of the Knowledg of Good and Evil so doth Actual Sin from Original as the Source and Spring from whence it flows For Original Sin being a Want of Original Righteousness by reason of an Habitude or Proneness to the Love of the Creature in the Soul that Habitude or Proneness when the Intellect is once capable of actually apprehending an Object of sensual Delight will be apt to proceed to an actual Desire which is actual Sin unless some rational Motive be offered by the Understanding which shall prevail with the Will to prefer the Spiritual Joy of the Mind before the sensual Pleasure of the Body which for cause that shall be shewn Sect. 9. cannot generally if at all be but by virtue of supernatural Helps from God. 5. And not only Sin both Actual and Original but all sorts of Miseries likewise which befall Mankind proceed from eating of the forbidden Fruit. For as for Infirmities Diseases Sickness and Death they at first sight almost shew whose ugly Brats they be For what is Death but a separation of Soul and Body and whence comes this but from some either excess or defect of Humors in the Body and neither of these had been found in the World if the same Constitution of Body had still continued in all Mankind which was in our first Parents till they were induced to eat of the forbidden Fruit. For since in these words Dust thou art and to Dust shalt thou return Gen. 3. 19 is contained part of Adams Doom it appears that if he had not sinned he had not died that is if he had not eaten of the Tree of the Knowledg of Good and Evil he had not been deprived of that Constitution of Body which would always have preserved him alive And for Diseases and Sickness what else are they but Male-dispositions of the Body arising from an undue Mixture of Humors or from some Obstruction both which the State of Innocency was clear and free from tending to Death So that a Disease or Sickness as such may be rightly said to be Death or a Dissolution begun which verifies in a literal sense over and above the mystical the words spoken by God to Adam On the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die for the just Temper of his Body was then corrupted when the Temptation prevailed the first cause of all the succeeding Alterations which brought it by degrees to dissolution And as to Infirmities whereunto add corporal Exuberances and Defects do they not all come from an unequal Quantity and Disproportion of Seed or elementary Principles which befel Mans Body at first from eating of the Apple or Fruit Grief then together with Discord Damnation and Hell remain only to be spoken of which when I have first answered an Objection that here offers it self I shall make known whose foul and cursed Off-spring they likewise be Object 3. 'T was said Sect. 4. Par. 12. that Man was created to enjoy the Beatific Vision which how he could have done if so be our first Parents had continued innocent and never have died is not easie to conceive Solut. It is easier to conceive that then how if Mankind had been immortal the Earth should have born them for the Multitude of Men by a perpetual Generation would have exceeded the number of Atoms in the Universe But in case we reflect how that the State of Innocency was not a State of Perfection Sect. 4. Par. 15. and yet that Man was created to attain Perfection in the full Fruition of God by Intellectual Vision Sect. 4. Par. 12. 't is not difficult to gather that Adam and his Posterity if they had persevered in Innocency should have been exercised for a time in such Duties Ways and Means as would have only prepared them for the Everlasting Enjoyment of God which because it is placed in the perfect Love of God clearly seen Sect. 4. Par. 13. those Duties Ways and Means must have been such as would from time to time have excited and encreased their Affection to God as namely observing admiring and lauding his excellent and wonderful Power Wisdom and Godness manifested in the admirable Works of the Creation and the continual Preservation of them which when they had so long and effectually done that they could have been no longer satisfied with beholding the Creator in the Glass of the Creature their Desire of seeing him in Himself would have grown so vehement that they could have had no Rest without seeing him face to face and consequently since the Almighty had made them for that End and appointed those Means they had used to fit them for it 't would have been altogether becoming and consentaneous to his unchangeable Goodness to translate them from the Earthly to the Heavenly Paradise their Natural Bodies being changed into Spiritual Bodies and thereby made unmeet to live on the Terrestial Globe like as St. Paul says of those that shall be found alive at the day of Judgment Behold I shew you a Mystery we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed 1 Corinth 15. 51. And again Then we which are alive shall be caught up together with them i. e. the Dead in Christ Vers 16. in the Clouds to meet the Lord in the Air and so shall be ever with the Lord. 1 Thess 4. 17. Why all this should not be rationally enough offer'd in answer to the Objection I apprehend not But yet if we seriously reflect that God is Omniscient and knows at once and always every thing and by consequence had as primarily in his Knowledg the Fall of Adam as his Creation we must conclude that God from Eternity determined how Adam should be dealt with after his Fall rather than what his Progress to Bliss should be in case he fell not when as he inerrably knew he would certainly fall And therefore he had no earlier Thoughts of creating Man than he had of calling him to Repentance and of providing him a Saviour the Necessity whereof will be shown in the 9th Section there being no succession of Thoughts in God concerning those things whereof there is a Succession in themselves whence he at once eternally saw the Creation and End of it with all the Means whereby it was to be successively brought to pass of which we have some imperfect Resemblance in a skillful Architect who about to build a stately Palace has the whole Model of the Building together in his Mind although the Parts thereof be successively framed and the Materials fitted for the Work one after another For the Omniscient saw together in his Thoughts the noblest Universe of Creatures which all Created Beings could possibly constitute for producing the most Excellent End that could be Sect. 3. Pag. 8. Among those Creatures some were to operate necessarily some voluntarily towards procuring the general grand Effect to be produced of the latter sort of which Man was ordained to bear a considerable share who though by original Constitution he might have
