And many Naturall men as a * I think he means Plinie Junior in that excellent 26. Epistle Lib. 7. See the note in the end of Ch. 36. Heathen confesseth being thus visited first begin seriously to think themselves but men subject to miserie and Mortalitie and that there is a God or Divine Power which is the Author and Giver of Life Others are prone to incurre danger of death by abundance of Wealth which the more it abounds the more it commonly increaseth the disease For Crescit amor nummi quantum ipsa pecunia Crescit As money or wealth increaseth so ordinarily the Love of it increaseth And these God oft times in mercie visiteth with losse of Goods or with some other Crosse or Affliction which either deprives them of opportunities or deterres from the means of increasing wealth And this is a part of the Cure or a preparation to it and is usually wrought by Contraries Others are prone to incurre hardnesse of heart by Pride and overprizing of themselves And these God oft times visits with Disgrace with Contempt or Scorn of Others Now the Rule is General That if the Parties thus visited or cured in Part by Contraries duly compare their Visitation with their sinnes ☜ which in Justice have procured it the Spirit gets great advantage of the Flesh and is more capable and sensible of the Motions or Impulsions of Gods Spirit Howbeit man himselfe and the Spirit of man in this first Cure or Part of Mortification is meerly Passive And it is wel if by often ruminating or Reflecting upon what hath befallen him by the Providence of God and by the sense or feeling of the impulsions of His Spirit he can content himself to be meerely Passive or a Towardly Patient in the next Degrees of his Mortification or Conversion which are stil wrought by the Spirit of God as by the Agent or efficient Cause 4. From these Observations the Resolution of the Former Question so farre as it concerns the Man unregenerate is Easie and perspicuous The Question was How this Mortification is wrought by the Spirit of God which is without us but alwayes assisting us How by the Spirit of Man or by the Spirit which is in Man though partaker of the Spirit of God The Answer is So much of the Cure as is wrought is wrought by the Spirit of God as Present to man but not in Man as by the only Agent or Efficient Cause For that is the Efficient which begins and continues the motion The same Cure is wrought by the Spirit which is in Man as by the Immediate and Formal Contrarie that is it is Formally wrought by the Spirit which is in Man as by an Agent per Emanationem as it it moved by the Spirit of God So the Native Cold is expelled out of the water by the Fire as by the only Agent or Efficient And yet the same Cold is immediatly and Formally expelled by the Heat which the fire produceth in the water as by a Formal and Incompatible Contrary The only End or immediate Effect at which every Natural Agent directly aymes is the Assimilation of the Subject whereon it works unto it selfe And this Assimilation is wrought by introducing the like qualitie in the Subject unto that by which the Agent or Efficient worketh As the first thing which the Fire seeks to Effect is to produce Heat in the Water but the heat once produced expels the Cold as immediately and as formally as the depression or pulling down one scale lifts up the other The manner how this Mortification is wrought in us by the Spirit of God is the very same The immediate and direct Effect at which it directly aymeth is the Transformation of our Spirit into the similitude of the Spirit of Christ And this consists in the Production or Creation of the Spirit of Grace The Spirit of Grace being produced in us Or our Spirit being touched by the Spirit of Christ as the Steel is by the Adamant Formally expels or abateth the Lust of the Flesh And when the Flesh is thus truly mortified by the Spirit that Sanctification of which the Apostle speakes 1 Thes 5. 23. is wrought in us 5. The first Part of this Cure as was said is wrought by Contraries that is by Freeing the Spirit of the unregenerate Man from the burden of the Flesh which overmasters it or inticeth the Soule to such Practises as the Spirit dislikes And from this Burthen of the Flesh the Spirit of God or his peculiar Providence doth free the Soule or Spirit of Man by laying some one kind or other of Bodily Affliction upon him which is more displeasing to his Nature then the Former Motions of the Flesh were pleasant But the Spirit of Man thus Freed in part from the Burthen of the Flesh wherein it lay smoothered or much oppressed cannot so perfect Mortification begun as Nature freed by Physick from oppressing humours digests the Reliques or remainder and by digesting them recovers health and strength What Advantage then doth accrue unto the Spirit of Man by weakening the Inclinations of the flesh Much every way For the Flesh being thus weakened the Spirit doth hereby become more Towardly Passive then it was before more apt to be moved by the Spirit of God and by such motions more capable of Spirituall Cure Every Motion of our Spirit by the Spirit of God doth abate or weaken the Inclinations of the Flesh and every such Abatement or Degree of weakening the Flesh is a Degree of Mortification 6. These First Degrees of Mortification are commonly wrought by interposed Fits