present themselves Even he that hath no power to resist the least temptation that offers it self nor Freedom of Will to refuse the greatest Evil and chuse the least when both are actually proffered may in the Cessation of Actual Temptations Reflect upon his former Acts and take a survey of his life past especially if he be thereto occasioned or perswaded by a discreet Admonitor one that will not affright him with the Marks of Reprobation The first Branch of Freedom or rather the very root of Free-Will in every Reasonable Creature is seated in this Power of Reflexion upon its own Acts. This is the First Point or Property wherein Reason doth exceed Sense Now he that hath but this Branch of Freedom to Calculate his former Acts hath with it a Power to Charge his Soul with the heavy burthen of his sins The Conscience will alwayes be ready in quiet thoughts to accuse the Flesh and urge the Soul to bear Testimony against it And the soul or Conscience once brought to loath or dislike some special sins is thereby made more Free apt to bewail all other sins whatsoever whether Actual or Original Unlesse David had been throughly stung with the Conscience of murther or Adultery that sweet Confession had never found such perfect vent as it did Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me Psal 51. 5. Every Creature on whom the Creator hath bestowed any sense or feeling of pain or pleasure hath Power to imploy some motive Faculty for avoiding things grievous or hurtful or for attaining things pleasant and useful for bettering their present Estate And if man have any sense or feeling of his heavy burthen he cannot but in some sort or other desire to be released from it Upon this Principle is that Exhortation of our Saviour Grounded Come unto me all ye that Labour and are heavy Laden and I will ease you Mat. 11. 28. 16. So then albeit there be a true Freedom of Will in all the sons of Adam which are not utterly or finally forsaken of God yet is not this Freedom the same in all neither in respect of its Objects or Acts nor in respect of its Degrees or Strength Some have a Competent Measure of Liberty to avoid Occasions or external Motives to known sins but either no portion of like Liberty or a very Little One to resist such temptations to foul sins as come upon them unexpectedly Others have a Competent Measure of like Freedom to resist Temptations or Opportunities to grosse sins but little or none at all to bewaile their natural misery or to beat down their inbred Pride by Contemplation of Sin Original or by Reflecting upon sins of Omission or Positive Acts of ordinary Transgression Others again which had deprived themselves of all Freedom for avoiding Occasions or resisting Temptations to certain sins have a Larger measure of Freedom then others have to be humbled under Gods Mighty Hand which is in Order the First and by disposition of the Divine Providence the most Available means for attaining Mortification which must be the Subject of the next Discourse wherein I must follow my Method proposed to wit To discusse the true meaning of those Scriptures wherein the Difficulties or Questions Concerning this Duty are properly seated To begin with that of our Apostle Rom 8. 12. SECT V. Of the Great Duty of Mortification And of the Vse of Free-Will for performing it CHAP. XXVIII Of the General Contents which concern the Duty of Mortification And which be the Special Works of the Flesh we are to Mortifie ROM Chap. 8. Vers 11. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you Vers 12. Therefore Brethren we are Debters not to the Flesh to live after the Flesh Vers 13. For if ye Live after the Flesh ye shall dye but if ye through the spirit do Mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live 1. A brief Paraphrase upon Rom. 8. 12 c. THis Portion of Scripture is more fit to ground the Connexion of what goeth before or cometh after it from the beginning of this 8 th Chapter unto the end then to receive any Bounds or Limitation which it is capable of from any Reference to other Passages either for the plain and full Grammatical or for the Moral and Theological Sense The Grammatical Construction of the 12 th verse though for so much as some of our Modern Translations suggest unto us it afford but One Proposition and that a Negative We are debters not to the flesh yet according to the Original Character or full Construction it contains Two Emphatical Propositions the One Affirmative the Other Negative The Affirmative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Debters we are and Debters for a greater Sum then all Mankinds either Real or Personal Estates in this world are able to discharge The Negative Debters we are in no wise either in whole or part unto the Flesh unto which we owe nothing besides Revenge or Mortification of It that is by delivering it up Captive to the Spirit unto whom we owe more then our temporal Estate here on Earth our very Souls The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or full Declaration of both Propositions follows vers 13. For if ye live after the flesh ye shall die this is the unsupportable debt which the flesh hath brought and seeks to bring upon us But if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall Live for ever This is a greater Boon then we can deserve as much as we can desire more then we can make any part of requital for it 2. For stating Cases of Conscience not for dealing betwixt man and man but but betwixt the Judge of Quick and Dead and our own Souls I know no portion of Scripture whether in the Old or New Testament of better or more frequent Use then This 13 th verse Let such as are so minded maintain Tenents already set on Foot or multiply Questions to the worlds End about the Certainty of their Personal Estate in Grace or Final Salvation or bestow their Marks and Tokens whether of Absolute Election or Reprobation as they please yet unto honest hearted Christians or such as desire so to be there can be no Sign or token of Salvation either Firmer in its self or more Certain to them then the right Computation of their constant Progresse in the Mortifying of the Flesh by the Spirit The First Question or Examination of our Progresse in this Duty is to know What be the deeds of the Flesh or Body which we are to Mortifie And How far we are to mortifie them The Second How the flesh is Mortified by us How by the Spirit The Third which happily will intermingle it self here and there with the first and second Quaeries is The Limitation of these Two Propositions
If ye live after the flesh ye shall die But if ye through the spirit do Mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live 3. Touching the First Point What be the deeds of the Flesh or Body which we are to Mortifie They are set down by our Apostle Gal. 5. 19 20 21. Now the works of the Flesh are manifest which are these Adultery Fornication Vncleanness Lasciviousness Idolatry Witchcraft Hatred Variance Emulations Wrath Strife Seditions Heresies Envyings Murders Drunkenness Revellings and such like This word Flesh sometimes signifies our Bodily substance sometimes our Corrupted Nature It shall suffice by the way to note in a word that the Flesh or Body is sometimes taken for the Fleshly Nature or Bodily Substance it self Sometimes for the Corruption of the Flesh or of Nature corrupted And in this Later Sense it is to be taken in This Place 4. That we may the better understand this Duty of Mortification by Sounding the Bottom of it we are in the first place to take it into serious Consideration That the words by which our Apostle here expresseth the Works or Deeds of the Flesh are not to be measured according to that Carnal Conceit or Grosse Sense which the Flesh it self alwayes partial for it self is ready to suggest but according to the Scale of the Sanctuary When He saith Adultery Fornication c. are the works of the Flesh we must not understand Only those Acts of Adultery or Fornication which come under the Cognizance or Censure of Courts Civil or Ecclesiastick not the Fruits or Blossomes But The very First Seeds of these Sins all Inclinations of the Flesh or Secret desires of the heart of this Kind This Art or Method of measuring these words or the sins comprehended under them our Saviour hath taught us Mat. 5. 27 28. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time thou shalt not Commit Adultery But I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a Woman to Lust after her hath committed Adultery with her already in his Heart When he reckons Lasciviiousness amongst the works of the Flesh we must not restrain this word to Actual Lasciviousness or Lascivousnesse in attempt We are to extend it to every Degree of this sin in Word or Thought to every Motion of the Tongue of our Heart or Senses by which either the Ears or Senses of others or our own Souls or Consciences may be polluted When he saith Idolatry is a work of the Flesh we must not take Idolatry only for the Visible or External Act of Adoration profered either to Creatures or their Images It comprehends All inordinate Affection of the heart to any Creature For to love Money more then God then our Neighbours or more then Equity or just dealing is a Branch of the Idolatry here mentioned by our Apostle For so he interprets himself Eph. 5. 5. For this ye know that no whoremonger nor unclean person nor Covetous man who is an Idolater hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God Again when he reckons Murther amongst the Works of the Flesh We must not measure This Monster only by such Pictures of it as are drawn in Bloud For even Hatred Wrath Strife and Sedition are true Lineaments or live Limbs of this Gyant Ye have heard saith our Saviour it was said by them of Old Time thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the Judgment But I say unto you That whosever is angry with his Brother without a cause shall be in danger of the Judgment And whosoever shall say to his Brother Racha shall be in danger of the Councel But whosoever shall say Thou Fool shall be in danger of Hell fire Mat. 5. 21 22. Lastly we are not to take the works of the Flesh albeit we take them in the grossest sense for those Acts Habits or Accustomances only which are seated in the Flesh or Bodily part of man but for those Acts or Inclinations which are accomplished in the Operations or Exercises of the Reasonable Soul For if we mark the Apostles Words not Witchcraft and Idolatry only which are usually accomplished in some External or Bodily Act but even Heresie it self is expresly mentioned amongst the works of the Flesh and yet is Heresie the proper Off-spring of the supreme Faculty of the Humane Soul that is of the Intellective Faculty or Understanding The most dangerous Hereticks have been alwayes men of great understanding and for wit acute and subtile Nor are we to restrain this word Heresie to profest Opinions or Errors expressedly maintained or subscribed unto We are to extend the Apostles meaning unto the First Seeds or Roots of this sin as to Emulation to Affectation of applause to Secret pride of heart or hearty desire of Vain Glory or Excelling others These are the General Seeds of the most Grosse Sins here mentioned And therefore our Apostle in the Conclusion of this 5 th Chapter to the Galatians strikes at the very Root Let us not be desirous of vain glory provoking one another envying one another If we harbour these or the like desires though secretly in our breasts they will as Opportunity serves betray us to the Grossest Sins here mentioned as to Murther to Heresie or the like Now not of these grossest sins only as Murther Adultery Heresie or Idolatry but of their First Seeds or Roots our Apostle fore-warnes these Galatians as he had done in times past that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Gal. 5. 21. And who then shall Inherit this Kingdom For who is he that is not subject to some one or other of these Mis-demeanours or perverse Inclinations who is he that doth not either consent to unlawful Lust or entertain desires of Applause or of Excelling others or doth not often either Envy or Emulate his Equals or Betters True it is that no man can say His Heart is Clean in respect of these Acts or inclinations unto them Shall no man therefore seeing no man is altogether Free from these Enter into the Kingdom of Heaven God forbid It is one thing to Do such things according to the ordinary Use and construction of this Phrase in our vulgar Language another thing to be a Doer of Them or to make these Misdoings the chiefest of our Doings which is the meaning of the Holy Ghost in this and like Sayings So when it is said He that doth sin is the Servant of sin the meaning is He that is a Doer of that which is sinful is the servant of sin But so is not every one that sinneth for there is no man which sinneth not It is well observed by Maldonate the Jesuite that this word to Do in the Hebrew Dialect includes not the present Act or Operation only but the Habit or Custome of Doing There is no man which sometimes Doth not some of the works here mentioned by our Apostle And yet there is No Man which hath Mortified the
extinguished before they cannot revive themselves Or if children by Baptism were restored unto that State of Innocency which our Parents once had this Innocency could not be lost without some Actual Transgression like unto that transgression by which our First Parents lost their Innocency or Justice Original Actually to transgresse after the similitude of Adam Infants whilest Infants cannot For such Transgression consists in a sinister choice of the Will or in the ill use of Reason And all ill Use of the Will or understanding presupposeth an Use of Reason which cannot be in Infants Again there is no Necessity that all Children should actually transgresse when they first come to the use of Reason if before that time they had been Freed from all Original Corruption or Reliques of the Old Man by Baptism For to lay a Necessity of sinning actually upon any that had been Freed from all Original sin or restored to the state of Innocency which Adam had were to make God the Author of such Actual Sin Adam himself did not actually sin upon any Necessity but Voluntarily and Freely If the First Sin had not been an Actual sin or if that Actual sin had been committed upon Necessity not Adam but God had been the Author of it Certain then it is that This Duty of Mortification is necessary in respect of ALL without any respect of Persons ☜ Every one at their first Arrival unto the Use of Reason or at their Passage out of Infancy into Youth are under This Yoke which is no Evangelical Counsel but a Peremptory Precept And if This Duty necessarily concern ALL at that time ALL must of necessity have Original sin or some Reliques of the Old man in them yea such strong Reliques as will impell them to some Actual Sin or other or to some transgression of some of Gods Commandments when they come unto the Use of Reason Otherwise This Duty or precept could not Vniversally concern ALL without Exception For by the Contrary Doctrine some at least when they first come to the Use of Reason should have no Deeds of the Flesh which they were bound to Mortifie Most of the Romans unto whom our Apostle here writes had been Baptized after they had come to years of discretion And Baptism without all question had been as Effectual in them as it hath been in any other since yet our Apostle supposeth some Deeds of the Flesh to be in ALL of them Even in such as had lateliest been washed in the Laver of Regeneration which were to be Mortified in them So that Baptism is rather a Sacramental Consecration of us to undertake this Flight with the works of our Flesh or corruption of our nature then an utter Extinction or absolute drowning of these Enemies 5. Another necessary Corollary or Consequence of this Doctrine there is not usually observed by Modern Controversors and it is This That the same measure of Regeneration which sufficeth Children or Infants dying before they come to the use of Reason will not suffice such as attain to the use of Reason or years of discretion For if it did or could they might be saved as Infants are without performance of this Duty of Mortification One of these Two must necessarily be granted as Either that Children or Infants are not so thorowly sanctified or regenerated as is necessary to Salvation before the hour of their death which no man to my remembrance hath taught Or else he that affirms them to be truly regenerated or sanctified in their Infancy must yield to us in This That such Children or Infants as have been formerly regenerated in a measure sufficient to their Salvation out-grow this measure of Regeneration or Sanctification after they come to the use of Reason or years of discretion as they do their apparel or clothes which were fit for them whilest they were Infants And no question but the Old Man after we come to the use of Reason grows stronger and stronger in all of us untill we abate his strength and Mortifie his members by the Spirit Wherefore Leaving Children or infants unto the Spirit of God alone who doth Regenerate them by Baptism and preserve them in the State of Grace without our Ministery of Preaching This Precept is a Precept of Working Faith The Duty here injoyned is a Duty Necessary unto All that are of years fit to be instructed or of Capacity to understand the Scripture or Rule of Faith expounded to them Let us then take his words into a Second Consideration If ye live after the flesh Of the Nature of the Fight with our own Bodies in General ye shall die He saith not If ye have lived after the flesh ye shall die for this had been rather a certain Prognostick of death then any medicinal Advice or Prescript unto his Patients One man there was and no more who was First Good and afterwards Bad this was the First Adam Another there is and no more who was Never Bad alwayes Good this is the Second Adam Christ Jesus blessed for ever Of all the rest that is most true which a Father hath Nemo unquam bonus qui non antè fuit malus No son of Adam ever proved Good who was not sometimes Bad. The Apostles Saying is in this Case true First is that which is natural then that which is spiritual We Even the Elect themselves were the sons of Adam before they were the Sons of God in Christ All or most have lived after the Flesh before they come to live after the Spirit Thus much our Apostles Second Proposition will infer If ye though the spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall Live Inasmuch as Mortification of the Flesh is necessary to All it is presupposed that All have a Flesh which may be Mortified or a Life of the flesh seeing nothing can be Mortified but that which hath Life in it 6. Again Our Apostle saith not If the Deeds of the Flesh be Mortified in you by the Spirit ye shall Live For so we might happily have dreamed of a Mortification already wrought in us or to be wrought in us without our Consent or Endeavours as well whilest we are asleep as whilest we are awaking Or we might conceive it to have been so wrought by the Spirit in our Cradles as we might presume to passe the time of our youth in play and pastime Or we might hope to have it so fully accomplished by the same Spirit alone in our youth or maturity as we might spend our Old Age in sleep without setting a Careful Watch over our Works or thoughts His words if we observe them are thus If ye through the Spirit do Mortifie the Deeds of the Flesh ye shall Live So then we see The Flesh must be Mortified and Mortified it must be By Vs Every man must Mortifie his own Flesh although he cannot Mortifie it but through the Spirit It is The Spirit alone which giveth Victory yet this doth not Priviledge us from
