That there could be any Goodness in the Creature before the Creature was or had actual being no man did ever avouch That any creature could possily have Actual Being or Goodness Actual or existent in it without some Precedent Act of Gods Will I had expresly denyed in the Proposition immediatly precedent to the Proposition which the Author of the Epistle hath falsified by inserting these words In the Creature He might by the like Omission of the Proposition precedent without any intersertion or falsification have proved this Proposition to be Davids There is no God For this Proposition is expresly set down by David Psal 14. 1. Non est Deus And this Proposition would well please an Epicure or Atheist if he took not the words precedent into consideration with it Dixit insipiens in corde suo non est Deus The Fool hath said in his heart there is no God And when I shall avouch the Proposition wherewith he chargeth me otherwise then with this addition An ignorant or unwise man hath said it or laid it to my charge Let me be censured for a Fool for a Blasphemer or what you will 6. The Proposition delivered by me is so clear that no Artist if he be a Christian can deny it The Proposition consists of these Two Parts First There is a Logical Possibility presupposed to the working of the Almighty Power Secondly There is an Objective Goodness precedent in order of nature to the Act or exercise of Gods Will. Against the first part I do not hear of any exception made or taken yet to make it plainer unto those who are not willing to except against it I will explicate the meaning of it in a particular Instance The First Man was made of the earth by the working of the Almightie power and the earth whereof he was made was by the same power made of nothing Both were made by the working of the Almighty Power within the compasse of these 6000. years Current But before Time had any Being even from Eternity there was a Logical Possibility That the Earth might be made of Nothing and that Man might be made of the Earth He unto whom nothing is impossible He unto whom all things are possible did know the making of both to be Logically Possible that is to imply no Contradiction before he made them much better then we know that they were made by him For this we know and must believe that the Almighty Power worketh nothing maketh nothing without Fore-knowledge not only of it as Possible but as Future Not the Creation of Man only but the Creation of Man after Gods own Image was Logically possible that is it did implie no Contradiction from Eternitie The Possible Creation of Man after this manner was the Object of Gods Power before he said Let us make Man after our own Image and similitude This was the Act or Exercise of Gods Power or Will For the power whereby he is able to do all things never worketh without some Act or exercise of his Will For as the Apostle saith Ephes 1. 11. He worketh all things after the counsel of his own will The Second part of the Proposition was There is a Goodness Objective precedent in order of nature to the Act or exercise of Gods Will. For further declaration of This Truth I added This Proposition Unto some things considered as Logically possible this Goodness Objective is so essentially annexed that if it be his Will to give them actuall Being they must of necessity be Actually Good nor can he that can do all things will their contraries For example The Creation of man after Gods own Image was Logically possible from eternity and was the Object of Gods Power of his knowledge and Will before man was thus created Now unto this possibility of mans Creation after Gods Image which was objectively in Gods knowledg from eternity there was a Goodness also Objective so essentially annexed that whensoever God should be pleased to make man after this Pattern he was of necessity to be actually Good 7. Not to conceal any part of my meaning in this 13. Chapter Unto the former Proposition The creation of man after Gods image was Logically Possible before the Act or exercise of Gods Will before the working of his Almighty power by whose concurrence man was upon the sixt day created I will adde these Propositions following 1. To create Man after Gods own Image and not to create him good was never Logically Possible it could be no Object either of Gods Almighty Power or Will This Proposition had no Objective Truth in his Foreknowledge whose Knowledge is Infinite whose Power is Omnipotent whose Will is Irresistible 2. The Act or exercise of Gods Omnipotent Will was the true Cause the only cause why man was created after his Image But that man being created after his Image should be good the Act or exercise of Gods Will or Omnipotent Power were not the cause 3. The connexion between the Image of God and that goodness which was in Man created after his image albeit we consider this connexion as possibly future from Eternity was essential and eternal and was the Object of Gods eternal Prescience or foreknowledge which in order of nature is precedent to the Acts or exercises of Gods Will. 4. Gods Will or the Act or exercise of Gods Will is the Cause why man was made why being made Good he was tyed to the observance of Gods moral Law not the Cause why mans Observance of the Moral Law was or is in its nature good 5. The end of the Moral Lavv or of Precepts Evangelical is to frame us to a conformity vvith our heavenly Fathers Nature to be holy as he is Holy Gods Will declared in the Moral Lavv and vvorking in us both the Will and the Deed to observe it is the Cause by vvhich vve are made conformable to the Divine Nature but Gods Will declared in that Lavv enacted is not the Cause vvhy our conformity to the Divine Nature is good He rather vvills us to be conformable to his Nature to his Will That is to be holy as He is Holy because such conformity vvas essentially and eternally good All Goodness in the creature vvhether actually existent or considered as possibly future is unseparable from this conformity or consonancy to infinite and eternal goodness vvhich is the infallible Rule of all created goodness the eternal Rule from vvhich the acts or exercises of Gods Will either in making in preserving or governing the creature take their validity Objective Being or Logical Possibility of Being is opposed to Actual Being or existence Goodness Objective is opposed to Goodness Subjective that is to goodnesse actually inherent or existent in any substance In the Divine and Infinite Essence nothing is or can be Subjectively all things are in him Objectively and were so in him before they had Actual Being And if all things had an Objective Being in him before they were then the Goodness
because it was thus peremptorily willed commanded or required by God not Objectively Good from eternity the observance of the same thing commanded is now as dangerous and displeasing to God as the neglect or Non-Observance of it in Abrahams in Mosess in the Prophets times had been Hence is that wish of our Apostle Gal. 5. 12. I would they were even out off that trouble you that is I would that they which presse Circumcision upon you and upon your children might be sentenced according to Gods Law enacted against such as during the First Covenant did omit or neglect it 10 Partly from ignorance of this Distinction between the nature of things commanded and forbidden by the Moral and Ceremonial Law partly from ignorance why obedience to the Law of Ceremonies was so strictly enjoyned and the neglect of it so severely punished oft times by Gods immediate hand the Jews were drawn to place as great Sanctity in the observance of Rites and Ceremonies as in sincere obedience to the Moral Precepts This was one main root of their Hypocrisie a sin from which it is scarce possible any hearer of the Word should be free unlesse he be taught to put some difference between the Nature of things Good and Evil of things commanded and forbidden besides the Will or authority of the Commander If the Acts or Injunctions of Gods Will were the onely Rule of Goodnesse and had not eternal Goodness rather for their Rule it would be hard to avoid the Stoical error that all sins are equal besides a kinde of Fatality in humane affairs worse then Stoical The Turks acknowledge Gods Will to be a Rule of Goodnesse as soveraign as the author of the forementioned Epistle doth to be such a Cause of Causes as he would have it But being ignorant or not considering that there is an Immutable goodnesse precedent to the Act or exercise of Gods Wil a Goodness whereof his Wil however considered is no Cause For it is Coeternal to his Wil to his Wisdom and Essence they fall into grosly absurd errours And consequently unto this their ignorance or to the common error that all things are Good onely because God willeth them they sometimes highly commend and sometimes deeply discommend the self same practises for quality and circumstances with as great vehemency of zeal and spirit and with as fair Protestations of obedience in all things to Gods Will as any other men do For Selimus to attempt the deposition of his Father was in their Divinitie a good and godly Act. For Bajazet to take arms against his Brother vvas an abominable impietie What vvas the reason Injects sortè Bajazetis mentione coepit Chiaussus in eum inclementiùs invehi quod arma sumpsisset contra fratrem Ego contrà dicebam videri mihi miseratione dignum cui inevitabilis necessitas imposita esset aut capiendorum armorum aut certae pestis subeundae Sed cum Chiaussus nihilominùs exeerari pergeret Vos inquam immanis facinoris reum facitis Bajazetem At Selimum hujus Imperatoris patrem qui non modò contra patris voluntatem verùâ—s etiam salutem arma tulit nullius criminis arguitis Rectè inquit Chiaussus nam rerum exitus satis docuit illum quod fecit divino fecisse instinctu coelitùs fuisse praedestinatum Tum ego si hoe more agetur quicquid quamvis pessimo Consilio susceptum si benè cedat rectè factum interpretabimini Dei voluntati adscribetis Deum facietis authotem mali nec quicquam benè aut sequiùs factum nisi ex eventu pendetis Sumus aliquandiu in hoe sermone commorati cum uterque non sine animorum vocis contentione quod proposuisset defenderet Collecta utrinque plura sacrae scripturae loca Nunquid potest vas dicere figulo Cur me ita finxâ—sti Indurabo cor Pharaonis Jacob dilexi Esaâ— odio habui atque alia ut veniebant in mentem Auger Busbequ Epist 4. Selimus his attempt found good successe for he prevailed against his Father and this vvas an Argument that it vvas Gods Wil that he should so do But Bajazet miscarries in his attempt against his brother and his disaster vvas a proof sufficient that God vvas displeased vvith his attempt it vvas not his Will that he should prosper And seeing his Will is the only Rule of Goodnesse seeing he did predestinate these tvvo Princes as he did Jacob and Esau the one to a good end the other to an Evil the self same Fact or Attempt vvas good in the one but vvicked in the other We all condemn it as an error in the Turk for measuring the difference betvveen good and evil by the Event But even this errour hath an Original which is worse They therefore measure all good and evill by the Event because they ascribe all Events without exception to the Irresistible Will of God Ex quo satis constitit non Avi misericordin eó usque Nepoti parcitum sed ex opinione quae Turcis insedit ut res quocunque consilio institutas si benè cadunt ad Deum auctorem refarant Proptoreà quamdio incertum suit quem exitum Bajazetis conatus sortirentur abstinendas ab insantis injuria manus Suleimannus statuit nesi postmodùmres meliùs vertisser obniti voluntati Dei voluisse videretur Sed nunc illo extincto ac veluti divina sententia damnato causam esse non putabat cur filio diutiùs parceretur Ne malum ovum ex malo corvo relinqueretur Ibidem and think that nothing can fall out otherwise then it doth because every thing is irresistibly appointed by Gods Will which in their Divinitie is such a necessarie Cause of Causes and by Consequence of all Effects as the Author of the said Epistle would have it to be Whosoever he be whether Jew Turk or Christian which thinks that all Events are so irresistibly decreed by God that none can fall out otherwise then they do must of necessity grant either that there is no moral evil under the Sunne or that Gods will which is the Cause of Causes is the only Cause of such evil 11 But is the like sin or errour expresly to be found in Israel Do any make the same Fact for nature qualitie and substance to be no sin in one man and yet a sin in another or to be a little sin in one man and a grievous outcrying sin in another Though they do not avouch this of rebellious attempts against Prince and State or of other like publick Facts Cognoscible by humane Law yet the Principles of Praedestination commonly held by them and the Turk draw them to the like Inconveniences in transforming the immutable Rule of Goodnesse into the similitude of their partial affections in other Cases The Adulterie and murther which David committed had been grievous sins in any other man but in David being predestinated they were but sins of infirmitie sins by which the outward man was defiled not the inward man Such
or at least of the increase or abundance of it in the world The Apostles meaning is that the Law was given as a praeparative Physick or medicine to let such as were sick of sin as all were before the Law was given understand in what danger they were or to give them notice of the abundance of corruption which was so deeply seated in their Nature that it could not be throughly purged by the Law which only set sin a working that men might seek more eagerly after a Better medicine to wit Faith in Christ That this was our Apostles true meaning in this place is apparent from the Parallel-passages to these Romanes Chap. 7. 7. what shall we say then is the Law sin God forbid Nay I had not known sin that is I had not taken true notice of the measure or danger of it but by the Law for I had not known Lust except the Law had said Thou shalt not Covet The Law to which these words referr is the tenth Commandement wherein the Coveting of some few particulars as of our Neighbours Wife or of his goods is only expresly forbidden But sin taking occasion by this Negative Commandment wrought in our Apostle as he himself testifies all manner of Concupiscence for without the Law sin was dead that is He did not feel the Motions or Paroxysmes of sin untill the Law was laid unto him as a Preparative Medicine unto better Physick And againe ver ninth I was alive without the Law once but when the Commandement came Sâ—n revived and I died And againe ver 11. 12. 13. Sin taking occasion by the Commandement deceived me and by it slew me Wherefore the Law is Holy and the Commandement Holy and just and good Was that then which is good made death unto me God forbid But sin that it might appeare sin working dâ—ath in me by that which is good that sin by the commandement might become exceeding Sinfull It is a Point observable and fully paralel to our Apostles doctrine That the Easterne part of the world did rather loath then long after Circumcision Vntill our Saviours Resurrection and the Apostles peremptory forbidding the practise of it From the former doctrine of our Apostle I have learned satisfaction to a Probleme which had often and long Perplexed my thoughts The Probleme was this Why Men Unto whose care and fidelity a man might safely commit his Fortunes or his life upon their honest word became most carelesse and unfaithfull in matters whereto they are punctually tyed by oath The reason is Because the interposition or obligation by oath is as the coming of a Law which provokes the Corruption of Nature whose longing or lust after things forbidden rather then it should be unsatisfied drawes men otherwise morally honest to become like wayward intemperat Patients which rather chose to nourish the longing humours of the disease or infirmity then to observe the prescription of the Chirurgeon ready to pull off the plaister though with the live-skin or flesh rather then to endure the working of it for a moment 4. But here some have Questioned Whether this Chapter be meant of the Regenerate or Vnregenerate Man A Captious Interrogatorie if Regeneration were but one Act or a resultance of some Few Acts or Conflicts between the Flesh and the Spirit But seeing Regeneration in true Theologie includes Acts almost numberlesse or a Combate somewhat longer then Mortification doth This Chapter if we speak of Christians must be Meant not of the Man truely Regenerated or perfectly Mortified but of a Man Inter Regenerandum during the intermediate Acts or conflicts betwixt the beginning and the Consummation of his * See the 9 Article of the Church of England Regeneration Or if we speake of One that beleeves the Old Testament better then the New as of a Jew or Mahumetane it cannot be meant of a Lawlesse Man but of a man under the hammer of Gods Law given by Moses For there must be a Laying of some Law or Other to the heart before the Conflict here Mentioned can begin or Sin inherent be so Provoked as our Apostle tells us it is 5. Why Sin Originall is more provoked by the Negative then by the Affirmative Precepts He that will diligently peruse our Apostles forementioned Passages Romans 7. in the Language wherein he wrote will easily observe with me That the occasion which Sin tooke By the Law to deceive him as it doth yet to deceive us was from the Negative Precepts or Commandements of the Law not from the Positive or Affirmative Now why the Negative Precepts that one especially Thou shalt not Lust Thou shalt not Covet should a great deale more provoke or more forcibly revive the seeds of Originall Sin inherent in us then the Affirmative Precepts usually doe the Reason is Evident because nothing is nominated or proposed unto us in the Affirmative Precepts but that which in its nature is truely and sincerely Good without the mixture of Evill And being such is more apt to revive or quicken the Notions of the Law of Nature or Reason or those Reliques of Gods Image which remaine in our Nature since our first Parents fall then to Enlive the seeds of sin or to provoke our inclinations unto Evill On the contrary In every Negative Precept there is a Proposall or representation of those things which be in their Nature truely Evill and therefore most apt to incite or provoke our natural Inclinations unto the evill forbidden or to enrage the Reliques of our first Parents sin inherent in Us after the same manner and for the same reason that the representation of red Colours without any other Provocation given is to provoke or stirre the blood of beasts or Cattel which are of a more pure or sanguine Constitution Thus some tame Beasts as Bulls or Kine are aptest to turne man-keen upon such as are cloathed in bright red or Scarlet And a grave Learned ‖ Scortum Hispani generis lepidum ut serebatur formosum mula ut Romae meretrices cum Amatoribus solent animi gratia gestabatur Haec cum venisset ad Thermas Diocletianas Vivarium ferarum ingressa nec contenta cicures vagantes Spectasse precibus contendit aegâ—è impetrat à beluarum Magistro ut ingenti urso cavea separatim incluso sed quem constabat in Neminem antea desaevjisse exitum aperiret Facta potestate ursus erumpit mulam terresacit excussam mulierculam Caeteris qui aderant diffugentibus invadit dictoque citius strangulat contrito capite primùm avulsa ubera deinde natem alteram devorat unguibus dentibus laceratam Esseratam bestiam existimo colore coccineae vestis quam induerat misella speciem sanguinis Praeferentem Sepulveda Epist lib. 2. ep 15. Historian sometimes Chronicler to Charls the Fift in an Epistle of his to his friend relates a sad accident of a Beare which had never been observed to have raged upon Any yet being let loose from
