shall be sufficient for thee my strength shall be seene in thy weaknesse 2 Cor. 12.7.8 9 But the way to come by this ability is not in your method to set up nature but to die to a mans self and to be emptied of all natural abilities Most gladly therefore will I glory in mine infirmities that the power of Christ might rest upon me 2 Cor. 12.9 The Authors of the Confession do seeme to speak more fairly for the grace of God then you do They do not shun to affirme that we have all from Christ and that of our selves we have not ability to think a good thought and much to the same purpose But by this affirmation of theirs how can they possibly agree with their own principles of the purity of nature For where there is no depravation of the natural birth what need or what use is there of the grace of regeneration They conceale themselves and you openly professe your judgment they seeme to speak more fairly but you are more true to the principles and positions of the Separate Churches CHAP. III. Whether righteousnesse and holinesse be Gods Image HEre you endeavour to prove the Negative to wit that righteousnesse and holinesse in man was not the image of God in the first creation Because this is not your own single opinion but also the doctrine of the thirty Congregations who place the image of God onely in dominion over the creature we will debate the point more fully And so much the rather because you did urge me at Earle-Shilton in Leicestershire Anno 1650. Decem. 26. before a multitude of people to answer this question what place of Scripture have you to prove that Adam had the Spirit of God or that he was a spiritual man before his fall I did then cite three several texts the natural sence and import of all which is to shew that God made man after his own Image and that this Image did principally consist in spiritual and inward holinesse For that place Gen. 1.26 Come let us make man after our Image in our own likenesse There is none doth doubt but this is the speech of the three persons in Trinity Onely the question is wherein did this Image principally consist The separate congregations and you also affirme that it did appear onely in Dominion and Lordship over the creature these words do immediately follow in the text let them have dominion over the fish of the sea over the fowle of the aire and over the cattel and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth But herein both they and you are deceived for primarily and properly the Image of God was resplendent in the conformity of the soule to the spiritual Law of God Secondarily the Image of God was resplendent in that external priviledge of rule and dominion over the creature Now that it may appear that the principal part of the Image of God is in inward holinesse and that the soule so inwardly and spiritually endowed doth more lively expresse his similitude for this reade that Scripture Put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the Image of him that created him Col. 3.10 Here note what it is that the Apostle would have the Colossians to put on Put on the new man By this he doth mean the Christ-like and spiritual disposition set in immediate opposition to the old carnal disposition of the flesh which they had already in good measure begun to put off Secondly the word renewed doth note a repaire or renovation of that which formerly was decayed So the Psalmist prayeth Create in me a clean heart and renew within me a right spirit Psal 51.10 He doth pray for the returne of the same spirit which formerly he had but now seemingly had lost So thy youth is renewed like the Eagles Psal 103.5 As much in sense as that he makes thee vigorous like an Eagle who by casting her beak and feathers renews her former agility And so in the present case wherein it is said Put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge this noteth the repaire and renovation of that spiritual disposition which Adam had but lost it by his fall Thirdly for the matter of the renovation venewed in knowledge doth signifie spiritual knowledge in the nature thereof and that which comes from the Spirit of God as the cause Fourthly for the pattern of the renovation it is expressely said after the image of him that created him Therefore the first man must be made in a state of spiritual knowledge and holinesse If this be not so how could the beleeving Colossians be renewed after this example as the Prototype Let us go to the next Scripture that ye put on the new man which after God is created in rigteousnesse and true holinesse Eph. 4.24 This Scripture also doth plainly shew that Adam had the Spirit of God before his fall For first why is it said be renewed in the spirit of your minde This implieth that we were sometimes such Secondly the expression of righteousnes and true holinesse is opposed to feigned and hypocritical sanctity Thirdly the whole tenour of the speech is to this end that the Ephesians should put off the old Adam-like disposition with all the deceitful lusts thereof and that they should put on the Christ-like nature which is renewed after the similitude and pattern of the image of God in man before the fall The argument is thus grounded upon the text What the Saints are by renovation such Adam was by creation But by renovation the Saints are just and holy From all which we do conclude that Adam was a spiritual man and had the Spirit of God before his fall Now to the Scriptures let us adde a few reasons First it is a Maxime generally received that the Law was made for man before his fall Now how the first man could be conformable to so spiritual and divine a Law and he himself be destitute of the Spirit it is not within the compasse of my understanding to discerne If we will argue a posteriori from the event we must necessarily conclude that he must not only be spiritual but also have a great measure of spirit to keep such a divine and spiritual Law Secondly the Apostle saith you hath he quickned that were dead in trespasses and sinnes Ephes 2.1 2. If all be dead in trespasses and sinnes this spiritual death must begin at the fall and so by consequence the first man must have the spirit and spiritual life before his fall For what is spiritual death but a privation of the life of the Spirit of God These and many more reasons might be brought to prove Adam to be a spiritual man as long as he stood in that state in which God had placed him Now let us hear your arguments to the contrary You say that Adams righteousnesse and holinesse was not in beleeving a Saviour because be was not in a lost condition pag.