Work then our Assumption or minor Proposition is Good and the Conclusion will follow if not Certitudine Fidei by the Certainty or Full Assurance of Faith yet by Certainâ—y more then Moral by an Assurance of Hope But if we Mortifie the Deeds of the Body only Now and Then or by Fits Or if we intend this work but slightly or as it were upon the By Then our former Assumption I do mortifie the deeds of the Body is Impertinent and will sooner bring forth Presumption then any Assurance of Hope or Moral Certainty of our Estate in Grace For Conclusion of this Point Let every one of us take heed not to measure our Hopes of Regeneration or Degrees of Mortification by our readinesse or desire to hear the Word Preached until we have examined our selves Whether This Desire in us be a Desire of the Spirit or of the Flesh Or Whether it proceed from True Religion or from Humour or Fashion of the place Certainly if this desire in many were from the spirit or from true Religion it would be more Uniform and like it self in the Practise They would be as ready at least in some good Measure or Proportion to frequent Publick Prayers as to go often unto Publick Sermons For the Faith of Christ can be had no more With Respect of Christian Duties than With Respect or Persons And the same Authoritie whether Divine or Humane or Ecclesiastick from it derived which injoynes us to hear The Word Preached doth more strictly injoyn us to frequent Publick Prayers specially in seasons wherein we are specially required by Authoritie to thank God for our manifold deliverances from the Messengers of his wrath But from what cause soever our desire of hearing the word Preached proceedeth Our backwardness in frequenting publick Prayers without all doubt ariseth from some workes of the Flesh or Reliques of the Old man which must be Crucified 3. They that are Christs saith our Apostle Gal. 5. 2â— have crucified the flesh with the affections and Lusts Take we heed that none of us argue thus I am Christs therefore I have crucified the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts The Apostles meaning is that the safest way for us to know whether we be Christs or no is from this Experiment within our selves if We have crucified the flesh with the affections and Lusts But what doth he mean when he saith The Affections and lusts must be Crucified Doth he require an vtter Extinction or Total Mortification or absolute death of all carnal Affections and Passions before we can be assured that we are Christs No. Such a Total Mortification cannot be hoped for in this Life We are said to be Crucified to the world or to have the Flesh with the Affections Crucified in us First By Profession or Consecration So all that are Baptized into Christ Jesus are said to be Dead to Sin yea to be Buried with him by Baptisme Rom 6. 2. 4. Secondly we are said to be Crucified unto the world or to be Mortified to the Flesh not by Profession only or Resolution but by Practice and this Crucifying or Mortification admits of many Degrees 4. Mortification and Crucifying Termes not â—â—divisible but of Large Extent Crucifying taken in its proper Sense was a most Lingring kind of Death or Torture And men were said to be crucified from the very First Moment of their nayling to the Cross albeit the conflicts betwixt life and death were many and strong for divers houres after Now it is not to be expected that any of us will be as eager or violent in Crucifying our own Flesh as the Jewes were in crucifying our Saviour Seing the Partie to be crucifyed in us is Part of Our Selves we cannot but use it more mildly and gently then the Romans did such as they crucified for Malefactors whom they would not so violently have handled unlesse they had first adjudged them for no members or but for rotten and putrified members of their Body Civil The lesse violent the conflict is between the Spirit and the Flesh or between the Old Man and the New the longer will the Old man live in us the more frequent and sensible his motions will be And finally as he was born with us so he will die with us hardly before us Yet may we be truely said to have Crucified the Old-Man with the Affections and lusts from the verie First Time wherein we begun to nayl them to the Cross of Christ if so we still watch them and seek to quell their Motions by the Spirit They are dayly crucified by Gods Children and yet are daily reviving 5. As often as we receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist with due Preparation Every remembrance or Meditation of Christs Death upon the Cross if it be wrought or managed by the spirit will be as the fastning of A New Nayl into the Old Man or Body of Sin which we carry about with us We cannot think of Christs Death or of the Causes of his Crucifying aright but every thought will be a degree of weakening or enfeebling the Old-Man whom we must by this and the like meanes dayly weaken otherwise he will be our Destruction CHAP. XXXI How the Flesh is Mortified by Vs How by the Spirit This was the Second General Propounded Chapt. 28. And the parts of This Inquiry be Three First In what Sense WE whom this Duty concerns can be said to Mortifie the Deeds of the Body The Second By what Spirit we are to Mortifie them By the Spirit of God by our own Spirit or by Both The Third The Manner and Order of The Spirits Working or of our Working by the Spirit 1. Seeing to Mortifie implies an Action How Man can Mortifie his Flesh THe First Point is most Material and of most use in respect of Modern Controversors If Mortification be as I think none upon better Consideration will deny a True Part of our Conversion How can We be said to Mortifie the Body or Flesh unlesse we may be said to Convert Our Selves which is a Doctrine that Few will like of as being prejudiced by Contrary Tenents much imbraced by men deservedly well approved of by all or most Reformed Churches For Resolution of this Doubt we are in the First place to consider That Regeneration Conversion or Mortification are Termes in their proper Nature Indefinite and so used by the Holy Ghost The Actions or Qualifications comprehended especially under Conversion and Mortification are not of one Rank There is a Conversion Spiritual and a †Conversion or Mortification Spiritual and Moral See the Note at the end of this Section or of Chap. 36. Conversion only Moral There is a Mortification likewise either meerly †Conversion or Mortification Spiritual and Moral See the Note at the end of this Section or of Chap. 36. Moral or truly Spiritual The matter signified or imported by these words Mortification and Conversion whether Moral or Spiritual is not Indivisible Whence it is that we often
Salvation as God is readie to work in them and for them And because God never failes to work salvation in them and for them that are diligent in seeking it or affraid to neglect it therefore they are said to Work out their own Salvation not properly or Formally but Consecutivè that is Salvation is the Necessary Consequent of their working or doth necessarily follow upon their work Not by any force or Efficacie of their Work or by any natural Connexion but meerely by Gods Appointment or Decree The very same phrase in the Original our Saviour useth unto the people John 6. 27. Which words can beare no other Construction then that which we have made of St. Pauls words Philip. 2. 12. no other Interpretation then our English hath already made Labour not for the meat which perisheth but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life And so the Vulgar Latin doth not render them verbatim Operamini Cibum but Operamini Cibo Not Work that meat but work for that meat For if That Meat which endureth to eternal Life must be given them by the Son of God if This Meat be the very Bodie and Blood of the Son of God it cannot be the proper Effect of any mans work or any Merit of man but the End or consequent of our Labours or endeavours and yet we are said to work This Meat in the same sense that we are said to work our Salvation viz. Consecutivè because God doth infallibly make us partakers of it if we diligently seek after it or labour for it 7. By the right Use of this Distinction we may reconcile many places of Holy Scripture which seem repugnant one to another as Likewise qualifie many Speeches whether of the Fathers or some Good Modern Writers which otherwise would seem harsh and offensive Who can say saith Solomon Prov. 20. 9. I have made my heart clean This Interrogation is in all mens judgement Equivalent to this Universal Negative No man can say I have made my heart clean Howbeit the Psalmist Psal 73. 13. saith Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain There is no Contradiction between this Psalmists Particular Affirmative I have cleansed my heart and Solomons Universal Negative No man can say I have cleansed my heart Solomon speakes of the Internal Purification which is the proper Effect and sole work of Gods Spirit The Psalmist speakes of his own Labours or Endeavours that his heart might be thus purified by the spirit of God He then did cleanse his heart Consecutivè non Formaliter Every one Saith St. John that hath this hope in him purifies himself as he is pure 1. Joh. 3. 3. This place perhaps Some will say is meant of men Regenerate only seeing they only have that hope whereof the Apostle here speakes Many other such places of scripture there be in which we are said and sometime Commanded to Purifie our Selves as Jam. 4. 8. Cleanse your hands ye Sinners and purifie your hearts ye double minded This place cannot be meant of men truely regenerate For even Sinners and double minded men such as men regenerate are not are commanded to cleanse their hands and to purifie their hearts Many other places likewise there be wherein this purifying of the heart is wholly ascribed unto God God saith St. Paul Act. 15. 9. put no difference betwixt us and them purifying their hearts by Faith Not this Purification only But all other Good Works are said to be wrought by God as Esay 26. 12. Lord thou wilt ordaine peace for us for thou also hast wrought all our workes in us or for us And our Saviour saith John 15. ver 5. Without me ye can do nothing Both parts of our former Distinction are included in that of St. Paul 2. Tim. 2. 21. If any man purge himself from these he shall be a Vessel unto honour Sanctified and meet for the Masters Vse and prepared unto every good work His speech is if we mark it He shall be made a Vessell unto honour if he purge himself He doth not say He shall be enabled to make himself a Vessell of Honour Nor doth he in proprietie of speech or as we say Formally or Efficiently purge himself But in that he doth those things whereupon this Purification by Gods Spirit doth immediately follow Man is said to purge himself And so are we in this place of St. Paul Rom 8. said to mortifie the deeds of the bodie by the Spirit when we do those things whereupon this Mortification doth immediately insue not by any Merit or Causalitie of our works but by Gods meere Grace by the Councel of his Holy irresistible Will by the Determination of his Eternal Decree by which it hath pleased him to apoint The One as a Necessarie Consequent of The Other to witt Spiritual Mortification or life it self as the Issue of our endeavours to Mortifie the Flesh This kind of Speech is usual not in Scripture only but in other Good Writers and in our Common Dialect So Tully tells us of a Romane Orator who for want of skill in Civill Law Petijt revera ut causa caderet made a Motion that he might Loose his Cause This Motion he did not make directly or Formally His meaning is that if his Motion had been granted he must by Necessary Consequent have lost his Cause Thus when we see a man Look Old whom we know to be much younger then our selves we usually say You make me an Old Man Not hereby meaning that he hath brought Old-Age or Gray Haires upon us by any trouble or vexation but that he who is much younger then we being apparently Old we must by Consequence be Old So that he makes us Old not Efficiently but only by Consequent truely argues us to be Old According to this Analogie of Speech by which He is said to make us Old whose Age doth truely argue us to be Old is that Prophesie litterally mean◠of Jeremiah which was punctually or formally fulfilled in God or his Christ Jer. 1. 10. See I have this day set thee over the Nations and over the Kingdomes to root out and to Pull down and to destroy and to throw down to build and to plant Jeremiah did never Levie an Armie or incite any people to take Armes for the Deposition of their present Governour or for the Alteration of any state yet in as much as He foretold the Extirpation of Some Kingdomes and the Erection or Plantation of Others And in as much as what he foretold did certainly come to passe he is said to have Done that which did Follow upon his Predictions though many yeares after his death And in the same Sense we are said to Mortifie the Flesh to cleanse our Hearts to work out our Salvation yea to make our Election sure when we do those things whereupon our Purification or Mortification shall be wrought though many yeares hence and alwaies wrought by the Omnipotent Power of that Decree by which those Kingdomes
