〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But where there is no knowledge there is no power and no choice and no sin They increase and decrease by each others meâ—sures Jam. 4.17 S. James his rule is the full measure of this discourse To him that knoweth to d ee good and doth iâ— not to him it is sin The same with that of Philo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To him that sins ignorantly pardon is given that is easily but he who sins knowingly hath no excuse And therefore the Hebrews use to oppose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sin to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ignorance that is the issues of a wicked from the issues of a weak minde according to that saying of our blessed Saviour John 10.41 If ye were blinde ye should have no sin that is no great or very unpardonable sin Ignorance where of it self it is no sin keeps the action innocent but as the principle is polluted so also is the emanation §. 8. Practical advices to be added to the foregoing considerations 1. SInce our weak nature is the original of our imperfections and sinful infirmities it is of great concernment that we treat our natures so as to make them aptly to minister to religion but not to vice Nature must be preserved as a servant but not indulged to as a Mistress for she is apt to be petulant and after the manner of women quae faciunt graviera coactae Imperio sexus she will insult impotently and rule tyrannically Natures provisions of meat and drink are to be retrench'd and moderate that she may not be luxuriant and irregular but yet she ought to be refreshed so as to be useful and healthful and chearful even in the days of expiation and sorrow For he that fasts to kill his lust and by fasting grows peevish which to very many men is a natural effect of fasting and was sadly experimented in S. Hierome hath onely altered the signification of his evil and it is not easily known whether the beast that is wanton or the beast that is curst be aptest to goar and if in such cases the first evil should be cured yet the man is not But there are in nature some things which are the instruments of vertue and vice too some things which of themselves indeed are culpable but yet such which doe minister to glorious events and such which as they are not easily corrigible so they are not safe to be done away A Gellius 19.12 17.15 Dabo maximae famae viros inter admiranda propositos quos si quis corrigit delet Sic enim vitia virtutibus immixta sunt ut illas secum tractura sint If the natural anger of some men be taken off you will also extinguish their courage or make them unfit for government Vice and vertue sometimes goe together in these cases that which we call vicious is in many degrees of it a natural infirmity and must be tempered as well as it can but it neither can nor indeed ought to be extinguished and therefore as we must take care that nature run not into extravagancies so for the unalterable portions of infirmity they ought to be the matter of humility and watchfulness but not of scruple and vexation However we must be careful that nature be not Gods enemy for if a vice be incorporated into our nature that is if our natural imperfections be chang'd into evil customes it is a threefold cord that is not easily broken it is a legion of Devils and not to be cast out without a mighty labour and all the arts and contentions of the Spirit of God 2. In prosecution of this propound to thy self as the great business of thy life to fight against the passions We see that sin is almost unavoidable to young men because passion seises upon their first years The days of our youth is the reign of passion and sin rides in triumph upon the wheels of desire which run infinitely when the boy drives the chariot But the religion of a Christian is an open war against passion and by the grace of meekness if we list to study and to acquire that hath plac'd us in the regions of safety 3. Be not uncertain in thy resolutions or in choosing thy state of life because all uncertainties of minde and vagabond resolutions leave a man in the tyranny of all his follies and infirmities every thing can transport him and he can be forc'd by every temptation and every fancy or new accident can ruine him He that is not resolv'd and constant is yet in a state of deliberation and that supposes contrary appetites to be yet in the ballance and sin to be as strong as grace But besides this there are in every state of life many little things to be overcome and objections to be master'd and proper infirmities adherent which are to be cured in the progression and growth of a man and after experiment had of that state of life in which we are ingaged but therefore it is necessary that we begin speedily lest we have no time to begin that work which ought in some measure to be finish'd before we die Dum quid sis dubitas jam potes esse nihil He that is uncertain what to doe shall never doe any thing well and there is no infirmity greater then that a man shall not be able to determine himself what he ought to doe 4. In contentions against sin and infirmities let your force and your care be applied to that part of the wall that is weakest and where it is most likely the enemy will assault thee and if he does that he will prevail If a lustful person should bend all his prayers and his observations against envy he hath cur'd nothing of his nature and infirmity Some lusts our temper or our interest will part withall but our infirmities are in those desires which are hardest to be master'd that is when after a long dispute and perpetual contention still there will abide some pertinacious string of an evil root when the lust will be apt upon all occasions to revert when every thing can give fire to it and every heat can make it stir that is the scene of our danger and ought to be of greatest warfare and observation 5. He that fights against that lust which is the evil spring of his proper infirmities must not do it by single instances but by a constant and universal mortal fight He that does single spights to a lust as he that opposes now and then a fasting day against carnality or some few alms against oppression or covetousness will finde that these single acts if nothing else be done can doe nothing but cousen him they are apt to perswade easy people that they have done what is in them to cure their infirmity and that their condition is good but it will not doe any thing of that work whither they are design'd We must remember that infirmities are but the reliques and remains of
it may be usefull to every man and so inoffensively that it may hurt no man I know but one Objection which I am likely to meet withall excepting those of my infirmity and disability which I cannot answer but by protesting the piety of my purposes but this onely that in the Chapter of Original sin I speak otherwise then is spoken commonly in the Church of England whos 's ninth Article affirms that the natural propensity to evil and the perpetual lusting of the flesh against the spirit deserves the anger of God and damnation against which I so earnestly seem to dispute in the sixth Chapter of my Book To this I answer that it is one thing to say a thing in its own nature deserves damnation and another to say it is damnable to all those persons in whom it is subjected The thing it self that is our corrupted nature or our nature of corruption does leave us in the state of separation from God by being unable to bear us to heaven imperfection of nature can never carry us to the perfections of glory and this I conceive to be all that our Church intends for that in the state of nature we can onely fall short of heaven and be condemn'd to a poena damni is the severest thing that any sober person owns and this I say that Nature alone cannot bring us to God without the regeneration of the Spirit and the grace of God we can never go to heaven but because this Nature was not spoil'd by Infants but by persons of reason and we are all admitted to a new Covenant of Mercy and Grace made with Adam presently after his fall that is even before we were born as much as we were to a participation of sin before we were born no man can perish actually for that because he is reconcil'd by this He that sayes every sin is damnable and deserves the anger of God sayes true but yet some persons that sin of meer infirmity are accounted by God in the rank of innocent persons So it is in this Article Concupiscence remains in the regenerate and yet concupiscence hath the nature of sin but it brings not condemnation These words explain the former Original imperfection is such a thing as is even in the regenerate and it is of the nature of sin that is it is the effect of one sin and the cause of many but yet it is not damning because as it is subjected in unconsenting persons it loses its own natural venome and relation to guiltiness that is it may of it self in its abstracted nature be a sin and deserve Gods anger viz. in some persons in all them that consent to it but that which will always be in persons that shall never be damned that is in infants and regenerate shall never damn them And this is the main of what I affirm And since the Church of England intended that Article against the Doctrine of the Pelagians I suppose I shall not be thought to recede from the spirit and sense of the