the emproving of nature to those ends to which God had assigned it These are the Chimera's and fictions of mens own devising For if we will go to the utmost that a natural man can do at seasons he hath ability to judge himself this is not from himself but from the convictions of the Spirit And it is never better with him in the way to attain salvation than when he is beaten off from all his own abilities when in the sight of his own misery and emptinesse he doth rely upon the mercy of God Now we will go on to the meaning of that expression and were by nature the children of wrath as well as others Here you distinguish betwixt that wrath which is due by the appointment of God for Adams sinne and the wrath which is due for despising the riches of grace Concerning this text say you we were by nature the children of wrath as well as others if it be universal it must be meant of the first condemnation which came by Adam But if it be meant of the second wrath then it belongs to such persons onely as are dead in trespasses and sinnes that is such as have been in actual defiance which walked after the course of the world after the Prince of the power of the aire in opposition to the Spirit of truth page 150. Here I do agree with you that distinction is to be made between the wrath due for the sinne of Adam and the wrath due for the actual refusal of Christ in the tender of grace Though this distinction be admitted yet it doth not disanul that truth we were by nature the children of wrath as well as others For infants so farre forth as they come out of Adams loynes in that precise and single consideration they may be the children of wrath by nature though the cause why wrath doth not seize upon them is from the shedding of the blood of Christ Secondly let us take this expression and were by nature the children of wrath as well as others that it is meant onely of those who have been in actual defiance this will avail nothing so long as it is clear from the text that men by nature can do no other than live in actual defiance against God Neither do the Examiners mend the matter by their Intepretation when they say it is one thing to be sinners from our first nativity and another in time to become the children of wrath by our personal fall and actual disobedience which also coming to pass in our natural man and by his default we may truly be said to be by nature the children of wrath especially when sinne by custome becomes a second nature to us page 78. Here we will be no adversaries to them so farre as they say that men become the children of wrath by their own personal falls and actual disobedience But the question is whether this disobedience doth not radically and originally proceed from the default of the nature They seem to say so much in sense when they do oppose it Secondly though it be true which they say that the evil doth come upon men throught heir personal fall yet the Apostle doth especially look unto the sinne of the nature And therefore doth amplifie the grace of God in quickning and enlivening again when he saith you hath he quickned that were dead in trespasses and sinnes They were not onely truly dead in sinne thorough custome and sinful conversation but also thorough the state and condition of their natural birth they were by nature the children of wrath as well as others Upon these grounds he tells them that God who was rich in mercy did quicken them when they were dead in trespasses and sins Next you come to open the meaning of the expression dead in trespasses and sinnes You say a spiritual death must be meant of a declining from spiritual things which is a resistance of the spirit or a dying that is a forsaking the truth of God made manifest in them Now such a death as this cannot befall any who never had that spiritual life for it is the losse of life that must prove a death or otherwise we may say that all other creatures besides man are spiritually dead page 151. In this point you and I do agree that the losse of life must prove a death and this to me is the great reason why not only the Ephesians but also all mankind had sometimes spiritual life before they became to be dead in trespasses and sinnes It is plaine from the scope of Scripture and the Analogy of faith as I have proved before that this death came in by the fall of Adam therefore he had spiritual life before his fall And for that expression of yours otherwise we may say as well that all other creatures are spiritually dead I answer not so neither other creatures can not properly be said to be spiritually dead because they never had a capacity of spiritual life And though men are dead in trespasses and sinnes they are not dead as stocks and stones and other sencelesse creatures but they are dead as they who sometime had spiritual life and may have the return of the same life again in and thorough Christ the way the truth and the life So also the Examiners in the Chapter of free will page 130. do but calumniate when they say that we teach that a man is a meere passive block or a dead trunck without a willing or a nilling faculty This is an odious imputation of their own devising we hold that man is a rational creature and he hath those natural and essential properties of the soul though in spiritual things he be altogether dead And for spiritual things also he may be said to have a remote capacity when blindnesse shall be taken away from his understanding and perversenesse from his will It is an excellent speech of Augustine posse credere naturae est hominum to have a remote ability to beleeve is of the nature of men for stocks and stones have no such capacity And in opposition to natural men he saith velle credere gratiae est fidelium to have a will to beleeve is of the grace given to beleevers shewing that no natural man hath an immediate power to beleeve till he come inwardly to be enlivened by the Spirit Let us hear then what you can say how the sonnes of men may be said to be dead in trespasses and sinnes If you shall mean that every man or all mankind in that sense is dead before the light or the life of the Gospel is made known to them then I shall grant it But I shall deny that such a death is any sinne For where no Law is made manifest there is no transgression But all children if you mean infants have no Law or Law made known page 152. This is true in the case of actual sinne that there must be a Law and a Law made known or else there can be
as men or Devils could devise Now let us make enquiry into the true original of your mistake you think the words by the disobedience of one many were made sinners Rom. 5. Do allude to that other passage He made him sinne for us who knew no sinne 2 Cor. 5. And from the collation of both you conclude as Christ was made sin for us who knew no deceiving heart in himself so we were made sinners by Adam who knew no such sinne But here you are grossely mistaken when you take these two for parallel Scriptures which are not parallel The text in the Corinthians is meantionely of the punishment of sinne that Christ did bear the burden of our iniquities But the text in the Romans is not onely meant of the punishment and the guilt of sinne but also of the depravation of the nature of man The scope of the place is plainly to shew that by the disobedience of one many were constituted sinners or sinful men And the word in the original is ordinarily taken for men who have the habit and the nature of sinne in them Peter said depart from me I am a sinful man Luke 5.8 And our Saviour in another place whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation Mark 8.38 And the Apostle in the Epistle to the Romans that sinne by the Commandment might appear exceeding sinful Chap 6. verse 13. In these and such like places the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken for such a one as is a sinner by intrinsecal denomination And therefore in the present case when the Apostle saith by the disobedience of one many were made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sinners as our translation hath it his meaning is they were made sinful men that is they had the nature and the habit of sinne derived to them from the disobedience of the first man And thus you may plainly see that the two texts which you put for like are very unlike and this is one chief ground of your error Again your deductions are every was as unsound for say you at Christ was made sinne for us when he knew no sinne so we are made sinners for Adam when we knew no such sinne And to confirme this you further tell us it is one thing to be made sinne so as to bear the burden of Adams sinne and another thing to act sinne But whereas you speak of two things onely you should have mentioned three It is one thing to be made sinne and another thing to be made sinful and a third to act sinne If you speak of being made sinne so Christ onely was made a sacrifice for sinne to satisfie the justice of God But if you speak of being made sinful so is the whole race of mankind by the disobedience of the first man And in the third place if you speak of committing the act of sinne this onely men can do when they have the use of reason and understanding From all which we conclude though Infants cannot be said to act sinne yet neverthelesse through the disobedience of the first man they