earth tanquam ex Termino positivo as of the Terme or Object unto which his Creation of them had Reference that is He did not decree to make them untill the earth was made Or he did not determine to make them but out of the Earth not of the Water or other Element as he made the Fishes of the water not of the earth So that grass was made of the earth and fishes of the Sea not as of any Cause concurrent to their making or production but tanquam ex Termino aut Objecto praeviso The Whales and great fishes which God created on the fift day were not from the time of their Creation so much as a material Cause of the Fry or Spawn which proceeded from them untill God bestowed his Blessing upon them saying Be fruitfull and multiply and fill the waters in the seas The Effect of this Blessing was a true and proper Creation For hereby they became in their kinds Efficient and material Causes And from this Blessing they received the first Possibilitie of Propagation or continuance of their kind by succession or generation of the like Admitt then our Mortification as well as our Vivification is a work of Creation God Createth life in Baptized Infants And this production of life spiritual in them is like unto the Creation of the heaven and Earth or of the First Masse that is not ex praevisis operibus neither by their works nor from Gods Foresight of their works Thus much the Romish Church confesseth in the prayer used at the Burial of Infants Baptized Omnipotens mitissime Deus qui omnibus parvulis Renatis fonte Baptismatis dum migrant à saeculo sine ullis Eorum meritis vitam illico largiris aeternam sicut animae hujus Parvuli hodiè credimus to fecisse Ex Rituali Romano Pauli quinti impresso Antuerpiae 1635. in 8. Ex Offic Plantiniana Moreti in Officio Defunctorum De Exequijs Parvulorum Pag. 244. In this Creation there is no * Quaere if it be not otherwise in a Pagan â—f yeares Coming to Christianitie Without Baptisme either Obteined or Desired He cannot be saved And Baptisme he may not have without Qualifications preparative professed to the Church that he may be admitted to it And Reall in his Soul that he may have Rem Sacramenti that is become partaker of the Inward and Spiritual Grace Qualification or disposition praecedent either by way of Title or by way of Term or Object Or if we grant any Term or Object of this creation it must be the Entitie of the Infant or its Capacitie of Baptisme or the Baptisme it self 3. How it is said All things were created of Nothing But as it was the Almightie Creators pleasure not to make herbs untill he had made the earth nor fishes untill he had made the Sea out of which he made them tanquam ex termino as of a positive Term or Object praeexistent though not positively concurring to their Creation or Co-working with him So as we suppose it was his pleasure not to work Mortification or to Create Life in such as are capable of Reason untill some works which he requires be done by them albeit the best works which any can do be as little Conducent by way of Causalitie or Title to the production of Life or Mortification Spiritual as the Red Earth was to the Creating of Adam or Adam in a dead sleep was to the Creation of Eve Adam was the sole work of God and so was Eve though made of Adam aswell as the heaven and the earth were the sole works of God And so is our Election so is our New Life so is our Mortification spiritiual as truely and intirely the work of God though not wrought without some works of ours praeexistent as the Creation of Life in Infants is Gods Work although they have no workes praeexistent And as Adam though Eve was made of him had no more share with God in her Creation than Nothing had with Him in the Creation of the heavens and the Earth So neither have we after we have done the works required to Mortification any greater share or Title of Causalitie in the production of Life or Mortification Spiritual than Infants have in their Regeneration 4. It may be Objected That the works prerequired by us to Mortification spiritual are more truely Ours than any Action that can be imagined as requisite in the heavens for Creation of the Sun Moon or Starres Or in the Earth for the Creation of herbes and trees T is true Some Actions are required in us * See the 2. note at the end of this Sect chapt 36. that Grace may be created in us yet not to make us more Capable naturally of Grace but to make us Meere Passives not uncapable of it or not Positively Contradictorie to his Majestie or eternal aequitie Man from the beginning had a Freedome of Will to deprive himself of such Blessings as God in his Bounty had provided for him Our first Parents by the Abuse of their Free Will betwixt Good and Evill made themselues uncapable of any Blessing or Reward from Gods Justice or meer Bountie yet were they not hereby made uncapable of his Infinite Mercy Nor are his Posteritie made uncapable of it by Sin meerely Original but by Abuse of that Free-Will which is left them as the proper Fruit of Sin Original that is a Free-Will to do Evill We have a Power or Freedome left us to make our selves more Uncapable of Gods Mercy than we were in Adam no Power at all to make our selves more Capable of it it is God alone which increaseth this Capacitie in us That of St. Austin is notwithstanding most true in respect of All that are come to years of discretion Deus qui fecit te sine te non salvabit te sine te God which made thee without any endeavours of thine own will not save thee without thine own endeavours And yet the best of our endeavours are but to keep our selves in the same state wherein we were when we had no works no endeavours that is when we were Infants And happie is he that doth not by lewd endeavours or ill works ☜ evacuate the Fruits of Baptisme in himself For him that doth finally so Cassate or Voyd them it had been better if he had never been baptized if he had never been born For by frustrating the hopes which he had in Baptisme he makes himself more uncapable of Gods mercy for having the Spirit of Life created in him than the Earth was of Gods Power to have Man created of it CHAP. XXXIII By what Spirit we are said to Mortifie the Deeds of the Bodie 1. Of the difference betwixt the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Man IF the deeds of the Body or the Flesh must be mortified by the Spirit of man then man hath not only Freedome of Will but Liberum Arbitrium an Abilitie to Mortifie his own
Flesh or to Free himself from the Servitude of the Flesh These and the like Inconveniences have perswaded some to attribute this whole work unto the Spirit of God which is able to do all things without the Coagencie or Consort of the Spirit of Man But thus to avoyd the former Inconveniences is but as if a man having found a Way out of a thicket of Thornes should instantly intangle himself in the Bryars For it is not so Great a Solaecisme to say That the Spirit of Man or man himself should be an Agent in this businesse As to Affirme That whence it would follow that The Spirit of God should in this work of Mortification be mans Instrument For that which Man worketh by the Spirit Man is more properly said to work it then the Spirit Now our Apostle saith that we must mortifie the deedes of the Body And he that Mortifieth is the Agent That by which we work this Mortification is but our Instrument And better it were to say That the Spirit of Man should be mans Instrument in this work rather than the Spirit of God 2. It were according to our Former Principles easily answered that Wee by Our spirit Mortifie the Deedes of our Bodies Consecutivè non Formaliter aut Efficienter that is not by any Efficacie in us or Influence derivable from us The Spirit of God must directly work or Effect it But though this be True yet is it not Punctual to the point proposed For by this Answer the Spirit here meant should only be the Spirit of man For by this Spirit only we work our Mortification Consecutivè That which the Spirit of God doth work in us it works Directly Immediatly and Entirely and in produceing its proper Effects it hath no Partner or Co-Agent It may notwithstanding be yet further replyed that we must Mortifie the Flesh by the spirit of God not as by any Instrumental Cause subordinate to us but in such a sense as we say Inferiour Magistrates do the Acts of the Magistracie by the Kings or Supreme Magistrates Authoritie unto which they and their Magistracie are Subordinate Thus some good * Pasqualius Interpreters upon this place say that we must Mortifie the Flesh by our own Spirit but by our own Spirit as it is Subordinate to the Spirit of God and Consequently to this Assertion it must be granted that this Subordination of our Spirit to the Spirit of God is in this place necessarily included or persupposed though not expressed by our Apostle All this for ought I know may be most True and Orthodoxal but withall too General For Inferiour or subordinate Magistrates are more properly said to be the Agents Even in those things which they do by the Authoritie and warrant of the Superiours whereas the Spirit of God is not only the Author or sole Authorizer but the Principal Actor or Agent in this work of mortification For a more particular and punctual Resolution of the Question proposed we are to unfold the divers acceptions of these Words or Termes to wit THE SPIRIT and MORTIFICATION 3. There is the Spirit of God and there is the Spirit of man Both of them have their several and divers Importances in scripture The Spirit of man may be considered as it is in the Natural Man or in the man altogether unregenerate and This Spirit is at Enmitie with God or in the Man as yet unregenerate yet in the way to Regeneration And the Spirit of this man is privatively opposite to the Spirit of God so as Darknesse is to Light Blindnesse to Sight or Death to Life There is a Spirit likewise in the man Regenerate the same for Substance with the Spirit of the Natural Man the same for Substance that it was in himself before Regeneration but altered in Qualitie And This Spirit though it cease not to be in man yet is it not usually called The Spirit of Man as being no way opposite unto the Spirit of God but Subordinate unto it so Subordinate unto it that it is called The Spirit that is of God and sometimes The Spirit of God 4. These diverse Acceptions of the word SPIRIT as likewise the Distinction or Opposition between the Spirit of God and the Spirit of man are set down by our Apostle 1. Cor. 2. from the ninth verse unto the end of the Chapter What Man knoweth the things of a man save the Spirit of man which is in him Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God ver 11. He doth not say the spirit of God which is in God or with God And when He saith What man knoweth the things of man save the Spirit of Man he supposeth there is even in the Natural and unregenerate Man a Spirit able to discerne the secret thoughts and imaginations of his heart though blind and ignorant in the things concerning God Againe when he saith the things of God knoweth no man he excludeth the Natural man only or the man to whom God hath not imparted the Gifts of the Spirit For so he hath said ver 9. Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him Into What Mans heart have they not entred Or unto What Man doth this Negative belong Only to the Natural or unregenerate Man For so he adds verse 10. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit For the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God 5. What Spirit is this which searcheth all things Even the deep things of God the Spirit of God which is without Vs or which communicateth knowledge and reveales things hidden unto us If this Spirit were here meant How should those deep things of God be revealed unto us Revealed to us they cannot be unlesse they be known by us and known by Us they cannot be but by the Spirit which is in us So he adds more expressly Ver. 12. Now we have received not the Spirit of the world that is the Spirit which is of man but the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given to Vs of God If by the Spirit which we have received we know the things which are freely given to us of God This Spirit must be made Ours it must be One with Our Spirit it is not the Spirit of God which is Without Vs or which works our Regeneration but the Spirit by which we become formally Regenerate and Spiritual And Punctually to this purpose the Apostle haveing said ver 14. The Natural Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishnesse unto him Neither can he know them so long as he remaines a Natural Man because they are Spiritually discerned he adds by way of opposition ver 15. 16. But he that is Spiritual judgeth or discerneth all things Yet He himself is judged of no man For who hath known the mind of the Lord
that he may instruct him But we have the mind of Christ When He saith WEE have the mind of Christ he includeth ALL such as He was that is All Men truely Regenerated by the Spirit whom God hath instructed to discern the things of God By The Mind of Christ the Apostle meaneth the self same thing that he did by the Spirit of God Between the mind of Christ communicated unto us and the Spirit of God communicated unto Us and received by Us there is no difference or distinction The importance of both Speeches is the same Our mind being Changed from Evill to Good or from minding of Carnal things to the minding of Spiritual things is called The mind of Christ by Participation so likewise The Spirit of God by Participation But the Spirit of God which communicates this Mind or Spirit unto us or by which we are said to receive it hath not alwayes the same Importance Between the Importances there is no Dissention yet a Distinction Sometimes by the Spirit of God God the Spirit or God the Holy Ghost is meant who in a peculiar manner is said to sanctifie Us to Regenerate Us to Quicken Us to work Mortification in Us. Sometimes again by the Spirit of God is meant The Spirit which is in Christ which is the Fountain from whence all gifts of the Spirit are immediatly derived unto us though the derivation be immediately wrought by the Holy Ghost And when the Apostle saith that we have the mind of Christ this Mind of Christ which we have received supposeth a Mind or Spirit in Christ which participates it unto us or from which we receive it by Participation We may not imagine a Transmigration or Transmission of the Spirit which is in Christ from Him to Us but a Participation only God hath anoynted him with the Oyle of gladnesse above his Fellowes God giveth not the Spirit by measure to him From the fulnesse of this Spirit in him we receive Grace for Grace Albeit this Grace be distributed or Portioned out unto Us by the Holy Ghost Christ sends the Spirit of Mortification or Regeneration into our hearts as the Fountain or Conduit head doth the water into a Citie The Holy Ghost prepares our hearts to receive this Spirit of Christ and brings it unto Us after such a manner as He that makes the Aquaeducts or Conduit pipes doth convey water into a Town or Citie otherwise destitute of good water 6. But what doth the Apostle mean by the Spirit of man as it is Contradistinct or opposite to the Spirit of God the whole Reasonable Soul or Form of man by which he is distinguished from other Creatures Or some principal part which hath least commixture with the Flesh or Body that which we commonly call the Conscience This part of the Soul even in the unregenerate man oft times disallowes such things as are entertained by the Reasonable Soul and condemnes such Actions as are undertaken by Reason and mannaged with Extraordinary understanding When the Gentiles saith our Apostle do by Nature the things contained in the Law they shew the work of the Law written in their hearts their CONSCIENCE also bearing witness and their thoughts accusing or else excusing one another Rom. 2. 14. 15. In this Accusation or Processe in the very Heathen there is a Combate or Conflict between the Spirit and the Flesh or between the Mind and the Affections 7. But may not the same part or Facultie of the Reasonable Soul disallow or Condemn at one Time the self same things which at another time it well approves If it may there is no Necessitie of Distinction between the Soul and the Spirit But if there be any Conflict between Reason it self and the Spirit at one and the same time there must needs be a Distinction betwixt them Now it seemes that even whilst the Reasonable Soul doth contrive mischief or give her Consent to things unjust or unexpedient whilst it Hatcheth Haeresie the Conscience doth secretly check it and endeavour to restrain it And this Conscience could not do unlesse it were in some sort distinct from that Reasonable part or Facultie of the Soul which is indued with Freedome of Will For there can be no Conflict but between two different Parties or Capacities 8. This is most Consequent to Plato's Philosophie and to true Theologie For as the Platonicks distinguish between the Soul and the Mind So our Apostle distinguisheth between the Soul of man and the Spirit of Man 1. Thess The Spirit of man is not said to be mortified but Quickened by the Spirit of God 5. 23. And the very God of Peace sanctifie you wholly and I pray God your whole spirit and Soul and Body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ Our Sanctification is not entire or universal in respect of the Parts universal it cannot be in respect of all Degrees untill the Soul as well as the Spirit untill the Body as well as the Soul be thus Sanctified as our Apostle wisheth Every part of man must be in Part or in some good measure Sanctified But before this entire or whole Sanctification can be wrought there must be a Mortification of the Body or of the Flesh and under The Flesh as hath been observed before The Reasonable Soul with its best Faculties is usually comprehended by our Apostle Howbeit we do not read of any Mortification of the Spirit but of Renovation Vivification or Quickening of it 9. What shall we say then That the Spirit or conscience of man is altogether free from the Contagion of the Flesh that it stands in no need of Mortification 1. Cor. 8. 7. St. Paul tells us of some men whose Conscience being Weak is defiled But the Conscience in his Language perhaps is not altogether the same with the Spirit But the Synteresis in all likelyhood is And again He tells us that there be men of Corrupt minds and destitute of the truth which suppose that Gain is Godliness 1. Tim 6. 5. And we read of a Soundnesse of mind 2. Tim. 1. 7. But that defilement or corruption of the Spirit or mind Seemes by our Apostle not to be Ordinary However the mind or Conscience may be polluted by the Contagion of the Flesh yet are they not so radically polluted as the Flesh is The Flesh is the seat of the disease The Idiopathy as Physitians speak is in The Soul the Sympathy only in the Spirit or Conscience So that if the deeds of the Flesh be mortified there needs no peculiar Cure or Mortification of the Spirit So it falls out in diseases of the Bodie If the Protopathie be cured the Sympathy will fall of it self As many are vexed oft times with great Aches or pains in the Head Some with Fitts of the Epilepsie or Falling-Sicknesse when as the root of the disease is in the Stomack In these Cases there needs no peculiar Physick for the Head But cure the Stomack and the Head
