used in Polybius Suidas and Varâ—nu◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is eâ condition for that cause or condition and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad quid ades are the words of the Gospel as Suidas quotes them 3. Although 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in whom or in him yet it is so very seldome or infrequent that it were intolerable to do violence to this place to force it to an unnatural signification 4. If it did alwayes signifie the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or in him which it does not yet we might very well follow the same reading we now do and which the Apostles discourse does infer for even 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does divers times signifie forasmuch or for that as is to be seen in Rom. 8.3 and Heb. 2.18 But 5. supposing all that can be and that it did signifie in whom yet the sense were fair enough as to the whole article for by him or in him we are made sinners that is brought to an evil state of things usually consequent to sinners we are us'd like sinners by him or in him just as when a sinner is justified he is treated like a righteous person as if he had never sinned though he really did sin oftentimes and this for his sake who is made righteousness to us so in Adam we are made sinners that is treated ill and afflicted though our selves be innocent of that sin which was the occasion of our being us'd so severely for other sins of which we were not innocent But how this came to pass is told in the following words For untill the law sin was in the world V. 13 14. but sin is not imputed when there is no law Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression who is the figure of him that was to come By which discourse it appears that S. Paul does not speak of all mankinde as if the evil occasion'd by Adams sin did descend for ever upon that account but it had a limited effect and reach'd onely to those who were in the interval between Adam and Moses This death was brought upon them by Adam that is death which was threatned to Adam onely went forth upon them also who indeed were sinners but not after the similitude of Adams transgression that is who sinn'd not so capitally as he did For to sin like Adam is used as a Tragical and a high expression Hos 6.7 So it is in the Prophet They like men have transgressed so we reade it but in the Hebrew it is They like Adam have transgressed and yet death pass'd upon them that did not sin after the similitude of Adam for Abel and Seth and Abraham and all the Patriarchs died Enoch onely excepted and therefore it was no wonder that upon the sin of Adam death entred upon the world who generally sinn'd like Adam since it passed on and reigned upon less sinners * It reigned upon them whose sins therefore would not be so imputed as Adams was because there was no law with an express threatning given to them as was to Adam but although it was not wholly imputed upon their own account yet it was imputed upon theirs and Adams For God was so exasperated with Mankinde that being angry he would still continue that punishment even to the lesser sins and sinners which he onely had first threatned to Adam and so Adam brought it upon them They indeed in rigour did themselves deserve it but if it had not been for that provocation by Adam they who sinn'd not so bad and had not been so severely and expresly threatned had not suffer'd so severely * The case is this Jonathan and Michal were Sauls children it came to pass that seven of Sauls issue were to be hanged all equally innocent equally culpable David took the five sons of Michal for she had left him unhandsomely Jonathan was his friend and therefore he spar'd his son Mephibosheth Here it was indifferent as to the guilt of the persons whether David should take the sons of Michal or of Jonathan but it is likely that as upon the kindeness which David had to Jonathan he spar'd his son so upon the just provocation of Michal he made that evil to fall upon them of which they were otherwise capable which it may be they should not have suffered if their Mother had been kinde Adam was to God as Michal to David But there was in it a further design for by this dispensation of death Adam was made a figure of Christ So the Apostle expresly affirms who is the figure of him that was to come that as death pass'd upon the posterity of Adam though they sinn'd less then Adam so life should be given to the followers of Christ though they were imperfectly righteous that is not after the similitude of Christs perfection But for the further clearing the Article depending upon the right understanding of these words these two things are observable 1. That the evil of death descending upon Adams posterity for his sake went no further then till Moses For after the giving of Moses law death passed no further upon the account of Adams transgression but by the sanction of Moses law where death was anew distinctly and expresly threatned as it was to Adam and so went forward upon a new score but introduc'd first by Adam that is he was the cause at first and till Moses also he was in some sense the author and for ever after the precedent and therefore the Apostle said well In Adam we all die his sin brought in the sentence in him it began and from him it passed upon all the world though by several dispensations 2. In the discourse of the Apostle those that were nam'd were not consider'd simply as born from Adam and therefore it did not come upon the account of Natural or Original corruption but they were consider'd as Sinners just as they who have life by Christ are not consider'd as meerly children by title or spiritual birth and adoption but as just and faithful But then this is the proportion and purpose of the Apostle as God gives to these life by Christ which is a greater thing then their imperfect righteousness without Christ could have expected so here also this part of Adams posterity was punish'd with death for their own sin but this death was brought upon them by Adam that is the rather for his provocation of God by his great transgression There is now remaining no difficulty but in the words of the 19 verse By one mans disobedience many were made sinners Concerning which I need not make use of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or many whom sometimes S. Paul calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all and many that is all from Adam to Moses but they are but many and not all in respect of
the Kingdome of God be not in some sense a teaching men so to do then nothing is For when God said to Adam That day thou eatest of the forbidden fruit thou shalt die the Tempter said Nay but ye shall not die and so was author to Adam of committing his sin So when our blessed Saviour hath told us that to break one of these least Commandements is exclusive of us from heaven they that say that not every solution or breaking of them is exclusive from heaven which are the words of Bellarmine and the doctrine of the Roman Church must even by the consequence of this very gloss of his fall under the danger of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the false teachers or the breakers of them by false interpretation However fearful is the malediction even to the breakers of the least 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that I may use the words of Theophylach he shall be last in the resurrection and shall be thrown into hell for that is the meaning of least in the Kingdom of heaven fortasse ideò non erit in regno coelorum ubi nisi magni esse non possunt said S. Austin least is none at all for into heaven none can enter but they which are great in Gods account 7. Lastly God hath given us the perpetual assistances of his Spirit the presence of his grace the ministery of his word the fear of judgements the endearment of his mercies the admonition of friends the severity of Preachers the aid of Books the apprehension of death the sense of our daily dangers our continual necessities and the recollection of our prayers and above all he hath promised heaven to the obedient which is a state of blessings so great and infinite as upon the account of them it is infinitely reasonable and just if he shall exact of us every sin that is every thing which we can avoid Upon this account it is that although wise and prudent men doe not despise the continual endearments of an old friend yet in many cases God may and doth and from the rules and proper measures of humane friendship to argue up to a presumption of Gods easiness in not exacting our duty is a fallacious proceeding but it will deceive no body but our selves 2. Every sin is directly against Gods law and therefore is damnable and deadly in the accounts of the Divine justice one as well though not so grievously as another For though sins be differenc'd by greater and less yet their proportion to punishment is not differenc'd by Temporal and Eternal but by greater and less in that kinde which God hath threatned So Origen Homil. 35. in Lucam Vnusquisque pro qualitate quantitate peccati diversam mulctae sententiam expendit Si parum est quod peccas ferieris damno minuti ut Lucas scripsit ut verò Matthaeus quadrantis Veruntamen necesse est hoc ipsum quod exstitisti debitor solvere Non eniminde exibis nisi minima quaeque persolveris Every one according to the quantity and quality of his sin must pay his fine but till he hath paid he shall not be loosed from those fearful prisons that is he shall never be loosed if he agree not before he comes thither The smallest offence is a sin and therefore it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a transgression of the Law a violation of that band by which our obedience unites us unto God And this the holy Scripture signifies unto us in various expressions For though the several words are variously used in sacred and profane writers yet all of them signifie that even the smallest sin is a prevarication of the Holy laws 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. 4. de orthod fide cap. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Damascen cals sin which we render well by Transgression and even those words which in distinction signify a small offence yet they also signify the same with the greater words to shew that they all have the same formality and doe the same displeasure or at least that by the difference of the words no difference of their natures can be regularly observed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Sins against God onely are by Phavorinus called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the same word is also used for sin against our neighbours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If thy brother sin against thee that is doe thee injury 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and this is properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 injustice But Demosthenes distinguishes injustice from sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by voluntary and involuntary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orat. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that does wrong willingly is unjust he that does it unwillingly is a sinner The same indistinction is observable in the other words of Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is by S. Hierome used for the beginnings of sin Cum cogitatio tacita subrepit ex aliquâ parte conniventibus nobis nec dum tamen nos impulit ad ruinam when a sudden thought invades us without our advertency and observation and hath not brought forth death as yet and yet that death is appendent to whatsoever it be that can be signified by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we may observe because the sin of Adam that called death upon all the world is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 5.18 Eph. 2.1 and of the Ephesian Gentiles S. Paul said they had been dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in trespasses and sins and therefore it cannot hence be inferred that such little obliquities or beginnings of greater sins are onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 besides the law not against it for it is at least the word hinders not but it may be of the same kinde of malignity as was the sin of Adam Lib. 3. quaest super Levit. q. 20. And therefore S. Austin renders the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 delictum or offence and so do our Bibles And the same also is the case of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is attributed even to concupiscence or the beginnings of mischief Rom. 7.5 In cap. 2. Ephes Jam. 1.15 by S. Paul and by S. Hierome but the same is used for the consummation of concupiscence in the matter of uncleanness by S. James Lust when it hath conceived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vid. Com. DD. in Titum verb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 peccatum is the Latine word which when it is used in a distinct and pressed sense it is taken for the lesser sins and is distinguished from crimen Paulus Orosius * Apol. de liber arbit uses it to signify onely the concupiscence or sinful thoughts of the heart and when it breaks forth to action he cals it a crime peccatum cogitatio concipit crimen verò non nisi actus ostendit and it was so used by the ancient Latins Peccatus it
was called by them quasi pellicatus that inticing which is proper to uncleanness So Cicero in A. Gellius Lib. 13. c. 19. Nemo ita manifesto peccatu tenebatur ut cum impudens fuisset in facto tum impudentior videretur si negaret Thus the indistinction of words mingles all their significations in the same common notion and formality They were not sins at all if they were not against a Law and if they be they cannot be of their own nature venial but must be liable to that punishment which was threatned in the Law whereof that action is a transgression 2. The Law of God never threatens the justice of God never inflicts punishment but upon transgressors of his Laws the smallest offences are not only threatned but may be punished with death therefore they are transgressions of the Divine Law So S. Basil argues Nullum peccatum contemnendum ut parvum quando D. Paulus de omni peccato generatim pronunciaverat stimulum mortis esse peccatum The sting of death is sin that is death is the evil consequent of sin and comes in the tail of it of every sin and therefore no sin must be despised as if it were little Now if every little sin hath this sting also as it is on all hands agreed that it hath it follows that every little transgression is perfectly and intirely against a Commandement And indeed it is not sense to say any thing can in any sense be a sin and that it should not in the same sense be against a Commandement For although the particular instance be not named in the Law yet every instance of that matter must be meant It was an extreme folly in Bellarmine to affirm De amiss grat cap. 11. §. Assumptio probatur Peceatum veniale ex parvitate materiae est quidem perfectè voluntarium sed non perfectè contra legem Lex enim non prohibet furtum unius oboli in specie sed prohibet furtum in genere That a sin that is venial by the smalness of the matter is not perfectly against the Law because the Law forbids theft indeed in the general but does not in particular forbid the stealing of a half-peny for upon the same reason it is not perfectly against the Law to steal three pound nineteen shillings three pence because the Law in general onely forbids theft but does not in particular forbid the stealing of that sum * But what is besides the Law and not against it cannot be a sin and therefore to fancy any sin to be onely besides the Law is a contradiction so to walk to ride to eat flesh or herbs to wear a long or a short garment are said to be besides the Law but therefore they are permitted and indifferent Indifferent I say in respect of that Law which relates to that particular matter and indifferent in all senses unless there be some collateral Law which may prohibit it indirectly So for a Judge to be a Coachman for a Priest to be a Fidler or Inne-keeper are not directly unlawful but indirectly they are as being against decency and publick honesty or reputation or being inconvenient in order to that end whither their calling is design'd To this sense are those words of S. Paul All things are lawful for me but all things are not expedient That is some things which directly are lawful by an indirect obligation may become unfit to be done but otherwise Licitum est quod nullâ lege prohibetur saith the Law If no Law forbids it then it is lawful and to abstain from what is lawful though it may have a worthiness in it more then ordinary yet to use our liberty is at no hand a sin The issue then is this either we are forbidden to doe a venial sin or we are not If we are not forbidden then it is as lawful to doe a venial sin as to marry or eat flesh If we are forbidden then every such action is directly against Gods Law and consequently finable at the will of the supreme Judge and if he please punishable with a supreme anger Aâ—d to this purpose there is an excellent observation in S. Austin Lib. 3. Quaest super Levit. q. 20. Peccatum delictum si nihil differrent inter se si unius rei duo nomina essent non curaret Scriptura tam diligentèr unum esse utriusque sacrificium There are several names in Scripture to signify our wandrings and to represent the several degrees of sin but carefully it is provided for that they should be expiated with the same sacrifice which proves that certainly they are prevarications of the same Law offences of the same God provocations of the same anger and heiâ—s of the same death and even for small offences a Sacrifice was appointed lest men should neglect what they think God regarded not 3. Every sin even the smallest is against Charity which is the end of the Commandement For every sin or evil of transgression is far worse then all the evils of punishment with which mankinde is afflicted in this world and it is a less evil that all mankinde should be destroyed then that God should be displeased in the least instance that is imaginable Now if we esteem the loss of our life or our estate the wounding our head or the extinction of an eye to be great evils to us and him that does any thing of this to us to be our enemy or to be injurious we are to remember that God hates every sin worse then we can hate pain or beggery And if a nice and a tender conscience the spirit of every excellent person does extremely hate all that can provoke God to anger or to jealousy it must be certain that God hates every such thing with an hatred infinitely greater so great that no understanding can perceive the vastness of it and immensity For by how much every one is better by so much the more he hates every sin and the soul of a righteous man is vexed and afflicted with the inrodes of his unavoidable calamities the armies of Egypt the lice and flies his insinuating creeping infirmities Now if it be holiness in him to hate these little sins it is an imitation of God for what is in us by derivation is in God essentially therefore that which angers a good man and ought so to do displeases God and consequently is against charity or the love of God For it is but a vain dream to imagine that because just men such who are in the state of grace and of the love of God do commit smaller offences therefore they are not against the love of God for every degree of cold does abate something of the heat in any hot body but yet because it cannot destroy it all cold and heat may be consistent in the same subject but no man can therefore say they are not contraries and would not destroy each other if they were not hindred by something else
