in the dark having chaced away the Spirit and presence of God from his soul which is the life thereof he becometh spiritually dead and so in a necessity of sinning But it is not thus with Serpents and Toads for whether they were at first created solely with such a poisonous nature or whether upon Adam's fall it was inflicted upon those creatures as a curse it is plain that these creatures could not with any will or consent bring themselves into this estate but man did voluntarily at first having no seed of evil or inward propensity to sinne transgress the Commandment whereupon his soul became more shamefully naked then his body This necessity therefore whereby he is determined onely to sinne ariseth from his own free and voluntary impiety As a man that hath wilfully put out his own eyes must blame himself for ever if he cannot see If then this bondage be upon thee that in all things thou sinnest whatsoever thou undertakest evil is presently over ruling of thee blame not God or any providence of his no nor the Devil neither for though he doth tempt yet he doth not necessitate to sinne but thy own self for from thy own bowels this destruction doth arise ¶ 7. That a Necessary Determination may arise several wayes some whereof are very consistent with Liberty yea the more necessary the more free IT is good to observe and it may clear many difficulties in this point That a necessary determination may arise several wayes some whereof are very consistent with liberty yea the more necessary the more free Thus God himself doth necessarily will that which is good and yet freely also And if you ask Whence doth it arise that God is thus determined to what is good I answer It is from the infinite and absolute perfection of his holinesse whereby he is not nor cannot be a God that willeth iniquity Arminius indeed maketh it little lesse than blasphemy to say God is liberè bonus but that is because he cannot part with his Helena or Dalilah viz. That liberty consists in an indifferency to good and evil and in this sense to say God doth so freely will good that he can as freely will evil would be blasphemy but to will evil is no part at all of freedome it is a defect in
thousand of us How much more may we say to God his glory his honour his truth is worth all our estates all our lives yea such ought to be our affections to Gods honour that we ought to preferre it above our own salvation so although through the goodnesse of God his honour and our salvation are so inseparably joyned together that one cannot be parted from the other yet in our mindes we are to esteem of one above the other Gods glory above our own happinesse But the highest degree of grace in this life doth hardly carry a man to this much lesse can nature elevate him thus high The second particular wherein the privacy of our affections is to be lamented is in respect of the publique good we are not onely to preferre the glory of God above our selves but also The publique good of the Church yea the publique good of the Commonwealth above our particular advantages What a notable demonstration of this publique affection do we find in Moses and Paul which may make us ashamed of all our self-affections We have Moses his self-denial mentioned Exod. 32. 32. where he desireth to be blotted out of the book of life then that the sins of the people should destroy them he had rather be undone in his own particular then have the general ruined and when God profered to make him a great name by consuming the Israelites he would not accept of it It was Tullie's boast That he would not accept of immortality it self to the hurt of the publique but this was breath and sound of words only Moses is real and cordial in what he saith As for Paul's publique affections to the salvation of others viz. his kinsmen after the flesh Rom. 9. 3. they break out into such flaming expressions that great are the disputes of the learned about the lawfulness of Paul's wish herein however we find it recorded as a duty that we ought to love our brethren so much that we are to lay down our lives for them 1 Joh. 3. 16. Now how can this ever be performed while these selfish-affections like Pharaoh's lean kine devour all things else Groan then under these streightned and narrow affections of thine thou canst never preferre Jerusalem above all the joy while it is thus with thee SECT XVII The hurtfull Effects of the Affections upon a mans body THirdly The sinfulnesse of our affections naturally is perceived by the hurtfull and destructive effects which they make upon a man Therefore you heard they were called passions These affections immoderately put forth do greatly hasten death and much indispose the body about a comfortable life 2 Cor. 7. 10. The sorrow of the world is said to work death Thus also doth all worldly love all worldly fear and anger they work death in those where they do prevail If Adam had stood they would not have been to his soul as they are to us nor to the body like storms and tempests upon the Sea They would not have been passions or at least not made any corruptive alteration upon a man whereas now they make violent impressions upon the body so that thereby we sinne not onely against our own souls but our own bodies also which the Apostle maketh an aggravation in the guilt of fornication 1 Cor. 6. 18. Instances might be given of the sad and dreadfull effects which inordinate passions have put men upon and never plead that this is the case onely of some few we cannot charge all with this for its only the sanctifying or restraining grace of God that keepeth in these passions of thine should God leave thee to any one affection as well tempered as thou thinkest thy self to be it would be like fire let alone in combustible matter which would presently consume all to ashes of thy own self having nomore strength than thy own and meeting with such temptations as would be like a tempestuous wind to the fire thou wouldst quickly be overwhelmed thereby SECT XVIII The sad Effects they have upon others FOurthly The sinfulness of these affections are seen not only in the sad effect they have upon our selves but what they produce upon others also They are like a thron in the hedge to prick all others that passe by Violent affections do not only disturb those that are led away with them but they do greatly annoy the comfort and peace of others The Prophet complained of living among scorpions and briars and truly such are our affections if not sanctified they are like honey in our gall they imbitter all our comforts all our relations They disturb families Towns yea sometimes whole Nations so unruly are our affections naturally Why is it that the tongue Jam. 2. is such an unruly member that there is a World of evil in it It is because sinfull affections make sinfull tongues SECT XIX They readily receive the Devils Temptations LAstly In that they are so readily receptive of the Devils temptations Herein doth appear the pollution of them The Devil did not more powerfully possess the bodies of some men then he doth the affections of men by nature Are not all those delusions in religious wayes and in superstitious wayes because the Devil is in the affections Hath not the Devil exalted much error and much fals-worship by such who have been very affectionate Many eminent persons for a while in Religion as Tertullian have greatly apostatized from the truth by being too credulous to such women who have great affections in Religion So that it is very sad to consider how greatly our very affections in religious things may be abused how busie the Devil is to tempt such above all into errour because they will do him the more service affections being among other powers of the soul like fire among the elements They are the Chariot-wheels of the soul and therefore the more danger of them if running into a false way The Devil hath his false joy his false sorrow and by these he doth detain many in false and damnable wayes Hence the Scripture observeth the subtilty of the Devils instruments false teachers how busie they are to pervert women as being more affectionate and so the easilier seduced Matth 23. 14. The Pharisees devoured widows houses by their seeming devotions Thus false teachers 1 Tim. 3. 6. did lead captive filly women by which it appeareth how dangerous our affections are what strong impressions Satan can make upon them So that it is hard to say whether the Devils kingdome be more promoted by the subtilty of learned men or the affections of weak men CHAP. VI. The Sinfullnesse of the Imaginative Power of the Soul SECT I. This Text explained and vindicated against D. J. Taylor Grotius the Papists and Socinians GEN. 6. 5. And God saw that every imagination of the thoughts of mans heart was only evil and that continually WE have at large discovered the universal pollution of the Affections which we have by nature and handled them in this order though the
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