or Motions of the Spirit of Man produced by the Spirit of God The men that are partakers of them have Libertie or Respite in the meane time to Reflect upon them and by thus reflecting upon them or by taking them into serious Consideration are enabled to avoid such External Occasions as strengthen the Inclinations of the flesh and to cut off their Food and Nutriment For albeit the Spirit of man be in the first Cure meerely Passive yet it is not so Passive as stocks and stones or other senselesse Creatures are It hath a true sense or feeling of the Motions put upon it or produced in it by the Spirit of God Nor is the Spirit of man sensible only of such Motions in such sort as Flyes or Gnats or other imperfect sensitive Creatures are of bodily motion that is sensible only for the present without any remembrance of what is past or consideration of the like to come Partly from the Memory of former Motions which have been put upon it Partly from the Representation or Consideration of the like apprehended by it as Possibly Future or approaching the Spirit of Man though it cannot move or expell the inclinations of the Flesh by way of proper Agencie or Efficiencie is yet able so to Countersway them as that they cannot exercise their intended Motions or accomplish their Attempts 7. This is the Apostles
that in exact Philosophical or Theological Calculation the Definitions of Sin given by S. Austin Calvin Martyr c. and Illyricus come in the Issue to One and the same reckoning yet to vulgar or ruder Apprehensions Illyricus his Definitions which for the most part are Causal but especially his Illustrations of them out of Scripture are far more dilucide and more powerful to work upon our affections and to encourage our spirits to undertake our Christian Warfare against the Old Man or Body of sin 5. Illyricus his Illustrations of sin more Consonant to Scripture then Calvins or Martyrs To what purpose were it to tell unletter'd or ordinary men that the Old Man or Body of Sin which we are to crucifie or mortifie is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inordinatio or depravatio unlesse we could perswade them that these were names of Giants and paint them with far more hands then Briareus with ten times more heads and mouthes then Cerberus or Geryon had and with more snakes instead of hairs upon their heads then Medusa according to Poetical pictures is emblazoned with or make some representation of them in more ugly and horrible shape then the Devil and Infernal Fiends are pictured by old Monks and Fryers in their Books and Legends Albeit even these be but silly representations of infernal Powers with whom even Christian Children after they come to the use of Reason or to wage war as O Ecolampadius somewhere excellently observes For every man to whom God hath given Grace or power to Reflect upon his Younger Years or to survey ☜ his own Heart His Affections or Inclinations either past or present may respectively find a more exquisite Live Image of Satan within himself then any Painter can make Though few or none in this Age be bodily possessed with a Legion of Devils yet most men either by Nature ill breeding or bad Company if they would rightly examin Themselves their Actions their Passions or projects by the Rule of Scripture might easily discover more then a Legion of unruly lewd or vain Thoughts of unhallowed Desires or vitious Habits such as are Malice Pride Envy Vncharitableness c. which daily plead or fight for the Soveraignty of the Law of Sin or Lusts of the flesh over the Dictates or motions of the Law of the Mind or Spirit And these are the true and most exquisite pictures or images of the Diabolical Nature And it was a wish or Prayer worthy to be written with the point of a Diamond as I have seen it written though in no sacred place Lord deliver me from my self His meaning which wrote it I take it was that he might be delivered from vitious or unruly Thoughts or Habits or other like Souldiers of Satan which every man before Mortification of the Flesh or Renovation by the Spirit doth suffer to be Lodged or Billeted in his Breast 6. For Conclusion to give the Intelligent Reader a more full Definition ☜ of Sin or of the Old Man which we are to Crucifie It is or contains all the works of the Flesh or Inclinations contrary to the Law or Spirit of God necessarily resulting from our Nature or substance since it was corrupted in our first Parents by the subtilty or power of Satan as the Efficient Cause still Labouring to obliterate the Image of God wherein we were created and to mould us into his own Likenesse to the end that he may withdraw us from the Service of God which is perfect Freedom and make us everlasting Slaves to himself and his Infernal Associates 7. Likely it is I should have Slighted Illyricus as much as Many Other of my Profession do upon a prejudicial Noise or Cry raised against Him At least I should not have taken that care and pains in perusing and examining His Opinions which ◠have done unlesse the Book or Treatise had been long ago commended to a Learned Friend of mine upon very high Termes by that Reverend and Great Divine Doctor Field then Dean of Gloucester SECT III. Of Servitude unto Sin Who be properly Servants unto It and by It unto Satan CHAP. XIV That even those Jews which did in