by the power of God detained here on earth that the glory of Christ might be exalted he doth unite this soul though with pollution to the body Now Gods uniting of the sinfull soul to the body did not make him the cause of any sinne therein Because he united it as part of that man who yet was not wholly purged from sinne Now the reason why the soul is created not as a perfect substance in it self is Because it 's the forme of man not an assisting forme and therefore is not in the body as when an Angel did assume bodies or as a man in his house or as a Musician useth an Instrument but a form informing whereby it is made an intrinsecal essential part of a man The truth of this will give much light to our point in hand the soul is created by God The informing forme of a man and so hath no other consideration but as an essential part of him and therefore seeing the man is in Adam whose soul this is that is thereby exposed to all the sinne of Adam Hence it is that there is some difference between the creation of Angles and the Chaos at first which were made absolutely of nothing and of the soul For the soul though it be created of nothing yet because a form hath an essential respect to its matter for which cause Contarenus as Zanchy saith affirmed The soul had a middle way of being between Creation and Generation and therefore is that distinction of some learned men that though the soul be not ex materiâ yet it is in materiâ God did not create it but in the body though not of the body and thus farre it may be said to be of man as that he is the cause though not of the being of the soul yet of the being of it n this body The third Proposition The soul being thus created an essential part of a man and the form informing of him Hence it is That we must not conceive the soul to be first created as it were of it self subsisting and then infused into the body but when the materials are sufficiently prepared then as the Schoolmen expresse it well Infundendo creatur and creando infuditur it 's infused by the creating of it and created by infusing So that the soul is made in the body organized not without it so the Scripture Zech. 12. 1. Who formeth the spirit of man with him and because of the souls unon to the body when thus disposed Hence it is that man may truly and univocally be said to beget a man though his soul be created for seeing man who is the compositum is the Terminus generationis Hence it is that man begets man as well as a beast though the soul of a beast be from the matter as we see in Christ the Virgin Mary is truly said to be the mother of Christ though she was not the mother of his Divine Nature nor of his soul Thus man doth properly beget another man though the soul be by Creation as the matter also according to Philosophy is ingenerable because the soul is united to the body prepared and disposed for it by man from which union resulteth the whole person or compositum consisting of soul and body So that although man be not the cause of his childs souls being yet that it hath a being in this body and thereby such a person produced he is the cause of it and by this if well understood you may see original sinne communicated to every one though the soul be created In that way which the humane nature is communicated to every one So that if we truly know how a man is made a man from his parents we may also know how sin is thereby also communicated The fourth Proposition is Although God doth daily create new souls yet his Decree and Purpose to do so was from all eternity And therefore in this respect we may say all men consisting of souls and bodies were present to God in Adam in respect of Gods Decree and also his Covenant with Adam so that although there be a new Creation yet there is no new institution or ordination on Gods part Whereas therefore it 's thought hard that because Adam was so many thousand years ago the soul created now should partake of his sinne The Answer is That in respect of Gods Decree and Covenant we were all present to God in Adam There is no man hath his being De Novo but unto God he was present from eternity so that though the things in time have a succession of being yet to God all are present in eternity Not that we can say they were actually sinners or actually justified but in respect of Gods purpose all were present and this will help much to facilitate this difficulty we are as present to God in respect of his Decree and knowledge as if we had been then actually in Adam in which sense it 's said Omnes fuerunt ille unus homo and Act. 15. 18. Known to God are all his works from the beginning The fifth Proposition Hence it is that the just and wise God is not to alter and change that course of nature because man hath sinned It is vain to say Why will God unite this soul to the body when thereby both shall be polluted For though man hath by his sinne deserved that this should be yet God is not therefore to cease of the continuing and multiplying of mankind God doth keep to the fixed course of nature notwithstanding mans sinne And therefore we see that even to those who are begot in fornication and whoredome yet even to such in that unlawfull act God giveth souls because he will not interrupt the course of nature The sixth Proposition Adam by his first transgression did deserve that all who should be of him should be deprived of the Image of God and the privation of that doth necessarily inferre the presence of all sinne in a subject susceptible As take away light from the air and it must be dark so that this Proposition answereth the whole difficulty Adam deserved by his transgression that all his posterity should become dead in sinne and as he had thus deserved it so God had ordained it and appointed it The soul then of every one being made part of that man who is thus cursed in Adam it becomes deprived of the Image of God and so full of sinne So that although God create the soul naturally good yet because part of man condemned by his sentence he denieth it that original righteousnesse it once had God doth not infuse any evil into the soul nor is the Author of any sinne therein but as a just Judge denieth that righteousnesse which otherwise the soul might have had So that you must not look for an efficient cause of original sinne in the soul but a deficient and a meritorious cause So that the Summe is this If you ask How cometh the soul defiled if created of
Sinne resembles a Treasure CHAP. VII Of the Name Body given to Original Sin Rom. 8. 13. But if you through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live SECT II. What is implied by the word Mortifie SECT V. Why Original Sinne is called a Body CHAP. VIII Of the Privative Part of Original Sinne. SECT I. Of Adam's begetting Seth in his own likeness Gen. 5. 3. And Adam begat a son in his own likeness after his Image and called his name Seth. SECT II. What Original Sin is as to the Privative Part of it CHAP. IX Wherein the making man after Gods Image did consist CHAP. X. Corollaries informing us of the Nature and Aggravations of our loss by sinne and shewing what were the most excellent and choice parts of that Original Righteousness that we are deprived of CHAP. XI A further Consideration of Original Righteousness proving the thing and answering Objections against it CHAP. XII More Propositions about the Nature of the Image of God which man was created in Shewing what particular graces Adam's soul was adorned with CHAP. XIII Reasons to prove That the Privation of Original Righteousness is truly and properly a sin in us CHAP. XIV The Aggravations of the losse of Gods Image SECT II. By the losse of Original Righteousness Gods end in making man was lost SECT III. The Harmony and Subordination in mans Nature dissolved SECT IV. The Properties of this loss CHAP. XV. Of the Positive Part of original Corruption John 3. 6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh SECT II. Of the use of the word Flesh in Scripture and why original Corruption is called by that Name SECT III. How carnal the Soul is in its actings about spiritual objects CHAP. XVI Reasons demonstrating the Positive Part of Original Sinne and why Divines make Original Sinne to have 〈◊〉 Positive as well as Privative Part. CHAP. XVII Objections against the Positive Part of Oâ—â—â—al Sinne answered CHAP. XVIII A Second Text to prove Original Sinne to be Positive opened and vindicated Rom. 7. 7. For I had not known lust except the Law had said Thou shalt not covet SECT II. The word Lust expounded SECT VI. A Three-fold Appetite in man SECT VIII A Consideration of this Concupiscence in reference to the four-fold estate of man SECT X. Why Original Sinne is called Concupiscence or Lust CHAP. XIX The Description of Original Sinne. CHAP. XX. A clear and full knowledge of Original Sinne can be obtained onely by Scripture-light SECT II. Whether the wisest Heathens had any knowledge of this Pollution CHAP. XXI That Reason when once enlightned by the Scriptures may be very powerfull to convince us of this Natural Pollution CHAP. XXII A Comparison and Opposition between the first and second Adam as introductory to this Question How this corruption is propagated 1 Cor. 15. 49. As we have borne the Image of the earthly we shall also bear the Image of the heavenly CHAP. XXIII The various Opinions Objections and Doubts about the manner how the Soul comes to be polluted CHAP. XXIV That the Soul is neither by Eduction or Traduction but by Introduction or Immediate Infusion proved by Texts of Scripture and Arguments from Scripture SECT V. The Authors Apology for handling this great Question SECT VI. Propositions to clear the Doctrine of the Propagation of Original Sin notwithstanding the Souls Creation The Contents of the Third Part. HAndling the Subject of Inhesion CHAP. I. Of the Pollution of the Mind with Original Sinne. Ephes 4. 23. And be ye renewed in the Spirit of your Mind CHAP. II. Of Original Sinne polluting the Conscience Setting forth the Defilement of Conscience as it is Quiet Stupid and Senslesse and also when it is troublea and awakened Tit. 1. 15. But even their mind and Conscience is defiled CHAP. III. Of the Pollution of the Memory 2 Pet. 1. 12. I will not be negligent to put you alwayes in Remembrance of these things c. SECT II. What we mean by Memory SECT III. A Two-fold weaknesse of the Memory SECT V. It s great Usefulnesse SECT VI. Of the Nature of it SECT VII Demonstrations of the Pollution of it SECT VIII Instances of the Pollution of the Memory 1. In forgetting the Objects that we should have in our Memory both Superiour and Inferiour SECT X. 2. In respect of its inward vitiosity adhering to it 3. In not attaining its End 4. In that it is made subservient to the corrupt frame and inclination of our hearts 5. It is not subject to our will and power Hence 6. We remember things that we would not CHAP. IV. Of the Pollution of the Will of Man by Original Sinne. John 1. 13. Which were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God SECT II. Propositions concerning the Nature of the Will SECT III. ¶ 1. The Corruption of the Will in all its several operations ¶ 2. It s Corruption in its General Act which is called Volition ¶ 3. In its absolute and efficacious willing of a thing ¶ 4. In its Act of Fruition ¶ 5. In its Act of Intention ¶ 6. In its Act of Election or Chusing ¶ 7. In its losse of that Aptitude and readinesse it should have to follow the Deliberation and Advice of the Understanding ¶ 8. In its Act of Consent SECT IV. The Desilement of the Will in its Affections and Properties or the sinfull Adjuncts inseparably cleaving unto it Rom. 9. 16. So then it is not of him that willeth or of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy ¶ 1. This Scripture opened vindicated and improved ¶ 2. The Will is so fallen from its primitive honour that it s not worthy to be called Will but Lust ¶ 3. It s wholly perverted about the Ultimate End ¶ 4. It s Privacy and Propriety ¶ 5. It s Pride and Haughtiness ¶ 6. It s Contumacy and Refractoriness ¶ 7. It s Enmity and Contrariety to Gods will ¶ 8. It s Rebellion against the light of the Mind and slavery to the sensitive part in a man ¶ 9. It s Mutability and Inconstancy SECT V. Of the Natural Servitude and Bondage of the Will with a brief Discussion of the Point of Free-will John 8. 35. If the Sonne therefore shall make you free ye shall be free indeed ¶ 2. The Text opened ¶ 3. Of the several kinds of Freedom which the Scripture speaketh of ¶ 4. The Names the Scripture expresseth that by which we call Free-will ¶ 5. Some observations concerning the Promoters of the Doctrine of Free-will How unpleasing the contrary Doctrine is to flesh and blood with some advice about it ¶ 6. The first Demonstration of the slavery of the Will is from the Necessity of sinning that every man is plunged into ¶ 7. That a Necessary Determination may arise several wayes some whereof are very consistent with liberty yea the more necessary the more free ¶ 8. The second Argument of its
not the effect of it Because we are thus sinful and polluted by nature therefore all our actions are likewise so polluted Now then if the Scripture make it such an impossible thing for a man accustomed only to evil to become a changed man that impossibility lieth upon a man who is naturally so For though custom be called a second Nature yet certainly the first Nature is more implanted and so more active in a man This particular therefore may greatly humble a man in that sinne is so deeply rooted in him it 's worse than an habit or custom of sinning It goeth as neer to thy very essence and substance as it can do and yet not be thy substance Therefore the Scripture cals it Flesh and blood The members of a man The Law of sinne in his flesh If a man hath a thorn in his flesh how restless and pained is he Paul compared that heavy temptation he grapled with to a Thorn in the flesh but although by nature we have this thorn not only in our sides but even all over the whole man yet we can lie down in ease and live in pleasure as if nothing ailed us but this is one deadly effect of original sinne that it takes away all sense and feeling whether there be any such thing or no. Oh then let the thoughts of this sinne go as deep into thee as the sinne it self Sinne is got into thy heart let sorrow get thither Sinne hath entred into thy bowels and filled the whole man brimme full as we say Oh let shame and holy confusion be as deep and as complete in thee SECT VIII SEventhly This naturality will appear If we consider that original righteousness which God created man in For our original sinne comes in the place thereof and such a perfection as that was to the soul such a defect is this to us Now the Orthodox do maintain against Papists That that original righteousness was not a supernatural perfection superadded to mans nature but a due and natural perfection concreated with him For as Adam being made to glorifie God was thereby to have a rational soul so also such perfection in that soul which might make him capable of his end otherwise man would have been created in a more imperfect and ignoble condition than any creature It is true indeed That Righteousness and Holiness Adam had which the Scripture cals Gods Image did not flow from the principles of nature neither was it a natural consequent thereof but yet it was a moral condition or perfection due to Adam supposing God created him to such an end and therefore we are not to conceive of that Image of God as an infused habit or habits which were to rectifie and guide the natural faculties and affections of the soul which otherwise would move in repugnancy and contrariety to one another but as a natural rectitude and innate ability of those powers and affections of the soul to move regularly and subordinately to Gods will Though therefore in respect of God that Righteousness Adam had might be called supernatural because it was his gift yet in respect of man the subject so it was connatural and a suitable perfection to his nature This being taken for a sure Truth then it will exceedingly help us to the true understanding of the naturality of this evil for original sinne succeeding in the stead thereof is not as some Papists affirm like the taking of cloaths from a man and so leaving him naked or like the taking away of a bridle from an horse all which are superadded and external helps as it were but it 's like death that takes away the life of a man in respect of what is holy and godly and like an heavy disease that doth much hinder and debilitate even the natural operations This original sinne then is like the spoiling of an instrument of Musick or the deordination of a Clock or Watch when not able to perform their proper service they were made for So that original sinne is partly the want of this original Righteousness that was so connatural and partly thereby a propensity and inclination to all evil For as when the harmony of the humours is dissolved presently diseases arise in the body Thus when that admirable rectitude which was at first in the whole man was broken then all inordinacy all perversness and crookedness presently began to possess the whole man As then original Righteousness was not as an infused habit but the faculties of the soul duly constituted whereby they did regularly move in their several wayes so original sin is not to be conceived like some acquired habit polluting the powers of the soul but as the internal defect and imperfection that is cleaving to them Even as the paralitical hand whensoever it moveth doth it with feebleness and trembling wanting some strength within If therefore we would truly judge of the horrible nature of this sinne we must throughly understand the excellency and wonderful nature of that original Righteousness which is now lost then all things in the soul were in an admirable subordination to that which is holy and although the sensitive appetite was then carried out to some sensible object yet it was with a subordination to the understanding so that in that state of integrity there did not need as the Papists say Righteousness as a bridle to curb in the passions and affections which otherwise would be inordinate for this were to attribute a proneness to sinne in us to God himself for he is the author of every thing which is natural in us but all the affections and sensitive motions were then subjected to the command of reason so that Adam had power to love when and as long and in what measure he pleased All the affections of his soul were both quoad originem gradum and progressum under his dominion Even as the Artificer can make his Clock strike when and as many times as he pleaseth But wo be unto us all this excellent harmony and subordination is now lost and our affections they captivate and rule over our judgments and all this is because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there wants something within as he said of his Image that he could not make stand because it wanted life within SECT IX EIghthly That this original sinne is a natural evil appeareth From the work of grace sanctifying which is the proper remedy to cure this imbred defilement For the grace of Regeneration is chiefly and principally intended to subdue sinne as it did corrupt the nature and so by consequence as we were personally corrupted Therefore the tree must first be made good ere the fruit can be good as the tree is in its nature evil and then it brings forth evil fruit So that God in vouchsafing of this grace of Regeneration doth not principally intend to make thee leave thy actual sinnes for that is by consequence only but to make thy nature better to repair his Image in thee
to act therein And 3. Of cruelty that God who is so ready to forgive us our own sinnes yet should impute to us Adam's But these are fig leaves only and cannot cover the Objectors nakedness SECT II. FOr First We do not say That the Nature of man as it was created first had this imbred pollution in it No it came out of Gods hands pure and clean Eccles 7. ult God made man upright It was after Gods own Image that he made him he had no experimental knowledge of any evil within him But as it was with the earth after mans fall it brought forth bryars and thorns being cursed which as it is thought it would not have done so before Thus upon Adams transgression then and not till then was his soul cursed spiritually to bring forth nothing but bryars and thorns such lusts as were fit combustible matter for hell fire Therefore every Infant almost may understand this That the maintaining of this Truth doth not at all redound to Gods dishonour for we see the like in the Devils Are not they become wicked spirits Is there not an utter impossibility in a Devil to do any thing that is good Are they not called the spiritual wickednesses in high places Ephes 6. 12. as if they were nothing but all over wickedness yet the Devil though so vile and abominable was made a glorious creature None of this poison was at first infused into him but the Apostle Jude ver 6 layeth it wholly upon themselves That they kept not their first estate but left their own habitation The Devils then though so full of wickedness yet are not a reproach to God their Maker but it was through their own wilfulness they became such Apostates Hence in the second place Adam when he first transgressed that command of God and thereby involved all mankind in darkness and misery did it from a voluntary free principle within there was no internal or external necessity compelling him to sinne for he was made with the image of God in him and that matter wherein he did transgress he might easily have attained from God giving him liberty to eat of all other trees so that it was meerly and solely from Adams own will that he undid himself and all his posterity It is true God if he had pleased could have prevented his sinning he could have confirmed him in such grace as we see he did the other Angels that fell not whereby he would certainly have been preserved from all sinne but God is the supreme Sovereign and is not tied up as men are to inferiour Laws It is true he is an eternal Law of Righteousness to himself whereby he cannot do any thing but what is just and righteous yet he hath also an absolute Dominion over all things and may dispose of his creatures as he pleaseth and from this it was that he created man with power to fall as well as to stand making him mutable and changeable whereas the glorified Saints in Heaven shall be delivered from such mutability and there shall not be in them a posse peccare a power to sinne so greatly shall their souls be perfected in Heaven So that still you see God is freed and mans destruction is of himself Hence also in the third place when Adam sinned at first it was not after the same manner as we sinne for when we sinne this floweth from a corrupted nature within Jam. 1. 17. Every one is tempted and drawn aside with the lust that is within him But in Adam there was no such vicious principle It is therefore a false and dangerous position of the Socinians That we sinne in the same manner that he did That we have no more corrupted Nature in us then he had but as he had a free-will by which he chose either good or evil so it is with us But this speaketh open defiance against the Scripture For was Adam by nature the child of wrath Were the imaginations of his thoughts only evil and that continually Could Adam say He found a Law of sinne in his Members warring against the Law of his mind Adam's sinne therefore came from the meer mutability and changeableness that was in his will there being no antecedent corruption in him Insomuch that it hath greatly exercised learned Divines to shew how Adam could sinne and wherein the imperfection did first break forth he being made after the Image of God but in us our sinfulness ariseth from a necessity contracted by the first voluntary transgression and so have a corrupt nature which inclineth to all corrupt actions Adam was in some sense a good Tree and yet did bring forth bad Fruit a sweet Fountain and yet did send forth bitter Streams Here we might say a Vine brought sorth Thorns and a Fig Thistles but we are bad Trees poisoned Fountains Briars and Thorns only from the paralleling of our selves with Adam we may conclude our incurableness as also the danger we are in by every temptation For if Adam though without any corrupt principle within him though without the least spark of any lust was yet so easily inflamed by a temptation What may we expect who have the seed of all evil within us If the green Ivy shall take fire so soon what will the dry Tree do Oh take heed of coming near any occasion of sinne As our Saviour said Remember Lots wife so do thou Adams wife yea and Adam himself These though created holy though without any lustful inclination yet did presently yeeld to the temptations of sinne What then wilt not thou do If Samson with his strength cannot resist the Philistims much less when that is gone can he withstand them But of this difference between Adam and us in sinning more in its time In the fourth place God is to be justified though we be born full of sinne because we are to distinguish between nature it self and the corruption cleaving to it We say our Nature our Essence and Substance our Souls and Bodies in respect of their natural Being are the work of God and we are with David to admire the curious workmanship of God in respect of our Bodies The excellent composition of all the bodily parts did convince even Galen though otherwise an Heathen God therefore as a Creator is to be praised and glorified by us only as Austin of old we must not so praise Deum Creatorem as to make Superfluum Servatorem We must not so celebrate the name of God as a Creator that thereby we should make a Saviour superfluous and unnecessary Sub laudibus naturae latent inimici gratiae under the praises of Nature the enemies of Grace hide themselves and so under the praises of God as a Creator the enemies of Christ as a Saviour shelter themselves Nature then we say is good our Substance and Being is of God onely the defilement annexed inseparably thereunto is of man Even as in our bodies the substance of them is of God but God did not
Comparison I am only to take notice of the Protasis or Proposition which is That by one mans disobedience many were made sinners So that in the words we are to consider the Subject or rather the cause of mankinds sinfulness and that is described in the Nature of it and the Author The Nature of it is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Apostle called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which words do denote the hainousness of it Rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft and Adams sinne is called disobedience yea some learned Divines shew That the proper specifical nature of this sinne was disobedience there were also many sins ingredient thereunto this the Apostle doth to aggravate the hainousness of it Insomuch that Peltan the Jesuite doth wickedly accuse the Protestants for aggravating the guilt of it so much Apud illos saith he omnia sunt quasi tragica infernalia De pecc orig They have nothing but tragical expressions and proclaim hell and damnation because of this pollution For this is the Apostles scope in this place to heighten the consideration of it that so Christ may be the more magnified Even as an Historian who would make a parallel between two great Generals yet intending to preferre one before another doth in the first place amplifie the gallantry the warlike power the military stratagems of the one that so he may the more advance that other General whom he intends to preferre above him Thus doth the Apostle here he makes original sinne to be exceeding sinfull that so the grace of Christ may be exceeding rich and precious grace Adams sinne then which is imputed and made ours as you heard is disobedience SEC II. SEcondly You have the Author of this disobedience and that is said to be by one man Though Eve was the first in transgression yet Adam is named as the chief and therefore Adam is sometimes used collectively both for man and woman as when God said Let us make man after our Image Here then we have Paul informing us of that which all Philosophy was ignorant of viz. The imputation of Adams sinne to us and our natural pollution flowing from it Yea Paul guided by the Spirit of God finds out that mystery which none of us ever could discover by reading the History of Mans Fall related by Moses For there indeed we could see the cause of death how that came upon all mankind but that Adams sin was ours That we all sinned in him that hereupon we were all involved in sin and misery for this we are to bless God for Paul who hath so largely discovered it SECT III. IN the next place We have the Effect of this disobedience with the Extent of it The Extent is to many that is to all born naturally of Adam For many is not here opposed to all but to one the original from that one many even all are made sinners Therefore it 's a dangerous Exposition of Theodoret as Sixtus Senensis relateth which affirmeth Not all but some only to be infected with Adam 's sinne exempting Abel Noah and others from this pollution For 1 Cor. 15. the Apostle saith In Adam all die and in this Chapter at vers 12. All have sinned in Adam But the Effect that is more dreadfull and worthy of all meditation We are made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is more then when all were said to sin in him for this doth denote the habitual depravation of all the parts of the soul as also a readiness to commit all actual sins Therefore the word is sometimes applied to signifie great and hainous sinners as Mary Magdalen is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sinner So then you see that by Adams disobedience all are made sinners CHAP. VI. Whether we are Sinners by Natural Propagation or by Imitation THere remaineth one great Doubt Whether we are so by Natural Propagation because born of him or by occasion only and imitation because he sinned We are not say some made sinners as soon as we are born but when by free-will we come to consent to sinne and choose it Thus Pelagians of old and Socinians of late with many others Erasmus though he saith he holds Original sinne yet useth all his strength to enervate the Orthodox Interpretation SECT I. That Adam's Disobedience makes us Sinners by Propagation BUt there are cogent Reasons to understand it thus That Adam 's Disobedience makes us sinners by natural Propagation As First Because the Apostle still chargeth our guilt and sinfulness upon Adam only upon that one man and upon that one offence whereas if it were by example and imitation only it might be upon our parents and others and upon their transgressions So that the Apostle might have said By many men and many disobediences we are made sinners but still he chargeth it on one man and one offence Secondly If Imitation be taken strictly then a man must know and have in his eye that which he doth imitate but how many thousands are there that runne into all excess of wickedness and never heard of Adam much less could not propound his sin for a patern to follow So that even in the Pelagian sense to be sinners by Imitation cannot be properly used in this Controversie Thirdly If the Apostle understood sin only by Imitation or occasion not Propagation then as Austin of old well urged it might be more properly fastned upon the Devil as the Original for it was not by Adam but the Devil that sin came into the world in this sense and so death by sinne Hence the Devil is said to be a man-slayer from the beginning Joh. 8. 44. or a murderer and that both of souls and bodies In somuch that the Devil was the occasion of all the wickedness and death the consequent thereof And hence our Saviour speaking of wicked men Joh 8. saith They are of their Father the Devil and what they see him do that they do So that the Devil is made to be the original of sinne by imitation to wicked men and not Adam Fourthly Adams sinne must be made ours by natural Propagation not Imitation Because death is made the necessary consequent of it all that 〈◊〉 have sinned Adam 's sinne But now death is propagated naturally Hence Infant die which yet according to the best Divines have not actual sinne why 〈◊〉 it that they die yea they are not only subject to death but to exquisite torments and pains yea Infants have been grievously possessed with the Devils and tormented by them Now this could not be if they were not guilty of sia If therefore death be by natural Propagation then sinne the cause of it must also be in that manner Fifthly This comparison made between the first Adam communicating sin and the second communicating Righteousness doth fully evince this For we are made righteous by Christ not only as if he were a patern and example of Righteousness unto us but by
an hidden and secret infusion of holiness into our souls whereby we are made new creatures and said to be partakers of the Divine Nature For whereas the Papists would argue as they think very strongly for our Justification by inherent Righteousness from the parallel made between Adam and Christ As say they we are made sinners not by imputation onely but by inherency through Adam's disobedience so we must be made righteous by Christ not by imputation but inherently We retort the Argument and say Because Adam's sin is imputed tous wherby we are made sinners so Christs obedience is made ours whereby we are constituted righteous Yet we grant further That by Christ we are made inherently righteous though by that we are not justified and this inward renovation comes not from Christ by example but a powerfull and secret transformation of the whole man so that as to partake of Adam's sinne we must be born naturally of Adam For if God should create some men in an extraordinary manner not by natural descent from him they would not have this natural contagion cleaving to them so to partake of Christs Righteousness it 's necessary we must be new born by the Spirit of God Thus you see many Reasons compelling us to understand the manner how by Adam 's disobedience we are made sinners to be by natural Propagation For if this foundation be not laid sure the whole fabrick will quickly fall to the ground We come then to the Observation which is SECT II. THat all mankind by Adam 's disobedience are truly and properly made sinners The Text is so clear that we would wonder any should be so deluded as to confront the Truth contained therein Every one that is naturally born of Adam is thereby and in that respect made a sinner though he should have no actual transgessions of his own An Infant that liveth not to be guilty of any actual evil yet because Adam's seed is thereby made a sinner and so a child of Gods wrath Certainly the Apostle would not have been so large and industrious in affirming this Truth But because of the evident necessity to know it and the great utility that may come to us if duly improving this knowledge To be sure he layeth this as a foundation to exalt and magnifie the grace of God by Christ So that they who deny this original contagion must needs rob Christ and his grace of the greatest part of that glory due to him CHAP. VII Of the Souls inward filth and defilement by Adam's Sinne. SECT I. TO explain this profound and weighty Truth consider that expression in the Doctrine That we are by Adam 's disobedience made truly and properly sinners For there are those that hold we receive much hurt Yea some say we are guilty by Adam's disobedience but not made truly and properly sinners they deny there is any inward pollution upon the soul of man When I had proceeded farre in this Discourse of Original Sinne there cometh out an English Writer Dr J. Taylor Vnum Neces in a triumphing and scornfull style like Julian of old peremptorily opposing this Doctrine of inherent pollution by nature He is not meerly Pelagian Arminian Papist or Socinian but an hotchpotch of all So that as there were a Sect of Philosophers as Laertius reports Proem in fin that was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they would chuse out some opinions from all the Sects that were So doth this man most unhappily sometimes select what is most deformed in those several parties With this Writer we shall encounter as often as we find him throwing earth into the pure springs Although the word Sinner in some places is as much as to be an offender to be obnoxious to punishment yet in this place we must understand more as is to be shewed For there are three things we are subject to by Adam's disobedience First There is a participation of the very actual transgression of Adam that very sinne he committed is imputed to us Secondly There is the guilt of this sinne whereby Adam was obnoxious to death and eternal condemnation this also we partake of Lastly There was the deprivation of Gods Image the loss of that upon Adam's transgression so that his soul which was before full of light and a glorious harmony upon this disobedience became like a chaos and confusion And in this state we are born not succeeding Adam in the Image of God he once had but in that horrible confusion and darknesse he was plunged into These three things then we partake of by Adam's disobedience but that which is chiefly intended here and which also my purpose is to treat of chiefly is That inward filth and defilement we are fallen into by Adam 's sin SECT II. 1. THerefore when it is said That we are made sinners by Adam this is not all as if thereby we were put into a necessity of dying or that death is now made a curse to us For thus much the Socinians grant That Adam's sinne did hurt us thus farre That although death was natural to Adam even in the state of integrity yet it was not made necessary nor penal but upon Adam's disobedience But 1. This is false That death would have been natural to Adam though he had not sinned as is to be shewed And In the second place Death as a curse or as made necessary is not all that we are obnoxious unto by Adam's sinne for the Apostle makes that a distinct effect of his disobedience for he sheweth That by Adam's offence sinne did first pass over the whole world and after sin death So that to be a sinner is more than to be obnoxious to death for the Apostle distinguisheth these two Besides why should death fall upon all mankind for Adams sin if so be that that offence was not made every mans and all had not sinned in him Indeed Chrysostom of old expounds this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subject to punishment and death as if to be sinners were no more than to be mortal Though Chrysostom in some places seemeth not to hold original sinne yet in other places he is expresly for it This Interpretation of Chrysostoms is received by the English Author above-mentioned with much approbation as if to be a sinner were to be handled and dealt with as an offender But the Apostle maketh sinne and death two distinct things the one a consequent from the other because we are sinners we do become mortal Besides to be a sinner is opposite to be righteous in the Text If then that signifie an inherent qualification denominating truly righteous this must also an inherent corruption whereby we are truly made sinners So that this Interpretation hath no probability Yea from Chrystom himself on the place we may have a Consutation of this Exposition For saith he one to be made mortal by him of whom he is born is not absurd but by anothers
disobedience to be made a sinner What congruity is there in that Now what justice is there that one should be made mortal by another mans sinne unless he partake of his sinne Yea he saith a little before For one to be punished for another mans sinne it hath no reason and yet all along the Chapter affirmed That by Adam 's sinne we are all made subject to death This is no good Harmony SECT III. IN the second place To be a sinner is more than some others have likewise explained it which say It 's to be obnoxious to the eternal wrath of God This way go Piphius Catharinus and Salâ—â—eroâ—s inclineth much that way though in some things different Yea Arminius and the Remonstrants they conceive that to be a sinner by Adam's disobedience implieth these two things and no more First That Adam 's actual sinne is truly and properly made ours and thus farre they say the truth But then secondly they affirm That this is all the original sin we have They grant that by this there is a reatus a guilt upon all but not any thing inherent that hath truly and properly the notion of sinne They will therefore yeeled That we are by nature the children of wrath But say they not for any inherent pollution but because of Adam 's sinne imputed to us But though these two must necessarily be granted viz. the imputation of Adam's sinne and the participation of that guilt thereby yet this is not all that the Apostle meaneth when he saith We are by his disobedience made sinners for he intends besides this the internal and natural depravation of the whole man which now in ecclesiastical use is for the most part called original sinne And there are these Reasons to evince it First That it 's more than guilt or an obnoxious condition to eternal wrath because the Apostle having spoken of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that judgement to condemnation which cometh upon all he doth in this verse declare the inward cause and demerit of this in our selves and thereby declareth the justice of God For if we had no sinne in our selves inherent but that only imputed the justice of God would not be so manifest in condemning of us It is true we must not separate or dis-joyn this inherent sinne from that imputed sinne yet we must not confound them or make imputed sinne all the sinne we have by nature The Apostle therefore doth in this Text give a reason of that condemnation which hath passed on all because there is sin inwardly adhering to all Secondly To be a sinner is more than to be onely guilty Because as you heard of the opposition made between the first Adam and Christ Now the Righteousness that we are invested with by Christ is truly and properly a Righteousness It 's not only a claim or title to eternal happiness it is not only a freedom from guilt but an inherent conformity to the Law of God So that as in and by Christ there is an imputed Righteousness which is that properly that justifieth and as the effect of this we have also an inherent Righteousness which in Heaven will be completed and perfected Thus by Adam we have imputed sin with the guilt of it and inherent sin the effect of it Thirdly If this should be granted That we are only guilty by Adam's transgression and not inherently sinfull then it would follow that we had free-will to what is good that we are not dead in sinne That the natural man might perceive the things of God For by this opinion Though we are made guilty by Adam's transgression yet not inherently sinfull And thus while they avoid Pelagianism in one sense they are deeply plunged into it in another sense We must therefore necessarily conclude That original sin is more than guilt it denoteth also an inward contagion and defilement of soul SECT IV. IN the third place Adam's sinne imputed to us is not all our original sinne for this is also affirmed by many That Adam's actual transgression is made every mans sinne So that there is but that one original sinne common to all and every one that is born hath not a particular proper original sinne to himself This opinion they think is only able to withstand those strong Objections that are brought against the imputability of any thing inherent in us as truly and properly sinne while we are Infants and cannot put forth any acts of reason or will Yea hereby they say that intricate and perplexed discourse about the propagation of original sinne will be wholly needless so that they conclude on this opinion as labouring with the least inconveniencies and difficulties Their Assertion is That Adam 's actual sinne is made ours by imputation and that is all the original sinne we have an Infant new born having nothing in it that is truly and properly a sinne it hath they say many things that have rationem poenae but not culpae a proneness to sinne when it groweth up is not a sinne but a punishment it is the effect of original sinne not the sin it self Though this may seem specious and plausible yet this will not satisfie the Scripture expressions which besides that original imputed sinne doth plainly acknowledge an inherent one And First When we have plain Texts that do assert any Divine Truth we are ininseparably to adhere to that though the wit of man may raise up such subtil Objections that it may seem very difficult to answer them Is not this seen in the Doctrine of the Trinity of the eternal Deity of Christ of the Resurrection of the Body of Justification by Faith alone In all or most of these points heretical heads have raised up such a soggy mist before our eyes that sometimes it is hard to see the Sunne that should guide us And thus it is confessed That in maintaining of original inherent sinne as truly and properly a sinne there are some weighty difficulties but yet not such as should preponderate or weigh down clear Scripture And therefore Austin doth sometimes confess That though he were not able to answer all the Objections could be brought against this original defilement yet we were to adhere to the clear places of Scripture Hence it is that by Epistles he consulted with Hierom in this case acknowledging the many straits he was intangled in In the second place there are clear Texts of Scripture affirming this inward pollution in all and that as sinne for the Apostle in this discourse of his doth distinguish sinne and punishment yet both these he saith come by Adam's sinne If then by sinne were meant only punishment as some would have it then the Apostle in saying Death came by sinne should mean that God punished punishments with punishments for one punishment he should inflict another Thus whereas the Adversaries make it absurd that a sinne should be a punishment of a former sinne they fall into a greater absurdity making one
mind and spirit therefore the Spirit lusteth against it That it is a punishment is manifest by the event for upon Adam's disobedience he lost Gods Image and so hath blindness in mind perversness in his will and a disorder over the whole man in which dreadfull and horrible estate we all succeed him and this the Text in hand speaketh to That it is the cause of sinne is manifest Gen. 6. 5. for from that corrupt heart of man it is That the imaginations of a mans heart are only evil and that continually This is a furnace red hot which alwayes sends forth those sparks Thus you see that original sinne is all these three a sin a punishment and a cause of sin 3. It is very clear and plain by Scripture that God doth punish one sinne by another So that when a man hath committed one sinne he is justly given up by God to commit more Amongst the many instances that may be given I shall pitch on two only 2 Thess 2. 10 11. where you have a sinne mentioned that God will punish viz. They received not the truth of God in love A sinne that is very ordinary But then observe how dreadfully God punisheth this God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lie This is their punishment a spiritual punishment more than any corporal one and that this is a sinne as well as a punishment is plain Because to believe a lie is a sinne to take falshood for truth the delusions of the Devil for the voice of Gods Spirit This is a sinne and a very hainous one The other instance is Rom. 1. 21. where you have the Heathens sinnes mentioned Because that when they knew God they glorified him not c. There you have their punishment to be given up to uncleanness to all vile lusts and sins against nature None can deny but these were sinnes and that they were a punishment for corrupting their natural light implanted in them is plain for the Apostle vers 24 26 28. saith For this cause or therefore God gave them up to these lusts and vers 27. the expression is observable That they received in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet Hearken to this with both ears and tremble all you who live under Gospel light if natural light corrupted bring such heavy soul-judgments no wonder if supernatural And therefore if you see men notwithstanding all the preaching of Gods word yet given up to be beastly sots or obstinate malicious men in their wickedness Wonder not at it for they receive in themselves a just recompence for the abusing of that light God hath vouchsafed to them Many other instances there are wherein it is plain That God makes one sinne a punishment of another Yea it 's said That every sinne since the first is both a sinne and a punishment Therefore the want of Gods Imagine us as soon as we are born with a proneness to all evil may be the punishment of Adam's actual disobedience and yet a sinne in us 4. As for the distinction assigned between sinne and punishment the one voluntary and an action the other involuntary and a passion Though there be learned men both Papists and Protestants viz. Vasquez and Twisse who disprove this by instances yet if it be granted it will not hinder or enervate our Position That original inherent sinne is both a sinne and a punishment also For when the learned say That sinne may be a punishment of a sinne they do not mean sin quâ sinne peccatum quâ peccatum for that is wholly of man but peccatum quâ poena as a judgment it is of God To understand this therefore take notice That in sinne there is the Obliquity and the Action to which this Obliquity is annexed Now sinne in the Obliquity of it so it is not a punishment but in the action or materiale of it to which it doth adhere As for instance Those vile and unclean lusts the Heathens were given up unto were a punishment of their rebellion unto the light Now as they were sinnes in their formality so they were onely permissivè and ordinativè of God but take the Actions substracted to that Obliquity which was in them so they were efficienter of God and he gave them up to their lusts 2. When God doth punish one sinne with another the meaning is not as if he did infuse this wickedness but only he denieth that mollifying and softning grace which if a man had he would resist the temptations of sinne as in this particular of original sinne You must not conceive of God in the Creation of the soul as if a man were pouring poison in a vessel so he did put sinne into our natures but he denieth to give and continue that Righteousness Adam had and then our souls do necessarily receive the clean contrary darkness for light Atheism for faith disorder for order Even as if God should withdraw the Sunne at noon-day continue the light thereof no longer to us it would upon that subduction be immediately dark there needed no other cause to introduce it Thus it is here upon Adam's fall God denying to continue his Image and original righteousness in us original sinne without any other positive cause cometh in the stead thereof and therefore we are not as Austin of old well observed to seek after the causa efficiens but deficiens peccati sin hath no efficient but deficient cause Therefore thirdly In this original sinne we may consider that which is peccatum and so it 's evil and that which is poena and so it 's good For as you look-on it being the deprivation of that rectitude which ought to be in a man so it is a sinne but as you consider it to be the denying of that holiness on Gods part which once we had so it 's poena or rather punitio The denying of this Image o◠God at first was punitio but this loss continued is poena so that the want and loss of that righteousness which once we enjoyed if considered on Gods part who continueth his denial of it is a just punishment and a good thing ordained by God but if you consider it as inherent in man who hath deserved this at Gods hand so it 's an evil and properly a sin in him 4. The same thing may be a sinne and a punishment also in divers respects As it may be a sinne in respect of a sinner but a punishment in respect of others Thus Absolom's sinne was a sinne in respect of himself but a punishment in respect of David So Parents sinnes may be sinnes in respect of themselves but punishments in respect of their children and we are especially to take heed of such sinnes as are not our sinnes onely but others punishments such are passions and unmortified anger this is a sinne to thee and a punishment to others 5. Every sinne is a punishment in this respect That it brings anxiety terror and fear