and weak for it is willingly acknowledged that the increase of actual wickedness was the immediate and proxime cause of this general judgement had not their iniquities in that age risen higher and cried louder for vengeance then ordinarily sinne did we may conceive God would not have proceeded to such an unheard of and extraordinary judgement Therefore vers 5. it is said God saw the wickednesse of man was great in the earth The Hebrew word comprehends both the greatness in quantity it was exceedingly multiplied as also in quality They were enormous sinnes all this the Text is clear for but this is not all The Text goeth higher to aggravate these impieties from the fountain which is a corrupt nature even as David Psal 51. doth heighten his actual wickedness from the sinfull nature he was born in Therefore both actual sins as the fruit and original sinne as the root is here made the cause of that universal judgement The second Exception to which the third may be adjoyned is That this corruption is supposed by those who hold it to be natural and unavoidable and therefore God could no more punish mankind for that then for sleeping or being hungry Beâ—◠〈…〉 by were eight persons excepted when all were alike Is not this a respect of 〈…〉 Answer this Here is either grosse ignorance or else a wilfull mistake about the word natural and unavoidable We grant it to be natural and unavoidable in some sense but not in that which he taketh it as if it were natural like sleep or hunger which are not culpable or have any guilt in them But of this largely in its time because the Adversaries do usually in an odious manner represent this inevitablenesse of sinning unto their Reader though we say voluntarily contracted at first and seem much to triumph in it As for the other addition Eight persons were excepted It is answered That those who were godly then and escaped that judgement they were delivered from the dominion and guilt of this original sinne and therefore it being pardoned to them though the remnants in some measure continued in them they were not involved in this judgement Lastly What ignorance is manifested in saying It must be respect of persons If God amongst those that were equally guilty spared some and rejected others For he may learn out of Aquinas and his followers That respect of persons cannot be in matters of liberality and munificence for where that is there is some justice and debt supposed Now if God had not saved any one man more then any apostate Angel I suppose he would not have charged God with in justice Thirdly It is questioned If it were the natural corruption God complained of Why did he it but thus as if it were a new thing It is answered The though original corruption was in all mankind as soon as ever the Image of God was lost and therefore Seth is said to beget his sonne after his own likeness sinfull and mortal yet because it did not break out into those violent torrents of iniquity before as it did at this time Hence it was that God did more severely take notice of it as putting it self forth in such bitter effects Fourthly It is objected That Noah the Preacher of righteousnesse was sent to draw the world off from that which was likely to destroy it but no man can think he would dehort them from being guilty of original sinne To this we also answer That as for being guilty of original sinne in our birth and how that can be our sinne then when we were not capable of a precept I have at large treated of it and so shall not actum agerâ—â— as also how farre original sinne is to be repented of Onely to the present Objection we say That though the Ministry be not to hinder us from being born in sinne yet it is to be instrumental in working our Regeneration which great gift of God those that deny original sinne must also necessarily deny which is a subduing and mortifying of original sinne in some degree and is a renovation of all those parts which original sinne had corrupted For Regeneration John 3. is proved necessary from the supposition of original sinne Whatsoever is born of the flesh is flesh The Text then thus vindicated from corrupt glosses for the imagination and devices of many men though learned have been very evil and that continually in the interpretation of it I shall only adde this That although by the imagination of the thoughts be chiefly meant the working of the mind and the understanding yet because the imaginative power or phantasie in a man is immediately subservient to the understanding in its operations and is therefore called ratio imperfecta imperfect reason and Cogitativa facultas the cogitative faculty in the soul I shall therefore treat of it only from this verse for the original pollution of the understanding hath been abundantly discovered From the Text then observe That that power of the soul whereby we imagine or phansie any thing is universally corrupted It imagineth only evil and that continually we have sinfull fancies as well as sinfull affections SECT II. Of the Nature of the Imagination in a man BEfore we insist on the particular pollutions thereof let us briefly take notice of the Nature of this Imagination in man And First It is taken two wayes For either by imagination we mean the power it self whereby we do imagine or the acting thereof even as the word Wib is sometimes taken for the power and sometimes for the act so is fancy and imagination Secondly Consider That Philosophers do affirm that besides the rational and immaterial faculties of the soul as also besides the external senses there are internal material senses about the number whereof they greatly dissent Some make five The Common Sense the Phansie the Imaginative Power the Estimative and the Memory Others there Others four Some but one only it may seem many because of the several manners of operation It is not worth the while to contest herein it is enough to know that there is in man such a power whereby he doth imagine and fancy things witness those dreams which usually rise in our sleep The use of this imagination is to preserve the species suggested to order them and judge of them and thereby is necessary to our understanding according to that Rule Oportet intelligentem phantasmata speculari And certainly The power of God is admirably seen in this imaginative faculty whether in men or beasts For how do birds come so artificially to make their nests and the Ants and Bees to be such admirable provident creatures in their kind but from that natural instinct in them whereby their phansies are determined to such things So it is from this imagination that the Sheep is afraid of a Wolf though it never saw one before especially in man his imagination being perfect there are many admirable things about the nature of it which when
Hysichius rendereth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an humiliation of the body this was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to speak of those who read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Corinth was well acquainted with these exercises of the body and although there were five kinds of them yet the Apostle instanceth in two only viz. of racers and of wrestlers as being most suitable to his purpose Now by this Metaphor the Apostle would teach us what an enemy and adversary the body is to the soul what snares it layeth for us what great danger may arise to us from it alone He doth not name his fighting with the world and the Devil though these be potent enemies but the body only because these adversaries cannot do us any hurt till this domestical enemy and home-adversary do betray us and as it signifieth that the body is an enemy so it declareth also with what austerity and mortification we are to observe our bodies for they are like our beasts if we take not their provender from them they will quickly grow too unruly as is implied in the next word It is true the Apostle doth not say I kill my body nor I mutilate my body for that had been unlawfull neither doth this Text give any encouragement to those Popish Penances and Discipline they use to their bodies although their learned men think this place alone to be enough to justifie their flagellations their whippings and scourgings of the body but commands such an abstinence about our bodies that thereby they may be the more prepared and usefull for any spiritual duty for such who live in bodily excess they make their bodies a very noisom sink or dunghill to the soul Hence the word is to be understood metaphorically as Luke 18. 5. where it is applied to the importunate widow that troubled the Judge And although the Apostle by the body doth chiefly mean the carnal and sinfull part of a man yet he nameth the body because that if not diligently watched unto and observed will quickly produce many carnal lusts The other Greek word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I bring it into subjection by this is denoted That the body is like some rebellious and stubborn servant or some pampered and untuly horse which with much art and strength must be brought under Thus also the body is it is unruly and masterfull it will prevail over the soul and even overcome the workings of grace if we do not carefully attend As in deep mines there do sometimes arise such foggy vapours that put their light out who are digging there and so endanger them if they do not diligently observe them Lusts then and sinnes lie in the body as it were like fire in the slint any temptation will draw them out It was the speech of one who though sick yet would not have the temptation come nigh him saying Auferte ignem adhuc enim paleas habeo Take away the fire for I have yet chaff within me Thus if Paul be afraid of his body if he fear himself lest temptations arise from thence what should we do if the Ramme fear so what should the Lamb do as Austin upon this point If the green tree thus fear burning what should the dry one do Though bodily sinnes are very many in number so that it would be too tedious to reckon up all yet I must not pass by one more which the Apostle is so large in and that is the sinfulness of the tongue that is one part of the body yet the Apostle saith a world of evil is in that how many worlds of evil are then in the whole man James 1. 4 5 6 7. The Apostle from his former councel given that they should not be many masters that is as some expound it and that most probable Do not affect to produce new opinions and so to create many Disciples to follow you as if you only found out this or that Doctrine Like that of our Saviour Matth. 23. 10. And be ye not called Masters for one is your Master even Christ and that they must depend upon your authority only From this councel I say he doth occasionally declare the evil and general wickedness of the tongue because where there are contrary masters and they hold contrary opinions commonly these are maintained by them with much pride and arrogancy with bitter censuring and condemning of one another Therefore the Apostle doth fully inform us what an instrument of evil the tongue is that it setteth on fire the course of nature It is from the tongue that houses Towns Cities yea the whole world is set into combustion and no wonder for that is set on fire from Hell that is from the Devil who by the corruption of man doth now reign and rule in him yea it is so full of deadly poison and such an unruly evil that no man can tame it From which expression Austin did well gather the necessity of Gods grace for the tongue only is so ready to evil one way or other that without Gods grace it cannot be tamed and though nature hath given teeth and lips as so many barres to keep in the tongue yet grace only must over rule it As then the Physician by looking on the tongue doth discover the heat and disease of the body within so by thy tongue thy passionate tongue thy unruly tongue thy raging tongue original sinne which is in the whole man is notoriously manifested How quickly is the poison in the heart emptied into the tongue Neither may you object saying That drunkenness adultery and evil bitter words are actual sinnes and what is this to original Yes very much as the fruit to the root as the streams to the fountain For were not the body thus originally polluted with the soul the fruit would be then answerable to a pure and perfect root And well may we discourse after this manner seeing we have the Apostle a President herein for Rom. 3. 