Mortification is wrought We are to consider that albeit the Lusts of the Flesh are simply evill yet the Affections wherein they are alwayes seated are in their nature neither simply Good nor simply Evill but of an Indefinite or Indifferent Temper between Moral Goodnesse and that which is Morally Evill They become Good or Evill or at leastwise more or lesse evill according to the several marks at which they aym or the diversitie of the Objects on which they bestow themselves or of the Issues which they find True it is that the Fountain of our Affections is so tainted by Original corruption that no Affections or desires as they issue from the heart of the Natural collapsed man are pure or free from stain or sin yet they become more or Lesse filthy or criminous according to the Course or Current which they take The Fountain of the First Mans Affections was clear and pure yet were his desires polluted by the Vent or Issue which they took as a stream or Rivulet which takes its Original from a pure Rock doth instantly lose its Original Puritie by falling into a muddy Channel or running through a filthy sink especially if the Current by stoppage or other external cause do Reciprocate upon the Fountain or spring On the Contrarie the water which springeth out of a mosse or quagg becomes purer and clearer by taking its course through a Rock or Gravel It being granted then that the verie Fountain of our Affections or desires is polluted and unclean the Mortification whereof we speak is then truely wrought when the natural Affections wherein the Lusts of the flesh are seated are recovered or diverted from the Course of the Flesh and won unto the Conduit of the Spirit The Flesh or deeds of the Body must be Mortified But this mortification must be wrought not by mortifying or destroying but first by purifying then by quickening or reviving the natural Affection wherewith the Lusts of the flesh do mingle as mire or filth doth with water which falls into it or as bad humours do with the blood 4. Lasciviousnesse is reckoned by St. Paul amongst the works of the flesh And Mary Magdalen who had been Notoriously Wanton and Lascivious had this member of the Old man truely Mortified in her without enfeebling or benumming the Affection of Love it self which was as strong in her as ever it had been but set upon its right mark and imployed in the Service of the Spirit She stood saith the Text at our Saviours Feet behind him weeping and began to Wash his Feet with teares and did wipe them with the haires of her head and kissed his feet and annointed them with the oyntment Luk. 7. 38. Thus she did because she Loved much And she Loved much because many sins were forgiven her Her Wanton Love or rather the wantonnesse of her love was truely Mortified by the vivification or Quickening of Spiritual Love in her For the Love of the flesh was mortified by the Love of the Spirit 5. The accomplishment of Mortification consists not in deading but in winning the Affections unto the Spirit Amongst other Deeds of the Body amongst all the Lusts of the Flesh Pride or Ambition is the most dangerous and must be Mortified by the Spirit But wherein doth the true Mortification of it consist Not in Negatives not in an Absolute disesteem of all Honour or disclaiming all desire of praise or reputation For this may stand with Stoical stupiditie or Cynical sloth or nasty proud contempt of the world which kind of temper hath least affinity with that Mortification which becomes a Christian For This requires that the Affection it self remain entire for the service of the Spirit Rom. 6. 19. The Affection out of which Pride or Ambition groweth as a Wen out of a comely Body is a Desire of Praise or Honour Neither is all Desire of any Honour nor the Excessive desire of some Honour a work or lust oâ— the Flesh or any branch of Pride or Ambition which properly consists in the immoderate Desire of that Honour which is from men This indeed is a Lust of the Flesh or Carnal Concupiscence which must be Mortified And the best Method for the Mortification of this Desire is by raising the esteem or price of that Honour which cometh from God This Desire must have the predominant sway in our heart before we can be true Beleevers So our Saviour teacheth us Iohn 5. 44. How can ye beleeve which receive honour one of another and seek not the honour that cometh from God Only Now without true Belief there can be no true Mortification The same Spirit which worketh Faith or Belief in us doth with it and by it give us the true esteem of that Honour which cometh From God Alone The true esteem of this Honour being imprinted upon our soul and spirit doth increase the Desire of it And as the Desire of it is increased Pride and ambition which is but a desire of that Honour which is from Men or from the world must needes decrease and by thus decreasing be truely Mortified 6. Another most dangerous work of the Flesh is Covetousness The mortification of this work or member of the old man doth not consist in a Retchless Temper or neglective Content in Living from hand to mouth without any provident care for Times Future for this is Sottishness The desire of riches is not a sin but a natural Affection which must not be Mortified that is not destroyed but revived and quickened Wherein then doth Covetousness consist Not simply in the Desire of riches but in the Excessive desire of such riches as perish or of such other meanes or of necessaries of Life as are less worth then Life it self The Affection or Desire of riches is not to be quelled but to be diverted from its muddie Channel by the Spirit of Mortification This spirit of Life doth draw or conduct our desires that way which the Lord of Life commands them to take that is to seek after Riches but after Riches of another kinde Lay not up for your selves treasure upon Earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where theeves break through and steal But Lay up for your selves treasure in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where theeves do not break through and steal Mat. 6. 19. 20. By the Parable Likewise of the unjust Steward and that other of the Talents we are commanded to imitate or rather to out-strip the Usurer or cunning Bargainer for worldly Commodities in diligent care and watchfull observance for increasing this Heavenly Treasure in being as wise and careful in doing good to others as Worldlings are in doing good unto themselves No man offends in being vigilant and careful but in imploying his witts and care for gaining Transitory Wealth which is less worth then his Life or soul whereas this bodily Life it self is well Lost or Laid to pawn for gaining Treasure in Heaven 7. Drunkenness is a work
Propositions are as we say Hypothetical or Conditional and if either should be denyed or questioned the only Course which the Schools which are the high Courts of Reason for Judging of Arguments afford would be to plead these Categorical or absolute Propositions Whosoever lives after the flesh shall die Whosoever mortifies the Deeds of the body through the Spirit shall live And our Apostle himself ver 6. had premised Two absolute Categoricall Propositions to inferre or prove these two Conditional Propositions in the Text. For so he saith To be Carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace Now albeit he hath added no Quantitie to these Two Categorical Propositions yet in that he saith To be carnally minded is death and To be spiritually minded is life This Infers That Death is the Necessary Consequent of Carnal Living and Life likewise the Infallible Consequent of being spiritually minded All must mortifie though not totally And it is an Infallible Rule of Reason That Any Proposition betwixt whose Parts the Connexion is Necessary is Equivalent to an Universal although it be delivered in Terms Indefinite or without addition of any Quantity So that when our Apostle saith To be carnally minded is death To be spiritually minded is life his Speech is altogether as ful and more Emphatical then if he had said Whosoever lives after the flesh shall die Whosoever through the Spirit mortifies the deeds of the body shall live Howbeit These Two Propositions in the Text thus Reduced to Categoricals and Rendred Vniversal by a Note or Sign of such Quantitie are Vniversal only in Respect of the Persons whom this duty of Mortification concerns Vniversal they are not but Indefinite in Respect of the Duty enjoyned or Matter proposed 2. To find out some more distinct limit or Limitation of them in respect of the Matter proposed The Limitation set out in Three Negatives we are to begin as in the like Cases the Method requires from Negatives The First Negative is this Though all men after they come to years of discretion be necessarily tyed to Mortify the Flesh yet no man is tyed under pain of damnation to an absolute or Total Mortification of it This is Impossible in this life Though sin as the Apostle speaks be the Sting of death and Carnal Intentions be the Arrows or darts of Sathan yet is not every Carnal thought or every degree of minding the flesh so deadly in the issue unto the Soul as the Parthian Arrows were to mens Bodies for they carried death upon their points and gave it possession of every body whose skin they brake Fatumque in sanguine summo est They let Death in at the least breach whereat Bloud could come out But every moment of life led after the flesh doth not thus Necessarily bring forth the death here meant The second Negative is this It is not every Degree or Part of Mortification that will suffice to bring forth the Life here meant For he doth not say if ye have Mortified the deeds of the body but if ye do mortifie the deeds of the Body ye shall live These Two Negatives are as the Two Tropicks betwixt which the Limitation of the former Proposition in respect of the Matter proposed or Duty enjoyned is wholly Situate It is a Positive Mean between them somewhat Lesse then any Absolute or Total Mortification Somewhat More then every Degree or Practise of Mortification yet all this is but Indefinite This Positive Mean betwixt the former Negatives must of necessitie be either some kind of Mortification for Quality more Precious then the Mortification which most men ordinarily affect or practise or some Greater Measure of the same Mortification whereof most men are partakers at some times 3. As Great mens quick Goods are presumed to be of a better kind or breed then the like goods of their poor neighbours for Noble-mens Geese as the Proverb is are Swans So there be some who will have all Qualifications whether of Life or Practise all Acts of Duty or Performances to be of a better kind or rank in the Elect then they are in Others And in these mens Dialect or Divinity the Answer to the proposed Querie were easy and would be This. They which Mortifie the deeds of the body in such sort as the Elect do they certainly shall Live for the Elect do truly mortifie them albeit not in so full a Measure And as Belief so Mortification in Them especially how Little soever it be Points of Election c. are not to determine but to be determined by more general points so it be True will suffice unto salvation But in the Divinity which I have learned the points of Election and Reprobation are to be determined of if at all they may be determined of by the Resolution of other more General and more facile Queries They are preposterously brought to the Determination of any other Difficulties Alwayes the Resolutions of the Generals must be Introductions to the Resolution or clearing of more Special Difficulties Special Difficulties can be no Introduction to the Resotion of General Queries Now this duty of Mortification and the Transgression of it to wit Living after the flesh are far more General then the estate of Election or Reprobation Seeing as I am often forced to repeat it is but a litle Point of mankind a small Portion of men which are partakers of the Word or Sacraments which are for the Present contained under either part of This Division All are not Elect or Reprobate But all live after the flesh or after the Spîrit either in the State of Election or Reprobation But under this Division of Living after the flesh or after the spirit all are comprehended Again in as much as we our selves are all imployed in this Work of Mortification we may have more certain Experiments of our Progress in this Duty then we can have of our estate of Election which is meerly the work of God we have no finger no imployment in it The truth is Only they who have mortified the deeds of the Body in such a measure as our Apostle here requires are in the State of Election Only they who have made up such a measure of sin or Living after the Flesh as induceth the Sentence of death here mentioned are in the absolute State of Reprobation So that the Positive Mean between the two former Negatives must be taken from the measure not from the Specifical Quality or nature of mortification The very Phrase or Character of our Apostle If ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if through the Spirit ye mortifie the deeds of the Body ye shall live Necessarily includes a Perseverance in either kind A Perseverance there must be in this Duty of Mortification before we can have full and perfect Interest in this Promise Without Perseverance or Continuance in this life of the Flesh none are inevitably sentenced unto the death here denounced
heirs not therefore in the estate of absolute election because they are in the estate of the sons of God or heirs with Christ by Baptism For many whom God hath graciously accepted for his sons many who during the time of their Infancy have enjoyed the estate or Priviledge of the sons of God may in riper years turn Prodigal sons and disinherit themselves and none can be disinherited but he that hath been in the estate or Condition of an Heire or untill with Esau he have sold his birth-right Both parts of this Assertion That all that are Baptized in their Infancy become the Sons of God and during their Infancy do live to God 2. That Sin even in such may revive and wound some grievously others mortally are included in our Apostles dispute Rom. 7. 9. I was once alive saith the Apostle without the Law but when the Commandement came sin revived and I dyed Doth he speak this of himself only or of all men without exception or restraint that were without the Law Not Absolutely of all Men that were without the Law for so the Gentiles which were not under the Law which knew not God nor his Lawes should have been so alive as the Apostle there saith he sometimes was because they were more without the Law then he at any time was Nor doth he speake this of himself alone but of all such as he was That is of all such and only such as were the Seed of Abraham and had been circumcised the 8 th day and by Circumcision became under the Law though for the present without the Law So that as Baptism now so circumcision then did free the Children of Abraham from the curse of the Law did Translate them from the estate or Condition of the Sons of wrath to the Condition or Priviledge of the Sons of God But did the Apostle or his brethren which were made alive by Circumcision in their Infancy continue in the same estate of Life untill their mortal Lives end No The Apostle expresly adds But when the Commandement came sin revived and I dyed So that sin before the Commandement came was dead and revived when the Law came And the Apostle before the same point of time was alive but then dyed When then did the commandement come which by its coming did bring life to sin and death to this our Apostle and such as he was It is an Observation of very good Vse which S. Basil hath to this purpose in his Comment upon the first Psalm See S. Basil's words at the End of this Chapter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When our Reason comes once to ripeness or perfection That is fulfilled which is written Adveniente mandato revixit Peccatum when the Commandement comes Sin revives For when such as have submitted themselves to the Law of God come to the use of Reason or to take their Estate into Consideration they begin to examine their Consciences by the Law of God and sin which was before Inherent though quiet being called in Question grows desperate and rebellious against the Law by which it is examined against the Judge which condemns it against the Party which calls it in Question The Extract as well of our Apostles speech as of S. Basils Observation upon it confirms the Truth Chap. 29. n. 5. which was before delivered in the Treatise of Mortification That the same measure of Regeneration which sufficeth during the time of Infancy or Childhood sufficeth not to save the same Parties when they come to Use of Reason or Consideration for then the Commandement comes upon us a Commandement to Mortifie the deeds of the Flesh by the Spirit to enter the Lists or Combate with sin reviving in us which will certainly kill us unless we mortifie it as it reviveth in us or quell it as it rebells against us So that the estate or Condition of such as have been baptized after once they come to the use of Reason is an estate different from their estate in their Infancy or Childhood an estate likewise different ordinarily from the Absolute estate of Election But of this estate and of our Christian demeanour in it I shall now only say thus much in Generall This Mortification of the Flesh which our Apostle injoynes Rom. 8. 13. is that Reasonaâ—le Service which the same Apostle requires Rom. 12. 1. I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your Reasonable Service But why a Reasonable Service In opposition to the Service of the Law which did consist in the Sacrifice of Buls and Goats and other Reasonless Creatures which yet were offered by the holy men of God in Testification of their Faith or Expectation of the promised Messias This Reasonable Service or Mortification of the Flesh must be performed by us in Testification of our Beliefe that he hath accomplished the Sacrifices of the Law by the Sacrifice of himself Again this sacrifice or offering of Our selves that is of Mortifying our Brutish or unreasonable affections by the Spirit Aurum Thus Myrrham Regique Hominique Deoque says Juvencus an old Poet and Father that lived An. xii 330. is a great deal more acceptable to God then the offerings which the three Kings or Wise men offered unto our Saviour Jesus Christ They offered Gold Myrrhe and Frankincense in testimony or acknowledgement that the child then born was the King of the Jews But in as much as we know that we are not redeemed with silver and gold but with the precious bloud of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish we cannot either Symbolize with the Sacrifice of our High Priest or attain to that live Sympathie with him by the offering of silver gold or any other kind of offering besides the sacrifice of a broken and contrite spirit If as He offred himself by the eternall Spirit to God the Father for us So we again offer up our selves to him by Mortifying our earthly man by the Spirit then his Bloud as the Apostle speaks Heb. 9. 14. shall throughly purge our Consciences from dead works to serve the living God and finally cleanse us from all our sins Unto this Reasonable service or offering up of our selves We were consecrated by Baptism This was a Sermon preacht upon the Epiphanie as I take it and bound by solemn vow then made and if we continue constant in performing this Vow after we come to riper years we shall continue in the state or Condition of the Sons of God which we had by Baptism and by continuance or Progress in this estate we shall arrive at the Immutable state of grace or absolute election For the end of the Son of Gods appearance or manifestation was that he might thus lead us on from strength to strength untill we appear before our God in Sion The Doctrine of Mortification and the consequences thereof were it thus Taught and Laid to the