part Believe in Christ were true Servants unto Sin 31. Then said Jesus to those Jews which Believed on him If ye continue in my Word then are ye my Disciples indeed 32. And ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you Free 33. They answered him We be Abrahams seed and were never in bondage to any man How saiest thou ye shall be made Free 1. AS We rightly gather that part of mans body to be most corrupt Unsound or Ulcerous which is most afraid of the Chirurgions hand or Instrument which must heal or cure it So these Jews may hence be truly convicted to have been as our Saviour censures them truly Servants unto sin or in S. Peters Expression Servants of Corruption in that they are so Touchie and Jealous of the very mention of being made Free Albeit our Saviour if you marke his processe doth handle them as warily and tenderly as any skilfull Chirurgion could do the most dangerous sores or ulcers of his most impatient Patients For he did not say If you continue in my Word then are ye my Disciples indeed and I will make you Free Although if he had thus said he had said the Truth For HEE it is and HEE alone that must make all the Sons of Adam Free A paraphrase upon John 8. ver 31. 32. 33. c. But as He had an Eagles Eye to discover their hidden sore and a Lyons Heart to unrip or Launce their sore unto the quick So he had likewise the Third property of an Excellent Chirurgion to wit a Ladyes hand to touch them gently and tenderly He tells them the Truth but in a placid and most inoffensive manner by soft and gentle degrees If ye continue in my word then are ye my Disciples indeed And ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you Free And who could be offended or unwilling to be made Free by the Truth but such as were desperately sick of Falshood and Corruption Such and so affected were these Jewes which did in part believe on our Saviour For they had no sooner heard him making mention of beeing made Free though by the Truth but they instantly returne this repinning and impatient Answer We be Abrahams Seed and were never in bondage to any man How sayest thou ye shall be made Free 2. Many Good Interpreters do question the Truth of their Answer as whether they were not at this very time in Bondage to the Romans And Tullie in his Oration Pro Flacco whose crime was aggravated for that he had alienated or detained some Gold which had been gathered towards the adorning or beautifying the Temple at Jerusalem to Elevate or lessen that conceit which many Romans had of the Nation of the Jewes as of a People better beloved of the
will recover without further medicine From this Analogie or proportion betwixt the diseases of the Soul and of the body it is I take it that we are not injoyned to mortifie the Spirit For the Apostle supposeth that the Flesh being mortified the Cure is wrought without any peculiar Mortification of the Spirit distinct from it Or rather He supposed and knew that the mortification of the Flesh could not be wrought without Renovation or Quickening of the Spirit For though it be true which some Moralists say Mens deprecatur ad optima that The Spirit or Conscience doth as it were intreat and counsel Malefactors themselves unto that which is Good Yet the Spirit and Conscience of the best men before they be renewed by the Spirit of God doth perform this work but Weakly Sleightly or Cowardly And the Reason why the Spirit or Conscience of men of good men in respect of others is so defective in this performance of its proper Function is only because it is overborn or kept under or in part corrupted by Carnal Affections or contrary inclinations of the Body or flesh which for this Reason must be mortified Therefore the Apostle when He exhorts to put off the Old Man which is corrupt through the deceitfull Lusts injoynes them to be renewed in the Spirit of their Mind Ephe. 4. 22. 23. 10. There is a Twofold Mortification The One consists in the weakening deading or benumming of Carnal Affections or Desires The Other is alwayes wrought and perfected by a Positive Purification of the Heart or Fountain whence the Affections flow A man may cease to be unchast or Lascivious by age or other Casual Impotencie So may a man cease to be drunk by some disease or distast Another may cease to be Ambitious or have his Ambitious desires benummed or weakened as being either bereaved of opportunities to raise his Fortunes or disenabled to follow his Suites or hopes of Preferment Mortification is then perfect when the Affection it self is as it were rescued from the Carnal Desires or Delights wherein it was involved and is won or trayned to the Service of the Spirit CHAP. XXXIV Containing the Manner and Order of The Spirits Working or of Our Working by The Spirit 1. THe Question remaines How these Two sorts of mortification are wrought by The Spirit or by Vs To this Disquisition concerning the Cure of the Soul there is a Question very Pertinent amongst the Physitians of the Body Whether the Cure of mens Souls be wrought by Contraries or Symbolicals One sort sayes Omne Remedium fit per Contrarium The Others say Omne Remedium fit per Simile The Difference betwixt them may be easily reconciled with the Distinction of the Infirmities and Diseases which are to be cured or of the Subject whereunto the said Medicine may be said