9 10 11 12. having asserted both Jew and Gentile to be under sinne so that there is not one good of all mankind by nature he demonstrateth this both by the soul-sinfulness and the body sinfulness and that by actual impieties Their throat is an open sepulchre the poison of Asps is under their lips their feet are swift to shed bloud Thus it is plain that original sinne lying latent in the heart of a man is discovered by the actual impieties of the body and all the parts of the body are one way or other executive of the fruit of this sinne ¶ 5. It doth objectively occasion much sinne to the Soul FIfthly The body is not only a tempter thus to sinne and so as Saul purposed about Michal is become a snare to us a worse evil then is in that imprecation Let their table become a snare to them for our body which is so dear and so intimate that is also become a snare But then objectively it doth occasion much sinne to the soul In the
an humane way hath brought in several errours into the Church for it was because of this in part that the Marcionists denied Christ to have a true real body they thought it ignominious to him to be born as other children are and so in Popery there are marvellous legends and wonderfull miracles feigned about Christ while an Infant The surest way then to honour Christ is to keep close to his Word and we see how one error begetteth another for from the opinion that she was without original sinne they have proceeded to horrible Idolatry attributing that which is proper to Christ unto her she is called the Mediatrix she is called their hope There is a Roman Psaltery full of blasphemy in this kind turning Dominus into Domina what is said of the Lordunto her the Lady It is true we do as she fore-told acknowledge her blessed among women There was an high dignity bestowed upon her in being the mother of Christ but she was more happy in having Christ in her heart by faith then conceiving him bodily in her womb It is well observed by Cartwright in his Harmony That whereas the parents of John the Baptist are highly commended as righteous before God walking in all the Commandments of the Lord Luk. 1. 6. there is nothing recorded of the holiness of the Virgin Mary that hereby she rather then other women had this priviledge vouchsafed to her as if thereby the holy Ghost would prevent that horrible Idolatry which he foresaw would creep into the Church concerning her As the Papists so the Turks they do fondly and foolishly boast of the impeccability of their Mahomet insomuch that one of their learned men was forced to flie for his life because he held Mahomet might have sinned a venial sinne if he would Vide Hornbeek summa cent de Mahumedisme And although they do not say Mahomet was born without sinne yet they have a prodigious fable concerning him That when he was a child of four years old some Angels laid hold on him and carried him into a mountain where they diffected him washed his guts clean took out a black drop which they say is in every man as the seed of the Devil and all this without any grief and by this meant he was freed from sinne It is most dreadfull to consider what impieties and impostures are in that Mahumetan Religion and yet how greatly the propugners thereof have prevailed and that where Christian Churches were plantâ—â— They have also their religious persons which they call Nefesogli that they held are without sinne yea that they are not born in an humane way of generation of whose extasies they do relate very stupendious things by which we see how greatly the Devil can prevail by bodily devotions and such extatical raptures as well as by traditional superstitions The Devil doth not only by heresi and Idolatry but also by devotions and strange bodily raptures prevail and inlarge his Kingdom But these are so fabulous they are not worth insisting on Theodoret as Sixtus Senensis relateth Annot. in c. 5. Rom speaketh as if Seth Euceh Noah and such eminent men were free from original sinne as the Rabbins of Beaz and others that they were without evil concupiscence But though these had the grace of God regenerating them yet they were by nature full of sinne and although when it is said That the imaginations of mans heart were only evil from the youth it is said of Noah But he was a righteous man and feared God and so found favour with him This doth not inferre that by nature his imaginations were not as evil as others but only by the grace of God he had obtained a mighty change and translation from that natural condition SECT V. How absurd it is to exempt any from this Natural Pollution upon any ground whatsoever THirdly Original sinne being thus a sinne of the nature as it is absurd to exempt any from it upon Theological considerations so likewise from any Philosophical niceties For there are some that bring forth strange and paradoxal opinions about the nature of man and these will not have all men involved in Adam's sinne for there is an anonimous Author truly nullius nominis hath a written book De praeadomitis his whole scope is to shew that there were men before Adam though the Scripture doth not mention them and he saith A negative argument in matter of fact doth not hold There were none because the Scripture doth not name them no more then we can say Melchizedech had no father or mother indeed because they are not mentioned But Moses relateth what was in the beginning and thereby doth exclude any before Adam yea in the Scripture Adam is expresly called the first man 1 Cor. 15. 45. There are others and they would from Philosophy prove That all men are not of the same kind no more then birds and beasts and therefore they did not all come from Adam They instance in the Antipodes in those that are in the other world or Hemisphere The ancient Clement in his Epistle to the Corinthiant pag. 29. speaketh of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worlds beyond the sea But these all come from Adam for Act. 17. 26. it is expresly said That God hath made of one blend all Nations of men that dwell on the earth Therefore we need not matter these fancies no more then those that hold a world in the Moon and men there Paracelsus that gloried he would reform Luther as Luther had the Pope Vidâ— Ludev Crec Syntag. cap. 28. pag. 811. telleth us of men found in mines and that there are Marini homines and Satyrs who are capable of blessedness and that Christ died for them as a certain Satyr is said to the famous Ermit Anthony Some also speak of men begotten in that unnatural way with beasts that are beasts and men have these original sinnes But we are to despise all these niceties Neither are fancies to be minded against the clear Doctrine of the Scripture wheresoever there is the nature of man in a natural way there the Scripture pronounceth all obnoxious to this sinne The last Proposition is That this original sinne is communicated to all mankind although they have not sinned after the similitude of Adam 's transgression For you may happily think it is indeed just with God to punish all such who sinne like Adam that imitate him in his wickedness But as for others how doth that appear becoming the righteousness and mercy of God Now for this we have a clear attestation Rom. 5. 14. Death reigned over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression But what is meant by this description is controverted Those that leave out the negative making it to runne affirmatively viz. Who sinned after the transgression of Adam and also those who read it thus Death reigned after the similitude of Adams transgression upon those who did not sinne As Verstius following Erasmus and Chrysostom are not to be
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
also voluntary subjectivè for this corruption is chiefly seated in the will which ruleth the whole man and it is voluntary consecntivè by consequent for man naturally delighteth in this evil estate and till grace make a change we are not weary of this condition It is true this subsequent will whereby we delight in our original pollution doth not properly make original sinne to be ours for this is an actual sinne and floweth from that better root only it sheweth that this evil estate is so farre from being contrary to mans will naturally that it delighteth in it and doth contumaciously rebell against the grace of Christ that would deliver Lastly Whereas the 18th Chapter of Ezekiel is commonly objected against this truth where God by the Prophet at large declareth That the Sonne shall not die for the fathers sinne an innocent for a nocent but every one shall die in his own iniquity I have spoken something to this already neither am I to consider how that place is to be reconciled with the second Commandment wherein God is said To visit the iniquity of fathers upon their children to several generations Exod. 20. 3. and several instances of Scripture make it good To be sure the Proverb which gave occasion to this passage was a prophane one redounding to Gods dishonour Sanctius in locum the Papist thinketh that the Jews of old had used it and that because of Adam's fall imputed to his posterity but it seemeth rather at that time to be taken up while under the judgements of God especially for Manassehs his sins as appeareth Jer. 15. 