troubled and what shall I say Father save me from this hour but for this cause came I unto this hour John 12. 27. And to what end came he unto it but to destroy Sin by the Sacrifice of himself upon the Altar of the Cross that Men might die unto Sin and live unto Righteousness whose Fruit is everlasting Life for so the two chief Apostles plainly tell us Now once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself Hebr. 9. 26. Who his own self bare our sins in his own Body on the Tree that we being dead to sin should live unto Righteousness by whose Stripes ye were healed 1 Pet. 2. 24. Knowing this that our Old Man is crucified with him that the Body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin Rom. 6. 6. That he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live to themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again 2 Cor. 5. 15. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity and purifie unto himself a People zealous of good Works Tit. 2. 14. For if the Blood of Bulls and of Goats and the Ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the Flesh how much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without Spot to God purge your Conscience from dead Works to serve the living God Heb. 9. 13 14. Which Scriptures since they evidently prove that Christ came into the World to undergo Death that by virtue thereof we might die unto Sin and live unto Righteousness or be converted from our wicked Courses to lead a godly Life what I have now only remaining to do is to prove Secondly That there is no Condemnation to those who forsaking their sins turn unto God or that are converted from the Love of the World and worldly Vanities to the Love of God for the certainty of the truth whereof we have the Testimony of Truth it self assuring us He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self to him John 14. 21. And a little after If a Man love me he will keep my Words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him Ver. 23. And St. Paul in express words saith There is therefore now no Condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8. 1. Nor is the truth of this Doctrine averred only by Scripture but it is also evident to Human Reason for since Sin is the privation of the due Love of God in the Soul through the inordinate Love of the World Sect. 8. Par. 2 3 4. and that everlasting Misery is the necessary effect of the perpetual continuance in sin after this Life Sect. 7. Par. 1 2 3 4 5. 't is as manifestly impossible that he who has forsaken the Love of the World for the Love of God should eternally perish unless he relapse and die in mortal sin by leaving again the Love of God for the Love of the World as it is impossible that the same Man should love the World above God and God above the World both together to eternity For what end Christ died for us suffered for us bare our sins in his own Body upon the Tree for us the Word of God it self having expresly shewn viz. That we being dead unto Sin should live unto Righteousness 1 Pet. 2. 24. there is no need for the explicating those Expressions that Christ either really transferred our sins from us to himself or took upon him the Punishment due to our sins being the perpetual Loss of Heaven and the everlasting Pains of Hell to assert any of which would be no less than Blasphemy 'T is abundantly enough that in regard Christ is ΘεάνθÏωπος God-man he underwent so much in behalf of Sinners that his unexpressible Sufferings are a truly meritorious i. e. an efficacious efficient cause of cleansing us from sin of justifying us and of bringing us to Glory which they effectually are to as many as through a vigorous Faith rightly weigh the Value of them whilst the due Consideration of the immense and unmerited Love of Christ to Man manifested chiefly in his bitter and ignominious Death constraineth Men to forsake all worldly Pleasures for the Blessed Enjoyment of so gracious and stupendiously loving a God and Saviour accordingly as St Paul averreth saying For the love of God constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. which words are thus cleared unto us by the learned Dr. Hammonds Paraphrase on the place For our Love to Christ founded on his to us hath us in its Power to make us do whatsoever it will have us making this Argument from this certain acknowledged truth of Christs having died for all Men that then certainly all Men are Sinners lapsed in a lost Estate and so hopeless unless they use some means to get out of that Estate which that he might help us to do was the Design of Christ's dying for all that we might having received by his Death Grace to lead a new Life live no longer after our own Lusts and Desires but in Obedience to his Commands that died and rose again to that end to bless us in turning every man from his Iniquities Acts 3. 26. 'T is clear then from what hath been said that our Conversion to God was the very Design of Christ's Crucifixion to the end we might be eternally saved and not that he might so suffer for us as to really transfer our Sins or the Punishment thereof from our Persons to his own which that the words he bare our sins in his own Body on the Tree so very much urged and insisted on by some do not necessarily import may be certainly gathered from another Text not unlike to this When the Even was come they brought unto him many that were possessed with Devils and he cast out the Spirits with his word and healed all that were sick that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the Prophet saying himself took our Infirmities and bare our Sicknesses Matth. 8. 16 17. for none questionless will affirm that Christ transferred the Infirmities and Sicknesses of those whom he cured to his own Body from theirs When it is therefore said that Christ bare our Sins and bare our Infirmities it is to be understood that he really cured both and as truly by virtue of his Death takes away sin and the eternal Punishment thereof from all that by Faith apply it to themselves as he took away diverse Infirmities by his Word from several who believed on him so that the Socinians injuriously and blasphemously deny the Divine Power and efficacy of the infinitely meritorious and satisfactory Sacrifice of our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ upon the Cross for the Redemption of Man who by the eternal Love of GOD the FATHER through the Merits of GOD the SON apprehended by Faith wrought in the Heart by GOD the HOLY GHOST is effectually delivered from the miserable Thraldom of Sin Sathan and Damnation for which ineffable undeserved Kindness is of Right therefore perpetually to be given to that ever adorable TRIN-VNI DEO GLORIA
amorous Gestures often overrule their kind Husbands of which sort Adam was undoubtedly one and induce them to do what otherwise they would abstain from And if Secondly we consider that the Fruit of the Tree of the Knowledg of Good and Evil being sweet and delicious and for that greedily fed upon by Eve would not only quicken and augment her animal Spirits but would also by its too much Nutriment enflame and overheat her Body of an equal Temper till she had listened to the Tempter and thence excite Venereal Desires which are apt to enliven the Luster of the Eyes the Briskness of the Countenance and the Amorousness of the Gesture in her and so render her more delicate and taking than she had formerly appear'd to be 't will be the less wonder that Adam should be surprised and hearken to the Voice of his Wife especially if withal it be minded that the State of Integrity consisted more in the even and unbyass'd Frame and Constitution of the Body and Soul of Man than in the strong Habit of Virtue which was by degrees through the frequent Exercise of pious Duties perform'd to grow to perfection in the Soul as is manifest by this that diverse both Men and Women under the Gospel Dispensation have through the Power of Christian Virtues encountred far sharper Tryals of their Obedience to Gods Commands and victoriously triumphed over them than those which our Prime Parents were at the first assault easily vanquished by as the Multitude of Holy Confessors and glorious Martyrs abundantly testifie 6. Thus our first Parents fell that is they eat of the forbidden Tree by which they were deprived of that Estate which if continued in would have made them at length for ever happy seeing that