goe off the difficulty being removed the reward must be no more then ordinary 2. It would also follow from hence that the less men did delight in Gods service the more pleasing they should be to him For if the reluctancy increases then the perfect choice would lessen the reward And then 3. A habit of vertue were not so good as single actions with the remains of a habit of vice upon the same account and a state of imperfection were better then a state of perfection and to grow in grace were great imprudence 4. It were not good to pray against entring into temptation nay it were good we did tempt our selves so we did not yield to provoke our enemy so he did not conquer us to enter into danger so we did not sink under it because these increase the difficulty and this increases the reward All which being such strange and horrid consequences it follows undeniably that the remanent portion of a vicious habit after the mans conversion is not the occasion of a greater reward is not good formally is not good materially but is a fomes a nest of concupiscence a bed of vipers and the spawn of toads Now although this is not a sin if it be considered in its natural capacity as it is the physical unavoidable consequent of actions for an inherent quality may be considered without its appendant evil that is though a Philosopher may think and discourse of it as of a natural production and so without sin yet it does not follow from hence that such a habit or inherent quality is without its proper sin or that its nature is innocent But this is nothing else but to say that a natural Philosopher does not consider things in their moral capacity But just thus every sin is innocent and an act of adultery or the begetting a child in fornication is good a naturall Philosopher looks on it as a natural action applying proper actives to their proportion'd passives and operating regularly and by the way of nature Thus we say God concurs to every sin that is to the action in its natural capacity but that is therefore innocent so far that is if you consider it without any relation to manners and laws it is not unlawful But then if you consider the whole action in its intire constitution it is a sin And so is a sinful habit it is vicious and criminal in its whole nature and when the Question is whether any thing be in its own capacity distinctly good or bad the answer must not be made by separating the thing from all considerations of good and bad However it will suffice that a habit of vice in its natural capacity is no otherwise innocent then an act of adultery or drunkenness 2. Of the Moral capacity of sinful Habits But then if we consider sinful Habits in their moral capacity we shall finde them to be a Lerna malorum and we shall open Pandora's boxe a swarm of evils will issue thence In the enumerating of which I shall make a great progress to the demonstration of the main Question 1. A vicious habit addes many degrees of aversation from God by inclining us to that which God hates It makes us to love and to delight in sin and easily to choose it now by how much the more we approach to sin by so much we are the further remov'd from God Jer. 13.22 25. And therefore this habitual iniquity the Prophet describing cals it magnitudinem iniquitatis and the punishment design'd for it is called thy lot the portion of thy measures that is Plenitudo poenae ad plenitudinem peccatorum a great judgement to an habitual sin a final judgement an exterminating Angel when the sin is confirm'd and of a perfect habit For till habits supervene we are of a middle constitution like the City that Sophocles speaks of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is full of joy and sorrow it sings and weeps together it triumphs in mourning and with tears wets the festival Chariot We are divided between good and evil and all our good or bad is but a disposition towards either but then the sin is arriv'd to its state and manhood when the joynts are grown stiff and firm by the consolidation of a habit So Plutarch defines a habit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A habit is a strength and confirmation to the brute and unreasonable part of man gotten by custome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The brutish passions in a man are not quickly master'd and reduc'd to reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Custome and studies efform the soul like wax and by assuefaction introduce a nature To this purpose Aristotle quotes the verses of Evenus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stobaeus de Rep. Serm. 41. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For as experience is to notice and Tutors to children so is Custome to the manners of men a fixing good or evil upon the spirit that as it was said of Alexander when he was a man he could not easily want the vices of his Tutor Leonidas which he suck'd into his manners and was accustomed to in his youth so we cannot without trouble do against our habit and common usages Vsus Magister use is the greatest Teacher and the words in Jer my 13 23. Ye which are accustomed to do evil are commonly read Ye which are taught to do evil and what we are so taught to do we believe infinitely and finde it very hard to entertain principles of perswasion against those of our breeding and education For what the minde of man is accustomed to and throughly acquainted with it is highly reconcil'd to it the strangeness is remov'd the objections are consider'd or neglected and the compliance and entertainment is set very forward towards pleasures and union 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theoctist apud Stobaeum Quantum consuetudo poterit intelliges si videris seras quoque convictu nostro mansuescere nullique immani bestiae vim suam permanere si hominis contubernium diu passa est Senec. de irâ lib. 3. c. 8. This habit therefore when it is instanc'd in a vice is the perfecting and improving of our enmity against God for it strengthens the lust as a good habit confirms reason and the grace of God 2. This mischief ought to be further expressed for it is bigger then is yet signified Not onely an aptness but a necessity is introduc'd by Custome because by a habit sin seises upon the will and all the affections and the very principles of motion towards vertue are almost broken in pieces It is therefore called by the Apostle The law of sin Lex enim peccati est violentia consuetudinis quâ trahitur tenetur animus etiam invitus The violence of custome is the law of sin by which such a man is over-rul'd against his will Nam si discedas laqueo tenet ambitiosi Consuetudo mali in aegro corde senescit You cannot leave it if you would
displeasing themselves because they doe it think themselves like the Apostle In pursuance of this caution I shall examine the expositions which are pretended 1. These words I do not the good which I would but I doe the evil which I hate are not the words or character of a regenerate person in respect of actual good or bad Rom. 7.15 A regenerate man cannot say that he does frequently or habitually commit the sin that he hates and is against his conscience 1. Because no man can serve two Masters if he be a servant of sin he is not a servant of the Spirit No man can serve Christ and Belial If therefore he be brought into captivity to the law of sin he is the servant of sin and such was he whom S. Paul describes in this Chapter Ver. 23. Therefore this person is not a servant of Christ He that is a servant of righteousness is freed from sin and he who is a servant of sin is not a servant of Rom. 6.20 but freed from righteousness A regenerate person therefore is a servant of the Spirit and so cannot at the same time be a servant or a slave and a captive under sin 2. When the complaint is made I doe the evil which I hate the meaning is I doe it seldome or I doe it commonly and frequently If it means I doe it seldome then a man cannot use these words so well as the contrary he can say The good which I would I doe regularly and ordinarily and the evil which I hate I doe avoid sometimes indeed I am surpris'd and when I doe neglect to use the aids and strengths of the spirit of grace I fall but this is because I will not and not because I cannot help it and in this case the man is not a servant or captive of sin but a servant of Christ though weak and imperfect But if it means I doe it commonly or constantly or frequently which is certainly the complaint here made then to be a regenerate person is to be a vile person sold under sin and not Gods servant For if any man shall suppose these words to mean onely thus I doe not doe so much good as I would and doe sometimes fall into evil though I would fain be intirely innocent indeed this man teaches no false doctrine as to the state or duty of the regenerate which in this life will for ever be imperfect but he speaks not according to the sense and design of the Apostle here For his purpose is to describe that state of evil in which we are by nature and from which we could not be recovered by the law and from which we can onely be redeemed by the grace of Jesus Christ and this is a state of death of being killed by sin of being captivated and sold under sin after the manner of slaves as will further appear in the sequel 3. Every regenerate man and servant of Christ hath the Spirit of Christ Rom 8.9 2 Cor. 3.17 But where the Spirit of God is there is liberty therefore no slavery therefore sin reigns noâ— there Both the propositions are the words of the Apostle The conclusion therefore infers that the man whom S. Paul describes in this Chapter is not the regenerate man for he hath not liberty Ro. 7.23 but is in captivity to the law of sin from which every one that is Christs every one that hath the Spirit of Christ is freed 4. And this is that which S. Paul cals being under the law that is a being carnal and in the state of the flesh not but that the law it self is spiritual but that we being carnal of our selves are not cured by the law but by reason of the infirmity of the flesh made much worse Rom. 7.13 14. 8.3 curbed but not sweetly won admonished but assisted by no spirit but the spirit of bondage and fear This state is opposed to the spiritual state The giving of the law is called the ministery of death 2 Cor. 3.6 7 8. the Gospel is called the ministery of the Spirit and that is the ministration of life and therefore if we be led by the Spirit Gal. 5.18 Rom. 7.9 we are not under the law but if we be under the law we are dead and sin is revived and sin by the law brings forth fruit unto death From hence the argument of the Apostle is clear The man whom he here describes is such a one who is under the law but such a man is dead by reason of sin and therefore hath not in him the Spirit of God for that is the ministration of life A regenerate person is alive unto God he lives the life of righteousness but he that is under the law is killed by sin and such is the man that is here described as appears verse 9. and I shall in the sequel further prove therefore this man is not the regenerate 5. To which for the likeness of the argument I adde this That the man who can say I doe that which I hate is a man in whom sin is not mortified and therefore he lives after the flesh but then he is not regenerate for if ye live after the flesh ye shall die saith S. Rom. 8.13 Paul but if ye through the Spirit doe mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live These arguments are taken from consideration of the rule and dominion of sin in the man whom S. Paul describes who therefore cannot be a regenerate person To the same effect and conclusion are other expressions in the same Chapter 6. The man whom S. Paul here describes who complains That he does not the good which he would but the evil that he would not is such a one in whom sin does inhabit It is no more I Vers 20. but sin that dwelleth in me But in the regenerate sin does not inhabit My Father and I will come unto him and make our abode with him So Christ promised to his servants John 14.23 Ro. 8.11 2 Cor. 6.16 Eph. 3.17 2.22 2 Tim. 1.14 to them who should be regenerate and the Spirit of God dwelleth in them the Spirit of him that raised Jesus from the dead and therefore the Regenerate are called the habitation of God through the Spirit Now if God the Father if Christ if the Spirit of Christ dwels in a man there sin does not dwell The strong man that is armed keeps possession but if a stronger then he comes he dispossesses him If the Spirit of God does not drive the Devil forth himself will leave the place They cannot both dwell together Sin may be in the regenerate and grieve Gods Spirit but it shall not abide or dwell there for that extinguishes him One or the other must depart And this also is noted by Saint Paul in this very place sin dwelleth in me Ver. 17 18. and no good thing dwelleth in me If one does the other does not but yet
Minde but because he hath also relishes and gusts in the flesh and they also seem sapid and delightful he desires them also So that this man fain would and he would not and he does sin willingly and unwillingly at the same time We see by a sad experience some men all their life time stand at gaze and dare not enter upon that course of life which themselves by a constant sentence judge to be the best and of the most considerable advantage But as the boy in the Apologue listned to the disputes of Labour and Idleness the one perswading him to rise the other to lie in bed but while he considered what to doe he still lay in bed and considered so these men dispute and argue for vertue and the service of God and stand beholding and admiring it but they stand on the other side while they behold it There is a strife between the law of the minde and the law of the members But this prevails over that For the case is thus There are in men three laws 1. The law of the members 2. The law of the minde 3. The law of the spirit 1. The law of the members that is the habit and proneness to sin the dominion of sin giving a law to the lower man reigning there as in its proper seat Col. 2.18 Rom. 8.7 This law is also called by S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the minde of the flesh * Ab Hebr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 anima sensitiva the wisdome the relish the gust and savour of the flesh that is that deliciousness and comport that inticing and correspondencies to the appetite by which it tempts and prevails all its own principles and propositions which minister to sin and folly This subjects the man to the law of sin or is that principle of evil by which sin does give us laws 2. To this law of the flesh the law of the minde * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Graec. Hebraeis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is oppos'd and is in the regenerate and unregenerate indifferently and it is nothing else but the conscience of good and evil subject to the law of God which the other cannot be This accuses and convinces the unregenerate it calls upon him to doe his duty it makes him unquiet when he does not but this alone is so invalidated by the infirmity of the flesh by the Oeconomy of the law by the disadvantages of the world that it cannot prevail or free him from the captivity of sin But 3. The law of the Spirit is the grace of Jesus Christ and this frees the man from the law of the members Rom. 8.2 from the captivity of sin from the tenure of death Here then are three Combatants the Flesh the Conscience the Spirit The flesh endevours to subject the man to the law of sin the other two endevour to subject him to the law of God The flesh and the conscience or minde contend but this contention is no signe of being regenerate because the Flesh prevails most commonly against the Minde where there is nothing else to help it the man is still a captive to the law of sin But the Minde being worsted God sends in the auxiliaries of the Spirit and when that enters and possesses that overcomes the flesh it rules and gives laws But as in the unregenerate the Minde did strive though it was overpower'd yet still it contended but ineffectively for the most part so now when the Spirit rules the flesh strives but it prevails but seldome it is overpowered by the Spirit Now this contention is a signe of regeneration when the flesh lusteth against the Spirit not when the flesh lusteth against the minde or conscience For the difference is very great and highly to be remark'd And it is represented in two places of S. Rom. 7.22 23. Pauls Epistles The one is that which I have already explicated in this Chapter I consent to the law of God according to the inner man But I see another law in my members fighting against the law of my minde and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin that is in my members where there is a redundancy in the words but the Apostle plainly signifies that the law of sin which is in his members prevails that is sin rules the man in despite of all the contention and reluctancy of his conscience or the law of his minde So that this strife of flesh and conscience is no signe of the regenerate because the minde of a man is in subordination to the flesh of the man sometimes willingly and perfectly sometimes unwillingly and imperfectly I deny not but the minde is sometimes called Spirit and by consequence improperly it may be said that even in these men their spirit lusteth against the flesh That is the more rational faculties contend against the brute parts reason against passion law against sin Thus the word Spirit is taken for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the inner man the whole minde together with its affections Mat. 26.4 and Acts 19.21 But in this Question the word * Rom. 7.22 23 8.5 7 9. Spirit is distinguished from Minde and is taken for the minde renewed by the Spirit of God and as these words are distinguished so must their several contentions be remark'd For when the minde or conscience and the flesh fight the flesh prevails but when the Spirit and the flesh fight the Spirit prevails And by that we shall best know who are the litigants that like the two sons of Rebecca strive within us If the flesh prevails then there was in us nothing but the law of the minde nothing but the conscience of an unregenerate person I mean if the flesh prevails frequently or habitually But if the Spirit of God did rule us if that principle had possession of us then the flesh is crucified it is mortified it is killed and prevails not at all but when we will not use the force and arms of the Spirit but it does not prevail habitually not frequently or regularly or by observation This is clearly taught by those excellent words of S. Paul which as many other periods of his Epistles have had the ill luck to be very much misunderstood This I say then Gal. 5.16 17 18. walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh so that ye cannot that ye doe not or may not doe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the things that ye would But if ye be led by the Spirit ye are not under the law The word in the Greek may either signifie duty or event Walk in the Spirit and fulfil not or ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh If we understand it in the Imperative sense then it is exegetical of the former words He that walks in the Spirit hoc ipso does not fulfil