4. where is observable that though Manasses had repented and his sinnes pardoned to him yet God visited them upon the Nation afterward So that it may not seem strange If it be affirmed That notwithstanding Adam repented and his sinne pardoned yet it may be visited upon all his posterity There are various thoughts about the interpretation of the place Some making it a promise under the Covenant of grace only as it seemeth probable if you compare it with Jer. 31. 29. where the same prophane Proverb is mentioned and this promise to the contrary whereas Adam was under the Covenant of works Others very probably say This is not to be extended to all times and places only God promiseth That in their particular condition at present they shall have no occasion to use it for such who did might be brought back from their captivity Thus Sanctius and Maldenate because say they it is plain That the Jews now are under their grievous calamity for their fathers sake who crucified Christ saying Let his blood be upon us and our children Mat. 27. 25. But however the Exposition be it doth not gain-say this Doctrine of original sinne for there it speaketh of children free from their parents sins we speak of children filled with inherent corruption themselves though derived from Adam and chiefly because there the Prophet speaketh of particular private parents whereas we say Adam was a publique appointed person by God himself so that that of Adam's is extraordinary even as Christ though innocent yet died for our sins which yet seemeth to contradict this place of Ezekiel and the Socinians bring it to prove it could not stand with Gods justice to punish Christ being innocent for our sins But in the close of all we may justly retort on those who oppose this truth that they attribute much injustice and cruelty to God which Austin doth frequently urge the Pelagians with for they make all the misery that many times falleth upon young Infants yea and that repugnancy and temptation that is within us against good to be from our primitive constitution that God made us so Those that will not acknowledge original sinne to be the cause of this misery must make God to be so and therefore as appeareth by Baronius Annal. Anno 418. The Emperors Edict made to banish Pelagians containeth this as one reason Proprer trucem inclementiam c. for the horrid and cruel inclemency they attribute to God passing a sentence upon man to die before he liveth But I shall hereafter when I come to speak of the Effects of original sin make it appear That the opposers of original sinne do more unjustly yea and blasphemously attribute many things to God in a farre more transcendent way then their adversaries are by them supposed to do How can it stand with the goodness mercy and love of God that so much evil and death it self should be upon mankind from mans Creation and not rather that it was introduced by Adam's sinne Let the Use of all this be to humble our selves under Gods righteous proceedings to say with Job chap. 40. 3 Behold I am vile I will lay my hand upon my mouth Yea mayest thou not admire at the wise ends of God revealed in Scripture why this should be This is to stop every mans mouth This is to make it appear That all the world is guilty before God This is to make it appear that Christ is necessary this is the way to make Christ more glorious and precious to those that do believe A TREATISE OF Original Sin The Fourth Part. Setting forth The immediate Effects of ORIGINAL SINNE By Anthony Burgess ANCHORA SPEI LONDON Printed in the Year 1658. A TREATISE OF Original Sinne. PART IV. CHAP. I. Of that Propensity that is in every one by nature to Sinne. SECT I. This Text explained and vindicated from Socinian Exceptions JOB 15. 16. How much more abominable and filthy is man which drinketh iniquity like water THe last particular to be treated upon concerning original sinne is the immediate effects thereof which we now come to discover and whereas they are many some general and some particular as the paines inflicted upon women in child-bearing the general are the curses that are brought upon the whole world and every part thereof I shall limit my self only to those that belong to mankind and are inseparably annexed to every individium herein Now these effects they are either spiritual or temporal I shall begin with the spiritual and first pitch upon that propensity and vehement inclination which is in every one by nature to sinne This plainly demonstrateth there is a sinful and corrupted principle within else all mankind would not be so prone and inclining to evil as they are and this Text will abundantly confirme us of the ready and delightfull propensity that is in every man none exempted to that which is evil They are the words of Eliphaz one of Job's friends who taketh an Argument from this proneness in mans nature to sinne to humble Job and to make him more patiently silent under Gods heavy hand upon him Job indeed acknowledgeth this very truth Chap 14. 4. and doth from thence debase himself under Gods dealings with him but Eliphaz repeateth this again either because the most holy that are though they sometimes affect their hearts with divine truths and do make a blessed improvement
is described by the immediate effect from this cursed cause being thus abominable and filthy what doth necessarily flow from hence even to drink iniquity like water This expression sheweth the vehement inclination in man to sinne and that with delight as a man who is greatly thirsty doth earnestly desire to drink that the heat within may be refrigerated Of this expression more in the Doctrine This is enough to shew how it is with man relatively to sinne even as with a feavourish or hydropical person that is continually calling for some drink to cool the heat within Thus this Text sheweth us what is one immediate and inseperable effect of mans nature through original corruption that it doth propend and incline with all greediness to evil and only evil continually Yet although this be so pregnant and clear a place Socinians have laboured to obscure it And 1. They say It is an Hyperbole This is their constant refuge whensoever the Scripture saith any thing to exalt Christ or debaâ—e man they make it an Hyperbole but how can that be accounted an Hyperbole which experience doth confirme And the Adversaries to original sinne grant that mankind is very prone to sinne and all are very ready to offend though they attribute this to other causes rather then original sinne This Answer of theirs hath been fully consuted when we treated on Psal 51. 2. They say Such an impurity is noted to be in man as is in the Angels and the Heavens but they have no original sinne The Answer is That there is more attributed to man how much more abominable is man So that the Argument is taken from the less to the greater 3. They say These words are not to be taken universally or understood of every man but the expression is universal it excludeth or exempteth no man man and born of a woman are universals not particulars 4. They say These are the words of Eliphaz one of Jobs friends and they did not alwayes speak right It is true they did not alwayes rightly apply the Doctrine they spake they mistook about Job but the Doctrine it self in the general was true and therefore we see that quoted in the new Testament as the word of God which Eliphaz spake as that passage 1 Cor. 3. 13. He taketh the wise in their own craftiness is Eliphaz his speech Job 5. 13. but for this particular truth you have heard Job also as well as Eliphaz confirming of it Job 14. 3. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one Which is not to be understood of bodily filthiness as the Pelagians of old but spiritual uncleanness as appeareth by the opposite to it in other places which is unrighteousness for it is worth our observing that this natural pollution and sinfulness of man is mentioned four times in this Book of Job with the aggravation of it The first is Chap. 4. 18 19. Behold he put no trust in his servants c. how much less on them that dwell in houses of clay whose foundation is in the dust c. This special truth Eliphaz saith he had in a Vision and by special revelation from God and therefore it was the more to be attended unto if Angels are not able to stand in the presence of God but cover even their very faces the noblest part as conscious of their imperfection comparatively to God then no wonder if sinful mortal man be affected with his distance from yea and contrariety to God In the next place We have this truth witnessed unto by Job and that on purpose to debase himself under God that if God do search into him he cannot find any thing but what is filthy and unclean Chap. 14. 4. of which we have largely treated The third time we meet with is here in my Text where Eliphaz repeateth it again making use thereof to Job that he should acknowledge impurity and uncleanness adhering unto every thing he doth though never so holy And The fourth or last time is Chap 25 45 6. Where Bildad agreeth both with Job and Eliphaz in this truth How can hâ— be clean that is born of a woman The starres are not pure in his sight how much less man that is a worme c. Thus you see in the mouth of three witnesses we have this Doctrine assured to us that man of himself is very abominable and filthy we might think such clear Texts might for ever convince men that they should not speak of such a thing as natural is quaedem sanctitas and probitas a natural kind of holiness and probity no though it were among deaf men the matter is so abominable and grossely repugnant to Scripture-light The last exception put in against this place by the pure Naturalists is That this Text speaketh of actual sinne and therefore it maketh nothing for original To drink down iniquity like water is say they nothing but the 〈◊〉 exercising of impiety But this is readily granted for we bring this Text to declare the immediate issue of original sinne because man is thus abominable by nature therefore he drinketh down iniquity like water he doth not speak here of men who by custom have habituated themselves in an evil way which is become like a second nature to them but of man originally and nakedly in himself till the grace of God make a change upon him So that as to drink though an action doth denote thirst a natural appetite within Thus the acting of iniquity with delight and content doth necessarily suppose a corrupted and perverted principle within from whence all actual evil doth flow Thus the Text being fully explained and vindicated from all exceptions we may observe That man being originally corrupted is therefore prone to all sinne with delight Because he is abominable and filthy therefore he swalloweth down iniquity like water As in every mans body there is a mortal and corruptible principle within which exposeth to diseases and at last death it self So in the soul there is a vehement inclination unto every thing that is evil it 's most sutable and connatural to him As the feavourish man with greedinesse and delight doth swallow down cold liquour thinking he never hath enough Thus it is with man by nature That there is in all mankind a propensity to sinne not onely the Adversaries to original sinne but even Heathens have acknowledged and bewailed and we have the Scripture Rom. 3. at large describing of it Now if it were not by original sinne How and whence should a sinfull inclination be in all men if there were an innocency and neutrality meerly in man to good or evil yea an inclination rather to good because as they say the seeds of vertue are naturally in all How cometh it about that the greater part of mankind is not good rather than evil Why should it not be that to sinne is difficult but to do good is easie But besides experience and many Texts of Scripture that may confound this