before their consenting to eat their Minds were placed chiefly on God and so only on other Things as subservient and tending to further the full Fruition of him by loving him with all the Heart with all the Soul with all the Strength and with all the Mind But as soon as their Desires were ardently set on the coveted Fruit their due Conformity of Mind to God was violated thereby in that their Affections were turned away from the due Love of God to the inordinate Love of the Apple by which they departed from their Original State in preferring the Vanity of a Sensual Pleasure before the Spiritual Delight of the Soul. 7. After the forbidden Fruit was eaten and digested our Prime Progenitors were yet more estranged from their Maker by strong Venereal Desires which it raised in them strong I say because if they had continued in their first Estate those Desires would have been wholly regulated by their Rational Faculties and not at all violent whereas after the Digestion of the Fruit they were inflamed with immoderate Lust to each other whence looking towards the satisfying of their Carnal Appetite their Spiritual Love to God as their Sovereign Delight stood at a still greater distance thereby For that the Fruit through its deliciousness and nutritive Nature excited them to Venery besides that Physitians inform us that Sweet being compounded of what is moderately hot and moist is very nutritive and generative Seed the Superfluity of Nutriment may be easily gathered from Gen. 3. 7. compared with Gen. 3. 11. whilst it is said in the seventh Verse And the Eyes of them both were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed Fig-leaves together and made themselves Aprons and in the eleventh Verse God replying to Adam who had rendred this Excuse for hiding himself that he was afraid because he was naked said Who told thee that thou wast naked hast thou eaten of the Tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat fairly intimating that the eating of the Tree was that which discovered to our first Parents their Nakedness not so much by putting them in mind of their Sin as by manifesting of their Shame the latter of which it was that troubled them not the former as seems evident by their covering of their Nakedness and excusing their eating of the Fruit. So that this which was their Fault gave them not their Disturbance but 't was the Effect thereof that caused their Trouble to wit their Nakedness or the swelling Motion of their Generative Parts not then under the absolute Power and Command of their Wills as they had formerly no less then the rest of the Members of the Body always been which thing being ashamed of they sought to cover those unruly Parts by sewing Fig-leaves together and making themselves Aprons to hide them with Nor is this a new Interpretation of the Passage as the great St. Austin will witness whose Words are these Posteaquam Praecepti facta est transgressio confestim gratià deserente Divinâ de corporum suorum nuditate confusi sunt unde etiam foliis ficulneis quae forte a perturbatis prima comperta sunt pudenda texerunt quae prius eadem Membra erant sed pudenda non erant senserunt ergo novum motum inobedientis Carnis sitae tanquam reciprocam poenam inobedientiae suae Aug. de Civitate Dei Lib. 13. Cap. 13. i. e. After a Transgression of the Precept was committed the Divine Grace straightway deserting them they were troubled for the Nakedness of their Bodies whereupon they covered with Fig-leaves which haply they first in their Perturbation met with their undecent Members which before were the same Members but were not undecent they felt therefore a new Motion of their disobedient Flesh as a reciprocal Punishment of their Disobedience SECT VI. Original Sin the natural Consequent of eating of the forbidden Fruit and how What Original Sin is God cleared from being the Author of it Actual Sin is excited by Original All Miseries incident to Man as well as Sin are the bitter Fruit of the Tree of the Knowledg of Good and Evil 1. AFter the Equability of Temper in the Bodies of our Common Parents was corrupted Sect. 5. Par. 4. the same Objects which had no power to move the sensible Appetite of themselves before more than was convenient would now raise a different Motion in it by reason the same Causes in a Subject diversly disposed will have different Effects Wherefore since there would be a perpetual Commerce between the Senses of our first Parents and corporal Agents from every hand incessantly almost beating on them with Objects grateful to the now corrupted sensitive Appetite the Inequality of their Bodies Temper once begun could not chuse but still continue And in regard the Seed of Generation is an Extract from the Body participating of the Nature and Qualities of it the male Disposition of our Prime Progenitors Bodies never to be restored to their primitive Constitution would be transmitted by propagation to their Children and from them to their Off-spring and so successively downward to the Worlds end 2. Wherefore since we are convinced by constant Experience that Mans Body by reason of its close
Conjunction and Union with the Soul has such an Influence on it that it certainly inclines it to all manner of Affections which the animal Parts excites it to except when Reason prevails with the Will to resist the Motions of the sensitive Appetite which cannot be while the Intellect is uncapable of the Exercise of Reason 't is manifest that seeing Children in the Mothers Womb have not at all the use of Reason there will be in their Souls an Inclination or Habitude agreeable and correspondent to the Disposition of their corporeal Part which in that it is begot and conceived of Seed issuing from disordered Bodies will it self be in disorder and thereby cause an unanswerable disorderly Disposition in the sensitive Faculty inclining it to Objects of sense and that again work a proportionable inordinate Habitude in the Will which bereaving it of the due Inclination it ought to have towards the true Object of Felicity causes a Want of that Original Disposition of Soul which should and would have been in Children if so be Man had continued in the State of Integrity which Want is that Malady of the Soul Men call Original Sin or Privation of Original Righteousness and is the Consequent in the manner above explain'd of eating the forbidden Fruit. 3. By this Explication of Original Sin God is justified and cleared from all Suspicion of being cause thereof whereas if the Sin of Adam was transferred to his Posterity because their Wills are included as some say in his I see not how the Almighty could be cleared from being the Author of it For since the Wills of Children are not really and truly by Nature in the Wills of their Parents for otherwise all Children should of Right be guilty of all the Sins of their Parents the Wills of Adams Progeny could not be included in the Will of Adam unless God in whose Power the Wills of all Men are would for his Preasures sake have it so If therefore by Gods meer voluntary Constitution the Wills of Adams Posterity be included in Adams Will it follows that by the same Constitution the Sin of Adam is his Posterities Sin also in that the very Reason why the Sin of Adam becomes the Sin of his Posterity is because their Wills are voluntarily constituted by God in his Will which if it were true would make God the Author of Original Sin. Object 1. If Original Sin be derived from Adam by Propagation it cannot be a Privation of Original Righteousness because Privation is the meer want of a thing and not a Positive thing which may be propagated Solut. There are two things to be considered in Original Sin an Habitude or Proneness in the Will towards the Enjoyment of the Creature and a Want of Original Righteousness or Disposition of the Soul towards God which it had by Creation Now although the Want of Original Righteousness be truly and properly Original Sin because if there were no want of that there would be no Original Unrighteousness yet in that the native Habitude or Proneness of the Will towards the Creature Par. 2. instead of God is the reason why the Soul becomes deprived of Original Righteousness that Habitude or Proneness of the Will is also called Original Sin which that and how it proceeds by means of natural Generation was shown in Par. 1. 