to be Like Dislike or Contrarie 2. The Medicine may be sometimes Contrarie to the Matter of the Disease but Like unto the Nature opposed Sometimes again the Medicine may be Contrary to the Nature but Agreeable with the matter of the Disease wherewith Nature is opposed Some Diseases properly consist in meer weaknesse of Nature or Languishment of Spirit and these must be cured per Simile by administration of such Diet or Receipts as may immediatly comfort the Fountain of Life which consists in Calido Humido in moderate heat and moysture As for this reason Hot-waters to men in Swounds are fittest and warm Brothes or Cordials to men otherwise Feeble or deprived of heat and moisture Other Diseases consist either in Excessive Heat or abundance of Blood and these must be cured by the Contrarie as by opening a Veine or by cooling Diet or medicines Too much fulnesse of Body cannot be holpen but by abstinence or Evacuation However both sorts of Physitians agree that when all is done Nature is the best Physitian and that is the best Physick which setts Nature Free to exercise her own strength or Strengthens her to expell noysom humours which cloy or molest her But oft times it so falls out that Nature cannot be thus freed of bad Humors which are setled in the Body without administration of some thing that is Contrary unto Nature but Consorteth so well with the Humors which oppresse her that Nature being inforced to expell this In-mate or New-Comer doth with the same force expell a secret or domestick Enemie which had associated himself unto it As sometimes the Law cannot proceed against secret Enemies of the state untill they be drawn to associate or joyn themselves to other apparent forrain Enemies with whom they perish or are expelled their Native Countrey together with them Again although the Conflict be alwaies most eager and keen between Natures most Contrarie yet that which every Contrarie Agent doth in the first place aym at is not utterly to destroy its Oppoâ—ite but to make it like it self albeit the one often come to destroy the other by seeking to make it grow like it self The heat of the fire doth not directly aym or strike at the cold in the water but seekes to communicate its own heat unto it and the heat produced in the water doth immediatly and directly expell the cold and at length consume the substance of water 3. For better explicating the Manner how both kinds of Mortification are wrought by the Spirit Or how they are wrought by the Spirit of God how by the spirit of man or by the spirit which is in Man Or how by Contraries How by Similitude we are in the First place to consider Three Estates or Conditions of Men How the Cure of the Soul is wrought in severall sorts or Conditions of men The First of the Natural Man that is of him which as yet is in no sort partaker of the spirit of God which hath had no touch or feeling of its Operation in him or upon him The Second is of men which have been partakers of the Spirit but as we say in Fieri not in Facto Such as feele the motions of Gods Spirit whilest it moves them that is they are partakers of its Motions or touches but not of its Residence in them or of any Permanent Impression made upon them The Third Sort is of men made partakers of the Spirit in Habit that is as the Apostle speakes they have the Spirit dwelling in them and are enlivened and enquickened by it The manner how Mortification is wrought in these Three severall sorts or Conditions of men by the Spirit is not the same In the First sort the Cure is Commonly Begun by the Contrary but alwaies Finished by Assimilation God sometimes weakens the inclinations of the natural man against his wil without Consent of his own Spirit Some men are prone to offend or to surfet of the flesh unto death by the abundance of health or too Lively plight of Body and these God in mercie sometimes visits with grievous sicknesses for preventing the diseases which would otherwise grow upon them
Doctrine Gal. 5. 16 17. This I say then walke in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the Lust of the Flesh He doth not say ye shall not be opposed or assaulted by the lusts of the flesh for as in the next words is included the flesh will still attempt the Execution or Exercise of its Motion For the Flesh saith the Apostle Lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and these are contrary the one to the other So that ye cannot do things that ye would That is The Flesh can neither do the things that it intendeth to do nor the Spirit produce those Effects which it wisheth and much desireth no more then Heat can produce its proper Effects when it is overmatched in the same Subject with Cold or then Cold is able to produce the proper effects thereof whilest it is attempered or Counterswayed by Heat Now the Spirit whereof our Apostle speakes in this place is the Spirit of man at least the Spirit which is in man though in part renewed by the Spirit of God For as the Apostle speakes the Flesh and the Spirit here meant are Contrarie And it is the nature of Contraries to be in one and the same Subject And it is the true propertie of Contrarie Inclinations to move and sway upon one and the same Centre or Point of Rest or Dependence Otherwise how strong soever the one Contrary be it could not Countersway nor