Article though I use differing manners of expression because my way of explicating this question does most of all destroy the Pelagian Heresie since although I am desirous to acquit the dispensation of God and his Justice from any imputation or suspicion of wrong and am loath to put our sins upon the account of another yet I impute all our evils to the imperfections of our nature and the malice of our choice which does most of all demonstrate not onely the necessity of Grace but also of Infant Baptism and then to accuse this Doctrine of Pelagianism or any newer name of Heresie will seem like impotency and weakness of spirit but there will be nothing of truth or learning in it And although this Article was penn'd according to the style of the Schools as they then did love to speak yet the hardest word in it is capable of such a sense as complies with the intendment of that whole sixth Chapter For though the Church of England professes her self fallible and consequently that all her truths may be peaceably improved yet I do think that she is not actually deceiv'd and also that divers eminently learned do consent in my sense of that Article However I am so truly zealous for her honour and peace that I wholly submit all that I say there or any where else to her most prudent judgement And though I may most easily be deceived yet I have given my reasons for what I say and desire to be tried by them not by prejudice and numbers and zeal and if any man resolves to understand the Article in any other sense then what I have now explicated all that I shal say is that it may be I cannot reconcile my Doctrine to his explication it is enough that it is consistent with the Article it self in its best understanding and compliance with the truth it self and the justification of God However he that explicates the Article and thinks it means as he says does all the honour he can to the Authority whose words if he does not understand yet the sanction he reverers And this liberty I now take is no other then hath been used by the severest Votaries in that Church where to dissent is death I mean in the Church of Rome I call to witness those disputations and contradictory assertions in the matter of some articles which are to be observed in Andreas Vega Dominicus à Soto Andradius the Lawyers about the Question of divorces and clandestine contracts the Divines about predetermination and about this very article of Original sin as relating to the Virgin Mary But blessed be God we are under the Discipline of a prudent charitable and indulgent Mother and if I may be allowed to suppose that the article means no more in short then the office of Baptism explicates at large I will abide by the trial there is not a word in the Rubricks or Prayers but may very perfectly consist with the Doctrine I deliver But though the Church of England is my Mother and I hope I shall ever live and at last die in her Communion and if God shall call me to it and enable me I will not refuse to die for her yet I conceive there is something most highly considerable in that saying Call no man Master upon earth that is no mans explication of her articles shall prejudice my affirmative if it agrees with Scripture and right reason and the doctrine of the Primitive Church for the first 300 years and if in any of this I am mistaken I will most thankfully be reproved and most readily make honourable amends But my proposition I hope is not built upon the sand and I am most sure it is so zealous for Gods honour and the reputation of his justice and wisdome and goodness that I hope all that are pious unless they labour under some prejudice and prepossession will upon that account be zealous for it or at least confess that
goe off the difficulty being removed the reward must be no more then ordinary 2. It would also follow from hence that the less men did delight in Gods service the more pleasing they should be to him For if the reluctancy increases then the perfect choice would lessen the reward And then 3. A habit of vertue were not so good as single actions with the remains of a habit of vice upon the same account and a state of imperfection were better then a state of perfection and to grow in grace were great imprudence 4. It were not good to pray against entring into temptation nay it were good we did tempt our selves so we did not yield to provoke our enemy so he did not conquer us to enter into danger so we did not sink under it because these increase the difficulty and this increases the reward All which being such strange and horrid consequences it follows undeniably that the remanent portion of a vicious habit after the mans conversion is not the occasion of a greater reward is not good formally is not good materially but is a fomes a nest of concupiscence a bed of vipers and the spawn of toads Now although this is not a sin if it be considered in its natural capacity as it is the physical unavoidable consequent of actions for an inherent quality may be considered without its appendant evil that is though a Philosopher may think and discourse of it as of a natural production and so without sin yet it does not follow from hence that such a habit or inherent quality is without its proper sin or that its nature is innocent But this is nothing else but to say that a natural Philosopher does not consider things in their moral capacity But just thus every sin is innocent and an act of adultery or the begetting a child in fornication is good a naturall Philosopher looks on it as a natural action applying proper actives to their proportion'd passives and operating regularly and by the way of nature Thus we say God concurs to every sin that is to the action in its natural capacity but that is therefore innocent so far that is if you consider it without any relation to manners and laws it is not unlawful But then if you consider the whole action in its intire constitution it is a sin And so is a sinful habit it is vicious and criminal in its whole nature and when the Question is whether any thing be in its own capacity distinctly good or bad the answer must not be made by separating the thing from all considerations of good and bad However it will suffice that a habit of vice in its natural capacity is no otherwise innocent then an act of adultery or drunkenness 2. Of the Moral capacity of sinful Habits But then if we consider sinful Habits in their moral capacity we shall finde them to be a Lerna malorum and we shall open Pandora's boxe a swarm of evils will issue thence In the enumerating of which I shall make a great progress to the demonstration of the main Question 1. A vicious habit addes many degrees of aversation from God by inclining us to that which God hates It makes us to love and to delight in sin and easily to choose it now by how much the more we approach to sin by so much we are the further remov'd from God Jer. 13.22 25. And therefore this habitual iniquity the Prophet describing cals it magnitudinem iniquitatis and the punishment design'd for it is called thy lot the portion of thy measures that is Plenitudo poenae ad plenitudinem peccatorum a great judgement to an habitual sin a final judgement an exterminating Angel when the sin is confirm'd and of a perfect habit For till habits supervene we are of a middle constitution like the City that Sophocles speaks of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is full of joy and sorrow it sings and weeps together it triumphs in mourning and with tears wets the festival Chariot We are divided between good and evil and all our good or bad is but a disposition towards either but then the sin is arriv'd to its state and manhood when the joynts are grown stiff and firm by the consolidation of a habit So Plutarch defines a habit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A habit is a strength and confirmation to the brute and unreasonable part of man gotten by custome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The brutish passions in a man are not quickly master'd and reduc'd to reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Custome and studies efform the soul like wax and by assuefaction introduce a nature To this purpose Aristotle quotes the verses of Evenus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stobaeus de Rep. Serm. 41. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For as experience is to notice and Tutors to children so is Custome to the manners of men a fixing good or evil upon the spirit that as it was said of Alexander when he was a man he could not easily want the vices of his Tutor Leonidas which he suck'd into his manners and was accustomed to in his youth so we cannot without trouble do against our habit and common usages Vsus Magister use is the greatest Teacher and the words in Jer my 13 23. Ye which are accustomed to do evil are commonly read Ye which are taught to do evil and what we are so taught to do we believe infinitely and finde it very hard to entertain principles of perswasion against those of our breeding and education For what the minde of man is accustomed to and throughly acquainted with it is highly reconcil'd to it the strangeness is remov'd the objections are consider'd or neglected and the compliance and entertainment is set very forward towards pleasures and union 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theoctist apud Stobaeum Quantum consuetudo poterit intelliges si videris seras quoque convictu nostro mansuescere nullique immani bestiae vim suam permanere si hominis contubernium diu passa est Senec. de irâ lib. 3. c. 8. This habit therefore when it is instanc'd in a vice is the perfecting and improving of our enmity against God for it strengthens the lust as a good habit confirms reason and the grace of God 2. This mischief ought to be further expressed for it is bigger then is yet signified Not onely an aptness but a necessity is introduc'd by Custome because by a habit sin seises upon the will and all the affections and the very principles of motion towards vertue are almost broken in pieces It is therefore called by the Apostle The law of sin Lex enim peccati est violentia consuetudinis quâ trahitur tenetur animus etiam invitus The violence of custome is the law of sin by which such a man is over-rul'd against his will Nam si discedas laqueo tenet ambitiosi Consuetudo mali in aegro corde senescit You cannot leave it if you would