2. And it is so in all manner of Vice that the irregular Act or Habit is not Vice formally taken but the Privation of the opposite Virtue which ensues upon that irregular Act or Habit and yet nevertheless the irregular Act and Habit are both called Vice Metonimically because it is a necessary Result of each For instance an intemperate Act or Habit is said to be a Vice and yet the formal Reason of their Vitiousness confists in this that the one at least weakens the other destroys the Virtue of Temperance or in case a Man be intemperate before they render it more difficult for him to become Temperate by strengthening or encreasing his Intemperance for it is impossible that any thing should be morally evil but as it deprives of some moral Good or weakens it or puts a Man farther from it for if by Intemperance a Man were not a whit the less Virtuous he would not be one jot the more Vitious than if he were not Intemperate at all And the like may be as truly said of any other irregular Act or Habit of the Will. If it be urged that in case Original Sin descend in the manner before described by propagation it would rather be derived to us from our immediate Parents than from our First since another Temper of Body is communicated by them to us then what was derived from Adam to his own Children as is evident from the manifold different natural Dispositions we meet with in young Children and yet Original Sin is solely fixed to the eating of the forbidden Fruit my Answer is that though it be very true that Infants receive another Disposition from their more immediate Progenitor than what has been perpetually derived from Adam and consequently that some of them also have a greater propensity to Vice through the personal Faults of their nearer Ancestors and Parents yet in that the whole Stock of Mankind ever since Adam has had a proneness from their Conception to the Creature in room of the Creator by reason of the first Transgression Original Sin is rightly imputed to the eating of the forbidden Fruit it being certain that from that Fault alone though there had never been any other therewould have ensued a Want of Original Righteousness in all Mankind Object 2. If Original Sin proceed from a Proneness in the sensitive Appetite towards the Creature and that from the unequal Temper or male Disposition of the body unless the Body be restored to its primitive Constitution which is not to be expected no Man shall ever be quit or clear from Original Sin in this Life Solut. Although Concupiscence be never totally rooted out of the sensitive Faculty in this Life yet it doth not always as it does Infants who have not the use of Reason necessarily so influence the Will as it does the sensitive Appetites and the Will is the only proper Seat of Sin but may through a virtuous Course of Life be so far mastered and subjugated to the Power and Command of the Will that it shall be able to give but small and ineffectual disturbance to the Rational Faculties which actually falls out so often as the Soul acquires the Habit of Virtue whereby it obtains a sincere Affection to God as its Sovereign Good for such Affection or Charity as shall be shown afterward Sect. 11. not only frees the Soul from Original but all other mortal Sin likewise whilst it is thereby formally justified and put into a State of Grace and Salvation 4. The mentioned Difficulties about Original Sin removed I go forward to shew that as Original Sin proceeds from our first Parents eating of the Tree
Vice the Path of Hell is the preferring the Love of the World before the Love of God. And as the Beatified Souls according to the higher degree of Love wherewith they are affected to God are more happy because fuller of delight so the damned Spirits the stronger affection they have to the things they lust after are more grievously tormented the disappointment of a stronger affection being more afflictive than of a weaker Object 3. According to this Doctrin neither the Bodies of the glorified Saints would participate of Bliss nor the Bodies of the damned have any portion of Pain Solut. Not so for if when the Soul abounds with Joy and Delight it be able to quicken chear and make brisk this dull and heavy Lump of Clay as we see it doth how much more will it through the immense Joys of Heaven have a powerful influence on a spiritual Body And if Grief for the disappointment of mens wished desires here can cast them into violently scorching Fevers how should the excessive Pain of the perpetual Frustration of the damneds hot Lusts but put their Bodies into an everlasting state of Burning Besides since all Bodies must be contain'd in Place as the Bodies of the Saints shall possess the most glorious which are suitable for them so the Bodies of the damned shall in habit the most dismal that are proper for them and therefore what difference of Place can contribute to Bliss and Misery they 'l differently share therein in respect of that also Object 4. Murther is a Sin that cries for Vengeance and yet if the Torments of Hell consist in the Disappointment of mens Desires there would be no Punishment but only the loss of Heaven allotted to that most horrid Crime Solut. Murther is a crying Sin indeed for it stays not for the Judgment of the World to come but it self begins its own Punishment here the Mutherer being tortured and distracted almost with the representation of the Act alone whilst it is a thing so detestable and repugnant to the very Being of human Nature that in despight of all his endeavours to the contrary he starts and is agast at the horror of it as often as it occurs to his mind though but in sleep when he neither dreads the Sentence of a terrestrial nor celestial Judg. So that when after this Life he shall have no intervention of necessary business to divert his Thoughts from it 't will be terrible and tormentive to him beyond expression since his very Essence will have a perpetual perfect antipathy to it and yet he shall ever be haunted and infested with its ghastly and dreadful visage But besides murtherers are tormented as well as other Sinners by their frustrated desires for Good being the Object of the Will every Creature which is endued therewith has an affection for some or other either real or apparent Good and 't is this latter that the wicked of all sorts ardently affect though they judg in general the state of the glorified Saints to be true felicity and their own condition a state of misery notwithstanding that they can by no means relish the manner of delight which the Blessed have for otherwise there could be no such Pain as Poena Damni the loss of Heaven since none are troubled for the want of that which they have not any respect or esteem at all for whence the very Inconsistency of the