her Cage and having opportunity to have exercised her rage upon Others did single out a Courtisane of Spanish progenie whom she did as cruelly teare in pieces as if she had been Robbed by her of her whelps wearing upon that day a garment of somewhat a darker colour then the Scarlet or bright red and so much the more apt as * See Scarmilion De coloribus Philosophers teach us to provoke or enrage this or other Ravenous Creatures which be of more duskie melancholy blood And the †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Author of the first Booke of Macehab Chap. 6. ver 34. relates a warlike Practise for encouraging the Elephants to fight more fiercely against their Enemies by representing or as it seemes Squeazing the Blood of Grapes and mulberies in their sight or view 6. Now the sight of semblable Colours can have no greater force or efficacie to stir up the blood of Creatures like unto them then the solemne proposall or representation of sins prohibited hath to provoke or enrage the Reliques of Sin originall or to procure the Fits or Motions of it without the assistance of Grace by Christ to restraine them And I cannot perswade my self that some sins not to be named could ever have been or yet could be so frequently practised in diverse Regions which have submitted themselves unto the discipline of the Romish Church to all her Canons and constitutions save only from the representation or expression of the nature of such sins in those loathsome and abhominable Interrogatories which Romish Priests use in taking Auricular Confession CHAP. X. Containing such Description or Definition of Originall Sin as can be gathered from the Effects or Properties of it before mentioned 1. Sin original such a disease of the Soul as the Dropsie or other like diseases are of the body FRom these Discussions of the Properties or Symptomes we may frame this or the like Description of Original Sin it self That it is such a Disease of the Soul or such a corruption of the Humane nature as the Dropsie or other like corrupt Humours are of the Body The one sort includes a thirst or longing after such things as are forbidden them by the Physitian of their Bodies The other an appetite or hunger after such dyet as is in speciall prohibited by the Physitian of their soules And all diseases we know are dangerous wherein the Longing of the corrupt humour or matter which breeds them is much greater then the Longing or appetite of Nature especially if we give satisfaction to such intemperate desires or appetites 2. Or if the Reader desire more then a Description that is some competent Definition of Sin Original the best which for the present I can exhibite is this That it is a positive Renitencie of the Flesh or corrupt Nature of man against the Spiritual Law of God especially against the Negative praecepts being first occasioned or rather caused by the transgression of our First Parents especially from the intemperate Longing of our Mother Evah after the forbidden Fruit. For as our Apostle instructs us 1. Tim. 2. 14. Adam was not deceived but the Woman Being deceived Was in the transgression that is more deeply in the transgression then the Man because she seduced him to eate the forbidden fruit as the Serpent had done her Or as the flesh or sensitive part of our Nature doth yet often seduce the Reasonable Will to yeeld her tacit or implicit consent unto such Actions as they have expresly resolved upon or undertaken without consulting Reason or the masculine part of our Nature 3. From this First Transgression of our First Parents from the birth of Cain unto this present day or hour the forementioned Observation of the Romane Poet Nitimur in vetitum semper cupimusque negata was never out of Date but continued still in full force and strength amongst all the Sons of Adam throughout their severall generations unless perhaps in some few who by speciall priviledge or peculiar Grace have been redeemed from the raigne or dominion of Sin from the womb or from the time wherein they begun to know the difference between good and evill Our blessed Saviour who was no mere Son of Adam but the true and onely Son of God was absolutely Free from the wombe from his Conception as man from all Tincture of Sin Original from all inclinations to attempt or desire any thing that was evill or forbidden by the Law of God 4. Now the Nature Properties and Conditions of Sin Original being such as have been described it is easie to be conceived how potent it is to conquer us and to bring us into Servitude unto it self and unto Sathan Or how it is that very snare or a great part of it whereby such as oppose the truth are taken Captive by the Devill as our Apostle speaks at his will or pleasure 2. Tim. 2. 26. But of this point hereafter CHAP. XI Containing the Resolution of the maine Difficultie proposed to wit How the First Actual Sin of our First Parents did produce more then a Habit of Sin an Hereditarie disease in all their Posteritie 1. The eating of the Forbidden Fruit did pollute or poyson the nature of man THe chief Difficultie at least as some make it is How the First Sin whether of our Father Adam or of our Mother Evah or of both could possibly produce a perpetuall Habit of Sin in themselves or an Hereditarie corruption of the Humane Nature propagated from them throughout all generations This difficultie though cannot be press'd or drawne unto any Contradiction to the unquestionable rules of Reason or true Philosophy The full and cleer Solution of it only surpasseth the reach of Reason meerely natural or of Philosophy not enlightened by sacred History or Mosaicall Relations of the estate wherein man was created Surely if Plinie or some other Naturalist had been so happy as to have diligently perused and beleeved the Oracles of God delivered by Moses Gen. 1. 2. and 3. c. We Christians this day Living might have had more satisfactorie Resolutions for clearing this Point then we can gather from the Schoole-men or many of the Ancient Fathers * Gregorius de Arimino Some Schoole-men do think that our Nature was corrupted by the poysonous breath of the old Serpent in his conference with our Mother Evah I neither know nor remember whether they have any ground of this conjecture from true Antiquitie or whether it be a Masterlesse piece of their own coyning The conjecture or Phancie it self is for this reason Less probable because the Nature of our Father Adam who held no parlie with the old Serpent was no less corrupted then the Nature of his Consort Evah Other good writers are of opinion that the fruit of the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evill was for its specifical quality of a poysonous Nature both to the Soul and body at Least apt to taint or corrupt both and the first mans nature
c. 11. All these forementioned helps of bettering Nature are within Her Lowest and Middle Region of Diet and Medicine Step we up into her Third Story and see what Remembrances we find there of those rare Effects which Moral Precepts have wrought Correspondent to Inoculation in Plants not only in Towardly but upon depraved Inclinations whose Biasses and corrupt Bents have been so altered thereby Gaudet Patientia duris Laetior est quoties magno sibi constat Honestum Claud. that their Affections have been taught to Hunt Counter for pleasure and seek Delights in Difficulties and Duresses to take Contentment in denying themselves Content and with much pleasure to detest Pleasure that Sorceress which as Aristotle observes is born with us incorporate and ingrained in us being suckt in with our first milk Despectare procul To look down upon it with scorn as upon the Covering of their Feet Vitanda est Improba Siren Desidia Hor. or an Excrement of Nature to reckon it not only as a Nullo or Cypher that multiplyed mans Account but as a meere Vacuum or Nothing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Said Diogenes Laert. lib. 6. Omnis voluptas pro Nihilo Deputanda est said Tullie and his Reason is quòd cum praeterierit perindè sit ac si nulla fuisset I shall now prove this by Instance and that I may imitate Nature which non facit Saltum I will do it first in Younglins whose Age defines Them by Appetite they being but few degrees in nature removed from Wilde Asses Colts Plutarch in Lacon Apophth tels of a Spartan Stripling that had stolen a young Theif or Fox-Cub which being sought and he searcht as it lay prest within his clothes near his Body did so gnaw his bowels that he dyed on 't This the poore Man the nearness to his End and his great Tolerance name him so endur'd with all Imaginable Constancy according to the Discipline of his Country never the least quelching at it Saying It was better to dye then by crying to be discovered Another ex Eodem Ludo fighting with his Compeer was by him wounded to the death yet when he heard his friends threaten death to the Killer O Do it not said he for 't is unjust I had a Venie or 'Bout for it and the Intent though not the Hap to kill him I expect to hear Both these did uti bono animo in re mala Was not this Vertue better placed then at least in the General in that Child whose office was as I remember at Alexanders Solemn Sacrifice to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to hold a Torch The melted wax dropt and burnt and stam'd upon his flesh somewhile yet did he as his Rules of Reverence obliged him endure this Torment with such Constancy as that he never the least chang'd Posture nor I think Colour for it Let us now look up higher and take out some Graver Examples Socrates confessed to the wonder of all that Zopyrus the Physiognomer said True when he Stigmatiz'd rather then Character'd him not to his Credit namely for A Man of Vile Affections I was so inclin'd indeed said that Saint and Martyr of Nature But Philosophie Philosophie that hath quite alter'd me Aequal to this his Chastity was his Charity towards his Accusers but far above the ordinary size of that Vertue with us What one is there amongst the higher sorts of Christians as they be cal'd and would be thought who though not ignorant of the Measure or purport of that Glorious and Holy Name that it not only caryes an Olive Leaf in the mouth but is wholly made up of Oyle and signifies a man composed of Honey and Balm of Love and Meekness that does not in Point of Self-Revenge bow down his Soul to that most Accursed Principle of the first Murderer and of Cain his First-begotten Son in Bloud Yea that would not think it a shame to be thought affraid or unwilling upon Occasion to Subscribe to it with his hand or sword in Letters of Bloud as it should be printed Est vindicta Bonum vita jucundius ipsa Yet does the poor purblind Ethnick Satyrist me-thinks hartily detest it reason right against it and prove it to be no better then the Qualm or Ferment of a Female Spirit Nempe hoc indocti quorum praecordia nullis Interdum aut Levibus videas flagrantia Causis Quantulacunque adeo est Occasio sufficit Irae Chrysippus non dicit idem nec mite Thaletis Ingeâ—â—um dulcique Senex vicinus Hymetto Qui partem acceptae saeva inter vinc ' la Cicutae Accusatori nollet dare Quippe minuti Semper infirmi est animi exiguique voluptas Ultio Continuò sic collige quod vindictâ Nemo magis gaudet quam Foemina Juven Sat. 13. v. 180. Sweet is revenge sweeter then life itself The rude Assertion of some waspish Elf Made all of Tinder Touchwood Sulphur Ire Who at each puff or spark fures flashes fire And thunders out My right hand is my God Vengeance is mine My sword 's my Iron Rod Dubbs My-self judg my wil saw right or wrong Wounds bloud kil or be kil'd hel heaven's a song Bear an Affront rather Damnation Chrysipp said no such word nor Thales nor Saint Socrates made all of Honey for Though he durst dye and smiling drink the Cup of Chill Hemlock yet durst he not wish one sup of It in 's Accusers heart Good health to Him He drunk in Cup of Charity ful brimme Revenge is Cow'rdize below Man Revenge is Th' Abortive Lust or Longing of She-Twinges And yet to do right to that Sex and in memorie of a most Tender Mother I know not whether Livia or Augustus deserved greater praise for a most Solemn remarkable piece of Pardoning mercy De Clem. lib. 1. c. 9. Seneca tels it Curiously I thus L. Cinna conspired against Augustus who had not only forgiven the Enmitie of warre but regiven him his Estate and conferd Honours upon him to the Envy of his own Party The Time place partners manner of the plot was discovered to Augustus who intended to revenge it Livia seeing him Troubled comes to Him Saying Sir Will you once take a Womans Counsel Then truly forgive him it may do you Good the Plot being known it cannot hurt you Augustus thanks Livia for playing the Advocate sends for Cinna cleares the room and makes him sit down by him injoines him no other punishment but with Silence and Patience to hear an Excellent speech of above Two Howers Long setting forth his Falt and Caesars mercy dismisses him with these words I gave thee life before as an Enemy now I give it thee as a Traytor Let us henceforth be Friends and vie Vtrum Ego meliore side vitam tibi dederim an Tu debeas This was partly the effect of That Charm which Athenodorus gave Augustus against Anger See Seneca To say over the 24. Letters I cannot forbear to mention an Example or Two more
knows Israel knows not Jerem. 8. 7. The Stork c. Serpents sting not Serpents nor bite one another with their venemous teeth Nay the very Monsters and huge fishes of the Sea war not amongst themselves in their own kind But believe me Man at mans hand receiveth most harm and mischief Thus far Plinie 4. Heathen Naturalists hold better Consort with the Primitive church concerning the nature of Sin Original then the Socinians do We have no reason sufficient to perswade us to believe or to suspect that this great Naturalist did ever peruse any part of the Booke of Grace not so much of it as is contained in the History of Moses much less such passages in it as concern this Point as are comprehended in the Prophets in the Evangelists or in S. Pauls Epistles Or if any man have better reasons then I have to believe or suspect that he might have read them all or the most part of them It would notwithstanding be a groundlesse surmise to imagin that he had been Catechized by Christs Apostles or their Deputies or that he had received any spiritual Grace either by Baptism or Imposition of Their hands Now albeit we suppose or grant that he had read the Books of Moses or some passages in the Prophets but deny what I think no man will affirm that he was Baptized or made partaker of Grace by Christ the Cause is clear that he could have no better guide for searching after or finding out those Orthodoxal Truths or Notions which he hath most Elegantly exprest then Recta Ratio that is the right use of Reason which Nature though corrupted in him had not utterly extinguished but much weakned And here I can rather wish then pray that this man had lived in this Age or might be restored to Life again to encounter those Semi-Christians which contend for the Soveraignty of Recta Ratio as if It were the onely Guide or Rule of Christian Faith But albeit I dare not pray nor can I hope to hear Plinie speak to this or any other good purpose in this Life Yet I verily believe that the writings which this Vncatechized Heathen hath left and he himself shall rise up in Judgement against those proud Phantastick spirits which having been Baptized in the name of Christ and Catechized in the fundamental points of Christian Faith do either flatly deny or captiously question Whether our Nature were so deeply tainted with that Sin which we call Original or so far deprived of Freedom or power to restore our selves to our primaeval state of Nature as that the Death and Resurrection of a Redeemer more then meer man and his Everlasting Priesthood were necessarily required for freeing us from the bondage of Satan 5. Seeing this Modern Sect of men as Pelagius their Father whose errors concerning the state of the First man and of Sin Original have been mightily improved by them have been S. Austin not the First that did maintain Original sin and are such notorious Trewants in the Book of Nature and such Schediastick Surveyors of the Book of Grace as none have been or can be beside such as in their sceptical contrivances hold it a part of Policy or state to draw all or most such forces of Reason as Nature or Grace had implanted in their breasts to guard their Brains or fortifie the inventions of their Fancies It is not to be expected that they should much regard the Unanimous consent of the Orthodoxal and Primaeval Church Some of this Sect are well contented to oppose the consent of such Antiquity as in other points they slight against those who reverence the memory of the Ancient Martyrs or Fathers especially before S. Austins time Others of them are not ashamed to accuse this great and Learned Father for being the First Author of that Doctrine which we maintain Concerning the Nature of Sin Original Now to presse them with his Authority whom they accuse as an Author of Errour would be bootlesse Wherefore waving his Authority for the present for being any competent Judg or Advocate in this Controversie No ingenuous or sober man can except against him as an unfit Witness in this Cause concerning the Tenents of the Ancient Church or against others whom he produceth as witnesses beyond all Exception which either Pelagius himself his Followers or the Manichees could have taken against them in his time Neque enim ex quo esse coepit Manichaei pestilentiosa doctrina ex illo coeperunt in Ecclesta Dei parvuli baptizandi Exorcizari exufflari Vt ipsis mysteriis oftenderetur non eos in regnum Christi nisi erutos à tenebrarum potestate transferri Quid autem dicam de ipsis divinarum scripturarum tract atoribus qui in Catholica Ecclesia floruerunt Quomodo haec non in alios sensus câ—nati sunt vertere quoniam stabiles erant in antiquissima robustissima fide non autem novitio movebantur errore Quos si Colligere eorum testimoniis uti velim nimis longum erit de Canonicis autoritatibus à quibus non debemus averti minus fortasse videbor praesumpsisse quam debui Veruntamen ut omittam beatissimum Ambrosium cui Pelagius sicut jam commemoravi tam magnum integritatis in fide perhibuit testimonium qui tamen Ambrosius nihil aliud defendit in parvulis ut haberent necessarium Medicum Christum nisi Originale Peccatum Nunquid gloriosissimae coronae Cyprianus dicetur ab aliquo non solùm fuisse sed vel esse potuisse Manichaeus cum prius iste sit passus quà m illa in orbe Romano pestis apparuit tamen in libro de Baptismate parvulorum ita defendit Originale peccatum ut propterea dicat ante oct avum diem si necesse sit Parvulum batizari oportere ne pereat Quem tanto vult intelligi ad indulgentiam Baptismi facilius pervenire quanto magis ei dimittuntur non propria sed aliena peccata Hos iste audeat dicere Manichaeos antiquissimam Ecclesiae Traditionem isto nefario crimine aspergat qua Exorcizantur ut dixi Exufflantur parvuli ut in regnum Christi à potestate tenebrarum hoc est Diaboli Angelorum ejus eruti transferantur Aug. l. 2. de nuptiis concupiscentia c. 29. CHAP. IX Of the properties or effects of Sin Original known by the light of Nature and by Scripture 1. The Propertie of Original Sin is to Lust after things forbidden by the Law of God and of Nature ENough it is to perswade any reasonable man That Original Sin is not A meer privation or a proportioned shadow of Being without a Reality answering to it seeing that in man the Note or Character of whose distinction from or excellency above all other visible Creatures is the use of Reason there usually is such a Lethargie or sloathful deadnesse to do that which the very Law of Nature or Reason doth dictate unto him or