may have the pollution of nature Further you say as we are made sinners by Adam so we are made righteous by Christ and yet had no hand in those astions that made us righteous In the like case we were made sinners by Adams disobedience and yet had no hand in his so acting To say the truth if you go to the personal act particularly and individually we had no hand either in the obedience of the one or the disobedience of the other yet in a general sense the acts of the two Adams are the act of the whole posterity that come of them As for example the first man by his disobedience did defile the whole nature without the knowledg wil motion or act of any of the persons that were to come of him yet so really and effectually that none can come by propagation from him but they partake of the guilt of his sinne and the pollution of his nature ver 12.14 17. So in the like case the second man did satisfie the justice of God and sanctifie our nature without any personal knowledge will motion or act of ours yet so really and effectually that none of us can truly beleeve but we must some way come to partake of that nature To as many as received him hath he given this power to be called the sons of God to them that do beleeve on his name being born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of man but of God Joh. 1.12 13. Further you say we had as little capacity to act in Adam as we had to act in Christ For this must be granted that when God makes the creature capable to act he makes him as capable to act for himself as for the Devil Else he had better provided for his enemies than for himself page 137. These also are the whimsies of the Examiners of the late Confession For they speaking of the indifferency of the will tell us in plain termes that as Adams will before his fall did hang in an aequilibrium to good or bad and enclined more to that which was good than that which was evil so they hold the same of the will of all men else before their personal fall To all which I answer that these are dangerous speeches which derogate much from the grace of God in Christ For whosoever they be that do either lessen the misery of nature and cry up the natural ability of the will they do in sense take that away from Christ which they give to men As for that objection of yours that God should better provide for his enemies than for himself hold your self contented God is able to secure his own glory though all men are born in original sinne and the Apostle doth plainly give the reason the Lord doth quicken us when we are dead in trespasses and sinnes when we walk according to the course of this world when we serve divers lusts and pleasures when we are by nature the children of wrath as well as others He doth quicken us when we are in this estate that in the ages to come he may shew the exceeding riches of his grace towards us in Jesus Christ Ephes 2. ver 1.2 3 c. Therefore the declaration of the glory of Christ in giving spiritual life to them that are dead must necessarily suppose men to be by nature dead in the passes and sinnes that they may be the greater objects of mercy If you go in this method though all Infants are involved in original sinne though all are miserable by nature yet God hath better provided for himself than for his enemies when his grand designe is through the miserie of man to shew the riches of his grace We will now proceed to Psal 51. ver 5. And here let us see how many shifts you have to elude the force and manifest sense of this
no actual transgression And for this reason we say that all Infants are exempt from the guilt of actual sinne because they are not capable of the knowledge of a Law But this is not our question the point in hand is concerning the guilt of original sinne Suppose there were no Law given personally and individually to infants yet the Law once given to Adam is sufficient to involve all his children in the sin of the nature till they come to be freed by Christ Therefore in sense we affirme that not onely the Ephesians but also all others are dead in trespasses and sinnes But let us further enquire into the meaning of the words and were by nature the children of wrath as well as others Doth not the Apostle go here to the corruption of nature as to the Fountain and whereas you say that the Ephesians by the course of their lives living in rebellion against God were naturally the children of wrath Do not you by this affirmation yield the cause For admit that the Ephesians did by their own free act live in disobedience against God yet all comes to one issue when they did it by a natural propension received from Adam the common root of the corruption of nature But you further say It cannot be expected that those who never committed any actions of disobedience should have this text applied to them but infants neither did nor could commit any acts of rebellion Therefore this will not prove that infants were so the children of wrath by nature page 152. This expression that infants were not so the children of wrath by nature is as Logicians call it an ignorance of the elench For we do not say that Infants in every respect are so the children of wrath as those Ephesians who lived in wilful disobedience It is enough for us to affirme that they are any way the children of wrath so farre at least as they do partake of the corruption of the nature For the clearing of the point let us distinguish three sorts of men that are lyable to wrath The first are such as reject Christ in the publick tenders of the Gospel If I had not come and spoken unto them they should have had no sinne but now they have no cloak for their sinne Joh. 12.48 In this sense we say that not onely Infants but also the natural Ephesians themselves were free from the guilt of sinne For if infants as you affirme cannot sinne nor men neither if they can truly maintain that they rceived no Law In this sense the Ephesians themselves who served divers lusts and pleasures could not sinne because the Gospel was not preached and Christ was not tendered to them The Apostle saith they were at that time strangers from the Common-Wealth of Israel and aliens from the Covenant of promise Secondly they are lyable to wrath who though they never had the Gospel preached yet do wilfully hold the truth in unrighteousnesse Rom. 1.19.20 21. In this sense the Ephesians before their conversion did serve divers lusts and were by nature the children of wrath as well as others The sinnes of their lives though they were their own voluntary acts yet they were the proper and genuine fruit of their sinful and depraved nature In this as in the former sense I do willingly yield that infants cannot sinne as those that disobey the Gospel because they have no discoveries of Christ in the publick Ministry of the Word Neither can they sinne as did the Gentiles which went against the general convictions of the Godhead in the conscience and wilfully held the truth in unrighteousnesse Thirdly they are lyable to wrath who though they never committed actual sinne yet do partake of the sinne of the nature and of the guilt of that sinne If this be not so what is the meaning of the words and were by nature the children of wrath as well as others In a sense then it is true that so farre as men are by nature so far they are the children of wrath Here then two objections come to be answered the one in respect of infants the other in respect of them who live out of the bounds of the visible Church First in the case of infants some may say they must unavoidably lie under wrath if this once be admitted that by nature they are the children of wrath I answer the consequences is not good for though by nature they are lyable to wrath yet they do not unavoidably lie under a necessity of perishing As for example David by his murther and adultery Peter by the denial of his Master and Paul by persecuting of the Church did fall under wrath yet wrath did not seize upon them So infants though by nature they are the children of wrath yet that wrath due unto the sinne of the nature doth not lay hold upon them because Christ hath satisfied the justice of God Secondly if it be further alledged that they which live out of the bosome of the visible Church must lie under a necessity of perishing not onely because by nature they are the children of wrath but because they want the Gospel the means of their salvation Here I answer though they want the most effectual outward means yet they do not simply want all the means Nay I may affirme there is no man whose eyes are truly opened thorough the conviction of the Spirit to see his lost condition who is under an absolute necessity of perishing For God who is a God of grace and mercy is ready to help them that come to him in a sense of their misery We have a proof for this in the words of Hanain the Prophet to Asah the King the eyes of the Lord run to and fro through the whole earth to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards him 1 Chr. 16.9 He doth not speak in the case of Asah or of the family of David alone but the words are more general the eyes of the Lord go thorough the whole earth to help all those whosoever they be that have perfect hearts toward him From whence I gather that men are not left under an unavoidable necessity of perishing Thus I have gone thorough all the arguments brought by Mr. Everard to prove the purity of the natural birth and where the Examiners have pitched upon the same reasons I have taken them in for company What is proper and peculiar to them alone shall be handled in the ensuing discourse The second Book containeth the Answer to the Examiners of the late Assemblies Confession SECT 1. IN the Chapter concerning Original sinne they do first endeavour to bring such Scriptures as seem to make for their own purpose And here they pitch upon that image of God that man is said to retain since his fall Gen. 9. Our answer is though men may be said to have that image and may carry the resemblance thereof yet this doth not disprove their being born in original sinne Notwithstanding