Thoughts of the damned concerning true and false Bliss set their minds upon the Rack To which is to be added yet another Torment which afflicts likewise without exception the whole Crew of reprobate Souls to wit the gnawing Viper of Envy and Malice towards the Saints in Bliss in that they obtain their full desires when they themselves are totally deprived of their own SECT VIII The only Evil which is prejudicial to Man in respect of the End for which he was created is Malum Culpae the Evil of Fault and it is either Privative or Positive The former consists in an Aversion from God the latter in a Conversion to the Creature Each of them is called Sin the one Formal the other Material The greatest Alienation of the Heart from God makes the greatest Sinner 1. SEeing it was proved sect 4. that God created Man not for any Good whatsoever to accrue thereby to himself but solely and wholly to communicate Good to his Creature 't is manifest that nothing can harm or prejudice Man in respect of the End for which he was created but that alone which is prejudicial to him in respect of his own final Good which since it has been shewn sect 4. par 13 14. to consist in the perfect Love of God 't is clear that nothing is evil to man as man or created to inherit Bliss but either the very Alienation it self of the Hearts Affection from God or something which causes the same or is an inducement thereunto 2. And since the alienation of the Hearts affection from God is in respect of God an aversion from him and that it is evident there can be no aversion from God in whom there is not any the least appearance of evil but through the inordinate desire of some temporal Benefit or Pleasure which is preferred before him 't is manifest that in these two Aversio à Deo Conversio ad Creaturam an aversion from God and a conversion to the Creature is contained the whole Evil that befall man as man or a rational Creature made to enjoy everlasting Bliss since nothing else can make him fail of being eternally happy 3. And forasmuch as the Evil which is an Aversion from God is a meer Privation of that Love of God which the Soul ought to have towards him 't is plain that actual Evil called by Divines Malum Culpae actualis or Peccatum actuale cannot be placed in an Aversion from God but in a Conversion to the Creature 4. Yet in regard it would be no hindrance to man's Felicity however strongly his Soul were addicted to any temporal Good provided the Soul's Affection to God were not any thing abated thereby 't is clear that Sin formally taken is that Evil which is an Aversion from God and that the Conversion of the Heart to the Creature or the inordinate Love of the World and worldly Vanities is Sin materially only and not formally considered 5. But this notwithstanding since it is not possible but that the Soul which immoderately affects the Creature or the satisfying an inordinate Desire must of necessity have its due Affection to God hindred or abated thereby 't is evident that in every inordinate immoderate Conversion to the Creature there is always necessarily implied and involved an aversion from God because to love two Things God and the World chiefly that is God above the World and the World above God both at the same time is plainly repugnant and impossible in regard of which it is properly sinful or formally a Transgression of the Law of God. 6. Hence
beneficial if sincerely obeyed to every one for promoving his everlasting Welfare and not meerly because it is according to the eternal Rectitude of the Divine Mind for so is also every positive Command of God for whatever God once approves of he eternally approves of as good for what and so long as he intended it for the longer or shorter Continuance of any of Gods Ordinances or Institutions or the more or less usefulness they are of towards the End to be obtained by them makes them neither more nor less agreeable to the eternal Rectitude of the Divine Wisdom which exactly fits every thing the Almighty institutes for the Occasion he intends it with irreversible Council the whole Change which ever happens in Divine Commands being wholly for the Creatures Sake to whose variable Condition in several Ages of the World several different Institutions and Dispensations have been suited by the eternal immutable Wisdom and good Will of God Opera mutat Deus sed non consilia St. August SECT IX Mans Recovery from his laps'd and lost Condition wherein it consists and how wrought Natural ways and means unable of themselves to procure it Supernatural Causes chiefly prevalent to that End. Of these the Free Love of God to Man and the Incarnation of his eternal only begotten Son with the Consequents of it are the chief 1. SInce it has been made apparent First that the Honour wherewith God requires to be eternally glorified is the loving him with all the Heart and with all the Soul and with all the Mind and that so to love him is Mans ultimate End and everlasting Bliss Sect. 4. Secondly That Man by Creation was placed in a Condition through the Rectitude of his Intellect and Integrity of his Will and the due subordination of the inferiour Faculties together with a good Constitution of Body which put him in the direct Way towards the obtaining of that his Ultimate End and chiefest Good. Sect. 4. Thirdly That by eating of the forbidden Fruit Man fell from that Condition wherein he was created into a State of Sin and Misery the latter of which is the necessary conseqent of the former Sect. 5 6. and 7. and Fourthly That Sin is an Aversion from the Creator and a Conversion to the Creature or the deserting the Love of God for the Love of the World Sect. 8. 't is plain that to cause Man to withdraw and take off his Affections from the World and so to place and fix them again on God that he shall at length attain to the full Enjoyment of him in loving him with all his Heart and with all his Soul and with all his Mind is to restore him or to put him again into the Way which shall bring him to the End for which he was created 2. That this could never have been effected by any Natural Means is plain from hence that ever since the native Temper of our first Parents Bodies was corrupted the Objects of sense which before contributed Help and Assistance in their Kind towards the Souls Progress in the Love of God wrought a contrary Effect by alluring the Sensitive Appetite to the immoderate Love of themselves not through any newly acquired Malignity in them but because the Subject receiving them was changed from its first Constitution which being once corrupted the Distemper consequent upon it if not by some means corrected would grow worse For Children by the frequent beating of corporeal Objects on their Senses would be much addicted to those which were grateful to the Carnal Appetite before they grew up to the use of Reason And when they had attained to riper years their Bodies would be grown so hot and their Passions thereby especially being often fomented so strong and violent that they would commonly overbear and sway their Rational Faculties Add to this that Men being prone to be led by the Example of those they converse with the Vices of one another would mutually debauch and confirm them in their inordinate Lusts from all which a general Neglect of God and consequently a gross Ignorance of him would at length ensue The truth of this was so evidently seen among the Gentiles that the Knowledge of the one true God was mostly lost Yea and even those of them who had some right Notions of him did not very well consider the