and obedience For these are the righteousness of God they are his works revealed by his Spirit effected by his Grace promoted by his Gifts encouraged by special Promises sanctified by the Holy Ghost and accepted through Jesus Christ to all the great purposes of Glory and Immortality Since therefore a constant innocence could not justifie us unless we have the righteousness of God that is unless we superadde holiness and purity in the faith of Jesus Christ much less can it be imagined that he who hath transgressed the righteousness of the law and broken the Negative Precepts and the natural humane rectitude and hath superinduc'd vices contrary to be righteousness of God can ever hope to be justified by those little arrests of his sin and his beginnings to leave it upon his death-bed and his sorrow for it then when he cannot obtain the righteousness of God or the holiness of the Gospel It was good counsel that was given by a wise Heathen Dimidium facti qui coepit habet Horat. ep 2. l. 1. sapere aude Incipe qui rectè vivendi prorogat horam Rusticus expectat dum defluat amnis at ille Labitur labetur in omne volubilis aevum It is good for a man to begin The Clown that stands by a river side expecting till all the water be run away may stay long enough before he gets to the other side He that will not begin to live well till he hath answered all objections and hath no lusts to serve no more appetites to please shall never arrive at happiness in the other world Be wise and begin betimes §. 5. Consideration of the objections against the former Doctrine 1. BUt why may not all this be done in an instant by the grace of God Cannot he infuse into us the habits of all the graces Evangelical Faith cannot be obtained by natural means and if it be procur'd by supernatural the Spirit of God is not retarded by the measures of an enemy and the dull methods of natural opposition Nescit tarda molimina Spiritus sancti gratia Without the Divine Grace we cannot work any thing of the righteousness of God but if he gives us his grace does not he make us chaste and patient humble and devout and all in an instant For thus the main Question seems to be confessed and granted that a habit is not remitted but by the introduction of the contrary but when you consider what you handle it is a cloud and nothing else for this admission of the necessity of a habit enjoyns no more labour nor care it requires no more time it introduces no active fears and infers no particular caution and implies the doing of no more then to the remission of a single act of one sin To this I answer that the grace of God is a supernatural principle and gives new aptnesses and inclinations powers and possibilities it invites and teaches it supplies us with arguments and answers objections it brings us into artificial necessities and inclines us sweetly and this is the semen Dei spoken of by S. John the seed of God thrown into the furrows of our hearts springing up unless we choke it to life eternal By these assistances we being helped can do our duty and we can expel the habits of vice and get the habits of vertue But as we cannot doe Gods work without Gods grace so Gods grace does not do our work without us For grace being but the beginnings of a new nature in us gives nothing but powers and inclinations The Spirit helpeth our infirmities so S. Paul explicates this mystery Rom. 8.26 And therefore when he had said By the grace of God I am what I am that is all is owing to his grace he also addes I have baboured more then they all yet not I that is not I alone sed gratia Dei mecum the grace of God that is with me For the grace of God stands at the door and knocks but we must attend to his voice and open the door and then he will enter and sup with us and we shall be with him The grace of God is like a graff put into a stock of another nature it makes use of the faculties and juice of the stock and natural root but converts all into its own nature But 2. We may as well say there can be a habit born with us as infus'd into us For as a natural habit supposes a frequency of action by him who hath naturall abilities so an infus'd habit if there were any such is a result and consequent of a frequent doing the works of the Spirit So that to say that God in an instant infuses into us a habit of Chastity c. is to say that he hath in an instant infus'd into us to have done the acts of that grace frequently For it is certain by experience that the frequent doing the actions of any grace increases the grace and yet the grace or aids of Gods Spirit are as necessary for the growth as for the beginnings of grace We cannot either will or do without his help he worketh both in us that is we by his help alone are enabled to do things above our nature But then we are the persons enabled and therefore we do these works as we do others not by the same powers but in the same manner When God raises a Cripple from his couch and gives him strength to move though the aid be supernatural yet the motion is after the manner of nature And it is evident in the matter of faith which though it be the gift of God yet it is seated in the Understanding which operates by way of discourse not by intuition The believer understands as a Man not as an Angel And when Christ by miracle restor'd a blinde eye still that eye did see by reception or else by emission of species just so as eyes that did see naturally So it is in habits For it is a contradiction to say that a perfect habit is infus'd in an instant For if a habit were infus'd it must be infus'd as a habit is acquir'd for else it is not a habit Habitus infusi insunduntur per modum acquisitorum Regul Scholast As if a motion should be infus'd it must still be successive as well as if it were natural But this device of infus'd habits is a fancy without ground and without sense without authority or any just grounds of confidence and it hath in it very bad effects For it destroys all necessity of our care and labour in the wayes of godliness all cautions of a holy life it is apt to minister pretences and excuses for a perpetually wicked life till the last of our dayes making men to trust to a late Repentance it puts men upon vain confidences and makes them relie for salvation upon dreams and empty notions it destroys all the duty of man and cuts off all entercourse of obedience and reward But it is sufficient
old in iniquity to see in one intire view the scheme of his impiety the horrible heaps of damnation amassed together will probably have this event it will make him extremely asham'd it will make himself most ready to judge and condemn himself it will humble him to the earth and make him cry mightily for pardon and these are good dispositions towards it 3. Let the penitent make some vigorous opposition to every kinde of sin of which he hath been particularly guilty by frequent actions as to adultery or any kinde of uncleanness let him oppose all the actions of purity which he can in that state which may best be done by detestation of his former follies by praying for pardon by punishing himself by sorrow and all its instruments and apt expressions But in those instances where the material part remains and the powers of sinning in the same kinde let him be sure to repent in kinde As if he were habitually intemperate let him now correct and rule his appetite for God will not take any thing in exchange for that duty which may be paid in kinde 4. Although this is to be done to the kindes of sin yet it cannot be so particularly done to the numbers of the actions not onely because it will be impossible for such persons to know their numbers but because there is not time left to make little minute proportions If he had fewer all his time and all his powers would be little enough for the Repentance and therefore having many it is well if upon any terms if upon the expence of all his faculties and labour he can obtain pardon Onely this The greater the numbers are the more firm the habit is suppos'd and therefore there ought in general to be made the more vigorous opposition and let the acts of Repentance be more frequently exercis'd in the proper matter of that vertue which is repugnant to that proper state of evil And let the very number be an argument to thee of a particular humiliation let it be inserted into thy confessions and