command him to do and such an eager pronenesse or appetite to do those things which the Law of Reason or of Nature forbids him to do and those things with greatest Eagernesse which the same Law of Reason or other positive Laws derived from it most peremptorily and upon severest penalties forbid him to do It hath been observed by many Authors that the Unnatural sin of Parricide wilful Murther of Father or Mother or of Superiour Kindred did not become rife or frequent amongst the Romans until they had upon particular sad accidents enacted a publick Law and ordained a special kind of torment for transgressors in this kind Lucius Ostius was the first amongst the Romans that did commit this Unnatural sin And He lived almost six hundred years after the City was founded a little after the second Punick War Some good ‖ See Plutarch in the Life of Romulus Laertius in the Life of Solon and Tully in His second Oration Pro Roscio Amerino who gives the true Character or Expression of that speech of Laertius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 untowardly rendred by the Latin Interpreter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. in Rom. pag. 32. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Solon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diog. Lacrt. l. 1. in Solone Is Solon cùm interrogaretur Cur Nullum supplicium constituisset in Eum qui Parentem necâsset respondit se id neminem facturum putasse Sapienter fecisse dicitur cùm de eo nihil sanxerit quod antea commissum non erat ne non tam Prohibere quà m admonere videretur Tull. Orat. 2. Pro Sext. Roscio Amerino Writers ascribe the long abstinence from this unnatural sin unto the wisdom of Romulus their Founder who enacted no Law against much lesse appointed any peculiar kind of death unto this Crime which He expected should never be committed by His Posterity Certain it is that Solon for the like reason did not so much as mention this Crime in His otherwise most severe Laws But this observation was taken from the Heathen Romans in times ancient and far more remote and doth not as happily will be objected hold in these times or places wherein we live Yet the Ingenuous and Learned French †Thuanus Historian who meddles with the History of his own times only tels us that the like unnatural sin towards Children or Infants did never come to so high and far-spreading a Flow in the great City of that Kingdom until the State or Parliament had erected a peculiar Court to be held for examination or trial of such Cruel Mothers as sought to salve the breach of one Commandment by the violation of another to cover the shame of their own wantonnesse by murthering the tender fruits of their folly as if the Damme which the Law had set for repressing or stopping the Course of this bloudy sin had but provoked the stream or Current to swell higher and greater to overburst all obstacles or inhibitions which the Laws of God the Laws of Nature and of the Kingdom had set against it 2. Again why Pulpit-pride why Clergie-cunning insolency or malice should grow into a Proverb throughout most Christian Kingdoms or Provinces as if these or like transgressions in our profession were of such a scantling as could hardly be matched by the Laitie I cannot give a more probable reason if the imputation be true or the occasion of the Proverbe just then this That Men of our profession who are Gods peculiar Inheritance are bound by the Lawes of God to more strict observance of our Saviours praecepts concerning Humility Meeknesse Brotherly-love and Charity or peaceable disposicion towards all then ordinary Men or men of other Callings or professions are And we know whose saying it is That if we do not continue as we are by the place wherein he hath set us the Salt of the Earth and Light of the World We shall become the most degenerate unprofitable members of the Land and Church wherein we Live And if the whole Tribe were to beare peculiar Armes as some other ingenuous Professions doe No Device could so well befit us as Jeremiah's two Baskets of Figges Then saia the Lord unto me What seest thou Jeremiah and I said Figgs the good Figgs very good and the evill very evill that cannot be eaten they are so evill Jer. 24. 3. The bad Figs were the Emblem of the disobedient refractory as the good Figs were of the obedient and beleeving Jewes in the Prophets time Both parts of the Embleme are as applyable to the Sons of Levi in our dayes Such of this Tribe as suffer sin to raigne in their Mortall bodies are generally the worst of sinners Such as mortifie the workes of the flesh by the spirit by prayer and other good services of God and seeke their Freedome or manumission by the Son of God Working out their Salvation with feare and trembling are the Best of all Gods Saints on Earth 3. The proper effects or Symptomes of Sinâ— Original described by S. Paul But the greatest part of the Induction hitherto made for finding out the properties or Symptomes of Sin original will be excepted against especially by such as are meer strangers to their own Breasts or dispositions of their hearts because the particular observations or Experiments whereof the Induction consists have been made by the Heathen or related by Authors not Canonicall But the Exception will voyd it self if we shall make it cleer to men altogether unexperienced of themselves that the like Experiments or observations have been made and more fully expressed by one whose Authority is Canonical whose Testimony of Experiments made in himself and taken by himself is most Authentick it is St. Paul That sin Originall was in the world before the Law was given is cleer from this Apostle Rom. 5. 13. For untill the Law sin was in the world but sin is not imputed when there is no Law So our English and most other Modern translations render the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 None of them altogether so well as it might be rendred Better thus There is not there cannot be any true estimate or full reckoning made of sin where there is no Law to give the * The Syriack reades it Usque enim ad Legem peccatii quum esset in mundo non reputabatur peccatum propterea quòd nâ—n erat Lex That is Sin though it were in the world untill the Law yet was it not reputed or reckoned for sin untill the law was given But if it be true which the Appostle Saith that sin raigned unto death untill the Law I hope it was imputed with a Witnesse Charge And againe Ver. 20. Moreover the Law entred that the offence might abound This abounding of the offence whereof he speakes was the issue or effect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the End or Finall Cause why the Law was given For so the Law-giver might be suspected to have been the Author of sin
Original Sin and describes or descryes surely the Being of man to be very Evill And Martyr upon the Rom Defining Original Sin and explaining that definition manifestly places it in the Evill essence of Man for he says That The whole man is most Corrupt And then defines it Thus Sin is the depravation of the whole nature of man Transmitted to posterity from the Fall of our First Parents and by Generation c. And then opening the Definition he Says In this Definition are found all Kindes of Causes For the subject Or Matter we have All the parts or powers of man The Forme is the Depravation of them all Lo you see that according to Him Martyr Sin Original Comprehends the parts powers of man so farr forth as they be corrupted and depraved Illyricus in a Book intituled Know thy self 2. But these Definitions or Descriptions though for ought I know or have to except against them they may be most Orthodoxal for their truth or substance yet the right Limitation of them or of the subject defined is not free from further Question as First Whether the Subject of them be Sin Original or Acquired as one or both of them are seated in the Natural or unregenerate man or as they are inherent in part in the Best Men after their Regeneration or Purification of their hearts by Faith If every Part if every Faculty or member of the Humane Nature be from the womb tainted with this Foul Leprosie it will be somewhat hard to conceive how any Part or Faculty should be absolutely freed from all degrees of corruption by Regeneration unlesse we grant that All are in some measure freed from it and acknowledge some Reliques of Sin Original to remain in every part or Faculty of the man truly Regenerate or renewed in the spirit of his mind It may in the First place be conceived that the Mind or Conscience of men so renewed may be throughly cleansed not only from the guilt but from the real stain or pollution of sin and yet the flesh or whole sensitive parts or faculties of the same man still lodge some Reliques of Original Corruption in them though in a Lower degree or Less measure then the same Corruption dwelleth in the Conscience or Spirit of the unregenerate or Natural man Or if we grant the Minde and Conscience of sanctified men to be yet subject to some Tincture or Reliques of Corruption Yet these we must acknowledge to be so weak and feeble that they cannot hinder or diminish the Raign or Soveraignty of the Spirit over the flesh by which the Yoak of servitude unto Sin or slavery unto Satan unto which all men before Regeneration are by Nature subject is utterly broken If we consider Man as he was first moulded by God he was for nature substance and Faculties of his soul like a sound Instrument well string'd and better tuned But by eating of the forbidden fruit and losse of Paradise his very substance was corrupted and deprived of Life Spiritual and all his Powers or Faculties not only corrupted but distuned Our Nature by Regeneration is Restored to Life spiritual yet not to perfect health and strength so long as we carry this burden of Flesh and Mortality about with us By the same Spirit of Regeneration the Powers or Faculties of our souls and our sensitive Affections are better tuned then they were before yet not so sound or well tuned as in the First Creation they were but like to Asymmetral or harsh voices which never hold consort with sounds or voices truly Harmonical or like to those which we call False strings in a stringed Instrument which by no skill either of him that tunes or handles it can be brought to bear a part in exact Harmony Both such voices such strings will still retain some jarring sound or discord in an accurate observant Musitians Ear though much less when the string is stricken open or upon a Lower stop or the voice taken at a lower Key then whe they are stretched higher For with the height of either sound the discord or Dis-Harmony is still increased 3. Whether sin Original or Acquired have an influxe into every Act of the Humane Soul But when Calvin Martyr and Illyricus make Original Sin to be the whole Nature of Man and all his Faculties so far as they are corrupted and taintted I know not whether their meaning were that there is no Action or thought of man though Regenerate into which this Corruption of Nature or Taint of sin hath not some Influx or whether they did actually or expresly minde this or other like Inference when they exhibited unto us the former Definitions of Sin For my self as I make no question but that The Blessed Virgin her self was by nature the Daughter of Adam and therefore not so absolutely free from her Conception as her Son our Saviour was So I am afraid to avouch or think that either Sin Original or acquired it being supposed that she had some Reliques of both in her should have any influence into or commixture with that Good Thought or Actual consent which she yielded to the Angel Gabriel Luke 1. 38. Ecce Ancilla domini c. Behold the hand-maid of the Lord be it unto Me according to thy word 4. But these are Niceties which I would not have touched had it not been that Some whom I name not have gone too far in opposition to the Papist or Pelagian unto whom Others by coming too neer have fallen much wide or short of the Truth My aim and intention as I often professe is not to take upon me either by voice or pen to instruct such as are or take themselves to be pro modulo viatorum perfectly Regenerated much lesse men altogether certain of their own Personal Election or Salvation The utmost of my endeavours is to direct my self and the height of my desires in this work is to advise Others what we are to do for our selves or what is to be done for us after Baptism or Confirmation that we may be throughly Regenerated or which is in effect all one make our Election sure We are I take it in the First place to Calculate the number of our sins and to measure or weigh the Body of Sin inherent in us whether by Nature or invited by our selves not by a corrupt worldly Dialect but according to the scales or Standard of the Sanctuary And to this purpose no man hath given better hints or directions then Illyricus For as he often observes and wel illustrates In the Dialect of our Saviour himself of his Apostles and Evangelists whatsoever is repugnant to the Law of God or abominable in his sight is accounted sin and so are not Accidents or meer Abstracts or Relations only but specially the very sustance or Nature of man so far as that is polluted or corrupted with Sin or wrought and transformed into the image of Satan Now though it be true which was said before
that in exact Philosophical or Theological Calculation the Definitions of Sin given by S. Austin Calvin Martyr c. and Illyricus come in the Issue to One and the same reckoning yet to vulgar or ruder Apprehensions Illyricus his Definitions which for the most part are Causal but especially his Illustrations of them out of Scripture are far more dilucide and more powerful to work upon our affections and to encourage our spirits to undertake our Christian Warfare against the Old Man or Body of sin 5. Illyricus his Illustrations of sin more Consonant to Scripture then Calvins or Martyrs To what purpose were it to tell unletter'd or ordinary men that the Old Man or Body of Sin which we are to crucifie or mortifie is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inordinatio or depravatio unlesse we could perswade them that these were names of Giants and paint them with far more hands then Briareus with ten times more heads and mouthes then Cerberus or Geryon had and with more snakes instead of hairs upon their heads then Medusa according to Poetical pictures is emblazoned with or make some representation of them in more ugly and horrible shape then the Devil and Infernal Fiends are pictured by old Monks and Fryers in their Books and Legends Albeit even these be but silly representations of infernal Powers with whom even Christian Children after they come to the use of Reason or to wage war as O Ecolampadius somewhere excellently observes For every man to whom God hath given Grace or power to Reflect upon his Younger Years or to survey ☜ his own Heart His Affections or Inclinations either past or present may respectively find a more exquisite Live Image of Satan within himself then any Painter can make Though few or none in this Age be bodily possessed with a Legion of Devils yet most men either by Nature ill breeding or bad Company if they would rightly examin Themselves their Actions their Passions or projects by the Rule of Scripture might easily discover more then a Legion of unruly lewd or vain Thoughts of unhallowed Desires or vitious Habits such as are Malice Pride Envy Vncharitableness c. which daily plead or fight for the Soveraignty of the Law of Sin or Lusts of the flesh over the Dictates or motions of the Law of the Mind or Spirit And these are the true and most exquisite pictures or images of the Diabolical Nature And it was a wish or Prayer worthy to be written with the point of a Diamond as I have seen it written though in no sacred place Lord deliver me from my self His meaning which wrote it I take it was that he might be delivered from vitious or unruly Thoughts or Habits or other like Souldiers of Satan which every man before Mortification of the Flesh or Renovation by the Spirit doth suffer to be Lodged or Billeted in his Breast 6. For Conclusion to give the Intelligent Reader a more full Definition ☜ of Sin or of the Old Man which we are to Crucifie It is or contains all the works of the Flesh or Inclinations contrary to the Law or Spirit of God necessarily resulting from our Nature or substance since it was corrupted in our first Parents by the subtilty or power of Satan as the Efficient Cause still Labouring to obliterate the Image of God wherein we were created and to mould us into his own Likenesse to the end that he may withdraw us from the Service of God which is perfect Freedom and make us everlasting Slaves to himself and his Infernal Associates 7. Likely it is I should have Slighted Illyricus as much as Many Other of my Profession do upon a prejudicial Noise or Cry raised against Him At least I should not have taken that care and pains in perusing and examining His Opinions which ◠have done unlesse the Book or Treatise had been long ago commended to a Learned Friend of mine upon very high Termes by that Reverend and Great Divine Doctor Field then Dean of Gloucester SECT III. Of Servitude unto Sin Who be properly Servants unto It and by It unto Satan CHAP. XIV That even those Jews which did in part Believe in Christ were true Servants unto Sin 31. Then said Jesus to those Jews which Believed on him If ye continue in my Word then are ye my Disciples indeed 32. And ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you Free 33. They answered him We be Abrahams seed and were never in bondage to any man How saiest thou ye shall be made Free 1. AS We rightly gather that part of mans body to be most corrupt Unsound or Ulcerous which is most afraid of the Chirurgions hand or Instrument which must heal or cure it So these Jews may hence be truly convicted to have been as our Saviour censures them truly Servants unto sin or in S. Peters Expression Servants of Corruption in that they are so Touchie and Jealous of the very mention of being made Free Albeit our Saviour if you marke his processe doth handle them as warily and tenderly as any skilfull Chirurgion could do the most dangerous sores or ulcers of his most impatient Patients For he did not say If you continue in my Word then are ye my Disciples indeed and I will make you Free Although if he had thus said he had said the Truth For HEE it is and HEE alone that must make all the Sons of Adam Free A paraphrase upon John 8. ver 31. 32. 33. c. But as He had an Eagles Eye to discover their hidden sore and a Lyons Heart to unrip or Launce their sore unto the quick So he had likewise the Third property of an Excellent Chirurgion to wit a Ladyes hand to touch them gently and tenderly He tells them the Truth but in a placid and most inoffensive manner by soft and gentle degrees If ye continue in my word then are ye my Disciples indeed And ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you Free And who could be offended or unwilling to be made Free by the Truth but such as were desperately sick of Falshood and Corruption Such and so affected were these Jewes which did in part believe on our Saviour For they had no sooner heard him making mention of beeing made Free though by the Truth but they instantly returne this repinning and impatient Answer We be Abrahams Seed and were never in bondage to any man How sayest thou ye shall be made Free 2. Many Good Interpreters do question the Truth of their Answer as whether they were not at this very time in Bondage to the Romans And Tullie in his Oration Pro Flacco whose crime was aggravated for that he had alienated or detained some Gold which had been gathered towards the adorning or beautifying the Temple at Jerusalem to Elevate or lessen that conceit which many Romans had of the Nation of the Jewes as of a People better beloved of the