Hom. 3◠inter 19. Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is impious to say the Commandements of the Spirit i.e. of the Gospel are impossible viz. in that sense in which they are exacted But now to the second inquiry Since in justice God exacts not an impossible law how does it consist with his wisdome to impose what in justice he does not exact I answer 1. That it was necessary the Law in its latitude and natural extension should be given for if in the sanction any limits and lessenings had been described it had been a permission given to us to despise him in a certain degree and could in no sense have been proportionable to his infinity God commands us to love him with all our hearts and all our strengths that is alwayes and with all that we can if less then this had been imposed and we commanded to love God but to a less and a certain proportion besides that it would not have been possible for us to understand when we did what was commanded it would have been either a direct lessening our opinion of God by tempting us to suppose no more love was due to him then such a limited measure or else a teaching us not to give him what was his due either of which must necessarily tend to Gods dishonour 2. The commanding us to do all that we can and that alwayes though less be exacted does invite our greatest endevours it entertains the faculties and labours of the best and yet despises not the meanest for they can endevour too and they can do their best and it serves the end of many graces besides and the honour of some of the Divine Attributes 3. By this means still we are contending and pressing forwards and no man can say he does now comprehend or that his work is done till he die and therefore for ever he must grow in grace which could not be without the proposing of a Commandement the performance of which would for ever sufficiently imploy him for by this means the Commandements do every day grow more possible then at first In epistolâ ad Innocentium dictum est multos Catholicos viros dixisse posse hominem esse sine peccato per gratiam Dei non à nativitate sed à conversione A lustful person thinks it impossible to mortifie his lust but when he hath long contended and got the mastery it grows easie and at last in the progressions of a long piety sin is more impossible then duty is He that is born of God sinneth not neither indeed can he so S. John and Through Christ that strengthens me I can do all things saith S. Paul It is long before a man comes to it but the impossibility by degrees turns into a possibility and that into an easiness and at last into a necessity It is a trouble for some to commit a sin By this also we exercise a holy fear and work out our salvation with fear and trembling It enlarges our care and endears our watchfulness and caution It cures or prevents our pride and bold challenges of God for rewards which we never can deserve It convinces us of the necessity of the Divine aid and makes us to relie upon Gods goodness in helping us and his mercy in pardoning us and truly without this we could neither be so sensible of our infirmities nor of the excellent gifts and mercies of God for although God does not make necessities on purpose that he may serve them or introduce sin that he might pardon it yet he loves we should depend upon him and by these rare arts of the Divine Oeconomy make us to strive to be like him and in the midst of our finite abilities have infinite desires that even so we may be disposed towards the holiness and glories of eternity 4. Although God exacts not an impossible law under eternal and insufferable pains yet he imposes great holiness in unlimited and indefinite measures with a design to give excellent proportions of reward answerable to the greatness of our endeaovur Hell is not the end of them that fail in the greatest measures of perfection but great degrees of Heaven shall be their portion who do all that they can alwayes and offend in the fewest instances For as our duty is not limited so neither are the degrees of glory and if there were not this latitude of duty neither could there be any difference in glory neither could it be possible for all men to hope for heaven but now all may The meanest of Gods servants shall go thither and yet there are greater measures for the best and most excellent services Thus we may understand that the imposing of the Divine Laws in all the periods of the world was highly consistent with the Divine Justice and an excellent infinite wisdome and yet in the exacting them Mercy prevail'd because the Covenant of Works or of exact obedience was never the rule of life and death since the Saviour of the world was promised that is since the fall of Adam but all Mankinde was admitted to repentance and wash'd clean in the blood of the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world and was slain from the beginning of it Repentance was the measure of our duty and the remedy for our evils and the Commandements were not impossible to him that might amend what was done amiss §. 3. How Repentance and the Precept of Perfection Evangelicall can stand together THat the Gospel is a Covenant of Repentance is evident in the whole design and nature of the thing in the preparatory Sermons made by the Baptist by the Apostles of our Lord by the seventy two Disciples and the Exhortations made by S. Peter at the first opening the Commission and the secret of the Religion Which Doctrine of Repentance lest it should be thought to be a permission to sin a leave to need the remedy is charged with an addition of a strict and severe holiness the Precept of Perfection It therefore must be such a repentance as includes in it perfection and yet the perfection is such as needs repentance How these two are to stand together is the subject of the present inquiry Mat. 5.48 Be ye therefore perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect that 's the charge To be perfect as God and yet to repent as a Man seem contrary to each other They seem so onely For 1. It does not signifie perfection of degrees in the natural sense of the word For as Philo said well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perfections and the heights of excellencies are onely proper to one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Clemens of Alexandria God alone is wise he alone is perfect All that we do is but little and that little is imperfect and that imperfection is such as could be condemned if God did not use gentleness and mercy towards us But 2. Although perfection of degrees cannot be understood to be our duty in the periods and
be pure and pleasing to God in Jesus Christ This is the summe of all those several senses of perfection which are prescrib'd in the several uses of the word in holy Scripture For though God through Jesus Christ is pleased to abate for our unavoidable infirmities that is for our Nature yet he will not abate or give allowance to our superinduc'd evil customes and the reason is plain for both because the one can be helped and the other cannot and therefore as to allow that is to be a patron of impiety so not to allow for this is to demand what cannot be done that is against the holiness this against the goodness of God There is not a man upon earth that sinneth not said Solomon 1 Kings 8.46 Psal 37.29 vet edit and the righteous shall be punished said David and he found it so by a sad experience for he though affirmed to be blameless save in the matter of Vriah and a man after Gods own heart yet complains that his sins are innumerable more then the hairs upon his head But though no man can live without errour or mistake the effects of weakness and ignorance inadvertency and surprise yet being helped by Gods grace we can and must live without great sins such which no man admits but with deliberation For it is one thing to keep the Commandements in a sense of favour and equity and another thing to be without sin To keep the Commandements 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or exactly is to be without sin because the Commandement forbids every sin and sin is a transgression of the Commandement But as in this sense no man can keep the Commandements so in no sense can he say that he hath not sinned But we can by the help of Gods grace keep the Commandements acceptably through Jesus Christ but we cannot keep them so as to be without sin Which S. Gregory thus expresses Multi sine crimine nullus verò esse sine peccatis valet Many live without crimes none without offence And it is now as it was under the law many were then righteous and blameless David Josiah Joshua Caleb Zachary and Elisabeth Saul before his conversion according to the accounts of the Law and so are many now according to the holy and merciful measures of the Gospel not by the force of Nature but by the helps of Grace not alwayes but at some time not absolutely but in a limited measure that is not innocent but penitent not perfect absolutely but excellently contending and perfect in their desires not at their journeys end but on their way thither free from great sins but speckled with lesser spots ever striving against sin though sometimes failing This is the Precept of perfection as it can consist with the measures and infirmities of a man We must turn from all our evil wayes leaving no sin unmortified that 's one measure of perfection it is a perfect conversion * We must have Charity that 's another perfection it is a perfect grace * We must be ready to part with all for a good conscience and to die for Christ that 's perfect obedience and the most perfect love * We must conform to the Divine Will in doing and suffering that 's perfect patience we must live in all holy conversation and godliness that 's a perfect state * We must ever be going forward and growing in godliness that so we may be perfect men in Christ * And we must persevere unto the end that 's perfection and the crown of all the rest If any thing less then this were intended it cannot be told how the Gospel should be a holy institution or that God should require of us to live a holy life but if any thing more then this were intended it is impossible but all mankinde should perish To the same sense are we to understand those other severe Precepts of Scripture of being pure unblameable without spot or wrinkle without fault that is that we be honest and sincere free from hypocrisie just in our purposes and actions without partiality and unhandsome mixtures S. Paul makes them to expound each other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sincere Phil. 1.10 that is without fault pure and clear in conscience Like to this is that of Toto corde loving and serving God with all our heart and with all our strength That this is possible is folly to deny For he that saith he cannot do a thing with all his strength that is that he cannot do what he can do knows not what he sayes and yet to do this is the highest measure and sublimity of Christian perfection and of keeping the Commandements But it signifies two things 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without hypocrisie sincerely and heartily opposite to that of Corde corde in the Psalmist Corde corde loquuti sunt 1 Chron. 12.33 they spake with a double heart but the men of Zebulon went out to battel absque corde corde they were not of a double heart so S. Hierome renders it but heartily or with a whole heart they did their business 2. It signifies diligence and labour earnestness and caution Totus in hoc sum so the Latines use to speak I am earnest and hearty in this affair I am wholly taken up with it Thus is the whole design of the Gospel rarely abbreviated in these two words of Perfection and Repentance God hath sent Jesus to bless you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whilest or so that Act. 3.36 every one of you turn from your iniquities He blesses us and we must do our duty He pardons us and we obey him He turns us and we are turned And when S. 2 Pet. 3.11 Peter had represented the terrors of the day of Judgement he infers What manner of persons ought we to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ver. 14. in holy living and holy worshippings This he calls a giving diligence to be found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without spot and unblameable that 's Christian perfection and yet this very thing is no other then what he calls a little before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a coming to repentance Ver. 9. Living in holy conversation and piety in the faith of Christ is the extent and burthen of repentance and it is the limit and declaration of the spotless and unblameable This is no more and that is no less Upon this account the Commandements are not onely possible but easie necessary to be observed and will be exacted at our hands as they are imposed That is 1. That we abstain from all deliberate acts of sin 2. That we never contract any vicious habit 3. That if we have we quite rescind and cut them off and make amends for what is past 4. That our love to God be intire hearty obedient and undivided 5. That we do our best to understand Gods will and obey it allowing to our selves deliberately or by observation not the smallest action that
24 25 26 27 28 29. * Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water * Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering for he is faithful that promised * And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works * Not forsaking the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more as ye see the day approaching For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins * but a certain fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries * He that despised Moses law died without mercy under two or three witnesses * Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath troden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite unto the Spirit of Grace For the time is come 1 Pet. 4.17 that judgement must begin at the house of God and if it first begin at us what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God And every man that hath this hope in him 1 Joh. 3.3 22. purifieth himself even as he is pure * And whatsoever we ask we receive of him because we keep his Commandements and do those things which are pleasing in his sight And he that overcometh Apoc. 2.26 and keepeth my works unto the end to him will I give power over the Nations A Penitentiall Psalm collected out of the Psalms and Prophets HAve mercy upon me O God according to thy loving kindeness according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions For our transgressions are multiplied before thee and our sins testifie against us our trangressions are with us and as for our iniquities we know them In transgressing and lying against the Lord and departing away from our God speaking oppression and revolt conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falshood Our feet have run to evil our thoughts are thoughts of iniquity The way of peace we have not known we have made us crooked paths whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace Therefore do we wait for light but behold obscurity for brightness but we walk in darkness Look down from heaven and behold from the habitation of thy Holiness and of thy Glory where is thy zeal and thy strength the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies towards me are they restrained We are indeed as an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags and we all do fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away But now O Lord thou art our Father we are the clay and thou our potter and we all are the work of thy hand Be not wroth very sore O Lord neither remember iniquity for ever behold see we beseech thee we are thy people Thou O Lord art our Redemer thy Name is from everlasting O Lord Father and Governour of my whole life leave me not to the sinful counsels of my own heart and let me not any more fall by them Set scourges over my thoughts and the discipline of wisdome over my heart lest my ignorances encrease and my sins abound to my destruction O Lord Father and God of my life give me not a proud look but turn away from thy servant alwayes a haughty minde Turn away from me vain hopes and concupiscence and thou shalt hold him up that is alwayes desirous to serve thee Let not the greediness of the belly nor the lust of the flesh take hold of me and give not thy servant over to an impudent minde There is a word that is clothed about with death God grant it be not found in the portion of thy servant For all such things shall be farre from the godly and they shall not wallow in their sins Though my fins be as scarlet yet make them white as snow though they be red like crimson let them be as wooll For I am ashamed of the sins I have desired and am confounded for the pleasures that I have chosen Lord make me to know mine end and the measure of my dayes what it is that I may know how frail I am and that I may apply my heart unto wisdome Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me O Lord let thy loving kindness and thy truth continually preserve me For innumerable evils have compassed me about mine iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look up for they are more then the hairs of my head therefore my heart faileth me But thou O Lord though mine iniquities testifie against me save me for thy Name sake for our backslidings are many we have sinned grievously against thee But the Lord God will help me therefore shall I not be confounded therefore have I set my face like a flint and I know that I shall not be ashamed He is near that justifieth me who will contend with me The Lord God will help me who is he that shall condemn me I will trust in the Lord and stay upon my God O let me have this of thine hand that I may not lie down in sorrow S. Paul 's Prayers for a holy life I. I Bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Eph. 3.14 c. of whom the whole family in Heaven and Earth is named that he would grant unto me according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned with might by his Spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in my heart by faith that being rooted and grounded in love I may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge and may be filled with all the fulness of God through the same our most blessed Saviour Jesus Amen The Doxology Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us Vnto him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages world without end Amen II. O Most gracious God Col. 1.9 c. grant to thy servant to be filled with the knowledge of thy Will in all wisdome and spirituall understanding to walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing to be fruitfull in every good work increasing in the knowledge of God Strengthen me O God with all might according to thy glorious power unto all patience and long-suffering and joyfulness So shall I give thanks unto the Father who hath made me meet to be partaker of the inheritance of the Saints in light through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen III. NOw God himself and our Father 1