become an aggravation of thy own misery and of Gods loving kindness if he shall please to pardon thee 5. Every old man that but then begins to repent is tied to do more in the remaining proportions of time then the more early penitents in so much time because they have a greater account to make more evil to mourn for more pertinacious habits to rescind fewer temptations upon the accounts of nature but more upon their own superinduc'd account that is they have less excuse and a greater necessity to make haste Cogimur à suetis animum suspendere rebus Cornel. Gal. Atque ut vivamus vivere desinimus He must unlearn what he had learn'd before and break all his evil customes doing violence to his own and to his superinduced nature But therefore this man must not go moderately in his return but earnestly vigorously zealously and can have no other measures but to do all that he can do For in his case every slow progression is a sign of the apprehension of his danger and necessity but it is also a sign that he hath no affection to the business that he leaves his sins as a Merchant does his goods in a storm or a wounded man endures his arm to be cut off when there is no help for it the thing must be done but he is not pleas'd with the imployment 6. Let every old man entring into the state of Repentance use all the earnestness he can to heighten his affections to fix his will and desires upon the things of God to have no gust no relish for the things of the world but that all his earnestness his whole inner man be intirely taken up with his new imployment For since it is certain there will be a great poverty of external acts of many vertues which are necessary in his case unless they be supplied with internal actions and the earnestness of the Spirit the man will go poor and blinde and naked to his grave It is the heart which in all things makes the outward act to be acceptable and if the heart be right it makes amends for the unavoidable omission of the outward expression But therefore by how much the more old men are disabled from doing the outward and material actions to extirpate the natural quality and inherent mischief of vicious habits by so much the more must they be supplied and the grace acted and signified by the actions of the Spirit 7. Let old men in their state of Repentance be much in alms and prayers according to their ability that by doing good to others and glory to God they may obtain the favour of God who delights in the communications of goodness and in such sacrifices This the Apostle expresses thus Heb. 13.16 To do good and to communicate forget not for with such sacrifices 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God is well pleased it is like a propitiatory sacrifice and therefore proper for this mans necessities The proper arguments to endear this are reckon'd in their own place but the reason why this is most apposite to the state of an old mans repentance is because they are excellent suppletories to their other defects and by way of impetration obtain of God to pardon those habits of vice which in the natural way they have now no external instrument to extinguish 8. But because every state hath some temptations proper to it self let old men be infinitely careful to suppress their own lusts and present inclinations to evil If an old man out of hatred of sin does mortifie his covetous desires 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath purchas'd a good degree in the station of penitents and hath given an excellent indication of a true Repentance and conversion from sin to God Let old men if there be need be apt to learn and so mortifie that pride and morosity that usually do attend their age who think their gray hairs title enough to wisdome and sufficient notices of things Let them be gentle to others patient of the evil accidents of their state bountiful and liberal as full of good example as they can and it is more then probable that if they yield not to that by which they can then be tempted they have quit all their affections to sin and it is enough that they are found faithfull in that in which they are now tried 9. Let old men be very careful that they never tell the story of their sins with any pleasure or delight but as they must recolligere annos in amaritudine call to minde their past years in the bitrerness of their soul so when they speak of any thing of it they must not tell it as a merry story lest they be found to laugh at their own damnation Mutatus Horat. lib. 4. Od. 10. Dices Hou quoties te in speculo videris alterum Quae mens est hodie our eadem non puero fuit Vel cur
quickned by the Spirit of life and grace We were so now we are not We were so by our own unworthiness and filthy conversation now we being regenerated by the Spirit of holiness we are alive unto God and no longer heirs of wrath This therefore as appears by the discourse of S. Paul relates not to our Original sin but to the Actual and of this sense of the word Nature in the matter of sinning we have Justin Martyr or whoever is the Anthor of the Questions and answers ad Orthodoxos to be witness Quaest 88. For answering those words of Scripture There is not any one clean who is born of a woman and there is none begotten who hath not committed sin He sayes their meaning cannot extend to Christ for he was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 born to sin but he is natura ad peccandum natus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by nature born to sin who by the choice of his own will is author to himself to do what he list whether it be good or evil The following words are eaten out by time but upon this ground whatever he said of Infants must needs have been to better purposes then is usually spoken of in this Article 2. Heirs of wrath signifies persons liable to punishment heirs of death It is an usual expression among the Hebrews So sons of death in the holy Scriptures are those that deserve death or are condemned to die Thus Judas Iscariot is called John 17.12 2 Sam. 12.25 The son of perdition and so is that saying of David to Nathan The man that hath done this shall surely die In the Hebrew it is He is the son of death And so were those Ephesians children or sons of wrath before their conversion that is they had deserv'd death 3. By nature is here most likely to be meant that which Galen calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an acquisite nature that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 customes and evil habits And so Suidas expounds the word in this very place not onely upon the account of Grammar and the use of the word in the best Authors but also upon an excellent reason His words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When the Apostle sayes we were by nature children of wrath he means not that which is the usual signification of nature for then it were not their fault but the fault of him that made them such but it means an abiding and vile habit a wicked and a lasting custome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle Arist R. het l. 1. c. 11. Lib. 4. de esu anim Custome is like Nature For often and alwayes are not far asunder Nature is alwayes Custome is almost alwayes To the same sense are those words of Porphiry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The ancients who lived likest to God and were by nature the best living the best life were a golden generation 4. By nature means not by birth and natural extraction or any original derivation from Adam in this place for of this these Ephesians were no more guilty then every one else and no more before their conversion then after but by nature signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the Greek Scholiast renders it really beyond opinion plenè omnino intirely or wholly so the Syriack and so S. Hierome affirms that the Ancients did expound it and it is agreeable to the usage of the same phrase Gal. 4.8 Ye did service to them which by nature are no Gods that is which really are none And as these Ephesians were before their conversion so were the Israelites in the dayes of their rebellion a wicked stubborn people insomuch that they are by the Prophet called children of transgression a seed of falshood Isa 27.4 But these and the like places have no force at all but what they borrow from the ignorance of that sense and acceptation of the word in those languages which ought to be the measure of them But it is hard upon such mean accounts to reckon all children to be born enemies of God that is bastards and not sons heirs of hell and damnation full of sin and vile corruption when the holy Scriptures propound children as imitable for their pretty innocence and sweetness and declare them rather heirs of Heaven then Hell In malice be children 1 Cor. 14.20 Mat. 18.3.19.14 and unless we become like to children we shall not enter into the Kingdome of Heaven and their Angels behold the face of their Father which is in Heaven Heaven is theirs God is their Father Angels are appropriated to them they are free from malice and imitable by men These are better words then are usually given them and signifie that they are beloved of God not hated design'd for Heaven and born to it though brought thither by Christ and by the Spirit of Christ not born for Hell that was prepared for the Devil and his Angels not for innocent babes This does