thee What shall God give all these names to it to make thee afraid and to groan under it yet shall thy heart continue still like the rock and adamant CHAP. VIII Of the Privative Part of Original Sinne. SECT I. Of Adam's begetting Seth in his own likeness GEN. 5. 3. And Adam begat a sonne in his own likeness and after his Image and called his name Seth. MOses in this Chapter giveth a brief and summary capitulation of the Lives and Deaths of the Patriarchs unto Noah mentioning these heads 1. That God made man 2. That he made him in time 3. After his own Image 4. Male and Female 5. He blessed them 6. The imposition of the name Adam to Eve as well as to Adam And this he calleth The Book of the generations of Adam viz. His succession with all his acts of his Life and also his Death otherwise Adam had no generation but was created by God The Hebrew word though sometimes it signifieth a Book or Epistle yet in the general it is no more than a Catalogue or Rehearsal as it is here and so is to be interpreted in some other places the neglect whereof hath in part made an occasion of dispute Whether any Canonical Books be lost or no as Numb 21. 14. whereas the word there is not to be taken for an Historical Volume but the Enumeration or Rehearsal of the ways of the Lord In the next place he proceedeth to Seth not but that Adam had other sons only he mentioneth him as the future head of humane posterity upon the drowning of the world Now concerning him we have his name he was called Seth. There were Heretiques called Sethiani who attributed unto him more than a man but the holy Ghost doth antidote against that opinion by informing of us that he was begotten in a sinfull mortal estate 2. Of whom he was begotten and that is of Adam 3. How or in what manner and that is After Adams Image in his own likeness Adam was created after the Image and likeness of God that is in a most perfect and compleat resemblance for Image and likeness do not differ though the Schoolmen attempt to difference them but it is an Hebraism putting two Substantives together for aggravation sake and it is as much here as an Image exceeding like Thus Adam was made in respect of his soul qualified with holiness like God but in the Text Seth is said to be begotten of Adam in Adam's Image not in Gods that is in a corrupt miserable and mortal estate For whereas Adam was by Nature a man by Condition the Lord and Chief in whom humane Posterity was to be reckoned of As also in respect of corruption now polluted having lost Gods Image Seth was after Adam 's own likenesse in all these three particulars That he was a man like him none can doubt That he was like Adam in respect of his Headship to his Posterity is plain because Abel was dead and Cain with his Posterity was to be destroyed in the floud Not that this is the whole Image or likenesse here spoken of That as Adam was the first Head of mankind so Seth was to be of those who should be preserved in the flood as some would have it For such a resemblance would have been more eminently in Noah who in the Ark seemed to be the common Parent of mankind Therefore in the third place This Image or likenesse to Adam is mentioned eppositely to that Image of God which Adam was created in And if you object Why is it not as Well said of Abel or Cain that Adam begat them after his own Image as well as Seth The Answer is plain Moses in this Historical Capitulation doth not mention all in a Family but such who were onely by a direct Line to descend to their Posterity and to be an Head to that Now not Abel or Cain but Seth was appointed by God in this place And that we might know in what manner all Generations are to descend from him the Scripture doth here inform us That we must not think that Seth had from Adam the Image of God or would propagate it to others but now he and we are as Adam after his fall sinfull and mortal For although the Church hath generally thought of Adam that he did repent and was saved for we doe not reade afterwards of any grosse sinne he committed and God made the glorious Promise of a Saviour to him yet he did not beget Seth as he was regenerated but as a man and so being fallen from that Covenant he was first placed in his personal grace afterwards could not be conveyed to his Posterity as his sinne while a common Parent was We see then though Adam was godly and Seth was likewise holy yet for all that he was born without the Image of God and in a polluted estate Besides therefore in this place is a seasonable mentioning of the likenesse and Image Adam begat Seth in because Moses being here to capitulate their several Generations which doth imply their mortality doth opportunely give the cause of it So that Snecanin Method Distri Cause Sol. dam. cap. 3. his opinion which he offereth to the learned to judge Whether by Adam's Image be not meant his repaired Image with the corrupted one being now assumed unto Gods favour seemeth directly to oppose the Text which calleth it Adam's own Image not Gods SECT II. What Original Sinne is SEeing therefore we have handled the Quid nominis of Original sinne what the chief Names are which the Scripture giveth unto it We come to consider the Quid Rei the Nature and Definition of it And whereas some make it it consist onely in the meer privation of Gods Image Others in a positive inclination unto all evil We shall take in both for although as Calvin well saith He that affirmeth Original sinne to be the privation of Gods Image speaks the whole Nature of it Yet because that doth not so fully and particularly represent the loathsomnesse of it therefore it 's necessary with the Scripture to consider both the Privative and Positive part of original sinne I shall beginne with the Privative part That original sinne is the privation of that original Righteousnesse and glorious Image of God which was at first put into us And this the holy Ghost meaneth when he saith Adam begat Seth after his own likenesse and Image From whence observe That we are by nature without the Image of God we were created in and this is a great part of our original sinne This truth of the losse of Gods Image in us is of very great concernment and therefore to be improved both Doctrinally and Practically It is the greatest losse that ever besell mankind and oh our carnal and dull hearts which can bewail the losse of health of wealth of any outward comfort but this which is the greatest losse of all viz. the Image of God which we should bewail all our life time
that we are no wayes sensible of I shall not at large in this place treat De Imagine Dei of the Image of God in man I shall say onely so much as will make us the better discover the Nature of original sinne And First We are to know That howsoever there be hot and fervent Disputes about this Image of God what it is wherein it doth consist and according as they take it more largely or strictly so they conclude the Image of God is lost or not lost yet we may by Scripture-light make it to consist in these things CHAP. IX Wherein the making Man after Gods Image did consist SECT I. FIrst In the soul as it is endowed with reason and understanding For herein man did transcend all other visible creatures that God made him with a rational soul investing him with reason and free-will and in this respect the Image of God is not totally lost For though by it we have lost all our power and understanding in holy things yet we have not lost our souls and the natural faculties thereof we are not made bruit beasts we are men still Hence it is that still the reason holds Why a man should not kill another Gen. 9. 6. For in the image of God made he man If there were not yet the Image of God in some respect the reason would not be so forcible For what weight would it carry to say Thou shalt not kill a man because once he had the Image of God but now he hath lost it God speaketh of what he will require of every man that hath slain another and that because in the Image of God he made him Thus Jame 3. 9. aggravateth the sinne of cursing any man because man is made after the similitude of God To this we may appropriate that of the Poet confirmed Act. 17. by the Apostle himself We are his off spring We will grant then That the Image of God so farre as it consists in the soul and the natural faculties is not lost though in regard of the actings thereof even about natural things they are made infirm and weak Secondly The Image of God did consist in that holinesse and righteousness which God did adorn the soul with And this indeed is the most noble and principal part of Gods Image to be made like God in righteousnesse and holinesse Therefore Col. 3. 10. Ephes 4 24. we read the Image of God is said to be in righteousnesse and true holinesse Insomuch that many learned Divines do make this the onely Image of God though not so probably This indeed is the principal and chief the other is but remote and secundary for the later abideth even in the Devils and the damned in hell They have reason and understanding yet they cannot do the least good action no not for a moment although they have so much light in them This holinesse and righteousnesse then in the whole man was the chiefest resemblance of God he being holy as God was holy not by equality but similitude But alas who is able to apprehend aright of this Who can now tell being plunged into all evil and sinne what it is to be altogether holy what it is to be without any blemish or spot Yet in such a glorious and admirable manner we were created Thirdly The Image of God did not only comprehend this holinesse actually dwelling in us but a power and strength also to persevere in this holinesse for if God had been never so bountifull in one yet if he had denied the other he would have made us happy that thereby we might become more miserable But this is not to be thought of that God who shewed so much love and bounty in our first Creation Adam therefore had the Law of God written in his heart having strength and ability from within to withstand all temptations and to perform any holy auty so that we cannot instance in any holy action which he had not power to perform Indeed to believe in Christ as a Saviour to repent of sinne he could not actually do them because they do necessarily imply the subject sinfull and in a miserable estate and condition but eminently and transcendently these things were in his power yea this power of his did extend to keep all the Commandments of God and that without any imperfection Insomuch that being under the Covenant of works he might have obtained justification by them though not meritoriousty This glory did God at first put upon us who now have nothing but a cursed slavery unto sinne and an utter impotency to any thing that is holy As for resisting any temptation he had strength and ability enough to gainsay it though it had been in many degrees more violent than that which 〈◊〉 him It is true he was overcome by a temptation and in that which might have easily been repulsed as we would judge but this was to shew That although he was created holy yet he was also mutable Though he had power to persevere yet he had not that grace which did make him actually to persevere as the confirmed Angels have So that what Historians say of the Marsi in Italy and the 〈◊〉 in Africa That they had such a temper of body that no Serpents could hurt them or poison them Such an admitable temperament was Adams soul in that the Serpent would not have deceived them had not they given consent For if while we are in this corrupted estate yet the Devil cannot force us to sinne be cannot make us sinne whether we will or no but it is lust within us that betrayeth all to him No wonder then if in that state of integrity there was no 〈…〉 to sinne either from within or without Fourthly This Image of God in the holinesse of it was not only in the mind and the will with a clear knowledge of God and love of him but it did extend also to the affections so that they were made with a regular subordination to the rule of holinesse within a man These wild horses for our possions are no better were then all tamed and as much subject to mans will as the winds and tempells were to Christs Anger grief love and desire these did not rise or continue in our soul any longer or otherwise but as they were conducted by the light of God shining in the mind This must necessarily be comprehended in that expression Eccles 7. when God is said to make man right rectitude is an universal harmony and congruity of all the parts of the soul unto the rule Austin did once wonder at that disobedience which now man finds in himself Superat animu corperi c. Confes lib. 8. cap. 9. The soul commands the body and presently it obeyeth but saith he Imperat sibi ipsi it commands it self and then there is rebellion but it was not thus from the beginning Therefore the Papists and Socinians they do blaspheme in some sense God our holy Maker whale they affirm That
noble creature worse than other creatures if he had not created him with such perfect and suitable qualifications as would inable him to obtain true blessedness for every creature else had an implanted ability in it to accomplish his end and why then should God do lesse bountifully with man one of the chiefest instances of his glorious workmanship But of this I must necessarily speak more because of the Socinian who cals this Doctrine of original righteousness Faetida fabula an old stinking fable SECT V. 5. ORiginal sinne is a privation not only of that righteousness which was a natural perfection due to him upon supposition of his Creation for the enjoyment of God but also of whatsoever supernatural and gracious favour Adam had We do not say That Adam had nothing supernatural in him for assisting and co-operating 〈◊〉 supernatural as also that prophetical light he had concerning 〈…〉 God did superadde many glorious ornaments which were 〈…〉 and which he did not absolutely need as means to make him 〈…〉 and such likewise were those consequents of holinesse mentioned before 〈◊〉 to be the Sonne of God and to be the Temple of the holy Ghost Now all these gratuita are lost as well as the naturalia we are no more the children of God or the Temple of God but our souls are possest with Satan and he ruleth in our hearts as in his proper possession Some Divines call original righteousnesse the absolute Image of God and our sonship and filial relation to God for Adam is called the Sonne of God Luke 3. ult the relative Image now whether absolute or relative Image all is lost and therefore that assisting grace which was then ready at hand for Adam to enjoy that thereby he might bâ—â—nabled to do any good action we are naturally without Oh then the 〈◊〉 and undone estate we are in being without inberent grace dwelling in us and assisting grace from God without us without eyes and the light of the Sun also Who can think that God at first made us such sinfull mortal and wretched creatures It would be much against the wisdom and goodness of God he would then have done worse with man than with any flie or worm SECT VI. What are the most excellent and choice parts of that Original Righteousness that we are deprived of BUt because the greatest part of the privative way of original corruption is in losing that Image of God and concreated holinesse and we have onely spokan in the general of that that we may be the more affected with it and the losse thereof may pierce to our very hearts Let us consider what are the most excellent and choice parts of this original righteousnesse that we are deprived of that so we may not only see our losse in the bulk but be able to account of every particular in this and that we have lost And the first particular to be insisted on is that great dignity God put on man making him with a Free will to do what is holy Free-will is a great perfection though the mutability in it as in Adam was a negative Imperfection this was admirable in Adam that he had power if he willed to doe any holy action whatsoever There was not in him any clog any impediment to stop the exercise of this Free will but as he had dominion over all creatures so also over hiâ— whole soul and indeed if God had not created him with this dominion over his actions his obedience had not been so eminent nor his disobedience so culpable But this flower is withered this Crown is fallen to the ground Man hath now no free will no power to do any thing that is holy He hath power to eat and drink he hath power to do civil moral actions he hath power to do actions externally religious to come to the Congregation to hear but for those things that are internally holy to love God to believe on him to repent of sin This the Scripture doth in many places deny to him making him to be dead in sinne and untill born again by the Spirit unable to do any holy duty This Raymundus Theol. Natur. de lapsu hominis doth well urge That the soul as to spiritual actions and in reference to God is wholly dead so that as a dead man is not able to produce any vital actions so neither can any natural man spiritual actions and because man being dead is not sensible of this losse therefore doth the same man compare him to a mad man that knoweth not how it is with him yea he much pursueth that similitude of wine degenerated into vinegar saying That as vinegar retaineth nothing of the sweetnesse or goodnesse it had when it was wine Thus neither doth man retain any thing of that light in his mind or love in his heart which once he had Man saith he is not become of good wine bad which though bad retaineth some taste and hath a little relish of the nature of wine but he is as when Wine is degenerated into vinegar which hath all clean contrary to what is had when once wine This comparison he the rather urgeth Because saith he man doth not or cannot discern in himself the difference between his created condition and his fallen therefore he must see how it is with him in similitude by other things We may adde to this similitude another of the body of man while living and an instrument of the soul with it self when dead and separated from it that body then though formerly never so beautifull and comely never so lively and active now is loathsome and hath the clean contrary qualities Such a thing is man now fallen if compared with his Creation SECT VII A Second instance of a particular in this Image of God which we have lost is Faith and dependance upon God as a Father As God made Adam his son in holinesse so Adam had a filial dependance and belief on him resting alone in Gods protection and preservation and thereby was not subject to any fears grief or troublesom dejections of mind about his soul or body This was an excellent pearl in that Crown of glory which God set on mans head but how totally is this lost Every man by this original sinne may justly go up and down trembling like a Cain fearing that every thing should not only kill him but damn him Yea whence is it that the Sea is not fuller of monsters than thy heart is of unbelieving doubting and diffident thoughts about God Why art thou so fearfull suspicious and despairing about God naturally Is not this because God and thy soul are separated Doth not thy conscience secretly suggest to thee that God is offended with thee Is not this a plain discovery of thy losse of God and his Image that thou hast naturally fears and doubts within thy self Thou thinkest of God and art troubled as Adam when he heard Gods voice ran and hid himself All the natural tremblings and
trepidations of conscience about God arise from this because there is a secret perswasion thou and God art at a distance yea a contrariety one with another SECT VIII A Third particular is The losse of that love to God above all things which was implanted in Adam 's heart The moral Law being cograven in Adam he loved God with all his soul and might and that above all creatures yea above himself for seeing the debt and obligation upon Adam was to prefer God above all creatures yea Gods will and Gods glory above his own will and glory it stood not with that integrity God made him in to be defective in any of these but through Adam's apostasie now all is changed upside down Self-love is that which predominateth in every man a mans own will own good own pleasure and honour is the chiefest end aimed at so that now Gods will and honour is trampled under foot and all to set up our own selves insomuch that this self-love may almost be called the original sin in a man SECT IX FOurthly Another particular which is lost is That joy and delight which Adam had in God for as he loved God above all things so enjoying of him he did infinitely delight and rejoyce in him Though God made the creatures for Adam's delight Paradise was a place of delight yet these were but drops God was the Ocean Adam did then perfectly say which David did with some imperfection Whom have I in Heaven but thee And whom in earth in comparison of thee God was all things unto him But where is this divine delight Doth any natural man find any sweetness in holy things Is not all our joy a carnal a worldly a creature joy Certainly our joy and delights do as much discover the losse of Gods Images as any thing else whereas Adam would have daily rejoyced in God and in the honour and glory of God that he was magnified and exalted we naturally are not affected with these things CHAP. XI A further Consideration of Original Righteousness proving the thing and answering Objections against it SECT I. THe Privative Part of Original Corruption as it is the loss of Gods Image hath been treated of both in the general and the particulars Now that still we may the more throughly possess our souls with this unspeakable loss it is necessary to say something of Gods Image which man at first was created in For although I said that I would not enter into a large Tractate of it yet something must be necessarily spoken to it for if there be no such thing as original righteousnesse then there is no such thing as original sinne if there be no such thing as light there cannot be any such thing as darkness The Privation doth necessarily suppose an habit Hence the Socinians as they wholly deny this original sin we are treating of so do they also reject this original righteousness calling it as was said Faetida fabula an old stinking Fable an Idea feigned in mens brains of which there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not the least Title in the Scripture Vide Pertium Harmon It behoveth us therefore the more diligently to search into this truth For if Adam never had such glory and holiness put upon him then we his posterity could not lose it To inform our selves then herein Let us consider First That what Adam 's state of integrity was we cannot any wayes know but by the Scripture We have now no experience of it nor can any Philosophy or humane reason give us any direction therein Now there are two Rocks upon which the Adversaries of this Truth do split themselves The one is Judging of original righteousness or of man in his Creation according to the principles of moral Philosophy As if we were not to read Moses and Paul concerning this righteousnesse of Adam but Plato and Aristotle for humane Philosophers as they were wholly ignorant of original sinne supposing the soul to come into the world as an abrasa fabula a meer blank ready to receive good or evil yet inclining rather to good as Aristotle saith so they were wholly ignorant either of mans creation or if that were acknowledged of any imitation or change made upon man by his Apostasie Now this principle in effect the Socinian imbibeth For he saith There is no righteousness to be conceived in Adam but what was actual that there was no habitual infused into him but that he was created in a neutral and indifferent estate neither good or bad but to be made either of these as his free-will should put it self forth into action Thus you see how truly Tertullian of old said Philosophers were the Patriarchs of Heretiques for both Papists and Secintans judge of Adams first estate by principles of moral Philosophy The second Rock upon which the erroneous party in this great Truth destroyeth themselves at is The judging of man in his first Creation according to that which we feel in our selves now as if we should judge what wine is by the vinegar it 's degenerated into as if we should determine of a living body according to what we see in a dead carkass And truly we may say that from hence ariseth all Pelagianism Popery and Socinianism We passe a sentence upon the state we were created in by what we now feel in our selves as if God had not or could not make us otherwise As for instance because we now in our selves find the inferiour appetitive part rebel in it's motions against the rational therefore they conclude That this was at first in Adams Creation That this repugnancy is planted in our very constitution Yea a Remonstrant is not afraid to say It was in Christ himself because a man and why not then in the glorified Saints to all eternity seeing they shall after the Resurrection consist of soul and body also In this Position both Socinian Remonstrant and Papist do positively agree viz. That the repugnancy and rebellion which is between the rational and sensitive part doth arise from the very constitution of man It ariseth saith Bellarmine not from God but è conditione materiae from the condition of that matter of which God made him but doth not this arise because we see such a repugnancy is now in every man because there is none that can live now upon the earth without this rebellion therefore we conclude it was not alwayes so If then we would sail by these Rocks if we would be guided into this Divine Truth let us go out of our selves and out of all the traditions which Ethical Philosophy hath delivered unto us for that speaks only of what is acquired not of any thing infused or concreated with our natures but rather think this Image of God is so glorious a thing that we know not how to speak of it or to think of it we never had the actual enjoyment or working of it It is not with us as with men who hold a rich and plentifull
estate but are now fallen into extream poverty such can tell you by experience what a plentifull life they once lived Job could tell us what honour once he had and the abundance he enjoyed even when he sate scraping himself upon the dunghill he could experimentally compare his former estate and that together but so cannot we Indeed those common 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or dictates of nature whereby our consciences have some light to discern between good and evil may serve for some kind of conviction that once God did create us in a more knowing and holy estate but what it was and fully to conceive of it that we cannot do Hence In the second place It 's a very necessary thing in all men to be often meditating upon these two states and conditions of man his created state and his fallen estate his primitive condition and his present condition To compare the light men with his darknesse now his holinesse then with his impurity now his immortality then with his mortality now his Communion with God then and his estrangement or contrariety now for hereby his heart will be the more deeply humbled under his present miserable condition Those that make them both alike or assign a very little difference they neither duly consider what a glorious thing Gods Image was we were created in nor how deep and universal our pollution is Oh how dishonourable and dblasphemous is it to think we come out of Gods hands as we are now that at the first we had inclinations to sinne that there was a rebellion in us to what is good What is this but to say God made us at first the children of his wrath Oh pray that the scales may fall from thy eyes that thou beest not delivered up to this dangerous errour which is the broad way to perdition In the third place To understand the nature of that Image of God man was created in you must take heed of the Socinian Position who say God made man meerly an innocent even as a young child that he had not in his creation any holinesse infused into him but he was in a neutral and indifferent disposition to be actually good or wicked as his free-will did determine But this is to diminish the goodnesse of God who made man in such a distinguishing character to all other creatures except Angels for Angels and men they only were created after the Image of God That Adam was not created in such a negative frame of soul appeareth in that the Image of God is expresly said by Paul to consist in righteousnesse and true holinesse Now righteousnesse is more than a not being evil it denoteth an inherent positive perfection in the soul Hence Eccl 7. 30 God is there said To make man righteous The word Jashar is generally used to signifie as much as holy clean and pure It is not therefore for us to contradict so plain Texts of Scripture Hence the Psalmist Psal 8. 5. doth admire the goodnesse of God and his works to man especially in this That he hath made him but a little lower than Angels Oh then admire that glorious excellency God did at first put us into We were at first made but a little lower than those glorious Angels of God Therefore Chrysostem called Adam an earthly Angel Now compare thy present estate with this of Adams Art thou like an Angel Have Angels such blindnesse of mind such aversnesse to what is good such rebellious and unmortified thoughts in them as thou hast Nay Art thou not rather a Devil for pride for malice for opposition to what is good Was it thus with us from the beginning They therefore do most unthankfully rob God of all that glory and honour which is due to him that will affirm That God made him in such an indifferent neutral state neither righteous or unrighteous Surely then God could not have looked upon all the things that were made with that approbation They were exceeding god For though other creatures might be good in their kind with a natural goodnesse yet Adam was in his kind with a moral goodnesse Neither will the Socinian evasion help That by good there is meant convenient beautifull and proper for its end For let no more be granted but that it 's enough If Adam was not created with holinesse in his soul he was not made good in their sense that is not sutable and sit for his end For being created to know and love God and thereby to have a comfortable enjoyment of him How could he do this without wisdom in his mind and holinesse in his will And certainly we may not think that God gave every creature a goodnesse in its kind to obtain its particular end and not adorn man the noblest of visible creatures for his peculiar end The Scripture then is clear That man was at first made such an holy and blessed creature Let us consider what Reasons are objected against it by the Socinian party And First say they Adam could not be holy till he had done some actual holiness how could he be denominated righteous say they till he had acted something that was righteous But this argueth great ignorance as if there were no righteousnesse but what is acquired as if there were no infused habits of holinesse which denominate a man so before he doth that which is holy Were not the Angels made holy in their Creation before they acted what was holinesse Is not Christ himself Luke 1. called the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the holy thing before he did actually that which was holy yea the contrary is true therefore did Adam that which was actually holy because he was habitually holy As the Tree is first good and then the fruit good Adam then before his fall had both original and actual holinesse but the latter was an effect of the former and therefore he did one because he had the other Secondly It is objected by them That if Adam was made in the Image of God like him holy as he is holy then Adam could not sinne he would be impeceable even as God is But this is a weak cavil For though man be made holy as God is yet that is not by equality but proportion onely Were not the Angels made holy and yet for all that they sinned He then that is essentially and infinitely holy cannot sinne yea a creature when confirmed in holinesse by God cannot sinne as the elect Angels and glorified Saints but Adam though he was made holy yet was in a mutable and changeable estate and therefore he might sinne Quest But you will say Why did not this original Righteousnesse so farre defend him that he did not withstand the Devil more strongly he seemed to have little or no grace that was so easily ensnared by Satan and that in such a little matter when he enjoyed so much outward felicity Answ But to this we may answer That Adam and Eve they did not at
the very first yeeld themselves up to the Devil but they did repell the Devils temptations awbile neither was it the inordinate desire of the forbidden fruit that was his first sinne but pride and unbelief not believing the threatnings of God and affecting to be like God and such sinnes do quickly and easily penetrate into the best and noblest subjects as you see in the Angels themselves those sublime and admirable spiritual substances yet how quickly did such kind of sinnes enter into them and defile them all over So that we are to look to those spiritual secret sinnes which did induce Adam to eat of the forbidden fruit Lastly It 's objected by them and the same Argument also is improved by Bellarmine That man consisting of a soul a spiritual substance and of a body which is a sensible corporeal substance when these two are united in one person it 's impossible but the spiritual part should incline one way and the sensitive another The rational part that desireth a spiritual good and the sensitive part that which is sensible and these are contrary But the answer is that though these inclinations are divers yet they are not contrary but where sin hath made an Ataxy As God at first ordained the will which is appetitus rationalis to follow the understanding so he did also our affections to follow both of them so that there was an essential subordination of the affectionate part to the rational even as we see the members of the body do readily move at the command of the soul or as in perfect mixt bodies though there be contrary qualities yet by the temperament of that body their contrariety is removed and certainly the Angels sinned who yet had not any sensitive appetite to rebell against the rational therefore it was not from this necessarily that Adam did sinne Thus in Christ there was no repugnancy between grace and nature for when he said Father if it be possible let this Cup passe away This was not an absolute desire of his humane nature but a conditional one and still with submission therefore he addeth Neverthelesse thy will be done and the Saints in Heaven when they shall have re-assumed their bodies will not find any contrariety between the rational and sensitive appetite And thus you see that Adam was created in this holy estate Lastly This holiness and righteousness in a well explained sense was not supernatural but natural The Remonstrants they make this dispute about original righteousnesse inepta absurda absurd and foolish Therefore they deny any infused or concreated habits also and say The rectitude of the faculties was enough But the Orthodox say Adam could not be created without such habits or principles of holinesse within him because he was created for the enjoyment of God and therefore they call it natural not as flowing from the principles of nature but as a moral condition necessary to qualifie him for his end and therefore it was given to whole mankind in Adam and would have been naturally propagated and whereas the Remonstrants ask To what purpose or use is such original righteousnesse For if it did not necessarily and immutably determine Adams will to good than this original righteousnesse did need another and so in infinitum or if it did then How came it about that Adam did sinne To this subtilty it is answered That this original righteousnesse was not to determine the will of Adam necessarily but to incline and sortifie Adams will the more strongly and easily to do what was good So that although it did not absolutely take away Adams mutability and liberty yet it did heighten and raise up the faculties of his soul to what was good yet this was not a superadded grace to Adam as actual confirmation in holines would have been but a natural and due qualification preparing him for communion with God So that the discourse about man in his pure naturals without this original righteousnesse is an house that hath not so much as a sandy foundation it being without any foundation at all God having put his Image into man as Phydias did his into Minerva's shield that none could take that out but he must also destroy that shield Thus the Devil could not prevail with Adam to sinne but by the losse of Gods Image CHAP. XII A further Consideration of the Image of God which Man was created in Shewing what particular Graces Adam's Soul was adorn'd with SECT I. WE are discovering the Nature of that Image God created us in at first that so we may see how great our losse is The last particular was The naturality and supernaturality of it in divers respects And this is the more to be observed because while the Orthodox oppose the Socinians who affirm Nothing but a natural and simple innocency in Adam without any infused or concreated habits of holinesse or any thing supernatural in him You would think they joyn with the Papists who dogmatize That all the holinesse Adam had was supernatural Again while the same Orthodox oppose Papists because of this opinion one would think they joyned with the Socinians who say Adam had nothing in him but what was natural whereas the truth consists between these and therefore original righteousnesse was supernatural to Adam if you respect the principle from whence it did flow it was immediately from God not from principles of nature and this opposeth the Socinian yet if you do consider Adam the subject of this righteousnesse and the end for which he was created so it was a perfection due to him and in that respect called natural otherwise had not God invested mans nature with this and concreated this perfection with him the noblest of visible creatures had been dealt worst with SECT II. YEt in the second place Though this Image of God was natural to Adam yet we must not say that he had nothing supernatural that there was nothing by way of superadded grace to him Even as in Adam although we deny that he was created in pure naturals yet we say that Adam in some respect may be said in Paradise to live an animal life as well as he was created immortal Adam was made free from death he had not any proxim or immediate cause of death yet he was not made immortal as the glorified Saints in Heaven shall be for their bodies are made then spiritual not animal as the Apostle distinguisheth whereas Adam's body was in this sense animal that it did need meat and drink as also it was for generation to procreate and propagate a posterity which argued the animality of Adams body but not the mortality of it as the Socinians say unless we mean such an immortality as our bodies shall have in Heaven Thus though Adam was created immortal upon supposition of his obedience yet that doth not exclude wholly an animal life or natural as the Apostle expresly saith 1 Cor. 15 46. That was not first which is spiritual but that
which is natural Thus it is also in respect of Adams spirituals and his soul although all that holiness which was necessary to guide him to happiness was natural yet there were other things that might be of meer grace and superadded favour to him And under this we may comprehend the grace of God which Adam needed though qualified with original righteousness to do that which is holy as also the reward which God would give to Adams obedience for to be the Sonne of God in respect of a gracious enjoyment of God and to have received that life promised to him if he did obey though here be great Disputes about it what it would have been yet it would not have been of merit though of works but of grace for works and that grace in that state were consistent though Evangelical grace and works do immediately oppose one another Adam then was not without some supernatural savors SECT III. IN the third place that which will much tend to the magnifying of this Image of God is to consider the Integrity and universality of it so that he was made holy and righteous all over with light and wisdom in his mind with all kind of holiness in his will and affections so that Adam had both the perfection of parts and also of degree of grace within him One single habit was not sufficient to give perfection to all the active principles in a man yea there were several habits in every faculty of the soul So that original righteousness is an aggregation or collection of many habits That Text Eccless 7. when Adam is said to be made right inferreth so much for he is not right rectu that doth want any essential or necessary part and the very expression of the Image of God denoteth as much an Image consisting not in one or some few parts but in the harmonious composition of all How admirable was it then to have those commands of God Thou shalt not lust and Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy soul with all thy heart and strength fulfilled perfectly and without any difficulty If we do compare our sinfull and carnal hearts with this glorious temper that are carried out to lust inordinately all the day long and love every thing before and above God What shame and confusion may it bring to us But in that state of integrity there was no part of holiness or degree of holiness wanting It is true if we speak of the Image of God repaired in us We find a godly man doing that now which Adam could not do as to repent and to believe in a justifying manner in Christ for the actings of these graces were incompatible with that state and suppose an imperfection in the Subject and therefore even now cannot be so well called parts of the Image of God in a sanctified man and indeed there is some difference between that Imago Creationis and Imago Recreationis as Bannez expresseth it or Imago constituta and Imago restituta the Image of God in our Creation and the Image of God in our Recreation or Renovation when we are made new creatures by the Spirit of God Now because Adam had not justifying faith in his glorious estate it hath occasioned that dispute Vpon what terms or with what justice God can require of every man to believe in Christ seeing he never gave the power to do this in Adam Therefore the Arminians plead from hence a necessity of a new universal Covenant of grace and this hath been an hot dispute The Orthodox though they easily grant That Adam could not actually believe with justifying Faith yet they say this was potentially and habitually in him he had a power and habit for many things the acts and exercises whereof were yet inconsistent with that present estate of felicity he was created in and certainly we may gather good and sound positions for this truth out of some of the choisest Schoolmen They have laid down good Rules by which we may see that the firmament was not more filled with innumerable starres than Adam's soul with all choise graces SECT IV. FIrst Those graces the Schoolmen call them virtues which do not import any imperfection these were in Adam both habitually and actually as to love God to be thankefull to God to delight in God For these graces will alwayes continue even in Heaven it self and therefore were no wayes repugnant but necessarily required to Adam in that state of felicity Secondly Those graces which denote some kind of imperfection which yet were not repugnant to that state he was created in were also in Adam both according to the habit and also the act such are faith and hope By faith we do not mean the particular act of relying on Christ as a Mediatour but the general assenting unto every thing as true which God spake or promised unto him and according to this faith so also Adam had hope depending upon God and expecting such things as God had promised Now these graces of faith and hope even in the general nature of them have some imperfection if compared with vision and fruition Faith is opposed to vision and hope to fruition as the Apostle plainly argueth 2 Cor. 5. 7. Rom. 8. 24. But this imperfection did not repugn that state Adam was created in For although we say Adam was made right and perfect yet that is not to be understood absolutely as if he were as perfect as God nor comparatively in this sense neither as if he could not be made more perfect or as if he had such perfection as the glorified Saints in Heaven shall have but he was thus farre perfect that he wanted nothing for that state and condition God made him in A third Rule is Those graces which import an imperfection repugnant to the state Adam was in They were in him habitually but not actually They instance in the virtues of mercy and repentance Besides others we may also adde the grace of justifying Faith So that although the Arminians judge such a position as this absurd yet almost the common current of Schoolmen go this way And if the grace of mercy of liberality of fortitude and patience were in Adam habitually why not of justifying Faith Neither is it any Argument at all to say That these habits are given for their acts but the acts are inconsistent with that state he was made in for these habits were bestowed by way of perfection and ornament to mans nature in the general and the want of the habits of them would have been an imperfection Even as Adam's knowledge did extend to the medicinal virtue in herbs and plants which yet could not in that state of integrity be put in practice So that those habits though not reducible into acts yet were not in vain because they were for the perfection of humane nature When therefore Adam after his fall did repent and believe in Christ the seed of the woman promised He did not
put forth those acts from the habits of faith and repentance he was created in as some have said but the whole Image of God being lost every gracious habit or act was then supernatural to him which before was natural Yet Suarez in his Disputations concerning the Creation of man saith That even the habits of repentance and mercy were in the state of integrity reducible into some acts though not into all as if I should sin I would abhorre it and bewail it if there were any miserable I would relieve him which saith he are not meer conditional acts in the understanding but presuppose a purpose in the will Again saith he Adam from those habits had a complacency in his mind and an approbation of such acts when they could be performed by him in a sutable state But I presse not these things Now although the habit of justifying Faith and Repentance were in Adam yet we cannot say They were in the Angels or in Christ because these were in a condition that did repugne the very habit of such acts as well as the acts themselves Thus by these Rules we see there is no kinde of grace imaginable but Adam's soul was adorned with it one way or other Oh then take up bitter lamentation and like Rachel refuse to be comforted because our loss is unspeakably greater than hers There remaineth not one grace of those glorious ones mentioned now in us and in stead of a power to any thing that was good we have an utter impotency thereunto and a proneness unto evil But you may ask How can original six be said to consist in this privation of original righteousnesse seeing that seemeth to be Gods act to deprive us of it and not ours To this the Answer is That we are not to conceive of God taking away this righteousnesse from us as if one man should spoil another of his garments but man by sinning did exclude and shut it out from his soul and having thus provoked God then God doth not continue and vouchsafe that grace to him which Adam had thus repelled so that God is not as an efficient infusing wickednesse into Adam's heart but he denieth that holinesse to him which by sinne was repelled as if a man should shut out the light from him and keep himself in the dark But I have spoken more fully already to this Objection CHAP. XIII Reason to prove That the Privation of Original Righteousnesse is truly and properly a Sinne in us SECT I. I Shall adde that there are four Reasons why this Privation of Original Righteousnesse is truly and properly a sinne in us And First Because the soul is a Subject fit and prepared for to receive this Righteousnesse This rectitude you heard was a moral perfection necessarily required in man The soul of a man cannot be in a neutral condition it must either have holiness or sinne in it As the air doth necessarily receive either light or darkness The body is either sick or well if then the soul be such a fit and capable subject of holiness when it is deprived of it it wants that which is sutable and connatural to it Insomuch that for the soul to be without this holiness it 's against the nature of it Why should such a spot and a blemish be in so glorious a creature How came spots in this Sunne As Idolaters are condemned because they turned the glory of God into the Image of a beast that eateth hay No lesse is done by Adam's Apostasie upon us all for we who were made Gods Image are now become like beast without understanding and yet this consideration will not debase and humble us Secondly This Privation is a sinne Because it is against the Law of God which requireth habitual holinesse in us It requireth the continuance in that state which God created us in This Definition of original sinne that it is a Privation of that rectitude which ought to be in us was first assigned by Anselme and Occham thought it insufficient unlesse there was added 〈◊〉 the Description a Privation arising from the sinne of another Because saith he Adam upon his sinne lost this Righteousnesse which ought to be in him yet we cannot say he had original sinne because it did not arise from a sinne of another but from his own transgression This is a needlesse subtilty for it was original sinne in Adam yea and in Eve though they did not derive it from one another because they did actively communicate this unto all their Posterity This Privation then of all glorious holinesse being against the Law of God as we have formerly shewed therefore it makes a man truly sinfull Thirdly It is a sinne Because Adam our Head and common Trustes once had this Righteousnesse So that it is a Righteousnesse which we were once actually possessed of in our Head God did not only say Let us make man after our Image but he did put it into execution he did make him after his image So that it 's a righteousnesse that we once had which now we have lost Lastly It is a sinne Because by Adam our Head we were deprived of it The Apostle saith positively Rom. 5 That by one sinne came upon all inasmuch as all have sinned viz. in him and by him Hence it is That his losing of this Image is our losing of it as really as if we had actually and personally deprived our selves of it And thus much shall suffice for the Doctrinal part of it but because it 's good to have our affections wrought upon as well as our judgements informed The next work shall be to give the Aggravations of this losse that so we may make a full improvement of this Truth CHAP. XIV The Aggravations of our Losse of GODS Image SECT I. I Shall conclude this Text with that particular Observation about it that relateth to the privative part in original corruption for we have abbreviated that vast and large Subject of original righteousnesse into a little compasse briefly informing concerning the Nature of it For howsoever Epiphanius as Pererius and Suarez say thought that it was impossible for any to determine wherein the Image of God doth consist yet Paul doth sufficiently explain Moses in this particular So that we need not run to those forced expositions of some who will have man in respect of his bodily constitution to bear the Image of God Therefore some say God did assume an humane shape and in that did make man whereby man in a bodily manner was made after his Image Others That it was so said Let us make man after our own Image in reference to the Incarnation of Christ who was in time to be made man For we have already heard that it was righteousnesse and holinesse in the soul which made man to be after Gods Image So that the Image of God was not in the body but as in signe a sign and demonstration of that Image in the soul It is true Christ