Enjoyment of him by Love to be the sole Sovereign Good of the Soul. Nor were Mens Understandings only exceedingly darkened but their Wills likewise very much vitiated whilst every one through a natural inbred desire to be happy frequently persuing some particular fancied good or other as Wealth Honour Sensual Delights c. which the Constitution of their Bodies their Education Conversation with others or some Occasion or Temptation they met with in the World inclined them to more than to any other Object because so eagerly bent upon their miserable mistaken Felicity that tho the truly chief Good had been demonstrated to their Understandings yet would they not have been induced thereby to endeavour after the Fruition of it as their only Bliss Motives being as necessary for a thorow Amendment to incline the Will as Arguments are to convince the Understanding For as a setled Judgment concerning any supposed Truth cannot be reversed without stronger Reason at least in appearance given than that whereby it is established in the Mind so neither can an Affection rooted in the Will be eradicated but by more powerful Motives than those by which it is fixed there 3. Wherefore seeing then that the Objects of Sense and almost every thing Man is concerned with since the Fall are apt by reason of his corrupted State to alienate his Affections from God 't is clear that Causes not within the Limits of Nature would be necessary to withdraw his Heart from the Love of the World and the false Delights thereof to the Love of God if ever he should arrive at Bliss and such Causes as are not within the Bounds of Nature are supernatural Supernatural Causes therefore are necessary to reduce Man to the Way which leads to the End for which he was created 4. And forasmuch as Man is a Rational Creature and cannot be moved but in a Way agreeable to his Nature without violence offered to the same those supernatural Causes must not force him but connaturally draw and win him by convincing his Understanding of the Truth and by inclining his Will to the Love thereof which are not to be effected but by Arguments and Motives For as the impression of Force is a proper Means whereby to move a Corporeal Substance from one place to another so are Arguments and Motives proper means whereby to draw the Mind off from one Object to another For to say that a Man either assents to or chuses with Reason that for which he sees no Reason general or special so to do appears to be a Contradiction and either to assent unto or to make choice of any thing without Reason is repugnant
and Motives for inducing men to despise the Vanities of the World and to fix their Affections on God and to pursue with diligence the Means available to the full enjoyment of him Lastly It affords far more endearing Considerations of Encouragement to bear with patience Reproches Injuries and all manner of Afflictions which befalmen in the whole course of this miserable Life Object 2. If the Design of Religion be to cause men to forsake the Love of the World and the vain and false Allurements of it what Rational Account can be given of the Temporal Ordinances Rites and Cercmonies of the Jewish Law which in appearance have small or no Tendency thereto Solut. That the Moral Law which directly requires the Love of God and of a man's Neighbour was the principal part of the Mosaical Dispensation is clear by our Saviour's Answer to the Scribe who said that to love God with all the Heart and with all the Vnderstanding and with all the Soul and with all the Strength and to love a man's Neighbour as himself was more than all whole burnt Offerings and Sacrifices which is this Thou art not far from the Kingdom of Heaven Mark 12. 33 34. And therefore although there be peradventure some Precepts in Mose's Law which are so purely arbitrary as to be fulfilled in the meer willing observance of them yet God's Design in inuring the Jews to Acts of simple Obedience was questionless this that they might be the more willing and ready to obey him in those things which directly made for their eternal Good. For to give a Command without an intention of Good in some respect or other to man by the performance of it is repugnant to Reason and contradictory to the wisdom and goodness of God Sect. 8. Sol. of Object 1 2 3. But besides it is not a thing easily to be granted that the Temporal Ordinances Rites and Ceremonies of the Judaical Law were so purely arbitrary as they seem upon a slight view to be For since all good Laws respect man's Good that his chief Good is the perfect Love of God and that every thing besides is only for good to him as it contributes in some respect or other thereunto Sect. 5. Par. 1. it necessarily follows that all Laws given by God to Man were intended to be a means of bringing him by the observance of them to the love of himself as his sole sovereign good and by consequence that the Mosaical Law was given to the Jews to win that People by ways convenient and agreeable to their Tempers to set their Affections on God. For though the Motives which it proposed were Promises and Threats of temporal Rewards and Punishments and the Ordinances of it mostly certain Rites and Ceremonies yet were they truly suitable to that Nation whose Hearts were generally gross and childish as the Apostle Paul not obscurely hints saying Till the fulness of time was come the Jews were as Children in Bondage under the Rudiments of the World Gal. 4. 3. that is I conceive as Children are first taught their Rudiments because not capable of better Learning till of riper years so were the Jews instructed by weak and poor means till the World was grown to an Age fit for higher Documents And why mens minds were more gross and terrene towards the Infancy of the World Thomas Albius in his Appendix to Institut Peripâ—tet gives a very probable account However that de facto it was so at least as to the Jews doth appear by their frequent murmuring and revolting even after they had often tasted of the extraordinary goodness of God whenever they disgusted their present Temporal State and Condition For we may infer from thence that if God had told them by his Servant Moses of Spiritual Joys they should have after this life instead of the good Land of Canaan flowing with Milk and Honey if they would obey and keep his Commandments and Statutes such Doctrin would have found small Acceptance the Truth of which if perchance questioned because of the Constancy of the Babylonish Captives in their Religion this I think may well suffice for Answer that part of the Prophecy which told of their carrying to Babylon being fulfilled gave them assurance that as the violation of the Law had occasioned their bringing into Captivity so their close adherence to it for the future would procure their own or their Posterities Restorement to their Native Countrey and Freedom Seeing then the Hearts of the Jewish People were such as that the most connatural way to bring them to love God was by delivering them from Servitude and bodily Dangers and by Promises of temporal Good and Threats of temporal Evil 't is plain the love of worldly good things was so setled in their Minds that the Almighty sought not to be beloved by excluding the love of them out of their Hearts but by gaining their Affections through them whilst he endeavoured to manifest that the whole Earth was his and the fulness thereof to the end they might depend on his Bounty and love him for the same which whosoever of them really did God acquired thereby a Pre-eminence in their Affections