not call them naturally wicked but rather naturally innocent and is a better account then is commonly given them by imputation of Adams sin But not concerning children but of himself S. Paul complains that his nature and his principles of action and choice are corrupted There is a law in my members Rom. 7.23 bringing me into captivity to the law of sin and many other words to the same purpose all which indeed have been strangely mistaken to very ill purposes so that the whole Chapter so as is commonly expounded is nothing but a temptation to evil life and a patron of impiety Concerning which I have already given account and freed it from the common abuse But if this were to be understood in the sense which I then reproved yet it is to be observed in order to the present Question that S. Paul does not say This law in our members comes by nature or is derived from Adam A man may bring a law upon himself by vicious custome and that may be as prevalent as Nature and more because more men have by Philosophy and illuminated Reason cured the disposition of their nature then have cured their vicious habits * Adde to this that S. Paul puts this uneasiness and this carnal law in his members wholly upon the account of being under the law and of his not being under Christ not upon the account of Adams prevarication as is plain in the analogy of the whole Chapter As easie also it is to understand these words of S. Paul without prejudice to this Question The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.14 neither indeed can he know them meaning as is supposed that there is in our natures an ignorance und aversness from spiritual things that is a contrariety to God But it is observable that the word which the Apostle uses is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is not properly rendred Natural but Animal and it certainly means a man that is guided onely by natural Reason
without the revelations of the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Suidas An animal man that is a Philosopher or a rational man such as were the Greek and Roman Philosophers upon the stock and account of the learning of all their Schools could never discern the excellencies of the Gospel mysteries as of God incarnate Christ dying Resurrection of the body and the like For this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Animal and another word used often by the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Carnal are opposed to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spiritual and are states of evil or of imperfection in which while a man remains he cannot do the work of God For animality which is a relying upon natural principles without revelation is a state privatively oppos'd to the Spirit and a man in that state cannot be sav'd because he wants a vital part he wants the spirit which is a part of the constitution of a Christian in that capacity who consists of Body and Soul and Spirit and therefore Anima without Spiritus the Soul without the Spirit is not sufficient * For as the Soul is a sufficient principle of all the actions of life in order to our natural end and persection but it can bear us no further so there must be another principle in order to a supernatural end and that is the Spirit called by S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the new creation by S. Peter a divine nature and by this we become renewed in the inner man the infusion of this new nature into us is called Regeneration and it is the great principle of godliness called Grace or the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The seed of God and by it we are begotten by God and brought forth by the Church to the hopes and beginnings of a new life and a supernatural end And although I cannot say that this is a third substance distinct from Soul and Body yet it is a distinct principle put into us by God without which we cannot work and by which we can and therefore if it be not a substance yet it is more then a Metaphor it is a real being permanent and inherent but yet such as can be lessen'd and extinguish'd But Carnality or the state of being in the flesh is not onely privatively oppos'd but contrarily also to the spiritual state or the state of Grace But as the first is not a sin deriv'd from Adam so neither is the second The first is onely an imperfection or want of supernatural aids The other is indeed a direct state of sin and hated by God but superinduc'd by choice and not descending naturally * Now to the spiritual state nothing is in Scripture oppos'd but these two and neither of these when it is sinful can be pretended upon the stock or argument of any Scriptures to descend from Adam therefore all the state of opposition to Grace is owing to our selves and not to him Adam indeed did leave us all in an Animal estate but this state is not a state of enmity or direct opposition to God but a state insufficient and imperfect No man can perish for being an Animal man that is for not having any supernatural revelations but for not consenting to them when he hath that is for being Carnal as well as Animal and that he is Carnal is wholly his own choice In the state of animality he cannot go to Heaven but neither will that alone bear him to Hell and therefore God does not let a man alone in that state for either God suggests to him what is spiritual or if he does not it is because himself hath superinduc'd something that is Carnal Having now explicated those Scriptures which have made some difficulty in this Question to what Topick soever we shall return all things are plain and clear in this Article Noxa caput sequitur The soul that sinneth it shall die Neque virtutes neque Epist 3. de morte Nepotian vitia parentum liberis imputantur saith S. Hierome Neither the vices nor the vertues of the parents are imputed to the children And therefore when Dion Chrysostomus had reprov'd Solon's laws which in some cases condemn the innocent posterity he adds this in honour of Gods law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That it does not like the law of the Athenians punish the children and kindred of the Criminal but every man is the cause of his own misfortune But concerning this it will not be amiss in order to many good purposes to observe the whole Oeconomy and dispensation of the Divine Justice in this affair §. 3. How God punishes the Fathers sin upon the Children 1. GOd may and does very often bless children to reward their fathers piety as is notorious in the famous descent of Abrahams family But the same is not the reason of favours and punishments For such is the nature of benefits that he in whose power they are may without injustice give them why and when and to whom he please 2. God never imputes the fathers sin to the son or relative formally making him guilty or being angry with the innocent eternally It were blasphemy to affirm so fierce and violent a cruelty of the most merciful Saviour and Father of mankinde and it was yet never imagined or affirm'd by any that I know of that God did yet ever damn an innocent son though the father were the vilest person and committed the greatest evils of the world actually personally choosingly and maliciously and why it should by so many and so confidently be affirm'd in a lesser instance in so unequal a case and at so long a distance I cannot suspect any reason Plutarch in his book against Herodotus affirms that it is not likely they would meaning that it was unjust to revenge an injury which the Samians did to the Corinthians three hundred years before But to revenge it for ever upon all generations and with an eternal anger upon some persons even the most innocent cannot without trembling be spoken or imagined of God who is the great lover of Souls Whatsoever the matter be in temporal inflictions of which in the next propositions I shall give account yet if the Question be concerning eternal damnation it was never said never threatned by God to pass from father to the son When God punishes one relative for the sin of another he does it as fines are taken in our law salvo contenemento the principal stake being safe it may be justice to seise upon all the smaller portions at least it is not against justice for God in such cases to use the power and dominion of a Lord. But this cannot be reasonable to be used in the matter of eternal interest because if God should as a Lord use his power over Innocents and condemn them to Hell he should be Author to them of more evil then ever he conveyed good to them which but to imagine would be a horrible impiety And therefore when our blessed Saviour