to be true and proper Servants Slaves in a higher degree and larger measure according to a more base and odious slavâ—rie then such as by Legall Title were slaves or Bondmen unlesse these also were equally subject to the like base conditions or lewd dispostion of mind However This lewd disposition of mind or corruption of manners and affections whether in Bondmen or in their Masters was adjudged by the very Heathen to be more base and servile then the Legall estate or condition of known Slaves or Bondmen ☜ But before I acquaint the Reader with the opinions of Heathens in this point I must request him not to mistake my meaning or intention as if I esteemed the Verdict or Testimony of the best Philosophers amongst them to be in themselves of any credit or authority in matters sacred in mysteries of Faith or Divinitie I would rather request him to consider with me That many testimonies which are of no credit in themselves nor can borrow any authoritie from their Authors may be notwithstanding of very good use for the confirmation of better Authoritie or for the discovering or bolting out the truth whose Authoritie by what meanes soever once discovered or from whom soever it do proceed is alwaies great and ought to prevaile as in the end it certainely will prevail against ignorance and error in whomsoever they be found though patronized by men otherwise of extraordinary parts and deserved authority For example The testimony of a known Lyar whose Oath we would not take for six pence is good and lawful against himself A notorious Thief or Malefactors own confession especially if it be deliberately made and judicially taken is a Conviction as sufficient and Authentick as the depositions of two or three or more most honest men Now the same Law or reason of the Law which in some cases admits the testimony or confessions of dishonest men for legal proof will warrant us to admit the opinions but especially the reasons of Ancient Heathens which never knew the true God nor Jesus Christ whom he had sent for sufficient and Authentick Testimonies to convince the Athiests of later times or such as live without God in this present world or such amongst us as having much better means then the best of the Heathen had to know God and his Christ yet live altogether without any true fear or love of Either and in as little sense or feeling of their own natural Servitude or present bondage unto sin as the rudest or worst sort of Heathen did 9. Yet further Albeit the wisest and best sort of Heathen Philosophers lived in Bondage unto Sin and died Servants of corruption yet did they not alwayes speak out of the corruption wherewith their very Souls were tainted Many things they spake and wrote out of the Law of nature written as our Apostle testifieth Rom. 2. 15. in their hearts By the Light of which Law likewise they did many things contained in the written Law of God For not having that Law as the Apostle there saith they were a law unto themselves Now as the testimony or confession of a notorious Malefactor voluntarily and judicially made against himself is suffcient to condemn that Judge or Juror of injustice or partiality that would not take it for a legal proof or conviction so shall the Allegations or collections of the Heathens which were themselves Servants unto sin be of Authority enough to condemn us of a worse crime unlesse upon their informations we make more particular and exact enquirie First into the servile Estate or Condition wherein we were born and in which until our regeneration we still continue Secondly into the means by which we may be redeemed from the same Estate or condition Now the means by which we must be redeemed the most learned amongst the Heathens after long search guided in part by the Light of Nature could not discover But as in other Cases so in this when they seemed to be wise they became Fools When they sought to set themselves Free by Rules of Art or Philosophie from one or Few branches of this Servitude they intangled themselves Faster in some others 10. It was a Beam of Truth a step or approach to Freedom rightly discovered by * In Paradox Tully Si servitus sit sicut est Obedientia fracti animi abjecti arbitrio carentis suo “ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Quis neget omnes Leves omnes Cupidos omnes denique Improbos esse Servos If servitude saith he be as no man even in the most strict proper and legal sense can make any more of it then the obedience of a broken or crazed abject mind deprived of all power or right to dispose of it self or its own Actions Who can deny all inconstant vaine men all Covetous generally all Wicked men to be truly Servants To presse his General reason a little further and to draw it from the very First root or spring of Servitude properly so called All men as well the wicked as the vain or inconstant have a desire to be Happy For Happiness is the mark whereat our intentions aim but of which most men in their Courses fall much wide or short For inasmuch as we cannot attain unto the End but by the Means or mean which are useful for attaining that Happiness which we most desire Partly through our natural weaknesse but especially through Satans cunning these useful Means intercept most of our time most of our pains and endeavours which should be reserved for purchase of the End For so it is with most of us by Nature as with young unexperienced or Carelesse Apprentices or Factors who finding some extraordinary contentment in the First Inne they come at spend most of their time and money there which should have been spent at the Fair or Mart for which they were Bound The special Means whose Vse is Necessary to the attainment of that Happiness which we most desire are specially Three Delight of Mind Contentment of the Body and Competencie of Wealth Now albeit in our First Aims or intentions we desire not These For Themselves nor in any Extraordinary Measure yet such is the Frailnesse of our Nature that Whatsoever things we much Accustome our selves unto they will at length Plead * See Chap. 21. â— 5. S. Aust Confess 1. 8. c. 5. Sayes I was bound not in Gaolers Irons but by my own Iron-will The enemy had made a chain of that My perverse Will became Lust Lust served became a Custome And Custome let alone became Necessity In a Chain made up of these Links Lay I a poor and miserable Slave to Sin Therefore Give the water no passage Eccles 25. 25. Let every one that names the name of Christ stand aloof off from iniquity 2 Tim. 2. 19. Let not Sin enter the First Dore of Sense Eye or Ear or c. not the second of Phansie nor the third of Vnderstanding nor the fourth of Will Least it
a Servant but to one Lord besides his Bellie Whereas his Master had subjected himself to many unruly Appetites and enormous desires all contrary to the Dictates of his own Reason or Conscience in his more private and retired thoughts So much of the Law of Reason and of Nature was implanted in this his Master that he could highly commend the manners and practises of the Ancient Romans And yet if any good spirit did invite or move him to follow their example he was as ready to kick at the motion or the practise in Particular as he had been to commend the pattern set him by the Ancient Romans considered only in the General Being not invited by his betters abroad a moderate homely dish of broath of herbs c was most applauded by him and his family free from molestation But if Mecaenas or any other great Potentate had upon short warning invited him to supper he instantly declared himself to be a Slave both to his Belly and to his Superiors and a Tyrant withal to his Servants chiding one for not bringing him Oyl beating another for not bringing him water or other preparatives with more speed then could in reason be expected From these and the like Inductions Davus concludes his Master to be more then a Slave or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an instrument indued with Life and motion a meer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Wooden Picture of a Man which had no mastery over his own motions or resolutions having subjected his Will and Reason to dance attendance upon Every Great mans will or pleasure like a puppit upon a string which it hath no power to wag or move but is moved upon it at the pleasure of the master or practiser of this kind of childish sport The rest of this Slaves Arguments all concludent to prove his Master or such men as he was to be more sottish slaves then himself the Reader may find briefly set down in the eighth book of these Commentaries Sect. 2. Chap. 7. page in Quarto 63. CHAP. XX. Of the Fruitlesnesse of the former Notions in the best Heathens 1. BUt what did it boot this Satyrist to know all this or to mark the most of the Romans his Country-men to be indeed true Servants Horace and Tully both true Servants though they knew not tò whom He himself laid nothing of all this to Heart The best use we can in discretion presume to be made of this Observation was to make himself and Others merry setting down his observations by way of Play or Enterlude He lived and for ought we know dyed an Epicure not in Practise only but in Opinion One that accounted it the greatest part of misery or Servitude to be wedded to one kind of Bodily Pleasure or carnal delight And the greatest Happiness he aimed at was to be Free to taste and try all kind of Pleasures so far as they were not hurtful unto his body 2. As for Tully though he handled his matters a great deal more gravely and soberly and were much better in Opinion Yet in the issue of his discourse He seems rather to change his Master then any way to set himself Free He was not indeed such a Servant to his own Imagination or Fancy not such a Servant to Covetousnesse to Lust perhaps not to Ambition or Superiority of dominion as He observed the most other Romans to be Yet he was a greater Servant to His Owne Will then others were to their inferior desires His very Will it self was in Servitude as having no Rule to rectifie it unlesse it were the Romane Lawes which though in many particulars they were Good yet Such as were too much addicted unto the intire Frame of them Or Such as gloried in the wisdome or Excellencie of them were brought unwittingly to exercise Enmitie against God and his Annoynted Christ. Such as the Romanes accounted their Godliest Patriots or Common-wealths-men were alwayes the Greatest Enemies unto the Jewes or Professors of Moses Law before our Saviours time as unto the Christians after our Saviours death God in his just Judgements did send them such cruell Kings as Tiberius and Nero because they were so cruelly bent against the Professors of his Gospel What could it advantage these or any other Heathens to know themselves to be in Servitude not knowing unto whom they were in Servitude or whose Servants they were de Facto nor by whom they were to be made Free Some good Notions they had of vice or of Sin But of Satan or his wicked Angels they had not so much as heard or at least what they had heard of them they accounted but Toyes or Fables And that which was the Root of their misery and strongest bond of their Slavery was that they worshipped Friends or Devils as if in their opinion they had been Gods because able to do them bodily harm or bodily good Now in offering Sacrifices as our Apostle saith unto Devils they did solemnly and publikely professe them to be their Lords and Masters So that they were not only professed Servants unto Sin but professed Servants unto Satan In worshipping them and doing them Service they did that which was worthy of stripes and were to be beaten yet with fewer stripes then the wicked Jew or such as confesse Christ to be their Lord and yet will not learn to deny ungodlinesse For these Heathens did not know that they had such a Lord or Master whom they were bound to serve And not knowing him to be their Master how was it possible that they should know his will But we acknowledge him to be Our Lord We know his will We know the End of his coming into the World was to destroy the works of Satan Now if we shall labour to build up that which He came to destroy we shall prove our selves not only to be servants to sin and by Sin Servants unto Satan but professed Enemies and Traytors unto Christ 3. Many that call Christ Lord true Servants to Satan Our Saviours Sentence is Universal Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin As you shall think or meditate upon the same let me request you to take this addition or Supplement into consideration with it Whosoever is the Servant of Sin is the Servant the Slave or Bondman of Satan ☜ Let no man therefore flatter himself with this or the like Conceit That because he professeth Christ to be his Lord he cannot therefore be so true a Slave and Bondman unto Satan as the Idolatrous Heathen were which offered sacrifice unto him They did indeed unwittingly implicitely and really acknowledge him to be their Lord and themselves his Servants by paying Rent or Tribute unto him But such as deny all such Rent or Service may make him their Lord Vid. Salvianum 1-6 and themselves his slaves or Bondmen by Prescription or continual possession 4. The Heathens which offered sacrifice unto Bacchus as to a supposed god of riot or Good Fellowship or a Patron
such For whether Original corruption be wholly derived from Adam or whether we draw it in part from our immediate Parents No man I am perswaded was never by Nature or by corruption meerly Original Nemo sponte malus How far true of disposition so wicked and ungracious as that he did or could directly desire intend or affect to be unnatural or disobedient to his natural Parents to be contumacious or rebellious towards Magistrates or other superiors whom the Law of God commands him to obey and honour Corruption meerly Original impels no mans Reasonable Will to desire or affect to be an Adulterer a Drunkard a Murtherer or an Intemperate person It impels no man to desire or affect to be a Thief to be a perjured infamous or envious person or to be a notorious offender or criminous Transgressor of the second Table or of Laws agreeable to it There is no man but is naturally I mean by the bent or inclination of corrupt Nature it self more unwilling to be tainted either with these mentioned or with any other like crimes forbidden by the six last Commandments then he that is Free-born is to be subject to the Legal Estate or condition of a Servant And yet the most of men in the issue or in some part of their course of life become subject to some one or other of these Crimes mentioned The most part of men have their wits and affections usually and customarily imployed in some one or other part of Satans Service in some businesses which in the end brings them to be such men as they do no way desire to be that is either unnatural disobedient cruel intemperate fellonious perjured or envious persons men in whose Souls Satan hath purchased a greater Interest over whose desires and affections foul and unclean spirits have gotten a greater Command then earthly Lords or Masters have over the bodies or bodily Labour of their Servants a Power or Command to make them forbear those things which their minds and Consciences do most approve a Power to impel them unto those courses which they sometimes most abhorred and over some a Power to change or invert their Wils or desires even to make them willing to continue and increase their Native slavery and misery 2. The means and manner by which Satan gets this Power and Soveraignty over mens Souls are the very same with the means and manner by which bodily and earthly Lords or Masters gain a Title or Interest in the bodily labours or imployments of such as by this interest once gotten become their Servants No man is naturally willing or desirous to be another mans servant All men rather desire to be Free Yet inasmuch as all men naturally desire the continuance of bodily life and health and neither life nor health can be maintained or continued without food and rayment and other necessaries Hence it is that the more inbred and deeplier rooted desire of life and health doth oversway the natural desire of Liberty and Freedom in all such as are not provided of things necessary for the maintenance of this life not able to satisfie their natural desire of meat drink or apparel otherwise then by resigning or making over their bodily imployments or labours to some other mens use which in lieu of these will satisfie their former natural desires of food and rayment and affoord them means necessary to hold Soul and body together 3. The Original Temptation by which men are drawn to Satans slavery The Original or Fundamental Temptation by which Satan draws men into this snare of Servitude or bondage spiritual is by enlarging or improving their desires not of things simply evil but of things either natural or indifferent that is for their kind or quality not unlawful These desires ☜ being improved unto the Full or unto some Excessive Measure do by long custome or continuance require satisfaction by as strong a Law of ‖ See Chap. 18. last Necessity at least as importunately as our natural desires of food or rayment do The more excessive or exorbitant any desire is the more impatient it is of repulse It is as impossible for a greedy or Ravenous Appetite to be satisfied with a spare or moderate Diet as for a moderate appetite to be satisfied without any food at all A vain Fantastick that takes proud Cloathes to be Part of Himself is as desirous of change of suits or costly apparel as a poor man is of apparel it self or of such stuff as is sufficient to keep out cold and wet An Ambitious Spirit is not so well content with an Ordinary place or rank amongst Free-men as an ingenuous mind will be with the estate or condition of an hired Servant if no better by means fair and honest be likely to befall him A Man apt to over-prize himself and Jealous withall of Contempt of wrong or of grosse abuse is not so easily appeased with streams of bloud as a calme and gentle spirit is with an ingenuous acknowledgement of wrongs done or with a curteous answer for wrongs suspected The desire of wealth or worldly goods after it hath once exceeded its lawful bounds becomes as unsatisfiable as * Esay 5. 