forasmuch as the due Consideration thereof would beget a greater love of the Giver than of the Gift For whose seriously reflects that all Good comes from God and that the possession and enjoyment of it proceeds from his bountiful Kindness without any precedent Merit on man's part must needs acknowledg his Gracious Goodness to be such as that he ought to relie thereon as the Sovereign Good and Fountain from which whatsoever he enjoys flows and in so doing his Affections will be carried thereto accordingly that is chiefly and above all Earthly things Thus we see the Reason of the Motives to the Love of God peculiar to the Jews The Temporal Ordinances Rites and Ceremonies of whose Law also however they may seem at first sight to have been Commands relating only to a bare Obedience required in the performance of them were in very deed proper and fit Means to keep the Jewish Nation from Idolatry and to make them observe the substantial part of the Law which was to love God above all things and their Neighbour as themselves Hence the Ordinances of the Paschal Lamb and of unleavened Bread were instituted for Helps to keep God's wonderful Mercy and Kindness to them in freeing them from the Egyptian Bondage in perpetual remembrance that they might ever be reminded to praise laud and magnifie him and consequently to love him for the same Hence their Purifications and Oblations for Sin were ordained to bring their Transgressions to mind that they should acknowledg them and turn from them by Repentance to God. Yea and the seemingly insignificant Ceremonious rites were appointed as things useful for walls of separation between the Jews and Gentiles round about them to withold them from their Idolatries wicked practices of Magical Superstitions and Whoredoms frequent among them for they stood in
no influence at all from them but is wholly miraculous as every Effect immediately produced by God is To me it seems more rational to say that as those Children who live till they be of years capable of understanding the Reason and Use of Baptism are appointed by the Church to be informed thereof that they may make good the Engagement of their Sureties without doing of which their Baptism will not avail them to Salvation so Infant-Children upon the separation of Soul and Body are illuminated by their Angels for are they not ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be Heirs of Salvation Heb. 1. 14. And that Baptized Children are such we be taught by the Answer to the second Question in our Catechism where the Word Inheritor is rendred in the Latin Haeres and in the Greek κληÏονόμος with the Knowledg of their Baptism for then they are capable of apprehending any thing offered to the intellect it proceeding from the disposition of their Bodies and not from the nature of their Souls that they are ever uncapable of actually understanding And seeing the inclination to the Creature through Original Sin is not by far so strong as that which is contracted by frequent Acts of sinning their affections will be instantly turned to God by virtue of their Baptism signified unto them But however the Truth in this obscure Point stand this is certain that in regard Felicity consists in the Love of God sect 4. par 13. baptized Infants must some way or other obtain Charity before they arrive at Bliss or at least upon the very instant of being possessed thereof And how their Baptism should be useful to them for the obtaining of Charity except they have Knowledg of it and by whom it should be made known unto them but by their Angels unless miraculously and Miracles are not wrought where there 's no necessity of them I do not understand Yet since I know of no Divine Revelation nor of any clear demonstration after what manner their Love of God depends upon their being baptized I do not presume to affirm that my delivered Thoughts are positively true SECT XVIII In the exercise of the hearty Love of God or Charity consists the sincere observance of every Precept of the Decalogue But the absolute entire fulfilling of the Moral Law is not accomplished till Charity have attained its ultimate Perfection in Heaven 1. WHen treating of the Moral Virtues I shewed the Assistance which Prudence Temperance and Fortitude exhibit to Charity sect 14. par 2 4 5. I said I would defer my intended Discourse on Justice till I came to the Explication of the Ten Commandments whither being now come I shall endeavour to make it appear that every Precept of the Decalogue tends to the causing a firm establishment of Charity in the Soul of Man and that in the exercise thereof when it is acquired the sincere observance of the whole Law is practised albeit the absolute exact fulfilling of it be not accomplished till Charity have obtained its utmost Perfection which human Frailty will not permit the attainment of while Men carry about them a Body of Flesh 2. For since to love God with all the Heart with all the Soul with all the Mind and with all the strength Mark 12. 30. is required to the compleat exact fulfilling of the Law and that such Love would perpetually take up all the Powers of the Soul it is plain that in regard while we live in this world our Thoughts must be often employed in taking care for the necessary accommodations of Life and in using Means to further our own and others Welfare here and hereafter we cannot in this mortal state so fully fix our Affections on God as to have our Souls fully possessed of him 3. And yet forasmuch as to give God the pre-eminence in our Affections and to despise all other things in comparison of the fruition of him to eternity so as that when we are tempted to violate any of his holy Commandments the ardent desire we have for the enjoyment of him enables us to resist and overcome the Temptation forasmuch I say as thus to love God permits us not wilfully and advisedly to break any of his Precepts but engages and puts us upon the keeping them all in sincerity of Affection and unfeignedness of heart it is apparent that in the exercise of Charity is virtually contained the sincere unfeigned Observance of the whole Moral Law. 4. Which Law consists of Ten Commandments the four first whereof totally respecting Man's Behaviour towards the supream Being the only Object of these is God whom therefore they command us to look up to as he is the Author and Finisher of Eternal Salvation in which respect we are to esteem him as he truly is the prime Verity whom we are to believe the sovereign Power in whom we are to trust and the chiefest Good whom we ought to love above all things or the Object of Faith Hope and Charity 5. And seeing neither Faith nor Hope are available to Salvation save only as they contribute to Charity either in helping to produce the Habit thereof or being obtained to confirm and strengthen it sect 13. 't is clear that the Precepts of the Former Table are not observed till we love God as our Sovereign Good or be endued with Charity 6. Whosoever therefore exerciseth the Grace of Charity he is all the while employ'd in the sincere keeping of the Four first Commandments the whole design of God's forbidding us to have any other Gods besides himself to make any graven Image to fall down before it and worship it to take his holy Name in vain and to do any unnecessary worldly Business at Times appointed for Divine Offices being totally accomplished in this to cause us to fix our Souls Affections on God and to pursue with earnestness the eternal Fruition of him as our sole Sovereign Good. Object 1. If Faith and Hope be not absolutely necessary to Salvation in themselves abstracting from this that they are Ministerially beneficial to Charity then are the opposite Vices to them Infidelity and Apostacy Presumption and Despair not Sins damnable in themselves or as destructive of the contrary Virtues but only as they cannot consist together with the Grace of Charity But Infidelity and Apostasie Presumption and Despair are Sins damnable in themselves or as they are destructive of the contrary Virtues Faith and Hope abstracting from this that these are Ministerially beneficial unto Charity Ergo Solut. The Minor Proposition must be denied and justly I conceive may for although it be most certainly true that Infidelity and Apostasie Presumption and Despair debar Men of Felicity yet the Reason thereof is not because of their immediate opposition to Faith and Hope but for that they are totally inconsistent with Charity For since that no Habit is truly virtuous but in virtue of the End whereto it serves and that the End of all Virtues is Charity