is the Image of God but as he is the second Person in the Trinity in respect of the Father but that is adequately and essentially so we are not the image of God but in great imperfection because we do not essentially participate of it Christ in respect of the Divine Nature is the Image of God but never said in Scripture to be made after it for that would be an imperfection yet if we speak of the humane nature of Christ we may say that it is created after Gods Image because God filled it with holinesse Hence some Durat de Imag. Dei lib. 1. pag. 7. expound that Ephes 4. of putting on the new man to be meant of Christ Christ say they is the new man paralleling it with Rom. 13. where we are exhorted to put on the Lord Jesus Christ Now howsoever some of the Ancients have made it very dangerous to say Adam and in him all mankind lost the Image of God yet that hath its truth no further than if we limit the Image of God to the essentials of mans soul as endowed with intelligence and immortality for it we take it in respect of gracious qualifications so it cannot be denied but that Adam was not more naked bodily in his Creation than after his fall his soul was made naked of all righteousness only Adam did blush and was ashamed after his sinne at his nakedness running from God because afraid whereas at our soul-poverty and nakedness we have no sad and grievous thoughts thinking with our selves How shall we come in our spiritual nakedness unto the most great and holy God That therefore we may be the more affectionately possessed in our thoughts about this loss Let us consider the several aggravations of it SECT II. The Ends for which God made Man lost by the losse of Original Righteousnesse FIrst The losse of this righteousness doth deprive us of the end for which God made us So that whereas before sinne God looked on Adam and saw he was exceeding good after his fall he seeth him to be exceeding evil and full of sinne Let us instance in some choice ends for which God made man in his own Image thus with righteousness and holiness As 1. Therefore was he made thus holy To have communion with and enjoyment of so holy a God When God had made all the creatures yet he saith There was not a meet help and comfort for him one in his own Image and likeness therefore he makes a woman of the same nature with him yet still among all creatures though we adde Angels to them there was not an adequate and sufficient object to fill his heart with delight therefore God was his utmost end So that although he had Paradise a place of delight to live in Though his state was not capable of any misery or fear from the creature yet that which was Adam's happiness was to enjoy God in these Now who can bewail our loss in this respect We are now propense to the contrary end of our Creation we wholly descend downwards who were made to ascend upwards Adam found the favour of God in all the creatures It was not this or that comfort but God in and by them that did draw out his heart But oh the misery and captivity we are in to self-love to the love of the creature Neither are we able by nature to lift up the heart above them to God in them no more than the worm can flie like an Eagle towards Heaven Oh groan under this and say My heart was not once such a lump of earth such an heavy stone as now I find it There was not then any such complaints heard Lord I can love Paradise I can love my wife but I cannot love thee but the clean contrary I love them because I love thee and I could not love them but because I love thee This Captivity and bondage our souls are in to the creature should make us mourn more grievously than ever the Israelites did under the Egyptians oppression What a shame is it to have a body that looketh upward to Heaven and a soul that looketh downward to earth How doth the constitution of thy body agree with the condition of thy soul Thy face is upward Os homini sublime dedit Coelumque tueri But thy soul that is pressed down in all its propensions and affections to the creatures and how contrary then are we to the end of our Creation which is the enjoying of God Adam had that which Alexander so ambitiously desired viz. the dominion over the whole world and yet he had as great dominion also over his own heart so that God was all in all to him If David though of the corrupted posterity of Adam but regenerated could say Whom have I in haven but thee and there is none in earth in comparison of thee How much more could Adam in that glorious state of integrity 2. Another end in Adam's Creation after the Image of God was to be is the glory and praise of Gods Name For as the Angels who also were made after Gods Image their constant work was to praise and glorifie God Thus Adam being made like another Angel was made full of holiness that upon the Earth he might as the Angels do in Heaven sing holy holy holy unto the Lord As some great Kings of the Earth when they have built some great City or Town they cause their Image or Picture to be set up in some eminent place for the monument of themselves who were such great Benefactors Thus God when he had made this great and glorious world he puts man into it as his Image that thereby his praise and goodness should be constantly declared but since Adam his fall all mankind is now a reproach and dishonour to God Their thoughts their affections their lives are so many dishonourable and reproachfull passages against him God doth not look upon us now as his workmanship but as the devils he feeth not his Image but the Devils in us Moses saith that when God saw how all men had corrupted themselves it repented him that be made man and it grieved him at his heart Gen. 6. 6. What a wonderfull expression is this God cannot repent or grieve at any thing properly but the Scripture speaketh thus after the manner of men to shew how exceedingly displeasing and offensive mans fall was that it had been better he had never been created than prove such an Apostate It is true God knew how to work a greater good out of sinne than sinne could be an evil but this no thank to Adam's sin and disobedience The good wrought thereby cometh wholly from the gracious power of God so that Adam's sinne of it self did disanull the end of his Creation and brought all things into confusion Take every man by nature what a beast and devil is he what an enemy to God what an adversary to every thing of God so that whereas he was made to
glorifie and honour God all his whole work and life is now to dishonour him and reproach his holy Name Herein then lieth the misery of this losse of the Image of God that we are fallen from our end we are of our selves salt that hath lost its favourinesse we are fit for nothing but eternal torments SECT III. The Harmony and Subordination in Mans Nature dissolved by the loss of Gods Image IN the second place This losse is to be aggravated because of the Nature of it which is the deordination and dissolution of all that Harmony and Subordination which was in mans nature That admirable and composed order which was in the whole man is now wholly broken so that the mind and will is against God and the affections and passions against them A three-fold Subordination there was in man The first of the intellectual and rational part unto God The mind clearly knowing him and the will readily submitting unto him The second was A regular Subordination of all the passions and affections unto the mind so that there did not from the sensible part arise any thing that was unbeseeming and contrary to the rational Hence it was that the Scripture taketh notice of Adam and Eve in their privitive Condition that though naked yet they were not ashamed There being a full purity and simplicity in their natures whereby nothing could arise to disturb all those superiour operations At sin expresseth it well Even saith he as Paradise the place wherein Adam was created had neither heat or cold but an excellent temperament excluding the hurtfull excess of either so also the soul of Adam was without any excessive passion or inordinate motion but all things did sweetly and amicably concur in obedience to the mind The third and last Subordination was of the body both to the rationall and sensitive principles There was a preparednesse in the body of Adam as there was in Christ whereby he did readily do the Will of God and sound the body not obstructing or weighing of it down Now let us consider this three-fold cord which did bind Adam's whole man unto that which is good which was easily broken and then as when the flood-gates are open the streams of water violently rush forth hurrying all away Thus it is with mankind This order being dissolved the whole heart of man is as unruly as the Sea and whereas that hath its natural bounds Hitherto it shall go and no further The heart of man is boundlesse and hath no stops of it self only the infinite God of Heaven he ruleth and ordereth it as he pleaseth Consider the first breach and mourn under that Is it nothing to have the mind of man which hath as many thoughts almost as there are sands upon the Sea shore and yet not to have one of these rise in the soul with subordination to God What a sad bondage is this that our thoughts are no more under our command than the flying birds in the air Do not either sinfull thoughts or if good come in so unseasonably upon thee that they carry away thy soul prisoner Oh this losse of the obedience of the mind to Gods Law in all the thoughts thereof ought to be no mean matter of debasement Not to find one good thought of all those Iliades Chiliades and Myriades of thoughts which thou hast but to have rebellion in them against God What sad impression should it make on thee In the will also those motion and incompleat velleities yea acts of consent in the will which arise in the soul as so many swarms of flies in the air Are not these also so many armies of lusts against God whereas in the state of integrity there would not have risen the least distemper The second breach Is not that also as terrible and powerfull For are not all our affections and passions like so many dogs to Action like so many Locusts and Caterpillers in Egypt like so many flies and hornets till by grace they are crucified What man is there in whom if God should let any one passion or affection have dominion over him that it would not immediately destroy him So that the power of original corruption is more manifested in the affections and passions than any subject else Lastly The disorder which is in the body in respect of its instrumental serviceablenesse unto God can never be enough lamented Do not pains and diseases in the body much indispose in holy things Do not dulnesse drousinesse and wearinesse hinder a man so that when he would religiously serve the Lord this body will not let him Now all this evil and misery is come upon us because we have lost the Image of God As God in nature doth not suffer any vocuum or redundans so neither did he in respect of the frame of the soul at the first There was nothing defective and nothing excessive SECT IV. The Properties of this Losse THirdly This losse by original corruption of Gods Image is exceeding great in the properties of it For 1. It is a spiritual losse principally and chiefly The loss of Gods favour of all holiness is wholly spiritual and did tend to make a man spiritually happy So that if you should compare all the temporal losses that ever have been in the world with this first and spiritual one it would be but as the mole-hill to an high mountain If then our eyes were opened if we were able rightly to judge or losses for this we should mourn more than for any evil that ever befell us or others 〈◊〉 messengers that came with such sad tidings one upon another is nothing to this message that we bring thee But who will believe this report 2. As it is a spiritual loss so it is an universal loss The whole world is in a lost state by losing this Image of God Every creature hath lost in this universal losse The earth hath lost its fruitfulness yea the whole Creation groaneth and is in bondage subject to vanity because of this Thus all the creatures they lose by it yea every thing in man loseth The mind its light the will its holiness the affections their order and the body its soundness and immortality If all the creatures were turned into tongues they would proclaim the loss of their primitive glory and beauty because of this sinne 3. It 's not only universal But it 's the cause of all the temporal losses that we have For death in which is comprehended all kind of evil came in upon the loss of this Image So that if we are sensible of any temporal loss How much more of this spiritual one which is the cause and root of all Therefore is the body pained therefore it dieth because this Image of God is lost therefore do we loose parents and children therefore is the whole world a valley of tears because of this losse If then any private losse be so bitter unto thee how much more ought this to be which putteth a
lower region of thy soul but thy will thy mind thy conscience these also are become flesh and are wholly corrupted so that in thee by nature there remaineth no good thing at all SECT III. How carnal the Soul is in its actings about Spiritual Objects 3. IN that it is called Flesh there is discovered that a man in all the workings of his soul in religious things is carnal and meerly carried out wholly by the principle and instigation of flesh within him the Image of God was so glorious and efficacious in Adam that all his bodily and natural actions were thereby made spiritual his flesh was spirit as I may so say the body and bodily affections did not move inordinately against Gods will but having a divine and holy stamp upon them they were thereby made divine and spiritual But since this original corruption the clean contrary is now to be seen in us for even the spiritual workings of the soul are thereby made carnal and fleshly Adam's body was made spiritual and now our souls are made carnal Oh the said debasing and vilifying of us that is by this means If an Angel should become a worm it is not so much dishonour as for righteous Adam to become an apostate sinner Let us take notice how our souls do put themselves forth about spiritual objects and you shall find they are wholly carnal and fleshly in such approaches insomuch that in their highest devotions and religious duties they are onely carnal and fleshly all the while As First In the mysteries of Religion which are revealed unto in by a supernatural light The mind of man because it cannot comprehend of them in a carnal or bodily manner much more if not by natural reason though that be corrupt is ready to despise and reject all What was the reason that Christ crucified is such a foolish Doctrine to be believed by the learned Grecian but because it was not agreeable to natural reason When Peter made that Confession concerning Christ That he was the Sonne of the living God Christ tels him Flesh and blood had not revealed that to him Mat. 16. 17. And doth not this fleshly mind still effectually move in Atheists and Heretiques Is not this the bane of Socinan persons that they will make reason a judge of divine Mysteries whereas that it sâ—lt is corrupt and is it self to be judged by the word of God So that the power of original sinne as it is flesh manifests it self about all the supernatual Doctrines and Truths revealed in the Gospel We that are Pigmies think to measure these Pyramides we think to receive the whole Ocean in our little shell Hence it is that Paul 2 Cor. 8. 5 6. will have all our imaginations every high thought brought into captivity Thus you see That whatsoever a man doth in reference to God he is wholly carnal and fleshly in it he is not carried out with a sutable principle of the Spirit to that which is spiritual and this may be discovered in many branches it is also very usefull and profitable for hereby they shall see that the onely things which they relie upon as religious worship of God and the evidences of their salvation are so farre from being a true stay to them that like thorns they will pierce their hands If a mans spirituals be carnals How great are his carnals If his Religion if his devotion if the matters of his God be thus altogether flashly What will his sins and corruptions appear to be We have already instanced in one particular viz. The Doctrine to be believed and declared how carnal a man is in that We proceed further to illustrate this necessary Truth and therefore Secondly Every natural man in his religious worship is wholly carnal as well as in his Doctrine to be believed For if we consult the Scripture and observe what was the cause of all that Idolatry and spiritual abomination for which God did so severely punish the children of Israel was it not from a carnal fleshly mind within Therefore you heard Gal. 5. Idolatry is made a work of the flesh when they changed the glory of God into the similitude of an Ox that eateth bay Was not this to please the eye And so their goodly Altars their goodly Images which the Prophet mentioneth Were not all these because of their sutableness to a carnal mind We need not instance in Pagans or Heathens who are wholly in darkness without any supernatural light But if we take notice of the Christian Church in all the successive Ages thereof How potent and predominant have carnal principles been in all their Devotions And is not Popery to this day a full demonstration of this Truth So that that notable expression of our Saviour Joh. 4. 23 24. God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth Yea that the Father seeketh such to worship him hath seldom had its due observation Whereas then Campian would prove All Monuments all Churches all Windows and Pictures therein to be a demonstration of their Religion This proveth indeed the superstition and carnality of it not the spirituality and truth of it and oh the dishonour done to God by this means This fleshly wisdom in Gods worship hath been one chief cause of most of the calamities which have fallen upon it Col. 2. 18. The Apostle attributeth the worshiping of Angels to a fleshly wisdom in men Thirdly A man is naturaly carnal in religious Ordinances Because he is apt to put trust in them to think he merits at Gods hands or maketh satisfaction for his â—ispasses This is not to be spiritual but carnal We have low carnal apprehensions of God when we think that by our righteousnesse though it were ten thousand times more perfect than it is that we are able to profit God therewith Thus those false Teachers with their followers they are said to make a fair shew in the flesh Gal 6. 12. and Phil. 3. 3. to have confidence in the flesh To worship God in the Spirit and to have no confidence in the flesh are two opposite things Now by flesh there is meant circumcision and all other Church-priviledges which Paul did eminently enjoy and while a Pharisee he wholly rested in them but when once the sonne of God was revealed to him then he renounced all confidence in these things judging himself to be only carnal in them But now little was Paul while a Pharisee and so exactly diligent in the discharge of them perswaded that all he did was rejected by God that he abhorred all that he was only carnal in those things It is therefore of great consquence to be spiritual in the particular for this is a secret sweet poison that is apt to undo us Therefore the Particular the formal the devout man who is ignorant of Regeneration while he abhorreth all bodily flesh-sinnes he may be highly guilty of soul flesh sinnes So that there is little cause for a
that whereas in some the fleshly mind of man runneth out into superstitious and excessive wayes of devotion which God never required so in others again it acteth the clean contrary way pretending to Enthusiasts Revelations and strange raptures and impulses of soul and herein they think they are the only spiritual men and that all others are in the flesh but strong delusions under the pretence of Revelations Apparitions and visions have been no new thing in the Church of God neither are we to stagger in our saith because of these things for the flesh excited by the Devil may vent it self in these extasies and raptures as well as in superstitions yea which is further to be observed a man may be altogether fleshly while he pretends to an high spiritual way of subduing and keeping down the flesh Col. 2. 23. Those who were puft up in their fleshly minds about Angel-worship yet are said to have a shew of humility in not sparing the body and this we may say to those deluded Papists who macerate and excruciate the flesh of the body it would be better if they did cast out at the same time their fleshly mind Seventhly A natural man in his most religious deportment is only fleshly Because whatsoever he doth in these things he is furthered only by natural strength For being without the grace of God either in his understanding or his will hence it is that he can rise no higher than natural reason natural conscience and natural will doth enable him unto and these being altogether polluted by sinne in stead of furthering they are an hindrance and opposition to him If therefore you ask From what principles and by what strength doth a natural man draw nigh to God The answer is only by that power which he hath of himself The grace of God which alone can elevate the soul to God that he is wholly destitute of And although it must be granted that there are some common principles and dictates in all about God and moral good things yet these are never improved any otherwise but from carnal principles and to carnal ends And thus much may suffice for this branch viz. The carnality of a man by original sinne in his most religious offices and duties In the last general place Man may justly be said to be all over sinfull and flesh only Because all his care his thoughts are only for his body and sensible things in the mean while neglecting God and his immortal soul I shall conclude with this because all else comprehended in this name will come in at some other seasonable time By nature we are in the flesh we walk after it we make provision for it so that we willingly lose God and our souls to save and preserve that Who is there that will believe our Saviour saying What will it profit a man to winne the whole world and lose his own soul Mat. 16. 26. What complaints and accusations may the soul make against us when the body hath said Feed me Cloath me you have done it But when the soul hath famished and been perishing you have not heard the cries of it Oh men only flesh and utterly devoid of all spiritual power CHAP. XVI Reasons demonstrating the Positive Part of Original Sinne. SECT I. HItherto we have been informed out of this Text what is comprehended in the word Flesh attributed to every one that is in a natural way born of mankind We now proceed to that Truth for which it was designedly pitcht upon viz. That Original sin is not only a Privation of Gods Image but doth cannote also a Positive inclination and an impetuous propensity to every thing that is evil For this Question is agitated between some Papists and the Protestants They asserting That the whole nature of original sinne lieth in the privation of Gods Image But the Orthodox they say That although original sinne is privative yet it is not meerly privative but doth include in it as the materiale that habitual crookedness and perversnes which is in all the faculties of the soul And thus the Protestants do almost in effect say the same with Aquinas who calleth original corruption a corrupt habit not a meer privation for privations are of two sorts either simple that imply onely a privation as blindnesse and death or compounded and mixed which besides the meer privation do denote some materiale or substratum with it Thus Aquinas compareth original sinne to a sickness or disease which doth not only signifie a privation of health but also the humours excessively overflowing and thereby dissolving the due temperament of the body Such a privation is original sinne a mixt or compounded privation that besides the absence of what righteousness is due denoteth also a propensity and violent inclination unto that which is evil It is true indeed if we come punctually to examine how the will is disobedient and how the affections are so disorderly we cannot resolve into any thing but this privation the understanding is therefore darkness and erroneous because without its primitive light The will is crooked and perverse because without its primitive rectitude So that Calvin saith well He that cals it the privation of Gods Image saith the whole nature of it yet when we speak of the privative part of it only we do not so fully and significantly expresse the dreadfull pollution of it Even as concerning vicious habits in morality intemperance injustice it is not enough to say they are the privation of those virtues which are immediately contrary to them but they do denote also such an inclination in a man that thereby he is carried out to those vicious of such habits constantly and with delight SECT II. Why Divines make Original Sinne to have its Positive as well as Privative Part. THe Reason why our Divines make original sinne to have its Positive as well as Privative part is to obviate that errour of the Papists who supposing original righteousness to be only by way of a bridle in Adam to curb and subjugate the inferiour part to the superiour of the soul when Adam lost this they conceive mankind hath not any further pollution upon it but that meer losse Insomuch that they say Man is now as if God had created him in his pure naturals without any supernaturals The Socinians likewise they deny any such pollution and make us to be born in the same condition Adam was created in death as a punishment only accepted meerly without either sinne or righteousnesse like Aristotles Obrasa Tabula in a neutral indifferent way Now to confront such dangerous opinions we say That by our birth-sinne we are not only deprived of Gods Image but are in an habitual inclination to all evil which is also active and repugnant to all good SECT III. Reasons to evince the Positive part of Original Sinne. NOw that we are to judge of it thus will appear from Scripture upon these grounds First The names that the Scripture attributeth to
thus it is no wonder if original sinne which doth so tenaciously and inwardly adhere to all natures be transmitted to every one born in a natural way The last Objection is That there is no necessity of supposing such an habitual vitiosity in a man It 's enough say they that a man be deprived of the Image of God and when that is lost of it 's own self man's nature is prone to evil It needs no habitual inclination to weigh him down as if a wild beast be tied in cords and chains lose him unty him and of himself he will runne into wild and untamed actions But to answer this First The Papists they cannot consequentially to their principles say thus For they hold That if this Image of God be removed he doth continue in his pure naturals there is no sinne inhering in him upon the meer losse of that For they confesse That although by acting from his pure naturals he could not deserve Heaven or love God as a supernatural end yet in an inferiour way as the ultimate natural end so he might love God and that above all other things But secondly That is granted This positive inclination to all evil followeth necessarily from the removal of this Image of God from us If the Sunne be removed then necessarily darknesse doth cover the face of the soul If the loco-motive faculty be interrupted then there is nothing but halting and lamenesse Disturb the harmony and good temperament of the humours and then immediately diseases and pains do surprize the whole man It cannot therefore be avoided that when this disorder is come upon the soul but that our lusts break out as at a flood-gate and we are in a spiritual deluge all over covered with the waters of sin but then here is a positive as well as a privative Besides It is not for us to be curious in giving a reason of such positive corruption in a man by nature it is enough that Gods word is so clear and full in the discovery of it that he must needs wilfully shut his eyes that will not be convinced by the light of Gods word herein And this may suffice to dispel that darknesse which some would have covered this Truth with and as for what knowledge about this positivenesse of original corruption is further necessary We shall then take notice of it when we speak of original sinne as it is called lust or concupiscence SECT III. LEt therefore the Use from the former Doctrine delivered be To affectus and wound us at the very heart that we are thus all over covered with sin that we have not an understanding but to sin a will but to sin an heart but to sin May not this be like a two edged sword within thee What will fire thee out of all thy self-confidence thy self-righteousnesse if this doe not What delight what comfort canst thou take by beholding thy self by looking on thy self thus corrupted and depraved And the rather let this consideration go to the very bottom of thy soul Because First Thy propensity and inclination is to that onely which God onely hateth which God onely loatheth and hath decreed to punish with his utmost wrath to all eternity Consider that sinne is the greatest evil All the temporal evils in the world are but the effect of it that is the cause Now can it ever humble thee enough to think that the whole bent and constant tendency of thy soul is unto that which is the most abominable in the eyes of God Thou canst not do that which is more destructive to thy own soul and more dishonouring unto God then by committing sinne and yet thou canst do nothing else thou delightest in nothing else Thy heart will not let thee do any thing else Look over thy whole life take notice how many years thou hast lived and yet if not regenerated and delivered in some measure from the power of original corruption thou hast done nothing but sinned Every thought hath been a sinne every motion a sinne within thee and yet sinne is the greatest evil and that alone which God hateth Secondly If yet thy heart be hard and nothing will enter take a second naile or wedge to drive into thee and that is being thus all over carried out to sinne not the least good able to rise in thy heart that hereby the very plain Image of the Devil is drawn over thee Hence it is that wicked men are said to be of their Father the Devil and he is said to rule in the hearts of the children of disobedience Ephes 2. What a wofull change is this to be turned from a Sonne of God to become a Devil While Adam retained the Image of God God abode with him and in him there was a near union with God but upon his Apostasie the Devil taketh possession of all and so now man is in a near union with the Devil Every mans soul is now the Devils Castle his proper habitation The Spirit of God is chaced away and now thy heart is made an habitation for these Satyrs Thy soul is become like an howling wildernesse wherein lodge all beastly lusts whatsoever Thou that wouldst account it horrible injury to be called beast and Devil yet thy original sinne maketh thee no lesse Thirdly This further may break thy heart if it be not yet broken enough that hereby thou art utterly impotent and unable to help thy self out of this lost condition For how can a dead man help himselfe to live again How can thy crooked heart be ever made straight unlesse a greater power than that subdue it If thou didst judge thy condition an hopelesse one as to all humane considerations then thou wouldest tremble and have no rest in thy selfe till God had delivered thee out of it Lastly Let this also further work to thy Humiliation that being thus positively inclined to all evil not onely proper and sutable temptations draw out thy sinnes but even all holy and godly remedies appointed by God they do increase this corruption the more And is not that man miserable whose very remedies make him more miserable Doth not the Apostle complain sadly of that Law of sinne in him even in this respect that by this means the Law wrought in him all evil The more holy and spiritual the Law was the more carnal and sinfull was he thereby occasioned to be Oh then What wilt thou do when good things make thee evil spiritual things make thee more carnal CHAP. XVIII A second Text to prove Original Sinne to be Positive opened and vindicated SECT I. ROM 7. 7. For I had not known lust except the Law had said Thou shalt not covet WE are discovering the Nature of original sinne in the Positive part of it For although Corvinus the Remonstrant cavilleth at the Division of original sinne into two parts therein gratifying the Papists as it were yet we see the Scripture speaking of it fully as having these two parts And whereas
bodily part and the soul part and from the soul doth this poison fall to all the inferiour parts Therefore do not only complain of sinne and lust in thy material and sensitive part but look upon the strength and chief power of it as in thy immaterial and soul part for in all these this original lust this Law of sinne doth constantly dwel The Schoolmen they call this Fomes peccati because it doth fovere it 's like the cinders and ashes that keep alive the fire of sin within a man and the more dangerous and damnable it is by how much the more close and latent it is SECT VIII A Consideration of this Concupiscence in reference to the four-fold Estate of man 5. VVE are to consider this concupiscence or concupiscibili'y for we speak of the principle of lusting not actual lusting according to several states that man may be looked upon in AS First There was his Natura instituta his instituted nature at first and that was right and holy There was concupiscence and desiring of the several powers of his soul but in a good and orderly way It was not then as now the Superiora did not turpiter servire inferioribus or the inferiora contumaciter rebel against the superiour parts as is to be shewed in the next place In Adam there was no concupiscence in this sense The inferiour parts though they did desire a sensible object yet it was wholly in subordination and under the command of the superiour It 's true indeed Eve did look upon the forbidden fruit and saw it was good and pleasant whereupon she was tempted to eat of it but this did not arise from any original lust in her but from the mutability of her will being not confirmed in what was good Even as we see the Angels before their Apostasie had sinfull desires in their will through pride and affectation to be higher than they were yet this did not arise from original lust in them Although therefore both Socinians and some Papists do acknowledge man made with such a repugnancy of the sensitive appetite to the rational yea the former making it to be in Christ himself yet this is highly to dishonour God in the Creation of man Oh happy and blessed estate when there was such an universal harmony and due proportion in all the powers of the soul but miserum est illud verbum snisse may all mankind cry out in this particular Secondly There is Natura infecta and destituta infected Nature stript and denuded of all former holiness and excellency and here concupiscence is not onely in us but it doth reign and predominate over the whole man The harmony is totally dissolved and now the choice and sublime parts of the foul are made prostrate to the affectionate part as loathsom and abominable as when the Law forbiddeth to lie with a beast Now the mind and understanding is wholly set on work to dispute and argue for the carnal part Now the motions of the soule beginne in the carnal part and end in the intellectual whereas in the state of integrity the beginning and rise would first have been in the intellectual and so have descended to the sensitive part The motions thereof antecede all deliberation in the mind and a rectified choice in the will Thus the feet they guide the head and in this little world of man the earth moveth and the Heavens they stand still as some fancied in the great world now lust is by way of a Law ruling and commanding all things This is the unspeakable misery and bondage we are now plunged into Thirdly There is Natura restituta repaired nature by grace which the regenerate attain unto and these though they have not obtained concerning lust ne sit yet that ne regnet in them as Austin expresseth it though they cannot perfectly fulfill that command ne concupiscas yet they obey another post concupiscentias ne â—as hence it is because of the actings and workings of original sinne still in the godly they are in a continual conflict they cannot do any thing perfectly they feel a clogge pressing them down when they are elevating themselves as Paul Rom 7. doth abundantly manifest The good he would do he cannot do Original sinne is like that Tree in Daniel Chap. 4. 23. Though there was a watcher from Heaven coming down to cut it down yet the stumps and root of the Tree were left with a band of iron and brass to denote the firm and immovable abiding of it Thus though the grace of God be still mortifying and subduing the lusts of the flesh yet the stumps seem to be bound with brasse and iron to us we are never able in this life wholly to extinguish it Lastly If you consider the perfected and glorified estate of the godly in Heaven then there will be a full and utter extirpation of this original sin The glorified bodies in Heaven though naked shall not be subject to shame and confusion as Adam and Eve were after their fall And among other reasons therefore doth the Lord suffer these reliques of corruption to abide in the most holy that so we may the more ardently and zealously long after that kingdom of glory when we shall be delivered from this sinfull soul and mortal body Then this command Thou shalt not lust will be perfectly accomplished whereas in this life it is a perpetual hand writing against us The Papists indeed do confess our lusts to be against this command but not ut praecipienti but ut indicanti as if God did not so much command us what we should do as by Doctrine inform what is good and excellent in it self Thus rather than they will be found guilty by this Law they will make it no Law and turn it from a precept into a meer doctrinal information But seeing one end of the Law is to convince us and aggravate our sinfulness to make us see our desperate diseased estate that thereby we may flie to Christ as the malefactor to the City of refuge let it be farre from us to extenuate or to lessen our sinfulness The Pharisees of old and all their successors in endeavouring to establish a righteousness by the Law have split themselves on this rock as if the Law had not holiness enough to command them but they were able to do more than that required But whence doth this Blind presumption arise Even from the ignorance of the power of original siane in us SECT IX 6 FRom these things concluded on we may see that the Scripture giveth us a better discovery of our selves than ever the light of nature or moral Philosophy could acquaint us with Aristotle teacheth us out of his School clean contrary Doctrine to this That we come into the world without virtue or vice Even as Pelagius said of old and the Schoolmen though they hold original sinne yet most of them by cleaving to Aristole's principles and so leaving the Scripture have advanced nature to
entertain Insomuch that every man by nature may say he no longer liveth but sinne in him and the Devil in him Hereby thy heart may be called hell yea and Legion because many Devils do rule in thee Oh that God would make this Truth like a two-edged sword in our hearts that we may not rest day or night till God hath delivered us from this wretched estate Pray for it groan for it all the day long CHAP. XX. A clear and full Knowledge of Original Sinne can be obtained only by Scripture Light SECT I. A Full and large information concerning the whole Nature of original sinne both in the Privative and Positive part thereof hath been delivered to which this Text hath been very usefull There remaineth one thing more in it which is very considerable and that is the way or means how Paul cometh to be thus convinced of that sinfulnesse which he did not acknowledge before and that is said to be by the Law In what sense Paul said He knew not lust to be sinne hath already been declared There remaineth therefore this Doctrine to be observed viz. That original sinne in the immediate effect thereof is truly and fully known onely by the light of Gods word None are ever clearly and throughly perswaded of such an universal horrid defilement but those who look into the pure glass of Gods word This Paul acknowledgeth in himself and yet no Heathen he lived under the light of the Word but following traditional expositions from his fathers and wanting the Spirit of God to enlighten him therefore he was wholly stupid and senslesse in this matter as therefore the Doctrine of Christ and Evangelical grace is a mystery so is also this Doctrine about original sinne SECT II. Whether the wisest Heathens had any Knowledge of this Pollution BUt because this matter is under Debate and Question let us further enquire into it examining Whether the wisest Heathens had any knowledge of this natural pollution the Word doth so fully inform us in And First As for that original sinne called originans viz. Adam's actual transgression made ours by Gods will and appointment through imputation that is wholly known by revelation so that no Heathens by the highest improvement and cultivage of nature could ever discern such things That God made Adam righteous giving him a command of tryal in obedience or disobedience whereof all his posterity should be involved this they had not the least him of and the reason is Because the truth of such things lieth not in nature neither have second causes the least demonstration of this but it is wholly discovered as a matter of fact by the Scripture So that we Christians ought the more to bless God for the sight of his Word seeing thereby a very Ideot amongst us may know more then the wisest Aristotle or Plato amongst the Heathens Secondly As for original inherent sinne it must necessarily be granted That even the Heathens had some general confused knowledge about a mans natural defilement Hence was their custom of a solemn washing and lustration of their Infants in a religious way implying hereby that they came into the world polluted and needed the propitious savour of their gods This solemn religious custom of theirs was some general confession of original sinne but as for the Philosophers who were the wisest and most learned of them some do speak more congruously to this point than others That noble and learned Plessâ—us in his Book of the Truth of the Christian Religion Pag. 377. which he endeavoureth to prove even from Heathinish Authors especially the Platonists doth alledge some things pertinently to our subject For Plato holding That the soul was put into the body as into a prison and a dungeon for former sinnes committed through he grosly erred in the foundation thinking souls pre-existent before the body and for faults committed then adjudged to the body as a place of prison which was an absurd errour yet there was some truth he did take notice of for observing that the soul which should rule and command the body was yet mancipated and enslaved to it he concluded there was some fore-going crime deserving this though he was wholly ignorant of Adam's fall Hence he saith That the soul hath lost and broken her wings which she had at first and thereby doth onely creep and crawl upon the ground Theâ—phrastus also Aristotle's Scholar was wont to say That the soul payeth a very dear rent for the house of her body the body is such a clog and impediment to it The Platonists do seem to acknowledge more truth herein then Aristotls for Aristotle doth expresly deny That either virtue or vice is in us by nature the very same thing which Pelagin afterwards did use to say Therefore the Schoolmen though enslaved to Aristotle yet when urging this Argument That there cannot be a sinne by birth in a man because no man is to be reproved or beaten for that which he hath by nature but rather to be pitied it is not his sinne but misery Which speech if true doth utterly contradict that of the Apostle We are by nature the children of wrath The Schoolmen I say though 〈◊〉 vasalized to Aristotle and alledging him oftner than Paul do answer that Argument thus It is no matter what Aristotle saith in this case because he knew nothing of original sinne Thus you see they are forced to leave him in this point and therefore Aristotle is more to be renounced in this point then any other Philosopher Grotius also Comment in 2d. Luc. v. 21. alledgeth several Hethenish Authors who lay down this for a Position that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is implanted and ingraffed into man to sinne Tully lib. 3. Tusc doth speak so fully to this purpose as if he had read what Moses speaketh of man by nature Simul ac editi sumus in lucem suscepti in omni continuè pravitate versamur c. as soon as ever we are born we are presently exercised in all manner of evil Vt poenè in lacte nutricis errorem suxisse videamur as if we sucked down errour with the nurses milk Here you see he speaketh something like to Moses when he saith Gen. 6. That the imagination of the thoughts of our hearts are only evil and that continually Although at the same time he seemeth to attribute this propensity to evil to wicked manner and depraved opinions for there he saith Nature hath given us of honesty parvulos igniculos and that there are ingeniis nostris semina innata virtutum But although some of their wisest men have confessed such a misery and infirmity upon us yet it may be doubted Whether they looked upon this as truly and properly sinne deserving punishment either from God or man They rather thought all sinne must be voluntary Hence Seneca Erras si existimas nobiscum nasci vitia supervenerunt ingesta sunt Indeed in their sad complaints concerning mans birth and all misery accompanying
was on the earth but the top reached to heaven Thus though Adam's inferior part the body was exercised in these earthly things yet his soul the more sublime part that was fixed in heaven But now all our suâ—eableness and communion with heavenly objects is wholly perished we have hearts inlarged with joy we are ravished with delights about wordly things and when brought to any thing that is heavenly there we are weary and neither flesh or spirit is willing to such things yet nature might reach us that man of all creatures only hath hands and those not to embrace the earth but he hath feet to walk and trample upon it We read of Paul and David with other godly ones when recovered in part from the power of this originall corruption what longings and breakings of soul they had after God and his Ordinances These things were accounted for sweetness above the hony and for presciousness above gold now why should not every man be able to say so as well as they but because our tasts are wholly distempered and we are carnall not spirituall Certainly spirituall objects have in themselves infinite more matter of joy and delight then any earthly thing can have who can think there is more sweetness in a drop then in the ocean more light in the starre then in the sun The creature is less then these in comparison of God May not than even blind men see that we are all over-plunged into sinne else why should not God and heavenly objects which do so farre surpass in matter of true delight be more sweet and welcome to us then all the creatures of the world though put together Psal 4 6. Many say who will shew us any good The naturall man finds no delight but in these earthly things oppositely to God There is a Sheâ—ll in his soul that is alwaies craving and asking never satisfied now why can they not with David as well put forth the following petition Lord lift up the light of thy countenance upon us But because the carnall man finds no more pleasure in spirituall things then the swine doth in pearles or pleasant flowres A man that is spirituall having drunk of this water desireth no other As the Philosophers say The matter of the heavens is so fully actuated by the heavenly formes that it desireth no other whereas the matter of these subâ—unary things is never satisfied but though under one forme yet it still desireth another Thus the soul possessed of God and Christ hath so much delight and pleasure that it hath enough it desireth no change but the naturall man is carried out from one thing to another from one object to another first delighting in this and then in that it being impossible that Zacheus his shoe should sit Goliah's foot Thus you see that though a man be restless in his delights yet he can take pleasure in earthly things whereas he finds no sweetness no delight in heavenly things that are infinitely more precious So this may demonstrate the loss of Gods Image and our service to originall sinne in the lusts thereof Thirdly That we are thus originally corrupted appeareth in that utter impotency and inability to do any spirituall good we are not able so much as to think a thought or send forth an hearty groan as to our eternall welfare whereas at first God made Adam right and thereby endowed him with power to do any thing that was holy called therefore the Image of God so happy and blessed was his condition that he could with delight and joy fullfill the Law of God feeling no difficulty nor impediment but now being dead in sinne we are no more able then dead men to move or walk in holy things The Scripture is wonderfully clear in this though Papists Arminians and others have endeavoured to raise a mist and obscure the sun beames Joh. 15. Without me ye can do nothing Rom. 8. The flesh is eumity against God 1 Cor. 2. The naturall man perceiveth not the things of God neither can he where both the act of doing good and the power also is denied to every man by nature If therefore every man by nature be dead in sinne like a stone as in respect of any holy impression from God if he have blind eies deaf eares a foolish heart as to any heavenly thing doth not this plainly tell us that we are all over polluted It 's good for our humiliation to consider how the Scripture describeth a naturall man as wanting all his senses he hath no eies to see no eares to hear no heart to understand but is wholly dead and all this is to shew what a wonderfull impotency is in man to help himself spiritually Now this declareth the necessity of preserving this doctrine of originall corruption clean and sound for if we be orthodox here then also we shall hold the truth of God against foe will and the power of nature in divine things for these two particulars are like Castor and 〈◊〉 they alwaies appear together and what is the design or Secinians Papists and Arminians either in whole or in part to deny or extenuate originall sinne but thereby to make a way to advance their magnificent Diana their free will to holy things for they evidently see if originall sinne be such an universall deep and inward pollution of the whole soul even the will as well as other parts then their doctrine of the power of nature is pulled up by the very root Therefore the more fully assure your souls of this truth by how much the whole body of Divinity depends upon this foundation Indeed the Scripture is so clear in debasing man as to supernaturalls and giving all to the grace of God that we may wonder how this pride should settle it self in mans heart and that he doth not tremble to speak or write any thing whereby the grace of God may be diminished and man exalted he that cannot make a white hair black he that cannot adde one cubit to his stature will yet think to make a polluted soul holy and adde many cubits of grace to his spirituall stature Fourthly Our original corruption will yet further appear If you take notice of that universall ignorance and dullnesse that is upon a mans understanding knowing no saving thing about God or Christ if it be not revealed Insomuch that the necessity of Scripture-light of revealed-light to conduct us to heaven doth without contradiction prove that by nature we are as Paul said Ephes 4 darkeness even darkness it self Look over the generation of mankind that are the wisest and most learned where the light of Gods word hath not shore upon them Rom. 1. 1. The Apostle there informeth us that the doctrine of the Gospel was foolishness to them that professing themselves to be wise they became foolish in their imaginations what Aristotle or Pleto could ever by naturall reason understand any thing of Christ If then we lay this for a sure foundation though