8. Hab. 2. 5. Hor. Epist 6. l. 1. Mille talenta rotundentur totidem altera porro Tertia Succedant quae pars quadret acervum Persius Sat. 6. Fine Vende animam Lucro mercare atque excute Sollers Omne latus mundi Rem duplica Feci Jam triplex jam mihi quartò Jam decies redit in rugam Depunge ubi sistam See Juvenal Sat. 14. v. 110 c. 326 c. Sume duos Equites fac tertia quadringenta Si nondum implevi gremium si panditur ultra Nec Craesi fortuna unquam nec Persica regna Sufficient animo nec divitiae Narcissi Hell It enlargeth it self by often satisfaction and of all earthly and mortal things it knows no stint or period of grouth but grows strong and lusty by waxing old 4. None of these desires of meat of drink of apparel of satisfaction for wrongs done or suspected of honour riches or preferment are in themselues or for their qualitie unlawfull Their Vnlawfulness consists only in their Excess But even the best of these or like desires being improved beyond its measure will for its privat satisfaction betray the Soule which gives it harbour into Satans hands Hee doth not Hee need not tempt any man directly to be a Thiefe a Robber or a Murtherer For as S. James tells us Chap. 1. 14. Every man is tempted to these and the like crimes by his owne Concupiscence And our Concupiscences and sensuall desires are alwayes increased by custome He that hath long inured himselfe to exceed either in qualitie of meat or drink or to fare deliciously desires only to satisfie his appetite or to observe his delightful Custome So these may be satisfied he hath no desire to be a Thief to be a Cheater or Couzener But rather then
his untemperate appetite should be unsatisfied He will take himself to some other part of Satans Service and adventure on Theft or Murther or any other breach of Gods Commandments 5. Satan in his first Onsets tempts no man to be an Extortioner a griping usurer or a Tormenter of men in their estates by the Engine of money The first advantage which in this part of his Service he gets over mens Souls is from occasions given by men themselves It is a point of wisdom whereunto Solomon by the example of the Ant others by the example of the Bee adviseth us to lay up in Summer against Winter to be well provided in youth against Old age The forecast it self is not amisse It is no transgression of our Saviours precept Be not careful for to morrow Yet is the Practise dangerous unlesse it be guarded with a watchful Care That this provision whether of money or other external means necessary for the support of life do not be-speak our souls For Themselves or divert our desires from the End for which at the first we only did and still ought to desire them Why money hath the greatest command over most mens desires The Fundamental and most transcendent Fallacy by which men suffer themselves to be deceived is by suffering those things which by the Law of nature or Gods ordinance are appointed only as Means useful for attaining some better End to intercept our desires of the End which is Good in it self and to be desired For it self and the Means only to be desired for It. And our desires being once intercepted or diverted from the End unto the Means the Means likewise take up our Principal Care and chief imployments As for Example Food and rayment are by God ordained as Means useful for preserving this mortal life but as things not Absolutely good nor to be desired For themselves For in that better life we shall have no need no use or desire of them Yet in this life we see many so far transported with the desire of them as if life had been given them only to eat and drink or to wear gay apparel as if they had not received these blessings of God to the end that life and health might be preserved by them This Diversion of mens desires from the right End from the Comfort of life old Age unto the ordinary Means thereunto destinated is more easily wrought by Money and Coyne then by any other external Means whatsoever The Reason is plain because Money by Custom and Consent of Nations is made as the †Her Serm. Lib. 2. Sat. 3. Omnis enim tes Virtus Fama Decus divina humanaque pulchris Divitiis parent quas qul construxerit ille Clarus erit fortis justus Sapiens etiam Rex Et quicquid volet Epist 6. Lib. 1. Scilicet uxorem cum dote fidemque amicos Et genus formam Regina Pecunia donat Ac bene nummatum decorat Suadela Venusque Arist Ethic. Nicom Lib. 5. Cap. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Numus sponsor est vel Fide-jussor Eccles 10. 19. Money answereth All Things Juvenal Sat. 3. Protinus ad censum de moribus ultima fiet Quaestio quot pascit servos quot possidet agri Jugera Quantum quisque Common Measure of all Commodities or External Means for support of life It hath more power over mens desires then all other means external have because in a sort it contains all others in it He that hath store of it may have store of any other ordinary commodities he pleaseth And for the same reason That old Saying is most peculiarly true of Money * Juvenal Sat. 14. v. 141. Ergo paratur Altera villa tibi cum rus non sufficit unum Et proferre libet fines majorque videtur Et melior vicina feges mercaris hanc Arbusta montem Hor. Serm. l. 2. Sat. 6. O si angulus ille Proximus accedat qui nunc denormat agellum O si urnam argenti Fo rs quà mihi monstret Crescit amor nummi quantum ipsa pecunia crescit The love of money still increaseth as the money increaseth Now after the love of it be grown so excessive that men begin to desire it For it self it brings a necessity upon them of desiring it So that this is laid as a Principle or Maxim of Law Facias Rem Their Stock of money MUST be increased And this is the Hypothesis or supposition Rectâ— si possis If by fair means it may be increased it is well ‖ Hor. Epist 1. Lib. 1. Juvenal Sat. 14. v. 178. nam dives qui fieri vult Et citò vult fieri Sed quae reverentia Legum Quis metus aut pudor est unquam properantis avari 1 Tim. 6. 9. They that will be Rich c. Si non Quocunque modo Rem if not by any means whatsoever let it be increased 6. Though all the Faculties of the Humane Soul are by Adams Fall become like an Instrument out of Tune Yet are no mans affections so ill set by Corrupt Nature no mans desires so far misplaced but that he can wish every mans Good word rather then his Ill word had rather to be a Benefactor then an Oppressor specially if he be of a disposition free and bountiful Yet if Satan can once impell or allure men thus disposed to overlash in Bounty or stretch their desires of getting Praise by doing good to others beyond their means or abilities he gets a Command over their dispositions or affections and can enforce them to do him service in that kind which by nature they most abhorre For wastefulnesse or †Creverunt opes opum Furiosa Cupido Et cum possideant plurima plura petunt Quaerere ut absumant absumpta requirere Certant Atque ipsae viâ—iis sunt alimenta vices Ovid. Fastor l. 1. Prodigality is the mother of Avarice of Violence and oppression Even Vanity and superfluitie Things without substance and such as can yield no nutriment to any thing else no profit to such as nourish them being once confirmed by Custome will require Satisfaction with as great eagernesse and extremity as any other desires whether natural or acquired And this is the Misery of miseries the very Dregs ☜ of slavery when a man which in his first Practice and Course of Life intended Bounty and Liberality shall be enforced to suck the bloud of the Poor and Needy for satisfying vanity or feeding others in their superfluity How many thousands of poor souls throughout this Kingdom in our dayes have scarce had flesh left to cover their Bones for maintaining the outside of Others pride for garnishing the Surface of undecent Braverie 7. Ambitious desires draw men into the worst slavery But no kind of Creature in the issue or through their whole course of life is farther transported from its intended
will recover without further medicine From this Analogie or proportion betwixt the diseases of the Soul and of the body it is I take it that we are not injoyned to mortifie the Spirit For the Apostle supposeth that the Flesh being mortified the Cure is wrought without any peculiar Mortification of the Spirit distinct from it Or rather He supposed and knew that the mortification of the Flesh could not be wrought without Renovation or Quickening of the Spirit For though it be true which some Moralists say Mens deprecatur ad optima that The Spirit or Conscience doth as it were intreat and counsel Malefactors themselves unto that which is Good Yet the Spirit and Conscience of the best men before they be renewed by the Spirit of God doth perform this work but Weakly Sleightly or Cowardly And the Reason why the Spirit or Conscience of men of good men in respect of others is so defective in this performance of its proper Function is only because it is overborn or kept under or in part corrupted by Carnal Affections or contrary inclinations of the Body or flesh which for this Reason must be mortified Therefore the Apostle when He exhorts to put off the Old Man which is corrupt through the deceitfull Lusts injoynes them to be renewed in the Spirit of their Mind Ephe. 4. 22. 23. 10. There is a Twofold Mortification The One consists in the weakening deading or benumming of Carnal Affections or Desires The Other is alwayes wrought and perfected by a Positive Purification of the Heart or Fountain whence the Affections flow A man may cease to be unchast or Lascivious by age or other Casual Impotencie So may a man cease to be drunk by some disease or distast Another may cease to be Ambitious or have his Ambitious desires benummed or weakened as being either bereaved of opportunities to raise his Fortunes or disenabled to follow his Suites or hopes of Preferment Mortification is then perfect when the Affection it self is as it were rescued from the Carnal Desires or Delights wherein it was involved and is won or trayned to the Service of the Spirit CHAP. XXXIV Containing the Manner and Order of The Spirits Working or of Our Working by The Spirit 1. THe Question remaines How these Two sorts of mortification are wrought by The Spirit or by Vs To this Disquisition concerning the Cure of the Soul there is a Question very Pertinent amongst the Physitians of the Body Whether the Cure of mens Souls be wrought by Contraries or Symbolicals One sort sayes Omne Remedium fit per Contrarium The Others say Omne Remedium fit per Simile The Difference betwixt them may be easily reconciled with the Distinction of the Infirmities and Diseases which are to be cured or of the Subject whereunto the said Medicine may be said to be Like Dislike or Contrarie 2. The Medicine may be sometimes Contrarie to the Matter of the Disease but Like unto the Nature opposed Sometimes again the Medicine may be Contrary to the Nature but Agreeable with the matter of the Disease wherewith Nature is opposed Some Diseases properly consist in meer weaknesse of Nature or Languishment of Spirit and these must be cured per Simile by administration of such Diet or Receipts as may immediatly comfort the Fountain of Life which consists in Calido Humido in moderate heat and moysture As for this reason Hot-waters to men in Swounds are fittest and warm Brothes or Cordials to men otherwise Feeble or deprived of heat and moisture Other Diseases consist either in Excessive Heat or abundance of Blood and these must be cured by the Contrarie as by opening a Veine or by cooling Diet or medicines Too much fulnesse of Body cannot be holpen but by abstinence or Evacuation However both sorts of Physitians agree that when all is done Nature is the best Physitian and that is the best Physick which setts Nature Free to exercise her own strength or Strengthens her to expell noysom humours which cloy or molest her But oft times it so falls out that Nature cannot be thus freed of bad Humors which are setled in the Body without administration of some thing that is Contrary unto Nature but Consorteth so well with the Humors which oppresse her that Nature being inforced to expell this In-mate or New-Comer doth with the same force expell a secret or domestick Enemie which had associated himself unto it As sometimes the Law cannot proceed against secret Enemies of the state untill they be drawn to associate or joyn themselves to other apparent forrain Enemies with whom they perish or are expelled their Native Countrey together with them Again although the Conflict be alwaies most eager and keen between Natures most Contrarie yet that which every Contrarie Agent doth in the first place aym at is not utterly to destroy its Oppoâ—ite but to make it like it self albeit the one often come to destroy the other by seeking to make it grow like it self The heat of the fire doth not directly aym or strike at the cold in the water but seekes to communicate its own heat unto it and the heat produced in the water doth immediatly and directly expell the cold and at length consume the substance of water 3. For better explicating the Manner how both kinds of Mortification are wrought by the Spirit Or how they are wrought by the Spirit of God how by the spirit of man or by the spirit which is in Man Or how by Contraries How by Similitude we are in the First place to consider Three Estates or Conditions of Men How the Cure of the Soul is wrought in severall sorts or Conditions of men The First of the Natural Man that is of him which as yet is in no sort partaker of the spirit of God which hath had no touch or feeling of its Operation in him or upon him The Second is of men which have been partakers of the Spirit but as we say in Fieri not in Facto Such as feele the motions of Gods Spirit whilest it moves them that is they are partakers of its Motions or touches but not of its Residence in them or of any Permanent Impression made upon them The Third Sort is of men made partakers of the Spirit in Habit that is as the Apostle speakes they have the Spirit dwelling in them and are enlivened and enquickened by it The manner how Mortification is wrought in these Three severall sorts or Conditions of men by the Spirit is not the same In the First sort the Cure is Commonly Begun by the Contrary but alwaies Finished by Assimilation God sometimes weakens the inclinations of the natural man against his wil without Consent of his own Spirit Some men are prone to offend or to surfet of the flesh unto death by the abundance of health or too Lively plight of Body and these God in mercie sometimes visits with grievous sicknesses for preventing the diseases which would otherwise grow upon them
servant yet so that the Brute might have the use not the Excesse of his Masters Crib might be strong to Labour though not to lust But farre more God knowes are Ventris Mancipia Slaves that pay tribute of all Creatures in kinde to their Bellie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Basil says Hom. 24. Aâ—d subservient to S. Pauls end there is a medicinal Mortification Narcoticks in this kind might be useful Any Bodily Pain Dolor is a good Physical help against ordinary Paroxisms of Lust So is Labor or taking pains Otia si tollas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Diogenes and if love be the Businesse of Holy-day men or Idle Persons Honest Imployment is a fit Pin to drive it out Lastly there is a Moral Mortification by Rules of Reason For surely Reason is not disenabled by being a Forma Informans or in the same soul and subject with sense that it cannot master the lower soule in Man as well as it can do the Appetite of Bruits where at best it Resembles but an Assistent or external Form I have yet one thing to do and that is to Amolish the suspition of praysing much more of vending what has been long a-broach such spoyling Philosophie as in in its Essence includes Enmity to the Ineffable and Free saving Grace of God in Christ Jesus My Answer to them that examine me anent that Point is This. If the Apologizer offend who will make a Defence for him If I build up what I pretend and ought to destroy I make my self a double Transgressor having as bountifully as many others been offerd and dayly needing more extraordinary influx of Grace then any other does Lord keep thy servant from Prides and Presumptuous sins He that once dares say with Mezentius Dextra mihi Deus est or the Epicurean Porker Animum aequum mî ipse parabo My own Right hand shall bring Salvation will soon fall from one wickednesse to an other from Trust in himself to deny or Defye God into an impudent mind or Gyant-like temper De Ira. lib. 1. in fine to cry as Seneca says Caligula did to Jove when it thunderd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord God of Gods he knoweth and let all Israel know that though I have cuâ— up in the Wolds of Gentilism and layd together a Turf or two it is not with intent to make an Altar thereof much lesse to proclaim them for such Sacrifices wherewith God is well pleased Yet if any will say that I have put fire thereon and that they see it Flame Ex Cinere Ethnicorum flat Lixivium Christianorum I assure them I will make no other use of the Ashes but to make a Lee to besprinkle and besmart my own and the eyes of such other sluggish Christians lest whilst we sleep these Philosophers get Heaven before us I have scraped up these Crusts or Limbs of Antiquity to try 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if by these foolish people or Natures Wise men I might anger my own flesh into a Godly Jealousie or Emulation to outstrip them as far in proportion as our Means excel theirs And if I have not rather done it for Fear of this thing That these poor Ghosts or Corpses of Vertues Heathen as well as persons should rise in Judgement and condem us Christians who care not to adorn our holy Profession with such not in any degree of proportion