with the dress of active circumstances they grow greater or less respectively because then two or three sins are put together and get a new name 3. There is but one way more by which sins can get or lose degrees and that is the different proportions of our affections This indeed relates to God more immediately and by him alone is judg'd but the former being invested with material circumstances can be judg'd by men But all that God reserves for his own portion of the Sacrifice is the Heart that is our love and choice and therefore the degrees of love or hatred is that measure by which God makes differing judgements of them For by this it is that little sins become great and great sins become little If a Jew had maliciously touch'd a dead body in the dayes of Easter it had been a greater crime then if in the violence of his temptation he had unwillingly will'd to commit an act of fornication He that delights in little thefts because they are breaches of Gods Law or burns a Prayer book because he hates Religion is a greater criminal then he that falls into a material heresie by an invincible or less discerned deception Secure but to God your affections and he will secure your innocence or pardon for men live or die by their own measures If a man spits in the face of a Priest to defie Religion or shaves the beard of an Embassador to disgrace the Prince as it hapned to Davids Messengers his sin is greater then if he kill'd the Priest in his own just defence or shot the Embassador through the heart when he intended to strike a Lion For every negligence every disobedience being against Charity or the love of God by interpretation this superaddition of direct malice is open enmity against him and therefore is more severely condemned by him who sees every thought and degrees of passion and affection For the increase of malice does aggravate the sin just as the complication of material instances Every degree of malice being as distinct and commensurate a sin as any one external instance that hath a name and therefore many degrees of malice combine and grow greater as many sins conjoyn'd in one action they differ onely in Nature not in Morality just as a great number and a great weight So that in effect all sins are differenc'd by complication onely that is either of the external or the internal instances 4. Though the negligence or the malice be naturally equal yet sometimes by accident the sins may be unequal not onely in the account of men but also before God too but it is upon the account of both the former It is when the material effect being different upon men God hath with greater caution secur'd such interests So that by interpretation the negligence is greater because the care was with greater earnestness commanded or else because in such cases the sin is complicated for such sins which do most mischief have besides their proper malignity the evil of uncharitableness or hating our brother In some cases God requires one hand and in others both Now he that puts but one of his fingers to each of them his negligence is in nature the same but not in value because where more is required the defect was greater If a man be equally careless of the life of his Neighbours Son and his Neighbours Cock although the will or attendance to the action be naturally equal that is none at all yet morally and in the divine account they differ because the proportions of duty and obligation were different and therefore more ought to have been put upon the one then upon the other just as he is equally clothed that wears a single garment in Summer and Winter but he is not equally warm unless he that wears a silk Mantle when the Dog-star rages claps on Furres when the cold North-star changes the waters into rocks 5. Single sins done with equal affection or disaffection do not differ in degrees as they relate to God but in themselves are equally prevarications of the Divine Commandement Nihil invenies rectius recto non magis quà m verius vero quà m temperato temperatius omnis in modo est virtus modus certa mensura est Constantia non habet quò proredat non magis quà m fiducia aut veritas aut fides Sen. Ep. 67. As he tells a lie that says the Moon is foursquare as great as he that says there were but three Apostles or that Christ was not the Son of Man and as every lie is an equal sin against truth so every sin is an equal disobedience and recession from the Rule But some lies are more against Charity or Justice or Religion then others are and so are greater by complication but against truth they are all equally oppos'd and so are all sins contrary to the Commandement And in this sense is that saying of S. Basil In regul brevior Primò enim scire illud convenit differentiam minorum majorum nusquam in Novo Testamento reperiri Siquidem una est eadem sententia adversus quaelibet peccata cum Dominus dixerit Qui facit peccatum servus est peccati item Sermo quem loquutus sum vobis ille judicabit eum in Novissimo die Johannes vociferans dicat Qui contumax est in filium non videbit vitam aeternam sed ira Dei manet super eum cum contumacia non in discrimine peccatorum sed in violatione praecepti positam habeat futuri supplicii denunciationem The difference of great and little sins is no where to be found in the New Testament One and the same sentence is against all sins our Lord saying He that doth sin is the servant of sin and the word that I have spoken that shall judge you in the last day and John crieth out saying He that is disobedient to the Son shall not see eternal life but the wrath of God abideth on him for this contumacy or disobedience does not consist in the difference of sins but in the violation of the Divine Law and for that it is threatned with eternal pain But besides these Arguments from Scripture he addes an excellent Reason Prorsus autem si id nobis permittitur ut in peccatis hoc magnum illud exiguum appellemus invicto argumento concluditur magnum unicuique esse illud à quo quisque superatur contráque exiguum quod unusquisque ipse superat Vt in athletis qui vicit fortis est qui autem victus est imbecillior eo unde victus est quisque ille sit If it be permitted that men shall call this sin great and that sin little they will conclude that to be great which was too strong for them and that to be little which they can master As among Champions he is the strongest that gets the victory And then upon this account no sin is Venial that a man commits because that is it which hath
in my Ministery saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what then he is not hereby justified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because some sins might adhere to him he not knowing that they were sins Ab occult is meis munda me Domine was an excellent Prayer of David Cleanse me O Lord from my secret faults Hoc dicit nequid fortè per ignorantiam deliquisset saith S Hierome he prayed so lest peradventure he should have sinned ignorantly But of this I shall give a further account in describing the measures of sins of infirmity For the present although this resolution against all is ineffective as to a perfect immunity from small offences yet it is accepted as really done because it is done as it can possibly 5. Let no man relie upon the Catalogues which are sometimes given and think that such things which the Doctors have call'd Venial sins may with more facility be admitted and with smaller portions of care be regarded or with a slighter repentance washed off For besides that some have called perjuries anger envy injurious words by lighter names and titles of a little reproof and having lived in wicked times were betray'd into easier sentences of those sins which they saw all mankind almost to practise which was the case of some of the Doctors who lived in the time of those Wars which broke the Roman Empire besides this I say venial sins can rather be * See chap. 7. of sins of infirmity described then enumerated For none are so in their nature but all that are so are so by accident and according as sins tend to excuse so they put on their degrees of veniality No sin is absolutely venial but in comparison with others Neither is any sin at all times and to all persons alike venial And therefore let no man venture upon it upon any mistaken confidence They that think sins are venial in their own nature cannot agree which are venial and which are not and therefore nothing is in this case so certain as that all that doctrine which does in any sense represent sins as harmless or tame Serpents is infinitely dangerous and there is no safety but by striving against all beforehand and repenting of all as there is need I summe up this question and these advices with the saying of Josephus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is as damnable to indulge leave to our selves to sin little sins as great ones A man may be choaked with a raisin as well as with great morsels of flesh and a small leak in a ship if it be neglected will as certainly sink her as if she sprung a plank Death is the wages of all and damnation is the portion of the impenitent whatever was the instance of their sin Though there are degrees of punishment yet there is no difference of state as to this particular and therefore we are tied to repent of all and to dash the little Babylonians against the stones against the Rock that was smitten for us For by the blood of Jesus and the tears of Repentance and the watchfulness of a diligent careful person many of them shall be prevented and all shall be pardoned A Psalm to be frequently used in our Repentance for our daily sins BOw down thine ear O Lord hear me for I am poor and needy Rejoyce the soul of thy servant for unto thee O Lord do I lift up my soul For thou Lord art good and ready to forgive and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee Teach me thy way O Lord I will walk in thy truth unite my heart to fear thy Name Shall mortal man be more just then God shall a man be more pure then his Maker Behold he put no trust in his Servants and his Angels he charged with folly How much less on them that dwell in houses of clay whose foundation is in the dust which are crushed before the moth Doth not their excellency which is in them go away They die even without wisdome The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul the testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple Moreover by them is thy servant warned and in keeping of them there is great reward Who can understand his errours Cleanse thou me from my secret faults keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins let them not have dominion over me then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transgression O ye sons of men how long will ye turn my glory into shame how long will ye love vanity and seek after leasing But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself The Lord will hear when I call unto him Out of the deep have I called unto thee O Lord Lord hear my voice O let thine ears consider well the voice of my complaint If thou Lord wilt be extreme to mark what is done amiss O Lord who may abide it But there is mercy with thee therefore shalt thou be feared Set a watch O Lord before my mouth and keep the door of my lips Take from me the way of lying and cause thou me to make much of thy law The Lord is full of compassion and mercy long-suffering and of great goodness He will not alway be chiding neither keepeth he his anger for ever Yea like as a Father pitieth his own children even so is the Lord mercifull unto them that fear him For he knoweth whereof we are made he remembreth that we are but dust Praise the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits which forgiveth all thy sin and healeth all thine infirmities Glory be to the Father c. The PRAYER O Eternal God whose perfections are infinite whose mercies are glorious whose justice is severe whose eyes are pure whose judgements are wise be pleased to look upon the infirmities of thy servant and consider my weakness My spirit is willing but my flesh is weak I desire to please thee but in my endevours I fail so often so foolishly so unreasonably that I extremely displease my self and I have too great reason to fear that thou also art displeased with thy servant O my God I know my duty I resolve to doe it I know my dangers I stand upon my guard against them but when they come near I begin to be pleased and delighted in the little images of death and am seised upon by folly even when with greatest severity I decree against it Blessed Jesus pity me and have mercy upon my infirmities II. O Dear God I humbly beg to be relieved by a mighty grace for I bear a body of sin and death about me sin creeps upon me in every thing that I doe or suffer When I doe well I am apt to be proud when I doe amiss I am sometimes too confident sometimes affrighted If I see others doe amiss I either neglect them or grow too angry and in the very mortification of my anger I
put off our Repentance one day differs onely accidentally and by chance from the worst of evils from final impenitence it is the beginning of it it differs from it as an infant from a man it is materially the same sin and may also have the same formality 8. The putting off our Repentance from day to day must needs be a sin distinct from the guilt of the action whereof we are to repent because the principle of it cannot be innocent it must needs be distinctly Criminal It is a rebellion against God or hardness of heart or the spirit of Apostasie Presumption or Despair or at least such a carelesness as being in the question of our souls and in relation to God is infinitely farre from being excusable or innocent These Considerations seem to me of very great moment and to conclude the main proposition and at least they ought to effect this perswasion upon us that whoever hath committed a sin cannot honestly nor prudently nor safely defer his Repentance one hour He that repents instantly breaks his habit when it is in ovo in the shell and prevents Gods anger and his own debauchment and disimprovement Qui parvis obvius ibit Nazian Is nunquam praeceps scelera in graviora feretur And let us consider that if we defer our Repentance one hour we do to our souls worse then to our bodies Quae laedunt oculos festinas demere Horat. lib. 1. ep si quid Est animum differs curandi tempus in annum If dirt fall into our eyes we do not say to the Chirurgion Stay Sir and let the grit or little stone abide there till next week but get it out presently This similitude if it proves nothing yet will serve to upbraid our folly to instruct and exhort us in the duty of this Question Remember this that as in Gods account 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to remit and to retain a sin are opposite so it ought to be in ours Our retaining and keeping of a sin though but for a day is contrary to the designs of mercy and holiness it is against God and against the interest of our souls § 3. A sinful habit hath in it proper evils and a proper guiltiness of its own besides all that which came directly by the single actions BY a sinful habit I mean the facility and easiness the delight and custome of sinning contracted by the repetition of the acts of the same sin as a habit of drunkenness a habit of swearing and the like that is a quality inherent in the soul whereby we work with pleasure Eâ—hic Nicom l. 2. c. 2. for that Aristotle calls the infallible and proper indication of habits 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And so long as any man sins willingly readily frequently and upon every temptation or most commonly so long he is an habitual sinner when he does his actions of Religion with pain and of his sin with pleasure he is in the state of death and enmity against God And as by frequent playing upon an instrument a man gets a habit of playing so he does in renewing the actions of the same sin there is an evil quality produced which affects and corrupts his soul * But concerning the nature of a vicious habit this also is to be added That a vicious habit is not onely contracted by the repetition of acts in the same kinde but by frequency of sinning in any variety of instances whatsoever For there are many vicious persons who have an ambulatory impiety and sin in all or most of their opportunities but their occasions are not uniform and therefore their irregularities are irregular and by chance for the instance but regular and certain in the prevarication Vetuleius Pavo would be sure to be drunk at the feasts of Saturn and take a surfet in the Calends of January he would be wanton at the Floralia and bloudy in the Theatres he would be prodigal upon his birth day and on the day of his marriage sacrifice Hecatombs to his Pertunda Dea and he would be sure to observe all the solemnities and festivals of vice in their own particulars and instances and thought himself a good man enough because he could not be called a drunkard or a glutton for one act and by sinning singly escap'd the appellatives of scorn which are usually fix'd upon vain persons that are married to one sin * Naturally to contract the habit of any one sin is like the entertaining of a Concubine and dwelling upon the folly of one miserable woman But a wandring habit is like a Libido vaga the vile adulteries of looser persons that drink at every cistern that runs over and stands open for them For such persons have a supreme habit a habit of disobedience and may for want of opportunity or abilities for want of pleasure or by the influence of an impertinent humour be kept from acting always in one scene But so long as they choose all that pleases them and exterminate no vice but entertain the instances of many their malice is habitual their state is a perfect aversation from God For this is that which the Apostle cals The body of sin Rom. 7. a compagination of many parts and members just as among the Lawyers a flock a people a legion are called bodies and corpus civitatis we finde in Livy corpus collegiorum in Caius corpus regni in Virgil and so here this union of several sins is the body of sin and that is the body of death And not onely he that feeds perpetually upon raw fruit puts himself into an ill habit of body but he also does the same thing who to day drinks too much and to morrow fils himself with cold fruits and the next day with condited mushromes and by evil orders and carelesness of diet and accidental miscarriages heaps up a multitude of causes and unites them in the production and causality of his death This general disorder is indeed longer doing but it kils as fatally and infallibly as a violent surfeit And if a man dwels in the kingdome of sin it is all one whether he be sick in one or in twenty places they are all but several rooms of the same Infirmatory and ingredients of the same deadly poison He that repeats his sin whether it be in one or in several instances strikes himself often to the heart with the same or with several daggers Having thus premised what was necessary for the explication of the nature of vicious habits we must consider that of vicious habits there is a threefold capacity 1. A natural 2. A moral 3. A relative as it denominates a man in relation to God 1. Of the Natural capacity of sinful habits The natural capacity of sinful habits is a facility or readiness of the faculty to doe the like actions and this is naturally consequent to the frequent repetition of sinful acts not voluntary but in its cause and therefore not criminal