pledge of theirs The second Reason which is pertinent to my matter in hand is from the Collation between Adam and Christ As Adam was the common root and principle of death to all that come from him so is Christ the common Head of Salvation and Life to all who are of him The Apostle Rom. 5. maketh such a Comparison between Adam and Christ as two common Principles and Heads but to another purpose there it is in respect of spiritual death viz. Sinne by one and Righteousnesse by the other but here it is principally in respect of temporal Death and Resurrection by Christ The Apostle having thus cleared this Truth he then enters into a second Debate viz. itâ—â—eth â—â—eth a corruptible body but it shall be raised an incorruptible one It dieth a natural body but it shall be raised a spiritual Last this Distinction of a natural and spiritual body should seem uncouth and very absurd he asserteth and confirmeth it by Scripture And here again in the second place he taketh up a Collation between the first Adam and the second and therein we have them compared 1. In regard of their Condition and State 2. In respect of their Originals And 3. In respect of their Qualities and Properties This illustration the Apostle is large in because the strength of his Argument lieth in this Such as the Principles are such are the Effects Such as the Root is such are the Branches Now all men have from Adam earthly mortal bodies which will die Therefore all that are Christs shall have from him heavenly and spiritual bodies Let us diligently open the particulars wherein we have this Collation between Adam and Christ made for from hence we shall have a fair occasion to examine How from Adam we come thus to have his Image upon us which is the great difficulty in the Doctrine of original sinne SECT II. THe first particular therefore wherein they are compared is Adam's estate is proved from Scripture ver 5. As it is written The first man Adam was made a living soul we have this related Gen. 2. 7. where God is said Adam's body being made out of the dust and formed thencefrom was yet without life and motion therefore God did with him farre otherwise than with bruit beasts for He breathed into him the breath of life This is spoken after the manner of men in a figurative way we are not to think God took on him the form of a man and so breathed life into Adam Neither may we say This was a particle or part of the divine Essence which God communicated to man But the meaning is God inspired into him his soul which gave life and sense and motion to the body by which he becoming a living soul that is a living creature This is Adam's condition But as for Christ who is here called the last Adam Adam because a common Person and last because there is no more to succeed him This last Adam is said To be made a quickening Spirit not but that Christ was man yea and had such an humane Nature as Adam had like to him in all things Sinne onely excepted But this is spoken of Christ principally after his Resurrection For Christ while he lived on earth had an animal body he needed food and rest but after his Resurrection then he had a spiritual body so that it is in reference to this that Christ is called a Spirit but with this Epithete A quickning Spirit that is which giveth life to others He hath not only life in himself but he giveth it also to others and therefore no wonder if he raise those that belong to him But seeing Christ is thus a quickening Spirit it may be said Why then have the people of God their natural bodies still If they be in the second Adam Why are they not as he is To this the Apostle answereth verse 46. That which is natural is first and afterwards that which is spiritual It is the will and appointment of God that the imperfect things should be first and afterwards that which is more perfect In the next place The Comparison is made between the two Adams in respect of their Originals The first was of the earth earthly his body was made of the dust of the earth The Aegyptians had some confused knowledge of this and therefore defined man to be Animal terrenum è limo natum Hence in their Feasts they offered unto their gods an herb that grew in their lakes to signifie what man was But the second man is the Lord from Heaven This place hath an appearance of some difficulty for from this Text did some Anabaptists who revived an old Heresie viz. That Christ had not his body of the Virgin Mary indeavour to prove That Christ had his body from Heaven else say they what opposition could there be made to Adam's body Christs body was in the Virgin Mary but not of her as they affirm But this is grosly to mistake For the Apostle doth not intend to make a comparison in the Materials of which both bodies were compounded but the Originals from whence they are The one is from Earth the other from Heaven being the Lord of Heaven and Earth Some indeed have said That Christ is therefore said to be from Heaven because though it was materially of the Virgin Mary yet because the Conception was in an extraordinary manner by the holy Ghost therefore it might be said to be from Heaven This may have some truth yet Adam was in an extraordinary manner and that in respect of his body formed by God called therefore the Sonne of God yet he cannot be said to be from Heaven So that the most solid Interpretation is to understand it of the Person of Christ and so he is wholly of Heaven being the true and eternal God in which respect John 3. 13. he is said to be The Sonne of man which is in Heaven John 6 38 41. he is said To come from Heaven So that although his body was of the Virgin Mary yet as God in which respect he hath his personality so he is from Heaven The third and last Collation is in respect of their qualities and properties The first man is of the earth earthy in a three fold respect 1. Because his affections are only to earthly things 2. Because the place where he is to be is the earth 3. Because of his mortality he is to return to dust again But the ' second Adam is heavenly in a three-fold contrary respect 1. He is heavenly in regard of his life and conversation 2. In regard of the place where now he is sitting in Heaven at the right hand of God and thus all Christs members shall be heavenly for they likewise shall be in Heaven for ever with the Lord. 3. Heavenly Because of his immortality for he shall never die more SECT III. THus we have the Apostles elegant opposition between the first and second Adam and my Text is a
Conclusion from the former Discourse Some have read the words preceptively as if the sense were As we have born the Image of the first Adam so let us bear the Image of the heavenly But the most solid Interpreters read it affirmatively as in the Text we render it and this seemeth to be more consonant because the Apostle is still in the Didactical and Doctrinal point about our Resurrection The particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is for the and so better translated illatively Therefore The Text then affirmeth two things 1. That all bear the Image of Adam who came from him 2. Those who are of Christ shall bear his Image Having therefore treated of original sin the Quod sit and the Quid sit we come to that which is deservedly thought the most difficult and hard to conceive and explain in this point Which is the manner of propagating it and this shal be soberly and modestly discussed out of these words For from the 45th verse Austin takes an occasion to dispute as Paraeus relateth about the souls traduction from Adam as well as the body Although to speak the truth that which is principally and apparently affirmed by the Apostle here is That we have mortal bodies propagated to us from Adam which is easier to conceive of then to have also sinfull souls from him yet because the Text speaketh of Adam's Image in us and that doth necessarilly suppose a sinfull soul as well as a mortal body We shall therefore declare the truth as of them conjoyned together Observe That all who come of Adam do thereby bear his Image Our natural descension from him maketh us to be wholly like him when he was corrupted That as those who are of Christ are renewed after his Image in righteousness and true holiness so all of Adam are corrupted in sin and ungodliness SECT IV. WHat this Image is you have heard already at large our main work is to examine How we come to be made partakers of it Yet it is good summarily to say something of this Image of Adams we all bear about with us And First Man who was not only made after the Image of God Gen. 1. 26. but is said absolutely to be the Image of God 1. Cor. 11. 7. by his apostasie became not only like the beasts that perish but also like the Devils that are damned Insomuch that now this glorious Image of God being defaced If you ask Whose Image and Superscription he beareth We answer of corrupted sinfull and mortal Adam an Image we are to be ashamed of and to mourn under all the dayes of our life Who can look upon man but may behold sinne and misery folly and mortality Now this Image of the first Adam comprehended the things of the soul and the body In the body we have pains diseases and a necessity of death at last In the soul there is horrible blackness and confusion upon it that as devils are represented in the most horrid and black manner that can be such things are our souls now become Although therefore the Text speaketh of Adam's Image in the bodily part that we are thereby corruptible and mortal and so need a Resurrection to make us happy yet I shall chiefly speak of this Image in the soul as it is infected and polluted with sinne from him This is the Image we bear but there is exceeding great comfort to the godly that they being in Christ the second Adam they shall be made perfectly conformable to him they shall bear that heavenly Image and at last shall have no cause to complain that their souls are bowed down with sinfull earthly and heavy affections weighing us down to the ground were it not for hope of this at our Resurrection the Doctrine about Adam's fall and our hurt thereby would utterly discourage us but there is a second Adam as well as a first if he had been the first and last too that no Adam would have answered him in the way of righteousness and life as he was in the way of sinne and death nothing but horrour and damnation could have taken hold of us Let us be more deeply affected with the first Adam and so shall we come more highly to prize and esteem the second Adam Secondly Adam 's Image as it is sinfull in the general is not only born by us but there seemeth to be a stamp and impression upon us of those very sins he committed As those women who have inordinate desire after some things do sometimes leave marks and impressions thereof upon the body Thus it is spiritually Those very sins which Adam particularly committed in eating the forbidden fruit all men seem most universally to incline unto As 1. A curiosity and affectation of knowing that which is not to be known An inordinate desire was in Eve to eat of the Tree of knowledge because the Devil told her It would make her wise therefore she must eat of it And is not this a very natural sinne in all a curiosity in knowledge Do not all desire to eat of the Tree of knowledge but few of the Tree of life especially Scholars and such who are busied in learning What an incurable itch is there to be wise above Scripture and to know such things God hath hidden And this is a good Item to us to content our selves with sobriety in questioning How Adam's sinne can be ours How the soul can come to be polluted To desire to know this is like the eating of the forbidden fruit While thou art thus curious remember Adam's sinne that thou art acting it while thou enquirest how we are guilty of it A second thing remarkable in the first sinne was Their mincing about the word of God yea plainly lying that God had said they should not touch it which though some say is put for eating Others that Eve did say so for caution sake Whence Ambrose hath a good saying Nihil quod bonum videtur c. we must adde nothing to Gods precept though it seem very good and make much for godliness yet others make Eve plainly to lie and so to accuse God as if he envied them further knowledge Now this sinne of lying how natural is it We see it in children before they can move their feet to go their tongues can stir to lie as if they had been taught they are so subtil in it 3. Adam did excuse and cover his sinne as much as may be putting it off from himself to others and herein also we have a natural resemblance of him for how prone are we to clear our selves to lay the fault any where rather than on our selves Thus we bear Adam's Image CHAP. XXIII The various Opinions Objections and Doubts about the manner how the Soul comes to be polluted SECT I. THe next work is to consider of the manner how we come to bear this Image As for the body to have a mortal and a corruptible one from Adam is easily to be conceived because the body
is causally and seminally in the first man so propagated from man to man but this hath deservedly been acknowledged the hardest knot to unty in all this doctrinal truth about original sinne how the soul can come to be polluted if created from God In this Argument The Pelagians did much tryumph and Austin was so puzled with it that he many times confesseth his ignorance at least his doubt in this point yea he saith That he could neither legendo erando or ratiocinando find out how the propagation of original sinne and the creation of the soul could be defended together But of this more in its time SECT II. The great Objections that are against asserting the Souls Creation IT is certain that here are dangerous rocks on both sides for if we say the soul is created then seeing God cannot but make every thing holy he cannot make a sinfull soul how then can it be infected with sinne Again if the soul be created then it was not virtually in Adam then it could not be said to sinne in him because it was never in him for why did not Christ sinne in him but because he was not seminally in him and if the soul was never radically in Adam how can it be polluted is it just with God to punish that with Adams sinne which never sinned in Adam If it be said that the soul when united to the body doth from that receive infection as if pure liquour were powred into a stinking vessel This will not solve but increase the doubt for a vessel indeed may pollute liquour because they are both bodies and so act by a corporall contact but the soul is a spirit and its a rule say they received by all that a body cannot act upon a spirit Besides sinne is properly in the soul and must from that be conveyed to the body The body whie without a soul is not capable of sinne no more then a bruit beast It hath no reason it is under no law how then can that communicate sinne to the soul when it hath none at all it self Thus you see what strong cords here are even that a Sampson can hardly break SECT III. Objections against holding that the Souls come by Generation Multiplication c. THen on the other side if you think that the only way to maintain the propagation of original corruption is to hold that the souls are not immediately created of God but either by generation or multiplication or some other way Then here also are more dangerous rocks for if we hold this we seem to contradict some strong Texts of Scripture that maketh God the immediate giver of the soul Besides we must then necessarily make it material yea though they who hold the traduction of the soul will not grant that consequence yet it cannot be avoided but what is generable is corruptible and so the soul must be mortall and that rule of Aquinas seemeth to carry much evident light with it Quod dependet a materiâ quoad fieri dependet quod existere This rule holds true in every thing else and why should it be denied about the soul if the soul in its beginning depends upon the body it cannot continue seperate from it and so be immortal SECT IV. THus you see there is a veil upon the face of this Doctrine But although modesty and sobriety be necessary in this point as also in the Doctrine of the Trinity and Christs incarnation yet as in them its necessary to search the Scriptures and so farre to improve the light shining from them that we may be able to convince heretical gainsayers Thus it is also in this truth so much knowledge as is not forbidden yea as is revealed in the Scripture let us thankfully acknowledge and humbly yet with diligence and constancy improve against those who by reason of these difficulties would overthrow the fundamental Truth it self we must not for some seeming Objections forsake the clear Texts of Scripture It commonly falleth out that almost in every great and fundamental truth in Religion as the Doctrine of the Trinity the Doctrine of Justification There is some Objection above all the rest that hath more difficulty in it then ordinary and so it is here but let us not be afraid to get Canaan because of some Anakims in the way SECT V. The severall Wayes that learned Men have gone to remove the aforesaid Difficulties TO guid you therefore in this wilderness to it let us consider what are the several waies that many either of learned or of corrupt judgements have said to the clearing of this And First There are and have been some in the Church following Origen who also followed Plato deriving many opinions from him who did thus think to make this truth easy By holding that the souls were created long before the bodies and that upon their evill and sinne committed they were adjudged to be put into bodies and so from hence it is that they say man is so propense to all evill Therefore they will not say That the souls of men are either by traduction or immediate creation and infusion into the body but that they were created long before the body and while preexistent before it they deserved to be put into this dark prison of the body There was one Vincentius Victor according to his name bold and audacious who disliked Austin for his cunctation and deliberation in the point of the traduction of the soul which occasioned Austin to write four Books De origine animae Now this Vincentius he affirmed That the soul was created before the body and did deserve to be made part of that man who is a sinner yea that it did deserve to be made peccatrix a sinner Some have also thought that this was a general received opinion amongst the Jewes and they proove it from that question proposed to Christ concerning the man born blind yea they were Christs Disciples that did make that question so that it seemeth they were still infected with that vulgar error for Joh. 92 They say Master who did sinne this man or his parents that he should be born blind They ask whether the sinnes of the mans parents or his own sinnes made him to be born blind now he could not have any sinnes before he was born unless his soul did preexist before his body and it seemeth the Pharisees concluded that they were his own sinnes for they say ver 34. Thou wast altogether born in sinnes They did not happily mean original sinne for they say sinnes which must be actual sinnes either his own or his parents But this opinion is so wicked and absurd that to name it is enough to refel it and for this monstrous figment might Origen be called Centaurus as well as for others Only two things are to be said to it First If souls for sinnes acted were adjudged to their bodies how is it that the Scripture giveth that command of Increase and multiply how is it
that children and life are made blessings certainly to be kept in a prison or adjudged thereunto is a curse not a blessing But Secondly This opinion doth not at all heal the wound that the mentioned Objection giveth for the doubt is how our souls are infected because of Adam if they were not causally in him And this speaketh to another matter that they sinned before they were incarnated and therefore have such a troublesome and noisome lodging Again this contradicts the Apostle and doth indeed take away the subject of the question for Rom. 5. The Apostle maketh Adam's disobedience to be the cause of all the sinne that we have as soon as we are born It is not then the souls sinning before its union to the body but Adam the first man and the common head in whom we all sinned and seeing the souls of men were 〈◊〉 Adam as their bodies are the stone still remaineth unremoved In the next place Therefore there are those of a later hatch but few yet would be if not in the number of the first worthies yet of the second Papists I mean Pighius and Catharinus against whom the Papists do as largely dispute in this controversie of original sinne almost as they do against the Protestants These lay down their opinion in two things First That the soul of a man cometh into the world pure and holy without any inherent filth of sinne and that till there be actual sinnes there is nothing in man but what is of God and for this they bring all the Arguments which the Pelagians of old use to do But then In the second place That they may not be anathematized as pelagianizing They say Adams actual disobedience is made our sinne by imputation so that they deny any original sinne inherent in us only all the original sinne we have is Adams first sinne of disobedience which is made ours hence they deny that every one hath his proper original sinne as if there were as many original sinnes as persons born but they say Adams actual disobedience being made ours is the one original sinne of all mankind Thus as one sun serveth to inlighten all the starres and as some Philosophers say that there is one intellectus agens common and universal to all men so they make one original sinne to be common to all and this only Adams posterity is guilty of This opinion they press as hereby making every thing easie and clear Then there needeth no disputation about the original of the soul or how it can be infected if this be true say they then here is no occasion for these intricate disputes about the propagation of original sinne To which the most learned are never able to give a satisfactory Answer Although this opinion of imputation doth no waies remove the doubt about the Creation of the soul for if the soul be by Creation how cometh Adam's sinne to be imputed to man born of Adam if his soul was never causally in Adam so that the difficulty doth still continue as great notwithstanding this opinion But as this opinion hath some truth in it so also much more error and therefore though it be sweet in the mouth yet it proveth wormewood in the belly The truth is this That Adams actual sinne is made ours by imputation this must be constantly affirmed because denied by those who also deny the imputation of Christs righteousness as if thereby we were justified we grant therefore that Adams one sinne is made all mankinds Hence the Apostle doth still speak of one man though there be many immediate parents by whom we are not only made sinners but in whom also we did sinne and this doth arise wholly from Gods ordination and appointment of it for although Scoto and others do call the Covenant in this respect fabula a meer fable yet Suarez doth confess the necessity of it and indeed it must be for though Adam had a thousand times over wilâ—ed that his sinne should be the sinne of all his posterity yet they could not have been guilty of it had not that Covenant involved them so that if the patrones of this imputation had not stayed here but acknowledged also an inherent pollution they would not have been so justly censured But we have already proved by Scripture reason and experience that mankind is involved in an inherent pollution of their own as well as guilty of imputed sinne and indeed how could man be obnoxious to eternal wrath if there were not damnable matter within as well as without can they go to hell with souls pure and holy But if this imputation be granted then the pelagians Objection seemeth to be of force That as Adams sinne could hurt those that have not actually sinned so Christs righteousness may profit those that do not believe This Objection 〈…〉 rather to be answered because the Antinomian thinketh from hence 〈…〉 answerable argument to prove that we are justified before we 〈…〉 That the elect are accepted of having their sinnes pardoned 〈◊〉 they do repent yea before their sinnes are committed because we are in 〈◊〉 the second Adam To this Argument Austin answered of old the Pelagians That Christs righteousness did not profit any but believers and therefore Infants they were saved alienâ side by the faith of their Parents Even as we are condemned alieno peccato by the sinne of another although it be so alienum as that it is also proprium but this is not satisfactory Therefore to the Antinomian we answer That although we are all said to sinne in Adam and his disobedience is imputed to all yet the condition or the medium by which we come to partake of this imputation is naturall generation and therefore till we have an actual being we cannot be said to sinne in him potentially indeed we may but natural generation supposing Gods Covenant as the reason of the conveighance of it in this way Even as in the state of integrity the Covenant would have been the cause of transmitting original righteousness to Adams posterity though natural generation would have been the way of communicating of it is that only which maketh us actually to participate of his guilt Therefore it is a feeble thing in a late writer Eire to oppose the natural generation or discent from Adam to the Covenant for both are requisite the latter as the cause the former as the medium And thus it is in regard of Christs righteousness that is the cause of our justification in Christ we are made righteous as in Adam sinners yet the medium to apply this and to make it ours is faith so that none are justified till they do believe as none are condemned for Adams sinne till they have an actual being faith is the same in a supernatural way to partake of Christ as natural propagation and discent from Adam is to be made a sinner in him Although we may say truly that Christ doth profit the non-believers who belong to grace for by him
they are brought to believe they are brought out of the bondage of sinne only Justification and such Gospel-priveledges are actually bestowed upon none till they do beleive we have not time to proceed in the discovery of other waies and opinions of the learned to answer this doubt only thus much we have heard that may make us therefore to bewail original sinne that we are in such a dark ignorance that we do but grope about the propagation had Adam continued in integrity he would not have only communicated righteousness to his posterity but they would also have certainly known the manner how but now we are wholly miserable and know not exactly the manner how we know little about the soul so that the soul which only is knowing in man knoweth very little of it self of its nature of its original like the eie that seeth other things but not it self Let us then be more sollicitous about our going out of the world then how we came into it Be more desirous to come out of this pit then to stand wondring how thou didst fall into it dost thou not observe more ready to inquire curiously about the one then daily to pray about the other SECT V. HItherto the expedients thought upon to ease that great difficulty about the propagation of original sinne have appeared very improbable and in some respect very absurd like unwise Chyrurgians not healing but vexing the wound worse We shall now proceed to some more probable ones and dispatch them with convenient speed lest you should think these are such 〈◊〉 upon which no grapes can grow of more difficulty then usefulness although you shall find that even in this wilderness we may meet with Mâ—ona The truth discussed will not only be for doctrinal Information 〈◊〉 doctrinate Application The next therefore that I shall instance in is 〈…〉 of those who hold The soul is not by the immediate Creation of God but 〈◊〉 or multiplication and this they are so confident in That they 〈◊〉 Doctrine of original corruption cannot be maintained unless we affirme so Thus you heard Austin affirming That neither by reading praier or disputing could he find out how one could be defended without the other It is true Bellermine saith That the opinion of the traduction of the soul from the parents doth no way at all either advantage or incommodate the Doctrine of original sinne but that the difficulty will still be as great so also Arminius Thes pri de primo peccato maketh the dispute about the original of the soul in the matter of the propagation of this hereditary defilement unusefull and needless But certainly the clearing of the souls original is very influential into this point especially because we are forced to it by the adversaries of this truth for it seemeth very probable that Austin would readily have believed the immediate creation of every of every soul but that the dispute about original corruption was the remora for he regarded not any other Objection This opinion then That the soul cometh originally from the parents as well as the body hath had its grave and learned abettors Tertullian of old who wrote a book De animâ And as for Austin it is true he did not defend this opinion neither did he deny it he wrote four Books De origine animae against one Vincentius Victor who blamed Austin for his hesitancy in this point and in those Austin doth still persist in the same doubt and doth answer those Arguments which are usually brought out of the Scripture yet so as that he doth not determine against the souls Creation but desired stronger Arguments and therefore doth rebuke that young man for his bold presumption in determining that controversie so confidently Austin also in his tenth Book upon Genesis ad literam doth shew the same doubting mind within him as also in his Epistle to Hierom wholly about the original of the soul wherein he doth earnestly desire of Hierom that he would teach him and satisfie him in this point by strong and sure evidence likewise he maketh the original of the soâ—â— the subject of this Epistle to Optatus It appeareth that Austin did more incline to hold the Creation of the soul therefore he saith to Hierom That although none can by wishing make a thing to be true yet if it could he would by wishing have the Doctrine of the Creation of the soul to be the truth No wonder that Austin thus doubted seeing Hierom saith the greatest part of the western Doctors were for the traduction of the soul But the eastern the greek Fathers they did generally hold the immediate Creation of it In the latter daies of the Church since the Reformation there have also been eminent and able Divines asserting the traduction of the soul from the parents and thereby original sinne Vostius mentioneth Johnius and Marnixius The Lutheran Divines seem generally to be of this opinion as appeareth by Brechword and Meisner The latter whereof relateth of Luther that he should say He would never trouble the Church about any opinion about the original of the soul yet his private opinion was that it was not by Creation and they do pitch on this as holding it most convenient to remove all doubts although Meisner confesseth there are even unanswerable Objections if they do hold the generation of it from the parents But I must tell you that those who affirm the soul to be from the parents as well as the body differ amongst themselves for some say it is by eduction out of the matter that it is generated as the body Others they say by traduction that the soul is not corporally begotten but the parents soul doth multiply the infants soul even say they as you see one candle doth inlighten another In the confession of the Aethiopick Faith as Hornebeck summa Cont. de Gracis relateth it is affirmed Omnes sine ullâ hesitantiâ in hâc sententiâ versamur c. All of us are in this opinion without any hesitancy that all our souls come of Adam as well as our flesh and that we are all Adam's seed both in flesh and soul CHAP. XXIV That the Soul is neither by Eduction or Traduction but by Introduction or immediate Infusion proved by Texts of Scripture SECT I. BUt whatsoever learned men have thought therein we may say That it is against Scripture and true reason that the soul is either by Eduction or Traduction but by Introduction or immediate Infusion and that by God himself And I shall instance in some Texts of Scripture to which though they give exceptions yet I suppose the Truth stands immoveable neither do you think this work needless for it 's worth the while if there were no other use but to informe you against a dangerous sect that are called Mortalists who hold the soul is nothing but the temperament of the body and that it is mortal to which abominable opinion the Socinians also do strongly incline The first Text
to prove the Creation of the soul shall be from Eccl. 12. 7. Then shall dust returne to the earth as it was and the spirit shall returne to God who gave it This seemeth to be very clear for he speaketh of every man that dieth he considers the two essential parts of man his body which he calleth dust because it was made of dust and then his soul which he cals a spirit because of its simple and incorporeal nature again which strengthens the Argument he compareth these two in their contrary or divers originals The body returneth to the earth the Spirit unto God that gave it Though we would think this might satisfie yet Austin of old and those that are Traducians they say God indeed giveth the soul by propagation as well as by Creation God giveth two wayes by Creation or by Propagation as saith Austin God is said 1 Cor. 15. 38. to give every several grain its body yet it is by seminal propagation and God is often in the Scripture said to give us our eyes and our ears and our bodies yet they are by natural generation or if this will not serve then they say This is true onely of Adam not his posterity because Adam's body was only made of the dust not ours and God did breath a soul into him at first But every one may see these are weak exceptions as for the later it 's plain he doth not speak of Adam but every man that dieth For having advised the young man to improve his youth for God he tels him old-age is coming and then death then shall he return How can this be applied to Adam who had returned to the earth many hundreds of years before that was spoken And whereas it is said That only Adam's body was made of dust The answer is easie That though our bodies be of flesh and bone immediately yet the remote principle is dust and therefore Abraham though his body was not made as Adams yet he said 〈◊〉 was but dust and ashes Thus this Text stands firm for the immediate Creation of the soul Though let me by the way give you rightly to understand that later clause The spirit returneth to him that gave it The meaning is not as if the soul of every man was saved but that it goeth into the hands of God as a Judge to dispose of it according to what hath been done in the flesh As for the next exception that will be answered in the following Argument only in the general this may be said That if God gave the soul onely mediately by propagation then the body might be said to return to him as well as the soul SECT II. WE will proceed to a second and that is from Zech. 12. 1. The Lord which stretcheth forth the Heavens and layeth the foundation of the earth and formeth the spirit of man within him Here we see the Lords power described by a three-fold effect the making of the Heavens the laying of the earths foundation and making the spirit of man Now it is plain that the two former were by Gods immediate Creation therefore the later must be So that the Context doth evidently shew That Gods making of the soul of a man within him is no lesse wonderfull then the making Heaven and earth This Text was also of old agitated by Austin in this controversie and to answer it he runneth to his old refuge of forming a thing immediately and by natural propagation God is not to be excluded saith he from having a special hand in giving being to the soul yet it doth not follow that therefore it must be by creation out of nothing To this purpose they bring that of Job Chap. 10. 10 11. where Job attributeth the making and forming of his body to God Hast thou not poured me out like milk c Thou hast cloathed me with skin and flesh So Psal 139. 13 14 15. where David acknowledgeth the wonderfull wisdom and power of God in making his body Then hast curiously wrought me As the curious needle-woman doth some choice piece now we cannot from hence prove that therefore the body is of God by immediate Creation But this cannot weaken the Text for we told you That the Argument is not meerly from that expressing of forming the spirit of man within him but from the upper two Attributes Besides the Scripture tels us plainly of what materials the body is formed of whereas they who hold the propagation of the soul are extreamly streightned and difficultated to say what the soul is made of They say it is not ex animâ but ab animâ not of the soul but from the soul of the Parent but then are divided amongst themselves when they go to explicate how the soul hath its being if not from Creation Some say it hath its being by a corporal seminal manner but then it must be a body which Austin would constantly deny for he dissents from Tertullian in that though both held the natural Traduction of the soul Austin I mean only suppositively but Tertullian positively yet he professeth his dissent from Tertullian who made it a body This therefore being thought absurd others they tell us of an incorporeal and immaterial seed from the soul of the Parents which causeth the soul of the child To this purpose Tertullian in his book de animâ distinguisheth of semen animale which cometh from the soul and semen corporeum which cometh from the body But this may easily be judged as absurd as the former If therefore the Scripture when it speaketh of the forming of mans spirit within him had discovered the materials of which it is formed as well as when it speaketh of the forming of the body there would have been some pretence for the Argument But calling it a spirit and as you see in the Text comparing the forming of it with the making of the Heavens and the Earth this makes the creation of the soul more than probable Tarnavius the Lutheran would likewise avoid this place Comment in loc by saying the Hebrew word Jahac doth most commonly signifie not an immediate creation out of nothing for so the Hebrew word Barah doth for the most but a mediate out of some prejacent matter yet indisposed but this Rule being not universal it hath no strength in it Besides the Hebrew word is in the Present tense who formeth so that it cannot relate to the making of Adam's soul at first Indeed the fore-named Tarnavius doth from the participle Benani draw an Argument against us saying It doth not alwayes signifie actum secundum but habitum and potentiam and so maketh the sense to be God who hath this power immediately to create the soul if he will but all will confess this to be forced That is more considerable when he saith As God in stretching out the Heavens and laying the foundation of the earth is not thereby declared to create new Heavens and a new earth every day so neither is it
necessary that he should create souls daily but conserve the order appointed as he doth about the Heavens The Answer is easie therefore do the words relate to the Creation at first with the conservation of them because new Heavens and new earths are not every day made but both they and we do acknowledge new souls are every day produced as often as a man is born and God at first making Adam's soul by breathing into it the same order is still to be conserved This Text thus cleared we may adde as proofs also of the like kind Isa 42. 5. Though Austin thought by spirit there might be meant the sanctifying Spirit of God But that hath no probability Psal 33. 15. the Psalmist saith God hath fashioned the hearts of men alike or wholly throughout By which is meant the soul of a man in all its thoughts and workings because the soul puts forth its vital actions in the heart That also is remarkable which yet I find not mentioned by any in this Controversie Jer. 38. 16. where Zedekiah maketh an oath to Jeremiah that he will not kill him after this manner Thus saith the Lord who made us this soul not this body but this soul he putteth that into the oath intimating what an heavy sinne it would be to kill a man that is innocent seeing he hath his soul from God I shall mention but one Text more and that is in the New Testament which seemeth clearly to demonstrate the creation of the soul Heb. 12 9. We have had fathers of our flesh that corrected us c. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of Spirits I think this Text may put us out of all doubt God is opposed as a Father to our natural parents God is called a Father of Spirits natural parents father of our flesh Now if our souls did come from our parents they might be called fathers of our spirits as well as of our flesh The Apostles Argument would have no force if the Creation of the soul by God alone and the generation of the flesh only by natural parents be not asserted Thus Numb 16. 20. as also Chap. 27. 16. God is there styled The God of the spirit of all flesh in a peculiar manner It may be wondered that though Austin busied himself so much in finding out of this Truth diligently attending to the Scripture yet he never mentioned this place Certainly this Text might have removed his doubt and made him wholly positive in affirming the creation of the soul That which I find later Writers reply to it is That God is called the Father of Spirits in respect of Regeneration because he sanctifieth and maketh holy But the opposition to our fathers of the flesh evidently confuteth this and withall they can never shew that God is called a Father of Spirits or a God of Spirits but in respect of Creation not Regeneration It is true the word spirit may sometimes be used for a man as regenerate as flesh is for a man wholly corrupt but they can never shew that the word spirits in the plural number is taken for men regenerate Vse Of Exhortation To quicken up your attention to this Truth do not think this is unprofitable and uselesse that this Question is like those of which Paul complaineth some doted foolish and endlesse No it is very profitable for in knowing the original of thy soul how it cometh even from God himself may it not shame thee to make thy self like a beast as if thou hadst no better soul then they have Prophanenesse and sottish ignorance do greatly oppose the nature of thy soul Why do men say in effect Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die but as if they and beasts were all alike And why is it that you see so many have no understanding but that they are like the horse and the mule Why doth the Scripture compare wicked men to so many kind of beasts but because they live as if God had put no rational soul into them That though in the making of their bodies they differ from beasts yet in their souls they do greatly agree SECT III. THus you see we are examining Whether that Doctrine of the Propagation of souls from parents be a sure foundation to build upon in clearing the conveyance of original sinne to Adam's posterity And we have evidently proved That the soul hath its immediate creation from God So that to runne to the Sanctuary of the Souls Traduction would be to implore a dangerous errour to assist the Truth As God needeth not a lie so neither doth his Truth any error And indeed Although I shall not call the Doctrine of the Creation of the soul an article of faith because so many learned men have hesitated therein So that it would be an high breach of charity to commaculate such with the note of heresie yet we may with Hierom call it Ecclesiasticum dogma a Doctrine that the most Orthodox have alwayes received So that the contrary opinion seemeth to be absurd as Whitaker well saith Although Vorstius would make this dispute to be meerly philosophical in his Antibellarm Having therefore laid down those Texts which are a sure pillar of this Truth we shall adde some further reasons and then make use of this point which is very fruitfull SECT IV. Arguments from Scripture to prove the Souls Creation THe first Reason which may appear in the defence of the Souls immediate Creation from God is From the historical Narration which Moses makes of the beginning and original of Adam 's soul For as God when he was to create man did it in a more transcendent and glorious way then when he made beasts or the other creatures For then he said Let there be light and Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creatures that have life Gen. 1. 20. And so Let the earth bring forth the living creatures the beasts after their kind But when he comes to make man then the expression is altered Let us make man in our Image and Gen. 2. 7. where we have the manner of the execution of this counsel it is said He formed the body of Adam out of the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life No such thing was done to other creatures So that you see Adam's soul was from God immediately though his body was from the earth This breathing of life into Adam was infusing of the rational soul Some Ancients thought that it was the bestowing of the holy Ghost upon Adam and that he had his rational soul before They compare it with Christs breathing on his Disciples whereby was communicated the holy Ghost Now it is plain they had their rational souls before This is vain because by the breathing of this life it 's said Adam became a living soul so that he was but a dead lump of earth as it were before And indeed this Text is so clear that I know
none of the Adversaries to the souls immediate Creation do deny it Now then If the soul of Adam was by creation Is it not probable that all other souls were in the like manner What a great disproportion would there be between Adam and us if his soul was by creation and ours by generation Some have questioned Whether it would not make a specifical difference between Adam and us But that is not to be affirmed For Christ as man was of the same species with other men though his Conception and Nativity were miraculous But the Argument from the Creation of Adam's soul to the Creation of ours though it be not cogent yet it maketh it more then probable because God at first did appoint that order which afterwards was to continue So he appointed the animate creatures to multiply in their way making their bodies and forms to be educed out of the power of the matter as Philosophers expresse it though very obscurely but he did not do so with Adam's soul Can we think that our souls are lesse glorious and precious before God I mean as meet creatures then Adam's was It is true There was a necessity that Adam 's body should be otherwise made then ours because he was the first Parent and so he could not be bygeneration Thus the other living creatures they had their bodies at first out of the earth or out of the water not by generation as afterwards Thus for the body there was a necessity but then for the soul there was none at all Why might not Adam's soul have been with his body out of the prejacent matter as well as it was with other living creatures But because the soul of man is of an higher nature coming from God alone This Argument will appear in further strength if you consider that Eve though she was made in such an extraordinary manner out of Adam yet she had not her soul from him but her body only For when he awakened see what he saith This is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh He doth not say This is soul of my soul and yet as Austin in this matter though doubting doth well argue That if Eve had had her soul from Adam Quid charius potuit dicere saith he This would have been a more indeared and affectionate expression to have called her soul of his soul then flesh of his flesh It is true some say it is a synecdochical speech By flesh they say is meant whole Eve her whole person soul and body but that is easier said than proved No doubt if it had been so Adam would have expressed it as being a manifestation of greater unity then what was in the body only If you say But why is it not said then that God created Eve 's soul as well as Adam ' s If God had so immediately breathed a soul into her would not the Scripture have mentioned it No that is not necessary it 's enough that we read what God did to Adam about his soul and the Scripture saith Genes 1. 27. God created man in his Image male and female created he them Thus you see they were both as in respect of Gods Image made alike So Chap. 5. 2. Male and female created he them and called their name Adam And thus much for the first Reason The second is more cogent and that is taken from the soul of Christ If Christ had his soul by creation then we had ours also The consequence is clear because Christ is said to be like us in all things sinne onely excepted Hence it is that he also would have assumed our humane Nature in an ordinary way of generation but that it could not be without sinne If then Christ became like us in all things wherein sin was not necessarily adherent then if he had his soul by immediate Creation we had ours also This Argument doth divide the Adversaries to the Creation of the soul For some say Christ had not his soul by immediate Creation no more then we but from his mother But the most wary will not say so Austin in this controversie doth alwaies except Christs soul and indeed there is this Argument which may nforce us to it taken from the comparison that the Apostle maketh between Levi and Christ affirming Levi did pay tythes in Abraham's loynes but not Christ Heb. 7. 9. Now if Christ was every way in Abraham's loynes as Levi was then must Christ have paid tythes in Abraham as well as Levi and so the Apostles Argument would be without any force But it may be and indeed it is urged by Austin and others This will prove Levi's soul to have been in Abraham else Levi could not have been said to have paid tythes in him but as because Christs soul was not in Abraham originally therefore he did not pay tith so neither might Levi To this therefore the solid Answer is That the reason why Christ did not pay tythes in Abraham in the Apostles sence was not because his soul was immediately from God for so also was Levi's but because Christ was of Abraham only Quoad corpulentam substantiam not seminatam rationem his fleshly substance was from Abraham but not by natural propagation he was from Abraham only materialiter not effectivè whereas Levi was both waies and hence he cometh short of Christ Thirdly If so be that the soul of the parents did beget or multiply the souls of children then this would hold also in Angels for the multiplication of another must needs be acknowledged a perfection where the subject is capable of it Certainly generation of another is not in it self an imperfection for then in the blessed Trinity the Sonne could not be begotten of the Father but generation as in creatures denoteth imperfection If then souls may come from souls why not Angels from Angels but this is acknowleged by all That no Angel can produce another but that there are as many and no more or less then was at first Creation As for that example of the soul producing another as we see one candle light another that is nothing to this purpose for therefore doth the candle inlighten another because there is prepared and fitted matter to receive this light so that its from prejacent materials the light is produced but how can this be applied to the soul which is wholly spiritual what preexistent matter that can be made of Fourthly If so be the soul be not by immediate Creation then it must be material corporal and mortal for although this consequence is denied yet the evidence of natural reason will commend this It s traduced saith Tertullian and is a body yet is immortal It is by propagation say the Lutheran Divines and yet is not a body but a spirit and immortal But above all those abominable Mortalists they make it to be only the crusis of the body of which opinion Galen also is said to be and so they make it mortal We see
then that its necessary to have a sound judgement about the original of the soul for the Mortalists have fallen into that deep pit of heresy because they erred in this first It is with men as they say of Fishes they begin to putrify in the head first and so commonly men fall into loose opinions and then into loose practises But this rule must be acknowledged That whatsoever depends upon matter in being doth also depend upon it in existency It 's Aquinas his rule as you heard Quicquid dependet à materiâ in fieri depend quoad esse et existere That is the reason why the souls of all beasts are mortal because they depend upon the matter in being They cannot be produced but dependently on that and therefore their souls cannot subsist without their bodies As it is plain the souls of men do after death till the resurrection So that this Doctrine is injurious and derogatory to our spiritual and immortal souls Fifthly If souls were not by immediate Creation but by natural propagation from the parents then either from the mother alone or from the father alone or from both together This Argument Lactantius of old as Cerda in Tertull. alledgeth him formed to himself and answers it 's neither of those waies but from God Not from the Father alone because David doth bewail his mothers co operation hereunto Psal 51 Iniquity did my Mother conceive me Not the Mother alone because the Father is made the chief cause of conveighing this original sinne by the Apostle he layeth it upon Adam more then Eve though Eve is not excluded Not from both together for then the soul must be partible and divisible part from the Father and part from the Mother and so it cannot be a simple substance Under this Argument Meisuer doth labour and confesseth it is inexplicable how the soul should come from the parents though he assaieth to give some satisfaction Lastly There is something even of nature implanted in us to believe our soules come from God who hath not almost some impression upon his conscience to think that he had not his soul from his parents even nature doth almost teach us in this thing Hence the wisest Heathens have concluded of it as Plato and also Aristotle who confuteth the several false opinions of Philosophers about the soul for it was a doubt as Tertullian lib de animâ expresseth it whether Aristotle was parasior sua implera aut aliena inantre and affirmes it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to come from without and that it is a divine thing Thus it was with some Heathens though destitute of the Light of Gods Word yet in somethings they did fall upon the truth as saith Tertullian The Pilot in a tempestuous black night puts into a good haven sometimes prospero errore and a man in a dark place gropeth and finds the way out sometimes caecâ quâdam felicitate Thus did some Heathens in some things SECT IV. IF you aske What Arguments have they who hold the traduction of the Soul I answer There is none out of Scripture that is worth the answering The two things they urge are First If the soul be not propagated then man doth not beget a man as a beast doth a beast and he is more imperfect then other creatures but this is to be answered hereafter The other is Because original sinne cannot else be maintained but this is to be answered in the Explication how we come to pertake of it Let us proceed to the Uses Vse 1. Doth God create the soul then he must know all the thoughts all the inward workings and motions of thy soul As he that maketh a Clock or a Watch knoweth all the motions of it Therefore take heed of soul-sinnes of spirit-sinnes What though men know not your unclean thoughts your proud thoughts your malicious thoughts yet God who made thy soul doth and therefore this should make us attend to Gods eie upon us Vse 2. Did God make and create the soul then he also can regenerate it and make it new again he made it as a Creator and he only in the way of regeneration can make it again This may comfort the godly that mourn and pray Oh they would have more heavenly holy souls They would not have such vain thoughts such sinnefull motions Remember God made thy heart and he can spiritualize it 3. Doth God create the souls then here we see that it 's our duty to give our souls to him in the first place John 4. God is a Spirit and will be worshipped in spirit This hath been alwaies a complaint men have drawed nigh to God bodily but their hearts have been farre from him God made thy soul more then thy body and therefore let that be in every duty Lastly If Parents do not make our souls then here we see Children must obey Parents but in the Lord Should thy Parents command thee to doe any sinfull action to break the Sabbath you must not obey you may say My father and mother they help me but to my body God doth give me my soul and therefore they are but parents of your bodies not of your conscience and souls SECT V. The Authors Apologie for his handling this great Question THe false wayes which some have wandered in to maintain the Propagation of Original Corruption to all mankind being detected our work is now to explicate that Doctrine which seemeth most consonant to solid Reason and Scripture But before we essay that we are to informe you of one sort of learned Authors who because of the difficulty attending this Point Whether we hold the Traduction or Creation of the soul have thought it the most wife and sober way to acknowledge the Propagation of original Sinne But as for the manner How there to have a modest suspense of our judgement to professe a learned ignorance herein to believe That it is though How it is so we know not And Tertullian concerning the original of the soul Lib. de Animâ hath this known saying Praestat per Deum nescire quae ipse non revelaverit quà m per hominem scire quae ipse praesumpserit In this way of suspense Austin continued as long as he lived thinking that this might be one of those Truths we shall not know till we come into the Academy of Heaven and to this modest silence we have one place of Scripture which might much incline us Eccles 11. 5. As thou knowest not the way of the Spirit nor how the bones doe grow in the womb c. This Text should teach us not to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to venture too farre but to observe the light of the Scripture as they did the Pillar and Cloud in the wildernesse to stand still where that stands still And indeed the Disputes about the Modes of things is very intricate The known saying is Motum sometimes Modum nescimus the manner of Gods working in conversion The manner of Christs presence in