such Good Works as the Primitive Christian Worthies did From whose Heroical Degrees of Vertue we are degenerated as farre as Pigmies are from the Gyants of old Not by Reason of any Wane or decay of the Grace of God as if that were feebler now then when coming forth as a Bridegroom of Beauty or Gyant of strength it begun first to Reign through righteousness or was at first shed abroad in the hearts of the faithfull But that we a Generation of Formal sinfull Men by making God to serve with onr sins and his Spirit to ' tend and wait till we were pleased to be weary of them have grieved that holy Spirit and what by receiving the Grace of God in vain what by turning it into Laciviousnesse have vex't and quench't the same To do these Gentle Vertues right then and give them their due for it is not fit Virtutes invertere Many most almost all the forementioned were Good for the Matter Substance Bulk Being the Things of the Law Many of them were sparklings of the light of Nature which like Glow-worms made some shew in the night Apol. Cap. 27 in Tertullians Hyperbole Testimonia animae naturaliter Christianae Dictates or Notions of Conscience the Humane Spirit or Lamp of the Lord Satisfac conscientiae non famae sequatur mala dum benè merearis Sen. de Ira. L. 3. c. 41. These Egyptian Jewels were Ornaments to the Persons that wore them and worth our Borrowing and Polishing and Consecrating towards the Adorning of the Tabernacle They had some good Influence upon the Generations and Communities where they were Acted Contra. Jul. Pelag. Lib. 4. Cap. 3. And as they were not effected without Gods good Providence as St. Austin observes that all the Various dispositions or Temperaments of Men are not so they passed not without some notice taken by his Bounty or Temporal Reward given them by God And at the Great Day of Recompenses shall have considerable Allowance or abatement as to Degrees of Punishment Minus enim Fabricius quam Catilina punietur non quia iste bonus sed quia ille magis malus Ibid. minus impius quam Catilina Fabricius non veras virtutes habendo sed à veris non plurimùm Deviando So S. Austin and Mr. Hooker of Cambridge has to my remembrance a very sad saying to that purpose and not to be gainsaid The Pagan and the Philosopher shall have a cool summer Parlour in Hell in comparison of the Debauch't Christian But we have a surer Word of the Great Prophets it shall be more easy for Sidon and Sodom two sinks of sin then for Chorazin and Capernaum Two despisers of Grace O that we could believe what strange unconceivable Confusion will seaze upon the Belial Christian when he shall see the Queen of the South and men of Nineveh Condemn the Jew and hear the Pythagorean and Epicurean impanneld into one Jurie sentence the Gracelesse vile Christian. When we shall see Christians damn'd for cheating one another out of Tullies Offices and subtile Seraphical Schollars for ill manners sentenced without Book out of the Law written in the hearts of Analphabet Idiots when it would be counted a favour Farre above Dives's desire if God would grant it Sit Animamea cum Philosophis All which in effect shall be if we be not more free from Vice or not better Vertued then these forementioned Philosophers were whose works as they were done and raised up so are their writings preserved by Gods Providence to yeild us provoking Examples to imitate and by the help of Gods Grace
this Sentence of death till he commit the Fact at which the Law doth immediately strike not at his Person Again there is ordinarily required to Excommunication not only Sententia Iuris but Sententia Iudicis Though the Canon by which he is Excommunicated were made Long before yet he that offends against the Canon is not forthwith Excommunicated by it until he be refractory or Contumacious The Judge may admonish before he give Sentence without his sentence judicially given the party is not excoÌ„municated by the Law But some peculiar Cases there be wherein a man may stand Immediatly Excommunicated by the law or Canon without the sentence of the Judg there is no place left for Admonition or recanting The Fact being once proved either by witnesses or by its own Evidence the Judge hath no more to do but to read the Canon and to pronounce that the party hath fallen upon it So that he is said to be excommunicated by the Law or Canon which was made perhaps a thousand years before he was born yet not born an excommunicate person or in the State of excommunication into this estate he falls by doing some Fact or other at which the Rule or Canon doth immediately strike without further Processe or Conviction Now in as much as the Sentence was given before he was born it cannot be denyed but that he was excommunicated before he was born and yet had not been excommunicated at all unlesse he had done that Fact which requireth Excommunication by the Law 7. Some Founders of Colledges appoint a Process or Formal proceeding against Offenders even in grosser Crimes as for Adultery Murther manifest Perjury or the like before any man can be expelled for these and the like Crimes Such as they appoint Judges must give Sentence Viva voce upon the examination not of the Fact only but of the Quality of the Fact as whether it be Scandalous in so high a degree as deserves Amotion without further Admonition or expectation of amendment And every one that is in these Cases amoved or expelled is expelled by his present Judges not immediatly by his Founder or his Statutes though the Judges must proceed according to their intent or meaning But in case any of the same society the very Governours themselves should obtain a Licence or Dispensation for their Oath there needs no sentence of any Judge there is no place for Admonition or Traverse because the Founders themselves even when they made these Lawes and statutes inflicted these punishments upon all such as in this kind transgress their statutes Now upon whomsoever the Founder of any Society which dyed some two or three hundred years agoe did inflict the punishment of Expulsion by vertue of this present Statute he did inflict it before the party offending was born and yet this punishment had not at all fallen upon him unless he had committed that Fact which the Founder in his life time did thus severely censure whensoever it should by any of his Society be committed See the Note at the end of this Chapter Now in this case we may truly say that the party thus offending doth * expell himself by committing that Fact for which he was expelled by his Founder The Founder then expels him before he was born without any respect unto his Person â—or no Lawgiver makes any Decree or Law against any mans Person but against mens Misdemeanours but the party cannot be said to expell himself before he doth dash against the inflexible Law or statute 8. And if no Law-giver on earth how partial soever make any Capital Decrees against any mans person Far be it from us to think that the Eternall Law-giver who is himself the Everliving Rule of Justice and Equity should sentence any mans Person to everlasting death albeit whosoever is sentenced to everlasting death be so sentenced from Eternity because God himself who is Eternal is the very Rule or Law a Law or Rule inflexible which cannot alter and yet rewards every man according to all his wayes and works not according to his Person or Individual Nature Whosoever then is reprobated by God is Reprobated by him before he be born even from Eternity and yet no man Baptized is born a Reprobate or becomes so untill he reprobate himself by committing those sins or rather that measure of sin unto which the Eternall Law-giver did before all Times award finall exclusion from the Benefits of Christs Death and Passion Now unto such ungodly men as St. Iude here speaks of this Award was allotted from Eternity thus they were ordained to Condemnation But their Persons were not created or made to ungodlinesse Taking them as now they are there was a Necessity from Eternity that they should perish but there was No necessity from eternity that they should be such ungodly men as now they are This necessity did accrue in time they wilfully and freely brought it upon themselves Thus much of the First Part of the Second General to wit In what sense it is true That whosoever is reprobated or ordained to everlasting death in time was so reprobated or ordained from Eternity The meaning is that the Law or Rule by which he is reprobated or ordained to death hath no beginning of Date it was unchangably set from Eternity Yet was this Law or rule an Immanent Act that is conteined in him only who is Eternal it dit did not produce any Reall effect answerable unto it either for the creature before he was made or in the creature after he was made until he have made up that measure of Sin unto which everlasting death was by this Eternal living Rule awarded But the measure of sinne being made up then as the Lawyers speak Indicium transit in rem judicatam that is the eternall Law or sentence produceth a Transient Effect in the Creature so qualified and that is an Ordination Passive the beginning of that death which shall have no end 9. The Second Part of the Second General Second part of the second General which was the last Doctrinal point was Whether St. Iude in this place be to be understood of Gods eternal design or Ordination unto death or of some written Ordination or Ruled Case which did as truly fit these men taking them as now they are as it did other ungodly persons of old against whom the Sentence of Condemnation here meant was denounced or declared by other of Gods Embassadours That these ungodly men here in S. Jude were Fore-ordained to this condemnation the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth literally and clearly evince but whether this Fore-ordination were in S. Iudes intent or meaning a Fore-ordination from Eternity the literall importance of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of old doth make it questionable or rather puts it out of question that he did not so mean For it is an Adverb of Time and never reaches to my observation so farre as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉
of every creature which is good had an Objective being in him before it could have any Subjective being in the creature The Beautie of Salomons Temple whilst it stood was Subjectively in the materials rightly proportioned and adorned but Objectively in the Spectators or Surveyors eye The same Beautie was Objectively in the Architects Brain or Fancie before it could be either Subjectively in the material Temple or building or Objectively in the Spectators eye In like manner Justice or goodnesse Original was Subjectively in the first Man after his Creation but was Objectively in God before the First Man was created 8 Yet if another man had written That there was an Objective Goodnesse in the Creature precedent to the Act or exercise of Gods Will I should not have had the malitious wit or invention to have charged him as the forecited Author hath done me with the overthrowing of any Divine Attribute or with making the Creature a God or with Blasphemous Arminian Heresie Charitie would rather have moved me to make this construction of his words If we consider these Three Man the Image of God Goodness as all of them were Objectively in God before they had any actuall being Gods Image might be said to be in the Man and Goodnesse in Gods Image in such a sense as every Attribute is said to be in the subject of aproposition abstract from sense He that saith Socrates is a reasonable creature must acknowledge reason to be in Socrates The connexion between the Subject and the Attribute in Abstract Propositions is Essentiall and Eternall So necessarie so eternal was the Connexion between Man made after Gods Image or so considered and Goodness that whensoever it should please God to give this Subject Man after his Image actual Being the Attribute likewise to wit Goodness was of necessitie to have actuall Being or Coexistence with its Subject without intervention or interposition of any other cause If besides the Act or exercise of Gods Will by which man was created after his Image any other Act or exercise of his Will had been necessary or useful to make him actually Good then Goodness or Justice original should not have been Natural but Supernatural to the First Man which no good Protestant may grant The First Mans Goodness so long as it continued was continued by preservation of Gods Image in him and cannot be renued otherwise then by renovation of the same Image in him so that the Goodness of God is the Rule of Goodness the Ideal Form or patern of Goodness in the Creature The Act or exercise of the Divine Wil makes no creature morally or spiritually good but by making it conformable unto his own Goodness This and no other was my meaning in that 13. Chapter and this my meaning as I thought was sufficiently exprest by me and is so acknowledged by ingenious and understanding Readers 9. Nihil In bonis numerandum nisi quod per seipsum sit Laudabile i. e. sponte suâ possit laudari Tull. de Leg. L. 1. p. 163 quod a. laudabile sponte suâ illud ante sine praecepto bonum Laudabile If any man be disposed to except either against any Particular Proposition in this 13. Chapter or against my Generall declaration in what sense Gods Will is said to be the Rule of Goodness I shall request him positively to set down the Proposition Contradictory to any Proposition of mine which in that Chapter he thinketh to be Erroneous And if he can Concludently draw any such dangerous Consequence out of the Propositions avouched by me as I shall do out of his I faithfully promise to retract what I have said But until I see better Proofs then this obiector brings any I rest confident that howsoever some Divines of our Times will be ready to Contradict this Proposition All things are not Good only because God willeth them but God willeth somethings because they are Good Whiles this controversie is only betwixt him and me in this Particular yet I shall be sure to finde the same man to Contradict himself and to confesse as much as I here avouch whensoever he shall have occasion to dispute with the Jew or to assign the difference between the Ceremonial and the Moral Law or the Reason why The One is to be perpetually observed The Other not so The shedding of innocent Blood was evil before any Law was made against it before Gods Will was declared to the contrarie Cain did suffer punishment for the Fact before any positive Law and before any Act of Gods Will declared to prohibit it The shedding of innocent blood then was not evil because it was forbidden but it was afterwards peremptorily forbidden because alwaies Evil. Cains Enterprise against his innocent brother was Objectively Evil before there was any man that could commit this or the like enormitie Charitie Peace Brotherly Love are Good not onely because God hath commanded them or willed us to follow them but God by his Law doth will and command us to follow after these things because they were alwayes good even before he willed or commanded us to follow them The time will never be wherein Innocencie Brotherly Love Charitie Peace and loving kindnesse shall be as displeasing to God as Murther Hatred Malice Crueltie and Uncharitablenesse hitherto alwaies have been He cannot enact a Law either to authorize these or the like practises or to prohibit the contrarie vertues But in as much as Râ—ites and Ceremonies Sacrifices Circumcision c. which God sometimes did will and command men to observe were onely Good because God did will and command them Hence it is that they are now abrogated and their use inverted without any change of Gods eternal Will or of his Divine Nature The Negative Precepts concerning Rites and Ceremonies have been turned into Affirmatives and the Affirmatives into Negatives because the One containeth no other Goodnesse nor the Other any Evil in them which did not entirely depend upon Gods Positive Will to command or forbid them And seeing His Will though most Immutable is immutably Free though not to do Good or Evil yet Free to make that which is not in its nature or essentially Good to be Good for One Time or Season not for Another and that which is not in its nature or essentially Evil but of an indifferent nature to be sometimes Good and sometimes Evil therefore hath he made the Omission of some Ceremonies to be as Good in latter times as their observance was in former and the Observance of others to be as evil as their former Neglect or contempt were under the Law or from the Date of Gods first Covenant with Abraham until the Ratification or publication of the New Covenant made in Christ The uncircumcised manchilde saith God to Abraham Gen. 17. 14. whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised that soul shall be cut off from his people But seeing the observance of that which is here commanded was onely Good