apprehend that we need time and fierce contentions and the long suffering of violences to take the kingdome of heaven by force by a state of contradiction and hostility against the tempting enemy It is much harder to get a habit against our nature and a prepossessing habit then to confirm nature and to actuate our inclinations And this does not onely relate to habits in their Natural capacity but in their Moral and consequently their Relative capacity as appertaining to God in the matter of his valuation of them Because in habits as it is in acts although metaphysically we can distinguish the action from the irregularity yet because they are subjected in the same person and the irregularity is inherent in the action in the whole composition the action is sinful so it is in habits For the sin adheres to the natural facility and follows it in all its capacities And as the natural facility of doing viciously is cured by time and a successive continued diligence so is the sinfulness because that facility is vicious and sinful And as heat is distinguished from fire but you cannot lessen the heat but by decreasing the natural being of fire so does the sin of a vicious habit pass away as the habit naturally lessens that is the Moral capacity changes as does the Natural this being the subject of that and it could not have been this habit if it had not in it this sinfulness * Now if the parts of this argument be put together their intention is this A habit of sin is not gotten but by time and progression and yet it cannot be lost so soon as it was gotten but it is a long time before its natural being is overcome by its contrary But the sinfulness of it does pass away with the natural being and no otherwise therefore the sinfulness of it cannot be removed suddenly And therefore if mortification be a duty and we be commanded to doe it we are commanded to doe a long work and a difficult a thing that is more then the moral retractation of it by a single act of sorrow or contrition a duty that contains in it so much work as is proportion'd to the necessity even to the breaking the habit of sin and setting up the habit of vertue over it Now then all the question will be whether Mortification be a Precept or a Counsel Concerning which I onely appeal to the words of S. Paul Colos 3.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mortifie therefore your earthly members and Rom. 8.13 If ye through the Spirit doe mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live Mortification is the condition of life it is expresly commanded by the Apostle that we make the deeds of the body to be dead that is the evil habits and concupiscence of the body for that which S. Paul here cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or deeds in the same precept written to the Galatians Gal. 5.2.4 he cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lusts and concupiscences And of what great necessity effect this mortification crucifying of our sinful customes is we may understand best by those other words of the same Apostle Rom. 6.7 He that is dead is justified from sins not till then not till his habit was dead not as soon as he morally retracts it by an act of displeasure and contrition but when the sin is dead when the habit is crucified when the concupiscence does not reign but is overcome in all its former prevalencies then he is pardon'd and not before 9. Unless it be necessary to oppose a habit against a habit a state of vertue against a state of vice that is if a vicious habit may be pardon'd upon one act of contrition then it may so happen that a man shall not be obliged to doe good but onely to abstain from evil to cease from sin but not to proceed and grow in grace which is against the perpetual design and analogy of the Gospel and the nature of Evangelical righteousness which differs from the righteousness of the law as doing good from not doing evil The law forbad murder but the Gospel superaddes charity The law forbad uncleanness but the Gospel superaddes purity and mortification The law forbad us to doe wrong but the Gospel commands us to doe offices of kindness Injustice was prohibited by the law but revenge also of real injuries is forbidden by the Gospel and we are commanded to doe good to them that injure us and therefore the Writers of the New Testament do frequently joyn * Rom 6.18 Ephes 4.22 Col. 1.13 3.5.10.12 Titus 2.12 13 14. Heb. 10.22 24. 1 Pet. 2.1 2. 3.11 2 Pet. 1.4 5 6 7 8. these to be dead unto sin and to live unto righteousness This is that which was opposed to the righteousness of the law a Rom. 3.21 9.30 31. Gal. 2.16 3.8 Phil. 3.6 7. and is called the righteousness of God And a mistake in this affair was the ruine of the Jews For being ignorant of the righteousness of God they thought to be justified by their own righteousness which is of the law That is they thought it enough to leave off to sin without doing the contrary good and so hop'd for the promises This was the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees to be no adulterers no defrauders of the rights of the Temple no Publicans or exacters of Tribute But our blessed Saviour assur'd us that there is no hopes of heaven for us unless our righteousness exceed this of theirs Now then to apply this to the present argument Suppose a vicious person who hath liv'd an impious life plac'd upon his death-bed exhorted to repentance made sensible of his danger invited by the Sermons of his Priest to dress his soul with duty and sorrow if he obeys and is sorry for his sin supposing that this sorrow does really begin that part of his duty which consists in not sinning nay suppose he will never sin again which is the righteousness of the law yet how can he in that case doe that good which is required by the Gospel Seek the kingdome of heaven and the righteousness thereof The Gospel hath a peculiar righteousness of its own proper to it self without which there is no entrance into heaven But the righteousness of the law is called our own righteousness that is such a righteousness which men by nature know for we all by the innate law of nature know that we ought to abstain from doing injury to Man from impiety to God But we onely know by revelation the righteousness of the kingdome which consists in holiness and purity chastity and patience humility and self-denial He that rests in the first and thinks he may be sav'd by it as S. Pauls expression is he establisheth his own righteousness that is the righteousness of the law and this he does whosoever thinks that his evil habits are pardon'd without doing that good and acquiring those graces which constitute
thy sweetest mercy Amen Amen Amen CHAP. VI. Of Concupiscence and Original sin and whether or no or how far we are bound to repent of it §. 1. ORiginal sin is so called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or figuratively meaning the sin of Adam which was committed in the Original of mankinde by our first Parent and which hath influence upon all his posterity Nascuntur non propriè De civit lib. 16. c. 18. sed originalitèr peccatores So S. Austin and therefore S. Ignatius cals it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the old impiety Epist ad Trallian that which was in the original or first Parent of mankinde This sin brought upon Adam all that God threatned but no more A certainty of dying together with the proper effects and affections of mortality was inflicted on him and he was reduced to the condition of his own nature and then begat sons and daughters in his own likeness that is in the proper temper and constitution of mortal men For as God was not bound to give what he never promised viz. an immortal duration and abode in this life so neither does it appear in that angry entercourse that God had with Adam that he took from him or us any of our natural perfections but his graces onely Man being left in this state of pure Naturals could not by his own strength arrive to a supernatural end which was typified in his being cast out of Paradise and the guarding it with the flaming sword of a Cherub For eternal life being an end above our natural proportion cannot be acquir'd by any natural means Neither Adam nor any of his posterity could by any actions or holiness obtain heaven by desert or by any natural efficiency for it is a gift still and it is neque currentis neque operantis neither of him that runneth nor of him that worketh but of God who freely gives it to such persons whom he also by other gifts and graces hath dispos'd toward the reception of it What gifts and graces or supernatural endowments God gave to Adam in his state of Innocence we know not God hath no where told us and of things unrevealed we commonly make wild conjectures But after his fall we finde no sign of any thing but of a common man And therefore as it was with him so it is with us our nature cannot goe to heaven without the helps of the Divine grace so neither could his and whether he had them or no it is certain we have receiving more by the second Adam then we did lose by the first and the sons of God are now spiritual which he never was that we can finde But concerning the sin of Adam tragical things are spoken it destroyed his original righteousness and lost it to us for ever it corrupted his nature and corrupted ours and brought upon him and not him onely but on us also who thought of no such thing an inevitable necessity of sinning making it as natural to us to sin as to be hungry or to be sick and die and the consequent of these things is saddest of all we are born enemies of God sons of wrath and heirs of eternal damnation In the meditation of these sad stories I shall separate the certain from the uncertain that which is reveal'd from that which is presum'd that which is reasonable from that which makes too bold reflexions upon Gods honour and the reputation of his justice and his goodness I shall doe it in the words of the Apostle from whence men commonly dispute in this Question right or wrong according as it happens By one man sin came into the world That sin entred into the world by Adam Rom. 5.12 is therefore certain because he was the first man and unless he had never sinn'd it must needs enter by him for it comes in first by the first and Death by sin that is Death which at first was the condition of nature became a punishment upon that account just as it was to the Serpent to creep upon his belly and to the Woman to be subject to her Husband These things were so before and would have been so for the Apostle pressing the duty of subjection gives two reasons why the woman was to obey One of them onely was derived from this sin the other was the prerogative of creation for Adam was first formed 1 Tim. 2.13 then Eve so that before her fall she was to have been subject to her husband because she was later in being she was a minor and therefore under subjection she was also the weaker vessel But it had not been a curse and if any of them had been hindred by grace and favour by Gods anger they were now left to fall back to the condition of their nature Death passed upon all men That is upon all the old world who were drowned in the floud of the Divine vengeance and who did sin after the similitude of Adam And therefore S. Paul addes that for the reason In as much as all men have sinned If all men have sinned upon their own account as it is certain they have then these words can very well mean that Adam first sinned and all his sons and daughters sinned after him and so died in their own sin by a death which at first and in the whole constitution of affairs is natural and a death which their own sins deserved but yet which was hastned or ascertained upon them the rather for the sin of their progenitor Sin propagated upon that root and vicious example or rather from that beginning not from that cause but dum ita peccant similiter moriuntur If they sin so then so shall they die so S. Hierome But this is not thought sufficient and men doe usually affirm that we are formally and properly made sinners by Adam and in him we all by interpretation sinned and therefore think these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 forasmuch as all men have sinned ought to be expounded thus Death passed upon all men In whom all men have sinned meaning that in Adam we really sinn'd and God does truly and justly impute his sin to us to make us as guilty as he that did it and as much punish'd and liable to eternal damnation And all the great force of this fancy relies upon this exposition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signify in him Concerning which there will be the less need of a laborious inquiry if it be observed that the words being read Forasmuch as all men have sinned bear a fair and clear discourse and very intelligible if it be rendred In him it is violent and hard a distinct period by it self without dependence or proper purpose against the faith of all copies who do not make this a distinct period and against the usual manner of speaking 2. This phrase of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used in 2 Cor. 5.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not for that we would be unclothed and so it is
For although it is piety to be troubled for their fathers regard and because he died an enemy to God yet in reference to themselves they must know that God puts upon every head his own punishment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Plato For every one is submitted to his own fortune by his own act The fathers crime and the fathers punishment make no real permanent blot upon the son No man is forc'd to succeed in his fathers crime said Callistratus the Lawyer 4. Every evil that happens to a son for his fathers fault hath an errand of its own to him For as God is a just Judge to his father so he is an essential enemy to sin and a gracious Lord to the suffering person When God sent blindeness upon the man in the Gospel neither for his parents sins nor his own yet he did it for his own glory Let the afflicted person study by all wayes to advance Gods glory in the sufferance and the sharpness of the evil will be taken off 5. Let not a son retain the price of his fathers sin the purchase of his iniquity If his father entred into the fields of the fatherless let not the son dwell there If his ancestors were sacrilegious let not the son declaim against the crime and keep the lands but cast off that which brings the burthen along with it And this is to be observed in all those sins the evil consequent and effect of which remains upon the posterity or successors of the injur'd person for in those sins very often the curse descends with the wrong So long as the effect remains and the injury is complained of and the title is stil kept on foot so long the son is tied to restitution But even after the possession is setled yet the curse and evil may descend longer then the sin as the smart and the aking remains after the blow is past And therefore even after the successors come to be lawful possessors it may yet be very fit for them to quit the purchase of their fathers sin or else they must resolve to pay the sad and severe rent-charge of a curse 6. In such cases in which there cannot be a real let there be a verbal and publick disavowing their fathers sin which was publick scandalous and notorious Gregoras lib. 5. c. 81. We finde this thing done by Andronicus Palaeologus the Greek Emperour who was the son of a bad Father and it is to be done when the effect was transient or irremediable 7. Sometimes no piety of the children shall quite take off the anger of God from a family or nation as it hapned to Josiah who above all the Princes that were before or after him turned to the Lord. 2 Kings 23.26 Notwithstanding the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withall In such a case as this we are to submit to Gods will and let him exercise his power his dominion and his kingdome as he pleases and expect the returns of our piety in the day of recompences and it may be our posterity shall reap a blessing for our sakes who feel a sorrow and an evil for our fathers sake 8. Let all that have children endevour to be the beginners and the stock of a new blessing to their family by blessing their children by praying much for them by holy education and a severe piety by rare example and an excellent religion And if there be in the family a great curse and an extraordinary anger gone out against it there must be something extraordinary done in the matter of religion or of charity that the remedy be no less then the evil 9. Let not the consideration of the universal sinfulness and corruption of mankinde adde confidence to thy person and hardness to thy conscience and authority to thy sin but let it awaken thy spirit and stir up thy diligence and endear all the watchfulness in the world for the service of God for there is in it some difficulty and an infinite necessity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eurip. Orest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Electra in the Tragedy Our nature is very bad in it self but very good to them that use it well Prayers and Meditations THE first Adam bearing a wicked heart transgressed and was overcome Esdras 2.3.21.22 and so be all they that are born of him Thus infirmity was made permanent And the law also in the heart of the people with the malignity and root so that the good departed away and the evil abode still Lo Eccl. 7.29 this onely have I found that God hath made man upright but they have sought many inventions For there is not a just man upon earth that doth good and sinneth not V. 20. Behold Psal 51.5 7 10. I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me Purge me with hysop and I shall be clean wash me and I shall be whiter then snow create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me The fool hath said in his heart Psal 14.1 2 3. There is no God they are corrupt they have done abominable works there is none that doth good The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek after God They are all gone aside they are all become filthy There is not one that doeth good no not one V. 7. * O that the salvation of Israel were come out of Sion when the Lord bringeth back the captivity of his people Jacob shall rejoyce and Israel shall be glad Man dieth and wasteth away Job 14.10 c. yea man giveth up the ghost and where is he For now thou numbrest my steps Dost thou not watch over my sin my transgression is seal'd up in a bag and thou sewest up iniquity Thou destroyest the hope of man Thou prevailest against him for ever and he passeth thou changest his countenance and sendest him away But his flesh upon him shall have pain and his soul within him shall mourn What is man that he should be clean Job 15.14 and he that is born of a woman that he should be righteous Behold he putteth no trust in his Saints yea the heavens are not clean in his sight How much more abominable and filthy is man which drinketh iniquity like water Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid V. 24. they shall prevail against him as a King ready to battel For he stretcheth out his hand against God and strengthneth himself against the Almighty Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity V. 31. for vanity shall be his recompence Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean thing no not one I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin Job 16.15 and defiled my horn in the dust My face is foul