the Sacrament what endlesse controversies hath it begotten And therefore it was the King of Navarr's counsel to the Divines when the Lutherans and Calvinists were upon pacification about the Sacrament that they should not De modo ultra modum disputare Now although this be good counsel yet when heretical and erroneous opinions have invaded the Modus then it is our duty to maintain not onely the truth of a thing but the manner of it also What is a greater mystery then the Sonne of God having his being from the Father He that will touch this mystery with meer natural reason doth as if the Smith should handle his live-coals with his hands and not the Tongs saith Chrysostome yet because of the Socinians who say He is onely a made God in time and hath his Deity by donation We are forced not to be content onely to believe that he is the Sonne of God but also how viz. By eternal Generation So in the great Controversie with the Arminians about the conversion of man It is not enough to say we are converted by grace but are necessitated also to expresse the manner How not by a moral suasion or per modum sapientiae onely but by invincible efficacy and power also Thus the manner of Christs presence in the Sacrament was necessarily to be determined against the Lutherans Thus it is in our point in hand we might well enough sit down with this Truth That original sinne is communicated to every sonne of Adam and enquire no further as the primitive Church did till Austin's time in a great measure But when Heretiques will deny the true Doctrine because the manner is difficult to expresse or when men will deny the Creation of the soul then it 's our duty in a sober manner to search into the way how we partake of it Neither doth the fore mentioned Text contradict this For though we know not how the bones grow in the womb exactly and punctually yet we know in the general that they do by virtue of generation So although we know not particularly how the soul cometh to have its being in the body yet in the general that it is by Creation we have had Scripture light fully to convince us therein This then premised Let us proceed to clear the Doctrine of the Propagation of original sinne and that by several Propositions which will be as so many steps and degrees to the main Truth SECT VII Propositions to clear the Doctrine of the Propagation of Original Sinne by the Souls Creation FIrst We lay this for a foundation That God doth create the soul of every man a spiritual substance This Proposition must be the foundation-stone to build upon That God doth create the soul immediately you have heard several Texts attesting thereunto So that Bellarmine was too dissident when moved it seemed by Austin doth wave all Texts of Scripture for the creation of the soul and so proceedeth to other Arguments Perierius on 2 Chap. of Genes vers 7. giveth a better censure of Austin for having produced some Texts for the Creation of the soul he saith Conatur Augustinus sed frustra hos locos elidere I shall adde one more fit for that purpose also The Text is 1 Pet. 4. 19. Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls unto God as to a faithfull Creator Here the afflicted children of God are required as Christ did to commend their souls to God and the reason is Because he is a faithfull Creator of them So that Gods Creation of them is here made an engagement to God to keep them they being now sanctified and made holy Our souls then are created In the next place I say they are created Substances This is to obviate those that make the soul onely an accident or the crasis and temperament of the humours Galen as Cerda on Tertull de animâ alledgeth him in his second Book of prediction by the pulses hath this passage Hitherto I have doubted what should be the substance of the soul but by age and experience being made wiser I dare be bold to affirm it is no other thing then the temperament He was not made wiser but more absurd and foolish in this thing Yea there is one Dicaearchus much spoken of that said The soul was nothing it was but an opinion And the Mortalists they directly joyn with Galen's opinion Who would think that when we have the Scripture speaking so plainly about the soul that it is a spirit that it removeth when the body is killed that any should be delivered up to such licentious and abominable Doctrines Again I adde God createth it a spiritual substance This opposeth the Sadduces who denied any spirits It is plaine by Scripture that they are substances and spiritual ones because they subsist without the body Tertullian though he doth so acutely perstringe the Philosophers about the soul yet some of them were more sound then he Men saith he have thought about the soul either as Platonis honor Zenonis vigor Aristotelis tenor Epicuri stupor Heracliti maestor Empedoclis furor persuaserint It is true some of these thought the souls to be bodies and so doth Tertullian and happily he might have been excused by taking body largely for that which is not nihil in which sense he attributeth a body to God but that he saith the soul is not only a body but effigiated and shaped also yea that the souls differ in sex which is very irrational We may then conclude this with a saying of Numertus That if any souls are corporeal it is of those who say souls are corporeal A second Proposition is That though God doth create immediately the souls of all men spiritual substances yet they are not compleat and perfect substances as Angles are but the essential parts of men Upon this Proposition depends much weight of this Truth about the communicating of original sinne for we are apt to think God createth our souls like Angels perfect and having subsistency of themselves whereas they are created as parts of a man neither do they come from God any otherwise If God should create a soul to subsist of it self and not to be united to the body to constitute a man that soul would not be polluted But because every soul is created as an essential part of man and so hath its being Hence it is That it cometh into the world part of Adam and so obnoxious to that curse which he had deserved whatsoever then in its first being is part of man that is partaker of Adam's sinne and curse But the soul in its first instant of being is part of man therefore no wonder if it became polluted and cursed The example of that miraculous Resurrection of Lazarus and others may something clear this they were fully dead their souls and bodies union dissolved yet because their souls were not made perfect and pure without sinne and translated into Heaven but
God I answer The Meritorious cause is Adam's disobedience by his transgression he demerited this for all that should come of him And if you say Who putteth the sinne in I answer There is no efficient cause that putteth it in It is enough that God doth justly refuse to give or continue his Image And this being denied the soul because a subject either of holinesse or sinne when wanting one must necessarily fall into the other Thus it is with the souls being polluted as it is with night there is no efficient cause of the night only the withdrawing of the Sunne necessarily maketh it So God doth nothing positively to make the soul sinfull but according to his just appointment at first denieth that righteousnesse which Adam wilfully put away from himself and his posterity So that we may as easily conceive of every childs souls pollution by sinne as of Adam and Eve themselves God made them righteous but upon their transgression they became unclean and sinfull How was this God in justice denied the continuance of this holinesse to them any longer so that they became sinfull not because God infused evil but denied him that righteousnesse to them This may fully satisfie the sober and modest minded man Therefore the last Proposition is That we cannot say the soul being pure in it self cometh into the body and so is insected As if some wine should be put in a poisoned vessel for the soul and the body do mutually infect one another not physically by contact but morally For the soul being destitute of the Image of God in all its operations is sinfull and so all the bodily actions are polluted And then again the body that having lost the properties it had before the fall is a clod and a burden to the soul Thus they doe mutually help to damne one another the soul polluteth the body and the body that again polluteth the soul And thus those two which at first God put together in so near an union to make man happy are now so defiled that both from soul and from body the matter of his damnation doth arise It is true we may say inchoatively Sinne it in the body before enlivened by the soul in which sense David bewailed his being conceived in sinne but explicitely and formally it cannot be and therefore we are not to conceive sinne in the body before the soul be united or in the soul before the body be joyned to it but as soon as they both became man then they are under the just curse of God and the soul being blind and the body same they both fall into that eternal pit of damnation if the grace of God deliver not I may in time shew how many wayes the soul defileth the body and the body againe infecteth the soul viz. in a moral sense and therefore let this suffice for the present Onely from what hath been said let us turn our Disputation into Deploration Let the head busied to argue be now as much exercised to weep Jeremiah wished his head was a fountain of tears for the slain of his people and that was but a temporal death and that of one Nation only How much more may we desir so for the spiritual death and that of all in the world Say unto all Heretical Teachers Get ye behind me Satans you hinder and trouble me in my humiliation Is not the Infant new born swadled and bound up hand and feet and so lieth crying A sad representation that so God might bind every one and send him crying to Hell Thus original sinne opened Hell kindled the fire of Hell there was no Hell till this was committed Oh grievous necessity and unhappy condition we are all born in Antequam peccemus peccato constringimur antequam delinquimus delicto tenemur This even this seriously considered should make us have no rest till we be put into the second Adam in whom we have Justification and Salvation A TREATISE OF Original Sin The Third Part. HANDLING The Subject of ORIGINAL SINN IN What Part it doth reside and what Powers of the Soul are corrupted by it By Anthony Burgess ANCHORA SPEI LONDON Printed in the Year 1658. A TREATISE OF Original Sinne. PART III. CHAP. I. Of the Pollution of the Mind with Original Sinne. SECT I. EPHES. 4. 23. And be ye renewed in the spirit of your mind COncerning our Subject of Original Sinne these particulars have been largely treated on viz. That it is What it is and How it is communicated The next thing therefore in our method to be considered is The Subject of Inhesion wherein it is in what part it doth reside and what powers of the soul are corrupted by it There is indeed made by Divines a two fold Subject of original sinne 1. Of Predication the persons in whom it is affirmed to be and that is in all who naturally come of Adam Christ only is excepted And in this there is not much controversie onely the Francisean Papists opposing the Dominicans do hotly contend that the Virgin Mary was by special priviledge exempted from original sinne Scotus seemeth to be the first that made it received as a kind of an Ecclesiastical opinion whereas formerly it was but thought doubtfull or at most probable It is not worth the while to trouble you with this and I may have occasion ere the subject be dispatched to say what will be necessary to it I shall therefore proceed to that which is more practical and profitable even to search into the seat and bowels of this original sinne that we may be fully informed no part of the soul is free from this pestilence To which truth the Text in hand will contribute great assistance And For the Coherence of it briefly take notice that the Apostle at the 17th verse giveth a short but dreadfull Description of a Gentile conversation or the life of one without the knowledge of Christ wherein you may observe a three-fold ignorance or blindness upon all such so impossible is it that of themselves they should ever come to see There is a natural blindness a voluntary contracted blindness and a Judicial one inflicted on them by God for abuse of natural light These there are mentioned in the 18th verse And in this vers 19. we have the formidable consequence declared That being past feeling no remorse of conscience in them They give up themselves to all wickednesse with greedinesse Oh that this were only among Pagans But how many have this natural voluntary and judicial blindness and obstinacy upon them under the light of the Gospel Yea their eyes are more blinded and hearts more hardned where the means of grace have been contemned then in the places where the name of Christ hath not been known This black condition of Heathens being described he compareth those of Christians with it and so we have darkness and light here set together And this the Apostle declareth vers 20. But ye have not so learned Christ Christ
24. So that this supposeth even the memories of the most godly to be as it were dull and sleepy very heavy and negligent about what they ought to be diligently exercised with But yet the Apostle hath not said all his mind herein for vers 15. he professeth this care of his for the good of their memories shall extend even after his death I will endeavour that after my decease you may have these things alwayes in remembrance Now that would be done by these very Epistles they would be as continual memento's to them See then here the godly zeal and faithfull diligence of a godly Pastor it extends to the future as well as the present he is afraid after his decease all he had preached should be forgotten And doth not experience sadly confirm this After the death of a godly Minister How quickly are all his labours all whose precious truths he had made known forgotten as if they never had such a Preacher amongst them However if these soul-saving truths be forgotten Peter will take care that the sinne should not lie at his door he will be faithfull to do his duty And Chap. 3. 1. take notice how again he taketh up this profession of his care and zeal to help their memories He wrote both these Epistles to stirre up their pure minds by way of remembrance Their pure minds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as are discovered and tried as it were by the Sunne-beams the least more any vain thoughts or sinfull motions are discovered and abandoned yet though they have such pure minds he writeth Epistle upon Epistle to stirre them up by remembrance and as if all this were not enough to quicken up their memory the Apostle Jude writing to the same persons doth almost write the same things verbatim which the Apostle Peter had written in this second Epistle and vers 4. he proclaimeth this to be his end To put them in remembrance though once they knew this It was for their memories sake by way of exhortation not for their understandings by way of instruction Now from all this we may gather That such is the weaknesse and sinfulnesse of the memory and that even in the regenerate that they need daily divine helps to provoke it to its duty And whereas the sinfulness of our memory may be two wayes either actually by a wilfull forgetting of holy things and a carelesse neglect of them or original whereby the memory through Adam's fall as well as the other parts of the soul are become all over unsanctified and hath no sutablenesse or proportion to divine objects and holy duties I shall speak of this later though as expressing and emptying it self into actual and wilfull forgetfulnesse for of this original and native pollution of the memory must we understand this Text in a great measure which the Apostle by frequent filing would get off as so much rust seeing he writeth to those that are sanctified and as also he speaketh of this as a permanent and an abiding weaknesse in them Now in the regenerate all contracted habits of sinne are expelled by vertue of the new birth And as for actual sinnes they are transient so that there remaineth no other defilement but original and the reliques or immediate products thereof If then the most holy do need quickning helps to their memory because of the dulnesse and slownesse in it about holy things It is plain the memory as well as the other faculties of the soul is depraved by original sinne and if in the sanctified person the memory hath this partial and gradual sinfulnesse in the unregenerate and natural man it must be all over polluted and made unsavoury about any good thing Observe That the memory of every man by nature is wholly polluted by original sinne It cannot perform those offices and acts for these holy ends as it was at first inabled to do in the state of integrity It will be very usefull and profitable to anatomize the sinfulnesse of the memory as we have done of the other intellectual powers for it is from the pollution of this part that all wickednesse is committed The Scripture makes this the character of all wicked men That they forget God Psal 9. 17. implying That if we did remember God his Greatnesse his Power his holy Will we should not fall into any sinne Insomuch that we may in some sense say All they evil is committed because of thy evil and sinfull memory hadst thou remembred such and such threatnings such and such places of Scripture they would have preserved thee from this impiety SECT II. What we mean by Memory TWo things must be premised before we enter into the main matter First What we mean by the memory Aristotle wrote a little Book about Memory and Remembrance De Memoriâ Reminiscentiâ and from him many have taken up large and uselesse Disputes herein It is not my purpose to teach you with these thorns it is enough that there is acknowledged a sensitive memory which is common to men with beasts and an intellective though that be questioned but against all reason for the soul separated doth remember as appeareth in that Parable where Abraham said to Dives Sonne remember thou hast received the good things of this life Luk. 16. 25. Angels also must necessarily remember because all things are not present to them therefore past things they cannot know but by way of memory God is said in the Scripture often to remember but that cannot be properly because to him all things past and future are as present so that he cannot be said to remember properly no more then to fore-know onely such expressions are used by condescension to our capacity Aristotle distinguisheth between Memory and Remembrance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and this he saith as farre as is yet observed no creature can do but man When therefore I shall speak of the Memory I shall understand it as it is Remembrance and as it is Intellectual for in man we may say his memory is in a great part the understanding knowing things as they are past Therefore Austin and the Master of Sentences following him though this be disclaimed by many that came after make three powers or faculties in the rational part of a man his Vnderstanding his will and Memory which they call the created Trinity and by it they say is resembled the blessed and increated Trinity But I shall not dispute this for I shall speak of Memory as the same with the understanding onely in this particular as it is carried out to things that are past for that is the necessary object of Memory that it must be past we do not remember a thing present or a thing future SECT III. A two-fold weaknesse of Memory IN the second place While we speak of the weaknesse of the Memory about good things we must take notice of a two-fold weaknesse a Natural weaknesse and a sinfull weaknesse a Natural weaknesse is that which ariseth from the
alwayes be in our minds Such signal and transcendent expressions of love would be with us rising and waking and going to bed That though the Devil and the world did never so importunately crowd in with their suggestions yet this should alwayes be uppermost in our hearts and affections but Christ by this very institution doth hereby manifest what dull and stupid memories we have and that about the greatest mercies that we are capable of Would it not be strange if a malefactor should forget his pardon or Rahab forget the scarlet threed in the window that was to be the preservative of her life yet our forgetfullness is greater when we do not remember our Saviour and his sufferings for us And for the other Sacrament of Baptism how greatly is our obligation by it forgotten how grosly we do forget that covenant with God and the dedication of us unto God renouncing the Devil and his lusts That was appointed to be a commemorative sign But how sinfull is our memory for we do as it were need another sign to put us in mind of that and so in infinitum what little power hath the memory of these Sacraments upon us Yea how little do they come in our mind thereby to improve our duties and consolations Lastly That our memories are naturally sinfull will appear If we consider how it was with Adam in the state of integrity he was made right Eccl. 7. which doth extend to the spiritual perfection of all the parts of his soul As his mind was indowed with all necessary light and knowledge so his memory also with all strength and vigor so that forgetfullness of any thing that was his duty was no more incident unto him then any other sinne It was not because naturally he had a bad or a forgetfull memory that made him break the Law of God for if God had created him found and perfect in all other parts of his soul only left him to a weak and frail memory he could not have been happy either in temporal or spiritual considerations As his soul was thus perfected so his body was in a found and well tempered constitution having no redundancy of humors thereby to hinder the operations of the soul by memory he was not subject to diseases or old age or any thing else that doth empair the memory of man but now our sun is become a dunghill and our gold dross As original sinne hath pestilentially insected all parts of the soul so the memory hath not escaped this pollution for where it is naturally able there it is spiritually impotent when it might remember if improved and put upon there is it negligent and careless how many say They cannot remember any good thing delivered to them press them about the Scripture and the good truths of God preached to them and they will justify themselves by pleading the badness of their memory whereas it is for want of a good heart and a good will if thy affections were ardent and burning about these things thy memory would be more retentive of good things then they are Besides little do you know what your memory would do if you did put it upon frequent exercise few know what their memories could do if exercised about holy things because few are industrious and active to put it on work Austin lib. 4 to de origine animae relateth of his friend Simplicius how he was desired to repeat verses out of Virgil backwards and forwards and also the Prose of Tully with an inversed order and this he did to their great admiration yet Austin saith That Simplicius did solemnly protest that he never did so before neither had he ever tried whether his memory were able for such an exercise or no. By this example we see that none know what their memories would do if they did more carefully and diligently put them upon it But grant that the memory be naturally impotent though this you heard be not formally a sinne yet it is the fruit of it and so matter of humiliation Learned men say That what fit constitution and temperature is required in the brain for a sound and solid judgement the contrary is for a good and strong memory and therefore they say it is that a strong judgement and a strong memory seldom go together As saith Erasmus the beast Lynx hath a most acute sight but is a most stupid and forgetfull creature Now if this be so then this ariseth from Adam's fall for no doubt Adam had both a perfect judgement and a perfect memory and it cometh through original sinne that the body is so distempered that what helpeth for one faculty of the soul impedeth and hindreth the other The Summe of this particular is That wherein our memories do now come short of that which Adam's memory while perfect was able to do that is either expresly and formally a sinne or the immediate issue and punishment of sinne SECT VIII Wherein the memory of man is polluted THis sure foundation then being said Let us proceed to shew Wherein the memory of man is so greatly polluted And that will appear First Very remarkably If you consider all the several objects which by the Scripture we are daily to have in our memory and we are naturally in a constant and daily forgetfulnesse of them Onely it is good to take notice of a distinction which Vossius De Origine Idolat lib. 1. cap. 11. observeth out of Bonaventure That there is a two-fold forgetfulnesse 1. When the very Species or Images of things are quite obliterated and deleted this may be called a natural forgetfulnesse 2. When though the Species be reteined and we do remember yet through carelesnesse and negligence we do not attend to that duty which should flow from our memory and this may be called a moral forgetfulnesse And indeed we have too much experience of this later kind of forgetfulnesse for how many are there that do remember Sermons that do carry in their minds several Texts of Scripture and that against those very sinnes they do commit daily Now in the Scripture language this is forgetfulnesse such are said not to remember because they do not what they ought to do upon their memory In both these considerations I shall speak of the pollution of the memory The first and most signal object of our memory which the Scripture speaketh of is God himself God is not only the object of our faith and of our love of our minds and wils but also of our memory We should alwaies keep up the remembrance of God in our thoughts and this would be a most potent Antidote against all kind of sinne Therefore is all evil committed because we do not remember God at that time Deut. 8. 18. Moses doth there command the people of Israel to take heed of trusting in their own righteousnesse and goodnesse or of attributing their wealth and riches to their own power But saith he thou shalt remember the Lord thy
remember what our hearts are set upon what our affections are earnest for whereas our memory should precede and go before them for the intellective memory is the same with the mind and understanding of a man for although to remember be not properly an act of knowledge yet this intellective memory we make the same with the mind of a man as it extends to things that are past The memory then is to make way for the heart and the affections to be directive to them whereas now for the most part it is made a slave to the corrupt heart for if the understanding in it all 's hegemonical and primary actions hath lost its power how much more is this true in the memory For the most part therefore the badness of the heart makes a bad memory and a good heart a good memory men complain they cannot remember when indeed they will not remember their hearts are so possessed and inslaved to earthly things that they remember nothing but what tendeth thereunto This is the ground of that saying Omnia quae curant senes meminerunt Old men remember all things their hearts are let upon all things they do earnestly regard They can remember their bonds the place where their money lieth because their hearts are fixed upon these things but no holy or good things can lodge in their memories The rule is Frigus est mater obiivionis Coldness is the mother of oblivion as is partly seen in old men and thus it is even in old and young their hearts are cold earthly lumpish even like stones about holy things and therefore it is no wonder if they remember them no better so that we may generally conclude That the cause of all they blockishness and forgetfullness about divine things is thy sinfull and corrupt heart if that were better thy memory would be better We have a notable place Jer. 2. 32. Can a maid forget her ornaments or a bride her attire yet my people have forgotten me daies without number Can a bride forget her attire and ornament it is impossible because her delight and affections are upon it but saith God My people have forgotten me daies without number Why so because I am not that to them which ornaments are to a bride saith God if they delight in me rejoyce in me if they did account me their glory then they would never forget me By this you see that therefore we forget God and his wayes because our hearts are not in love with him Can he that is powerfully conquered by love of a friend forget his friend Doth he not alwaies remember him Is not a friend alter ego Is not the lovers soul more where it loveth then where it animateth Thus it would be also with us in reference unto God therefore we have bad memories because bad hearts It is true some natural causes may either deprive us wholly of or greatly enervate the memory Thus Messalla that famous Orator judged to be more elaborate then Tully two yeares before his death forgot all things even his own name Hermogenes also that famous Rhetorician who wrote those Rhetorical institutions which are read with admiration of all and this he did when he was but eighteen years old and some six yeares after grew meerly stupid and sensless without any evident cause of whom it was said that he was Inter pueros senex inter senes puer Thucidides as Vostius reporteth Orat. institut lib. 6. speaketh of such an horrible pestilence that those who did recover of it grew so forgetfull that they did not know their friends neither remembred what kind of life or profession they once followed So that natural causes may much weaken the memory but if we speak in a moral sense then nothing doth so much corrupt the memory about holy things as a sinfull and polluted heart Fifthly The pollution of the memory is seen In that it is not now subject in the exercise of it to our will and power We cannot remember when we would and when it doth most concern us whereas in the state of integrity Adam had such an universal Dominion over all the powers of his soul that they acted at what time and in what measure he pleased Thus his affections were subject to him in respect of their rise progress and degree and so for his memory he had all things in his mind as he would Some indeed question Whether Adam did then Intelligere per Phantasmata But that seemeth inseparable from the nature of man while upon the earth and living an animal life though without sinne No doubt his soul being the form of the whole man did act dependently upon the instrumentality of the body though such was the admirable constitution of his body that nothing could make the operations thereof irregular Adam then had nothing which could either Physically or Morally hinder the memory but all was under his voluntary command whereas such an impotency is upon us that if we would give a world we cannot remember the things we would Hence we are force to compel our selves by one thing after another to bring to our minds what is forgotten for in remembring there is some dependance of one thing upon another as rings if tied together are more easily taken hold of then when they lie singly and loosly And this Austin lib. 10. confes maketh to be the Etimology of the word Cogito Cogito à cogo as Agito ab ago Factito à facio as if to cogitate were to force and compell things into our minds Let us then mourn and humble our selves under this great pollution of nature that those things which are of such infinite consequence which are as much as our salvation and eternal happiness are worth yet we do not we cannot remember Hence in the sixth place The memory being not under our command it falleth out that things come into our minds When we would not have them yea when it is a sinne to receive them How often in holy duties in religious performances do we remember things which happily we could not do when the fit season and opportunity was for them Do not many worldly businesses come into our minds when we are in heavenly approaches to God that as Job 1. when the sonnes of God came and appeared before God then Satan came also and stood with them Thus when thou art busie to remember all those Scripture-arguments which should humble thee in Gods presence which should exalt and life up thy soul to God How many heterogeneous and distracting thoughts do croud in also so that this worldly business and that earthly imploiment cometh into thy remembrance Insomuch that the people of God though their memories are sanctified and so cleansed in much measure from original filth in the dominion of it yet do much groan under this importante and unseasonable remembring of things for hereby our duties have not that united force and power as they should have neither is God so
Will in its Absolute and Efficacious Willing of a thing COme we then to the next act of the Will which is an absolute and efficacious willing of a thing and here no tongue of men and Angels can expresse the depravation of it For if we do consider the true proper and adequate object of the will it is God only He is the supreme and universal good having in him after an eminent manner all good whatsoever So that no object can fill the capacity of the will but God only The good things of the creature can no more fill up the will then the air can the stomack of an hungry man but if we consider how it standeth with our will as it is now corrupted of all objects it is most averse to God Hence the Scripture describeth every wicked man by this That he hateth God not under the notion as he is good but as he is holy as he is a just Judge who will punish every wicked transgressor Know then and bewail this unspeakable defilement upon thy will that it is most averse to its proper object no stone doth more naturally descend to the center then thy will should tend to God Amor mens pondus meum illuc feror quocunque feror A mans love is his weight now if thy love be spiritual that weigheth thee to God but if thy will be carnal that presseth thee to carnal objects 2. Thy will is corrupted in respect of its object because all the creatures are to be willed by thee no otherwise then they tend to God or lead thee to him whereas naturally we will the creatures for the creatures sake and so make it instead of a God to us As the Sunne being the primum visibile all things are to be seen by the light thereof so God being the primum amabile the first and chiefest thing to be beloved all things are to be loved with a participation from it But who may not groan under our corruption herein Every creature we desire we are apt to terminate our selves upon that and to go no further Do we will health parts and the comforts of this life in reference to the glory of God So that herein we may see the depth of our corruption It was not thus with Adam in his integrity There is not a creature that thy will is pitcht upon but thy soul commits fornication with it Leave not the meditation of this point till thy heart in an holy manner break within thee ¶ 4. The Corruption of the Will in its Act of Fruition THe next Act is that which is called Fruition An operation you heard of the will when it doth possess a thing as its ultimate end end resting in it as a center and desiring no further For as the stone cannot of it self hang in the air but must descend to the earth and there it resteth So the will of man moveth up and down in a restless manner like Noah's Dove till it find out an object wherein it doth acquiesce with fulness of content Now there is no object that we may thus frui enjoy ultimately and for it self's sake but God onely That distinction of frui and uti to enjoy and use only which Austin first excogitated the Schoolmen are large upon To enjoy a thing is to have it for its self sake referring it to no further end for the Rule is Appetitus finis is infinitus The soul never hath enough of that which it ultimately desireth but yet desireth nothing else but that As in Philosophy it is said Materia semper appetit formam the Matter doth constantly desire new forms in sublunary things Hence is that frequent alteration transmutation and generation but in the heavenly bodies the matter they say is satiated desireth no other because of the great activity and perfection of that form Thus it is in moral things the heart of a man while carried out to any earthly thing cannot meet with its complement and fulness of blessedness and therefore like the Horsleech still cryeth Give give Sen caret optatis seu fruitur miser est It is a Sheol that is alwayes craving onely when terminated upon God because he is bonum quo nihil melius there cannot be any good desirable which is not transcendently in him therefore the sanctified will doth enjoy him onely Thus David Whom have I in heaven but thee and none in earth in comparison of thee In Heaven David had none but God not Angels nor Arch-angels Heaven would not be Heaven if God were not enjoyed Indeed Divines do commonly call the enjoyment of God in Heaven fruition and that is immediate compleat and perfect fruition but yet even in this life believers partake of God have communion with him and do enjoy him It is indeed by saith not yet by vision but the object of faith is as real and operative in the soul though not to such a full degree as the object seen Thus you see that according to the true order and constitution of things God onely is to be enjoyed he onely is to be loved and desired for his own sake and all things else in reference to him But on the breadth the depth and length of our natural defilement therein What spiritual Geometry can measure the dimensions hereof For doth not every natural man enjoy something or other which is as a God to him Why is Covetousness called Idolatry Why are some said to have their belly a God Is not all this because they love these things and enjoy these things for their own selfe 's sake Whereas we ought only to use them as instruments of Gods glory and advantages of grace not to abide or dwell in them They are to be taken as Physick which is not received for its selfe 's sake but because of health So that were it not for health a man would never use it Thus it ought to be with us in all the comforts we have in this world to use them no further then they are subservient to our spiritual condition we are ex officio discendere not cupiditate ruere such a crucified and circumcised heart the Apostle exhorteth to 1 Cor. 7. The time is short those that marry must be as if they married not those that rejoyce as if they rejoyced not If a man desire a garment he would not have all the cloath in the Countrey but as much as serveth for his garment So neither are we to desire wealth riches honours any comfort without end but as much as will conduce for Heaven The travailer will not burden himself no not with gold and silver who hath a long journey to go Oh then call off thy will again and again Say Why art thou fastned here Why stayest thou here Look further look higher This is not God As the Angel did on a suddain so ravish John that he was ready to worship him but the Angel forbad him saying I am thy fellow-servant worship thou God So these creatures
is by the grace of God that we come to acknowledge the grace of God Error in mind is part of our bondage as well as lust in our heart It is therefore by th◠grace of God that we are delivered from both these thraldoms we have a freed mind from ignorance and a freed will from concupiscence It is the Spirit of God that leadeth us into all truth called therefore the Spirit of truth John 14. 17. It is by the grace of God that thou fallest not in this errour of advancing free-will It 's by the grace of God that thou art no Pelagian or Arminian It is this that maketh thee to differ from them Thy judgment thy heart would be self-confident herein did not the Spirit of God teach thee Lastly Consider that the grace of God is necessary to guide us in this point Because this Question hath alwayes seemed very difficult Austin acknowledged it so Hence he saith That when grace is defended we are thought to destroy free-will and when a free-will is acknowledged though in some sense onely we are thought to deny free-grace Indeed the Truth is not so difficult viz. that we have no spiritual liberty to what is good or that grace onely maketh the will free but how to reconcile this with the natural liberty of the will that it shall not be as a stock or stone that hath seemed to some even insoluble and therefore they advise to captivate our understandings in this point as we doe in the Doctrine of the Trinity however whether soluble or insoluble the difficulty argueth the necessity of Gods assistance while we preach and you hear about it ¶ 6. The first Demonstration of the slavery of the Will is from the Necessity of sinning that every man is plunged into SEveral particulars being premised as introductory to our intended matter our next work is to shew Wherein this servitude slavery of the will doth consist Not that you are to conceive of the will as some prisoner who is chained up in a dungeon that hath power to walk and run only those external impediments do hinder him which is Bellarmine's similitude about the inability of a natural man to supernatural good So the will hath some inward power and ability to do that which is holy onely there are lusts which are vincentes and vincientes as Austin expresseth conquering and binding this will that it cannot actually perform what internally it hath a power to do here is no such thing for we must conceive of this habitual depravation and defilement of the will in its state and condition more inward and deeply rooted in it First therefore That the will of man is destitute of any freedome to what is good appeareth In the Necessity of sinning that every man is plunged into that he cannot but sinne in all that he doth That as the Angels and Saints in Heaven have Beata Necessitas a blessed necessity of loving of God and delighting in him so that no temptation in the world can draw them off Thus every man by nature is in an unhappy and wretched necessity of sinning Dura Necessitas as Austin called it Insomuch that though the Scripture doth represent the things of Heaven in a most glorious manner to affect us yet we cannot be taken off from our sinne to love that Hence it is that every man till regenerated is compared to an evil tree and Tit. 1. they are said to be unclean and every thing made unclean to them The person being not accepted neither can any duties be This is our sad and miserable condition by nature But whose heart is throughly affected with it Thy eating thy drinking thy buying and selling yea thy praying and all other duties as they come from a man not sanctified by grace are sinnes in the eyes of God Think then to what an infinite aggravation they will arise and whether thou mayest not truly complain they are more then the sands upon the Sea-shore so that as the Toad and Serpent do necessarily vent what is poison and can never do that which is sweet and wholsom Thus no man in his natural estate can ever do any thing but be sinning and so damning of himself all the day long Onely when we say it is thus naturally necessary to a man to sinne in all things he doth you must know that we do not herein make him absolutely like a bruit beast which is not capable either of vice or virtue for this necessity is voluntarily brought by man upon himself he did wilfully strip himself of all power and ability to do that which is good and so having shut out the light from himself he doth necessarily remain in the dark having chaced away the Spirit and presence of God from his soul which is the life thereof he becometh spiritually dead and so in a necessity of sinning But it is not thus with Serpents and Toads for whether they were at first created solely with such a poisonous nature or whether upon Adam's fall it was inflicted upon those creatures as a curse it is plain that these creatures could not with any will or consent bring themselves into this estate but man did voluntarily at first having no seed of evil or inward propensity to sinne transgress the Commandment whereupon his soul became more shamefully naked then his body This necessity therefore whereby he is determined onely to sinne ariseth from his own free and voluntary impiety As a man that hath wilfully put out his own eyes must blame himself for ever if he cannot see If then this bondage be upon thee that in all things thou sinnest whatsoever thou undertakest evil is presently over ruling of thee blame not God or any providence of his no nor the Devil neither for though he doth tempt yet he doth not necessitate to sinne but thy own self for from thy own bowels this destruction doth arise ¶ 7. That a Necessary Determination may arise several wayes some whereof are very consistent with Liberty yea the more necessary the more free IT is good to observe and it may clear many difficulties in this point That a necessary determination may arise several wayes some whereof are very consistent with liberty yea the more necessary the more free Thus God himself doth necessarily will that which is good and yet freely also And if you ask Whence doth it arise that God is thus determined to what is good I answer It is from the infinite and absolute perfection of his holinesse whereby he is not nor cannot be a God that willeth iniquity Arminius indeed maketh it little lesse than blasphemy to say God is liberè bonus but that is because he cannot part with his Helena or Dalilah viz. That liberty consists in an indifferency to good and evil and in this sense to say God doth so freely will good that he can as freely will evil would be blasphemy but to will evil is no part at all of freedome it is a defect in
to remove SECT V. They are wholly displaced from their right Objects THirdly The great sinfulness of the affections is seen In that they are wholly displaced from their right Objects The objects for which they were made and on which they were to settle is God himself and all other things in reference to him our love God onely challengeth in that command Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy heart and soul c. Our hatred that is properly to be against sin because it dishonours God our sorrow it is principally to be because of our offences to him so that there is not any affection we have but it doth either primarily or secondarily relate to God but who can bewail the great desolation that is now fallen upon us Every affection is now taken off its proper center In stead of loving of God we love the world we love our pleasures rather then God Instead of hating of sinne we hate God and cannot abide his pure and holy Law and Nature Thus we fear not whom we ought to fear viz. God That can destroy both soul and body in hell and what we ought not to fear there we are afraid as the frowns and displeasure of men when we are to do our duties Our sorrow likewise is not that also corrupted How melting and grieved are we in any temporal loss in any worldly evil but then for the loss of God and his favour by our iniquities there our bowels never move within us Thus our affections out of all order to their proper objects ought to be groaned under more than if all our bones were out of joynt for that is only a bodily evil hindring a natural motion this is a spiritual one depriving us of our enjoyment of God This particular pollution it is that the Text doth immediately drive at when it commands us To set our affections above it plainly sheweth where they are naturally viz. upon things of the earth and therefore as it was Christs divine power that made the woman bowed down with her infirmity for so many years to be strait Thus it must also be the mighty and gracious power of God to raise up these affections that are crawling on the ground to heavenly things Possess then thy soul throughly with this great evil that thou hast not one affection within thee that can go to its proper object but some thing moveth it from Go to the vain and fading creatures If these affections be the pedes animae the feet of the soul then with Asa thou hast a sad disease in thy feet and if thy whole body else were clean these feet would need a daily purifying SECT VI. The sinfulness of the Affections is discovered in respect of the End and Use for which God ingraffed them in our Natures FOurthly Their sinfulness is discovered in respect of the object about which So also in respect of the end and use for which God first ingraffed them into our Natures They were given at first to be like the wheels to the Chariots like wings to the bird To facilitate and make easie our approaches to God the soul had these to be like Elijah's fiery chariot to mount to Heaven and therefore we see where the affections of men are vehement and hot they conquer all difficulties that Adam might in body and soul draw nigh to God that God might be glorified in both therefore had he these bodily affections And we see David though restored to this holy Image but in part yet he could say His soul and his flesh did rejoyce in the Lord his flesh desired God as well as his soul that is his affections were exceedingly moved after God as Psal 84. 2. For the soul being the form of the body whatsoever that doth intensly desire by way of a sympathy or subordination there is a proportionable effect wrought in the inferiour sensitive part As Aaron's oyl poured on his head did descend to his skirts Thus by way of redundancy what the superiour part of the soul is affected with the inferiour also doth receive and by this means the work of grace in the superiour part is more confirmed and strengthned and the heat below doth encrease the heat above Thus you see that these affections had by their primitive nature a great serviceablenesse to promote the glory of God to prepare and raise up men to that duty But now these affections are the great impediments and clogs to the soul that if at any time it would sâ—ar up to Heaven if light within doth instigate to draw nigh to God These affections do immediately contradict and interpose and the reason is because they are ingaged to contrary objects so that when we would love God love to the world that presently stoppeth and hinders it when we should delight and rejoyce in holy things worldly and earthly delights they do immediately like the string to the birds feet pull down to the ground again Hence it is that you many times see men have great light in their minds great convictions upon their consciences they know they live in sinfull wayes they know they do what they ought not to do yea they will sometimes complain and grieve bitterly because they are thus captivated to those lusts which they are convinced will damn them at last but what is the snare that holdeth them so fast What are the chains upon them that bind them thus hand and soot even their sinfull and inordinate affections their carnal love their carnal delight keepeth conscience prisoner and will not let it do its duty Oh that we could humble our selves under this that what was wine is now become poison that what we had to further us to Heaven doth hurry us to hell that our affections should carry us to sinne that were for God that they should drive us to hell which were to further us to Heaven Oh think of this consider it and bewail it Many things lose their use and they only become unprofitable they do not hurt by that degeneration as salt when it hath lost its seasoning but now these affections are not onely unprofitable they will not help to what is good but are pernicious and damnable we that were of our selves falling into hell they thrust us and move us headlong to it so that they seem to be in us what the Devils were in the herd of Swine These are the wild horses that tare thy soul in so many pieces Thus our gold is become dross SECT VII When the Affections are set upon inferiour objects that are lawfull yet they are greatly corrupted in their Motion and Tendency thereunto IN the next place If the inferiour objects they are placed upon be lawfull and allowable yet they are greatly corrupted in their motion and tendency thereunto For they are carried out excessively and immederately They do unlawfully move to lawful things As man â—ands corrupted by nature his affections are defiled two wayes in respect of the objects For sometimes