a sin was incest in Lot such are all the sins committed by the Elect And so were all the sins of the Elect remitted before they were committed But the Question is Whether God did so absolutely decree the remission of any mans sin from eternitie as that their remission was from eternitie absolutely necessarie If God did absolutely decree that the sins of the Elect should be remitted Sin not remitted before committed then he did absolutely decree that they should be committed For even in Gods eternal Foreknowledge of all things that fall out in time the Commission of sins hath precedencie of their Remission and if their Remission were in respect of his Foreknowledge or decree absolutely necessary their Commission was as necessarie It is impossible there should be any Remission of sins without a presupposal of their Commission Yet are the former Conclusions not muttered in corners but maintained as part of that holy doctrine which hath been delivered unto us by the masters of Israel approved by the best writers in reformed Churches These and the like Doctrines are held in so precious esteem that if the lawful Pastor seek to root them out where they have been planted by others or to prevent their growth or spreading he shall be traduced for an Arminian and as they hope be so censured by the high Court of Parliament But my hope is that no Loyal Elder of Israel shall ever so far forget himself as either to attempt or seek to have those and the like Conclusions ratified by our great Josuahs Royal consent Sure I am these are no branches of that Ancient Catholick Apostolick Faith of which we acknowledg our Soveraign Lord to be the defender and God grant that he may ever defend and keep it pure and undefiled from these and the like Conclusions that it may defend him and his people from their adversaries 12 Yet to seek the Correction of these and the like Conclusions though malapertly maintained by some of the Flock against most of their Pastors or the punishment of those which so maintain them until the Principles from which they naturally issue be checkt or inhibited were but Tyrannie These here related are the least not the worst part of those noysom branches which spring from this one root That Gods irresistible decree for the absolute Election of some and the absolute Reprobation of others is immediatly terminated to the Individual Natures Substances or Entities of men without any Logical respect or reference to their qualifications This Principle being once granted what breach of Gods moral Law is there whereon men will not boldly adventure either through desperation or presumption either openly or secretly For seeing Gods Will which in their Divinitie is the only Cause why the one sort are destinated to death the other to life is most immutable and most Irresistible and seeing the Individual Entities or natures of men unto which this irresistible Decree is respectively terminated are immutable let the one sort do what they can pray for themselves and beseech others to pray for them they shall be damn'd because their Entities or Individual Substances are unalterable Let the other sort Live as they list they shall be saved because no corruption of manners no change of morality breeds any mutability or change in their Individual Natures or Entities unto which Gods immutable Decree is immediatly terminated Whatsoever become of good life and manners so the Individual Nature or Entity fail not or be not annihilated salvation is tyed unto it by a necessity more indissoluble then any chains of Adamant 13. This Assertion Whosoever is Elected from Eternity was never the child of wrath save only in the esteem of men I found delivered in certain papers at my first entrance upon my Pastoral charge in the Town of Newsastle written by one that had been a great Rabbi in some private Conventicles in and about that Town And for the refuting of this Opinion and the Principles out of which it doth most necessarily follow it was presently conceived by some of my Auditors that I went about to refute the Doctrine of all Reformed Churches concerning Election and Reprobation And Amongst the Doctrines of Reformed Churches which it was vehemently suspected I went about to refute this was expressed for one That the sins of the Elect or Regenerate were remitted before they were committed A doctrine which for my part I dare not charge any one reformed Church with though some in reformed Churches have stifly maintained the Principle out of which this Conclusion will necessarily follow and some few have in expresse Termes delivered the Conclusion but so hath not to my knowledge any reformed Church or entire Congregation besides the Familist to which this errour properly belongs The Council of Dort hath expresly delivered the contrary so have others which write against the Arminians But in this Point a Reverend and Learned Pastor in the City of London hath saved me a Labour The false Principle from which both these Conclusions 1. The sins of the Elect are remitted before they are committed 2. Whosoever is Elected being elected from eternitie never was never could be never can be the child of wrath will most necessarily follow is the forementioned Errour which tyes or terminates Gods Eternal and irresistible Decree for the absolute Election of some and the absolute Reprobation of others to the Individual Natures persons or Entities of men elected or reprobated But to omit for the present the question concerning such absolute Election not the most Tyrannical Lawgiver that to this day hath breathed on earth did ever declare himself to be so farre the son of the Divel as to make solemn decrees against mens persons without respect or reference to their Qualifications It is the propertie of the enemy of mankind to delight in mans punishment as he is a man or a reasonable creature to desire to have any man as he himself now is but sometimes was not a vessel capable only of vengeance or punitive justice alltogether uncapable of Gods free bounty mercy or favour And seeing this most Honourable Court of Parliament now happily assembled to make wholesome Lawes doth not intend to make any Punitive Lawes or decrees specially capitally punitive against any mens Persons or Nature but against mens ill Qualifications misdemeanors I am confident that every member of it doth firmly believe that our heavenly Father did never make any such Decree or Law Again seeing God hath revealed his good Will and pleasure to be this To reward every man according to all his wayes I shall find no opposition or Contradiction to this Conclusion as I hope among good Christians God did from eternity decree to reward every man not according to his Individual Nature but according to his wayes his works or qualification which he did no lesse certainly foresee then he did his Individual Nature He hath decreed from eternity to revvard the vvicked and the ungodly for their vvicked vvorks
not fast as ye do this day to make your voyce to be heard on high CHAP. XL. A Paraphrase upon the Eleven first Chapters of Exodus with usefull Annotations Observations and Parallels ALbeit the Ancient Heathens however they came by them had many excellent Notions and some Exquisite Discourses upon those Notions of A Divine Providence which even to their apprehension did usually over-reach and controll all Politick Projects of greatest Princes Yet such Exquisite Maps or Live-Patterns of the Onely Wise Gods Proceedings in Counter-plotting the subtlest contrivances of mightiest Princes or of the profoundest Professors of mysteries of State or other subordinate Projectors as the Historie of Joseph wherewith Moses concludes the Book of Genesis or the Historie of Pharaoh wherewith the same Moses begins the Book of Exodus the best of the Heathens had none Nor may this present Age expect any equal though every Age in one Kingdom or other afford some matter of Historie like unto them Quoad veritatem licèt non quoad mensuram With the Historie of Joseph I am not at this time to meddle any further then as it may lead me or instruct me to take a more exact survey of Gods Process with Pharaoh or of The manner how or of The means by which He hardened him 2 So long as that great and in his kinde Religious Pharaoh lived whose life and prosperous estate of the kingdom whereof he was Lord Joseph by Gods good Providence and peculiar instructions had both preserved and advanced nothing went amiss with the Stemmes of Jacob All of them from the highest to the lowest fared well for Josephs sake and which was more then all the matter of their well-fare the Egyptians amongst whom they sojourned did not envie or repine at their prosperitie at least they durst not profess any enmity or attempt to wreak their malice if they had conceived any against them The fresh memory of Josephs good deservings at the Kings Princes and Peoples hands did prevent all practises of Hostilitie or repining crueltie though but intended against them so long as that Pharaoh which had so well rewarded Joseph and had him in so great esteem did sway the Scepter of Egypt But it seems that this gracious King dyed about the same time that Joseph did or rather before him For Moses instructs us Exod. 1. 8. There arose a new King which knew not Joseph that is either had no Memorial Record or took no notice how well he had deserved both of the King and Kingdom of Egypt And he said unto his people Behold The people of the children of Israel are greater and mightier then we c. Josephus in his second book of Judaical Antiquities informs us and his information will much advance the true value of the Literal Sense of the Sacred Context according to the Original that this latter Pharaoh or new King mentioned by Moses Chap. 1. vers 3. was of another Line no Son or Heir unlesse by Adoption of that great Pharaoh and Grand Patron of Joseph but at the best of some Collateral Line Now whether it were out of Real Fear or out of Pride of heart or Popularitie This new King to give some Document in the beginning of his Reign of more care and wisdom for maintaining and advancing the welfare of the Natives then his Predecessor had practised who had placed his special favours upon forraigners and strangers thus resolves with himself and proposeth his resolution to his Counsel of State or War Come let us work wisely with them lest they multiply and it come to passe that if there be war they joyn themselves also unto our Enemies and fight against us and get them out of the Land verse 10. The First Project of this new King was to keep the Israelites from Mutinie whereunto their number might as he thought provoke or tempt them by laying the yoke of servitude and hard labour upon them But perceiving that the more he did press them the more they multiplied and grew stronger his second project became more cruel for it was to destroy or put the Males of Israel out of this world as fast and as soon as they came into it Neither of these Two Projects were any part of Gods Ordination or Design Both were suggested to this proud Kingâ— by Gods enemie who is the father of all Bloodie Politicians and chief master of all unhallowed Policies However the entertainment of this Satanical Suggestion and the putting of it in execution by Royal Authoritie and Command was an Inchoation or rather a large measure of that Ordination or Coaptation of this Kingdom and State to that destruction whereof our Apostle speaks Rom. 9. 22. What if God willing to shew his wrath to make his power known endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction 3 But that new King which devised all the forementioned evils against the children of Israel The infant killer and Hardned two several Pharaohs was not the Subject of that Obduration mentioned by our Apostle and recorded by Moses from Exod. 7. unto the 11. For that bloodie King which caused all the Males of Israel to be cast into the river dyed before God appeared to Moses in the â—â—sh as is evident from Exod. 2. 23. And it came to pass in process of time that the King of Egypt dyed and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage c. and is expresly avouched by Josephus in his second Book of Jewish Antiquities Chap. 5. However this other Pharaoh becoming Successor to that cruel King mentioned Exod. 1. 8. not in Place onely but in Cruelty and oppression the wickedness and wrongs practised by the former Pharaoh and his subjects are charged upon the Second and his people because they were bound by the Law of God and by the Law of Nature to have given better Satisfaction to the Israelites then they did so much at least as Moses in his First message to Pharaoh Exod. 4. did demand And this Pharaohs heart to whom he was sent was more capable of or rather more fitly disposed to that Obduration which befel him because he could not be ignorant of the ill success which his Predecessors cruel intentions against the Infant-Males had found It was the former Pharaohs main Project to destroy the Hebrew-Males And in the heat of this persecution Moses is born but hid for three months from Pharaohs Firrets or blood-hounds rather by his Parents This providence in his parents was not from secret Instinct of Nature but from True Faith or supernatural Revelation as our Apostle instructs us Heb. 11. 23. By Faith Moses when he was born was hid three months of his parents because they saw that he was a proper child and they not afraid of the Kings commandment 4. Josephus tells us that the Occasion which Pharaoh took to murther all the Hebrew Males was from a constant Fame or Praenotion suggested unto him by a Secretary of state That
he saw would grow greater every day albeit his Predecessors cruel Project against the Male-children had succeeded according to his intention for the Female Sex would still have multiplyed and these he thought to be a secure Possession as being not likely to make insurrection against him or to become confederates in warr with his Enemies Nor is it probable that either of the two Pharaohs ever intended the extirpation of the males any further then that they might have enough to propagate such a perpetuall generation or succession of Slaves so competent in number as the Egyptians might easily master them 7. This Attempt had been lesse dangerous and the cruel Practise lesse wicked against any other People under heaven then against the Seed of Abraham and of Isaac because these were the Lords own inheritance His Peculiar Charge This People when they were first invited into Egypt was scarce an Oligarchie a small Congregation of men indued with no other power or Jurisdiction but only such as every Father of a Familie hath over his Children and Grand-children and theirs And this Jurisdiction after Jacobs death was divided amongst his sons Every one of them was a Patriarch that is a Chief over his own Tribe or Clan Nor had these twelve Patriarchs any Civil or Coercive Power one over another or respectively over their several Families after they setled in Egypt but as the King and State of Egypt would permit or allow of Not any power at all to make any Warr whether offensive or defensive or Leagues of Peace with any other Nation Free-men notwithstanding they were de jure and this new King of Egypt which knew not Joseph much lesse considered upon what Title of deservings Jacob and his sons were permitted to enjoy a Competent measure of the Land of Egypt did most unjustly attempt to put the yoke of slavery upon their necks Yet how to right themselves they knew not as having no Superior Lord on earth unto whom they might appeal from Pharaoh But the more destitute they were of any help from earth the more easie and speedy entrance their Prayers found into heaven their teares and cries were accepted of the Lord God of their Fathers for more then Legal Appeals 8. But from the time of His appearance to Moses in the Bush which was after the first hard-hearted Pharaohs death the Lord himself vouchsafed to to become their King not in general only as he is Lord of all Lords and King of all Kings and People throughout the World but in a Proper and peculiar manner Whatsoever Authoritie or Power of Jurisdiction the Kings or Supreme Majesties of other Nations or Soveraignties did exercise or by Divine permission and Ordinance of Providence do now exercise over their People as Power of Life and death or of making Lawes or Leagues whether of Peace or Warr with other States all these and the like Prerogatives the Lord of heaven and earth did reserve immediately unto himself alone over the Seed of Jacob and of Abraham his Friend Upon the Lords Reservation of this Royal Power entire unto himself Moses is delegated to be his Embassador unto the King and State of Egypt and constituted his Deputy or Vice-Roy over Israel Nor shall the Reader whether Christian or other be ever able to understand the Literal or Punctual meaning of the Historie of Exodus to the 14. chapter or of those places in St Paules Epistle to the Romans which referre unto that Historie unlesse he take This Rule or Principle along with him whil'st he reads them viz. That all the Messages which Moses delivered to Pharaoh from God all the Answers which Pharaoh returned by him were true and formal Treaties of a Legal and Solemn Embassage The Law of Nature and of Nations was never so accurately observed by any Embassador as it was by Moses whilst he exercised this Function in his many Treaties with Pharaoh One Principal if not the only Fact that can come within the Suspicion of Injustice on Moses's part was the spoyling the Egyptians of their Jewels But if we consider what unsufferable wrongs the King and people of Egypt had done unto this People of God which had now become His Peculiar Subjects or his Proprietarie Lieges This Fact even by Course of Humane Law or Law of Nations was more justifyable then Royall Grants of Letters of Mart or other like remedies against such other Nations as have wronged their Subjects or suffered them to be wronged by any under their command without restitution when they solemnly or by way of Embassage demanded it are Whatsoever the Hebrew women had borrowed of or taken from the women of Egypt they took and did possess it Reprisaliorum jure by the Law of Reprisal that is by way of special Warrant granted by God himself as he was now become not only this peoples God but their King in Special This warrant for spoiling the Egyptians not by any strong or violent hand but with their own Consent we have Registred Exod. 3. 21. c. And I will give this people favour in the eyes of the Egyptians and it shall come to pass that when ye go ye shall not go emptie But every woman shall borrow of her neighbour and of her that sojourneth in her house jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiment and ye shall put them upon your sons and upon your daughters and ye shall spoil the Egyptians 9 In all this time or in all the instructions given by God to Moses Exod 3. there is no mention of Gods purpose or menacing to harden Pharaoh but only a Divine Prediction that Pharaoh would not let the children of Israel go and yet be at length as willing to let this people of God depart as Pharaohs people should be to bestow their Jewels and other rich Presents upon them The Miracles which Moses was for the present and afterward authorized and enabled to work Moses's miracls Letters of Credence both in the sight of his own people and in the presence of Pharaoh were as Authentick Letters of Credence legible enough to the Egyptians that the Lord of Hosts had designed him unto this Embassage and given him power to command all the hosts of reasonless creatures to fight for Israel against the Egyptians All the several Armies of inferiour Creatures which brought the many ensuing plagues upon the Egyptians were but as so many fingers of that mighty hand by whose strength God had lately foretold Moses that Pharaoh would in the â—ssue be content to let the Israelites depart upon fair terms out of his Land 10 The former Pharaoh and his Predecessor according to the apprehension of their proud imaginations had played the Foregame so cunningly against the seed of Jacob that this present or later Pharaoh at least thought himself sure of winning the Sett or of drawing the whole Stake about which the controversie was and that was the present libertie or perpetual thraldom of Israel Now God instructs his