powers they cannot without a new grace and favour go to heaven But then it cannot presently be inferred that therefore they go to hell but this ought to be inferred which indeed was the real consequent of it therefore it is necessary that Gods grace should supply this defect if God intends heaven to them at all and because nature cannot God sent a Saviour by whom it was effected so far he pag. 15. Now I leave it to any man to judge whither the same mutatis mutandis may not be said of our opinion though infants are borne in Original sin and are by nature the children of wrath yet they may be saved by grace By all this it is evident that we are as faire for the salvation of infants as he is and by the same doore as he goes out we will go out at the same And for the sayings of our writers I have three things to answer First some speak more mildly in the point rather inclining to the salvation than the damnation of infants Junius in his collation de naturâ gratiâ hath these words Nemo nostrum it a fuerit aut furere compertus est c. There is none of ours that is so mad or was ever found so void of reason who would simply affirme infants to be damned They which teach otherwise let themselves look to it by what right they moy do it and by what authority it may be done For although in respect of their own selves and that common nature of ours they may be in a state lyable to damnation it follows not that we should passe the sentence of damnation upon them c. In the processe of his discourse he giveth sundry reasons First the promise of God to believers and their natural seed Secondly his mercy to thousands and that through many descents where the Ancestors have sometimes belonged to the Covenant Thirdly The judgement of charity seeing it is the Lords pleasure to take them away in their infancy we may presume that by that fatherly act of his he intends to receive them to mercy Other testimonies may be brought of such that have gone in the milder way but these shall suffice A second sort of our Expositiors there are that do pitch more hard They say that some infants may go to hell yet they moderate their sentence as Chamier Non abhorret a verisimilitudine paenas eorum esse mitissimas It is very probable their punishments are most mild A third sort leave the matter wholly in suspence they think it sufficient to believe that all infants are borne in a state lyable to damnation they have in them the seeds of all evil yet for all this they conceive that God may shew mercy in and through Christ specially to the infants of such that do belong to the Covenant specially where conscience is made to enter them into the outward visible Church by baptisme And this is all that we will say of this question Leaving this businesse of the state of infants and reserving to God the secrets of election or non-election we will come to the point that is more useful and more easie to be understood And here he questions whether Adam did debauch our nature and corrupt our will and manner by his fall And if he did it he further enquires after the manner how it was done First whether it was done by a natural or physical efficiency of sin it selfe Secondly whether was it because we are all in the loynes of Adam or Thirdly whether was the sentence and the decree of God the cause thereof he hath foure arguments against a physical efficiency which we have in part handled already and shall have occasion to speak afterwards And therefore to avoid repetition we will come to the second branch whether Adam did debauch our nature because we are all in his loynes Against this he hath sundry reasons that follow in order By the same reason saith he we are guilty of all the sins that he committed while we were in his loynes there being no imaginable reason why the first should be propagated and not the rest Answ As I have formerly shewed so I declare againe the pollution of nature can only be propagated from the first sin because in that only Adam did act as a publick man in which sence the Apostle calls him the figure of him that is to come But of this I have spoken already Secondly upon this account saith he all the sins of all our progenitours will be imputed to us because we were in their loynes when they sinn'd them Answ Not so neither for though we were in their loynes when they sinned yet in a strict sence they are only vehicula so many conduit pipes of the conveyances of the nature from the first root To speak properly there are only two roots of the nature Adam the root of corruption to all his branches Christ the root of grace and spiritual life to all his branches If any question be made of the truth of this there is every where in the doctrine of St. Paul an antithesis between the flesh and the spirit between the old man and the new betwixt generation and regeneration betwixt Adam and Christ Between these two there is a plaine opposition in three things in point of justification Secondly in point of sanctification Thirdly in point of the resurrection from the dead And therefore whereas the first man by his act brings us under the guilt of sin the second washes away the guilt of sin by his blood and whereas the first man pollutes our nature and is the root of the corruption of nature the second man sanctifies our nature and is the root of a new nature to all his branches And whereas the first man did bring in death and all the miseries of nature upon our bodies that lead to death the second man frees us from all these by the resurrection from the dead But he further alledgeth Thirdly Sin saith he is seated in the will it is an action and so transient and when it dwels or abides it abides no where but in the will by approbation and love to which is naturally consequent a readinesse in the inferiour faculties to obey and act accordingly and therefore sin doth not infect our meer natural faculties but the will only and not that in the natural capacity but in its moral only Answ Though it be true that sin is principally seated in the will yet we shall finde all along that the Scriptures do lay great weight upon the blindnesse and the perversity of the judgement and as in the old creation so it is in the new The first work that is done is the creation of light Besides the Christ-like disposition is begun and carried on by degrees and all this by the renovation of light The understanding is first enlightned and then the will comes to choose the things of God Further let it be supposed that sin is only seated in the will
doubt but in this list or catalogue he hath respect as well to things that belong to the irascible as to the concupiscible faculty yet all is contained under the notion and name of concupiscence For in the verses immediately going before he exhorteth walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh According to the original it is ye shall not accomplish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the concupiscence of the flesh In the present case then when the Galathians did live in malice envy hateful and hating one another they did fulfill the concupiscence of the flesh And so by this account the lusts both of the concupiscible and the irascible faculty are comprehended more generally under one name and title of concupiscence And all his contrary reasoning is just nothing at all Now let us come to his last Scripture The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God because they are foolishnesse to him 1 Cor. 2.14 Here he bestows much paines to weaken the force of the text An animal man saith he that is a Philosopher or a rational man such as were the Greeke and Roman Philosophers upon the stock and account of the learning of all the Schooles could not discern the excellency of the Gospel-mysteries as of God incarnate Christ dying the resurrection of the body and the like Rep. It s true that the Philosophers aforementioned were such natural or animal men but it is not the whole truth For they that come to Church and publickly professe may be animal men also and in their animality may be far from receiving the things of the Spirit A schoole-boy that is able some way to make a Gramatical construction of the Greek of Euclide and Ptolomy is not presently capable of the mysteries of Geometry and Astronomy That requireth the skill of an Artist as well as of a Gramarian And if the laws of the land were translated into English I think we should not be all Lawyers out of hand So in the present case though all may outwardly own and some may preach the Doctrine and mysteries of salvation this doth not presently entitle them to that kinde