all spoken against this neither can they unless they also affirm that to arrive at Heaven was the natural end of man For if it be not then neither we nor Adam could by Nature doe things above Nature and if God did concreate Grace with Adam that Grace was nevertheless Grace for being given him as soon as he was made For even the holy Spirit may be given to a Chrysome childe and Christ and S. John Baptist and the Prophet Jeremy are in their several measures and proportions instances of it The result of which is this That the necessity of Grace does not suppose that our Nature is originally corrupted for beyond Adams meer Nature something else was necessary and so it is to us 2. But to the main objection I answer That it is certain there is not onely one but many common principles from which sin derives it self into the manners of all men 1. The first great cause of an universal impiety is that at first God had made no promises of Heaven he had not propounded any glorious rewards to be as an argument to support the superior faculty against the inferior that is to make the will choose the best and leave the worst and to be as a reward for suffering contradiction For if the inferior faculty be pleas'd with its object and that chance to be forbidden as it was in most instances there had need be something to make recompence for the suffering the displeasure of crossing that appetite I use the common manner of speaking and the distinction of superior and inferior faculties though indeed in nature there is no such thing and it is but the same faculty divided between differing objects of which I shall give an account in the Ninth Chapter § 3. But here I take notice of it that it may not with prejudice be taken to the disadvantage of this whole Article For if there be no such difference of faculties founded in Nature then the rebellion of the inferior against the superior is no effect of Adams sin But the inclination to sensual objects being chastis'd by laws and prohibitions hath made that which we call the rebellion of the inferior that is the adherence to sensual objects which was the more certain to remain because they were not at first enabled by great promises of good things to contest against sensual temptations And because there was no such thing in that period of the world therefore almost all flesh corrupted themselves excepting Abel Seth Enos and Enoch we finde not one good man from Adam to Noah and therefore the Apostle calls that world 2 Pet. 2.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the world of the ungodly It was not so much wonder that when Adam had no promises made to enable him to contest his natural concupiscence he should strive to make his condition better by the Devils promises If God had been pleased to have promis'd to him the glories he hath promised to us it is not to be suppos'd he had fallen so easily But he did not and so he fell and all the world followed his example and most upon this account till it pleas'd God after he had tried the world with temporal promises and found them also insufficient to finish the work of his graciousness and to cause us to be born anew by the revelations and promises of Jesus Christ 2. A second cause of the universal iniquity of the world is because our Nature is so hard put to it in many instances not because Nature is originally corrupted but because Gods laws command such things which are a restraint to the indifferent and otherwise lawful inclinations of Nature I instance in the matters of Temperance Abstinence Patience Humility Self-denial and Mortification But more particularly thus A man is naturally inclined to desire the company of a woman whom he fancies This is naturally no sin for the natural desire was put into us by God and therefore could not be evil But then God as an instance and trial of our obedience put fetters upon the indefinite desire and determin'd us to one woman which provision was enough to satisfie our need but not all our possibility This therefore he left as a reserve that by obeying God in the so reasonable restraint of our natural desire we might give him something of our own * But then it is to be considered that our unwillingness to obey in this instance or in any of the other cannot be attributed to Original sin or natural disability deriv'd as a punishment from Adam because the particular instances were postnate a long time to the fall of man and it was for a long time lawful to do some things which now are unlawful But our unwillingness and aversness came by occasion of the law coming cross upon our nature not because our nature is contrary to God but because God was pleas'd to superinduce some Commandements contrary to our nature For if God had commanded us to eat the best meats and drink the richest wines as long as they could please us and were to be had I suppose it will not be thought that Original sin would hinder us from obedience But because we are forbidden to do some things which naturally we desire to do and love therefore our nature is hard put to it and this is the true state of the difficulty Sen. lib. 3. Quaest Natur. c. 3. Citò nequitia subrepit virtus difficilis inventa est Wickedness came in speedily but vertue was hard and difficult 3. But then besides these there are many concurrent causes of evil which have influence upon communities of men such as are Evil examples the similitude of Adams transgression vices of Princes wars impunity ignorance error false principles flattery interest fear partiality authority evil laws heresie schisme spite and ambition natural inclination and other principiant causes which proceeding from the natural weakness of humane constitution are the fountain and proper causes of many consequent evils Quis dabit mundum ab immundo Job 14.14 saith Job How can a clean thing come from an unclean We all naturally have great weaknesses and an imperfect constitution apt to be weary loving variety ignorantly making false measures of good and evil made up with two appetites that is with inclination to several objects serving to contrary interests a thing between Angel and Beast and the later in this life is the bigger ingredient Hominem à Naturâ noverca in lucem edi corpore nudo fragili atque infirmo animo anxio ad molestias humili ad timores debili ad labores proclivi ad libidines in quo Divinus ignis sit obrutus ingenium mores Lib. 4. contra Julianum So Cicero as S. Austin quotes him Nature hath like a stepmother sent man into the world with a naked body a frail and infirm minde vex'd with troubles dejected with fears weak for labours prone to lusts in whom the Divine fire and his wit
our diligence by greatning our evil necessity For death and sin were both born from Adam but we have nurs'd them up to an ugly bulk and deformity But I must now proceed to other practical rules 2. It is necessary that we understand that our natural state is not a state in which we can hope for heaven Natural agents can effect but natural ends by natural instruments and now supposing the former doctrine that we lost not the Divine favour by our guilt of what we never did consent to yet we were born in pure naturals and they some of them worsted by our forefathers yet we were at the best born but in pure naturals and we must be born again that as by our first birth we are heirs of death so by our new birth we may be adopted into the inheritance of life and salvation 3. It is our duty to be humbled in the consideration of our selves and of our natural condition That by distrusting our own strengths we may take sanctuary in God through Jesus Christ praying for his grace entertaining and caressing of his holy Spirit with purities and devotions with charity and humility infinitely fearing to grieve him lest he leaving us we be left as Adam left us in pure naturals but in some degrees worsted by the nature of sin in some instances and the anger of God in all that is in the state of flesh and blood which shall never inherit the Kingdome of heaven 4. Whatsoever good work we do let us not impute it to our selves or our own choice For God is the best estimator of that he knows best what portion of the work we did and what influence our will had into the action and leave it to him to judge and recompense But let us attribute all the glory to God and to Gods grace for without him we can do nothing But by him that strengthens us that works in us to will and to do of his good pleasure by him alone we are saved Giving all glory to God will take nothing of the reward from us 5. Let no man so undervalue his sin or over-value himself as to lessen that and to put the fault any where but where it ought to be If a man accuses himself with too great a rigour it is no more then if he holds his horse too hard when he is running down a hill It may be a less force would stop his running but the greater does so too and manifests his fear which in this case of his sin and danger is of it self rewardable 6. Let no man when he is tempted say that he is tempted of God Not onely because as S. James affirms most wisely every man is tempted Jam. 1â—â— 14. when he is led away by his own concupiscence but because he is a very evil speaker that speaks evil things of God Think it not therefore in thy thought that God hath made many necessities of sinning He that hath forbidden sin so earnestly threatned it so deeply hates it so essentially prevents it so cautiously disswades us from it so passionately punishes it so severely arms us against it so strongly and sent his Son so piously and charitably to root out sin so far as may be from the face of the earth certainly it cannot be thought that he hath made necessities of sinning For whatsoever he hath made necessary is as innocent as what he hath commanded it is his own work and he hateth nothing that he hath made and therefore he hath not made sin And no man shall dare to say at Doomsday unto God that he made him to sin or made it unavoidable There are no two cases of Conscience no two duties in any case so seemingly contradictory that which soever a man chooses he must sin and therefore much less is any one state a