at the beginning endeavoured to clear himself and to charge his sinne upon God The woman thou gavest me And happily some even in the primitive times by mis-understanding some places of Scripture wherein God is said to give men up to their lusts to harden and blind men in their sinnes might occasion such a detestable Position And although the Papists do ordinarily charge this damnable Doctrine upon the Calvinists yet there needeth no more to justifie Calvin in this particular then what he doth most excellently and solidly deliver upon this very Text. The truth is our learned men shew expressions from the Papists yea from Bellarmine himself more harsh and incommodious then I believe can be found in any Protestant Writer But this by the way The Apostle being to inform us of the true cause of all the sinne we do commit and that not God no nor Devils or wicked men are to be blamed comparatively but our own selves sheweth that all this evil cometh from that concupiscential frame of heart we have within us And as for God the Apostle expresly instanceth concerning him prohibiting any one to think or say it is from God that they do sinne Let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God and he giveth two reasons whereof one is the cause of the other If you ask How is it that God is said to tempt no man seeing he tempted Abraham and the Israelites Austin's distinction is made use of that there is a temptation probationis and seductionis of probation or tryal or of deceiving and enticing to sin God indeed doth often tempt his people the former way not but that he knoweth what is in the heart of every man but that hereby a godly mans graces may be the more quickned as also a man have more experimental knowledge of himself As for the other temptation of seduction God doth not thus tempt that is he doth not encline or enrice to sinne It is true we read the Prophet Jeremiah saying O Lord I am deceived and thou hast deceived me Jer. 20. 7. But that is spoken unadvisedly and rashly by the Prophet who thought because what he had prophesied was not as yet fulfilled and therefore his adversaries derided and scorned him that therefore it would not at all be fulfilled and so by consequence that God had deceived him Secondly Divines distinguish temptation into external and internal External are afflictions and troubles called often so in Scripture and these temptations are from God 2. Internal which do immediately incline to sinne and with these God doth not tempt Now although the Apostle had in the former part spoken of external temptations yet now he speaks of internal ones though some think he continueth his discourse of externals because these many times draw out hearts to sinne but this ariseth not from God The reason why God cannot tempt to sinne is from the infinite perfection of holiness which is in God he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He cannot be tempted by evil It is true men are said to tempt God many times and so ex parte hominu there is done what man could do even to make God deviate from his own holy nature and Law but the Apostle meaneth ex parte Dei that God is of such absolute purity and transcendent holiness that there cannot arise any motion in his nature to make him sinne For so we expound the Greek word in a passive sense Estius himself granting that the use of it in an active signification can hardly be found though Popish Interpreters plead for the active sense but then there would be no distinction of this from the following words Neither tempteth he any man The original word is used only here in the New Testament The strength then of the Argument lieth in this God doth not tempt any man to sin because he hath no inward temptation or motion in his own nature to sin for that is the reason why the Devil is so impetuous and forward in tempting us to sin because his nature is first carried out to all evil so there is no man that doth draw on another to sin but because he in his own heart is drawn aside with it before The Apostle having thus justified God and removed all cause of evil from him In my Text he directeth us to the true internal and proper cause of all the sinne that we do commit and therein doth most excellently shew the several steps and degrees of sinne whereby of an Embryo as it were at first it cometh to be a compleated and perfected sinne This Text is much vexed by Bellarmine and Popish Authors to establish their distinction of a venial and mortal sinne though they cannot find any true aid from the Text. Let us consider the particulars of this noble Text The Cause of a mans sinne is said to be lust 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is the same with original sinne the corruption of all the powers of the soul whereby it is inordinately carried out to all things Of which more in the Doctrine This is described from the note of propriety 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His own lust This expression is used that we may not lay all upon the Devil or other men for this is ordinarily brought by men to excuse themselves It is true I was in such a fault I have sinned but the Devil moved me or such wicked companions they enticed me or I did it because men compelled me and terrified me all this will not serve thy turn It is thy own lust within not men without that hath made thee thus to sinne And this sheweth That every man hath his own proper original sinne by way of a lust within him 3. This is further amplified from the Vniversality of the Subject wherein this lust is seated Every man so that no man but Christ who was God and man is freed from this incentive to evil 4. There is the Manner How this lust doth tempt us to sinne and that is expressed in two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Drawn away that is as some from God from heavenly objects because in all sinne there is an aversion from God and a conversion to the creature or else as others Drawn aside form the consideration of hell of the wrath of God of eternal death and damnation For we sinne continually as Eve did at first The Devil perswaded her she should not die and then when this fear was removed she presently falleth into the transgression and thus before men fall into the pit of any sinne they are drawn aside from those serious thoughts This will offend God this will damn me The other word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Metaphor either from birds or fishes which have baits to allure them and thereby are destroyed Thus lust appeareth with a bait but the hook doth not appear In the next place This original sinne is illustrated in the issue of it the Apostle sheweth how sinne Ã
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
confront the Scripture which attributeth condemnation and 〈…〉 to this sinne because of the intrinsecal evil and hainousness thereof The essence is of one to condemnation saith the Apostle Rom 5. and the Text saith we are by nature the children of wrath Besides this is a ridiculous and absurd 〈◊〉 for original sinne is nothing but the spiritual death of the soul and doth wholly destroy that respect and habitude which the soul had unto God Father this Popish evasion is of no strength with us who hold no venial sinnes in their sense For they say a man may be damned in hell for venial sins not because they of their own nature deserve so but because of the subject sometimes who may die destitute of all grace and then his venial sinnes encrease his condemnation But this Doctrine of a venial sinne in the Popish sence is immediately opposite to Scripture and contrary to the Majesty of the most holy God Conclus 2. In that original sinne is thus meritotious of eternal damnation Those learned men who hold the corrupt Mass of mankind to be that state out of which God chooseth some to eternal life leaving others in this wretched and sinfull condition they have by Adam do thereby affirm nothing injurious to God or any thing that may justly be complained of by sound reason It is not my intent to launch into that vast Ocean of the dispute about the object of election and reprobation no not as it is confined among the orthodox they themselves disputing whether it be Massa para or Massa corrupta from whence ariseth that distinction of Supralapsarians and Sublapsarians It is enough at the present to affirm that if the corrupt Mass of mankind be made the object of election and reprobation the justice of God is abundantly cleared against all Papists Arminians and others in this particular because original sinne doth deserve eternal damnation This was the opinion of Austin and many moderate learned men think this opinion less obnoxious to cavils and more consonant to Scripture then that of those who hold Gods decrees herein to be supposing Massa pura or man considered as man meerly in a common sense