of learning that comes only by the teaching of the Spirit Many may speak much of the love of Christ that never had the feeling of it in their hearts Moses tells the people in his time ye have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive and eyes to see and eares to heare unto this day Deut. 29.24 They did see and they did not see they did outwardly see the works but they did not inwardly believe the truth wisedome goodnesse and power of God For had they seen these things as they ought they could not but have loved the Lord their God and have lived in obedience to his laws So then not only the Greek Philosophers but many Christians also may be called natural or animal men He further sheweth what animality is Animality which is a reliance upon natural principles without revelation is a state privatively opposed to the Spirit and a man in that state cannot be saved because he wants a vital part he wants the Spirit Rep. What he saith here and in the words immediately following is the same in substance that we speak and is extreamly contrary to the designe that he derives at For if in the state of animality a man cannot be saved because he wants the Spirit the chief vital of salvation Why doth he to make religion intelligible deny original sin plead for the freedome of the will and establish the purity of the natural birth We say because a man is borne in original sin and dead in trespasses and sinnes therefore he cannot be saved without the infusion of a new life He saith that a man in his animality cannot go to heaven without the Spirit the chiefe vital of salvation Let a wise man now judge where we and he do differ But to blind the businesse he hath a subtle distinction between carnality and animality Carnality saith he or the state of being in the flesh is not only privatively opposed but contrarily also to the spiritual staee of grace Rep. This expression of his might passe well enough were it not for that which followeth First speaking of the state of animality and then of carnality afterwards he hath these words The first is only an imperfection and a want of supernatural aides the other is indeed a direct state of sin and hated by God but superinduced by choice and not discending naturally Rep. In this expression of his there are two things that need a better enquiry First how doth he prove that the state of animality is only a state of meer imperfection and no more St. James tells us the wisdome from beneath is earthly sensual devilish or according to the original earthly animal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 devilish I think none will say that the animality of this wisdome is a bare imperfection and no more It s positively opposed to the wisdome that is above and can there be a greater enemy to the wisedome above then that which is beneath The Apostle St. Jude also saith that Mockers should come walking after their ungodly lusts These are they that separate themselves sensual not having the Spirit ver 18 19. the word is they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 animal not having the Spirit Now in this case will any man be so void of understanding to affirme that these in their animality were meerly defective and that they were not in a direct state of enmity against God I think none will easily assert it Sure I am many ensamples may be brought to prove the distinction between animality and carnality to be a meer non-ens or nullity Secondly we agree that the state of carnality is a state of sin and hated of God but whereas he saith that it is only superinduced by choice as also that it doth not naturally descend Herein we crave liberty to depart from him The Scriptures all along specially the writings of St. Paul speak of the flesh in opposition to the Spirit Now will he or any man else assert that this is a state meerly superinduced and that men come to be flesh purely by the choice of their own will If this be so how do all come to agree in one and the same choice All do not agree to be Souldiers to be Scholars to be Merchants to be Mariners yet all are flesh before they come to be sanctified by the Spirit Seeing he will not have this state naturally to descend let him assigne some general cause how all do agree to be carnal Necessarily some general cause must lye at the bottome but he further saith Adam did leave us all in an animal state but this is not a state of anmity of direct opposition to God but a state insufficient and imperfect Rep. This state of meer imperfection which he speaks so
same spiritual drink for they drank of that rock which followed them and that rock was Christ 1 Cor. 10.4 5. Further after the fourty years pilgrimage were ended the Lord doth promise that their Convoy should not leave them but that he should go before them and drive out the Canaanites because it was not in their own power to bring the land into subjection This is the Lords promise and therefore in sense and substance the Angel must do the whole work Secondly let us consider what is the duty of the people and that is contained in these words Beware of him obey his voice provoke him not c. Because they did wholly depend upon him for all therefore they should be careful to observe him and to follow him in his leadings The force of the reason is the same in the words of the text work out your salvation with fear and trembling because God works in you the will and the deed because his Spirit is all in all the cause of mans salvation to carry on the work because his Spirit doth convince reprove teach comfort seal and guide the Saints therefore they should walk tenderly and carefully toward him The Apostle saith grieve not the Spirit of grace by which ye are sealed unto the day of Redemption Ephes 4.30 In case they do with him as disobedient children do with their parents when they give them good counsel the Spirit will neither comfort nor seal them any more but will leave them to a state of darknesse and discomfort And this is the true meaning of the text We may hereby understand how God doth carry on the whole work of salvation and this doth no way impair or diminish the endeavour of man In the close of all you tell us Let us say with the Apostle in our hearts that we desire to strive with dayly labourings according to the mighty workings whereby he worketh in us Col. 1.29 And do not say any more it is God that worketh our actions but be thankful to him that giveth us sufficient means Page 63. You have heard before that the Lord doth work in us the will and the deed and therefore the spirituality of the action is wholly from God though we are free workers by the help of his grace But let us take your words in the fairest construction If you will stand firmly to this principle that God gives sufficient means by a power working in us you need not fly to the purity of nature to natural free-will and to such like beggerly rudiments to salve the endevour of man In this place you seem to speak for grace when elsewhere through your whole treatise you drive the bargain altogether for the natural abilities of the will But seeing you have offered this text to our consideration we will endeavour to draw from it the concord betwixt the grace of God and the endeavour of man The words are these Whereunto I also labour striving according to his working which worketh in me mightily The Apostle speaketh of the work of the Ministery whom we preach warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdome that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus whereunto I labour according to the mighty workings that he worketh in us Here it is plain that the Apostle did work in teaching and instructing every one and it was not so much his work as the work of the Spirit in him and by him When he was at Athens his Spirit was stirred up in him when he saw the City wholly given to Idolatry Why are not the like excitations of spirit in men in there dayes who travell to Constantinople to Ligorn to Rome seeing hose people are wholly given either to Mahumetan superstition or Popish Idolatry The reason is manifest the same spirit doth not work so mightily in the hearts of men as it did sometime in the heart of Paul because he was filled with the Spirit he did shew abundant sympathy and bowells of affection towards all the lost sonnes of men But to come to instances in these last times when the Gospel was plucked down and the Mass was set up in Queen Maries dayes the Martyr being in a journey declared his intention that he would preach in his charg the next Lords day and when he that journeyed with him told him then he would certainly be cast into prison his answer was I am in prison till I am in prison He was bound in his spirit to preach the Gospel to the soules which he had taken charg of he could have no peace otherwise then in the discharge of his duty He did labour freely yet so as his labour was by the inward moving of the Spirit But of all other places that passage of our Saviour is most used by the Enthusiasts Ye shall be brought before Kings and Princes for my sake but when they shall deliver you up take no thought how or what you shall speak for it shall be given to you in that houre what you shall speak For it is not ye that speak but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you Mat. 10.18 19 20. Though this