designs it to be a Warning to others not to imitate them in their gross Impiety and at that time when he knows the Offenders will rather grow worse than ever after come to amendment And as Man's Condition here for any Decree of Gods to the contrary is as good as can be considering the Causes Natural and Moral which render his Condition what it is so will his State hereafter likewise be the necessary and voluntary Causes considered which bring him to it of which Causes the Variety in respect of all Mankind is so great at all times and so differently circumstantiated in their Influence and Application and the Subjects to be wrought on so contrarily often disposed one to another that it is easie to conceive that they may very well become effectual Means of Conversion to some great Sinners while other less Offenders are not moved to a thorow Amendment by them so that the dying of men in their Sins cannot justly be so attributed to the Divine Will and Pleasure as if the Almighty suffered them to perish out of pure design for the manifestation of his Glory the infallible Word expresly declaring to us the contrary God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance 2 Pet. 3. 9. And again who will have all Men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the Truth 1 Tim. 2. 4. To which knowledge though they do not all attain yet is the Word of God no less firm and sure Why all Men in the World have not heard of God's infinite Love manifested in the Death of Christ many Causes may be assigned all grounded on Gods infinite Justice and Mercy Of Christ's Death many which heard not might have heard many which are not might have been Partakers save only for their free and voluntary Progress from evil to worse or wilful refusal of Gods loving Kindness daily proffered to them in such Pledges as they were well content to swallow foolishly esteeming these good in themselves being good only as they plight the truth of God's Love unto them which he manifested in the Death of his Son. With this manifestation of his Love many again out of meer Mercy have not been acquainted lest the sight of the Medicine might have caused their Disease to rage and made their Case more lamentably desperate Dr. Jackson in his Treatise of the Divine Essence and Attributes Cap. 17. Paragr 3. All which I mean that hath been said in the whole Answer to the Objection considered together with this that it was not only better to create than not to create but also that no other World could be created save only that which doth exist Sect. 3. Par. 8. 't is clear that the Almighties Wisdom and Goodness are justified even to the Eye of Human Reason notwithstanding the different times and ways of men departing Life either in respect of Age or of dying more or less in Sin. Objection 14. From the Instances given in the explanation of the Seventh Commandment sect 19. you seem to hold that there can be no external Sin in the Body of any one denomination where there is not an internal Sin in the Soul of the same kind from which alone the exterior Act as being produced by it can be called sinful Against this Opinion I offer it to your Consideration whether there may not be external Idolatry where there is no internal as suppose an Idol be commanded by the Magistrate under pain of Death to be worshipped by bowing down before it and a Christian to save his Life bows his Body towards it but at the same time abominates the Idol in his heart so as that he is far from giving any internal Honour to it and yet surely you will not say but that he commits the Sin of Idolatry and may be justly censured by the Church as an Idolater Answer Since the Christian instanced in does what is commanded so far forth as that the Lookers on have sufficient cause to believe he has committed Idolatry the Church ought to esteem and censure him as an Idolater for what he has done by reason it cannot judg of the Heart but by outward Signs and inappearance he has committed Idolatry But yet if you 'l go to the exact definition of Idolatry you 'l find the Fact comes not within the compass of it and that Sin which will not come under the definition of Idolatry you must needs grant cannot be truly speaking the Sin of Idolatry for Idolatry is a Crime which exhibits the honour due to God alone to another Object and therefore since the bowing down of the Body is not an Act appropriated to the Divine Majesty for we lawfully and laudably bow unto our Prince Parents and others in Authority over us of which there are several Examples in Holy Writ it is evident that the mentioned act of bowing towards the Idol is not Idolatrous according to the definition of Idolatry To make this more plain by an Instance let 's suppose another Christian to be brought before the Idol and commanded to bow unto it as the other did which he likewise in appearance does by stooping down that he may catch it by the feet to overthrow it and according to his intent casts it with scornful indignation to the ground in doing of which he gives full satisfaction to the Beholders of his abhorrence of performing any manner of Worship to it notwithstanding that they all see him bow towards it as low as the other did judg him an Idolater till the Reason of his incurvation becomes apparent to them by seeing the Idol so contemptuously used at the length Is then you 'l say the formerly spoken of Christian who is granted to deserve the Churches Censure as an Idolater no more guilty of Idolatrous Worship according to the strictest Notion of Idolatry than the latter I refer you to the definition of Idolatry which cannot delude you for answer Is he therefore you 'l peradventure reply only sinful in the sight of Men and not also in the sight of God Yes undoubtedly he is a very grievous Offender even before God as well as men for he not only scandalizes Christianity in giving the Enemies of it an occasion to triumph in hardening them in their idolatrous Worship and in encouraging them to proceed to persecute Christians with hope of desired success but also in disheartning of the weaker Brethren in making them to stagger in the Faith and in grieving all the Members of Christ in general to do any one of which is a great Sin but to do all of them together is a Crime of complicated Scandal to the Gospel of Christ which at once instructeth and exhorteth saying Be not afraid of them that kill the Body and after that have no more that they can do But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into Hell yea I say unto you fear him