not that I doe meaning I would not lust but I doe lust The same also I finde in Epiphanius Nam quod dictum est Haeres 64. contra Origen Quod operor non cognosco facio quod odio habeo non de eo quod operati sumus ac perfecimus malum accipiendum est sed de eo quod solum cogitavimus Now this interpretation hath in it no impiety as the other hath for these Doctors allow nothing to be unavoidable or a sin of infirmity and consistent with the state of grace and regeneration but the meer ineffective unprocured desitings or lustings after evil things to which no consent is given and in which no delight is taken extraneae cogitationes quas cogitavimus aliquando non volentes non scientes ex quâ causâ Ibid. as Epiphanius expresses this article But S. Aust may be thought to have had some design in choosing this sense as supposing it would serve for an argument against the Pelagians and their sense of Free will For by representing the inevitability of sin he destroyed their doctrine of the sufficiency of our natural powers in order to heaven and therefore by granting that S. Paul complains thus of his own infirmity he believed himself to have concluded firmly for the absolute necessity of Gods grace to help us But by limiting this inevitability of sinning to the matter of desires or concupiscence he gave no allowance or pretence to any man to speak any evil words or to delight or consent to any evil thoughts or to commit any sinful actions upon the pretence of their being sins of an unavoidable infirmity So that though he was desirous to serve the ends of his present question yet he was careful that he did not disserve the interests of Religion and a holy life But besides that the holy Scriptures abound in nothing more then in affirming our needs and the excellency of the Divine grace and S. Austin needed not to have been put to his shifts in this Question it is considerable that his first Exposition had done his business better For if these words of S. Paul be as indeed they are to be expounded of an unregenerate man one under the law but not under grace nothing could more have magnified Gods grace then that an unregenerate person could not by all the force of nature nor the aids of the law nor the spirit of fear nor temporal hopes be redeem'd from the flavery and tyranny of sin and that from this state there is no redemption but by the Spirit of God and the grace of the Lord Jesus which is expresly affirmed and proved by S. Paul if you admit this sense of the words And therefore Irenaeus who did so cites these words to the same effect viz. for the magnifying the grace of God Lib. 3. c. 22. Ipse Dominus erat qui salvabat eos quia per semetipses non habebant salvari Et propter hoc Paulus infirmitatem hominis annuntians ait Scio enim quoniam non habitat in carne mâ—â bonum significans quoniam non à nobis sâ—d à Dec est bonum salutis Et iterum Miser ego homo quis me liberabit de corpore mortis hujus Deinde infert liberatorem Gratia Jesu Christi Dâ—mini nestri S. Pauls complaint shews our own infirmity and that of our selves we cannot be saved but that our salvation is of God and the grace of our Redeemer Jesus Christ But whatever S. Austins design might be in making the worse choice it matters not much onely to the interpretation it self I have these considerations to oppose 1. Because the phrase is insolent and the exposition violent to render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by concupisâ—ere Rom. 7.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to doe is more then to desire factum dictum concupitum are the several kindes and degrees of sinning assigned by S. Austin himself and therefore they cannot be confounded and one made to expound the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is also used here by the Apostle which in Scripture signifies sometimes to sin habitually never less then actually and the other word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies perficere patrare to finish the act at least or to doe a sin throughly and can in no sense be reasonably expounded by natural ineffective and unavoidable desires And it is observable that when S. Austin in prosecution of this device Ver. 18. is to expound those words to will is present with me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to perform what is good I finde not he makes the word to signifie to doe it perfectly which is as much beyond as the other sense of the same word is short What I doe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I approve not Therefore the man does not doe his sin perfectly he does the thing imperfectly for he does it against his conscience and with an imperfect choice but he does the thing however So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must signifie to doe the good imperfectly the action it self onely for such was this mans impotency that he could not obtain power to doe even imperfectly the good he desir'd The evil he did though against his minde but the good he could not because it was against the law of sin which reigned in him But then the same word must not to serve ends be brought to signifie a perfect work and yet not to signifie so much as a perfect desire 2. The sin which S. Paul under another person complains of is such a sin as did first deceive him Ver. 11. and then slew him but concupiscence does not kill till it proceeds further as S. James expresly affirms Jam. 1.15 that concupiscence when it hath conceived brings forth sin and sin when it is finished brings forth death which is the just parallel to what S. Ver. 5. Paul says in this very Chapter The * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 passions of sins which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death peccatum perpetratum when the desires are acted then sin is deadly the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the passions or first motions of sin which come upon us nobis non volentibus nec scientibus whether we will or no these are not imputed to us unto death but are the matter of vertue when they are resisted and contradicted but when they are consented to and delighted in then it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sin in conception with death and will proceed to action unless it be hindred from without and therefore it is then the same sin by interpretation Adulterium cordis so our blessed Saviour called it in that instance the adultery of the heart but till it be an actual sin some way or other it does not bring forth death 3. It is an improper and ungrammatical manner of speaking to say Nolo concupiscere or Volo non concupiscere I will lust or I will not
lust i. e. I will or I will not desire or will For this lust or first motions of desire are before an act of will the first act of which is when these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these motions and passions are consented to or rejected These motions are natural and involuntary and are no way in our power but when they are occasion'd by an act of the will collaterally and indirectly or by applying the proper incentives to the faculty Vellem non concupiscere every good man must say I would fain be free from concupiscence but because he cannot it is not subject to his will and he cannot say volâ— I will be free and therefore S. Pauls Volo and Nolo are not intended of Concupiscence or desires 4. The good which S. Austin sayes the Apostle fain would but could not perfect or doe it perfectly is Non concupiscere not to have concupiscence Volo non perficio but Concupiscere is but velle Ver. 18. it is not so much and therefore cannot be more So that when he sayes to will is present with me he must mean to desire well is present with me but to doe this I finde not that is if S. Austins interpretation be true though I doe desire well yet I doe lust and doe not desire well for still concupisco I lust and I lust not I have concupiscence and I have it not which is a contradiction Many more things might be observed from the words of the Apostle to overthrow this exposition but the truth when it is proved will sufficiently reprove what is not true and therefore I shall apply my self to consider the proper intention and design of the Apostle in those so much mistaken periods §. 4. COncerning which these things are to be cleared upon which the whole issue will depend 1. That S. Paul speaks not in his own person as an Apostle or a Christian a man who is regenerate but in the person of a Jew one under the law one that is not regenerate 2. That this state which he describes is the state of a carnal man under the corruption of his nature upon whom the law had done some change but had not cured him 3. That from this state of evil we are redeemed by the Spirit of Christ by the Grace of the Gospel and now a Childe of God cannot complaine this complaint 1. That he puts on the person of another by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or translation as was usual with S. Paul in * 1 Cor. 10.29 30. 4.6 6.12 13.2 Gal. 2.18 very many places of his Epistles is evident by his affirming that of the man whom he here describes which of himself were not true †Ver 9. I was alive without the law once Of S. Pauls own person this was not true for he was bred and born under the law circumcised the eighth day an Hebrew of the Hebrews as touching the law a Pharisee he never was alive without the law But the Israelites were whom he therefore represents indefinitely under a single person the whole Nation before and under the law I was alive once without the law but when the Commandement came that is when the law was given sin revived and I died that is by occasion of the law sin grew stronger and prevailed 2. But concerning the Christian and his present condition he expresly makes it separate from that of being under the law and consequently under sin But now we are delivered from the law that being dead wherein we were held that we should serve in newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter We are delivered it is plain that some sort of men are freed from that sad condition of things of which he there complains and if any be it must be the regenerate And so it is For the scope of the Apostle in this Chapter is to represent and prove that salvation is not to be had by the law but by Jesus Christ and that by that discipline men cannot be contain'd in their duty and therefore that it was necessary to forsake the law and to come to Christ To this purpose he brings in a person complaining that under the discipline of the law he was still under the power of sin Now if this had been also true of a regenerate person of a Christian renewed by the spirit of grace then it had been no advantage to have gone from the Law to Christ as to this argument for still the Christian would be under the same slavery which to be the condition of one under the law S. Paul was to urge as an argument to call them from Moses to Christ 2. That this state which he now describes is the state of a carnal man Ver. 8. under the corruption of his nature appears by his saying that sin had wrought in him all manner of concupiscence that sin revived and he died Ver. 5. that the motions of sin which were by the law did work in the members to bring forth fruit unto death and that this was when we were in the flesh that he is carnal sold under sin that he is carried into captivity to the law of sin that sin dwels in him and is like another person doing or constraining him to doe things against his minde that it is a State and a Government a Law and a Tyranny For that which I doe I allow not plainly saying that this doing what we would not that is doing against our conscience upon the strength of passion and in obedience to the law of sin was the state of them who indeed were under the law but the effect of carnality and the viciousness of their natural and ungracious condition Here then is the description of a natural and carnal man He sins frequently he sins against his conscience he is carnal and sold under sin sin dwels in him and gives him laws he is a slave to sin and led into captivity Now if this could be the complaint of a regenerate man from what did Christ come to redeem us how did he take away our sins did he onely take off the punishment and still leave us to wallow in the impurities and baser pleasures perpetually to rail upon our sins and yet perpetually to doe them How did he come to bless us in turning every one of us from our iniquity Acts 3 26 How and in what sense could it be true which the Apostle affirms 1 Pet. 2.24 He did bear our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead unto sin should live unto righteousness But this proposition I suppose my self to have sufficiently proved in the reproof of the first exposition of these words in question onely I shall in present adde the concurrent testimony of some Doctors of the Primitive Church Tertullian hath these words Lib. de puâ—icit c. 17. Nam etsi habitare bonum in carne suâ negavit sed secundum legem
may goe in the ways of piety and Religion TO this inquiry it is necessary that this be premised That between the regenerate and a wicked person there is a middle state so that it is not presently true that if the man be not wicked he is presently Regenerate Between the two states of so vast a distance it is impossible but there should be many intermedial degrees between the Carnal and Spiritual man there is a Moral man not that this man shall have a different event of things if he does abide there but that he must pass from extreme to extreme by this middle state of participation The first is a slave of sin the second is a servant of righteousness the third is such a one as liveth according to Natural reason so much of it as is left him and is not abused that is lives a probable life but is not renewed by the Spirit of grace one that does something but not all not enough for the obtaining salvation For a man may have gone many steps from his former baseness and degenerous practices and yet not arrive at godliness or the state of pardon like the children of Israel who were not presently in Canaan as soon as they were out of Egypt but abode long in the wilderness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they begin to be instructed that is their state Thou art not far from the kingdome of heaven said our blessed Saviour to a well disposed person but he was not arrived thither he was not a subject of the Kingdome These are such whom our blessed Lord cals The weary and the heavy laden that is such who groan under the heavy pressure of their sins whom therefore he invites to come to him to be eased Such are those whom Saint Paul here describes to be under the law convinced of sin pressed vexed troubled with it complaining of it desirous to be eased Acts 1. These the holy Scripture cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ordained disposed to life eternal but these were not yet the fideles or believers but from that fair disposition became believers upon the preaching of the Apostles In this third state of men I account those that sin and repent and yet repent and sin again for ever troubled when they have sinn'd and yet for ever or most frequently sinning when the temptation does return 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They sin and accuse and hate themselves for sinning Now because these men mean well and fain would be quit of their sin at their own rate and are not scandalous and impious they flatter themselves and think all is well with them that they are regenerate and in the state of the Divine favour and if they die so their accounts are ballanc'd and they doubt not but they shall reign as kings for ever To reprove this state of folly and danger we are to observe that there are a great many steps of this progression which are to be passed through and the end is not yet the man is not yet arrived at the state of regeneration 1. An unregenerate man may be convinc'd and clearly instructed in his duty and approve the law and confess the obligation and consent that it ought to be done which S. Paul cals a consenting to the law that it is good and a being delighted in it according to the inward man even the Gentiles which have not the law yet shew the work of the law written in their hearts Rom. 2.14 their thoughts in the mean time accusing or excusing one another The Jews did more they did rest in the law and glory in God knowing his will and approving the things that are more excellent And there are too many who being called Christians know their Masters will and doe it not and this consenting to the law and approving it is so farre from being a sign of regeneration that the vilest and the basest of men are those who sin most against their knowledge and against their consciences In this world a man may have faith great enough to remove mountains and yet be without charity and in the world to come some shall be rejected from the presence of God though they shall ailege for themselves that they have prophecied in the name of Christ * This delight in the law which is in the unregenerate is onely in the understanding The man considers what an excellent thing it is to be vertuous the just proportions of duty the fitness of being subordinate to God the rectitude of the soul the acquiescence and appendent peace and this delight is just like that which is in finding out proportions in Arithmetick and Geometry or the rest in discovering the secrets of a mysterious proposition a man hath great pleasure in satisfactory notices and the end of his disquisition So also it is in moral things a good man is belov'd by every one and there is a secret excellency and measure a musick and proportion between a mans minde and wise counsels which impious and profane persons cannot perceive because they are so full of false measures and weak discourses and vile appetites and a rude inconsideration of the reasonableness and wisdome of sobriety and severe courses But virtus laudatur alget this is all that some men doe and there is in them nothing but a preparation of the understanding to the things of God a faith seated in the rational part a conviction of the minde which as it was intended to lead on the will to action and the other faculties to obedience so now that the effect is not acquired it serves onely to upbraid the man for a knowing and discerning Criminal he hath not now the excuse of ignorance He that complies with an Usurper out of fear and interest in actions prejudicial to the lawful Prince and tells the honest party that he is right in his heart though he be forc'd to comply helps the other with an argument to convince him that he is a false man He that does it heartily and according to a present conscience hath some excuse but he that confesses that he is right in his perswasion and wrong in his practise is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 condemn'd by himself and professes himself a guilty person a man whom interest and not conscience governs Better it is not to know at all then not to pursue the good we know They that know not God are infinitely far from him but they who know him and yet doe not obey him are sometimes the nearer for their knowledge sometimes the further off but as yet they are not arrived whither it is intended they should go 2. An unregenerate man may with his will delight in goodness and desire it earnestly For in an unregenerate man there is a double appetite and there may be the apprehension of two amabilities The things of the Spirit please his minde and his will may consequently desire that this good were done because it seems beauteous to the rational part to his