promise is made to the Martyrs and Confessors in times of persecution yet it is not made to them in that manner as to extinguish and drown all endeavour of their own as though God would do all and they should be discharged of their duty The promise is only made to such as should engage themselves for Christ and should humbly in the use of the means depend upon him for the supply of his Spirit And thus we see that the Spirit does all and yet in the most spiritual actions man himself is a free-worker It shall be given you in that houre what you shall speak This expression what you shall speak sheweth plainly that the Saints are free Agents Let us now consider that place Ephes 2.8 9. For by grace ye are saved through faith not of your selves it is the gift of God ☜ Here you yield that salvation as purchased by Christ is the gift of God but you will not have faith it self to be the gift of God you grant one part of the text to deny another If you consider the words you shall finde that not onely salvation but also faith it self is Gods free gift If this be not so how could the Ephesians come to beleeve The Apostle saith that they were dead in trespasses and sinnes they walked according to the course of the world they fulfilled the lusts of the flesh and of the mind Therefore they could not come to beleeve by any natural ability but meerly by the quickning work of the Spirit Further this expression is added ver 10. We are his work manship created of God unto good works By nature they were dead in trespasses and sinnes and if that now they could perform any spiritual act they were made able to do this by the new creation or workmanship of God Further if faith be not the
natural say you were to have acted such actions as might have testified to the world that they had been lovers of God because those actions were wanting they are said to be unnatural So it may appear that nature was not improved to those ends to which God assigned it page 146. It is true that in these Scriptures the word nature is taken in the better sense yet not in such a sense as will furnish your intention First I do acknowledge that God hath left reliques or remainders of his Law in the hearts of the Gentiles This is commonly called the Law of nature and by this men know that God ought to be worshipped that parents ought to be honoured and that every man is to have his own c. Secondly I yield also that they who go against this Law may rightly be called unnatural because they go against the dictates or principles of of nature Thirdly they who do thus deviate from natural principles do not improve nature to those ends which God hath made it All these things I do allow so far I wil go along with you But how do you prove from hence the purity of nature and that a meer natural man as such is able to understand the things of the Spirit of God You do in the next page distinguish natural men into two kinds these are your words Who requireth no other way to be glorified but by those principles that he had furnished them withal And because they opposed their own nature resusing the counsel of God they are called unnatural because they imployed their nature wholly to satisfie their lusts Such natural men percieve not the things of God The same matter in substance is spoken by the Examiners in the Chapter of free will for the Synod having rightly determined according to the Scriptures that a natural man being altogether averse from that good and dead in sinne he is not able by his own strength to convert himself or prepare himself thereunto Against this passage the men take great offence and as their manner is accuse the Synod for their defects and falshoods For their defects they blame them because they do not distinguish the several kinds of natural men and for their falshoods they accuse them for saying that the fallen man hath lost all ability to spiritual good They distinguish also several kinds of will and tell us in the third place as the will of our first parents so of all men else doth stand in a kind of aequilibrium pag. 128.129 130. Now to take off these several Objections I would entreat both you and them to consider these two points First if you look to the better sort of natural men to those who are no Backbiters no Covenant-breakers c. Whether may not many of these in the most essential vital and spiritual parts of the Law be great enemies against God and be lovers of themselves more than lovers of God If the most refined natural men may be secret enemies why do you and they speak of pure nature and of the improvement of natural abilities when it is certain that men can do no good without the help of the Spirit Natural men may be distinguished into a thousand kinds according to the different circumstances of time and place yet all of them do agree in this that they are natural and without the help of the Spirit they are not able to judge of the things of God Secondly when the Apostle speaketh of the Gentiles who having no Law do by nature the things contained in the Law their thoughts in the mean while accusing or else excusing one another Romans 2.14 When the Gentiles do make use of the Law written in their heart as they do at certain seasons to judge themselves doth not this proceed from the general convictions and workings of the Spirit If the act of self-judging be from the conviction of the Spirit this is no praise to natural abilities but the glory belongs to the grace of God And the words of the Confession are very sound that a natural man cannot convert himself or prepare himself thereunto In which words they do distinguish between conversion it self and the antecedaneous works before conversion In neither of these they say that a natural man is able to do any thing of himself but all his ability is from the help of the Spirit I wonder then what reason the Examiners had given them to cavil at such an innocent expression But if you shall stand upon the letter of the text that the Gentiles do by nature the things contained in the Law Here you may observe that the Apostle doth onely oppose the natural Law to the Law written in tables of stone and communicated to the Church by revelation He never meant that any of the Gentiles meerly by their own strength were able to keep that Law which was made known to them Only at seasons the Spirit did excite and stirre up strong convictions in their consciences to apply those principles and dictates which they had by the light of nature The most common and universal maxime of all men in the world is this that there is a God Why then doth the consideration of the Godhead so forcibly and powerfully awake at some intervals of time more than at others We can give no other reason but this that the truth in the hearts of the Gentiles is like a cinder in the Smiths forge which by the operations and stirrings of the Spirit is enlivened and being once enlivened men have more power to judge themselves and to look after God in those seasons than at others And from hence also we might take occasion to answer that great difficulty in the Epistle to the Romans The Apostle in the first Chapter speaking of the knowledge of the Gentiles and how naturally they hold the truth in unrighteousnesse and that for this cause the Lord doth give them up to a reprobate sense yet in the next Chapter he doth shew that the Gentiles do by nature the things contained in the Law and do shew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the work of the Law written in their hearts when their thoughts do at sundry times accuse or excuse one another To the resolution of the difficulty we say that the Gentiles so farre forth as they are principled by the corruption of nature are prone to no other but to imprison the light but as they are under and do submit unto the convictions of the Spirit they are helped sometimes to go so farre as to judge themselves and to cry out in their misery O being of beings have mercy upon us The main drift of the Apostle is to shew that Jewes and Gentiles are both under sinne and how by the sight of the misery of nature such of them as are saved come to be saved onely by looking after the grace and the free-mercy of God If this be the meaning of the Spirit what shall we think of pure nature or