Freedom in respect of divers Objects and degrees in Natural men 3090 SECT V. Of the great Duty of Mortification and of the use of Free-will for Performing it 3096 CHAP. 28. Of the General Contents which concern the Duty of Mortification and which be the especial works of the flesh we are to Mortifie 3096 29. How farr the duty of Mortification is Universal how farre Indefinite 3099 30. Containing the true Rule for examining our Perswasions concerning our Estate in Grace 3103 31 How the Flesh is Mortifyed by Vs How by the Spirit 3106 32. Whether Mortification and Conversion may be said to be ex pr visis operibus though God alone do properly Mortifie and convert us 3112 33. By what Spirit we are said to Mortifie the Deeds of the Body 3115 34. Containing the Manner and Order of the Spirits working or of our working by the Spirit 3120 35. Wherein the accomplishment of Mortification or of Conversion unto God doth properly consist 3124 36. Contâ—ining the Scope or Summe of what hath been said concerning Free-will and the service of it in the duty of Mortification 3129 Sect. VI. Concerning Election and Reprobation and That the Decrees of God be not terminated to the Abstract Entities or Substances of men 37. Concerning the Limitation of these Two Propositions Rom. 8. 13. 1. If ye live after the slesh ye shall dye 2. If through the spirit ye do mortifie the deeds of the Body ye shall live 3146 38. A Sermon on St. Iude's Epistle verse the fourth enquiring who those men were which were of Old ordained to the Condemnation there spoken of and what manner of Ordination is there meant 3164 39. A serious Answer to Mr. Henry Burton who took exception at a Passage in this Authors Treatise Of the Divine Essence and Attributes about Objective Goodnesse c. 3175 40. A Paraphrase upon the Eleven first Chapters of Exodus with useful Observations and parallels 3190 41. Salvation only from Gods Grace or An Exposition of Romans 9. 16. It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth But of God that sheweth mercy 3210 42. An Exposition on Romans 9. verses 18 19 20 21 22 c. or a Treatise of God his just Hardening Pharaoh c. 3222 SECT VII Of the Acts or Exercises of Christs Everlasting Priesthood CHAP. 43. Concerning the Manner or meanes by which the Son of God doth now de Facto through the continual Exercise of his Everlasting Priesthood in his heavenly Sanctuary set Free indeed all such as seek for the working out of their own Salvation with fear and trembling pag. 3252. 44. The Coherence of the eighth Chapter to the Hebrews with the seven precedent and two following The exact Proportions or Parallels betwixt the mundane Tabernacle with the two Sanctuaries therein and the Caelestial with those in it betwixt the Manner or Rites in the Consecration of the One and the Other Betwixt the High-Priests of the Old Testament and Christ our onely High-Priest of the New intimated in this explicated in the following Chapters 3253. 45. That the soules of Righteous men Abraham c. Were in a Blissefull heavenly Mansion before But after The Kingdom of Heaven was perfectly set up and open to all Beleevers By Christs Placing As man at the Right Hand of God Their Condition was bettered 3255. 46. A Parallel betwixt the Rites of Dedicating The Tabernacle the vessels c. with Blood of Beasts And of Consecrating The Heavenly Places with the most Pretious Blood of Jesus Christ 3257. 47. Before the fuller draught of that Parallel If the Blood of Bulls and the Ashes of an Heifer much more the Blood of Christ treated on in the Two next Chapters The Apostles Translating the Hebrew word Berith by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is shewed to be not a meere Allusion but of strict Proprietie 3259. 48. The Parallel between the most Solemn Services of the Law and the One Sacrifice of Christ and The high Praeeminence and Efficacie of This in comparison of Those The Romanists Doctrine That in the Masse Christs Body is identically Carnally present and that there is a proper Sacrifice Propitiatorie offered derogates from the Absolute Perfection of Christs offering himself Once for all 3261. 49. That the Forraign mainteiners of the more then Fatal Irrespective Rigid Decree make Christ Jesus rather a meere Sacrifice Then a True Everlasting Priest acting for us and dayly working out our Reconciliation to God So do such as teach That the sinnes of some were Remitted before they were Committed Of the Superexcellency of Christs Priest-Hood and One Sacrifice in Comparison of the Aaronicall Pr. and the Many Servâ—ces thereof 3266. 50. The Raritie of That Rite of Consecrating the Water of Sprinkling by the Ashes of the Red Heyfer an Emblem of Baptism and the Singularitie thereof Our Churches meaning in some Expressions at the Administration of That Sacrament 3270. 51. Inordinate Libertie of Prophesying brought Errors into the Church and hindred the Reformation 3273. 52. That Justification Consists not in One Single Act. In what sense Fides est Fiducia is True 3276. 53. Christs Parable Math. 12. 43. c. applyed Two degrees of Reconciliation the First Active or but meer Grammatically Passive The Other Reall-Passive So Correspondently Two Branches of Justification The One from Christs Death the Other from the benefit of His Priesthood daily participated to us 3277. SECT VIII Of Errors disparaging Christs Priesthood CHAP. 54. Three Errors disparaging Christs Priesthood 1. The Novatian denying the Reception of some sort of sinners 2. Alate Contrary Error affirming That Every sin which some sort of Men Committ is pardoned before it be committed 3. The Romish Doctrine of the Masse giving Scandal to the Jew All of them respectively derogating from the infinite Value or Continual Efficacie of Christs Everlasting Priesthood 3280. 55. From the Text Hebr. 10. 1 2 16 17. and from this Maxim That Christs One Sacrifice of himself was of Value absolutely infinite it follows not That such as worship God in spirit or such as are received into the Covenant of Grace have their sinnes remitted before they commit them That Doctrin makes Christs Resurrection Useless in respect of us and our Baptism needless Legal worshipers Conscious and their sinnes remembred in such sort as Evangelical worshippers are not The Vast odds betwixt Christs One Sacrifice and the Many legal We must distinguish betwixt the Infinite Value and Infinite Vertue of Christs Sacrifice The precious Effects of H. Baptism and the Eucharist flowing from the Efficacie of Christs Sacrifice and Priesthood How Legal Sacrifices c. prefigured Christs 3292. 56. The Efficacie of Christs Sacrifice and the Vse of His Priesthood two distinct several things Wherein the Exercise of his Priesthood doth Consist How it was foreshadowed Ordinances Effectual by Vertue of Christs Presence Vertual Presence is a Real Presence 3301. A Table of the Texts of Holy Scripture Expounded or Illustrated in this BOOK Genesis Chap. Verse
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
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
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
of the Flesh which must be mortified The Affection whence this Loathsome stream doth spring is a desire of mirth or pleasure For no man directly desires to be Drunk All men naturally desire to be Merrie as having an internal spring of delight or mirth in themselves which naturally desires an issue or vent otherwise the Soul and Spirit becomes sodden in Melancholy Hence it is that many mens Affections detesting this Melancholy humour be drenched in this Filthy sink or puddle of Drunkenness which is but a Sinister or preposterous Issue of inbred Mirth The true Mortification of this monster is not to be sought by quelling or weakening the Affection whence it springs but rather by giving it another Issue or vent Thus much is implyed in our Apostles advice Eph. 5. 18. Be not Drunk with wine wherein is Excess but be filled with the spirit speaking to your selves in Psalmes and Hymns and spiritual songs singing and making Melody in your heart to the Lord. Our Apostle here supposeth that the spirit of God which alone worketh the mortification of this sin and other Lusts of the flesh although he detests all drunken ryotous mirth is not a dull spirit of melancholy It delighteth much in its own musick alwaies desirous to hear pleasant songs of its own setting And there is no meanes so Effectual for drowning drunken mirth as a full consort of the musick of this spirit Beatus populus quiscit Jubilationem hanc Blessed are the People That can rejoyce in Thee O Lord. 8. The perfect Cure of the Soul is wrought Per Simile Thus it is plain how this Cure must be wrought by Contraries and yet per simile by the Like too The Lusts of the Flesh must be Mortified by the Spirit and yet these are Contraries But if we descend unto Particulars Ambition or desire of honour must be mortified by desire of Honour Covetousness which is a desire of Riches must be mortified by the desire of Riches Drunkenness which is a Desire of Mirth must be mortified by a desire of Mirth Immoderate carnal Love must be mortified by excessive Love of Christ and of things Spiritual Between the Desires themselves there is as true Similitude as is between the several currents of water which issue from the same spring or fountain but as perfect a Contrarietie between the Objects and issues of the desires as there is between the several waters of the same fountain whilest the One runnes in a pure rock or conduit pipe and the other into a sink or puddle 9. To Conclude then The spirit of God doth first purifie the Fountain of our Desires that is the spirit or Conscience of man The spirit of man being thus quickened and purified doth by direction and assistance of the same Spirit of God divert the current of his Desires and give a new vent or issue to his Affections And the Desires or Affections by this diversion of their Current receive a further Degree of Purification from the Ocean or Sea into which they empty themselves that is from Heaven and the heavenly Lights on which they are sett Between the Current of our Desires or Affections thus purified by the spirit of God and the Coelestial Objects whereon they are sett there is such Reciprocation or mutual recourse as it were between a stream of pure water and a Sea of Nectar the stream or spring still falling into the sea and the sea still sweetning the stream by reflowing upon it The spirit of Christ which knowes no bounds or Limits which is more boundless then the Ocean delights in our Desires or Affections whilest they are sett upon heavenly things And the more his spirit is delighted in our Desires and Affections thus emptying and pouring out themselves the more he purifies and sweetens them by the influence of his Gratious Spirit Yet are not any mans Affections so throughly sweetned by the Spirit of Grace in this Life as not to retain some permanent Tincture or mixture of the Flesh Howbeit every man is Throughly mortified in whom the spirit of Christ hath gotten the Soveraigntie over the Flesh and won the better part of the natural Affections to its service But whether this Soveraigntie being Once gotten may not Finally or for a time at least be lost Heave it to the determination of the Schooles My application for the present shall be from the words of the Son of Syrach Ecclus. 38. 25 26. Though the book be Apocryphal yet his observation in this place is Canonical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The wisdome of a Learned man cometh by opportunity of Leasure or as some read by right imployment of his vacant time And he that hath little businesse shall become wise How can he get wisdome that holdeth the Plough and that glorieth in the Goad that driveth Oxen and is occupied in their Labours and whose * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 talk is of Bullocks Or of the breed of bullocks His verdict concerning Handy-Crafts-Men is for the most part true of Men full of that which we call Book-Learning or imployed in matters of Government of Sate Would to God it were not too true of many that have little Business In respect of this private Learning Every one of us Especially in these times have Bookes enough of our own so we would sequester some competent times or vacant seasons for serious perusing them Every mans course of life and dayly Actions are the best Bookes for this Learning And no man can so well read them as his own Spirit and Conscience Herein then consists the Wisdom of him that is in part and desires to be A â—etter Christian First in careful Observing the Touches of Gods punishing or chastising Hand Secondly in Reflecting upon the motions of his Spirit Thirdly in duly Examining Every day What advantage the Flesh hath gotten against the Spirit or the Spirit against the Flesh All this being done the best imployment of all these Talents which God commits unto our trust must be in acknowledgeing our whole strength to be from God and in Consecrating our best endeavours by continual Prayer for the assistance of his Spirit In this Last Point we are Active yet Active only to the End that we may be Towardly Passive that we grieve not the Good Spirit of God by which our Sanctification must be wrought He will not forsake Vs unless we forsake Him first But as water which hath been heated by the fire congeales the soonest after it be taken off and removed from it So they ☜ which have felt the Motions of Gods Spirit and have been in some measure Mortified by it freez the soonest in the dregs and Lusts of the flesh and have their hearts extraordinarily hardened if once they forsake him or so grieve him that he cease to renew or continue his former Motions But he that will give his heart to resort early to the Lord that made him and will pray before the most High and will open his