state of necessary unavoidable enmity against God 7. Use thy self to holy company and pious imployment in thy early dayes follow no evil example live by rule and despise the world relieve the usual necessities of thy life but be not sensual in thy appetite accustome thy self to Religion and spiritual things and then much of that evil nature thou complainest of will pass into vertuous habits It was the saying of Xenocrates in Aristotle Arist 2. Topic. c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Happy is he that hath a diligent studious soul for that is every mans good Angel and the principle of his felicity 8. Educate thy children and charges strictly and severely Let them not be suffered to swear before they can pray nor taught little revenges in the Cradle nor pride at School nor fightings in company nor drinkings in all their entertainments nor lusts in private Let them be drawn from evil company and do thou give them holy example and provide for them severe and wise Tutors and what Alexander of Ales said of Bonaventure Adam non peccavit in Bonaventurâ will be as truly said of yong men and maidens Impiety will not peep out so soon Lib. 1. c. 2. It was wisely observed by Quintilian who was an excellent Tutor for yong Gentlemen that our selves with ill breeding our children are the Authors of their evil nature Antè palatum eorum quà m os instituimus Gaudemus si quid licentiùs dixerint Verba ne Alexandrinis quidem permittenda deliciis risu osculo excipimus We teach their palate before we instruct the tongue And when the tongue begins first to prattle they can efform wantonness before words and we kiss them for speaking filthy things Fit ex his consuetudo deinde natura Discunt haec miseri antequam sciunt vitia esse The poor wretches sin before they know what it is and by these actions a custome is made up and this custome becomes a nature §. 8. Rules and measures of deportment when a curse doth descend upon Children for their Parents fault or when it is feared 1. IF we fear a curse upon our selves or family for our fathers sin let us do all actions of piety or religion justice or charity which are contrary to that crime which is suspected to be the enemy in all things being careful that we do not inherit the sin Si quis paterni vitii nascitur haeres nascitur poenae The heir of the Crime must possess the revenue of punishment 2. Let the children be careful not to commend not to justifie not to glory in their fathers sin but be diligent to represent themselves the more pious by how much their fathers were impious for by such a contrariety and visible distance they will avoid their fathers shame Isocrat ep ad Tim. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For most men love not to honour and praise the sons of good men so much as the sons of wicked men when they study to represent themselves better and unlike their wicked parents Therefore 3. Let no childe of a wicked father be dejected and confounded in his spirit because his fathers were impious
with weeping and on my eie-lids is the shadow of death Not for any injustice in my hand also my prayer is pure Wretched man that I am Rom. 7.24 who shall deliver me from the body of this death I thank God I am delivered through Jesus Christ our Lord. But now being made free from sin 6.22 and become servants of God ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life For the wages of sin is death But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin reign in your mortal bodies V. 12,14 that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof For sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the law but under grace The PRAYER O Almighty God great Father of Men and Angels thou art the preserver of men and the great lover of souls thou didst make every thing perfect in its kinde and all that thou didst make was very good onely we miserable creatures sons of Adam have suffered the falling Angels to infect us with their leprosie of pride and so we entred into their evil portion having corrupted our way before thee and are covered with thy rod and dwell in a cloud of thy displeasure behold me the meanest of thy servants humbled before thee sensible of my sad condition weak and miserable sinful and ignorant full of need wanting thee in all things and neither able to escape death without a Saviour nor to live a life of holiness without thy Spirit O be pleas'd to give me a portion in the new birth break off the bands and fetters of my sin cure my evil inclinations correct my indispositions and natural averseness from the severities of Religion let me live by the measures of thy law not by the evil example and disguises of the world Renew a right spirit within me and cast me not away from thy presence lest I should retire to the works of darkness and enter into those horrible regions where the light of thy countenance never shineth II. I Am ashamed O Lord I am ashamed that I have dishonoured so excellent a Creation Thou didst make us upright and create us in innocence And when thou didst see us unable to stand in thy sight and that we could never endure to be judged by the Covenant of works thou didst renew thy mercies to us in the new Covenant of Jesus Christ and now we have no excuse nothing to plead for our selves much less against thee but thou art holy and pure and just and merciful Make me to be like thee holy as thou art holy merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful obedient as our holy Saviour Jesus meek and charitable temperate and chaste humble and patient according to that holy example that my sins may be pardoned by his death and my spirit renewed by his Spirit that passing from sin to grace from ignorance to the knowledge and love of God and of his Son Jesus Christ I may pass from death to life from sorrow to joy from earth to heaven from the present state of misery and imperfection to the glorious inheritance prepar'd for the Saints and Sons of light the children of the new birth the brethren of our Lord and Brother our Judge and our Advocate our Blessed Saviour and Redeemer JESVS Amen A Prayer to be said by a Matron in behalf of her husband and family that a blessing may descend upon their posterity I. O Eternal God our most merciful Lord and gracious Father thou art my guide the light of mine eyes the joy of my heart the author of my hope and the object of my love and worshippings thou relievest all my needs and determin'st all my doubts and art an eternal fountain of blessing open and running over to all thirsty and weary souls that come and cry to thee for mercy and refreshment Have mercy upon thy servant and relieve my fears and sorrows and the great necessities of my family for thou alone O Lord canst doe it II. FIt and adorn every one of us with a holy and a religious spirit and give a double portion to thy servant my dear husband Give him a wise heart a prudent severe and indulgent care over the children which thou hast given us His heart is in thy hand and the events of all things are in thy disposition Make it a great part of his care to promote the spiritual and eternal interest of his children not to neglect their temporal relations and necessities but to provide states of life for them in which with fair advantages they may live chearfully serve thee diligently promote the interest of the Christian family in all their capacities that they may be alwayes blessed and alwayes innocent devout and pious and may be graciously accepted by thee to pardon and grace and glory through Jesus Christ Amen III. BLess O God my sons with excellent understandings love of holy and noble things sweet dispositions innocent deportment diligent souls chaste healthful and temperate bodies holy and religious spirits that they may live to thy glory and be useful in their capacities to the servants of God and all their neighbours and the Relatives of their conversation Bless my daughters with a humble and a modest carriage and excellent meekness a great love of holy things a severe chastity a constant holy and passionate Religion O my God never suffer them to fall into folly and the sad effects of a wanton loose and indiscreet spirit possess their fancies with holy affections be thou the covering of their eyes and the great object of their hopes and all their desires Blessed Lord thou disposest all things sweetly by thy providence thou guidest them excellently by thy wisdome thou unitest all circumstances and changes wonderfully by thy power and by thy power makest all things work for the good of thy servants Be pleased so to dispose my daughters that if thou shouldst call them to the state of a married life they may not dishonour their family nor grieve their parents nor displease thee but that thou wilt so dispose of their persons and the accidents and circumstances of that state that it may be a state of holiness to the Lord and blessing to thy servants And until thy wisdome shall know it fit to bring things so to pass let them live with all purity spending their time religiously and usefully O most blessed Lord enable their dear father with proportionable abilities and opportunities of doing his duty and charities toward them and them with great obedience and duty toward him and all of us with a love toward thee above all things in the world that our portion may be in love and in thy blessings through Jesus Christ our dearest Lord and most gracious Redeemer IV. O My God pardon thy servant pity my infirmities hear the passionate desires of thy humble servant in thee alone is my trust my heart and all my wishes are towards thee Thou hast