by his Blood were the Deliverance of mankind from the powers of darkness and the inheritance of the kingdom of Light 4. The Parallel between the Institution of the Passover and of the Lords Supper or of the two Inheritances bequeathed the one by Moses the other by Christ is so plain that it needs no Comment It only requires a diligent Reader or Hearer or what is wanting on the ordinary Hearers part may be supplied by every ordinary Catechist before the receiving of the Sacramental Pledges One point yet remaines more pertinent to the unfolding of our Apostles meaning Heb. 9. ver 15. And for this cause he is the Mediator of the new Testament that by meanes of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the First Testament they which are called might receive the promise of Eternal Inheritance For where a Testament is there must also of necessitie be the death of the Testator For a Testament is of force after men are dead otherwise it is of no strength at all while the Testator liveth And it is this As the Israelites did not enter upon the inheritance or take possession of the Land of Canaan till after Moses the Testator or Mediator of the old Testament was dead so neither was the Kingdom of Heaven our everlasting inheritance set open to all or any Beleivers until Christ Jesus the Testator or Mediator of the new Testament was crucified dead buried and raysed again to immortal Glorie Since which time as is the King so is the Kingdom or inheritance bequeathed so is the Testament it self being sealed by his bloody death All and every of them Truely Everlasting CHAP. XLVIII The Parallel between the most Solemn Services of the Law and The One Sacrifice of Christ And The high praeeminence and efficacie of This in comparison of Those The Romanists Doctrin that in the Masse Christs Body is Identically Carnally present and that there is a proper Sacrifice Propitiatorie offered derogates from the Absolute Perfection of Christs offering himself Once for all 1. THe principal Termes of proportion in this Parallel which serve as so many several Kens or Markes for the right survaying of it are The services of the Law or the Offices of Legal Priests and the Perpetual Function of our High Priest The services of the Law wherein our Apostle instanceth are the Principal and most Solemn Sacrifices which were injoyned to the Priests after the order of Aaron The One Sort whereof were Anniversaries as of Bullockes and Goates and to be offered every year upon the day of Attonement and so to be offered from the First Erection of the Tabernacle in the wilderness so long as the Law of Ceremonies was de Jure to continue untill our Saviours death upon the Cross since which time all Bloody Sacrifice have lost their Legal Vse The Other service was That Sacrifice of the Red Heifer and the Consecration of water by the sprinkling or mingling her Ashes which perhaps was not Anniversarie nor often put in practice from the time of Moses his Death untill the Ascension of our Saviour into heaven Now our Apostle takes it as granted that if these choice Sacrifices of Attonment and of the Red Cow were altogether unsufficient to purifie the Hearts and Consciences or the Soules and Spirits of sinful men the Ordinary or meaner sacrifices of the Law were much more unsufficient to all such purposes as the Sacrifices of our high Priest was Alsufficient to all such purposes as the Sacrifice of our high Priest was Alsufficient and most Efficacious for The Eminency of Christs bloudie Sacrifice upon the Cross in respect of all Legal sacrifices of what rank soever consisteth First in the Efficacy which it had and hath for Remission of all sins committed against the Moral Law of God that is of all such sins as immediately pollute the reasonable Soul and Conscience The least degree of such Purification no Legal Sacrifices could immediatly effect reach or touch To what Use then did they directly serve or what was the proper Effect unto which they were immediately terminated That was the Purification of mens Bodyes from meere Legal uncleannesse that is from all such negligences Ignorances or Casual Occurrences as not being expiated by the Priest did exclude the parties so offending from the Tabernacle of the Congregation Or as our Apostle speakes to Purifie them from such uncleannesses of the flesh as did but foreshadow or picture the uncleanness of the soul or the dead works of sinne All which being not expiated by a more excellent Priest then any was after the order of Aaron will exclude all from entring into the heavenly Tabernacle 2. Such Legal uncleannesse as did exclude the Parties polluted with it from the Tabernacle of the Congregation was many waies contracted as by touching of the dead by eating of Meats forbidden by the Law or by not eating meates allowed of by the Law according to the Rule or Prescript for such Ceremonial Services or by the like Omissions or Practises which were not in their own nature or to all men sinful but sinful in the Seed of Jacob only to whom they were Evill only because forbidden not forbidden because they were evill in their own nature Even in regard of such shadows or Typical Offices for Purifying men Legally unclean the best and most solemn Sacrifices of the Law though offered once at least every year and otherwise as often as dayly Occasions or Occurrences did require were no way so efficacious or Effectual as the One Sacrifice of the Son of God offered by himself but Once for all is for the perpetual Purifying of our Soules from the Dead works of sin and for our Consecration to the everlasting service of the everliving God which is that Freedom indeed wherewith his only Son hath promised to set all such Free as Believe in his Name and Abide in his word John 8. 3. The Eminencie of Christs Priesthood and Sacrifice above the Priesthood and Services of the Law is deeply wronged by the Doctrine and Practise of Secular and Regular Roman-Catholick Priests as they do term themselves and so is our Apostles Doctrine in the ninth and tenth Chapters to the Hebrews more peremptorily contradicted by them then it was by the Incredulous or unbelieving Jews in his life time The Western Anti-Christ so the Lutherans distinguish them hath in this particular so farr out-bid the Antichrist of the East that if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Law-opposer or man of sin were to be followed close with Howant-Cry or his Footsteps to be traced for these nine hundred years by the Christian Kingdoms or States the Chase and Cry would sooner fall into Rome or Trent then into Constantinople though That no question be now the seat of Gog and Magog or of the Eastern Antichrist That Contradiction of Sinners which our Saviour Christ did indure here on Earth Heb. 12. 3. improved by the Roman Church in later dayes against all such as
a Necessity upon themselves of intending nothing but that which is hurtful to the Sons of men but they do not Necessarily intend This or That Particular Hurt which they do de Facto and no other nor do they so Necessarily hurt This or That Particular Person at This Instant but that it was possible for them to let him alone and to hurt some other Some or more it may be of this infernal Crew are alwayes attending our Publick or Private Meetings especially about Sacred Affairs or Devotions The only End of their coming is to dishonour God and to do mischief unto man In respect of this End indefinitely taken they are not Free unlesse with that kind of Freedom which is opposed only unto Coaction Both Branches of this End they intend so willingly that they cannot cease to intend them or to will the Contrary 9. Yet notwithstanding this Necessity they have Freedom left to cull or chuse out the Parties whom they mean to tempt And after they have determined on the Party they have Freedom left to make choice of the Particular Temptation as whether to sollicite them to Pride rather then to Lust whether to provoke them to Anger or to ungodly mirth A true Freedom likewise they have after the choice of temptation made to continue or change their Baits to prosecute or give over their particular present Pojects 10. The Angels which kept their First Station when the Rebellious did forsake it have since by Gods Providence lost all Freedom of Will to do Evil but with increase of their Freedom in doing well A Necessity is Laid upon them of serving God and him only yet not hereby necessarily constrained or wrought no not by the Incomprehensible and Sweet Contrivance of the Divine Decree to do Him this Particular Service at this time and no other not Necessarily enjoyned by Gods Will or their own to abide so long in this place as they do and no longer or shorter while Their Intentions to wards man are alwayes Good yet not Necessarily bound to do that Determinate Good which they do to this man and no other To make choice of the Party whom at this instant they especially mean to Protect is as Free for them as it is for us among a multitude of Beggars to make choice of some one or two on whom to bestow our Benevolence Now in the dispensing of Alms to the needy or bequeathing Legacies to our friends we are I take it Free not only from Necessity of Coaction or constraint but also Free from such Necessity as by vertue of the Eternal Decree is Inevitable CHAP. XXVII Of the Difference betwixt Servitude and Freedom in Collapsed Angels and unregenerate men and of the inequality of Freedom in respect of divers Objects and degrees in Natural men 1. BUt before we come to speak of the Unregenerate Mans Free-will and its proper Subject What Free-Will in the Natural or unregenerate Man we must lay this Charge upon the Reader not to interpret or rather mistake us as if we Questioned Whether Man were able to do Any Thing or no without Gods Concourse or Assistance or any Spiritual Good Thing without Grace We only seek what kind of Freedom or Possibility of avoiding Evil or doing better or lesse Evil then oft-times we do is appointed to man by the Immutable Decree If this Decree allow or permit us any Freedom of Will in these Points they wrong mankind much and the Divine Nature more that seek either by Nice Distinctions utterly to take it from us or by Timorous Scrupulosities to quell or weaken our spirits or industrie in use of It. This Point also I would commend to every Readers Consideration That between a meer natural man and a Man utterly forsaken of God there is a Mean or Difference yea perhaps a greater Difference in respect of the end of these insuing Quaeries to wit the salvation of mens souls then is between the State of a man Utterly for saken of God and of Satan and his Angels 2. In respect of Good and Evil the Humane Nature in the First Creation was as truly and as properly Free as the Angelical The First Man was Like his Creator truly and inherently Good indued with Power of doing Well But this his Power was matched with a Possibility of doing Evil. And by his Free and wilful Reduction of this Power into Act He and his Children have utterly lost all Possibility of doing Well By nature All of us are the Children of Wrath the Servants of sin from our birth Nor can we be Freed from this Sâ—rvitude till we be made the Sons of God by the Grace of Adoption 3. But though this Tenent of Reformed Churches be most true to wit That the Humane Nature before Adams Fall was as truly Free as the Angelical and that all the Sons of men since his Fall are as truly subject to sin as the collapsed Angels yet neither was our Freedom before his Fall equal to Angelical Freedom nor this Servitude of sin in us so great as that which is in the Devils For not to speak of the Elect or such as are certainly destinated to salvation the State of Cain the Father of Reprobates before he slew his Brother Abel though we consider it with reference to the Eternal Decree of Reprobation was not so desperate as the Estate of the old Serpent For God certainly did never use that mild and gentle Language either to Satan or his Angels which he did to Cain a little before he slew his Brother And the Lord said unto Cain why art thou wroth and why is thy Countenance fallen If thou doest well shalt thou not be accepted and if thou doest not well sin Lieth at the door and unto thee shall be his desire and thou shalt rule over him Gen. 4. 6 7. Howbeit if at any time it had pleased the wisdom of God to make Loving Profers of Impossibilities to his Creatures Choice Satan and his Angels by rule of Retaliation had been the fittest Subjects of such Profers ☜ because it is their continual Practice to delude mankind in their misery with fair promises of those things which either they are not able or never purpose to perform 4. But seeing the sons of men until they be redeemed by Christ and wicked Spirits are both alike Servants to Sin though their Servitude to it be not Equal the Question is Wherein the Inequality of their Servitude consists The Depth of the Angels Fall was by the Eternal Rule of Justice proportioned to the Height of their knowledge and Happinesse when they stood Now their First Station was much higher then mans the one in Heaven the other in Paradise And as they sinned more wilfully and haughtily so they continued more wilful and stubborn in the course of sin then man The Necessity which they brought upon themselves is Two-fold First a Necessity of doing alwayes that which is in its Own Nature Evil Secondly a Necessity of doing
such evil with positively evil intentions It is their delight to Countermand Gods Laws to make his Negative Precepts Their Affirmatives and his Affirmatives their Negatives And knowing much better then most men do with what particulars God is more specially offended they tempt every man as opportunity serves to do those things wherwith he is most offended To tempt some men unto grosse foul or base sins they see it bootlesse Neverthelesse in as much as no man can be without some sin or other they sollicite all to be like themselves in one sin at least that is in Impenitency And to be finally Impenitent for the least sin is more offensive to the Goodnesse and Mercy of God then all other sins that can be by man Committed 5. But some happily will thus far plead for Baal or Belzebub and his Followers That many good Turns are done by them to some men Yet even their best Favours or greatest Benefits are worse then a biting usurers kindnesse Unto this man they may lend Wealth to that man health to a third procure ease from pain or use of Limbs but all this with purpose to get the Eternal inheritance of their Souls 6. The Unregenerate sin not in every Action against men The meerly Natural or unregenerate men in some actions sin not at all against their Neighbours or Fellow Creatures to whom oft-times they heartily do that Good which they truly intended And in such Actions Their Offence in respect of Gods Law is to be accounted as I take it Privative only no way Positive Pythagoras Socrates Plato Anacharsis perhaps Diogenâ—s himself and many other Heathen would have done as the good Samaritane did to any Passenger or Citizen of the Great City Now the Samaritans Action was not against Gods Law though not altogether according to his Law Neither the Intention nor Performance in Like deeds of mercy done by Heathen or meer natural men are void of evil because the Doers are never affected with that Sincerity of Heart on with those Bowels of Compassion which Gods Law requires much lesse with those Referencies which are due unto Gods Glory Yet if any man be of Opinion that the Heathen or unregenerate man doth Positively and actually sin against Gods Laws in the Best works that he can do I will not contend with him For albeit I think my Former Assertion to be true yet is it not my purpose to take the truth of it for any Ground of the insuing Discourse Concerning the proper subject of mans Free-Will 7. The Unregenerate man hath a true Freedom in doing Evil. Supposing it were most true That the best of unregenerate men do Positively and actually sin against Gods Law in every Action that they do Yet this shall no way infringe our First Assertion which is this The unregenerate man hath a true Freedom of will in the Choice of those particular Evils into some one or other of which he necessarily fals For as the Absolute Impossibility or want of Freedom to do Evil doth not bereave the Almighty of absolute Freedom in doing Well So neither doth the unregenerate mans Impossibility of doing Good strip him of all Freedom in doing Evil. Though he cannot but do Evil or do every thing that he doth amisse yet is there no Necessity that he should do so great Evil as oft-times he doth or do it so far amisse as he doth Few men have any power or Freedom of Will not to be angry when they are provoked not to allay their anger so soon as they ought after it be once upon what Termes soever kindled Yet even such as Neâ—essarily sin this sin of unadvised Anger in some degree or otherâ— do not thereupon necessarily commit Man-slaughter Murther or Blasphemy Many men have Power or Freedom of Will in ruling their tongues which have no Freedom or power to stay the boyling of the heart in anger Many again in their passions have a Free Power over their hands which have none over their tongues Many that can hardly hold their hands in heat of anger have a Freedom of will not to strike with edge-tools or weapons that may make deadly wounds 8. Every Unregenerate man at his first arrival at the Use of Reason is Free in respect of the height or Extremity of those very sins unto which he is either by General Corruption of nature or Peculiar Disposition of body most subject It is not Necessary that he which is by Nature Education and Dyet most prone to wantonnesse Juvenal Nâ—mo repente suit turpissimus â—â—ould delight in Adultery or to be overtaken with temptations to Unnatural Lusts Into Acts or Crimes whether for their kind unnatural or Prodigious or for degree extremely evil no natural man did ever Necessarily fall nisâ— Necessitate ex Hypothesi that is unlesse it were for abusing that Freedom of Will or choice which naturally he hath in Ordinary evils in things Moral or Indifferent But by sinning in a higher Degree or oftner in any kind then the corrupted estate of Nature or Sin meerly inbred did Necessitate us unto we exempt our selves from the Protection of Gods ordinary and wonted Providence And thence exempted we naturally fall into an Estate or disposition of mind most unnatural and bring a * See Chap. 18. last Parag. and Chap. 21. Parag. 3 4 5. Necessity upon our selves of sinning extreamly Finally without Gods Special Grace the best of us sinin every Action without the guidance of his Fatherly Providence we sin extreamly against Every divine Commandment 9. All of us at the First use of Reason have a true Freedom of Will in avoiding such Occasions or Opportunities to sin as being not avoided but Voluntarily and Freely affected draw a Necessity upon us of falling into foul and grievous sins It was perhaps impossible for AEgisthus to avoid Adultery so long as he betroathed himself to Sloth But it was not impossible for him nor for any to have avoided this disease or at Least to have been divorced from it after he had been betrothed to it The Poet in my Opinion gave us a truer Cause of this mans fault then those Divines possibly can which make all Events Necessary or unavoidable in respect of Gods Decree Quaeritur AEgisthus quare sit factus Adulter In promptu causa est desidiosus erat 10. Supposing his slothfulnesse had been no sin in its self yet would it be a grievous sin in us to say that the Almighty did Decree he should be slothful that he might become an Adulterer or be an Adulterer that he might become a Reprobate for manifestation of his Glory His slothfulnesse in true Divinity was the true and Necessary Cause of his Filthinesse But of his slothfulnesse there was no Necessary Cause To use Free-will extreamly amisse is not Necessary but Contingent but a Cause Contingent only The only Cause it had was the ill use of that Freedom which he had in doing amisse or avoiding Occasions of doing greater