they are carried out to those things that are absolutely prohibited that are no more to be imbraced then absolute poison is to be eaten such are the pleasures of sinne and the lusts of the flesh when the affections doth entertain these they imbrace present destruction here is no moderation or stint allowed in these but there is an absolute prohibition to give these any entertainment yet poor wretched and corrupt man is hurried to these things and drinketh down iniquity as a thirsty man water so that it can never enough be bewailed to see what a grievous change sinne hath made in the affections that they are now most propense and inclining to those things which are to be most abhorred by them even as the corrupt appetite in some persons delighteth to feed on trash and most offensive matter to a found stomack But In the second place there are other objects which the Scripture doth allow us to let our affections runne out about and these are not evil in themselves no more then to have affections is a sinne love in it self is not a sinne neither is love of husband health and such comforts but when we go beyond our bounds when these are loved more then God or the love to them doth hinder and dead the heart to holy things then doth love become sinfull and damnable Now such is the original depravation of all the affections That they cannot in a moderate and well-regulated way with subordination to God move to any lawful object but they do exceedingly transgress and that many wayes For 1. Whereas they should be carried out to these lawful things only with reference to God as the cheifest end to love them to desire them no otherwise then thereby to be brought nearer to the end we are apt to make them the end to stay there to make a full stop at a Colon or Comma Even as the children of Reuben who desired to take up their rest in a country on this side Cannan because it was a fruitfull place and fit for cattel Thus we who should let our affections stirre to these things only as a way to heaven or meanes to bring us nearer to God we center in them desiring them for their own sakes It is a rule That the desire of the end is a rule to the desire of meanes we desire drink to satisfie thirst we desire garments to cloath us and we desire no more then is commensurate to such an end and indeed thus it ought to be with us in our affections to all things upon the earth not to be affected with wealth health learning or any advantage any otherwise then to be more enabled to do God service and thereby to enjoy him but as the dark night cannot be dispelled till the Sunne doth arise so neither can the regulating and ordering of the affections with subordination to God in lawful things ever be accomplished till sanctifying grace doth interpose 2. We are apt in the affecting of these things to find more sweetness and delight in a sensible manner then when our heart is turned unto God The objects of sence do more affect us sensibly then Christ laid hold on by faith and the Apostle John supposeth such a proneness in us when he saith He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how shall he love God whom he hath not seen 1 Joh. 4. 20 Hence it is that the Schooles have a distinction about the love of God appretiative and intentive The former is when in our judgement we do more highly esteem of God then all the things of the world and therefore are ready to part with all even life it self to please him But the other they make to be a sensible passionate moving of the sensitive part which is they say very variable according to the complexion and constitution of the body and therefore such do advise That believers should not be discouraged if they cannot find such sensible affections of love to God as they do to their freinds or such sensible sorrow about sinne as they do about the loss of a dear freind and this distinction may be received in some sence yet there are learned men that do greatly dislike it and do positively affirm That appretiatively and intentively both intellectually and affectionately we are to love God and to delight in him Certainly we find David acknowledging That God had put more joy and gladness in his heart then they had whose wine and oil encreased Psal 4. And when God doth require us to love him with all our heart mind and strength there is both the intellectual and sensitive part of a man understood No doubt but Adam in the state of integrity would have found his very affectionate part carried out to God preemiently to all creatures seeing the affections were implanted only as Handmaids to wait on those noble parts of the soul yea David you heard profeffing that his flesh as well as his soul did long for the living God Besides seeing the soul is the forme of a man thereby becometh such a natural and essential union between the soul and body that what the spiritual part doth strongly and ardently close with the sensitive part by its essential subordination doth find a proportionable intensitiveness in the affections threof even the waters from the hils do overflow the valleys though therefore the sensible part of a man be not absolutely subject to his will hence those who have desired sensible sweetness or melting teares in a bodily manner could not enjoy them though they would give a world for them yet this we may conclude of That whensoever thy want of sensitive affections doth arise from the want of powerfull impressions upon thy spiritual part and therefore thou canst not find such joy or sorrow because the mind and will are not powerfully quickned by grace this is alwaies a sinne if thy mind were more enlightned thy will more sanctified thy affections would be more enflamed 3. Not to enlarge in this more The affections are sinful when carried out even to lawful things Because thereby is retarded or stopt the current of them after heavenly things We see the Apostle 1 Cor. 7 admirably prescribing a diet to our affections Those that marry must be as if they married not Those that weep as if they wept not and so those that rejoyce as if they rejoyced not Thus whatsoever affections we are allowed to have they must not in the least manner distract or dull the motions of our soules to heavenly things but such is our corruption that our affections though to lawful things put quite out or at least exceedingly hinder our affections to heavenly things SECT VIII Our Affections are corrupted in respect of the Contrariety and Opposition of them one to another AGain Our affections are greatly corrupted in respect of the contrariety and opposition of them one to another They hinder one another operation so that the irascible part was given us to make
The word signifieth more then ordinary affections even such as to make them trepidate and leap for joy yet this was but for a season So Mat. 13. there are some hearers who yet had not root enough that did receive the Word with joy By these instances it is plain That our affections are full of deceit full of falshood we know not when to trust them It is hard to tell what it is that draweth them out even in our holy duties and if the godly though in some measure regenerated find the power of this deceit upon their affections certainly the natural man he is all over cosened his affections are altogether a lie to him he saith he loves God with all his heart he saith he is grieved for all his sins when all the while his affections are moved from other respects SECT XIV Also they are more zealously carried out to any false and erroneous way then to the Truths of God FOurthly Herein also is manifested the great pollution of our affections That they are more earnestly and zealously carried out to any false and erroneous way then to the truths of God Let a man be in an heretical way in a superstitious way in any deluded way of Religion and you will find such to be more affectionate in their way then the godly can be in a true way and the reason is because our affections have more sutablenesse with what is corrupt and false then with what is true and of God Observe all the false religions that are in the world may you not admire at the zeal at the pains they take for the propagation of their opinions how restlesse they are Which certainly may exceedingly shame the children of the truth that men should be more active for the Devil then they can be for God Our Saviour observed it of the Pharisees how they compassed sea and land to make proselytes And Paul speaking of the Jews Rom. 10 2. He beareth them record that they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge The more affection in a wrong way the more dangerous it is It is good to be zealously affected saith the Apostle in a good thing Gal. 4 18. This he speaketh because the false apostles did appear with a great deal of affection none seemed to manifest such passionate bowels to people as they did but saith Paul they zealously affect you but not well It is not from spiritual and heavenly motives that they are thus affectionate towards you Well then this is sadly to be bewailed that our affections will vehemently runne like a torrent down any false or erroneous way whereas to that which is truth indeed we can hardly raise them up Wonder not then if you see the Papist in his superstitious way the erroneous person in his false way to be so full of affections and devotion in his perswasions for alas it is easie falling down the hill error and supersition is agreeable with the corrupt nature of man When we read what some Monks and Hermites have done in solitary places afflicting themselves macerating their bodies we may admire how their affections in that way could hold out so long but mans heart like the earth will bring forth nettles and weeds of it self but it cannot corn or flowers without diligent managing of it Let us then mourn for this evil that is come upon our affections look upon all the superstitious and false wayes in the world See with what greedinesse and vehemency they are carried out to them but as for thee whom God preserveth in the truth and keepeth in his wayes thou art quickly weary in well-doing Oh be afraid lest all the pains and diligence of man in false wayes do not rise up to condemn thee for thy slothfulnesse in Gods wayes SECT XV. They are for the most part inlets to all sinne in the Soul HErein are these motions of the soul greatly depraved In that they are inlets for the most part of all sinne into the soul They are the weakest part of the wall and therefore Satan doth commonly begin his batteries there this is as it were the thatcht part of the building and so any spark of lusts falling upon it doth immediately set the whole building on fire It is true the senses they are the out-works and porches as it were of the soul and therefore temptations begin there but then the affections are the second Court as it were so that for the most part the mind and the will are carried on to sinne because the affections are first corrupted these lye as Saul's men did all asleep while his enemies had the opportunity to take away not only his spear but his life Now it is good to know that the order and method of the souls motions to any outward objects in its first creation was very rational and commensurate to the true rule for then the understanding did first apprehend and take notice of the objects to be loved which it did consider without any ignorance or error upon this clear proposition of the object The will did readily receive and imbrace it and when this was all done then the affections were subsubsequent they immediately followed without any delay so that Adam had this perfect method in all his actions before his apostacy reason did begin and affections did end but what confusion and disorder is now brought upon us affections do now begin not the eies but the feet do lead the Devil and sinne get their first entrance into the soul by the affections so that as the Philosophers say in a natural way Quicquid est in intellectâ— prius fuit in sensu whatsoever is in the understanding was first in the sence so may we say morally Quicquid est in voluntate prius fuit in appetitu sensitivo whatsoever is in the will was in the affections and no wonder it is so now seeing that the Devil did bring sinne into the world by beseiging the affections at first and thereby corrupting the understanding for as Satan did first tempt Eve the weaker vessel and so beguiled Adam whereupon the woman is said to be first in the transgression so even in man he did first begin with the affectionate part the Eve as it were and by that did overcome the rational part which was like the Adam Eve then was tempted to sinne although she had no corrupt principles within her meerly because the bait laid for her was sutable to her sense and affections how much more then do affections like so many thieves open all the doors and let iniquity come in every where when reason and grace have no command over them Sit down then and well consider this particular That thy affections do first beatray thee Thy ruin doth begin in them and therefore whosoever would keep any sinne from taking the Castle of the soul he must watch over his affections he must be sure to put out every spark of their fire as it were Job made a
thousand of us How much more may we say to God his glory his honour his truth is worth all our estates all our lives yea such ought to be our affections to Gods honour that we ought to preferre it above our own salvation so although through the goodnesse of God his honour and our salvation are so inseparably joyned together that one cannot be parted from the other yet in our mindes we are to esteem of one above the other Gods glory above our own happinesse But the highest degree of grace in this life doth hardly carry a man to this much lesse can nature elevate him thus high The second particular wherein the privacy of our affections is to be lamented is in respect of the publique good we are not onely to preferre the glory of God above our selves but also The publique good of the Church yea the publique good of the Commonwealth above our particular advantages What a notable demonstration of this publique affection do we find in Moses and Paul which may make us ashamed of all our self-affections We have Moses his self-denial mentioned Exod. 32. 32. where he desireth to be blotted out of the book of life then that the sins of the people should destroy them he had rather be undone in his own particular then have the general ruined and when God profered to make him a great name by consuming the Israelites he would not accept of it It was Tullie's boast That he would not accept of immortality it self to the hurt of the publique but this was breath and sound of words only Moses is real and cordial in what he saith As for Paul's publique affections to the salvation of others viz. his kinsmen after the flesh Rom. 9. 3. they break out into such flaming expressions that great are the disputes of the learned about the lawfulness of Paul's wish herein however we find it recorded as a duty that we ought to love our brethren so much that we are to lay down our lives for them 1 Joh. 3. 16. Now how can this ever be performed while these selfish-affections like Pharaoh's lean kine devour all things else Groan then under these streightned and narrow affections of thine thou canst never preferre Jerusalem above all the joy while it is thus with thee SECT XVII The hurtfull Effects of the Affections upon a mans body THirdly The sinfulnesse of our affections naturally is perceived by the hurtfull and destructive effects which they make upon a man Therefore you heard they were called passions These affections immoderately put forth do greatly hasten death and much indispose the body about a comfortable life 2 Cor. 7. 10. The sorrow of the world is said to work death Thus also doth all worldly love all worldly fear and anger they work death in those where they do prevail If Adam had stood they would not have been to his soul as they are to us nor to the body like storms and tempests upon the Sea They would not have been passions or at least not made any corruptive alteration upon a man whereas now they make violent impressions upon the body so that thereby we sinne not onely against our own souls but our own bodies also which the Apostle maketh an aggravation in the guilt of fornication 1 Cor. 6. 18. Instances might be given of the sad and dreadfull effects which inordinate passions have put men upon and never plead that this is the case onely of some few we cannot charge all with this for its only the sanctifying or restraining grace of God that keepeth in these passions of thine should God leave thee to any one affection as well tempered as thou thinkest thy self to be it would be like fire let alone in combustible matter which would presently consume all to ashes of thy own self having nomore strength than thy own and meeting with such temptations as would be like a tempestuous wind to the fire thou wouldst quickly be overwhelmed thereby SECT XVIII The sad Effects they have upon others FOurthly The sinfulness of these affections are seen not only in the sad effect they have upon our selves but what they produce upon others also They are like a thron in the hedge to prick all others that passe by Violent affections do not only disturb those that are led away with them but they do greatly annoy the comfort and peace of others The Prophet complained of living among scorpions and briars and truly such are our affections if not sanctified they are like honey in our gall they imbitter all our comforts all our relations They disturb families Towns yea sometimes whole Nations so unruly are our affections naturally Why is it that the tongue Jam. 2. is such an unruly member that there is a World of evil in it It is because sinfull affections make sinfull tongues SECT XIX They readily receive the Devils Temptations LAstly In that they are so readily receptive of the Devils temptations Herein doth appear the pollution of them The Devil did not more powerfully possess the bodies of some men then he doth the affections of men by nature Are not all those delusions in religious wayes and in superstitious wayes because the Devil is in the affections Hath not the Devil exalted much error and much fals-worship by such who have been very affectionate Many eminent persons for a while in Religion as Tertullian have greatly apostatized from the truth by being too credulous to such women who have great affections in Religion So that it is very sad to consider how greatly our very affections in religious things may be abused how busie the Devil is to tempt such above all into errour because they will do him the more service affections being among other powers of the soul like fire among the elements They are the Chariot-wheels of the soul and therefore the more danger of them if running into a false way The Devil hath his false joy his false sorrow and by these he doth detain many in false and damnable wayes Hence the Scripture observeth the subtilty of the Devils instruments false teachers how busie they are to pervert women as being more affectionate and so the easilier seduced Matth 23. 14. The Pharisees devoured widows houses by their seeming devotions Thus false teachers 1 Tim. 3. 6. did lead captive filly women by which it appeareth how dangerous our affections are what strong impressions Satan can make upon them So that it is hard to say whether the Devils kingdome be more promoted by the subtilty of learned men or the affections of weak men CHAP. VI. The Sinfullnesse of the Imaginative Power of the Soul SECT I. This Text explained and vindicated against D. J. Taylor Grotius the Papists and Socinians GEN. 6. 5. And God saw that every imagination of the thoughts of mans heart was only evil and that continually WE have at large discovered the universal pollution of the Affections which we have by nature and handled them in this order though the
to glorifie God as well as by other parts of soul and body The former end of the imagination I may call naturall The later morall I shall not speak of the former because whatsoever defect is now upon the fancy in that way not being able to do its office as at first Creation it is meerly penall a punishment and not so much our sinne Thus that men are subject to madness in their fancy that the imagination by any distemper in the organ where it is fixed may be wholly perverted as we see in seavers and in phrensies and sometimes in dying men This is not so much a sinne in the fancy as a punishment even as death is inflicted upon us because of Adam's transgression It is true that Adam though created with full and perfect knowledge in naturals and supernaturals that was necessarily required to his blessedness yet as Suarez well determineth De Creatione homines lib. 3. cap. 9 in the use of his knowledge he had recourse to phantasmes in the imagination because that is a natural way to the soul while joyned to the body only in that state as the organ was not subject to any bodily distempers so neither could his imagination any way erre but the sinne of Adam hath not onely brought on that part an obnoxiousness to many bodily distempers but filled it also with sinnefulness which is eminently seen in its aberration from that two-fold main end it was at first bestowed on us for The one whereof is the salvation of our souls for if the sence of hearing the Word of of God and of seeing the wonderfull works which God hath wrought be so greatly instrumental to our sanctification why should not the imagination much more but who may not complain what an impediment and hinderance his fancy is to his souls good it imagines evil and vanity it is wholly pleased with empty and vain things neglecting the true solid good so that there is no man that is acquainted with the frame of his soul but may groane under the sinful unruliness of his imagination especially as is to be shewed in holy and religious approaches to God When all the powers should be united in one way then what swarmes of roaring imaginations What importunate and impertinent fancies are ready to fill thy soul as flies sometimes did Egypt Was it thus in the state of Creation Did God create us with such fickle confused and erratique imaginations how greatly would it dishonour God to affirm so Affect thy heart therefore greatly with this to think that that which was so exceedingly conducible to thy souls happiness is now such an impediment and enemy thereunto It is a corrupt licentious opinion which Speranza though a Papist attributeth to several famous Schoolmen viz. That a man is not bound to repell an evil thought if there be not danger of consent to it but may suffer it to be in his mind as some natural thing even with advertency that it is there but this is justly called by the foresaid Author Spiranza scrip sel dig de cong punct 11. Offendiculum animarum an opinion that is a stumbling block and scandal to souls neither may our sinfull imaginations greatly humble us if this were true And as for the other end which is to glorifie God Wherein hath God been more dishonoured then by the imaginations of men Whence hath that Idolatry filled the whole world How come superstitious magical divinations but by the sinne of imagination These phantasmata on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the brain make these Idols which men fall down and worship so that they may well have the same name The Apostle Rom. 1. speaking of the Heathens and that in their high profession of wisdome yet saith They became vain in their imaginations and why so because of their Idolatry turning the glory of God into birds and beasts insomuch that the sinnefulness of the imagination of man hath caused all the Idolatry of the world They have not gone to God as revealing himself in the Word by faith but according to their natural light by carnal and gross imaginations whereas therefore Images were brought into the Church at first that they might be as Gregory said ignorant mens Books the truth is they did teach and confirme in erronious imaginations for from such pictures do ignorant people still conceive of God as an old man and of the Holy Ghost as a Dove they imagining such things as these Images do represent The imagination then of man doth arise unto an high degree of impiety when it will fancy or conceive of God without the guide of the Scripture if so be the understanding cannot comprehend this infinite Essence how much less can our imagination if he said Quinquid de Deo dici potest eo ipso est indignum quia dici potest and Tunc Deum digne estimamus cum inestimabil indicimus If I say he be thus above the highest contemplations of our minds no wonder if he infinitely transcend our imaginations It is an evasion that some Papist hath as I have read though I cannot remember where for the present when pressed with this Argument that it is a great dishonour to God and full of reproach to his Majesty to represent him under such external formes and shapes he would I say evade by inslancing in the imagination as a natural faculty in the soul The understanding cannot apprehend of God but by the imagination and the imagination doth necessarily receive Images and representeth species about God otherwise we cannot at all think of him and yet this is no Idolatry But First it may be answered These formes and representations in the fancy when we think of God arise from the natural constitution of man so that it cannot be avoided It doth arise from our finite and corporeal nature whereby nothing can come into the understanding before it hath been in the sense and the imagination but their Images and Idols are external gross and voluntarily set up to worship God by And Again Howsoever such shapes and formes may come into the imagination of man about God yet it 's the duty of the understanding to expel them and to conceive of God without any corporeal forme as a Spirit of infinite Majesly and therefore the imagination must not guide the understanding but the understanding lead the imagination that so we may not have the least thought about God but what becometh his glorious being but of this more in a particular by it self because of its gret concernement Thus we see how the imagination is wonderfully defective from its main end both in reference to Gods glory and mans own salvation and happiness SECT V. The Pellution of the Imagination is manifest by the Restlesness of it THirdly The imaginative power of man is greatly polluted In the restlesness of it in the perpetual constant workings thereof insomuch that thereby the sinfulness of it is continual as the eie is alwayes twinkling Is there a
Tertullian faith Perhaps same did deceive Aristotle in that report yet his dreams had been meerly natural not having the least connexion of any sinne or any disquieting with them But how greatly is confusion brought upon us in this very respect Insomuch that what the Devil cannot tempt to while waking he doth allure unto while dreaming Indeed it is folly and superstition as many people do to regard dreams so as to make conjectures and prophesies thereby but so to observe them as to take notice of the filthiness and sinfulness of them that is a duty for although the reason and the will do not operate at that time yet there is sinne in our dreams because they are the effects of the sinfull motions of thy soul sometimes or other Let it then be thy care to have pure and sanctified imaginations both dreaming and waking and do nothing that may provoke the Spirit of God to leave thee to the defilements thereof SECT XVII It is not in that orderly Subordination to the rational part of man as it was in the Primitive Condition 15. THe imagination is hereby deprived That it is not now in that orderly subordination to the rational part of man as it was in its primitive condition Every thing in Adam was harmonical he was not infested with needless and wandering Imaginations Even the birds of the air as well as the beasts of the field God brought to Adam that he should give names to them The birds though flying in the air yet come and submit to him so it was in his soul Those volatique Imaginations and flying thoughts which might arise in Adam's soul they were all within his power and command neither did any troublesomly interpose in his holy meditation but now how predominant is thy imagination over thee How are good thoughts and bad thoughts conjoyned as there were clean and unclean beasts at the same time in the Ark Especially doest thou not labour and groan under thy wandring imaginations even in thy best duties and when thy heart is in the best frame Is not this the great Question thou propoundest to thy self How may I be freed from wandering thoughts and roving Imaginations in my addresses to God Oh that I were directed how to clip the wings of these birds for they are my burden and my heavy load all the day long Surely the experience of this in thy self may teach thee what a deep and mortal wound original sinne hath given every part of thee Hadst thou the Image of God in the full perfection of it as Adam once had as Christs humane nature had and as we shall have when glorified in Heaven then there would not be one wandring thought one roving imagination left as a thorn in thy side to offend and grieve thee This imagination being of such a subtil and quick motion doth presently flie from one thing to another runneth from one object to another so that hereby a great deal of sinne is committed in the very twinkling of an eye The soul indeed being sinite in his essence cannot think of all things together but not to consider that which it ought to do or to rove to one object when it should be fastned on another This is not a natural but a sinfull infirmity thereof SECT XVIII It is according to Austin's Judgement the great Instrument of conveying Original Sinne to the child 16. THe Imagination is so greatly polluted That according to Austin 's judgement it is the great instrument of conveying original sinne to the child For when he is pressed to shew how original sinne cometh to be propagated how the soul can be infected from the flesh though this be not his chief answer yet he doth in part runne to this viz. the powerfull effect of the imagination The vehement affection and lust in the parent is according to him the cause of a libidinous disposition in the child hereupon he instanceth in the fact of Jacob who by working upon the imagination of the females did by the parti-coloured sticks produce such a colour in their young ones Yea one thinketh that this instance was by a special providence of God chiefly to represent how original sinne might be propagated from parents to children And it cannot be denied but that many solid Philosophers and Phisitians do grant that the imagination hath a special influence upon the body and the child in the womb to make great immutation and change Austin instanceth lib 5. contra Julian cap. 9 in the King of Cyrus who would have a curious picture of exquisite beauty in his chamber for his wife to look upon in the time of her conception Yea Histories report strange and it may be very fabulous things herein therefore we are not to runne to this of the imagination when we would explain the traduction of this sinne It is true some imbre qualities are many times transfused from parents to children parents subject to the Gout and Stone have children also subject to such diseases and blackmores do alwaies beget blackmores and so no doubt but in the conveighing of original sinne there is a seminal influence but how and in what manner it is hard to discover but though the corrupt imagination cannot be the cause yet it may in some sense dispose for the propagating of it SECT XIX How prone it is to receive the Devils Impressions and Suggestions LAstly The imagination is greatly polluted In that it is so ready and prone to receive the Devils impressions and suggestions When we lost original righteousness which is the image of God not only original sinne like an universal leprosie did succeed in the room thereof but the Devil also did thereupon seize upon us as his owne our souls and all the parts and powers thereof are his habitation he reigneth in the hearts of all by nature we are all his captives so that as a man is said to dwell in his own house it is his home he may do what he will such a right and claim hath the Devil to a mans soul by nature he dwells in it he moveth and reigneth in it Now the imagination is that room of the soul wherein he doth often appear Indeed to speak exactly the Devil hath no efficient power over the rational part of a man he cannot change the will he cannot alter the heart of a man neither doth he know the thoughts of a man so that the utmost he can do in tempting of a man to sinne is by swasion and suggestion only but then How doth the Devil do this even by working upon the imagination Learned men make this his method that he observeth the temper and bodily constitution of a man and thereupon suggests to his fancy and injects his fiery darts thereinto by which the mind and will come to be wrought upon for it is Aristotl's rule That Phantasmata movent intellectum sicut sensila sensum so that as the object of sense being present doth presently move the sense so
part as it were flowing from the essence of God and this they acknowledge immortal but the soul and the body they say are mortal And the ancient Heretiques the Apollinarists might runne to this refuge who denied Christ to have any rational soul but his Divine Nature and his sensitive soul and body do make upon Christ The Manichees also affirmed two souls in men the one rational that was good and of God The other evil and the fountain of evil the sensitive soul coming from the Devil Yea Cerda upon Tertul. de anima lib. 3. saith not only Dydimus but others of the ancients did incline to this opinion that the Spirit was a distinct part in a man from soul and body which opinion Austin opposed Thus this Text hath favoured as some think that opinion of two souls in a man his rational and sensitive not in the Manichean way but in a Philosophical way and some learned men indeed have thought by holding two distinct souls many inconveniences would be avoided which are maintained in Philosophy and also the conflict and combate that is between the flesh and the spirit would be better explicated But certainly the Scripture speaketh constantly of man as having but one soul What will it profit a man to winne the whole world and lose his soul not his souls which Chrysostome used as an argument to make man watchfull to the salvation of it saying If thou hast lost one eye thou hast another to help thee if one arm another to support thee but if thou losest thy only soul thou hast not another to be saved Others therefore that they may avoid this inconvenience of holding three parts in a man do by spirit understand the work of grace in a man Thus the Greek Interpreters of old and some learned men of late but this doth not appear any wayes probable nor will the Context runn smoothly to make grace as it were a part of a man neither is it coherent to pray that God would preserve our grace our soul and body but rather grace in them Therefore we take spirit and soul for the same real substance in a man onely diversified by its several operations Lactantius cals it an inextrieable Question Whether animus and anima be the same thing in man meaning by anima that whereby the body is enlivened by animus that whereby we reason and understand but there seemeth to be no such difficulty therein the Scripture promiscuously calling it sometimes a soul and sometimes a spirit It 's called the spirit in regard of the understanding and reason as Ephes 4. 23. Be renewed in the spirit of your mind and soul because of the affectionate part therein so that the Apostle doth not mean two distinct parts in a man but two distinct powers and offices in the same soul You have a parallel expression Heb. 4. 12. where the word of God is said To divide between soul and spirit which afterwards is expressed by discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart Thus when Mary said Luke 1. 46 47. My soul doth magnifie the Lord and my spirit hath rejoyced in God she meaneth the same part within her only giveth it divers names This being explained whereas we see the Apostle praying for the sanctification of the body as well as the soul it is plain That it is unclean and sinfull as well as the soul else it did not need Sanctification From whence observe That the body of a man naturally is defiled and sinfull Sanctification extendeth adequately to our pollution Seeing then it is required of man that his body be holy and he is to glorifie God in that as well as in his soul and this cannot be without the sanctification of it it remaineth that our bodies are not only mortal but sinfull And indeed under the corruptibility of them we do readily groan and mourn under the diseases pains and aches of the body but spiritual life is required to be humbled for the sins of the body Object And if you say How can there be sinne in the body seeing that is not reasonable all sinne supposeth reason now the body being void of that it should seem that it is no more capable of sinne then bruit beasts are Answ To this it is answered That the body is called sinfull not because sinne is formally in it for so it is in the soul but because by it as an instrument sinne is accomplished The subjectum quod or of denomination of sinne is the person man himself The Principium quo formale is the soul the mind and will The medium or instrumentum quo is the body not that the body is only an instrument to the soul for it is an essential part of man with the soul as is further to be shewed Thus we truly call them sinfull eyes sinfull tongues because they do instrumentally accomplish the sinfulness of the heart when the Apostle prayeth That they might be sanctified wholly in spirit soul and body he prayeth for the reparation of Gods Image again Now when that was perfect in Adam the spirit was immediately subject to God the soul to the spirit the body to the soul So that what the spirit thought the soul affected and the body accomplished but now this excellent harmony being dissolved as the spirit is disobedient to God the affections to the spirit so also in the body to both and thereby it becometh a co-partner with the soul in sinne and therefore must be joyned with it in eternal torments SECT III. Scripture Proof of the sinfull pollution of the Body THat the very body of a man is sinfull and needeth sanctification is plain from these Texts 2 Cor. 7. 1. Having these promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holinesse This is spoken to those also that are regenerated none is perfect they must be perfecting As Apelles when he drew his line would write faciebat in the Imperfect tense not fecit as if he had finished it he would be still making it more exact so should we be in our best holy duties Amabam not amavi credebane not credidi there remaineth a further complement and fulness to be added to our best graces Now this perfection is by cleansing of the flesh and spirit that is the body and the soul It is a great errour among some Papists that they hold the spirit and mind of a man free from original contagion and therefore confine it only to the inferiour bodily parts but that hath sufficiently been confuted yet we deny not but the bodily part of man is likewise greatly contaminated and like an impure vessel defileth whatsoever cometh into it The uncleanness of the body appeareth also from that command Rom. 12. 1. where the Apostle enjoyneth that we should present our bodies a living Sacrifice holy and acceptable So that whatsoever we do by our body it is to be holy and acceptable unto God Now this exhortation was needless if we did
not naturally offer up our bodies a sacrifice to sinne and to the Devil For meerly a natural man serveth sinne and the Devil with all the parts of his body Therefore the Apostle speaking to persons converted Rom. 7. 19. saith As ye have yeelded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity so now yeeld your members servants to righteousness Thy eye was once the Devils and sinnes thy tongue was thy ear was by all these sinne was constantly committed so now have a sanctified body an holy eye a godly ear an heavenly tongue a pure body And indeed we need not runne for Texts of Scripture experience doth abundantly confirm the preparedness and readiness of the body to all suitable and pleasing iniquity Consider likewise that pregnant place Heb. 10. 22. Let us draw near with a pure heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water As the heart must be cleansed from all sinnes that our consciences may condemn us for so our bodies likewise must be washed with pure water it is an allusive expression to the legal custom which was for all before they drew nigh to the service of God to sprinkle themselves with pure water to take off the legal uncleanness of the body And thus we must still in a spiritual way that so the body may be fitted for Gods service As it is said of Christ Heb. 10. 5. A body thou hast prepared for me because the Spirit of God did so purifie that corpulent mass of which Christs body was made that being without all sinne he was thereby fitted for the work of a Mediator For as for the Socinian Interpretation who would apply it to Christs body made immortal and glorious as if it were to be understood of Christ entring into Heaven the Context doth evidently confute it that which the Apostle following the Septuaginnt in the original calleth Preparing the body out of which it is alledged Ps 40. 6. It is my ears hast thou opened aliuding to the Jewish custom who when a servant would not leave his Master his ears were to be boared and so he was to continue for ever with him The ears were boared because they are the instrument of hearing and obedience and thereby was signified that he would diligently hearken to his Masters commands Thus it was with Christ his ears were opened his whole body prepared to do the will of God Now as it was thus with Christ so in some respect it must be with us God must prepare and fit a body for us till grace sanctifie and polish it there is no readiness to any holy duty The seeing eye and the hearing ear God is said to make both Prov. 20. 12. By these instances out of Scripture you see what a Leprosie of sin hath spread over the body as well as the soul Oh that therefore we were sensible of these sinfull bodies that are such clogs to us such burdens to us in the way to Heaven But let us proceed to shew the sinfulness thereof in particulars SECT IV. The Sinfulness of the Body discovered in particulars ¶ 1. It is not now Instrumental and serviceable to the Soul in holy Approches to God but is a clog and burden FIrst The Body is not now instrumental and serviceable to the soul in holy approaches to God but is a clog and burden whereas to Adam abiding in the state of innocency the body was exceeding usefull to glorifie God with The body was as wings to the soul or as wheels to the chariot though weighty in themselves yet they do ableviate and help to motion They are both Onera and adjumenta oneranda exonerant Thus did the body to Adam's soul but now such is the usefulness yet the hinderance of the body to the souls operations that the very Heathens have complained of it calling it Carcer animae and Sepulchrum animae the prison of the soul the very grave of the soul as if the soul were buried in the body How much more may Christianity complain of this weight of the body while it is to runne its race to Heaven Mezenius is noted for a cruel fact of binding dead bodies to live men that so by the noisom stink of those carkasses the men tied to them might at last die a miserable death Truly by this may be represented original sinne not fully purged away by sanctification The godly do complain of this body of sinne as a noisom carkass joyned to them and with Paul cry out Wretched men that we are who shall deliver us from this bondage ¶ 2. It doth positively affect and defile the Soul SEcondly The bodies sinfulness doth not only appear thus privatively in being not subservient and helpfull to the soul But it doth also positively affect and defile the soul not by way of any phisical contact for so a body cannot work upon a spirit but by way of sympathy for seeing the soul and body are two constituent part essentially of man and the soul doth inform the body by an immediate union hence it is that there is a mutual fellowship one with another there is a mutual and reciprocal acting as it were upon one another the soul greatly affected doth make a great change upon the body and the body greatly distempered doth also make a wonderfull change upon the mind and if thereby man fall into madness and distractions why not also into sinne and pollutions of the mind Thus the corrupt soul maketh the body more vile and the corrupt body maketh the soul more sinful and so they do advance sinne in a mutual circle of causality Even as vapours cause clouds and clouds again dislolving do make vapours Thy sinful soul makes thy body more wicked and thy sinful body heightens the impiety of thy soul ¶ 3. A man acts more according to the body and the inclinations thereof then the mind with the Dictates thereof THirdly Herein is the pollution of the body manifested In that a man doth act more according to the body and the inclinations thereof then the mind with the dictates thereof He is body rather then soul for whereas in mans Creation the soul had the dominion and the body was made only for the use of the soul now this order is inverted by original sinne the body prevaileth over the soul and the soul is enslaved to the propensities thereof Even Aristotle said that homo was magis sensus quam intellectus more sence then understanding and so more corporeal then spiritual man is compounded of two parts which do in their nature extraemly differ from each other the body that is of dust and vile matter and such materials God would have man formed of even at first he did not make mans body of some admirable quintessential matter as Philosophers say the heavens are made of but of that which was most vile and contemptible to teach man humility even in his very original and most absolute
estate now in being consistent thus of a body he doth partake with beasts and agreeth with them But the other part of man is spiritual immaterial and immortal substance breathed at first into Adam by God himself and herein he doth agree with Angels According to these two constituent principles a man doth act either according to the soul or the body In the state of integrity his soul was predominant he was like an Angel in this particular but now since man is fallen his body is principal and chief and thereupon is become like the bruit beaâ—â— living and walking according to the inclinations and temptations of the body This the Psalmist observed Psal 49. 12. Man being in honour abideth not he is like the beasts that perish And vers 20 man that is in honour and understandeth not is like the beasts that perish Here you see that though a man be exalted to never so much glory and dignity in the world yet if he understand not if he doth not live according to the true principles of reason and grace he is but like a beast not only in that he perisheth like a beast but also in that he liveth and walketh like one Hence it is that the Scripture doth so often compare wicked men to beasts to the Ass to the Wolf to the Dog and Swina because they fall from the principles of a rational soul and become like them in their operations Thus evil men are said 2 Tim. 2. 26. To be taken captive by the Devil at his will or as in the Greek taken alive As the hunter doth drive wild beasts into his nets and so taketh them alive Thus are wicked men brought as it were willingly into the Devils hands and are tame under him and if so be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his will be referred to the Devil as some do then it sheweth in what willing subjection they are in to Satans lusts but because it 's not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it therefore relateth rather to the remote antecedent which is God implying that it is by Gods just judgement that man is thus become a miserable slave and doth the Devils drudgery even as we make beasts do our work And thus it is with all men since the fall they are not worthly the name of a man therfore the whole body of wicked men are compared to the Serpents seed as if they were the off-spring of such a poisonous creature rather then of man yea doth not experience confirme this take men without the work of grace either internally sanctifying of them or externally restraining of them take them as left to their own natural principles and having no more to walk by what do you perceive in them more then a beast Indeed their body is still upright and so they differ from them but in their life and manners they are conformable unto them Oh that men would consider and lay this to heart to be affected with this original sinne that hath thus degraded us even from the honour as it were of a man There doth not appear in us the actings and workings of a rational soul we are as our body and the inclinations thereof do carry us away ¶ 4. The Body by original Sinne is made a Tempter and a Seducer FOurthly The body by original sinne is made a tempter and a seducer it doth administer daily matter and occasion to sinne As the Devil is a tempter without so the body is the tempter within we are incited and drawne away to many bodily sinnes from the temptations thereof hence we read in the Scripture that the word flesh is so often put for the sinful part of a man and spirit for the regenerate part and why is it called flesh but because it is so intimately adhering to the body and by the body so much iniquity and sinfulness is expressed Thus sinne is called our flesh as if it were no longer a quality polluting of us but our very bones and corporeal substance There are several bodily sinnes which are bred as it were in this noisome pudddle of the body as drunkenness this is a bodily sinne and where this vice is accustomed unto how greatly doth the body crave and importune for the accomplishing of it this maketh repentance of it and a through reformation so difficult because it is now soaked as it were in the body that as you see it is with the food we eat while in the mouth or stomack it is with some ease exonerated but when digested and by nourishment turned into the very parts of the body then it cannot be separated Thus when sinnes come to be incorporated into thee when thy body is habituated to any vice it requireth much prayer and agony much humiliation and supplication ere such a lust can be disposessed Oh then bewail thy body that is thus become an enemy to the soul that is like a furnace sending forth continual sparks of fire That as the tree by the moisture and softness thereof doth cause wormes to breed in it which do at last destroy it Thus out of thy body arise such lusts that will at last be thy eternal perdition As drunkenness so uncleanness this is also a lust of the body this sinne ariseth from it and although that be very true which the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 6. 18. That fornication and such uncleanness they are against the body because the body is to be kept holy and pure it being the temple of the Holy Ghost where a man is sanctified yet take it as corrupted and polluted so these lusts are very sutable and consonant to it who can think then that the body is such as at first Creation such a ready instrument to much bodily wickedness yea a tempter and a seducer This is the Dalilah that doth so often plunge us into soul sinnes there was no root of bitterness in mans body at first but as it was with the ground when cursed for mans sinne then it did naturally and of it self bring forth weeds and thorns so doth the body thus defiled it is now the continual nourisher and fomenter of vice we damn our souls to please our bodies we are become slaves to our bodily pleasures and delights though we know they are to the eternal perdition both of soul and body at last nourish it we must provide for it we must yet we cannot nourish that but sinne also is thereby strengthned Hence you have that holy Apostle himself much afraid of his body that it may not rise up in rebellion against the work of grace 1 Cor. 9. 27. he useth two emphatical words to this purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I keep under my body an allusion to those who did fight for masteries by way of exercise so that when one did beat the other black and blue about the face 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the countenance and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are those marks upon the face Hence