Thus God speaketh of hating Esau and loving Jacob in respect of his purpose according to election and that before they had done good or evil Rom 9 11. which relateth to their actual evil Yea this was Calvins opinion as appeareth Lib 1. de eterna Dei predestinatione contra Pighium alledged by Crakanthorpe Defens Eccles Anglic. cap. 37. where Calvin saith when we treat of predestination Vnde exordiendum esse semper docui atque bodie doceo jure in morte relinqui omnes reprobos qui in Adam mortui sunt damnati jure parice qui naturâ sunt filii irae ita nemini causam esse cur de nimio Dei rigore quâ—ratur quando reatum in se omnes inclusum gestant Thus Calvin And how orthodoxly and vehemently doth Crakanthorpe though of the Episcopal judgement defend this Potestne quisquam saith he te Spalâ—to quisquam ex vestris Dei justitiam in damnandis reprobis luenlentiùs asserere In Adamo in massâ perditirei omnes mortis eorum alios ex istâ Massâ per misericordiam liberat alios in eâdem Massâ per justitiam damnandos relinquit For Gods election and reprobation is about Infants as well as Adult persons neither may we think it any cruelty or injustice of God if he leave an Infant in his natural impure estate seeing grace is free if it be grace and God is not bound to adde a new favour where the former is lost and although such an Infant had no voluntary personal acting to this corrupt estate he is born in for which God eternally passeth him by with a negative preterition as some Divines express it yet because sinnes in the Scripture-language are called debts that which is just between man and man may be much more between God and man who cannot be any wayes obliged to shew favour to him and that is amongst men children are liable to their parents debts and what their parents did wickedly and voluntarily contract by their prodigality and luxury that the children stand engaged to pay though they had no influence into those supposed debts Thus all mankind stands engaged for Adam's debt I mean as the consequent corruption of his nature by his voluntary disobedience doth hereditarily descend to all his posterity and the rather because it is both aliena and nstra culpa as Bernard both Adam's debt and our own also No wonder then if mankind lying in this bloud God spake to some to live and leaveth the restin their undone estate but I must not enlarge on this When that mutable Euripus and miserable Ecebolius though not crying out afterwards as he did Culcate me insipidum salem Spalatensis had objected this as a puritanical opinion and also the Doctrine of the Church of England That Infants dying with Baptisme may yet be damned Crakanthorpe defendeth the Church of England herein Defens cap. 40 yet with such assertions that cannot please the late Antagonist of original sin Vbi è Scripturis habes Infantes morientes cum Baptismo non posse damnari saith he An tu à Dei consiliâ—s es ut sine Scripturâ hoc scias ut scias tales omnes Infantes electos esse You see he putteth their salvation upon election that are saved concluding indeed that in the judgement of charity we think such may be saved but as for a judicium certitudinis veritatis he doth leave that to God but you must remember he speaketh not of all Infants though of Infidels SECT VIII A Consideration of their Opinion that hold a 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 THirdly In that original sinne is meritorious of eternal condemnation yea and doth produce this effect actually in some Hence that Doctrine so confidently avouched by some that by Christ the guile of original sinne is wholly taken off stom all mankind and every one by nature is now born in a state of Gods love and reconciliation till by actual sinnes be doth exclude himself from this mercy is also an unsavoury opinion and contrary to the Word of God But because this Doctrine is very plausible and hath had confident avouchers of it let us throughly search into all the recesses of it And First We may take notice that Puccius wrote a book for this purpose to prove that as by Adam we were truly properly and de facto put into a state of sinne and wrath and that antecedently to our knowledge or consent so by the second Adam all mankind in the same latitude is put into a state of savour and reconciliation with God properly actually and de facto and that antecedently to any faith or knowledge
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
to send them to hell they think but what can be spoken more terribly against man in regard of original sinne then God himself here speaks where every word is like so much thunder and lightning as is to be shewed Only for the present purpose observe that he saith Every imagination of the thought of a mans heart is evil Imagination or framing and fashioning the heart of a man is compared to a shop of wickedness and every thing framed or fashioned there is only evil Sinne then is present in a powerfull manner when there cannot so much as rise a motion in thee a stirring of thy soul though never so involuntary and indeliberate but it is only evil Oh it was not thus in the state of integrity then every imagination every motion was good and only good but now our gold is become dross and wine water Let a natural man observe his heart and he shall see what riseth first in his soul is all filth like the muddy fountain it comes from Yea even in a godly man How many thoughts and motions rise up in his heart that he abhorreth and trembleth at It is true sometimes the devil injecteth vile and blasphemous thoughts so that his heart is not at all active in them and therefore are not sinnes but compared to the Cup in Benjamin's sack they knew not how it came there and it is a great dexterity in casuistical Divinity so to direct a Christin that he may know when such motions arise from the devil alone so that they are my afflictions but not sinnes or when they come from my heart and so are truly imputable to me of which in its due time it may be but for the present we may sigh and groan under this consideration That evil is so present with us that nothing riseth up in the heart sooner than sinne Secondly In that evil is said to be present to Paul there is denoted the universal and diffusca presene of it Paul doth not say it 's present in one part in one faculty but to me that is in every part susceptible of sinne Therefore it is called The Law in his members because it putteth forth its efficacy every where sinne is present in the mind by atheism unbelief c. in the will by obstinacy and obdurateness in the affections by inordinacy and confusion yea sinne is present in the eye in the tongue So that the Apostle meaneth this original sinne is of such an universal extent that it is present in every part in him For you must not think as some Papists do That original sinne is only in the inferiour sensitive part of a man but it is principally and chiefly in the intellectual and most noble part the mind and the understanding and indeed because it 's so predominant therefore is conversion so difficult for the Ministry bringing arguments and convictions out of Gods word The sinne that is present in the understanding putteth a man upon atheistical cavils and carnal disputes whereby he shuts himself up voluntarily in his darkness rather than he will receive light Thirdly In that evil is said to be present with us here is denoted the continual assaulting and vigorous acting of it at all times Though original sinne be not an actual sinne yet it is an active sinne Hence Paul attributeth such actions to it as if it were some mighty imperious and conquering tyrant he saith it doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It warreth against him it leadeth him into captivity Do not then think this sinne hath a meer bare sluggish presence is if it lay asleep in thee No it is daily assaulting thee it 's continually pulling thee down As the heart and pulse are in continual motion thus is original sin within thee Therefore our imaginations are not only said to be only evil Gen. 6. 5. but also continually Thy soul never acteth but it acteth sinfully and corruptly It is true while men are in their natural estate They are dead in sinne and so they find not feel not these stirrings neither do they groan under them but there are innumerable Myriads of sinfull motions in thee to sinne though thou doest not apprehend them As a man shut up in a dark dungeon full of Toads and noisom vermin he seeth nothing till light come into the place and then he trembleth being afraid to stay there any longer such a loathsom dungeon is every mans heart naturally Oh the atheism vanity wickedness that is bound up therein but thou dost not know or believe any such thing because dead in sin Fourthly There is implied the facility and easiness in sinning The way to sinne is no narrow or strait way There needeth not much striving to enter therein for it 's ready at hand May not all find if they will search this readiness of sin at all time Why is thy heart so quickly moved and drawn out to any earthly or sinfull pleasure but it 's a long while ere thou canst make any fire or kindle a flame in thy soul to that which is good Thy soul is a dry Tree to the former but a green Tree to the later as the Scripture speaks concerning the righteousness of faith It 's night thee Thou needest not say Who shall go into the deep for it Rom. 10 c. Thus it is true of sin in thee thou needest no instruction no masters thou needest not fetch devils from hell to commit sinne for that is alwayes present with thee Hence Eliphaz compareth it Job 15. to drinking of water when a man is scorched with thirst If you see there are many who by a natural conscience are so convinced that they are difficulty brought to commit some sinnes especially gross ones It is no contradiction for a man to be all over polluted and prone to sinne notwithstanding such dictates of conscience implanted in all men This is plain That sin ss so present that without any difficulty or pain we are carried out to sinne so that the kingdom of hell doth not like the kingdom of Heaven need any violence to take it Fifthly When evil is said to be present there is denoted the subtile and daily insinuation of it into all that we do It 's in a man like leaven that sends forth its fourness into all the meal it leaveth not the least part unleavened This sinne is like a Dalilah in Samson's heart it is alwayes enticing and tempting of thee and therefore it 's called by the name of lust or concupiscence and Jam. 1. 17. there it 's said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to intice by setting baits for us Hence in Jer. 17. the wickedness of the heart is expressed by this That it is deceitfull above all things who can think that the wise holy God made us with such hearts at first No but upon the first transgression came this desolation upon us Because then evil is thus present with us hence every holy duty is contaminated hence there