mind as often as he findes himself prone to the works of the Flesh that he may fall into Reprobation before he be aware if he continue secure in that Course of life which formerly be hath taken let him withall remember that Praeterita non nocent si praesentia non placent On the Otherside is there any man whose Conscience can truly inform him that he hath sincerely laboured to mortifie the deeds of the Body his Faith upon this Information will assure him that he is in the way of Life and that in patâ—eni Continuance in Well-doing he shall be a Vessel unto honour and make his election sure But let not any man hence Conclude that he is already in the Immutable state of Grace For our Apostle doth not say if ye have mortified the deeds of the body by the spirit ye are in the Immutable state of Life but he saith if ye mortifie the Deeds of the Body ye shall live that is if ye Continue to mortifie the deeds of the Body God will Continue the blessings and means of life unto you yea Confirm you in the Immutable State of Life and saving Grace 25. If any man list to examine himself whether he be in the state of Election or Reprobation let him measure or moderate his perswasions of the one or other Estate by his proficiency or negligence in this duty of Mortification Otherwise to be prepossest with strong perswasions of being in the Immutable State of Grace or Election before we have given all diligence to make our election sure by performing this Duty of Mortification is the readiest or most compendious way that Satan yet hath found out to cast men into a Reprobate Sense that is to make them without sense or feeling of their sinnes or which is worse to misperswade them that those very Deeds whilest done by Them are no sins or sins of Infirmity only which being done by Others are even in their Judgements grosse and Capital sins The Method by which Sathan works this misperswasion in men strongly perswaded of their own Immutable state of Grace before their due time is Immutable and Infallible For it is an Infallible Rule in Logick and Nature That An Vniversal Negative may be Simply converted If no rich man whilst a rich man can be a begger then no begger whilst he is a begger can be a rich man If no convetous no proud no envious no seditious or uncharitable man no doer of any of those works of the Flesh mentioned by S. Paul Gal. 5. can enter into the Kingdome of heaven Then no man whose entrance into it is Immutably determined can be a covetous an evious seditious or uncharitable man Whence if a man be once perswaded that his entrance into the Kingdome of heaven or his estate in Grace is unchangable he cannot possibly perswade himself or be perswaded by others that he is a covetous proud envious seditious or an uncharitable man albeit he do all the works that a covetous proud envious seditious or uncharitable man doth 26. Lastly although it be the safest way to examine our Estate in Grace by our diligence in this duty of Mortification yet I must admonish men not to examine their proficiency or progress in performance of this Duty by Meer Abstinence from the works of the Flesh which they sincerely dislike or condemn in others I know we condemn the blind obedience of the Roman Catholicks that are ready to do and believe as the Church commands them without examination as a work of the Flesh of which we are Freed yet this doth not argue that we have mortified this work of the Flesh this Blind Obedience unlesse our Consciences can truly inform us that we are ready to obey the Church our Mother in things lawfull or in things which upon diligent examination are not Evill but Indifferent We likewise condemn as wel the affected Ignorance of the Romish Catholick in that though he may yet he regards not to hear the Word preached in a Language that he knows as his blind Devotion in that he can be content to make his Prayers or to hear publick Prayers in a Language that he understands not for works of the Flesh In both these we do well yet are neither of these works truly mortified in us by the Spirit unlesse we be as ready and zealous to joyne with the Congregation in publick Prayers of the Church celebrated in a known Tongue as we are to hear or read Sermons The Ministers must preach that the people may know how to pray aright in private And the people must joyn with them in Publick Prayers appointed by the Church that both may practise according to the Rules of Life delivered whether by the word read or preached The Communion of Saints or that part of it which can be had betvvixt Saints here on earth doth specially consist in the Unity of Faith and of Prayers publikely celebrated according to the Common Rule of Faith FINIS Cap. 37. A Note Referring to Fol. 3159. Line 3. and to Marg. Note 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Basil 1. Tom. Paris 1638. Graeco-Lat Fol. 113. Comment in Psal 1. CHAPTER XXXVIII A Sermon Preached on St. SIMON and JVDE'S Day 1629. Jude Verse 4. For there are Certain men crept in unawares which were before of old ordained to this Condemnation ungodly men turning the Grace of our God into Lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. 1. THE End and Scope of this Epistle you have set down in the 3. The Scope of the Epistle Verse And it is in Brief to exhort these his Flock or Charge To contend earnestly for the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints The Word ONCE is Emphatical and imports Thus much That the Rule of Faith had been Once for all delivered unto them so full and so compleat that if they vvould hold close to it and use it as the Rule of Life they should need no other additions The occasion of writing it or increase of new points to be believed or practised The speciall occasion vvhich he had to vvrite unto them for this end and purpose was because there were Certain ungodly men crept in to their Society vvhich did overthrovv or contaminate that Rule of Faith vvhich had been delivered unto the Saints But hovv they did overthrovv it is not exprest in particular Most certain it is for St. Jude expresly affirms it that they did deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ Novv to deny God or Christ Two ways of denying God there be but Two ways possible either by Opinion and Doctrine or by Matter of Fact and Practise And these men it seems did both ways deny God and his Christ though not directly and expresly yet by necessary and unavoidable Consequence But vvherein they did deny God and Christ shall be toucht in the Use and Application The Doctrinal Points to be discussed are Two Two points of
hardneth In respect of every particular and determinate person not thus qualifyed it is universally true He hath mercy when he will have mercy and when he will be hardeneth And he hardeneth at no time sooner then when men what men soever are most confidently presumptuous of his mercy That this doctrine delivered is no way prejudicial to the certainty of salvation but rather directs us how to make our Election sure or untimely secure of their perseverance in faith or continuance in his favour 32. Perhaps the ingenuous and hitherto indifferent Reader will here begin to distast these last Admonitions and for their sakes most of our Resolutions as prejudicial to a commonly received doctrine concerning the Certainty of Salvation And I must confesse that upon first sight they may seem suspicious in that they suppose our Election to be not only uncertain in respect of our apprehensions but mutable in its nature But if it please him either to look back into some passages of the former discourse or to go along with me alittle further I shall acquaint him though not with a surer foundation yet with a stronger frame or structure of his hopes than he shall ever attain unto by following their Rules who I verily think were fully assured of their own salvation but from other grounds than they have discovered to us Surer foundation can no man lay than that whereon both parties do build to wit the absolute immutabilite of Gods decree or purpose Now admitting our apprehensions of his Will or purpose to call elect or save us were infallible yet he that from these foundations would rear up the Edifice of his faith after this hasty manner Gods purpose to call elect and save mee is immutable Ergo my present calling is effectuall my election already sure and my salvation most immutable becomes as vain in his imaginations as if he expected that wals of loom and rafters of reed covered with fern should be able to keep out Gun-shot because seated upon an impregnable Rock For first who can be longer ignorant of this truth than it shall please him to consider it That Gods purpose and Will is most immutable in respect of every object possible that mutabilitie it self all the changes and chances of this mortal life and the immutable state of immortalitie in the life to come are a-like immutably decreed by the eternal counsel of his immutable Will Now if mortalitie and mutabilitie have precedence of immortalitie in respect of the same persons by the immutable Tenor of his irresistible decree can it seem any Paradox to say That mans Estate whether of Election or Reprobation is even in this life usually mutable before it come to be Immutable and that by vertue of the same inalterable decree Or That ordinarily there should be in every one of us as true a possibility of living after the flesh as of living after the spirit before we becom so actually and compleatly spiritual as utterly to mortifie all lusts and concupiscences of the flesh Untill then our mortification be compleat and full we may not presume all possibilitie of living after the flesh to be finally expired and utterly extinct in our soules And whether this possibilitie can be in this life altogether so little or truly none as it shall be in the life to come after our mortal hopes are ratified by the sentence of the almighty Judge I cannot affirm if any man peremptorily will deny it nor will I contend by way of peremptorie denial if it shall please any man upon probable reasons to affirm it 33. But if to such as finally perish no true or reall possibilitie of repentance during the whole course of this mortal life be allotted by the everlasting irresistible decree in what true sense can God be said to allow them a time of repentance How doth our Apostle say that the bountifulnesse of God doth lead or draw them to repentance if the doore of repentance be perpetually mured up against them by his Irresistible will If in such as are saved there never were from their birth or Baptism any true or reall possibilitie of running the waies of death the fear of Hell or the declaration of Gods just judgements if at any time they truly feare them is but a vaine imagination or groundless Phansie without any true cause or reall occasion presented to them by the immutable decree Or if by his providence they be at any time brought to fear hell or the sentence of everlasting death yet hath God used these but as bug-beares in respect of them though truly terrible to others And Bug-heares when children grow once so wise as to discern them from true terrors do serve their parents to very small purpose For mine own part albeit I fear not the state of absolute reprobation yet so conscious am I to mine own infirmities that I would not for all the hopes or any joy or pleasure which this life can afford abandon all use of the fear of hell or torments of the life to come But whatsoever the Tenor of my estate in mine own apprehension heretofore hath been for the present is or hereafter may be I am and I think shall so continue absolutely perswaded that the absolute impossibilitie whether of Apostasie from Faith professed or of becomeing true and Stedfast professors is the usual Successor as heir by Conquest of mixt possibilitie of becoming as well vessels of wrath as vessels of mercy and è contrà 34. Upon this reall possibilitie of becoming vessels of wrath doth our Apostle ground those admonitions Hebr. 3. 12. 13. Take heed brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbeleif indeparting from the living God But exhort one another daily while it is called to day lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin And againe Chapt. 4. v. 1. Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entering into his Rest any of you should seem to come short of it These and the like admonitions frequent in the Prophets and the Gospel suppose the men whom they admonish to be as yet not absolutely reprobated but in a mutable state or in a state subject to a mutuall possibilitie of becoming vessels of wrath or vessels of mercy and by Consequence not altogether uncapable of that height of impietie unto which onely the eternal and immutable decree hath allotted absolute impossibilitie of repentance or of salvation Upon the true and reall possibilitie of becoming vessels of mercy supposed to be awarded by the eternal and Irresistible decree to all partakers of the word and Sacraments doth S. Peter ground that exhortation Brethren give diligence to make your calling and election sure for if ye do these things ye shall never fall For so an entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly in to the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ 2 Peter 1. 10 11. The end of this exhortation was to bring his Auditors
c. 3303 c. See Presence Luther did not distinguish inter Liberam voluntatem Liberum Arbitrium 3130 Lutheran Catechisms and consequences 3188 Lutherans wrest the Antients in Point of Consubstantiation 3298 Lycurgus's Whelps 3085 3134 M. Great Magore weighs himself yearly in gold and gives it to the poor 3236 Malepert Courtier 3227 Manichees their Bruitish opinion 3080 c. Marie the B. Virgin free from sin in her consent Be in vnto me 3038 Mass Doctr. of it injurious to Christ 3262 c. wrongs his one sacrifice the value and efficacie of it 3289 c. scandalizes the Jew 3290 makes Legal Priests Types of Masse-Priests 3265 Melchizedeck by the Romanists made a Type of Mass-Priests rather then of Christ 3265 Melchizedek not read that he offerd any sacrifice his Priesthood was a Priesthood of Blessing Authoritative 3302 Ministers main work to sett men right in the way of Conversion 3219 Mercie of God maintained 3184 3210 c. 3217 He will have mercie on whom he will the sense and quintessence of that Aphorism 3205 it implies mercie in abundance mercie to the purpose to all that seek it 3217 God shewes mercie Isaac wills Esau runs 3215 He will have mercie on whom he will the extent of that Division 3242 c. To have mercie on whom he will is a reserved prerogative of God 3216 Rom. 9. 16. excludes not endeavours nor meanes but merits 3216 c Gods readiness to shew mercie 3221 He will have mercie he hardeneth to what points the Text reaches 3247 c. Merit of works The question useless as to Adams first Estate 3008 Meritorum Reviviscentia 3285 Men several sorts several workings of the Spirit 3121 Men not come to full growth in faith c. but Children in Christ 3247 Mens deprecaturad optima 3119 Not Metaphors but Mysteries in the 6 8 9 10 Chapt. to the Hebr. 3254 Moses hid by Revelation 3191 designed Heir of the Crown of Egypt 3192 His great Atchievements perhaps against Ethiopia an omen of his leading Israel out of Bondage ibid. Two points of his Embassie to Pharaoh 3193 Gods Viceroy carried the Treaties in accurate solemnitie 3194 instructed incouraged 3196 had miracles for Letters of Credence 3195 3197 Mortification 3096 c. Progress in mortificaton a firm sign of mans Estate in Grace 3097 3103 3245 By it measure our perswasions 3162 Dutie of mortification how universal how indefinite 3099 Universal in respect of Persons though not for the matter or degrees 3146 The very Elect must mortifie 3102 Mortification a Term divisible 3105 Mortification how wrought by the Spirit how by our selves 3106 How by Gods Spirit how by mans Spirit 3110 3115 3120 Flesh the seat of the disease and must be mortified Spirit quickned 3118 c. 3121 Mortification Moral and Spiritual 106 3132 c. Whether mortification be ex operibus praevisis 3112 Mortification consists in two things Deading our desires purifying the heart 3119 Accomplishment of mortification wherein it consists 3124 c. it consists not in negatives 3125 Men that have been mortified if they draw back like heated water they freez the soonest 3128 More about Mortification 3146 c. Each degree of mortification is an approach to the Final Ratification of the promise ye shall live 3152 Mortification our reasonable Service 3159 The use of the Doctrine of Mortification 3160 c. Murmuring what must quiet it 3229 Mutinie at Capua 3074 Maâ—hiavel's judgment upon it ib. N. NAaman had some degree of Free-will 3130 Natural grounds to deny our selves and flee to God Impotencie to doe good that Good he approves dulness it self a spur 3219 c. This natural Capacitie not used makes us inexcusable ibid. The Naturalist hunts Truth upon fresh Sents not foyled with second notions 3019 Negative Precepts Sin more provoked by them then by Affirmative the reason 3026 Negative See precepts See proposition This error That all things be necessary nothing Contingent in respect of God a cause of Errors c. 3164 3016 An ill necessitie freely Contracted 3052 3063 3055 Necessary ab aeterno that ungodly men perish but not necessarie that they should be ungodly men 3169 Necessitie See Adam See Decree See Free Nobilitie expires not in uno vitioso 3032 Non-age Persons under yeares neither servants nor freemen properly 3042 of the two rather Servants ibid A strange Note upon St. Jude 3164 3173 Novatian's Error or Heresie 3280 c. Novatian's quarel with Cornelius Bishop of Rome 3281 Novatus and Novatianus two several Persons 3291 Novatus his Character 3291 O. MAns Tye by oath tempts to unfaithfulness why 3026 Oath makes promise or threat irreversible 3148 Oath of God to Abraham to requite him in kind 3302 The great Objection why doth he yet find fault 3226 c. Answered 3228 3230 Obliquitie necessarily resulting from the Act is Caused by the Cause of the Act 3011 The Cause of any Action Essentially evil or inseparable from evill is the Cause of evill 3165 Obliquitie did necessarily result from the forbidden act exercised yet was not the Act necessarie 3012 The distinction of the Act and obliquitie has no place in the first sin of Man 3013 Act and obliquitie as Connex as Roundness and Sphere 3013 c. Oecolampadius his observation 3187 Often offering an argument of imperfection 3263 3290 Ex operibus praevisis whether mortification be so tanquam ex Titulo or tanquam ex Termino 3113 3218 Opera quae renunciamus opus quo renunciamus 3219 Object See Decree Ordained to Condemnation how ungodly men are 3164 God ordaines no man to trouble the Church 3165 Yet if God ordains all Actions so that they could not come to passe otherwise then they do That would follow 3164 c. What God ordains that he is Author of 3165 c. Every Ordination to Everlasting death is not Reprobation 3166 Ordination to life and predestination ordination to death and reprobation differ as Genus and Species 3166 Origen See Beza Original See sin P. PAcuvius See Calavius Parable that of our Saviour Matth. 12. 43. applyed 3277 Paraeus his Dispute with Becanus 3012 Parallels betwixt Jews and Modern Christians 3187 The Hardening of the Jews and the Egyptians 3206 c. Moses and Christ 3207 Passeover and the Lords Supper between the two Inheritances bequeathed by Moses and Christ 3261 The Mundane Tabernacle and Celelestial the Rites and Priests of that and Christ 3253 3257 3259 3261 The Red Heifer and Christ 3261 3267 3270 3299 3302 Pardon due to Learned Authors which their Followers cannot claim 3013 No Pardon Antedated by God 3283 Some Popes denyed to Antedate Pardons ib. Pardon See Sin remitted c. Parents may by Lewdness improve the venom of sin Original in their Children 3019 3031 Parricide not rife till forbidden by Law 3024 3145 Sin irritated by Precepts more by Negative Precepts 3025 c. It is easier to avoid the first occasions then the insuing opportunities of Sin against Negative Precepts 3094 Precepts