a different original from us will not that necessarily involve him in Adam's sinne And if it be said that the power of the Holy Ghost sanctified that corpulent mass of which Christs body did consist that may happily free him from original inherent sinne but how can it from original imputed sinne Must not Christ be said to sinne in Adam though he had no inherent defilement because he was a man yea the Scripture doth not only make him a man but calleth him the seed of David and of Abraham that he came out of their loynes and which is more Luke reckoning the genealogy of Christ by his humane nature doth carry it up to Adam making him the son of Adam and if the son of Adam how could he not but sinne in Adam by imputation though he had none by inhesion This consideration hath so much strength that Bellarmine though he is laborious to prove that the Virgin Mary was exempted from original inherent sinne that she had an immaculate conception yet be confesseth she had original imputed sinne that she sinned in Adam because she was in Adam To answer then this Objection about Christ The Arminians as you heard glory in their invention of Arminius as if he only had found out the true answer to this and not the Reformed Divines The reason saith he of Christs immunity from all sinne by Adam was because Christ had his being not by vertue of that original blessing Increase and multiply but by a special promise made after Adam's fall so that Christs being is not supposed till Adam had fallen and then upon a special promise viz. The seed of the woman to bruise the head of the Serpent Gen. 3. 15. Christ is to become man Thus Christ could not be any way included in him This hath some truth in it though the answer be not every way cogent for Isaac was born as we argued formerly by a special promise there being no possibility for his existence in a natural way yet he was born in original sinne and although to me it seemeth most consonant to Scripture that Christ would not have been made man unless Adam had fallen because the end of his coming into the flesh is said to be a Saviour and a Redeemer yet there are men of great learning that hold Christ would have been made man howsoever though Adam had stood and to such this reason would be of no great validity But it must be confessed that Christ could not be included in Adam for the Scripture maketh him a publique person and head to believers as Adam was to all men hence he is called the second Adam so that Christ was a publique person and head as well as Adam and one publique person especially in an opposite way could not be represented by another Though this be so yet we shall adhere to the Answer that is commonly given by Reformed Divines That Christ therefore was free from sinne because conceived in that miraculous manner and though he had his being in respect of his corpulent substance from the Virgin Mary yet this was materially only not by way of efficiency and any active disposition so that Christ could not be said by imputation to be in Adam seeing there was no efficient disposition in Adam's posterity to cause his humane being That is justly rejected as a fond conceit of Galatinus and others who that they might maintain the flesh of Christ to be free from sinne as well in himself as parents affirm That God did in Adam design and seperate as it were some part of his substance that it might be preserved from the law of sinne and that this was successively transmitted even to the Virgin Mary that so of it Christs more pure body might be formed of which absurdity see Ferrins Sckolastic orthodox spec cap. 21. Let us now consider this Doctrine as it is exclusive of all other of mankind only Christ we say is free all the rest born of mankind in a natural way are all over defiled with this native pollution To clear this I shall proceed by several Propositions First That the only way by which original sinne as inherent is communicated to Adaems posterity is by natural generation Not indeed by generation simply for that is by Gods institution and a good thing in its kind but by the generation of a man that is fallen and corrupt some few have thought that if Adam had not fallen Adams posterity would have been multiplyed not by generation but by some other way which is a most irrational conceit If then Adams children abiding in integrity had been by generation then thereby would have been conveyed original righteousness and an holy nature as there is now a sinful and impure nature original sinne cometh then to us by generation from sinful parents so that if God should miraculously create some men de novo make children to Abraham out of stones these would have no original sinne neither if they should beget children would original sinne be transfused to them because these would not be in Adam as a corrupt root as for such a Question What if God should make a man or woman out of the rib or shoulder or any other part of man now fallen as Eve was at first made of a rib whether such a person would have original sinne It is a question of needless curiosity and so no Answer is to be formed to it This is enough That the ordinary way and meanes whereby we become polluted in sinne is because we are begotten and born of sinful parents as David acknowledgeth Psal 51. Austin indeed limiteth it to the libidinous disposition of mankind in begetting of children he seemeth to lay the whole cause upon that but he is carried out too immoderately in that point against the Pelagians for though parents should have no sinful actual lust yet because they are sinful originally this is enough to infect their posterity and if this were so it would follow That godly parents the more sanctified and mortified they were they would have children less infected with original sinne then the children of those who are grossely wicked and unclean It is then because we are born of parents polluted by Adam that we also are polluted as for that famous Question how original sinne should be communicated to the soul of a man by generation seeing that is created we have already spoken to that The summe whereof is That though we are to conceive of the soul as pure while coming from God yet considering it in termino as the part of man who descended from Adam so it is polluted not by any physical cause for that sinne cannot have but a moral one which is the first trangression of Adam for although that hath had no being these thousand yeares yet it is not requisite that a moral cause should exist to produce its effect Because then the soul in the same instance it is created it is also united as a forme to the
a more commodious and fit expression Hence they do more willingly use the word Traduction or happily transmitting and transfusing for the sinne is not properly propagated but the humane nature to which original corruption adhereth because we have not that so properly from our parents though by them as of Adam for the reason why upon the conjunction of soul and body an Infant is immediately defiled with sinne is not because born of such parents but because of Adam and therefore though they be the cause of being a man yet Adam is of being a sinfull man So that as all the lines from the circumference do equally meet in the center Thus do all mankind in Adam and he that is now born doth as immediately partake of Adam's sin as Cain did though so many thousand years ago born immediately of Adam Original sin then doth not in length of time either increase or decrease but we all have our polluted natures as polluted directly from Adam and immediately though as nature from our parents and so administer the subject to which original is applied and so in a remote distance from our common parent Let not then any man think what should we trouble our selves with Adam's sinne and complain of him who lived so many years ago What is his transgression to us who live so many generations after him For thou hast this natural pollution as immediately from him as if thou hadst been his immediate son neither is thy parents sinfulness communicated to thee simply because thy parents but because Adams who was the common parent This rightly considered would affect us as much as if we had lived immediately upon Adam's fall neither would the space of so many years since his transgression at all abate our sad and aggravating thoughts of it SECT IV. Whether the Virgin Mary was born with Original Sinne. IT being thus the nature-sinne and not a personal individual one it is very absurd either from a preposterous admiration or some other respect to exempt any born in a natural way from this birth sinne In this way we find the Papists greatly offending concerning the Virgin out of a sinfull admiration of her thinking thereby to honour Christ Some of them do peremptorily conclude That the Virgin Mary was born without original sinne and thereupon they keep the feast of her Immaculate and undefiled Conception Yea some have gone so farre as to say the Virgin Mary's mother was also without original sinne And if we proceed upon their principles Why should they not affirm so For as they say It is for the honour of Christ to have a Mother without original sinne so it would be for the honour of the Virgin to have her Mother without sinne likewise Now I say some of the Papists determine That the Virgin Mary was conceived without sinne Trithemius his great zeal and devotion in this point is abundantly declared by him in his Tractate of the praises of S. Anna especially Chap. 7. yea he is so confident in his assertion of the immaculate Conception of the Mother of Christ that he saith Si erramus pietas imo Deus ipse est in causâ Piety yea God himself is the cause of it It hath been a very hot Dispute between the Deminicans and the Franciscans Bellarmine goeth a middle way he will not have it an Article of Faith to believe she was thus pure but yet he saith It is a most pious opinion and therefore he giveth several Arguments for it But Estius saith in Rom. 5. the Scriptures and ancient Fathers speak exclusively that none but Christ was freed from original sinne as if it would be an high offence in him to depart from them though he doth not judge others The late heretical Writer D. J. T. as Austin would call him if alive for he maketh every one that thinketh not all mankind except Christ to be born in original sinne so as the flesh of Christ and of other men should be of equal purity to be Detectandus Haereticus Lib. 5. contra Julian cap 9. gloryeth in this Vnum Necessar cap. 6. Sect. 6. Concerning the Dispute between the Papists which could never be ended upon their accounts that he Alexander-like hath cut in pieces this Gordian-knot Therefore he affirmeth not only her but all her family and why not all mankind were free from it but it is a Thrasonical boast and withall full of falshood for hereby original sin is wholly removed made to be a meer Non ens The Subject of the Question is quite taken away so that by his principles all the Disputations about original sin will be de non ente as he acknowledgeth in some sense a striving about a shadow yea and which is the most horrible every one shall now be born as pure as Christ in respect of his humane nature There is no difference between Christ and all the rest of mankind as in respect of their natural immunity from sinne His Clemens Alexandrinus would have informed him better when he saith Stromatum lib. 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Word that is Christ is only without sinne for in all men it is imbred to sinne whatsoever Clemens at other times may deliver about this original sinne here he acknowledgeth it and indeed it is easie out of the Ancients to bring contrary passages that seem to savour opposite Doctrines But concerning this poisonous opinion we shall have constant occasion to treat of As for the Franciscans and other Popish Writers that plead for the Virgin Mary's purity they can bring no Scripture but urge some plausible reasons as thinking thereby to give her the more honour especially revelations and miracles are strongly urged in this point But the Scripture is to be our Rule in this matter and there we see none exempted Besides the Virgin Mary cals Christ her Saviour which implieth necessarily that she had sinne yea she had also actual sins as might be proved although the Papists will not endure to hear of it Neither doth this make to the dishonour of Christ to be born of a mother that had sinne in her for seeing he is separated from it it is his greater glory that he alone is exempted And besides we see that the more Christ was debased and made low but without sinne hereby is he the more honoured as a Mediator Hence it was that he was born of one that was very poor and mean not of a rich and great person as appeareth by the Sacrifice offered of two pigeons for her purification he was also born in a stable laid in a manger all which demonstrate the lowliness of Christs humane being Hence the Evangelist Matthew in recording the Genealogy of Christ doth name Thamar and Bathsheba whose uncleanness was famous and yet hereby there is no dishonour to Christ because the lower he humbled himself for our sake the greater is his love demonstrated and so his glory of a Saviour more exalted This opinion of honouring Christ in
original imputed sinne or of that inherent corruption which we have from our birth and both do admit of great aggravations It is true some Orthodox Writers doe deny the imputation of Adam's actual disobedience unto us as Josua Placeus who bringeth many Arguments Thes Salm. Dis de statu hominis lapsi ante gratiam but my work is not to answer them I suppose it for granted as a necessary truth Concerning Adam's sinne which is thus ours by imputation Bellarmine maketh the Question An sit gravissimum Whether it was the greatest of all sinnes And he concludeth following the Schoolmen that absolutely it is not only respectively Secundum quid in some considerations which he mentioneth Bonaventure saith It is the greatest sinne extensive not intensive But we are to judge of the hainousness of sinne as we see God doth who esteemeth of sinne without any errour Now it is certain there was never any sinne that God punisheth as he doth this The sinne indeed against the holy Ghost in respect of the object matter of it and the inseparable concomitant of unpardonablenesse is greater as to a particular person but this being the sinne of the common nature of mankind doth bring all under the curse of God So that we may on the contrary to Bellarmine say That it is absolutely the highest sinne against God but in some respects it is not I shall be brief in aggravating of that not at all touching upon the other Question which hath more curiosity in it Whether Adam's sinne or Eve's was the greatest then edification Because our proper work is to speak of original inherent sinne yet it is good to affect our souls with the great guilt thereof for some have been ready to expostulate with God Why for such a small sinne as they call it no more then eating the forbidden fruit so many millions of persons even all the posterity of mankind should thereby be made children of wrath and obnoxious to eternal damnation Doth not the Pelagian opinion that holdeth it hurteth none but Adam himself and his posterity onely if they willingly imitate him agree more with the goodnesse of God But if we do seriously consider how much evil was in this one sinne which Tertullian maketh to be a breach of the whole Law of God we will then humble our selves and acknowledge the just hand of God For First This is hainously to be aggravated from the internal qualification of the subject Adam who did thus offend was made upright created in the Image of God In his understanding he had a large measure of light and knowledge For though the Socinians would have him a meer I deot and innocent yet it may easily be evidenced to the contrary The Image of God consisteth in the perfection of the mind as well as in holiness of the other parts of the soul Neither did Elâ—phaz in his discourse with Job apprehend such ignorance in Adam when he saith Art thou the first man was born Wast thou made before the hils Dost thou restrain wisdom to thy self Job 15. 7 8. implying that the first man was made full of knowledge If then Adam had such pure light in his mind this made his sinne the greater yea because of this light some have proceeded so far as to make Adam's sinne the sinne against the holy Ghost but I shall not affirm that Certainly in that Adam had so great knowledge this made his offence the more evil hence because there was no ignorance in his mind nor no passions in the sensitive part at that time to disturb him his sinne was meerly and totally voluntary and the more the will is in a sinne the greater it is Hence Rom. 5. It is called expresly disobedience By one mans disobedience Yea learned men say That this was the proper specifical sinne of Adam eveâ— disobedience For although disobedience be in a large sense in every sinne yet this sinne of Adams was specifically disobedience for God gave him a positive command meerly that thereby Adam should testifie his obedience to him The thing in it self was not intrinsecally evil to eat of the forbidden fruit it was sinfull only because it was forbidden and by this God would have Adam demonstrate his homage to him but in offending he became guilty in a particular way of disobedience Secondly If you consider Adam in his external condition His fin is very great God placed him in Paradise put him into a most happy condition gave him the whole world for his portion Every thing was made for his use and delight now how intolerable was Adams ingratitude for so small a matter to rebell against God Therefore the smalness of the matter of the sinne doth not diminish but aggravate he might the more easily have refused the temptation so that this unthankfulness to God must highly provoke him Thirdly The sinne was an aggregate sinne It had many grievous sins ingredient into it It was a Beelzebub sin a big-bellied sinne full of many sins in the womb of it his sinne was not alone in the external eating of the forbidden fruit but in the internal causes that made him do so There was unbelief which was the foundation of all the other sinfulness he believeth the Devil rather then God There was pride and ambition He desired to be like God There was apostasie from God and communion with him There was the love of the creature more than of God and thereby there was the hatred of God Thus it was unum malum in quo omnia mala as God is unumbonum in quo omnia bona Lastly Not to insist on this because formerly spoken to There was the unspeakable hurt and damage which hereby he brought to his posterity Not to mention the curse upon the ground and every creature The damning of all his posterity in soul and body it the grace of God did not interpose It cannot be rationally conceived but that Adam knew he was a publique person that he was acquainted upon what terms he stood in reference to his posterity That the threatning did belong to all his as well as himself if he did eat of the forbidden fruit Now for Adam to be a murderer of so many souls and bodies to be the cause of temporal spiritual and eternal death to all mankind who can acknowledge but that this sinne is out of measure sinfull ¶ 2. The Aggravation of Original Sinne inherent in us OUr next work is to consider the aggravation of original sinne inherent in us and this is our duty to do that so being sensible of our own contagion we may not flatter our selves in the power of our free-will but fly alone to Christ who is a Phisitian and Saviour even to Infants as well as grown men and the rather we are to be serious and diligent in this because of all those prophane opinions which do either wholly deny it or in a great measure extenuate it Some Papists make it less then a venial sinne and many
thee see the dunghill in thy heart the general pollution of thy soul thou wilt cry out Oh how blind was I till now how sensless till this time Oh I am a damned man an undone man if God do not recover by his grace Therefore that of Austin though formerly mentioned can never enough be inculcated That in their controversie with Pelagians there is more need of prayer then syllogismes The truth of this Doctrine as it is primarily discovered by the Scripture so secondarily by the experience of the regenerated who as Paul said were alive once secure and blessed according to their own thoughts in the state they were in but when once convinced of the spirituality of the Law and their own carnality and contrariety therunto then sinne becometh out of measure sinfull and they die and are undone in their own thoughts Therefore concerning the Writers in this Controversie we are not only to enquire what acquired learning they have but what inspired grace what experimental workings of Gods Spirit in the humbling of them and to make them renounce all their own righteousness and fullness that Christ may be all in all Thus Austin who of all the Fathers hath most orthodoxly propugned this truth so none of them discover such an experimental conversion to God and a gracious change upon their hearts as he doth in his Books of Confessions I do not detract from the piety of the other Ancients only it is plain Austin discovereth a more peculiar and higher degree of an experimental knowledge of his own unworthiness and Gods gracious power in bringing him out of darkness into light and no question but the efficacy and power of this experience made him so orthodox and couragious in maintaining that truth which political and phylosophical principles did much gainsay but this is the wofull effect of original sinne that it taketh away all power to discover it self and as those deseases are most dangerous which take away the sense of them so is original sinne to be aggravated in this respect that it maketh a man insensible of it Fifthly The aggravation of this sinne is seen That it is the habituall aversion of the soul from God and conversion to the creature It is true original sinne is not an habitual acquired sinne but yet it is per modum habitus as Aquinas expresseth it That is the soul of every Infant born into the world cometh with an innate and habitual averseness to God and what is holy as also a concupiscential conversion to the creature so that the two parts expressed in an actual sinne of commission mentioned by the Prophet Jermiah Chap. 2. 13. My people have committed two evils they have forsaken me the fountain of life there is the aversio à Creatore and have hewed to themselves broken cisterns there is the conversio ad creaturam the same hath some representation in original sinne for every man by this hereditary pollution stands with his back upon God and his face to the creature Even as the child cometh bodily into the world with his face downwards and his back upon the heavens so it is with the soul of a man and this maketh our sinne of native pollution to be out of measure sinfull in that a man standing thus at a distance yea at enmity against God can never turn his face again towards God but by a supervenient grace from above Sixthly The great heightening of this sinne is In the deep radication of it It is so intimately and deeply rooted in all the powers of the soul that while a man is in this life he can never be freed from it hence it is that the ordinary determination of the Protestant Writers concerning original sinne even in regenerate persons is That it is taken away Quoad reatum though not Quoad actum There is original sinne in every man living yea in the most holy only it is removed from them Quoad reatum the guilt shall not be imputed and Quoad Dominum though it be in them yet it doth not reign in them only it is in some degree present there and therefore called by the same Divines Reliquiae peccati which expression though scorned by Corvinus yet both Scripture and some experience doth justly confirme such a phrase And although the late Adversary against original sinne Tayl. a further Explication of the Doct. of Orig. pag. 501. doth positively and magisterially according to his custome dogmatize that it is a contradiction to say sinne remaineth and the guilt is taken away and that in the justified no sinne can be inherent yet herein he betrayeth his symbolizing with Papists for all our learned Protestants have maintained this Position against Papists Bishops and others distinguishing between reatus simplex that is inseperable from sinne or the merit of damnation and Reatus redundans in personam which is when this is imputed There is therefore alwayes abiding in every man though justified original sinne in some measure it is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sinne dwelling in us as the Apostle calleth it Rom 7. and therefore in regard of the immobility and inseperability of it from mans nature while here on the earth it is more to be aggravated then all actual and habitual sins For though in Regeneration there is an infusion of gracious habits whereby the habits of sinne are expelled yet this original depravation is not totally conquered by it And thus much may suffice for the aggravating of it because something hath already been spoken to this Point ¶ 3. An Objection Answered THere remaineth one great Objection against the hainousness of this sinne That it is wholly involuntary and therefore we are traduced in this particular that we charge our sinnes hereby upon Adam or God himself freeing our selves Thus we accuse others and excuse our selves Is not this to do as Adam who put off all to the woman whom God had given him so we to clear our selves put all upon Adam's score Therefore many Papists and others complain of us as aggravating it too much whereas one of them saith Rundus Tappor Disp de peccato origin that it is minus minimo peccato veniali lesse then the most least venial sinne But to answer this First As this Doctrine about original sinne is wholly by revelation so we are to judge of the hainousness of it according to Scripture-principles It is true as hath been said formerly the Heathens did complain of the effects of this original sinne but they did not know the cause so that as by the Word we come to know that from our descendency from Adam we do contract this original pollution thus also by the Word we are to passe sentence about the greatness of the sinne If the Scripture saith We are by nature the children of wrath If God in destroying of the world doth not simply look to actual sins but as they flow from such a polluted principle If by this we are in bondage to Satan and are
in every one by nature to what is good To consider this more throughly we are to take notice that original sinne doth not lye in a man asleep or like a sluggish and muddy pool that doth not send forth its noisome streames but by the Apostle Rom. 7. is described as a sinne that is alwayes acting and rebelling against the Law of God and therefore as soon as ever a child is capable of such sinfull actings this original sinne doth put forth it self it is not to be limited to yeares of discretion but even in the childhood of man much folly and vanity many actual motions of sinne do put forth themselves It 's often said by Divines that original sinne is peccatum actuosum though not actuale an active sinne though not an actual and this should make us look back to our very childhood and to mourn for all that folly and vanity we then committed How quickly did thy enmity to holy things begin to appear What a wild Asses Colt or what a young Serpent wast thou plainly manifesting that as thy parts of mind and strength of body should encrease so also would thy corruption break forth more powerfully But of this childhood-sinfulness more is to be spoken SECT V. How soon a Child may commit actual Sinne. WE are treating upon the second part of the Doctrine which is That the proper original sinne that is in every man doth break forth into actual evil betimes From the youth The word is observed by learned men to be used in the Plural number for Emphasis sake and therefore is not to be limited to such a time as when one cometh to years of discretion but even to our childhood therefore the Hebrew word is used of Infants as Moses Exod. 2. 6. and Sampson Jud. 13. 5. although we deny not but that it is also in Scripture applyed to those that are grown up Hence Divines have a Rule Secundum Hebraorum idioma Infans vocatur emnis filius ad comparationem parentum according to the Hebrew custome every son is called an Infant comparatively to his parents and happily we may adde a Disciple and servant respectly to their Superiours This word Obadiah applyeth to himself 1 Kings 18. 12. Thy servant feareth God from his youth This time then of sinning is to be extended further then usually it is imagined for commonly we look not upon the actions of young ones as sinnes till they come to some discretion or if we do we count them very little and venial they are matter of delight more then of humiliation so few are there who do rightly affect themselves with the vanity and folly as also enmity to holy things that they were guilty of even while little children But because this truth hath some difficulty in the doctrinal part thereof let us more exactly enquire into the nature of it which will be seen in several Propositions And First The Lutherans have a peculiar opinion that even Infants whether in the mothers womb or new born are guilty of actual sinnes for whereas they make the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Steg Photin dis de peccato Orig. Fewrborn disput 1a. to be applyed sometimes to the Infant in the womb Luk. 1. 41. sometimes to Infants new born 1 Pet. 2. 2. They conclude that even such as these before they have any use of reason are guilty of actual sinnes only concerning actual sinnes they distinguish that such are either taken strictly and precisely for those that came from deliberation and the will or largely for any motions or stirrings of the soul against Gods Law though without the act of will and reason and in this latter sense they say Infants partake of actual sinnes But although original sinne is an active quality in a man and doth begin to work very early yet it cannot be thought to produce actual sinne till the soul by its powers and faculties is able to produce operatins It is true we read of Timothy that he is said to know the Scriptures from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that doth signifie Timothy something grown up and attaining to some understanding for the Lutherans are too peremptory who think a place cannot be brought where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth signifie a child something grown up Timothy therefore is said 2 Tim. 35. To know the Scriptures from a child because his godly Mother and Grandmother did as soon as he was able to receive instruct him in the faith which could not be while a meer Infant Therefore In the next place A second Proposition is That even in the state of integrity had not Adam fallen children new born would have been without actual knowledge as well as in corrupted nature they would not have been born with perfect use of their reason no more then they would have been born with perfect and compleat bodies for such could not have been contained in the womb We take it for granted though some have been for the negative that in the state of innocency there would have been multiplication of children by generation which appeareth in the Creation of a woman for a man and if so then that the children at that time born though they would have been free from original sinne and all the general effects thereof yet would not have been born in a perfect ability actually to use their reason Indeed the Scripture is wholly silent what would have been done if man had not fallen and therefore nothing can be certainly determined unless we had some divine revelation about it yet there is a good Rule given that we must think God would then keep to that ordinary way of nature which we now find except where sinne and the effects thereof have made a difference we are not to make miracles and extraordinary workings of God unless some necessity of reason compell thereunto and thus it would be here if children new born should have had perfect actual knowledge It is true Austin doth seem to incline Vide Augustin de peccator Mer. Rmeist lib. 1. cap. 35 36. especially cap. 37. that as soon as ever the children were come forth from the womb God would have made them great and perfect bodies as he did Eve of Adam's rib immediately or at least made them fit for all motions of the body but this is so improbable that Austin cannot be excused unless we think he spake it doubtingly and by way of inquisition yea not only concerning the body but even the soul also that a child is so long without the use of reason he seemeth to make it not from meer nature but vitiated and polluted This we say hath no probability for we must not think that God would have alwayes in the state of innocency wrought miraculously in the constant propagation of mankind It is true the blindness that is habitually upon the mind of every Infant whereby it is indisposed to receive the Truths of God when grown up would not then have been in Infants There
as it is impossible for a man to catch hold of his own shadow but the more he stretchedth out to take it the farther it flieth from him So it 's concerning the Nature Attributes and wayes of God the more we think to apprehend them the higher they soar from our reach But of this more in the prosecution of the point SECT II. Propositions to direct us about this great Point of Gods proceedings as to the matter of Original Sinne. VVE are to treat on Gods righteous proceedings as to the matter of original sinne and that we may be the better directed herein Let us lay down these Propositions First He that would not dangerously erre about this fundamental truth must take heed of yeelding himself up to humane and philosophical arguments A man that would rightly know the magnitude of the Sunne must not judge by his sense but by an artificial instrument for the principles of art will correct sense So he that will fully understand the wisdom and righteousness of God in involving all mankind in Adam's sinne must not judge by humane reasons but Scripture demonstrations for the principles of faith will rectifie those of reason So that if you ask What is the bitter root of all that bitter fruit I mean corrupt doctrinal opinions about original sinne We may readily answer The inordinate attending to humane reasonings As the Pelagians of old did first urge Reason and then Authority of Scripture whereas that Embleme of Nazianzene is alwayes to be remembred Theologia nostra est Pythagorica our Divinity is Pythagorical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus saith the Lord is in stead of all scientifical demonstrations The Pelagians and their followers are much alike in the point of original sinne as the Arians and Socinians in the matter of the Deity of Christ As the Socinians call the Deity of Christ Somnium Athanasii Athanasius his dream so do these original sinne Augustine's figment As they say The Fathers before Athanasius his time and the Council of Nice spake more temperately about the Trinity so do these also of the Ancients before Austin's time concerning original sinne And as there are one or two philosophical principles which plunged them into those damnable heresies about the Trinity and Christ's Deity viz. That Qua sunt eadem uni tertio sunt eadem inter se and Vna subsistentia non potest terminare duas naturas one subsistency cannot terminate two natures So that Rule Omne peccatum est voluntarium Every sinne must be voluntary is the very foundation upon which all errours about original sinne are superstructed If then we would be guided into the truth let us become humble Disciples of Christ hearkning to what the Word saith of our condition by nature and there be established though reason like Job's wife tempt thee to charge God foolishly It is true we may by reason defend the justice of God in these proceedings but it must be reason built upon faith not faith upon reason let faith lay the foundation then reason may confirme and adorne It is Stella his comparison Takes the mould of the earth from the root of the tree that is decaying and put your compost and dung to it and after that throw in your would again and then that will be exceedingly advantagious to help the fruitfulness of the tree which was an impediment before Thus reason superadded will illustrate faith whereas if laid as a foundation-stone it will indanger all But that which doth for the most part corrupt us is We first receive opinions according to humane perswasions and then going to the Scripture we think that speaketh according to our prepossessed imaginations Philosophers were the Patriarches of Heretiques Placonical Phylosophy in the Fathers and Aristotelical in the Schoolemen hath wonderfully debased the pure gold of divine truths 2. He that would not dangerously erre in this necessary point he must mortifie self-love he must above all things take breed of a self-righteousness and self-admiration For our corruption herein is that which maketh us to judge every thing unjust in God that is not pleasing to us we will rather naturally accuse God a thousand times over then accuse or condemne our selves As the love of God had supreme dominion in Adam's heart while in the state of integrity so in man fallen on the contrary self-love is that which keepeth the principality in our souls so that whatsoever we now love it is because we love our selves Why doth the covetous man love wealth but because he loveth himself Why doth the ambitious man honours the voluptuous man pleasures but because he loveth himself yea this extends to God also we love nothing of God but for our selves as if God were for us not we for God Hence it is that we would have a god like us we make an Idol-god in our hearts instead of the true God That which God chargeth upon some sinners Psal 50. 21. is true of all by nature Thou thoughtest I was such an one as thy self now this is the rotten core in every mans heart we think God to be like our selves to do as we would have him do and therefore we make that injustice in him which we would not have him do No wonder then if men be generally so averse to this Truth about original sinne for how can a man be naturally willing that this should be true I am born in a state of sinne I am by nature a child of wrath Can such a bitter pill as this be easily swallowed down how stiffely will men dispute and cavil ere they will be convinced of this Deformed faces are not willing to look in this glass Therefore it is a good similitude which Cortesius the Schooleman 2. Sentent distinc 7. pag. 48. who affecteth to turn all School-language into a polite flile useth concerning Pelagians denying original sinne he compareth them to Dogs that cannot endure the halter they are tied by and therefore all their endeavour is to gnaw the cord in pieces that they may runne loose Thus saith he do these corrupt Doctors they are unwilling to be bound in this chain No man can endure this cord whereby folly is bound up in his heart and therefore they strive to teare it in pieces They would gladly believe there is no such thing but the Scripture-truth will abide firme whether thou believest it or not Thou art by nature in an undone and a damnable estate whether thou will be perswaded of it or no. Therefore In the third place Seeing this Doctrine of original sinne and Gods proceedings therein are principally made known to us by Scripture-revelation It is our wisdome to keep close to what is written and not to give way to such curious Disputations that will never have an end If so be the disciples of Plato would silence themselves with this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here Plato doth command us to stay to rest and dispute no further if I say this would immediately stop their mouthes
and heat upon him that he doth thirst inordinately and yet if he do drink he dieth irrecoverably so that a man then bitten was in a miserable condition for if he did not drink the heat within him did burn him up and if he did drink he was sure to die Original sinne is like this fiery Serpent it hath poisoned mankind with its sting so that a man hath an inordinate thirst to sinne if he do not sinne he finds no rest no comfort if he do sinne he damneth himself and there is no way to cure this till spiritual thirst put out this natural thirst till our hearts be carried out with delight and complacency in heavenly things then this sinfull tormenting drought that is upon the soul will quickly be abated As the disease called Bulimy or Dogs-hunger doth bring with it tormenting pains in the inward parts so doth this impetuous propensity unto evil till it be accomplished It is like the wolf in the breast that consumeth continually The Wiseman doth fully expresse this disquietnesse of soul till the lusts of sinne be fullfilled Prov. 4. 16. They sleep not except they have done mischief and their sleep is taken away unless they have caused some to fall Thirdly This similitude of drinking down iniquity like water doth suppose the sweetnesse and delight that is in sinning For although water as such hath no savournesse and therefore is not like wine or beer yet because it is cooling it doth with much delight refresh and refrigerate the hot thirsty appetite within Hence Solomen expresseth desirable news by this similitude As cold waters to a thirsty soul so is good news from a farre Countrey Prov. 25. 25. So that by this expression is denoted the great delight and content that naturally is found in any evil way when a man is sinning it is as he would have it This is sutable and agreeable with that corrupt inclination that is within David cannot expresse greater joy and delight in the Law of God and in fulfilling of his will then they do in obeying the lusts of the flesh and this is that which maketh conversion so difficult This is that which doth so strongly hold men in their sinful wayes Neither the words of God or the works of God are able to separate a man and his sinnes till God put forth his conquering and all subduing grace because sinne is thus sweet to a man Zophar the Naamathite doth excellently inform us how sweet sinne is to an evil man and how much he delighte in the sweetnesse of it Job 20. 12 13. Though wickednesse be sweet in his mouth though he hide it under his tongue though he spirit and for sake not but keep it still withiâ—â—â—outh c. By this we see that sine to a natural man is like some 〈◊〉 the mouth which we roll up and down being unwilling to swallow 〈◊〉 that so we may the longer enjoy the sweetnesse thereof Certainly it would be an high degree of blasphemy to say God made man with such a corrupt inclination at first that sinne should be so connatural and sutable to him It was therefore by Adam's apostasie when we lost the Image of God then no wonder if every part and power of the soul were carried out inordinately and violently to what is evil By this also we see that a necessity in sinning and a delight and voluntariness in sinning may very well consist together one doth not destroy another A corrupt man like a corrupt tree cannot but bring forth corrupt fruit yet all this is done with inward delight and content as he cannot so he will not do otherwise This is much to be observed because many do tragically exclaim against this Doctrine of original sinne as that whereby we are necessitated and captivated unto evil not at all remembring that this is a delightsome captivity a pleasant necessity insomuch that when converting grace doth make a change upon a man it doth not only subdue the power of sinne but taketh away the sweetness of it putting a contrary delight and sweetness in the soul Now they delight in God in holy Ordinances now their souls break with longing after those heavenly object which once they did so much abhorre That which was honey to them is now gall The very thoughts of their former lusts are bitter and full of wormwood to them Thus David being made heavenly professeth often His soul thirsteth after God Psalm 46. 2. Psalm 63. 1. Psalm 143. 6 Fourthly This expression of drinking iniquity like water doth suppose as the delight so the easinesse and facility thereof Pineda observeth he compareth it not to eating of pleasant meet though that be sweet because there is some labour in the chewing of it but that is too argute onely the easinesse and facility in sinning may be declared herein and truly if we apply it to the manner of a natural mans sinning it will be very well accommodated For doth a man by nature find any difficulty in sinning Doth he find checks and gripes within him Doth he find it an hard thing to obey the losts of sinne yea they swallow down a Camel as easily as water It is true when a natural mans conscience is awakened and enlightned when under conviction by Gods Word then fear and guilt possesseth his soul then he sinneth indeed but horrible pangs and throbs of conscience do many times accompany their iniquities they bring forth in sorrow and pain but we are now speaking of a natural man meerly as so left in that estate he was born in and such a man followeth the lusts of his soul without any pain or trouble at all There are no conflict and combats within crying out How can I do this and sinne against God Do we not see this peaceable secure disposition upon most men Though they have the Word of God to awaken their conscience and so throughly to convince them that you would think they should be as much afraid of sinne as of hell it self But as the Rule is Elementa non gravitant in suo loca the elements are not heavy in their proper place So a man in sinning being in his proper way findeth no molestation no grief at all but such are to be more pitied by how much they cannot pity themselves Fifthly This similitude doth inform us of the frequency and plenty also insinning It is not one vain thought one evil action that will satisfie this corrupt principle within but it emptieth it self into abundance To drink iniquity like water denoteth abundance and plenty be doth not sip of it or tast of it as some are said to tast of the good Word of God Heb. 6. or as Jonathan tasted of honey but they drink it down fully and plentifully never satisfying themselves therein Hence if they were to live alwayes upon the earâ—◠〈◊〉 would never be weary thereof Original sinne like the horsleech Prodâ—â— 15. hath two daughters crying Give give which are never satisfied these
time of the cause of such evil customs and examples How came they at first Whence did they arise but from polluted originals This will not answer the Text in hand for that speaketh of the first age before the drowning of the world which yet is called the world of the ungodly 2 Pet. 2. 5. It was the world of ungodly in the first age and still in the later ages it is the world of ungodly Yea this is still applied to that remnant of mankind which escaped the deluge when there were but eight persons Gen. 8. It 's there said That the imagination of mans heart was 〈◊〉 his youth It is strange therefore that if good seed was naturally sown in 〈◊〉 that nothing but tares should come up every where in stead thereof But let us take notice of another place of Scripture confirming the universal overslowing of iniquity and that is David's complaint which he so sadly poureth forth calling upon God to help and to redress it Psal 12. 1. Help Lord for the godlyman ceaseth the faithfull fail from among the children of man They speak vanity every one with his neighbour It is true here are some supposed to be godly and faithfull but they are few comparatively to the ungodly as flowers to the weeds as jewels to the sand on the seashore and those that were so it was not from nature but the grace of God that sanctified and prepared them But if you do regard the general the Psalmist is so affectionately moved with the overflowing of evil that he seeth no help but in God himself and this is the more to be aggravated because the people of Israel were the Church of God they had the Prophets of God they had Gods wonderfull presence amongst them and yet for all that this garden so planted and dressed by God did become a wildernesse If then where there are many external and powerfull means to subdue and conquer that innate corruption yet it break out so violently What if man were left to himself How abominable and vile would he prove And was not this the perpetual complaint of all the Prophets successively that every one did turn aside to their evil wayes that they did preach in vain that there was no soundnesse amongst them a sinfull Nation a seed of evil-doers The more they were stricken the more they revolted The whole head was sick and the whole heart faint as Isaiah most affectionately bewalleth it Chap. 1. 4 5. What a strong demonstration then is this of the imbred corruption of mankind that under all the means of grace doth yet overflow in impicties I shall not mention any more Texts for this purpose The whole scope of the Scripture being to declare mans sinfulness and extoll Gods grace Secondly This universal propensity to sinne in all mankind is likewise attested unto even by the very Heathens It 's true they knew nothing of Adams tall nor of the propagation of this hereditary pollution yet the sinfulness it self they perceived and groaned under it Even Grotius himself who would elude the pregnant Texts of Scripture for original sinne by the Rhetoricians trope of Hyperbole yet doth bring in many passages out of the Heathens acknowledging such a depravation of mans nature out of Heriocles the Philosopher Jamblichus that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it 's implanted and ingraffed in us to sinne Comment in Luc. cap. 2. ver 22. as also De Jure botli as paci lib. 2. Yea out of Aristotle who held this indifferency in mans nature he brings that expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is imbred in a man to gain-say reason Thus the very Heathens though they knew not the cause yet could not but confess that vitium ingenita infirmitatis the vitious imbred infirmity that is in every man Yea their Poets have acknowledged better Divinity then some later writers in the Church witness those sayings Quantuns mortalia peceatora coecae noctis habent and another Vitiis neme sine nascitur A third Terras Astraeae reliquit fergning our originals to be of stones Inde genus duri sumus Homines suâ naturâ sunt malis as Plato We might be large also in bringing the witnesses of others Nihil homine miserius superbius said Pliny simul atque ediâ—i sumus and Tully In omni continuò pravitate versamur c. And what is that saying Humanum est errare but according to Divinity Humanum est peccare Thus the light of nature though but like that of the Owl to the Sunne could perceive something in this kind Now this testimony is the more to be regarded because it is so imbred a desire in us to make our selves as lovely as may be and to hide every thing that is deformed Thirdly 〈◊〉 principle also in all Nations to have Magistrates and Laws to have prisonâ—â—â—gibbets whereby punishment may be inflicted upon offenders doth palpably demonstrate what a pronenesse there is in man to sinne For those provisoes do suppose that man doth restrain himself from evil only for fear of punishment If so be that there were such a natural purity in man Why should there be such jealousies such fears of man Homo homini lupus Why are there provided such severe punishments to awe wicked men but that mans nature is out of credit it is supposed to do all the evil it can if it have any impunity Certainly it is not for good that Mastives are tied up that Bears and Lions are kept up in grates This argueth how cruel they would be if let loose Thus also it is with mankind all the severe Laws and punishments which are in all estates established do demonstrate how wild and outragious man is if left alone to himself In his younger yeares he hath the rod when growne up prisons and gallows and in his old age death and hell to awe him against sinne Fourthly The necessary of Education and Chastisement to young children doth also declare that they are prone to vice It cannot be denied but supposing Adam had continued in integrity and procreated children they would have needed instruction and information but then withall it must be granted that this was a meer innocent nesciency in them and therefore as the body had been prepared so the soul without any difficulty would with all aptnesse and readinesse have received all the good seed sown into it whereas now in young ones there is a difficulty to understand holy things they are unteachable and untractable yea there is also a contrariety and an aversnesse to that which is good Now if they were in a meer purity of nature as the Adversaries suggest it they were in such an equal indifferency and capacity of virtue or vice Why should not they need education and Masters to teach them evil as well as good Yea why should they not be more ready to good then evil seeing they say there are igniculi virtutum sparks of virtue lying