spirit He did desire that his defilement by natural generation might be done away by the work of the new creation And whereas these confident men would desire to know whether it be not Davids scope in his confession to aggravate his sinne I answer it is and therefore he doth cry out against the sinne of the nature he doth use the same expression in effect as Paul doth Rom. 7. I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing ver 18. And O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death ver 24. Where we may observe these three points First they who are inwardly and truly enlightned do feel the burden of a carnal mind which they have by natural generation whereas other men account the liberty of lust their greatest freedome Secondly they feeling the propension of their nature wholly to sinne do hereupon aggravate the sinfulnesse of their nature Thirdly by this means they do more highly prize the grace of Christ and that freedome which he doth bring to set them at liberty from the bondage of corruption and the reigne of their lusts Joh. 8.31 32 33. Isa 61.1 2 3. Mat. 12.20 The promise of Christ is that a bruised reed he will not break and the smoaking flax he will not quench untill he have brought forth judgment unto victory By judgment is here meant deliverance from under the tyranny and reign of original sin when men serve divers lusts and pleasures The deliverance from the power of corruption is the judgment meant in the text This deliverance is not wrought in an instant but by degrees and our Saviour is ready to help the weakest that flie to him in a sense of their own misery There is nothing more weak than a bruised reed and the least degree of fire will make flax to smoak Even so if there be the least grace to feel the bondage of corruption the Lord Christ is ready to cherish it and never to leave till he have brought forth judgment unto victory to make men conquerors of their lusts But the ground of all this is to feel the burden of a carnal mind which it is most probable these Censors are strangers to or else they would not so extenuate the sin of the nature as they do Now let us heare what interpretation they give of the Psalmists words It was say they the lie or lying promises of Sathan with the folly therein contained by which he was shapen in iniquitie or conceived in sin pag. 74. And they ground themselves upon that passage that the devil is the father of sin These are their words besides our natural parents we have spiritual fathers and mothers whether for our begetting in evil and iniquity or for our regeneration in grace and goodnesse Concerning our procreation in sin our Saviour speaks thus unto the Jewes Joh. 8.44 Ye are of your father the Devil and his lusts will ye do Now this father makes use of a twofold mother to beget men in wickednesse besides their own lust which when it is enticed and drawn away by temptation conceiveth and bringeth forth sin Jam. 1.14 15. And here first they reckon the lying word or promise by which Sathan deceiveth men and secondly the false Synagogue which thorough Sathans helps begets men in a false faith Page 75. 76. But this glosse will not serve their turn neither for though the Devil be the father of sin he is so onely by temptation and suggestion but the Psalmist speaketh of sin by derivation and propagation I was shapen in iniquitie and in sin did my mother conceive me And for that which they alledge out of the Epistle of St. James he doth onely speak of the order of generation of sin in the heart every man is drawn away of his own lust and enticed and lust when it hath conceived bringeth forth sin But what is this to the purpose of the Psalmist he doth not speak of the generation of lust or of sin in his heart but he doth speak of his own generation This is evident from the words themselves I was shapen in iniquitie and in sin did my mother conceive me Secondly it is manifest from the words that follow because he was defiled with the pollution of the natural birth by way of opposition he prayeth unto the Lord to create in him a clean heart because his old was defiled therefore he did beg a new nature Fourthly to that place Eph. 2.3 And were by nature the children of wrath as well as others they answer by a distinction It is one thing say they to be sinners from our first nativity and another thing in time to become the children of wrath by our personal fall and actual disobedience which also coming to passe in our natural man and by his default we may truly be said by nature to be the children of wrath when sin by custome becomes a second nature to us Page 78. Here I yield that the Ephesians before their conversion and all other natural men do thorough their own actual disobedience serve divers lusts and pleasures This is the truth but it is not the whole truth If they were only defiled by custome which in a sense may be called a second nature by good custome then they need onely a remedy of the evil of their nature and we need not the knowledge of Divinity but onely of Moral Philosophie toward the recovery out of our misery For that which is now the judgment of these Censors was sometimes the opinion of Aristotle He did beleeve that man in his birth was like a white sheet of paper and that thereupon the habit of vertue was attainable by many acts But the Apostle doth not deal upon such weak beggerly and Ethical grounds because the Ephesians were not only sinners by conversation but by nature also were the children of wrath hereupon in relation to their natural corruption he saith you hath he quickened which were dead in trespasses and sinnes Their quickening by the spirit a posteriori doth shew the pollution of their natures a priori But if they were the children of wrath only by custome a second nature by breaking off old customes they might reduce themselves to their ancient purity of nature And this is the Moral Philosophie of these Censors and the separate Churches of this way Fifthly for that place of the Romans by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin Chap. 5. v. 12. That we may more orderly proceed let us consider how they plant their own interpretation and then how they oppugne ours This one man say they by whom sinne entred into the world is not our first parent Adam but our own earthly or natural man which is called Adam and Edom from the earth of his foundation pag. 78. Here I do plainly and openly confesse I do not know what they meane by this Adam neither can I see how possibly they can apply such a sense to
only to call him a very wicked person but not that he had derived his sin originally and from his birth for that had been their own case as much as his To all which we reply the Pharisees might think him or his Parents to be some great sinners because he was borne blind for the disciples themselves did put such a kinde of question to our Saviour himselfe did this man or his parents sin that he was borne blinde verse the second Further suppose that the Pharisees had been of the judgement that it had been this mans peculiar infelicity and that it was not the common misery of man to be borne in original sin must their errour be a prejudice to the truth Nicodemus himselfe was darke in the point of regeneration must his ignorance be a rule to us Secondly saith he if David had meant it literally it had not signified that himselfe was borne in original sin but his Father and his Mother sinn'd when they begot him Reply It s very rational to conceive that his Father that went for an old man in the dayes of Saul and his Mother that bare him specially he being the youngest were both dead at the time of the making of the Psalm To what purpose should he confesse the sinne of the dead and pray for the dead But suppose he did confesse the sin of his Parents he must needs look upon them as the conduit-pipes and the conveyances of the corruption of the nature from the first root This doth strengthen the truth of our interpretation and therefore he doth devoutly and pathetically pray Create in me a cleane heart renew within me a right spirit wash me with hysop and I shall be cleane Thirdly saith he if it did relate to his own person he might meane that he was begotten with that sanguine disposition and libidinous temper that was the original of his vile adultery and then though David said this truely of himselfe it is not true of all nor of those whose temper is flegmatick and unactive Reply By this rule we may gather that the phlegmatick and unactive whatsoever the sanguine be are free from original sinne and that it doth not belong so much to Divines as to Physicians to judge of the sin of the nature But in this he is greatly deceived David doth not confesse the sinne of adultery alone but the sin of murther deliver me from blood-guiltinesse thou God of my righteousnesse verse the sixteenth Nay that which did principally affect him was his unbeliefe unthankfulnesse neglect and contempt of the goodnesse and mercy of God and his making the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme And therefore he saith Against thee thee only have I sinned verse the sixth Though he had sinned against Vriah against himselfe and against the Church yet the most aggravating circumstance was that he had sinned against God This we may see in the parable of Nathan who thereupon did argue with him upon the considerations of mercies received so then when the Psalmist saith I was borne in iniquity he hath not respect only to the libidinous temper but also to a sinful temper of a more general nature Fourthly saith he if David had meant this of himselfe and that in regard of original sin this had been so far from being a penitential expression or a confessing of his sinne that it had been a plaine accusation of God and an excusing of himselfe As if he had said O Lord I confesse I have sinned in this horrible murther and adultery but thou O Lord knowest how it comes to passe even by that fatal punishment which thou didst for the sin of Adam inflict on me and all mankind above three thousand years before I was borne Thereby making me to fall into so horrible corruption of nature that unlesse thou didst unresistibly force me from it I cannot abstaine from my sin being most naturally enclined to evil Reply To all which we rejoyne though there was a necessity laid upon David as upon other men to be borne in original sinne and this three