Christ Consecrated to be an Everlasting Priest 3301 Sacrifice See Priesthood Sanctum Sanctorum a Type of the heavenly Sanctuary into which Christ ascended c. 3255 Salvation only from Gods Grace 3210 c. Satans two great Conquests 3067 Satans noose See proposition negative universal Sensual Doctrine 3274 Sepulveda's storie of a Bear 3027 Severitie without instruction Tyranny 3275 Schoolmen faulty 3012 3266 Schoolmen lose the Truth in second Notions 3019 Scepter in Homer 3236 Scripture sole Rule of Faith and Manners 3010 Scripture Stories and Examples Transcendent 3190 Sententia Juris sententia Judicis 3167 c. Christs Session at Gods Right Hand St. Austins Answer to Dardanus about the manner of it 3252 c. Socinians ignorant of themselves 3002 Socinians more dissonant from truth in point of our natural corruption then the meere Naturalist 302◠then Pelagius 3023 Soules of Righteous men not so high in Bliss before as they were after Christs Ascension 3255 c. These soules probably before it were in a Place of Heaven answering to the Atrium Sacerdotum or Congregationis in the Temple 3257 Spirit Mind Soul their difference c. 3118 c. Soul in St. Paul is Flesh ibid. Spirit of God Spirit of man their several importances and opposition 3116 c. Spirit of man is not to be mortifyed but to be quickned and renewed 3118 3124 Spirit and Synteresis probably both one 3119 Spirits working our working by the spirit the order of them 3120 Gods Spirit Transformes our spirits into the likeness of Christ's Spirit 3122 Soules cured whether by Symbolicals or by contraries 3120 c. Soul the Centre of the motions both of Flesh and spirit 3123 Sin see Adam How sin got entrance into the world 3007 c. Sin the Author of it 3012 Diabolus seducens Homo Consentiens 3019 Aquinas Bellarmin and the Thomists as strait laced in the point about Author peccati as Zwinglius and Piscator ibid. Sin Original 3017 to 3039 Sin Original pollutes our persons 3019 Sin Original is not a meer privation 3006 3028 3035 Of sin Original Heathen Notions 3019 c. 3100 3145 These consort better with the Truth then the Socinian Tenets about sin Original do 3022 St. Austin not the first teacher of sinne original 3023 Parents may by sin Actual improve the venom of sin Original in their Posteritie 3019 3030 3031 Two Symptomes of sin Original Loathing to do commanded or known Good Longing after what is forbidden 3034 c. Sin provoked by negative precepts c. 3025 c. Sin Original defined 3028 Fl. Illyricus his definition discussed 3032 c St. Austins Melancthons Aquinass 3035 Mr. Calvin and P. Martyr consent with Illyricus in the definition of sin Original 3036 How farr the nature Faculties Actions of men good or bad be tainted with sinne Original or acquired 3037 c. Sin Original not utterly taken away by Baptism 3100 c. Sins must be weighed in the Scale of the Sanctuary 3097 Servitude and servants to sin and Satan 3039 c. Sin against the holy Ghost 3282 Jewes in part believers servants to sinne and corruption 3040 c. 3072 c. A Civill Servant 3042 Degrees of Servitude Ibid. English servants Famuli rather then Servi or servants but in part or mixt 3043 Meere servants or slaves mancipia or servi servati ibid. Jewes might have Heathen slaves but might not remain slaves 3044 Our Saviours Parables as that Matth. 18. speake of meere slaves 3045 Servants Hired and Bond wherein they agree 3045 wherein they differ 3046 Serve two Masters no man can ibid. A servant may have a will more free or less servile then his Master 3130 3144 Between servitude civil and servitude to sinne the Analogie 3047 Servitude to sin the prime Analogate 3048 Of Servitude to sin four Branches 3051 Servitude to sin Natural and acquired 3052 What Freedom of will compatible with servitude to sin 3129 Servitus est obedientia fracti animi Tullie 3054 Heathen Notions of Servitude to sinne right 3055 c. but fruitless 3059 Christian Professours may be as great servants to sin to Bacchus Venus and Pluto as heathens were 3060 To obey our Lusts is to serve sin to serve sin is to serve Satan service to Satan is Treason against Christ 3061 How Satan works men into Slavery to himself 3062 c. His main Wile to enlarge or enflame our desires of things not simply evill 3063 Romish slavery 3066 Heathen Romans slaves 3056 Two Errors 1. The same Fact sin in one no sin in another 3182. 2. That some mens sins be remitted before they commit them 3182 c. 3282 An opinion of no pious use 3268 Worse then Popery or Novatianism 3283 A Question about it stated 3292 c. This Tenet Sin remitted before committed makes Christs Resurrection needless in respect of us and Baptism needless 3295 Sponte Malus nemo Plato how it may be true 3062 Our reasonable service is mortification 3159 Stoicks their Bruitish opinion 3080 Antient Fathers their disputes with them 3081 Sympathie 3119 Synteresis the same with Spirit ibid. Synteresis in it be the Reliques of Gods Image 3124 Synods their good use 3274 T. TEstimonies of the Heathen and ill men the use of them 3053 Threates of God under Oath Irrevocable without oath not so 3149 Transubstantiation a Modern Monster 3298 The pretense and use of it ib. The Tree of knowledge of Good and evill poysonous 3029 c. Turkish Divinitie All things come to passe by fatal necessitie 3181 c. Tyrannie to punish and not instruct 3275 V. VAlentinus jumpt with the Stoicks and Manichees 3081 Vbiquitie a modern Monster 3298 The pretence for it ibid. Vertue and value of Christs Sacrifice disparaged by the Romanist 3289 Value vertue of Christs Sacrifice See Sacrifice Vessel and Potter the debate or Dialogue betwixt them 3228 Vnregenerate man what freedom such a man hath 3092 Vertues of the Heathen 3134 c. Visitations or Synods of former times 3274 Vngodly men how ordained to Damnation 3164 Vniversal see Proposition Vnjust God is not unrighteous the sense of it 3286 Vse of vows an Argument of Freedom 3094 Vse of Christs Priesthood 3301 Vow in Baptism the first thing that young ones are to consider and be reminded of 3100 W. WAter of sprinkling The Resemblance between it and Christs Bloud 3300 See Parallels See Heifer Holy water See Holy Will of God how Rule of Equitie and Justice 3229 Will of God One Immutable Free Causeth Pluralitie Mutabilitie Necessitie Contingencie 3223 Gods Will Resistible or Irresistible ibid. Irresistible Will of God Pharaoh hardened by it 3225 c. God Wills Mutabilitie Immutably c. 3245 Wee St. John saith if any We have an Advocate 3288 c. Why Weeds grow so fast 3083 Whelps trained by Lycurgus 3085 3134 The Book of Wisdom Philo Judaeus Author of it 3205 Wisdom Christian three Points of it 3128 Woman with the Issue of Bloud touched by Christ really and vertually though not Locally 3303 Merit of Works see Merit We work out our Salvation Consecutivè non formaliter 3109 No man can be said to renounce the Good Works which he never did 3132 3161 Romish Sophism about Works 3218 Works foreseen or ex praevisis operibus 3113 3218 Opus quo renunciamus opera quae renunciamus 3219 Good Works of the Elect and of men within the Covenant how God regards them 3284 Good VVorks of the Heathen 3141 X. XEnocrates cured Polemo 3138 Xenocrates his Chastitie Contempt of Gold 3139 Y. SAtans Yoke of slavery put upon mens necks by the Pope 3068 Z. ZAcharie prophesied of the Efficacious vertue of Christs Body and Bloud 3300 Zachaeus had some degree of Free-will 3131 Zelots English improved Forraign Errors 3275 FINIS
or at least of the increase or abundance of it in the world The Apostles meaning is that the Law was given as a praeparative Physick or medicine to let such as were sick of sin as all were before the Law was given understand in what danger they were or to give them notice of the abundance of corruption which was so deeply seated in their Nature that it could not be throughly purged by the Law which only set sin a working that men might seek more eagerly after a Better medicine to wit Faith in Christ That this was our Apostles true meaning in this place is apparent from the Parallel-passages to these Romanes Chap. 7. 7. what shall we say then is the Law sin God forbid Nay I had not known sin that is I had not taken true notice of the measure or danger of it but by the Law for I had not known Lust except the Law had said Thou shalt not Covet The Law to which these words referr is the tenth Commandement wherein the Coveting of some few particulars as of our Neighbours Wife or of his goods is only expresly forbidden But sin taking occasion by this Negative Commandment wrought in our Apostle as he himself testifies all manner of Concupiscence for without the Law sin was dead that is He did not feel the Motions or Paroxysmes of sin untill the Law was laid unto him as a Preparative Medicine unto better Physick And againe ver ninth I was alive without the Law once but when the Commandement came Sâ—n revived and I died And againe ver 11. 12. 13. Sin taking occasion by the Commandement deceived me and by it slew me Wherefore the Law is Holy and the Commandement Holy and just and good Was that then which is good made death unto me God forbid But sin that it might appeare sin working dâ—ath in me by that which is good that sin by the commandement might become exceeding Sinfull It is a Point observable and fully paralel to our Apostles doctrine That the Easterne part of the world did rather loath then long after Circumcision Vntill our Saviours Resurrection and the Apostles peremptory forbidding the practise of it From the former doctrine of our Apostle I have learned satisfaction to a Probleme which had often and long Perplexed my thoughts The Probleme was this Why Men Unto whose care and fidelity a man might safely commit his Fortunes or his life upon their honest word became most carelesse and unfaithfull in matters whereto they are punctually tyed by oath The reason is Because the interposition or obligation by oath is as the coming of a Law which provokes the Corruption of Nature whose longing or lust after things forbidden rather then it should be unsatisfied drawes men otherwise morally honest to become like wayward intemperat Patients which rather chose to nourish the longing humours of the disease or infirmity then to observe the prescription of the Chirurgeon ready to pull off the plaister though with the live-skin or flesh rather then to endure the working of it for a moment 4. But here some have Questioned Whether this Chapter be meant of the Regenerate or Vnregenerate Man A Captious Interrogatorie if Regeneration were but one Act or a resultance of some Few Acts or Conflicts between the Flesh and the Spirit But seeing Regeneration in true Theologie includes Acts almost numberlesse or a Combate somewhat longer then Mortification doth This Chapter if we speak of Christians must be Meant not of the Man truely Regenerated or perfectly Mortified but of a Man Inter Regenerandum during the intermediate Acts or conflicts betwixt the beginning and the Consummation of his * See the 9 Article of the Church of England Regeneration Or if we speake of One that beleeves the Old Testament better then the New as of a Jew or Mahumetane it cannot be meant of a Lawlesse Man but of a man under the hammer of Gods Law given by Moses For there must be a Laying of some Law or Other to the heart before the Conflict here Mentioned can begin or Sin inherent be so Provoked as our Apostle tells us it is 5. Why Sin Originall is more provoked by the Negative then by the Affirmative Precepts He that will diligently peruse our Apostles forementioned Passages Romans 7. in the Language wherein he wrote will easily observe with me That the occasion which Sin tooke By the Law to deceive him as it doth yet to deceive us was from the Negative Precepts or Commandements of the Law not from the Positive or Affirmative Now why the Negative Precepts that one especially Thou shalt not Lust Thou shalt not Covet should a great deale more provoke or more forcibly revive the seeds of Originall Sin inherent in us then the Affirmative Precepts usually doe the Reason is Evident because nothing is nominated or proposed unto us in the Affirmative Precepts but that which in its nature is truely and sincerely Good without the mixture of Evill And being such is more apt to revive or quicken the Notions of the Law of Nature or Reason or those Reliques of Gods Image which remaine in our Nature since our first Parents fall then to Enlive the seeds of sin or to provoke our inclinations unto Evill On the contrary In every Negative Precept there is a Proposall or representation of those things which be in their Nature truely Evill and therefore most apt to incite or provoke our natural Inclinations unto the evill forbidden or to enrage the Reliques of our first Parents sin inherent in Us after the same manner and for the same reason that the representation of red Colours without any other Provocation given is to provoke or stirre the blood of beasts or Cattel which are of a more pure or sanguine Constitution Thus some tame Beasts as Bulls or Kine are aptest to turne man-keen upon such as are cloathed in bright red or Scarlet And a grave Learned ‖ Scortum Hispani generis lepidum ut serebatur formosum mula ut Romae meretrices cum Amatoribus solent animi gratia gestabatur Haec cum venisset ad Thermas Diocletianas Vivarium ferarum ingressa nec contenta cicures vagantes Spectasse precibus contendit aegâ—è impetrat à beluarum Magistro ut ingenti urso cavea separatim incluso sed quem constabat in Neminem antea desaevjisse exitum aperiret Facta potestate ursus erumpit mulam terresacit excussam mulierculam Caeteris qui aderant diffugentibus invadit dictoque citius strangulat contrito capite primùm avulsa ubera deinde natem alteram devorat unguibus dentibus laceratam Esseratam bestiam existimo colore coccineae vestis quam induerat misella speciem sanguinis Praeferentem Sepulveda Epist lib. 2. ep 15. Historian sometimes Chronicler to Charls the Fift in an Epistle of his to his friend relates a sad accident of a Beare which had never been observed to have raged upon Any yet being let loose from