object is to our corrupt hearts one way or other as the forbidden fruit was to Eve not that God doth forbid us to see or hear such things but because the soul cannot be excited by those objects and affected with them but it is in a sinful manner If then thy head were a fountain of teares it could not weep enough for the desolation that is upon thee Thy eye maketh thee sinne thy ear maketh thee sinne Thus thou art compassed about with sinne from evening and morning 2. These suddain motions of sinne sometimes arise from the imagination and fancy of a man And truly how often do displeasing and sinful imaginations disturb the peace and quiet of thy soul Is it not thy fancy thou complainest of how volatique and roving is that It stayeth no where it is not fixed in holy duties It is like a market place where there is a croud of people so that the imagination doth very often help this original lust and sinne to bring forth What a quiet srene and blessed life should a man live if his imagination could be kept in an holy fixed frame if he could bid it go and it goeth do this and it did it 3. The perturbation of the body by distempers that many times causeth this original sinne to be working in us Though the body be corporeal and the soul a spirit and so cannot act physically upon it yet because they are both the essential parts of a man immediately united together there is by sympathy an acting and affecting of one another especially the body being instrumental to the soul in many operations Hence it is when that is disturbed and indisposed the soul also is hindred in its operations and therefore from the distemper of the body we are easily moved to anger to sorrow to fear to lusts So that the motions of the soul are many times according to the motions of the body as Gerson instanceth Compend Theol. in a simile which he saith some use concerning the water when the Sunne-beams are upon it as the water moveth or danceth up and down so do the Sunne-beams which are upon the water Thus as the body is in any commotion so the soul which is more immediately united to the body then the beams of the Sunne are to the water doth work according as it finds this instrument disposed Fourthly This original lust is often stirred up to entice us by the sensitive appetite by the passions and affections that are in us This we told you some did limit lust to in the Text but very unsoundly yet it cannot be denied but because the affectionate part of a man is so prevalent and operative that very often sinne is committed here even without the consent of the will These affections doe suddenly transport us and we can no more command them to be quiet then we are able to compose the waves of the Sea Now though we would withstand and gain-say them yet they are our sinnes for all that as we see Paul sadly complaining herein Rom. 7. Austin delighteth De Trinit lib. 13. to expresse our manner of sinning by allusion to the first sinne When any object doth present it self to allure and affect us then the Serpent saith he sheweth us the forbidden fruit When the sensitive appetite of a man is drawn out to consent unto it then Eve doth eat of this forbidden fruit when the rational part of the soul is enticed likewise to consent to this sinne then Eve giveth of this fruit to Adam and he eateth Thus Reason is like Adam Eve like the sensitive part and as Eve when she did eat the forbidden fruit alone did thereby grow mortal and would have died though Adam had not consented to eat Thus the affectionate part of a man carrying us away to sinne though the superiour part of the soul will not agree thereunto yet this maketh us to be in a state of damnation This maketh the action to be damnable Lastly When none of these wayes doe stirre up original sinne then the thoughts and apprehensions of a man in the intellectual part they may And indeed the former provoking causes were most conspicuous in grosse and carnal sinnes but this is influential in spiritual sinnes from the minde come vain thoughts ambitious proud malicious thoughts from the mind arise blasphemous atheistical and unbelieving thoughts Thus you see how poor and wretched man is become in his soul as Laezarus was in his body all over with ulcers and sores no place is free from sinne Oh that God would deliver us from our blindnesse of minde from our self-fulnesse whereby we are so apt to fall in love with our selves so as to think we want nothing when we are without God without Christ without the Image of God without all holinesse and peace within either of soul or body How should it pity thee to see this glorious building thus lying in its own ruines and rubbidge Now from all these particulars thus joyned together you may observe how sinne carrieth us away in a pleasing enticing manner So that although we cannot but sinne yet this is very delightsome and satisfactory insomuch that man is drawn aside to sinne as he said Trahit sua quemque voluptas And this is more to be observed because the adversaries do so tragically exclaim against us in affirming that we lie under a necessity of sinning we cannot but sin Why then say they Why should God damn us for sinning any more than for being thirsty or hungry which do necessarily affect us But the Answer is two-fold 1. This necessity of sinning is voluntarily contracted and brought upon us it is not as hunger or thirst which were necessary properties of man at his Creation though without that grief and pain which now we feel And 2. This necessity is also voluntary and pleasing it seizeth upon the mind will affections and the whole man and therefore as we cannot help it so neither will we help it We love and delight to eat this poison Lastly There are these three degrees whereby it 's said Lust cometh to be accomplished Though some differ in their expressions herein The first is Suggestion and that is when any lust doth begin to arise in the soul This is very imperceptible and undiscerned but by those who are exact in the spiritual exercises of thier soul It is true some say this word Suggestion is not proper because that doth properly come from without the Devil or the world but this is internal arising of our selves But we need not strive about words The second is Delight From this motion the soul presently findeth some secret pleasure and accordingly thinketh of it with delight receiveth it with delight Lastly There is the consent unto these to will them to be joyned to them And thus when sinne hath made this progresse a man is an adulterer a murderer before God though not actually done in the eyes of men as our Saviour witnesseth Matth. 5. 28. for
many do consent to sinne within their heart which yet do not consent to the outward acting of it sometimes because of the shame that it will bring sometimes because of the punishment that it doth deserve or for some unworthy respect or other not because they fear and love God not because they desire a pure holy heart as well as an unspotted life And truly this is a good discovery of uprightnesse of our hearts when we dare not own sin in our thoughts when the we dare not respect iniquity in our hearts when we labour to keep a pure soul as well as a pure body ¶ 3. More Propositions concerning evil Thoughts and Motions that arise continually from the heart as the Immediate Effect of Original Sinne Shewing how many wayes the Soul may become guilty of sinne about them WE are now to finish this Discourse about that Immediate Effect of original sinne in causing evil thoughts and motions to arise continually from the heart as vapours do constantly from the earth and as they in their first ascension are imperceptible till they come to be congealed into clouds which are plainly visible Thus all sinne while it is but in these motions and stirrings of the heart is difficulty discerned but when it cometh to be formed by express consent and accomplished in outward practice then it is grosse and palpable But to proceed in more Propositions First These motions and stirrings of heart they are either sudden and transitory 〈◊〉 abiding and mansory in the soul Sometimes these sinfull stirrings of the heart are like a sudden whirlwind in the soul that presently vanisheth though they be very troublesom for the time or they come like a flash of lightning and thunder which though terrible yet is but of short continuance now although they make no longer abode in our soul yet they pollute and defile it We are not to give place to them no not for an hour as Paul would not to the false brethren Gal. 2. 5. but we are with holy zeal and indignation to thrust them out and bolt the doors upon them as they did to Thamar Thus in the very twinkling of an eye if we do not watchfully attend thereunto we may destroy our own souls over and over again That is a prophane speech to say Thoughts are free no God hath laid an holy command upon our very thoughts and the first motions and stirrings of our hearts that nothing should arise there but what is agreeable to Gods holy Word When water is in a pure glass though it be moved and shaken often yet no noisom thing ariseth thereby but if in a soul one then the more it is stirred the more filthy are the bubbles thereof Thus in man while enjoying the Image of God whatsoever did move or stir his heart it was altogether holy and pure but since man is thus corrupted there cannot be any motions of his soul but they are wholly defiled and sinfull one way or other Secondly These mansory thoughts which the Schoolmen call morosae because they do morari abide some time in the soul they are likewise divided for they are so continning in us either morâ temporis or morâ consensus as they expresse it Gerson Compend Theol. The continuance of time is when they may for a long while infect sollicit and annoy us but yet we strive and gainsay We do by no means give our consent thereunto as Joseph's Mistress did often importune him yet all that while he kept up the fear of God and would not sinne in that way against him So that although the people of God may be followed from week to week with loathsom and perplexing thoughts yet because they cry unto God they go and pray to him as Hezekiah did upon Rabshakeh's railing and blaspheming of God they are not to be discouraged Thou hast not betrayed thy strength to these Dalilahs all the while Yea from these spiritual exercises and conflicts thou wilt increase thy glory Hereby thou hast an opportunity to discover thy faith thy self emptiness and to get heavenly skill and compassion whereby thou art able to succour those that are in the like manner tempted But then 2. There are thoughts that are continuing morâ consensus and these are farre more dangerous and damnable then the former for if sinfull thoughts and motions arise in thy soul though they are but for a very short time yet if thou hast yeelded to them then thy soul hath committed fornication Consensisti said Austin concubuisti in corde tuo so that the consent to them is farre more dangerous then the length of time they may afflict thee in Any sinfull motion consented unto though it be but for a moment is more destructive then such as follow thee from day to day yea it may be from year to year but thou givest no entertainment to them This is good for the practical Christian to observe it is the long time that troubleth them Oh say they ever since God hath first wrought upon my soul I have been exercised with these thoughts such dreadfull suggestions and to this day I am not yet delivered from them Be of good comfort though it be grievous to thee to feel such things in thy soul yet because withstood they shall not be imputed to thee Those that have the like temptations but for an hour and imbracing of them have more offended God and endangered their own souls Propos 3. It is good to take notice how many wayes the soul may become guilty of sinne about these thoughts and motions within us A truth â—â—â—deed it is that no natural man no civil or formal man doth understand or can be affected with Can a blind man that doth not behold the Sunne see the atoms in the Sun-beams They who are not affected or grieved about great and actual sins will they find these inward motions to be burden If they can swallow a Camel will they not a mote 1. Therefore we come to sinne by these motions and thoughts of soul by the very being of them there The very having of them there is contrary to the Image of God we were first created in As in Heaven there is no unclean thing that can enter so where the Image of God is full and compleat the least vain thought the least sinfull stirring can no more consist with it then darkness with light or as at the first creation we could not have found one weed or thistle on the ground but these came by the curse for sinne so at first in mans soul there would not have appeared the least irregular and inordinate motion of the heart not one thought would have been out of its place Adam was Gods book coming immediately from him wherein no errata could be found but now in stead of wheat come up cockles Now what ever we think we imagine we move to all doth become sinne unto us Oh then let the godly soul mourn and humble it self because such motions are
unto was That Adam was made mortal and would have died if he had not sinned death being a necessary consequence as they say from a mans corporal constitution The Papists especially the Schoolmen of old and the Jesuites of late to whom Jansenius doth vehemently oppose in this point 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek expression is say That Adam was indeed by nature mortal but by grace and superadded favour he was immortal So that both Papists and Protestants agree in this That Adam was made immortal in his Creation Only the difference is Whether as original righteousness so immortality may be said to be natural or supernatural to Adam We say it 's natural they say it 's supernatural and yet Bellarmine De gratiâ primi Hom. lib. cap. 5. in his explication of himself in this point cometh very near us or at least speaketh contradictions to himself For he saith if natural be taken for that which was put into man from his nativity if natural be taken for that which was to be propagated to Adam's posterity if natural be taken for that which is convenient to perfect and prepare a man for his end then they say original righteousness and so by consequence immortality would have been natural to Adam's posterity but if we take natural for that which doth internally constitute nature or necessarily flow from the principles of nature then they say immortality was supernatural even as original righteousnesse But the Protestants when they call original righteousnesse natural they doe not meane effectivè as if it were not the gift of God bestowed upon us as if it did flow from the principles of nature but subjectivè that is original righteousnesse and immortality were not supernatural to Adam as they are now to us being we are corrupted but connatural or a due perfection to man supposing God created him for such an end as to enjoy himself So that it is due not so much to the nature of man as to Gods Order and Decree concerning man Thus as in birds supposing God would have them to flie it was necessary they should have wings though they come from a natural principle so in man supposing God made him for communion with and enjoyment of himself it was necessary that he should be indewed with holiness Though flowing not from nature but concreated by God with man Thus that which is the gift of God and cometh only from him may be in respect of the subject a due perfection It was thus with Adam in respect of his soul that was created immediately by God it did not flow from any natural causes yet supposing God would make him a rational creature then this became a due perfection to him Adam then was immortal by nature in a well-explained sense as he had a reasonable soul by nature But however it be Protestants and many Papists agree in the thing that he was made immortal only they differ in the manner How Now the Socinian differeth from all for he dogmatizeth That Adam was made mortal that death was natural and denieth any original righteousnesse or immortality that was bestowed upon Adam any way It is true sometimes he saith That though Adam was made mortal yet God might have preserved him from actual death by some way or other only that he was made immortal that he denieth So that what the Papists dream about their imaginary pure naturals saying God might have created man so Socinians affirm defacto it was so The late Writer Dr. T. is also positive for Adam's mortality by nature That Adam was made mortal by nature saith he is infinitely certain and proved by his eating and drinking c. Further Explicat pag. 453. instancing in those Arguments the Socinians use to bring All which Assertions do directly and evidently oppose the word of God ¶ 2. How many wayes a thing may be said to be Immortal and in which of them man is so SEcondly When we say God made Adam immortal and that upon his transgression both himself and his posterity are subjected to a necessity of death We must rightly understand in what sense he is said to be so For 1. A thing may be said to be immortal absolutely and essentially having no principles of death within nor cannot be destroyed by any cause without Thus 1 Tim. 6. 16. God is said only to have immortality This is that comfortable attribute which the people of God make use of under all changes and vicissitudes God is alwayes the same Though father die though mother die yet God doth not as one in the Ecclesiastical Story said when word was brought him that his father was dead Desine saith he blasphemias loqui pater enim meus immortalis est Cease to speak blasphemy for my father is immortal 2. That may be said to be immortal which is so by some singular dispensation of God either in respect of mercy or of justice and thus it is with the glorified bodies of the Saints and the damned bodies of wicked men for the Saints their vile bodies shall be made like Christs glorious body they are raised to incorruptibility and glory and as for the bodies of damned persons though they be raised to reproach and dishonour yet by Gods justice they are preserved immortal so that the fire cannot consume them to ashes neither shall length of time ever destroy them For if God could make the Israelites cloaths and shoes to last so many years without being consumed no wonder if he do a greater matter upon the bodies of men 3. That may be said to be immortal which by the will of the Creator is so constituted that being separated from all matter it hath no principles of dissolution from within And thus the Angels are immortal they have no principle of corruption within yet they are annihilable by the power of God should God withdraw his preservation of them they would cease to be but from within they have no cause of dissolution The Devils also in this sense are immortal and that is the reason though many wicked and bloudy persecutors of Gods Church have died yet the Devil being immortal hath stirred up new ones which made a good man say to one who did greatly rejoyce at the death of a cruel persecutor At diabolus non moritur but the Devil doth not die Lastly A thing may be said to be immortal Conditionally supposing such and such conditions he performed and in this sense only we say God made Adam immortal for 〈◊〉 had a power to sinne and so a power to die he had a power to stand and to a power to be freed from death So that we do not say Adam had such an immortality as the glorified bodies have that cannot die but conditionally onely As he had in him power to sinne so he had a power to deprive himself of all happinesse and immortality which fell out also to our utter undoing Autin's expression of Posse non mori and Non
posse mori is known by all It is not then an absolute but a conditional immortality we speak of ¶ 3. Propos 3. ALthough we say that God made man immortal yet we grant that his body being made of the dust of the earth and compounded of contrary element it had therefore a remote power of death It was mortal in a remote sense only God making him in such an eminent manner and for so glorious an end there was no proxim and immediate disposition to death God indeed gave Adam his name whereas Adam imposed a name upon all other creatures but not himself and that from the originals he was made of to teach him humility even in that excellent estate yet he was not in an immediate disposition to death When Adam had transgressed Gods Law though he did not actually die upon it yet then he was put into a mortal state having the prepared causes of death within him but it was not so while he stood in the state of integrity then it was an immortal state now it is a mortal one I say state because even now though Adam hath brought sinne and death upon us yet in respect of the soul a man may be said to be immortal but then there was immortality in respect of soul and body the state he was created in did require it So that although death be the King of terrors yet indeed original sinne which is the cause of it should be more terrible unto us Now man by sinne is fallen the beasts could they speak would say Man is become like one of us yea worse for he carrieth about with him a sinfull soul and a mortal body ¶ 4. Distinctions about Mortality and that in several respects Adam may be said to be created mortal and immortal THe fourth Proposition is That from the former premisses it may be deducted that in several respects Adam may be said to be created mortal and immortal yet if we would speak absolutely to the question when demanding how Adam was created we must return Immortall Some indeed because mans mortalilty and immortality depended wholy upon his will as he did will to sinne or not to sinne so they have said he was neither made mortal or immortal but capable of either but that is not to speak consonantly to that excellency of state which Adam was created in for as Adam was created righteous not indifferent as the Socinians say neither good or bad but capacious of either qualification so he was also made immortal not in a neutral or middle state between mortal and immortal so that he had inchoate immortality upon his creation but not consummate or confirmed without respect to perseverance in his obedience for the state of integrity was as it were the beginning of that future state of glory Again Adam might be called mortal in respect of the orginals of his body being taken out of the dust of the earth but that was only in a remote power so God did so adorne him with excellent qualifications in soul and body that the remote power could never be brought into a proxime and immediate disposition much less into an actual death for a thin◠may be said to be mortal 1. In respect of the matter and thus indeed Adams body in a remote sence was corruptible 2. In respect of the forme Thus Philosophers say sublunary things are corruptible because the matter of them hath respect to divers formes whereas they call the heavens incorruptible because the matter is sufficiently actuated by one forme and hath no inclination to another and thus Adam might truly be said to be immortal for it was very congruous that a body should be united to the soul that was sutable to it for that being the form of a man and having an inclination or appetite to the body if man had been made mortal at first the natural appetite would in a great measure have been frustrated it being for a little season only united to the body and perpetually ever afterwards seperated from it Surely as an Artificer doth not use to put a precious Diamond or Pearl into a leaden Ring so neither would God at first joyn such a corruptible body to so glorious and an immortal soul 3. A thing may be said to be mortal in respect of efficiency and thus it is plain Adam was not made mortal for he might through the grace of God assisting have procured immortality to himself that threatening to Adam In the day he should eat of that forbidden fruit he should die the death Gen. 2 17. doth plainly demonstrate that had he not transgressed Gods command he should never have died 4. A thing may be said to be mortal in respect of its end Thus all the beasts of the field whatsoever Puccius thought are mortal because their end was for man to serve him so that it is a wild position to affirm as he doth that there shall be a resurrection of beasts as well as of men for they were made both in respect of matter form and end altogether mortal whereas Adam was made after the Image of God to have communion and fellowship with God and that for ever which could not be without immortality ¶ 5. Prop. 5. THe true causes of death are only revealed in Gods Word All Philosophers and Physitians they searched no further then into the proxim immediate causes of death which are either external or internal they looked no further and knew of no other thing but now by the Word of God we Christians come to know that there are three principal causes of death so that had not they been those intermedious and proxime causes of death had never been The first cause is only by occasion and temptation and that was the Devil he tempted our first parents and thereby was an occasion to let death into the world for this cause the Devil is called Joh. 8. 44. a murderer from the beginning it doth not so much relate to Cain as to Adams transgression yet the Scripture Rom. 5. doth not attribute death to the Devil but to one mans disobedience because Adams will was not forced by Satan he had power to have resisted his temptations only the Devil was the tempting cause The second and most proper cause of death was Adams disobedience so that death is a punishment of that sinne not a natural consequent of mans constitution The History of Adam as related by Moses doth evidently confirme this that there was no footstep of death till he transgressed Gods Law and upon that it was most just that he who had deprived himself of Gods Image which is the life of the soul should also be deprived of his soul which is the life of the body that as when he rebelled against God he presently felt an internal rebellion by lusts within and an external disobedience of all creatures whom he did rule over before by a pacifical dominion so also it was just that he who had deprived himself
in this matter Annotat in cap. 5. of the Romans for in his paraphrase on the 12 Verse he makes death and mortality to come upon all men by Adam's disobedience because all that were born after were sinners that is born after the likeness and image of Adam And again on Verse 14 death came on the world because all men are Adam 's posterity and begotten after the image and similitude of a sinful parent By this we see the cause of death is put upon that image and likeness we are now born in to our sinful parent which is nothing els but our original corruption Let not this consideration of our sinful soules and mortal bodies pass away before it hath wrought some affectionate influence upon our soules Cogita temcrtuum brevi moriturum Every pain every â—ch is a memento to esse hominem That is an effectual expression of Job cap. 17. 14. I said to corruption thou art my father and to the worm thou art my mother and sister You see your alliance and kindred though never so great it is your brother-worm your sister-worm Job giveth the wormes this title because his body was shortly to be consumed by them and thereby a most intimate conjunction with them would follow Post Genesim sequitur Exodui was an elegant allusion of one of the Ancients yea the life that we do live is so full of miseries that Solomon accounteth it better not to have been born and the Heathen said Quem Deus amat moritur juvenis which should humble us under the cause of this sinne SECT VI. Q. Whether Death may not be attributed to mans constitution considered in his meer naturalls I Proceed to the second and last Question which is May not death be attributed to mans constitution considered in his meer naturals Is there not a middle state to be conceived between a state of grace and sinne viz. a state of pure naturals by which death would have come upon mankind though there had been no sinne at all This indeed is the sigment of some Popish Writers who make Adam upon his transgression to be deprived of his supernaturals and so cast into his naturals although generally with the Papists this state of pure naturals is but in the imagination only they dispute of such things as possible but de facto they say man was created in holiness and after his fall he was plunged into original sinne Now the Socinians they do peremptorily dispute for this condition of meer naturals de facto that Adam was created a meer man without either sinne or holiness but in a middle neutral way being capable of either as his free will should determine him This state of meer nature is likewise a very pleasing Doctrine to the late Writer so oftern mentioned it helpeth him in many difficulties Death passed upon all men that is the generality of mankind all that lived in their sinne The others that died before died in their nature not in their sinne neither Adam's nor their own save only that Adam brought it upon them or rather lest it to them himself being disrobed of all that which could hinder it Thus he Answer to a Letter pag. 49. This is consonant to those who say as Bellarmine and others that man fallen and man standing differ as a cloathed and and naked man Adam was cloathed with grace and other supernatural endowments but when sinning he was divested of all these and so left naked in his meer natural Thus they hold this state of meer naturals to be a state of negation not privation God taking from man not that which was a connatural perfection to him but what was meerly gratuitous The late Writer useth this comperison of Moses his face shining and then afterwards the withdrawing of this lustre Now as Moses his face had the natural perfection of a face though the glorious superadditaments were removed thus it is with man though fallen he hath his meer naturals still and so is not in a death of sinne or necessity of transgressing the Law of God but though without the aid of supernaturals he cannot obtain the kingome of heaven yet by these pure naturals he is free in his birth from any sinful pollution saith the known Adversary to this truth Thus he that calleth original sinne a meer non ens he layeth the foundation of his Discourse upon a meer non entity Now if you ask what cometh to man by these meer naturals he will answer death Yea that which is remarkable is the long Catalogue of many sad imperfections containing three or four Pages that is brought in by him Vnum Necessar cap. 6. Sect. 7. a great part whereof he saith is our natural impotency and the other brought in by our own folly As for that which is our natural impotency man being thereby in body and soul so imperfect it is he saith as if a man should describe the condition of a Mole or a Bat concerning whose imperfections no other cause is to be enquired of but the Will of God who giveth his gifts as he pleaseth and is unjust to no man by giving or not giving any certain proportion of good things To the same purpose he speaketh also in another place further explicat pag. 475. Adam's sinne left us in pure naturals disrobed of such aides extraordinary as Adam had But certainly there are few Readers who shall consider what is by him made to be the natural impotency of man in soul and body but must conclude he is most injurious to the goodness wisdomè and justice of God in making man of such miserable pure naturals yea that it is a position worse then Manicheisme for the Manichees seeing such evils upon mankind attributed them to some evil principle but this man layeth all upon the good and most holy God It is Gods will alone not mans inherent corruption that exposeth him to so many unspeakable imperfections It is well observed by Jansenius who hath one Book only de statu purae nature opposing the Jesuites and old Schoolmen in their sigment upon a state of meer naturals that this opinion was brought into the Church of God out of Aristotle and that it is the principles of his Philosophy which have thus obscured the true Doctrine of original sinne I shall breifly lay down some Arguments against any such supposed condition of meer nature from whence they say we have ignorance in the mind rebellion against the Spirit and also death it self but without sinne And Arg. 1. The first is grounded upon a rule in reason That every subject capable of two immediate contraries must necessarily have one or the other A man must either be sick or well either alive or dead there is no middle estate between them thus it is with man he must either be holy or sinful he must either be in a state of grace or a state of iniquity The Scripture giveth not the least hint of any such pure naturals Indeed a man may in
it the mother of many errors 6 The cause of all miseries 7 Worse than actual 8 Ignorance thereof the cause why men understand not the work of conversion 9 Inseparably adheres to the best 11 A natural evil and how with the several names it hath had 13 The difilement of our specifical being 14 The inward principle of all sinfull motions ib. Flacius his opinion concerning it ib. Is alwayes putting it self forth 16 Neerer to us than actual or habitual sin 18 What it is 19 20 Why compared to death 21 Objections answered 22 Pelagians and Socinians opinion of it 28 Propagated ib. Is an internal and natural depravation of the whole man 32 Adams sin imputed to us is not all our Original sin ib. Of that opinion that Original sinne is vitium but not peccatum 33 Truly and properly a sin 34 Against the Law 35 How voluntary 39 Arminius and the Remonstrants disagree about Original sin 40 Arminius Remorstrants Zuinglius Papists Scotists and Socinians opinions of it 40 A sin a punishment and a cause of sin 41 Original inherent sin and Adams imputed sin are two distinct sins 43 Against the Law and how 44 45 Acknowledged in Old Testament times 48 Remonstrants confess it may be proved by two or three places of Scripture ib. Compared to a leprosie 51 Makes us leathsom to God as soon as born 52 Why called uncleanness ib. Should make us vile in our own eyes ib. Put a man by nature into worse condition than beasts 53 Makes us like the Devils ib. Pollutes our duties and makes us unfit and unworthy to draw nigh to God in duties 54 Makes us to be in the most immediate contrariety to God that can be ib. The denial of it charged upon Calvinists by the Lutherans 56 Acknowledged by the Rabbins and Fathers 62 Meditation thereon wherein advantagious 64 Not one universal thing of general influence but a particular thing in particular men 65 To be bewailed even by those that are regenerate ib. A two-fold Original sin 66 The different opinions of men about humiliation for it 67 In what sense it is to be repented of 68 Papists against sorrow for it 69 Several opinions concerning the pardon of it 67 68 69 Wherein repentance and the pardon of Original and actual sin do differ 70 It is an universal defilement 71 And an universal guilt ib. And the fountain and root of all actual sin ib. And the greatest sin 72 Inseparable from our natures while we live 73 Of the Scripture names of it 79 Not the essence or substance of the soul ib. Why called the old man 80 Improperly called a Law 83 Why called a Law 84 Instructs a man in all evil ib. Inclineth and provoketh to all evil ib. Compelleth to all evil 85 Why called the inherent or in-dwelling sin 90 How it dwels in the regenerate ib. Active and ever stirring 94 Is of an insinuating and contaminating nature 95 Depriveth both of power and will to do good 97 98 Inclines the heart to the creature 98 Resisteth all profers of grace 99 Weakens the principles of grace 100 Why called a treasure 102 An inexhausted stock 103 The cause of all pleasure in sin 104 Called a body and why 105 107 Shews it self outwardly in all our actions 107 Cannot be mortified without pain ib. A reality yet not a substance 108 Not a single sin but a lump of all evil ib. Inclineth only to carnal earthly and bodily things 109 Seth born in Original sinne 110 111 Deprives of more than external happiness and immortality against Socinians 117 Many Papists deny the positive part of it 136 Hath infected all men 137 Positive as well as privative 144 And the reasons thereof 145 Produceth positive sinfull actions 146 Sticks closer then vicious habits ib. Not a pestilential quality in the body 149 Is properly concupiscence or lust 157 And in what sense 159 And why so called 162 It is ignorant also ib. Defined 164 The whole man and the whole of man the subject thereof ib. Propagated and communicated to all Adams posterity 165 Truly known only by Scripture-light 167 How farre Heathens were ignorant thereof 168 The propagation thereof by the souls creation 199 Hath fill'd us with errour 211 And with curiosity 212 And vanity 213 And folly 214 Polluting the conscience how and wherein 221 Polluteth the memory 249 Polluteth the will 268 The affections 325 The imagination 348 The body of a man 392 And every one of mankind 387 Not the children of the most godly or the Virgin Mary excepted but only Christ 387. to 401 Original sin imputed the aggravations of it 405 Inherent the aggravation of it 407 It defiles all the parts of the soul is the root and cause of all actual sin is incurable taketh away all spiritual sense and feeling is habitual radicated in the soul 407. to 410 Objections against the hainousnesse of this sin Every one hath his proper Original sin 412 Vents it self betimes 415 Is alike in all 419 The immediate effects of Original sinne are mans propensity to sin 437. to 455 Is the cause of all other sine 455 Evil motions not consented unto and lusts consented unto 464 The combat between the flesh and spirit 474 Death 505 Eternal damnation 526 P Pray A Natural man cannot Pray 314 Pride Pride the cause of most heresies 218 Propagation Propagation of sin 397 Punishment The same thing may be a Punishment and a sin 41 R Redeemer THe necessity of a Redeemer demonstrates our thraldom to sin 319 Reformation A carnal mans Reformation is but the avoiding of one sin by another 318 Regenerate A sure difference between a Regenerate and unregenerate man 9 Regeneration Three sorts of mistaken Regeneration 10 Reliques Reliques of sin 474 Remember Whence is it that we Remember things when we would not 266 Righteousness Original Righteousness not given to Adam as a curb to the inferiour faculties 25 The difficulty of Rom. 5. 26 Original Righteousness the privation of it a sin 130 We were deprived of it by Adam 131 Vniversally lost 135 The losse of it the cause of all temporal losses ib. The privation of it doth necessarily inferre the presence of all sin in a subject susceptible 202 S Sacraments ONe end of the Sacraments 255 Sanctification Sanctification two fold 391 Satan All by nature in bondage to Satan 370 Scripture Scripture discovers us to our selves better then light of nature or Philosophy 161 168 The end of its being written 253 Self-knowing Self knowing a great duty and the hinderance of it 8 Sensless We are altogether Sensless as to any spiritual concernment 176 Sin A man naturally can do nothing but sin 15 16 The reason why all men do not commit all Sins though inclinable thereto 17 Men lie under a necessity of sinning yet this necessity is consistent with voluntarinesse 18 Sin delightfull to men 21 How Sin is natural to us 24 Christ only born without Sin and how 37. 390 Sin is what
sense voluntary 38 When a punishment how from God 42 One Sin may suddenly and formally deprive the subject of all grace yet it doth not so alwayes 58 Three sorts of Sin original habitual and actual 89 The first motions of the heart though never so involuntary and indeliberate are sinfull 94 All Sin is potentially and seminally in every mans heart 103 Every man would commit all Sin if not restrained 147 Sin rightly divided into original and actual 164 Whence it comes to passe that men commit known Sins 227 Why men chuse Sin rather than affliction 283 Every man lieth under a necessity of sinning 311 Sinners To be made a Sinner by Adam is more than to be made subject to death as a curse 31 And more than to be obnoxious to eternal wrath ib. All mad truly and properly Sinners by Adam 31 34 Every man Christ excepted 387 393 Socinians Wherein Socinians do make God the author of sin 66 Socinians and Papists blasphemy 114 Socinians deny both original sin and original righteousnesse 121 The rocks they stumble at ib. 122 Soul The arguments of those that hold the Souls traduction 197 Souls not by eduction or traduction but creation and introduction 191 Soul not generated 189 Souls created 194 Origen and Plato's opinion of the Soul 186 Confuted 187 The Soul cannot be neutral 130 Inclined to earthly objects 175 Souls not created before the bodies 187 Souls come not into the world pure and holy ib. Souls not perfect substances 200 The Soul infused by creating and created by infusing 21 How it comes to be infected 393 T Taylor A Character of Doctor J. Taylor 30 He is answered in these places 62 398 407 409 422 430 449 450 452 461 476 485 518 520 521 522 523 524 525 527 528 534 535 V Vanity OF the natural Vanity of our minds 213 Virgin Virgin Mary born in original sin 398 Uncleanness A three-fold Uncleanness corporal ceremonial and moral 50 Understanding Our Understandings very weak in respect of natural things 179 219 And uncapable of holy and spiritual things 212 Voluntariness Voluntariness not requisite to every sin 39 W Wickedness OF the extream Wickedness of the world 172 Will. Willeth No man Willeth sin and damnation as such 38 Adams Will how ours 39 The Nature of the Will 270 The difference between the Will and understanding 271 Will taken ambiguonsly 272 The Will the seat of obedience and disobedience 273 Good is the proper object of the Will. ib. The several operations of the Will 274 The difference between a wicked mans and a good mans doing what he allows not 88 Free Will how far we are deprived of it 116 The corruption of the Will in volition 275 And in efficacious Willing a thing 276 And in fruition 277 And in its act of intention 279 And in election 282 Whence it is that the Will is backward to to follow the understanding 284 The pollution of the Will in its act of consent 286 The first motions of the Will are evil ib. The pollution of the Will in its affections and properties 289 The degeneracy of the Will 293 The Will wholly perverted about the ultimate end ib. The Will naturally inclineth to be independent on God 295 The contumacy and refractoriness of the Will 297 The enmity and contrariety of the Will to Gods will 298 The rebellion of the Will against the light of the mind and the slavery of it to the sensitive part 299 The mutability and inconstancy of the Will 300 The bondage of the Will and of free will 302 No man before grace hath free will to good 305 The Will impotent to spiritual things 313 Free will how call'd in Scripture 307 Exalted by erroneous persons 308 The different effects of free will and free grace in mens lives 310 The difficulty of the question 311 Demonstrations against it ib. The definitions and descriptions of it 320 Doth not consist in an active indifferency to good or evil 321 FINIS TO THE READER A Digressive Epistle concerning Justification by Faith alone excluding the Conditionality of Works in that Act either begun or continued Tending to a friendly debate between a Reverend Learned and godly Brother and my self in that Point THe Doctrine of Original sinne and Justification by Faith alone are not altogether heterogeneous Yea Stapleton maketh the former the Mother and the latter the Daughter as they are avouched in the Protestant way I shall therefore here take the occasion to lay down severall Propositions that may conduce to the further discovery of the Contents of that amicable collation between my learned Brother and my self in this particular Not that my purpose is to vindicate those Arguments I have formerly in a Treatise of Righteousness produced against conditionality of Works in the Act of Justification from the Exceptions and Answers he hath pleased lately to give in unto them for I shall venture their credit and strength notwithstanding all that he hath said to the contrary with the intelligent and impartiall Readers till I am advised by the judicious and Learned there is a necessity of rescuing them from his assaults The generation of Divines which shall arise that knew Joseph who are aquainted with the Doctrine and Spirit of the first Reformers in this matter they will not take up their perswasions from one or two English Writers in this case It is true Aristole saith lib. 1. Rhetor. cap. 11. that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Contentions are pleasant and Conqest in them sweet But that is true in reference to the Philosophers and Oratours of old who were animals of glory and had a libidinous appetite after applause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Justin Martyr alludeth and the Oratours so insatiable after praise that rather then want it they would hire their Laudicenes to applaud them with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But in Theologicall contests we ought to have more mortified and sanctified hearts for when we have watched over our souls with the greatest diligence we can yet we have cause to pray that God would forgive us our Book-sins and preserve us from loosing the comfortable sense and enjoyment of Justification while we dispute about it Not therefore from a spirit of contention or opposition to my learned Brother whom I highly honour but love to that precious and antient Truth as I judge it to be which through infirmity is opposed by him happily inclined thereunto by his laudable Zeal against Antinomian dotages I proceed to lay down severall Propositions which when I have done my thoughts are to say Ite missa est The Reformers in their first Conflicts with the Popish Adversaries about Justification among the controversall Points therein judged this none of the least The Meanes or Manner how we are justified Indeed Justification being the heart as it were of Religion a little prick therein is dangerous It being the eye of Christianity a little
of men had committed some crimes for which they were adjudged to bodies as unto prisons and dungeons How comes it about that the rational part of a man which was made to be the guide and called by Philosophers the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it should follow after the inferiour lusts of the soul That this candle should be put not under a bushel but a dunghill That the elder should serve the younger That the tail should lead the head we are not carried out to what reason by the word of God commands but by what every sinfull affection doth suggest Those that say this rebellion between the mind and affections was from the Creation that God made man with this contrariety in himself must needs make God the author of sin but God saw every thing that he had made and it was exceeding good If then thou doubtest whether this universal pollution be upon thee look into thy self observe the rebellion the repugnancy there unto all light whether natural or supernatural and this will make thee readily confess it SECT VI. 6. THe incurvation of the soul unto all earthly and worldly objects this also makes it plain we came with original sin into the world The very making of the body different from other creatures who look downwards doth denote that therfore God created us that both soul and body should look upwards But is not every mans soul till rectified by grace bowed down to these earthly vanities no more able to soar up to Heaven than the worm can flie Now this is a plain sign of thy sinful apostate condition It is one of Hippocrates his rules That when a sick man catcheth inordinatly at the feathers of his pillow or at straws and any such light matter it is a sign of death and truly to see men by nature so immoderatly snatching and catching at these worldly things argue thou art a dying a perishing man unless Gods grace doth interpose As the Sun though with its beams it shine upon the earth yet it is not thereby defiled So man ought though he meddle in all outward affairs though he marry though he buy and sell and use this world yet he ought not in the least manner to soil and pollute his soul thereby But as the body deprived of the soul fals prostrate on the ground thus doth man deprived of Gods Image so that he is never able to get above the creatures but is vassaliz'd to them SECT VII THe work remaining is to give further reasons the Scripture being first laid as a foundation to demonstrate this truth That we are by nature originally defiled For though man be unwilling to be found thus a sinner and the entertaining of this truth seemeth to strike down all the hopes and comforts that a naturall man hath Believe this and all men as in respect of defect are so many damned men so that flesh and blood must needs deny cavill distinguish and turn it self into a thousand shapes ere it will acknowledge it yet look we into our selves diligently and compare our selves with the glass of Gods Word we cannot but say That all we have heard by the Ministers all that Sermons and Books tell us come not up to what we feel in our selves So that as the Apostle when he said This corruption shall put on incorruption he did cutem tangere did lay his hand upon his body as Tertullian thought so do thou strike upon thy thigh and smite upon thy breast and say within this body lieth a soul covered all over with sinne and damnable guilt To assure us more herein these further discoveries may be added First That spirituall death in sinne which we are all plunged into whereby we do become altogether senseless and stupid as to any spirituall concernement The death threatned upon Adam's trangression was spirituall as well as corporall and therefore Ephes 2. We are said to be dead in sinnes till Christ quicken us by his power Now this is a full discovery that we have lost Gods Image and all spiritual life otherwise why should not spirituall life be as quick active and moving towards spirituall objects as our naturall and corporall life is to corporall things Why is it that when any do threaten corporall death and outward misery we are afraid and will give all we have for this corporall life But when the Devil tempts and the world tempts so that we are in danger of loosing eternal life we have no trembling or horror taking hold upon us Nebuchadnezzar made a law that whosoever would not worship his Image should be cast into a fiery furnace and unless the three Worthies none refused so great a matter is the fear of a naturall death But hath not God threatned hell which is ten thousand times more dreadfull then that fiery fornace to every one that goeth on wickedly yet none trembleth because of this Is not this plain then that thou art a dead man in sinne Further concerning our corporall life how sollicitous are we about the preserving of it what carking and caring for meat and raiment what labour for the back and the belly Is not the greatest imployment in the world for these two things and all this is that our frail perishing life may yet be continued But do men naturally manifest any such thoughts and diligence about the meanes of a spirituall life The preaching of the Word the Ordinances these God hath appointed to be spirituall food by these our heavenly life is maintained these are the oyl to keep that lamp burning But do not all men by nature loath these are they not a burden to them do they ever pant and thirst or hunger after these things as men do for meat or drink now why is all this but because we have no spirituall life in us So that if you do consider the insensibleness and stupidity of every naturall man as to things of an heavenly aspect you need no more to perswade you that Gods Image is lost and we are dead in sinne When the body needeth food needeth raiment all is supplyed but so thy soul needeth Christ needeth grace and there is not the least thought to have a supply yea we are not only dead in sinne but have been a long while thus dead and if she said of Lazarus Joh. 11. 39. Lord by this time he stinketh for he hath been dead four dayes How much more may we say this in a spirituall sense of thee who it may be hast been dead fourty or fifty years Secondly This may be further inlarged by a consectary from the former will not this abundantly declare we are all over sinfull Because heavenly things are not such objects of delight and pleasure to us as carnall and worldly things are This is a palpable demonstration of our wretched pollution That we cannot feel any sweetness any pleasure or joy in those things which immediately concern God Adam in his state of integrity was like Jacob's ladder the foot whereof