thousand years before he was borne yet neverthelesse it will be no plea to excuse his murther and adultery For howsoever he was borne in sinne his murther and adultery were his own voluntary acts Ordinary experience shewetn by the common assistance of God that men have a power to avoid many outward evils to which their natures are enclined Further for the inward lust though it was inflicted as a punishment upon him as upon all mankind this can be no charge upon God seeing he hath provided a remedy to help men out of their misery David had rather cause to accuse himselfe for fulfilling the lusts of his nature and for the neglecting of that grace that was promised to him and to other believers in the Jewish Church to cleanse out the sin of the nature I will circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy seed that thou mightest love the Lord thy God Deut. 30.6 So then though David was born in original sin the fruits of that sinne were his own voluntary acts and the living in that sinne also was his own free choise Bernard in his Homily 81. on the Canticles hath an excellent passage to this purpose Homo interveniente peccato patitur quandam vincet ipse c. Man by the intervening of sin he himselfe doth suffer a kinde of necessity from his will not from nature that so truely he may not be deprived of his inbred liberty For that the soul cannot rise of her selfe the will is the cause who languishing and laying prostrate with the vitiated and vicious love of a corrupted body doth not withal admit the love of righteousnesse It is so I know not by what wounderful meane the will being made worse she her selfe doth make a necessity to her selfe That the necessity while its voluntary may not be able to excuse the will Neither the will while t is drawn may have power to shake off the necessity for truely after a sort this is a voluntary necessity In these words of his he doth elegantly set forth the truth of the thing and therein he doth liken the soul to a man grovelling upon the earth he cannot rise because he will not He will not rise because his nature doth encline him to lye down under the power of his lusts And this was Davids very case he was born in iniquity and he did freely and voluntarily bring forth the fruits that were the very product and result of a sinful nature he did too much neglect the grace by which he might be cured and though his necessity was natural respecting the inclinations that came from his birth yet also it was a voluntary necessity All natural men do account the liberty of lusts to be the greatest freedome and therefore they be not captives so much against as with their wills The first step therefore to salvation is as to understand the guilt of sinne so also the spiritual captivity and
bondage of the soul under the tyranny of a carnal mind Sixthly He addeth that David thought nothing of this or any thing like it we may understand by the preceding words which are a preface to these in the objection against thee only have I sinned Reply We willingly yield that it was the purpose of David to cleare the justice of God but here is no need to call his justice in question for though David was borne in sin the act of murther and adultery were the deeds of his own will besides the lust of his heart might have been cured by the grace of God Seaventhly saith he if this had been natural and unavoidable God who knew perfectly well would have expected nothing else of him For he will not require of a stone to speak nor a fire to be cold unlesse himself be pleased to work a miracle to have them so Repl. The case is not all one It is not in the nature of stones to speak but men may avoid many outward acts of sinne and the evil of their natural disposition may be mortified by the Spirit The Apostle speaking of certain that had eyes full of adulery that cannot cease from sinne 2 Pet. 2.14 Our Authour in his answer to the Bishops letter doth expound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eyes full of the adulteresse therefore they cannot cease from sin This sheweth how hard it is to escape adultery when men have received the beauty of the adulteresse into their eye Why then are Laws made against this sinne It is in their power outwardly to fly such occasions that lead thereto The wise man saith remove thy way farre from her and come not neare the doore of her house Is not this too precise and strict a point No some mens natures are like tinder to the fire they must not onely fly sinnes but all occasions that lead thereto Now it is plain that in these things men have a power to forbear the evil and therefore the wise man accordingly doth temper his exhortation And for the lust of the heart though a man cannot flee from it yet God is able to give more grace which he is alway ready to do to those who in the sense of their own emptinesse do flee to him for help Where is the man that did ever truely desire and continue desiring helps against his infirmities that God did ever neglect If this could be proved then something may be said to the purpose Now we go to the next Scripture Among whom we in all times past had our conversation in the lusts of the flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature the children of wrath as well as others He hath many observations upon the words of this text This therefoore saith he as appears by the discourse of the Apostle relates not to riginal sinne but to actual Repl. It relates to both as the Ephesians had their conversation in the lusts of the flesh and did fulfill the lusts of the flesh and minde so it doth relate to actual sinne But as they were by nature the children of wrath this is with reference to original sinne And whereas he doth bring in Justin Martyr arguing upon this ground that therefore it cannot be extended to Christ we willingly yield that Christ is an exempt person by reason of his extraordinary birth and conception but then in Justines sense all else infants as well as others will partake of the sinne of the nature But he further addes Heires of wrath signifies persons liable to punishment heires of death It is an usual expression among the Hebrewes So sons of death in the holy Scripture are those that deserve death or are condemned to dye Repl. It is true that the Hebrews call a man the son of death that hath deserved death specially when he is condemned to die Though all this be granted it doth not void the force of our reason for we do not argue so much from the Apostles words that the Ephesians before conversion were the children of wrath but from those words were by nature the children of wrath The scope of all which is to shew that they were not onely subjected to wrath through a sinful conversation but through an evil nature the root of that evil conversation If therefore our Authour or any man else will make use of the Hebrew Idiotisme the words will go fairely in this sense that the beleeving Ephesians both by the condition of the natural birth and the whole course of their conversation as they did serve divers lusts and pleasures were liable to wrath and the onely mean by which they did escape was the quickning and enlivening work of the Spirit by and through which they were brought out of that estate in which they were born But he hath another evasion By nature is here most likely to be meant that which Galen calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an acquisite nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 customes and evil habits Repl. If we would apply our selves to authours and to the ordinary speech of men custome and nature are usually opposed each to other In some cases a man may be said to have a thing both by nature and custome very rarely or never we say that custome is nature Sometimes men speak in a more general sense that custome is as it were a second nature But because he stands upon it that it is most likely that the words of the Apostle are meant onely of custome and acquired nature for so he desires to speak then by this rule we must say that the beleeving Ephesians before conversion were by ill custome onely the children of wrath If this be so why doth the Apostle say you hath he quickned who were dead in trespasses and sinnes What need of the infusion of a new life to bring them off off an ill custome In such a case it were onely requisite to reduce nature to her original purity and to amend that by good usuages which ill customes had marred Besides seeing several Nations have their customes was it a peculiar custome to the Ephesians Or was it common to all Nations to be the children of wrath It was peculiar to the Ephesians then they onely had need of the infusion of a new life If it was common to all Nations How did they all generally agree in such a custome And what was the cause of the agreement Besides seeing there are some in their tender years of whom we may presume that they are neither quickned by grace nor hardened by ill custome whether such may be saved without the infusion of a new life yea or no If they may be saved without the infusion of a new life this will be against the scope of the Apostle who tells us they were saved from wrath by the inward quickning But if he will say that such cannot be saved without the infusion of a new life then 't is plain that by nature must be meant more than acquired