the lusts of the flesh To doe one is not to doe the other whoever fulfils the lusts of the flesh and is rul'd by that law he is not ruled by the grace of Christ he is not regenerate by the Spirit But the other sense is the best reddition of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if he had said Walk in the Spirit and then the event will be that the flesh shall not prevail over you or give you laws you shall not then fulfil the lusts thereof And this is best agreeable to the purpose of the Apostle For having exhorted the Galatians that they should not make their Christian liberty a pretence to the flesh Ver. 23. as the best remedy against their enemy the flesh he prescribes this walking in the Spirit which is a certain deletery and prevalency over the flesh And the reason follows for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh so that ye cannot doe the things that ye would that is though ye be inclined to and desirous of satisfying your carnal desires yet being under the empire and conduct of the Spirit ye cannot doe those desires the Spirit over-rules you and you must you will contradict your carnal appetites For else this could not be as the Apostle designs it a reason of his exhortation For if he had meant that in this contention of flesh and Spirit we could not doe the good things that we would then the reason had contradicted the proposition For suppose it thus Walk in the Spirit and fulfil not the lusts of the flesh For the flesh and the Spirit lust against each other so that ye cannot doe the good ye would This I say is not sense for the latter part contradicts the former For this thing that the flesh hinders us from doing the things of the Spirit is so far from being a reason why we should walk in the Spirit that it perfectly discourages that design and it is to little purpose to walk in the Spirit if this will not secure us against the domineering and tyranny of the flesh But the contrary is most clear and consequent If ye walk in the Spirit ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh for though the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and would fain prevail yet it cannot for the Spirit also lusteth against the flesh and is stronger so that ye may not or that ye doe not or that ye cannot for any of these readings as it may properly render the words of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so are not against the design of the Apostle do what ye otherwise would fain do and therefore if ye will walk in the Spirit ye are secured against the flesh The result is this 1. An impious profane person sins without any contention that is with a clear ready and a prepared will he dies and disputes not 2. An animal man or a meer moral man that is one under the law one instructed and convinced by the letter but not sanctified by the Spirit he sins willingly because he considers and chooses it but he also sins unwillingly that is his inclinations to vice and his first choices are abated and the pleasures allayed and his peace disturbed and his sleeps broken but for all that he sins on when the next violent temptation comes The contention in him is between Reason and Passion the law of the minde and the law of the members between conscience and sin that weak this prevailing 3. But the Regenerate hath the same contention within him and the temptation is sometimes strong within him yet he overcomes it and seldome fails in any material and considerable instances Because the Spirit is the prevailing ingredient in the new Creature in the constitution of the regenerate and will prevail For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world 1 Joh. 9.4 5. and this is the victory that overcometh the world even your faith that is by the faith of Jesus Christ by him you shall have victory and redemption and again Resist the devil and he will flee from you Jam. 4.7 1 Joh. 4. for he that is within you is stronger then he that is in the world and Put on the whole armour of God Eph. 6.11 13. that ye may stand against the snares of the devil that ye may resist in the evil day and having done all to stand for Mark 9.23 All things are possible to him that believes and Through Christ that strengthens me I can doe all things Phil. 4.13 and therefore in all these things we are more then conquerours for Eph. 3.20 Rom. 8.13 〈◊〉 37. God is able to doe above all that we can ask or think he can keep us from all sin and present us unblameable in the sight of his glory So that to deny the power of the Spirit in breaking the tyranny and subduing the lusts of the flesh besides that it contradicts all these and divers other Scriptures it denies the Omnipotency of God Jude 24. and of the Spirit of his grace making sin to be stronger then it and if grace abound to make sin superabound but to deny the willingness of the Spirit to redeem us from the captivity of sin is to lessen the reputation of his goodness and to destroy the possibility and consequently the necessity of living holily But how happens it then that even the regenerate sins often and the flesh prevails upon the ruine or the declensions of the Spirit I answer It is not because that holy principle which is in the regenerate cannot or will not secure him but because the man is either prepossess'd with the temptation and overcome before he begins to oppose the arms of the Spirit that is because he is surpris'd or incogitant or it may be careless the good man is asleep and then the enemy takes his advantage and sows tares for if he were awake and considering and would make use of the strengths of the Spirit he would not be overcome by sin For there are powers enough that is arguments and endearments helps and sufficient motives to enable us to resist the strongest temptation in the world and this one alone of resurrection to eternal life which is revealed to us by Jesus Christ and ministred in the Gospel is an argument greater then all the promises and inticements of sin if we will attend to its efficacy and consequence But if we throw away our arms and begin a fight in the Spirit and end it in the flesh the ill success of the day is to be imputed to us not to the Spirit of God to whom if we had attended we should certainly have prevailed * The reliques and remains of sin are in the regenerate but that is a sign that sin is overcome and the kingdome of it broken and that is a demonstration that when ever sin does prevail in any single instances it is not for want of power but of using that power for
Manasses of Mary Magdalen and S. Paul of the Thief on the Cross and the deprehended Adulteress and of the Jews themselves who after they had crucified the Lord of life were by messengers of his own invited passionately invited to repent and be purified with that blood which they had sacrilegiously and impiously spilt But concerning this who please may reade S. Austin discoursing upon those words Mittet Crystallum suum sicut buccellas which saith he mystically represent the readiness of God to break and make contrite even the hearts of them that have been hardened in impiety Gemara de Synedrio c. 11. Quo loco consisiâ—â—t poenitentiaâ—â—â—gentes ibi justi non poterunt stare said the Doctors of the Jews The just and innocent persons shall not be able to stand in the same place where the penitent shall be Pacem pacem remoto propinquo ait Dominus ut sanem eum Peace to him that is afar off and to him that is near saith the Lord that I may heal him Praeponit remotum That 's their observation He that is afar off is set before the other that is he that is at great distance from God as if God did use the greater earnestness to reduce him Upon which place their gloss addes Magna est virtus eorum qui poenitentiam agunt ita ut nulla Creatura in septo illorum consistere queat So great is the vertue of them that are true penitents that no creature can stand within their inclosure And all this is farre better expressed by those excellent words of our blessed Saviour Luk. 15.7 There is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more then over ninety nine just persone that need no repentance I have been the longer in establishing and declaring the proper foundation of this Article upon which every one can declaim but every one cannot believe it in the day of temptation because I guess what an intolerable evil it is to despair of pardon by having felt the trouble of some very great fears And this were the less necessary but that it is too commonly true that they who repent least are most confident of their pardon or rather least consider any reasons against their security but when a man truly apprehends the vileness of his sin he ought also to consider the state of his danger which is wholly upon the stock of what is past that is his danger is this that he knows not when or whether or upon what terms God will pardon him in particular But of this I shall have a more apt occasion to speak in the following periods For the present the Article in general is established upon the testimonies of the greatest certainty §. 2. Of pardon of sins committed after Baptism BUt it may be our easiness of life and want of discipline and our desires to reconcile our pleasures and temporal satisfactions with the hopes of heaven hath made us apt to swallow all that seems to favour our hopes But it is certain that some Christian Doctors have taught the Doctrine of Repentance with greater severity then is intimated in the premises For all the examples of pardon consign'd to us in the Old Testament are nothing to us who live under the New and are to be judged by other measures And as for those instances which are recorded in the New Testament and all the promises and affirmations of pardon they are sufficiently verified in that pardon of sins which is first given to us in Baptism and at our first Conversion to Christianity Thus when S. Stephen prayed for his persecutors and our blessed Lord himself on his uneasie death-bed of the Cross prayed for them that Crucified him it can onely prove that these great sins are pardonable in our first access to Christ because they for whom Christ and his Martyr S. Stephen prayed were not yet converted and so were to be saved by Baptismal Repentance Then the Power of the Keyes is exercised and the gates of the Kingdome are opened then we enter into the Covenant of mercy and pardon and promise faith and perpetual obedience to the laws of Jesus and upon that condition forgiveness is promised and exhibited offer'd and consign'd but never after for it is in Christianity for all great sins as in the Civil law for theft L. 65. D. de furtis l. 1. D. de Aediliâ—io edicto Qui eâ mente alienum quid contrectavit ut lucrifaceret tametsi mutato consilio id Domino postea reddidit fur est nemo enim tali peccato poenitentiâ suâ nocens esse desinit said Vlpian and Gaius Repentance does not here take off the punishment nor the stain And so it seems to be in Christianity in which every baptized person having stipulated for obedience is upon those terms admitted to pardon and consequently if he fails of his duty he shall fail of the grace But that this objection may proceed no further it is certain that it is an infinite lessening of the mercy of God in Jesus Christ to confine pardon of sins onely to the Font. For that even lapsed Christians may be restored by repentance and be pardoned appears in the story of the incestuous Corinthian and the precept of S. Paul to the spiritual man or the Curate of souls If any man be overtaken in a fault Gal. 6.1 ye which are spiritual restore such a man in the spirit of meekness considering thy self lest thou also be tempted The Christian might fall and the Corinthian did so and the Minister himself he who had the ministery of restitution and reconciliation was also in danger and yet they all might be restored To the same sense is that of S. James Jam. 5.15 Is any man sick among you let him send for the Presbyters of the Church and let them pray over him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 although he was a doer of sins they shall be forgiven him For there is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sin that is not unto death And therefore when S. Austin in his first Book de Sermone Dei had said that there is some sin so great that it cannot be remitted he retracts his words with this clause addendum fuit c. I should have added If in so great perverseness of minde he ends his life For we must not despair of the worst sinner we may not despair of any since we ought to pray for all For it is beyond exception or doubt that it was the great work of the Apostles and of the whole new Testament to engage men in a perpetual repentance For since all men doe sin all men must repent or all men must perish And very many periods of Scripture are directed to lapsed Christians baptized persons fallen into grievous crimes calling them to repentance Acts 8.22 So Simon Peter to Simon Magus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Repent of thy wickedness and to the Corinthian Christians S. Paul urges the purpose of his legation
but another expression or word for the Commandement of Repentance For Confess your sins means acknowledge that you have done amiss that you were in the wrong way that you were a miserable person wandring out of the paths of God and the methods of heaven and happiness that you ought not to have done so that you have sinn'd against God and broken his holy laws and therefore are liable and expos'd to all that wrath of God which he will inflict upon you or which he threatned Confession of sins is a justification of God and a sentencing of our selves This is not onely certain in the nature of the thing it self but apparent also in the words of David Psal 51.4 Against thee onely have I done this evil ut tu justificeris that thou mightest be justified in thy saying and clear when thou art judged That is if I be a sinner then art thou righteous and just in all the evils thou inflictest So that Confession of sins is like Confession of faith nothing but a signification of our conviction it is a publication of our dislike of sin and a submission to the law of God and a deprecation of the consequent evils Confessio error is In Ps 135. professio est desinendi said S. Hilary a confession of our sin is a profession that we will leave it and again Confessio peccati ea est ut ià quod à te gestum est per confessionem peccati confitearis esse peccatum That is confession of sins not that we enumerate the particulars and tell the matter of fact to him that remembers them better then we can but it is a condemning of the sin it self an acknowledging that we have done foolishly a bringing it forth to be crucified and killed This is apparent also in the case of Achan who was sufficiently convict of the matter of fact by the Divine disposing of lots which was one of the ways by which God answered the secret inquiries of the Jews but when he was brought forth to punishment Joshua 7.19 Joshua said unto him My son give I pray thee glory to the Lord God of Israel and make confession unto him that is acknowledge the answer of God to be true and his judgement upon us not to be causless To this answers that part of Achans reply Indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel There God was justified and the glory was given to him that is the glory of his Truth and his Justice but then Joshua addes and tell me now what thou hast done hide it not from me Here it was fit he should make a particular enumeration of the fact and so he did to Joshua saying Thus and thus have I done For to confess to man is another thing then to confess to God Men need to be informed God needs it not but God is to be justified and glorified in the sentence and condemnation of the sin or the sinner and in order to it we must confess our sin that is condemne it confess it to be a sin and our selves guilty and standing at Gods mercy S. In 1 Corhom 28. Chrysostom upon those words of S. Paul If we would judge our selves we should not be judged hath these words He saith not if we would chastise our selves if we would punish our selves but onely if we would acknowledge our sins if we would condemn our selves if we would give sentence against our sins we should be freed from that punishment which is due both here and there For he that hath condemned himself appeases God upon a double account both because he hath acknowledged the sins past and is more careful for the future To this confession of sins is opposed the denying our sin our hiding it from God as Adam did that is either by proceeding in it or by not considering it or by excusing it or by justifying it or by glorying in it all these are high provocations of Gods anger but this anger is taken off by confession Psal 95.2 Praeveniamus faciem eius in confessione said the Psalmist Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving so we reade it let us prevent his anger or let us goe before his face with confession so the old Latin Bibles which is a doing as the Prodigal did I will goe unto my Father and say unto him Father I have sinned against heaven and against thee and this is the first act of exterior repentance but it is of that repentance that is indispensably necessary to salvation Acts 20.21 this is Repentance towards God which the Apostles preach'd in the first publication of Christianity But then besides this there is a Repentance towards men and a Confession in order to it If I have sinn'd against my brother I must ask his pardon and confess my error that is I must repent or confess to him for he that is the injur'd person hath a right over me I am his debtor and oblig'd and he can forgive me if he please and he may choose that is I must pay him the debt I owe him unless he will be pleased to remit it For God in his infinite wisdome and goodness and justice hath taken care to secure every mans interest and he that takes any thing from me is bound by Gods law to restore it and to restore me to that state of good things from whence he forc'd me Now because for the injury which I have already suffered he cannot make me equal amends because what ever he does to me for the future still it is true that I did suffer evil from him formerly therefore it is necessary that I doe what I can to the reparation of that but because what is done and past cannot be undone I must make it up as well as I can that is I must confess my sin and be sorry for it and submit to the judgement of the offended party and he is bound to forgive me the sin and I am bound to make just and prudent amends according to my power for here every one is bound to doe his share If the offending person hath done his part of duty the offended must do his that is he must forgive him that wrong'd him if he will not God will untie the penitent man and with the same chain fast binde him that is uncharitable But my brother may be hurt by me though I have taken nothing from him nor intended him injury He may be scandalized by my sin that is tempted to sin incouraged in his vileness or discontented and made sorrowful for my unworthiness and transgression In all these cases it is necessary that we repent to them also that is that we make amends not only by confession to God but to our brethren also For when we acknowledge our folly we affright them from it and by repentance we give them caution that they may not descend into the same state of infelicity And upon this account all publick criminals were