hid in the soul which by education and instruction are blown up into a flame So that the Schools which are generally provided for youth do declare That the nature of man of it self will bring forth weeds but there must be much plowing and sowing much cost and labour ere any good seed will grow up That known Text of Scripture will for ever bear record against these patrons of nature Folly is bound up in the heart of a child but the rod of correction will drive it away Prov. 22. 15. No lesse powerfull is that counsel Prov. 23. 13. With-hold not correction from the child if thou beat him with the rod he shall not die if thou beat him c. thou shalt deliver his soul from hell Doth not this proclaim that every child is set to damn it self if left alone It is not more prone to runne into the fire then it is to fall into hell and this maketh chastisement so necessary How necessary is it for parents to consider this either education or hell either chastisement or damnation And whence is all this but because of the impetuous nature in every child unto evil As the horse and mule need the bridle being carried out only by sense Thus doth the child need admonition being unteachable and untamable of himself even like the wild Asses colt Job 11. 12. Let parents then take heed of remisness lest their children roaring in hell do continually curse them for their negligence It 's a known example of a young man carried to the place of execution that cried out Non Praetor sed Mater mea duxit ad furcam It was not the Judge but his mother brought him to that shamefull death There was in the Tabernacle Aarons Rod and the Manna which some would have allegorically to signifie the sweetness and benefit of Discipline Iniquity then breedeth within us all the wisest and severest education can no more free a child from its inherent filthiness then Paracelsus could make himself immortal as he fondly boasted if he had had the first ordering and dieting of his body Hence the duty of parents is set down Ephes 6. 4. To bring up their children in the nature and admonition of the Lord. And Solomon who was so tender and onely beloved in the sight of his mother yet his parents were continually distilling wholsome precepts into him as Prov. 4. 3 4 5 implying thereby that none is without ignorance without a proneness to evil therefore is godly instruction so necessary So that the Doctrine of original sinne should greatly provoke fathers and mothers to their duties Every mother should be a Monica to her Austin that we may say It is not possible that Filius tot lachrymarum pereat a sonne of so many prayers and tears should perish Fifthy The difficulty that is acknowledged by ali to do that which is good and holy doth also manifest our propensity to what is evil We cannot apply the Text to that which is good and say Man drinketh down that like water The very Heathens could say Facilis discensus averni and Virtus in arduo sita est Virtue was placed upon an high mountain it was hard climbing up unto it but it was easie to tumble down it is easie to fall down the hill Sinne then being so easily committed and that which is good so hardly performed Doth not this speak plainly that we are corrupted by nature For certainly if the word of God neither in the threatnings or in the promises of it can make us decline from evil and do good when neither hell can terrifie us nor the glorious joyes of Heaven invite us This argueth we are immovably fixed in a way of sinning Is there any command for holy duties Is there any Law enjoyning us to leave our lusts of which we do not say It is an hard saying who can bear it Hence it is that the wisdome of the flesh is said to be enmity in the very abstract against God Rom. 8. 7. the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whatsoever is either in mind or affections is wholly opposite to the pure Law of God So that this is an evident demonstration of mans vehement inclination to sinne that though God hath set so many fiery flaming swords in the way to stop us from sinne Though Heaven in the glory of it be on one side discovered and hell in all the horrible and dreadfull torments of it on the other side Though many Ministers of God meet thee at the Angel did Balaam to stop thee in the way to sinne yet for all this thou doest despirately and obstinately proceed This maketh it appear that there is a more flagrant appetite to sinne then to any thing else like Rachel crying Give me children else I die so let me have my lusts satisfied else no life no condition is comfortable Sixthly The necessity of Gods grace both for the beginnings progresse and consummation in every good work doth evidently prove our polluted nature We need grace to make us new creatures of spiritually dead to quicken us and enliven us we need grace to breath in the very first desires and groans after any thing that is good Now why is there such a necessity of a Physician if we be not sick Christ is in vain grace is in vain if original sinne with the effects thereof be denied And therefore Austia said Pelagians were but nomine tenus Christiani Christians only in name for they do in effect exclude Christ and evacuate grace Indeed the pure Naturalist Vnam Necessarium Chap 6. pag. 413. affirmeth That the necessity of grace doth not suppose our nature to be originally corrupted for beyond Adam's meer nature something else was necessary and so it is in us This Position is bottomed upon that false and absurd Doctrine invented at first by some Philosophers brought into the Church by Pelagions much insisted upon by Papists That there is a middle state a state of pure nature between sinne and grace That Adam was created in such a condition God superadding the glorious ornaments of grace which upon his fall he was deprived of and so fell into his state of pure nature again and in this middle estate every Infant is now born a state indeed they say of imperfection but not of sinne we need grace to carry us to those sublime and high things which are above nature but otherwise there is no sinne is 〈◊〉 So that it 's the Papists expression That Adam standing and Adam fallen 〈◊〉 only as a man that was cloathed and naked or as the late Author as Moses face while the light did shine upon it and when it was removed As Moses face did remain with its naturals though it had not the super-added lustre Thus say they man is in his state of nature not sinfull neither godly But this is a monstrous figment and he that saith Those who dispute of original sinne do dispute De non ente How much rather may we say that
hinder the superiour Whether Adam in the state of integrity would have had dreames is uncertain but if he had learned men conclude they would alwayes have been good and not without the present use of reason as Rivet thinketh in cap. 3. Genes However this is enough for our purpose to shew that we are tempted to sinne in a different way from Adam Hence the fifth Proposition is That because there is such an internal Insting principle within a man is carried out to sinne though there be no external temptations by Satan or wicked men But even as the Devil who sinned first had no tempter but was carried out by his meer free-will to evil So much more must man who hath this corrupt principle within him be carried out to sinne though there be no Devil to tempt us or wicked men Hence the Apostle doth in this Text name lust onely as the inward cause not mentioning Devils or wicked men But yet it is disputed That although the lust of a man within be a sufficient cause and principle to carry a man out to all evil whether for all that the Devil also doth not help to the committing of every sinne They question Whether original lust be the cause only and that the Devil also doth not excite and stirre this up Some think because wicked men are said to do what they see their father the Devil do and because he is called the tempter 1 Thess 3. 4. That therefore though we sinne alwayes of our selves yet it is by the instigation of the Devil but because the Scripture maketh the imagination of mans heart to be only evil Gen. 8. 