being his Souldiers It is The Spirit of God which works in us The Will and the Deed yet this doth not Licence us to be Idle Fight we must not with our own shadows but Every man with his own Body not with a Body already dead or Mortified but a living Active Body that may be Mortified And this disadvantage we have that our Adversaries are got within us before we are aware of them so that we cannot fetch such fierce blows at them as may kill them at once or as we say out of hand Sometimes our Adversarie lies so close that we can hardly hurt him without danger of hurting our selves As some by offering too much violence to their bodies have ensnared their own souls But this is no Vsual Fault of this Age or of this Nation 7. Howbeit for the Reasons specified and the like It is not so in this Combate which Every man must entertain between himself and his own Flesh or between his Spirit and his Body as it is in Duels or single Combates In quibus aut cita mors venit aut victoria laeta in which one half hour brings forth either certain death or certain victory to the Combatant Nor as it is in pitch'd Battels in which one day is the making or marring of whole Nations or mighty Kingdoms which have been many years in growing This our Warfare is like unto a strait and Lingring Siege in which Patience and perpetual Vigilancy are no lesse requisite then present Valour or strength of Arms especially on the behalf of the party besieged Animus uniuscujusque est unusquisque Every mans Soul is Himself And every mans Soul is more strictly begirt and environed by his Body then any City can be by any Army The Gates of his Senses are alwayes open to let in such Objects or Temptations as take part with the Flesh Herein This warr with our souls is unlike unto Ordinary Sieges in that the party besieged may sooner starve or bring under the Party besieging then be starved or brought under by him so the besieged will be watchful Let us take into our Consideration what One of the most Expert Souldiers in this kind which ever fought under Christs Banner one that had a long time served in both Camps first fighting stoutly for the Body or Flesh and afterwards more victoriously for the Spirit hath left registred for our Instruction So fight I not as one that beateth the air But I keep under my Body and bring it into subjection lest that by any means when I have Preached to others I my self should be a Cast-away 1 Cor. 9. 26. If so stout a Champion after so many years Service in the Camp of Christ was not secure of the Adversary which he carried about with him how dare some Fresh-water-souldiers say or what truth is there in their sayings That they have made full Conquest of their Adversarie It will be useful for the Reader to Know that if he please he may read more about This Subject of Mortification either now immediately before he proceed to the 30 Chapter or after the reading of the 35 Chapter or of this whole 5 Section in the Appendix at the end of this Book In which The Third General Enquirie Proposed Chap. 28. § 2. Touching the Limitation of the Two Propositions If ye live after the Flesh ye shall die If ye mortifie ye shall live And promised Chap. 35. § 10. is handled and are most most certain of their own Salvation before they know what Certainty means Or which be the Several Branches of it But of this Point if God permit elsewhere CHAP. XXX Containing the true Rule for examining our Perswasions concerning our Estate in Grace 1. Our Progresse in Mortifying Our Selves the best Rule for knowing our Estate IN the mean time it will not be amisse for every man to Examin himself by This Rule of our Apostle concerning the First Branch of Certainty that is a Moral Certainty or strong Probability that he is in the State of Grace or Regeneration If ye live after the flesh ye shall die This is the Rule Doth any man amongst us Spend most of his time in revelling or drinking in strife or variance or in jest or merriment If such a man have any seeds of Faith though Moral it will assure him for the Present that he cannot be so much as Morally Certain of his Regeneration The best Advice which for the time being can be given him is so to mingle his Hope with Fear as that Fear be Predominant If otherwise his Hope in this case shall bear down Fear or be not born down by it there is no other likely hood but that his Hope will grow into stiff Presumption and stiff Presumption will exclude Repentance on which Hope if it be sure must alwayes be grounded 2. But most mens Consciences perhaps can truly tell themselves that they do Mortifie the Deeds of the Body Here is Just ground of Hope and Moral Certainty if this Testimony of the Conscience be sincere Howbeit even here again is place for Advice And the best Advice that I can give to any in this Case is that he do not seek to Buy with one Weight and Sell with another but plant his Hopes and displant his Fear by One and the same Rule or Line The Rule for the planting Hope and preventing Despair is this When our Apostle saith Gal. 5. 21. He that doth such things any works of the Flesh by him there mentioned shall not inherit the Kingdom of God we are to take the Value or weight of This Word DOTH not by the present Acts or Operations but from the Vsuall Practise Habit or Custome of doing them Continual approved Practise of the least sins there named by him excludes from Grace This is the Weight or Scale by which men are willing to sell or to put off Fear or Despair But they must remember withall to be as ready to Buy with the same Weight that is as ready to measure their Hopes or entertain the Certainty of their Estate in Grace by the same Scale The Apostle saith If ye mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live From This General Proposition Most Hearers of the Word will be ready to Assume But I God be thanked do mortifie the Deeds of the Body by diligent hearing the word Preached by frequent receiving of the Sacrament Ergo I shall live But here we are to consider that as other words implying Action so this word I do Mortifie in the Language of the Holy Ghost specially in those places whereto Gods promises are annexed is not to be restrained to the Interposed Acts or interrupted Operations of the Spirit but directly imports the Habit the Custome or assiduous Practise of Mortification If in This Sense we Do mortifie the Deeds of the Body that is if we make This Work the Chief of our Doings if most of our Care and Industry be addressed to the perfecting of this
mouth in prayer and make Supplication for his Sins When the Great Lord will he shall be filled with the Spirit of Vnderstanding Eccl. â—9 5. 6. Oh how much better had it been for us to have had our hearts filled with this Spirit the Spirit of Comfort than to have our Dwellings as now they are possessed with Grief and Heaviness and the whole People inraged with Jealousies with Furious Zeal and discontent Now all this is come upon Us for no one Sin more more for this one then for all the rest I mean our negligence in frequenting the House of God at those times or our ill imployment of those vacant times which Authoritie had sequestred and set apart for Solemne Prayer and Thanksgiving 10. Put here the Reader will remember and perhaps Challenge me either of Forgetfulnesse or of Breach of Promise for not discussing the Third General proposed Chapt. 28. Number â—2 which was The exact Limitation of these Two Propositions If ye live after the flesh ye shall die If through the Spirit ye do Mortifie the Deedes of the Body ye shall Live My Apologie must be This That haveing taken some more Paines in this Point then in the rest Concerning Mortification I find the Limitation so inwrapt with the true State of the Question Concerning Election and Reprobation that I cannot touch the One but I must handle the Other and for this Reason have Deferrâ—d not Forgotten See the Appendix at the End of this Book the Determination of the Third Point untill I have finished what I have Long Conceived of the Points Concerning Election Reprobation or Predestination Points as I have often intimated in publick Meditations of more easie and facil Resolution then most other Controversies in Divinitie if so we would take these Termes Election Reprobation c. as we ought to do in their Passive or Concrete Sense But if we take them in the Active or Abstract Sense or as they are Acts in God their Determination is to Mankind even to General Councils altogether Impossible yea to Attempt this work is either an undoubted Spice of Phrenetical Pride or an infallible Symptom of Divine Infatuation CHAP. XXXVI Containing the Scope or Summe of what hath been said Concerning Free-Will and the Service of it in the Dutie of Mortification 1. Needlesse Speculations about Free-will c. Chief Occasions of our Negligence in Good Practises THe utmost Ayme or Final Cause of all these former Discussions was to make them an Introduction unto the Second part of the Knowledge of Christ and of him Crucified and of his Resurrection from the dead and Sitting at the right hand of the Father that is in a word How he doth set us Free Indeed from the Servitude of sin and Satan The Second End and most immediatly subordinate to this purpose was to provoke or rouz up our spirits to shake off that slumber which hath possessed a great part of the Christian World specially since those Vnfortunate Controversies betwixt the Jesuits and Dominicans and the like betwixt the Lutherans and the Zwinglians or Calvinists set forth of late in a new dress between the Arminians and the Gomarists have so contentiously been debated The only Issue of which debates amongst the Learned hath been to bring their Auditors or Readers to a Gaze or Stand and to Cause them to make a Sinister use of that Maxim in Law Lite pendente nihil fit whilst the ☜ Controversie has been under debate nothing has been done even in Duties most necessary to their Salvation Both Parties how great soever the disagreement betwixt them hath been have agreed too well in this Resolution aut otiosos esse aut quod pejus est nihil agere either to be altogether Idle or which is worse to take a great deale of paines to no purpose in reading much and resolving to do nothing untill the Controversie betwixt Grace and Nature were fully determined and the Bounds or Meere-Stones betwixt Gods Part and Mans Part be set forth that we might Punctually know what he is willing or would be pleased to do and what we may and ought to do for working out our own Salvation or for being made Free Indeed by the son of God 2. The Points useful for clearing this business are but Two And both of them have been handled before The Summe of the Former in Brief was this What Freedome of will may be conceived Compatible with absolute Servitude to sin and Satan The Answer in Brief * was This See chapt 24. That without some Portion of Free-Will even in the natural and unregenerate man all the Admonitions Given by our Saviour in the 8 th of St. Johns Gospel unto the Jewes or afterwards by his Apostles to both Jewes and Gentiles had been much better bestowed on Bruit Beasts whether wilde or tame nay even upon stocks and stones then upon men For the true reason why Bruit Beasts or other Creatures cannot be Servants is because they are not endowed with Reason or which is all one with some Free-Will Everie Civil Servant or Slave hath as Free a Will as his Master hath Sometimes a great * See the notes at the end of this Chapt. deal more Free The Essential Difference betwixt them is this That a Servant hath no Liberum Arbitrium no power or Arbitrement to dispose of his own Actions or imployments according to his own Free-Will or choyce but according to the Free-Will or appointment of his Master Briefly and more Punctually thus It were impossible there should be any such Servum Arbitrium or true Servitude unto sin as Luther contended for where there is not Libera Voluntas such Freedome of Will as we now treat of And this was all that Erasmus did conclude or I take it did intend to make good against him It was an oversight in Luther and in most of his Followers Learned Chemnitius only excepted not to distinguish inter Liberum Arbitrium Liberam Voluntatem Vid. Chem. Comm. in Melan. de Libero Arbit Sive ut Chemnitius agnoscit Luculentiorem esse Titulum de Viribus Humanis 3. The Second usefull Point is to know What Branch of Free-Will either the Natural man before he come to profess Christianity or Christian Children Baptized are bound in the first place to exercise To this The Answer is easie and hath alreadie been given before * Chapt. 25. ch 29. That every Christian Child or other Capable of being Catechized are in the first place bound to exercise that part of Free will whereby mankind is radically and primarily distinguished from bruit beasts that is the Freedom or power of Reflecting upon their own thoughts or Actions or upon Others advice or Counsel for casting off the yoke of Servitude to sin Now the greater Impotencie or want of Power any man finds in himself to sett himself Free or to do well the greater Opportunitie and better Motives he hath to beseech God and the Son of God our
C. 18. 19. 20. has a deal to this purpose Errat siquis existimat servitutem in totum hominem descendere Pars melior ejus excepta est See Macrob. Corpus adscriptum Domino mens sui â—uris libera Comes caelestibus exeat Epist 31. Animus bonus Sat. l. 1. c. 7. Deus in humano Corpore Hic tam in servum potest cadere quam in Rom Equitem Quid eques Rom. quid libertinus quid servus nomina ex ambitione aut injuria nata And Epist 47. Ego non ministeriis serves aestimabo sed moribus Servus est sed liber animo Servus est imò Conservus Servus est quis non alius libidini servit alius avaritiae Ambitioni alius Dabo Consularem aniculae servientem divitem ancillulae nobiles juvenes mancipia mimorum superbos osculantes manus servorum Alienorum Sâ—ltus Equum Empturus stratum tantùm fraenos Stultissimus qut hominem ex conditione quae vestis est aestimat The Spartan Youth used this freedom preposlerously when stomaching the disingenuity of his Masters Command to give him an Vrinal he went up to the Garreâ— and threw himself headlong Diogenes * Laert. lib. 6. asserted this liberty even while he was a Prisoner to the Pirate Scirpalus and in Crete upon sale to Xeniades the Fine Corimhia◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom he desired to be sold unto saying for so he guessed seeing him passe by in such a Dresse or Garb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That man needs a Master As before he had bidden the Praeco Cry Who will buy a Master saying That he knew How to Rule men and so it seems he did for Xeniades that bought him made him Tutor to his Sons and Ruler of all his house and joyed strangely in the Bargainâ—saying ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that some good Genius or Angel was come into his House and when Diogenes's friends would have redeemed Him he said they were Fond-men Lions were not Servants to their Keepers Keepers were Servants to the Lions And That Sèrvants obeyed Men-Masters but ill Masters were worse Servants to Lust So a Spartan in Plut. Lac. Apoph sufferd not the Bel-man to Cry who will buy a Slave ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou cursed wretch said he Cry who will buy a Captive ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joseph may be sold and serve Read Epictetus Arriani and see the Freedom of a Servant Naamans Maid may be Captive or taken but Slaverie in Grain cannot be without Vice nor Genuine Freedom with it 5. Note referrs to Chap. 8. Pag. 3019. c. last Marginal note Heathens Testimonies of Original Sin Nam vitiis nemo sine nascitur Optimus ille est Qui minimis urgetur denique teipsam Concute numqua tibi vitiorum inseverit olim Natura Hor. Serm. l. 1. Sat. 3. Damnatos tamen ad mores natura recurrit Fixa nescia mutari Juv. Sat. 13. v. 240. Parcendum Teneris nondum implevere Medullas Nequitiae mala nativae Idem Sat. 14. v. 216. Vnicuique dedit vitium natura creato Propert. It 's true indeed Aristotle says in his 3. Book de Anima that the Human soul is like a white Paper or Table-Book that has nothing written in and in the 2. Ethic. that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that we are born as it were in an Indifferencie or middle Temper Yet this in all Reason can but be meant of Moral Habits or Personal qualifications which are to be got only by Custom And the care he would have taken for Young-ones Education 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shews that he was affraid of some secret Biass or Taint and chiefly that of pleasure which he Cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 St. Austin 7. Tom. 4. l. contra Jul. c-12 Quotes Tullie in his 3. Book de Republica Complaining Hominem non ut à matre sed ut â noverca natura editum in vitam corpore nudo fragili infirmo animo autem anxio ad molestias humili ad timores molli ad Labores prono ad libidines in quo tamen tanquam obrutus quidam divinus ignis ingenij mentis in Hortensius Thus. Quis nisi gurges quis bona mente praeditus non mallet nullas omnino nobis à natura voluptates datas and afterward thus That soul and body were put together as a living man and a dead Sophocles Censures Lust as a Raging Tyrant saying Libenter profugi illinc tanquam ex aliqua furiosa Dominatione Val. Max. L. 4. c. 3. 6. Note To p. 3023. He that minds to see more of the Ancients Opinions about Original sin Let him Read S. Austin Cont. Julian l. 1. where divers Fathers be Cited about that Head 7. Note To Chap. 9. P. 3024. The Margin Seneca de Clement l. 1. c. 23. Videbis Ea saepè committi quae saepè vindicantur Pater tuus Claudius plures intra quinquennium Culleo insuit quam omnibus seculis insutos accepimus Multò minùs audebant liberi nefas ultimum admittere quamdiu sine Lege crimen suit Prudentissimi viri maluerunt velut incredible scelus ultra audaciam positum praeterire quà m dum vindicant ostendere posse fieri Itaque parricidae cum lege Caeperunt illis facinus paena monstravit Natura Contumax in Contrarium atque arduum nitens And so Seneca De Benef. l. 3. c. 16. says Nulla virum habet foemina nisi ut adulterum irritet Quad Licet ingratum est quod non licet acriùs urget Quicquidservatur cupimus magis ipsáque furem Praeda vocat 8. Note To Pag. 3073. The Story of Alexander Pheraeus is in Plutarchs 2. Orat. de Fortun. Alexand. Magni 9. Note To P. 3074. The Storie of Pacuvius Calavius is in Livies 23. Book or as some Count Decad. 3. lib. 3. 10. Note To P. 3081. the words of S. Chrysostom toucht in the Margin if they be surely his are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 11. Note To P. 3083. Ipsaque Tellus They be Virgils Georg. l. 1. Ante Jovem nulli subigebant arva Coloni Nec signare solum aut partiri Limite Campum Fas erat in medium quaerebant ipsaque Tellus Omnia liberius nullo poscente ferebat All these referre to the Five precedent Sections which the Reader if he please may take for the whole tenth Book And reckon what follows betwixt this and the Eleventh for the Appendix spoken of by the Authour in the 35. Chapter and mentioned in the Marginal note there Or else he may count on as for the better help to memorie it is placed because of the orderly disposition and nearness of the matter coming most Patly and fitly in it is numbred the Sixth Section of the tenth Book An Appendix or Sixt Section Concerning the Limitation of these Two Propositions Rom. 8. 13. If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye if through the Spirit ye do Mortifie the Deeds of the Body ye shall live 1. BOth