Counterpoyse the other The Point or Centre whereupon the inclinations of the Flesh and Spirit doe move or sway is the Soule which sometimes inclines more unto the Spirit sometimes more unto the Flesh or Carnall Affections The whole worke of Mortification is but a Putting off the Old man and Putting on the New The more the inclinations of the Flesh are weakened the more apt is the Spirit of Man to be moved impelled or strengthened by the spirit of God And the more apt it is to be moved by the Spirit of God the more easily and Readily will the inclination of the Flesh or Old man be weakened by it So that there is a Continuall Reciprocation betwixt the weakening of the Flesh and the strengthening or renewing of the Spirit In every severall Act or motion of Gods Spirit by which the Spirit in man is renewed or quickened the Spirit of man thus assisted by the Spirit of God gets a Double Advantage of the flesh First it directly weakens the inclinations of the Flesh or old man and by weakening them gains further possession or interest in the Affections wherein the lusts or desires of the flesh were seated Secondly The Spirit of man being revived and quickned by the Spirit of God doth not only Countersway or curbe the Flesh but withall doth Purifie the Soul or the Fountain of the Affections in the next Conflicts useth the Service of the Soule and inferiour Affections to Conquer and expell the Remainder of Carnal desires or Concupiscence or at least doth keep them under that they cannot make head or open rebellion as it were to depose the Spirit of its Soveraigntie after once it hath gotten it Specially if men which have proceeded thus farre in this Conflict be warie and vigilant alwayes remembring that their Greatest strength consists in imploring the assistance of the Spirit of God in waiting His Approach and attending His Motions But let no man think he hath got the victorie over the Flesh or hath performed this Dutie of Mortification as he ought until the Desires or Inclinations of the Flesh be Mortified by the vivification or quickening of the Affections wherein they were seated or until the Spirit Soul of man renevved as hath been said by the Spirit of God have vvon the Soul and Affections unto their side or part CHAP. XXXV Wherein the Accomplishment of Mortification or of Conversion unto God doth properly Consist 1. AFter this Preparative to Mortification thus begun by the Spirit of God or by his Peculiar Providence the whole Cure consists in the Assimilation or Transformation of our Spirit into the similitude or Likenesse of the Spirit of God Some Reliques of the Image of God in man which are not in Divells and this is wrought by the Renewing of Gods Image in us Some Reliques there be of Gods Image in the natural man the like whereof are not in Divells and these are seated in The Spirit or Synteresis Howbeit these in themselves are no better then dead stocks or rootes untill they be revived by the Spirit of God and secret Influence of his Graces but so renewed they naturally diffuse the influence of life into the stemmes or branches The soul and body of the whole man are so quickened by them as the branches or stemmes in the spring time revive by the return of sap from the root Both are quickned and revived by the Spirit of God and by the sweet disposition of his Providence as trees as herbs grasse and other Vegetables are by the Sun by the sweet influence of Heaven and by the moystned Earth whereby the rootes are immediatly cherished 2. This Vivification or renewing of the Spirit in man is immediatly wrought Per Simile As our Animal or Vital Spirits in Swounds are revived by the Spirit of wine or other comfortable water First The Reliques of Gods Image or implanted Rules of Conscience have more immediate Similitude with the Spirit of God or of Christ than the inferior Faculties of the Soul or body have And yet these Reliques of Gods Image or Rules of Conscience being true parts or native branches of the Spirit of man symbolize better with the soul and body of man then this Spirit of God which worketh this Mortification doth So that albeit the Spirit of God or his preventing Grace doth alwayes begin this Mortification without any operation or Co-Agencie of the Spirit of man And albeit the Spirit of man be a Meer Passive in all the Motions by which it self is renewed and quicken'd Yet after it be not only moved but thus touched and quickened by the Spirit of God Actus agit it works not only by Countersway or Renitencie but it diffuseth the influence of Life and Grace which it self receiveth entirely from the Spirit of God throughout the inferiour Faculties of the Soul It takes the place or room of so much of the Lusts of the flesh as it Expells And as well in the Expulsion of the Lusts of the Flesh as in taking possession of the Body wherein they were seated it useth the Soul as the Medium deferens as the Mean at least for communicating life to the Flesh or Body And by this Diffusion of the Spirit of Life or influence of Grace throughout the Faculties or Affections of the Soul the second part or Accomplishment of Mortification is wrought which as was said before consisteth in the Rescuing or winning of the natural Affections from the Flesh unto the Spirit 3. For better understanding the manner how this Accomplishment of