21. And because our corruption within is generally said to be the cause of a mans sinne therefore we cannot say that the Devil tempteth to every evil action that we do commit although in some particular hainous sins as in Judas and Ananias and Sapphira he entered into their hearts and filled them with his temptations but at that very time observe how Peter doth reprove Ananias for letting Satan have such admission into his heart Acts 5 3. Why hath Satan filled thy heart So that the Devil doth not compell any man to sinne it will be no excuse to say Satan tempted me for this could not be if thy lust did not consent to him and entetain him he throweth his fiery darts and thy heart is like thatch or straw that quickly is inflamed The last Proposition is That the effects of this inhereâ—t lust within us are of two sorts immediate and mediate Immediate are those first motions and workings of soul to any evil object though not consented unto yea it may be abhorred and humbled for The mediate effects are lusts consented unto in the heart and many times externally committed in our lives For that original sinne hath an influence into grosse sinnes appeareth by David's confession Psal 51 when he bewails his birth-pollution in his penitential humiliation for those foul sins committed by him But I shall enlarge my self only concerning those sinfull motions and stirrings of the heart unto evil which though the ungodly man taketh no notice of yet the constant and perpetual work of a godly man is to conflict with as appeareth Rom. 7. They are those perpetual restlesse workings of his heart inordinately one way or other that make his condition so bitter and therefore it is good to consider what may be said for our information herein ¶ 2. Of the Motions of the Heart to sinne not consented unto as an immediate Effect of Original Sin THe last Proposition we mentioned contained a division of the effects of original sinne within us which were either immediate such as the motions of the heart to sinne with the pleasures therof not consented unto Or mediate which are lusts consented unto and the external actings of sinne thus imbraced I shall only enlarge my self upon the former and for your information therein take these considerations First That these motions to sinne may be divided according to the subject they are in Now the powers of the soul are usually divided into the apprehensive and appetitive the cognitive and affective that is either such as know or understand or such as are carried out by love and desire These are the Jachin and Beaz as it were the two pillars of the temple of the soul and respectively to these two so are the stirrings of sinne within us In the mind or knowing part of the soul the workings of sinne are by apprehensions and thoughts In the affective part by way of delight and love And in both these the heart of a godly man is many times sadly exercised For thoughts How many vain idle foolish ones do arise in his soul like the sand upon the sea-shore The flies and Locusts in Aegypt did not more annoy then these do molest and trouble a gracious heart These thoughts come like so many swarms upon thee before thou hast time to recollect thy self They are got into the souls closet before they were ever perceived knocking at the door Nay these thoughts are not only roving wandring and restlesse but sometimes horrid black ones blasphemous atheistical diabolical which put the soul into an holy trembling and they know not what to do they think none like them no such vile wretches in the world as they are Indeed there are blasphemous injections of Satan such as are suggested to the soul importunately by him to which the soul giveth no consent but like the maid in the judicial Law that was ready to be ravished cryeth out against them or as the people when they heard Rabshakeh rail and blaspheme the God of Israel so horribly They answered him not a word Thus the people of God in such temptations give no consent or approbation to them now these are afflictions not sinnes they are sad exercises but not our corruptions because they are wholly external and cast in upon us as if we were in a room where we could not get out hearing men curse and blaspheme this would torment our souls but they do not make us guilty They are compared to the Cup in Benjamen's sack it was found there but it was not his fault it came there without his knowledge and consent And although they be foul and loathsom to a gracious heart yet God usually keepeth his people hereby humble and lowly yea he maketh them more spiritual and fruitfull as the black and noisom dung maketh the field more fertile and fruitfull but I speak not of these The thoughts we are treating of are such as arise from our own hearts for seeing original sinne is the seed of all evil the most erroneous and flagitious that can be therefore atheistical blasphemous lascivious and other evil thoughts may come out of our own hearts It is indeed a special part of heavenly skill and wisdom experimentally to make a difference between what thoughts are our own and what are meerly of diabolical â—â—jections to discover when our own corrupt
nature worketh and when the Devil doth only assault and annoy us But that is not my business now It is enough to know That even from thy own unsanctified heart may arise vain thoughts blasphemous thoughts So that thy soul seemeth unto thee to be not only like a dunghill but an hell it self To these evil stirrings of sinne in the apprehensive part we may referre our sinful dreames even for them God might damn us Austin bewaileth and confesseth his dreames and yet our understanding and will do not so properly work at that time The other sort of workings of soul are such as are by way of love and desire when there arise in the heart some motions and affections to such an object Our hearts being now wholly destitute of the Image of God and sinne having full dominion over us no sooner doth any sinful object present it self but immediately the heart maketh towards it there is a propensity to embrace it Secondly These motions that do thus stirre in the heart are either such as they call motus primo primi or secundo primi the absolute meer first or first in a secondary order There may be difference in the explaining of these but the summe is this These motions are either such which do rise up in our hearts antecedently to any actings of the reason or will at all It was not in our power to repress them or to prevent them for original sin in a man doth not lie sluggish and bound up it is alwayes acting and moving and the immediate motions or first born of the soul are these first stirrings of heart preventing all deliberation and consultation Such a state indeed Adam was not created in nothing did rise up in him before his will and consent and so it was also with Christ But since we are plunged into this corrupt condition sinne hath got the whole mastery over us we are in a Babel and spiritual confusion Every sinful lust riseth in us before we have time to withstand it although if we had time such is our impotency and corruption now that we neither can or will gainsay the torrent of these motions It is true the Papists say they are no sinnes they are matter of exercise to us but they are not sinnes if not consented unto But the Apostle Rom. 7. doth often call them so and they are such as are contrary to the Law of God they are such as make a godly man groan under them and judge himself miserable thereby they are such as are to be crucified and mortified all which shew they have the true and proper nature of sinne So that it is a wonder those should deny these indeliberate motions to be sinne who hold original sinne to be properly and not equivocally a sinne For as it is enough to make original sinne voluntary because it is voluntarium voluntate ejus à quo not in quo est with the will of Adam from whence it descendeth though not with the will of him in which it inhereth Thus also it may be said of these involuntary motions they are of the same nature with original sinne For though they be actual yet flowing necessarily from the mother sinne and being withall a privation of that righteousness which ought to be in us they must be called sinnes as well as original And thus farre Henricus the Schooleman proceedeth as Vasquez alledgeth him Tom. 10. disput 106. to say That these first motions in persons not baptized are sinnes and that they want not such a voluntariness as is requisite to the nature of sinne partly because of the will of the first parents and partly because of the proper will of the man who hath them not because he doth not hinder these motions because he cannot alwayes do this but because he will not by baptisme be expiated from original sinne and consequently from the guilt of these sinnes This later reason we matter not the former hath good strength and is the same in effect with what we say Oh then that we were rightly considering of these things Those millions of thoughts and stirrings of heart which arise before reason and will are able to do any thing these are all sinnes these are contrary to the holy Law of God Adam had them not neither shall the glorified Saints in heaven be in the least manner molested with them How low and debased must thou be in thy own eyes For this it is that the godly go bowed down for this they mourn and pray these afflict them more then gross loathsome sinnes do prophane men the meer civil and formal man the self-righteous and confident man he knoweth none of these things he feeleth not this evil impure frame of his heart this maketh the way of godliness to be such a mystery such an unknown thing but to those that are believers indeed as they have other joyes other comforts then the world knoweth of so they have other motives of sorrow and humiliation then the natural man can understand But as for the first motions of the second sort they have some imperfect consent and complacency and therefore acknowledged by Gerson Compend Theol. to be sinnes yea the former kind of motions though so suddain are affirmed to be sinnes by several Schoolemn upon different reasons but venial as they call them For Henricus held they were mortal now to us all sinnes in their own nature are mortal Therefore all these motions which arise in the soul whether first or second being contrary to the holy Law of God which requireth pure streames and also a pure fountain and also being opposite to the Image of God we were created in must needs be truly sinnes for which we are to humble our selves and to pray continually for the mortification of them Thirdly These motions though they flow from original sinne as the universal cause yet there are particular causes that do excite and draw them forth And it is good to observe how many wayes original sinne being awakened doth produce these sinful motions thereof And 1. Sometimes they arise from the present sensible object that doth affect us Every object either of the eye or ear or touching doth presently work upon the soul not indeed efficiently as some have thought but only by way of alluring and enticing so that it is almost impossible for us either to hear or see any object and not have the first motions of the soul as suddain so sinful about them Oh the miserable depravation of mankind who hath sinne and hell entring into the soul by evey sense it hath there is not any sensible object but it is a snare to thee it stirreth up some sinful motion or other either love or anger joy or fear and all this before grace can work Hence the great work of Christianity is inward and spiritual it is soul-work to set a watch before eyes eares tongue and all the outward parts of the body that the soul be not sinfully disquieted For every