such persons to the communion of prayers and holy offices at least the Church may choose whether she will or no. The Church in her Government and Discipline had two ends and her power was accordingly apt to minister to these ends 1. By condemning and punishing the sin she was to doe what she could to save the criminal that is by bringing him to repentance a holy life to bring him to pardon 2. And if she could or if she could not effect this yet she was to remove the scandal and secure the flock from infection This was all that was needful this was all that was possible to be done In order to the first the Apostles had some powers extraordinary which were indeed necessary at the beginning of the Religion not onely for this but for other ministrations The Apostles had power to binde sinners that is to deliver them over to Satan and to sad diseases or death it self and they had power to loose sinners that is to cure their diseases to unloose Satans bands to restore them to Gods favour and pardon This manner of speaking was used by our blessed Saviour in this very case of sickness and infirmity Ought not this woman a daughter of Abraham whom Satan hath bound lo these eighteen years be loosed from this band on the Sabbath day The Apostles had this power of binding and loosing and that this is the power of remitting and retaining sins appears without exception in the words of our blessed Saviour to the Jews who best understood the power of forgiving sins by seeing the evil which sin brought on the guilty person taken away That ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins He saith to the man sick of the palsy Arise take up thy bed and walk For there is a power in heaven and a power on earth to forgive sins The power that is in heaven is the publick absolution of a sinner at the day of judgement The power on earth to forgive sins is a taking off those intermedial evils which are inflicted in the way sicknesses temporal death loss of the Divine grace and of the privileges of the faithful These Christ could take off when he was upon earth and his heavenly Father sent him to do all this to heal all sicknesses and to cure all infirmities and to take away our sins and to preach glad tidings to the poor and comfort to the afflicted and rest to the weary and heavy laden The other judgement is to be perform'd by Christ at his second coming Now as God the Father sent his Son so his holy Son sent his Apostles with the same power on earth to binde and loose sinners to pardon sins by taking away the material evil effects which sin should superinduce or to retain sinners by binding them in sad and hard bands to bring them to reason or to make others afraid Thus S. Peter sentenc'd Ananias and Saphira to a temporal death and S. Paul stroke Elymas with blindness and deliver'd over the incestuous Corinthian to be beaten by an evil spirit and so also he did to Hymenaeus and Alexander But this was an extraordinary power and not to descend upon the succeeding ages of the Church but it was in this as in all other ministeries something miraculous and extraordinary was for ever to consign a lasting truth and ministery in ordinary The preaching of the Gospel that is faith it self at first was prov'd by miracles and the holy Ghost was given by signs and wonders and sins were pardon'd by the gifts of healing and sins were retained by the hands of an angel and the very visitation of the sick was blessed with sensible and strange recoveries and every thing was accompanied with a miracle excepting the two Sacraments in the administration of which we doe not finde any mention of any thing visibly miraculous in the records of holy Scripture and the reason is plain because these two Sacraments were to be for ever the ordinary ministeries of those graces which at first were consign'd by signs and wonders extraordinary For in all ages of the Church reckoning exclusively from the days of the Apostles all the graces of the Gospel all the promises of God were conveyed or consign'd or fully ministred by these Sacraments and by nothing else but what was in order to them These were the inlets and doors by which all the faithful were admitted into the outer Courts of the Lords Temple or into the secrets of the Kingdome and the solemnities themselves were the keys of these doors and they that had the power of ministration of them they had the power of the keys These then being the whole Ecclesiastical power and the sum of their ministrations were to be dispensed according to the necessities and differing capacities of the sons and daughters of the Church The Thessalonians who were not furnished with a competent number of Ecclesiastical Governours were commanded to abstain from the company of the brethren that walk'd disorderly S. John wrote to the Elect Lady that she should not entertain in her house false Apostles and when the former way did expire of it self and by the change of things and the second advice was not practicable and prudent they were reduced to the onely ordinary ministery of remitting and retaining sins by a direct admitting or refusing and deferring to admit criminals to their ministeries of pardon which were now onely left in the Church as their ordinary power and ministration For since in this world all our sins are pardon'd by those ways and instruments which God hath constituted in the Church and there are no other external rites appointed by Christ but the Sacraments it follows that as they are worthily communicated or justly denied so the pardon is or is not ministred And therefore when the Church did binde any sinner by the bands of Discipline she did remove him from the mysteries and sometimes enjoyn'd external or internal acts of repentance to testify and to exercise the grace and so to dispose them to pardon and when the penitents had given such testimonies which the Church demanded then they were absolved that is they were admitted to the mysteries For in the primitive records of the Church there was no form of absolution judicial nothing but giving them the holy Communion admitting them to the peace of the Church to the society and privileges of the faithful For this was giving them pardon by vertue of those words of Christ Whose sins ye remit they are remitted that is if ye who are the Stewards of my family shall admit any one to the Kingdom of Christ on earth they shall be admitted to the participation of Christs Kingdom in Heaven and what ye binde here shall be bound there that is if they be unworthy to partake of Christ here they shall be accounted unworthy to partake of Christ hereafter if they separate from Christs members they also shall be separate from the head
within for to that purpose did our blessed Saviour speak that parable to the Pharisees of cleansing cups and platters The parallel to it is here in S. Luke Vide Rule of Holy Dying c. 2. Sect. 3. Lact. l. 6. Almes does also cleanse the inside of a man for it is an excellent act and exercise of repentance Magna est misericordiae merces cui Deus polliceturse omnia peccata remissurum Great is the reward of mercy to which God hath promised that he will forgive all sins To this of almes is reduced all actions of piety and a zealous kindness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the labour of love all studious endearing of others and obliging them by kindness a going about seeking to do good such which are called in Scripture opera justitiae the works of righteousness that is such works in which a righteous and good man loves to be exercised and imployed But there is another instance of mercy besides almes which is exceeding proper to the exercise of Repentance and that is 83. Forgiving injuries Vt absolvaris ignosce Pardon thy brother that God may pardon thee Forgive and thou shalt be forgiven so says the Gospel and this Christ did presse with many words and arguments because there is a great mercy and a great effect consequent to it he put a great emphasis and earnestness of commandment upon it And there is in it a great necessity for we all have need of pardon and it is impudence to ask pardon if we refuse to give pardon to them that ask it of us and therefore the Apostles to whom Christ gave so large powers of forgiving or retaining sinners were also qualified for such powers by having given them a deep sense and a lasting sorrow and a perpetual repentance for and detestation of their sins their repentance lasting even after their sin was dead Therefore S. Paul calls himself the chiefest or first of sinners and in the Epistle of S. Barnabas the Apostle affirmes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Jesus chose for his own Apostles men more wicked then any wickednesse and by such humility and apprehensions of their own needs of mercy they were made sensible of the needs of others and fitted to a merciful and prudent dispensation of pardon 84. Restitution This is an act of repentance indispensably necessary integral part of it if it be taken for a restitution of the simple or original theft or debt for it is an abstinence from evil or a leaving off to commit a sin The crime of theft being injurious by a continual efflux and emanation and therefore not repented of till the progression of it be stopped But then there is a restitution also which is to be reckoned among'st the fruits of repentance or penances and satisfactions Such as was that of Zacheus If I have wronged any man by false accusation I restore him fourfold In the law of Moses theevs convicted by law were tied to it but if a thief or an injurious person did repent before his conviction and made restitution of the wrong he was tied only to the paiment of one fift part above the principal by way of amends for the injury and to do this is an excellent fruit of repentance and a part of self-judicature a judging our selves that we be not judged of the Lord and if the injured person be satisfied with the simple restitution then this fruit of repentance is to be gathered for the poor 85. These are the fruits of repentance which grow in Paradise and will bring health to the Nations for these are a just 〈…〉 of sinne they oppose a good 〈…〉 every evil they make amend◠〈…〉 and to the Church competently and to God acceptably through his mercy in Jesus Christ These are all we can doe in relation to what is past some of them are parts of direct obedience and consequently of return to God and the others are parts and exercises and acts of turning from the sin Now although so we turn from sin it matters not by what instruments so excellent a conversion is effected yet there must care be taken that in our return there be 1 hatred of sin and 2 love of God and 3 love of our brother The first is served by all or any penal duty internal or external but sin must be confessed and it must be left The second is served by future obedience by prayer and by hope of pardon and the last by alms and forgiveness and we have no liberty or choyce but in the exercise of the penal or punitive part of repentance but in that every man is left to himself and hath no necessity upon him unless where he hath first submitted to a spiritual guide or is noted publickly by the Church But if our sorrow be so trifling or our sins so slightly hated or our flesh so tender or our sensuality so unmortified that we will endure nothing of exteriour severity to mortify our sin or to punish it to prevent Gods anger or to allay it we may chance to feel the load of our sins in temporal judgements and have cause to suspect the sincerity of our repentance and consequently to fear the eternal S. Cyptian epist 8. ep 26. We feel the bitter smart of this rod and scourge of God because there is in us neither care to please him with our good deeds nor to satisfy him or make amends for our evil that is we neither live innocently nor penitently Let the delicate and the effeminate doe their penances in scarlet and Tyrian purple and fine linen and faring deliciously every day but he that passionately desires pardon and with sad apprehensions fears the event of his sins and Gods displeasure will not refuse to suffer any thing that may procure a mercy and endear Gods favour to him no man is a true penitent but he that upon any terms is willing to accept his pardon I end this with the words of S. Homil. 50. c. 15. Austin It suffices not to change our life from worse to better unless we make amends and doe our satisfactions for what is past That is no man shall be pardon'd but he that turns from sin and mortifies it that confesses it humbly and forsakes it that accuses himself and justifies God that prays for pardon and pardons his offending brother that will rather punish his flesh then nurse his sin that judges himself that he may be acquitted by God so these things be done let every man choose his own instruments of mortification and the instances and indications of his penitential sorrow §. 7. The former doctrine reduc'd to practice HE that will judge of his repentance by his sorrow must not judge of his sorrow by his tears or by any one manner of expression For sorrow puts on divers shapes according to the temper of the body or the natural or accidental affections of the minde or to the present consideration of things Wise men and women doe not very
invited by arts and ministred to by external instruments and arguments of invitation and just so are the penances they are then to be chosen so as may make the person a sorrowful mourner to make him take no delight in sin but to conceive and to feel a just displeasure For if men feel no smart no real sorrow or pain for their sins they will be too much in love with it impunity is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the occasion and opportunity of sin as the Apostle intimates and they use to proceed in finishing the methods of sin and death who Non unquam reputant quantum sibi gandia constant reckon their pleasures but never put any smart or danger or fears or sorrows into the ballance But the injunction or susception of penances is a good instrument of repentance because a little evil takes off the pleasure of the biggest sin in many instances and we are too apprehensive of the present that this also becomes a great advantage to this ministery we refuse great and infinite pleasures hereafter so we may enjoy little and few and inconsiderable ones at present and we fear not the horrible pains of hell so we may avoid a little trouble in our persons or our interest Therefore it is to be supposed that this way of undertaking a present punishment and smart for our sins unless every thing when it becomes religious is despoyl'd of all its powers which it had in nature and what is reason here is not reason there will be of great effect and power against sin and be an excellent instrument of repentance But it must be so much and it must be no more for penances are like fire and water good so long as they are made to serve our needs but when they go beyond that they are not to be endured For since God in the severest of his anger does not punish one sin with another let not us do worse to our selves then the greatest wrath of God in this world will inflict upon us A sin cannot be a punishment from God For then it would be that God should be the Author of sin for he is of punishment If then any punishment be a sin that sin was unavoidable deriv'd from God and indeed it would be a contradiction to the nature of things to say that the same thing can in the same formality be a punishment and a sin that is an action and a passion voluntary as every sin is and involuntary as every punishment is that it should be done by us and yet against us by us and by another and by both intirely and since punishment is the compensation or the expiation of sin not the aggravation of the Divine anger it were very strange if God by punishing us should more provoke himself Vide Chapt. 6. ◠42 and in stead of satisfying his justice or curing the man make his own anger infinite and the patient much the worse Indeed it may happen that one sin may cause or procure another not by the efficiency of God or any direct action of his but 1. withdrawing those assistances which would have restrain'd a sinful progression 2. By suffering him to fall into evil temptation which is too hard for him consisting in his present voluntary indisposition 3. By the nature of sin it self which may either 1 effect a sin by accident as a great anger may by the withdrawing Gods restraining grace be permitted to pass to an act of murder or 2 it may dispose to others of like nature as one degree of lust brings in another or 3 it may minister matter of fuel to another sin as intemperance to uncleanness or 4 on sin may be the end of another as covetousness may be the servant of luxury In all these ways one sin may be effected by another but in all these God is onely conniving or at most takes off some of those helps which the man hath forfeited and God was not obliged to continue Thus God hardned Pharaohs heart even by way of object and occasion God hardned him by shewing him a mercy by taking off his fears when he remov'd the judgement and God ministred to him some hope that it be so still But God does not inflict the sin The mans own impious hands do that not because he cannot help it but because he chooses and delights in it * Now if God in justice to us will not punish one sin directly by another let not us in our penitential inflictions commit a sin in indignation against our sin for that is just as if a man out of impatience of pain in his side should dash his head against a wall 3. But if God pleases to inflict a punishment let us be careful to exchange it into a penance by kissing the rod and entertaining the issues of the Divine justice by approbation of Gods proceeding and confession of our demerit and justification of God It was a pretty accident and mixture of providence and penance that hapned to the three accusers of Narcissus Bishop of Jerusalem They accused him falsly of some horrid crimes but in verification of their indictment bound themselves by a curse The first that if his accusation were false he might be burn'd to death The second Euseb li. 6. c. 7. that he might die of the Kings evil The third that he might be blinde God in his anger found out the two first and their curse hapned to them that delighted in cursing and lies The first was burnt alive in his own house and the second perished by the loathsome disease Which when the third espied and found Gods anger so hasty and so heavy so pressing and so certain he ran out to meet the rod of God and repented of his sin so deeply and wept so bitterly so continually that he became blinde with weeping and the anger of God became an instance of repentance the judgement was sanctified and so passed into mercy and a pardon he did indeed meet with his curse but by the arts of repentance the curse became a blessing And so it may be to us Praeveniamus faciem ejus in confessione let us prevent his anger by sentencing our selves or if we do not let us follow the sad accents of the angry voice of God and imitate his justice by condemning that which God condemnes and suffering willingly what he imposes and turning his judgements into voluntary executions by applying the suffering to our sins and praying it may be sanctified For since God smites us that we may repent if we repent then we serve the end of the Divine judgement and when we perceive God smites our sin if we submit to it and are pleased that our sin is smitten we are enemies to it after the example of God and that is a good act of repentance 4. For the quality or kinde of penances this is the best measure Those are the best which serve most ends not those which most vex us but such which will