may goe in the ways of piety and Religion TO this inquiry it is necessary that this be premised That between the regenerate and a wicked person there is a middle state so that it is not presently true that if the man be not wicked he is presently Regenerate Between the two states of so vast a distance it is impossible but there should be many intermedial degrees between the Carnal and Spiritual man there is a Moral man not that this man shall have a different event of things if he does abide there but that he must pass from extreme to extreme by this middle state of participation The first is a slave of sin the second is a servant of righteousness the third is such a one as liveth according to Natural reason so much of it as is left him and is not abused that is lives a probable life but is not renewed by the Spirit of grace one that does something but not all not enough for the obtaining salvation For a man may have gone many steps from his former baseness and degenerous practices and yet not arrive at godliness or the state of pardon like the children of Israel who were not presently in Canaan as soon as they were out of Egypt but abode long in the wilderness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they begin to be instructed that is their state Thou art not far from the kingdome of heaven said our blessed Saviour to a well disposed person but he was not arrived thither he was not a subject of the Kingdome These are such whom our blessed Lord cals The weary and the heavy laden that is such who groan under the heavy pressure of their sins whom therefore he invites to come to him to be eased Such are those whom Saint Paul here describes to be under the law convinced of sin pressed vexed troubled with it complaining of it desirous to be eased Acts 1. These the holy Scripture cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ordained disposed to life eternal but these were not yet the fideles or believers but from that fair disposition became believers upon the preaching of the Apostles In this third state of men I account those that sin and repent and yet repent and sin again for ever troubled when they have sinn'd and yet for ever or most frequently sinning when the temptation does return 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They sin and accuse and hate themselves for sinning Now because these men mean well and fain would be quit of their sin at their own rate and are not scandalous and impious they flatter themselves and think all is well with them that they are regenerate and in the state of the Divine favour and if they die so their accounts are ballanc'd and they doubt not but they shall reign as kings for ever To reprove this state of folly and danger we are to observe that there are a great many steps of this progression which are to be passed through and the end is not yet the man is not yet arrived at the state of regeneration 1. An unregenerate man may be convinc'd and clearly instructed in his duty and approve the law and confess the obligation and consent that it ought to be done which S. Paul cals a consenting to the law that it is good and a being delighted in it according to the inward man even the Gentiles which have not the law yet shew the work of the law written in their hearts Rom. 2.14 their thoughts in the mean time accusing or excusing one another The Jews did more they did rest in the law and glory in God knowing his will and approving the things that are more excellent And there are too many who being called Christians know their Masters will and doe it not and this consenting to the law and approving it is so farre from being a sign of regeneration that the vilest and the basest of men are those who sin most against their knowledge and against their consciences In this world a man may have faith great enough to remove mountains and yet be without charity and in the world to come some shall be rejected from the presence of God though they shall ailege for themselves that they have prophecied in the name of Christ * This delight in the law which is in the unregenerate is onely in the understanding The man considers what an excellent thing it is to be vertuous the just proportions of duty the fitness of being subordinate to God the rectitude of the soul the acquiescence and appendent peace and this delight is just like that which is in finding out proportions in Arithmetick and Geometry or the rest in discovering the secrets of a mysterious proposition a man hath great pleasure in satisfactory notices and the end of his disquisition So also it is in moral things a good man is belov'd by every one and there is a secret excellency and measure a musick and proportion between a mans minde and wise counsels which impious and profane persons cannot perceive because they are so full of false measures and weak discourses and vile appetites and a rude inconsideration of the reasonableness and wisdome of sobriety and severe courses But virtus laudatur alget this is all that some men doe and there is in them nothing but a preparation of the understanding to the things of God a faith seated in the rational part a conviction of the minde which as it was intended to lead on the will to action and the other faculties to obedience so now that the effect is not acquired it serves onely to upbraid the man for a knowing and discerning Criminal he hath not now the excuse of ignorance He that complies with an Usurper out of fear and interest in actions prejudicial to the lawful Prince and tells the honest party that he is right in his heart though he be forc'd to comply helps the other with an argument to convince him that he is a false man He that does it heartily and according to a present conscience hath some excuse but he that confesses that he is right in his perswasion and wrong in his practise is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 condemn'd by himself and professes himself a guilty person a man whom interest and not conscience governs Better it is not to know at all then not to pursue the good we know They that know not God are infinitely far from him but they who know him and yet doe not obey him are sometimes the nearer for their knowledge sometimes the further off but as yet they are not arrived whither it is intended they should go 2. An unregenerate man may with his will delight in goodness and desire it earnestly For in an unregenerate man there is a double appetite and there may be the apprehension of two amabilities The things of the Spirit please his minde and his will may consequently desire that this good were done because it seems beauteous to the rational part to his
Spiritual and Evangelical that is not only that good which he is taught by natural reason or by civil sanctions or by use and experience of things but even that also which is onely taught us by the Spirit of grace For if he can desire the first much more may he desire the latter when he once comes to know it because there is in spiritual good things much more amability they are more perfective of our minde and a greater advancer of our hopes and a security to our greatest interest Neither can this be prejudic'd by those words of S. Paul 1 Cor. 2.24 The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned For the naturall man S. Paul speaks of is one unconverted to Christianity the Gentile Philosophers who relied upon such principles of nature as they understood but studied not the Prophets knew not of the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles nor of those excellent verifications of the things of the Spirit and therefore these men could not arrive at spiritual notices because they did not go that way which was the onely competent and proper instrument of finding them Scio incapacem te Sacramenti impie Prudent Non posse caecis mentibus mysterium Haurire nostrum They that are impious and they that go upon distinct principles neither obeying the proposition nor loving the Commandement they indeed viz. remaining in that indisposition cannot receive that is entertain him And this is also the sense of the words of our blessed Saviour Joh. 14 17. The world cannot receive him that is the unbeleevers such who will not be perswaded by arguments Evangelical But a man may be a spiritual man in his notices and yet be carnal in his affections and still under the bondage of sin 2 Pet. 2 21. Such are they of whom S. Peter affirms it is better they had never known the way of righteousness then having known it to fall away Such are they of whom S. Paul says Rom. 1.18 They detain the truth in unrighteousness Now concerning this man it is that I affirm that upon the same account as any vicious man can commend vertue this man also may commend holiness and desire to be a holy man and wishes it with all his heart there being the same proportion between his minde and the things of the Spirit as between a Jew and the Moral Law or a Gentile and Moral vertue that is he may desire it with passion and great wishings But here is the difference A regenerate man does what the unregenerate man does but desire 4. An unregenerate man may leave many sins which he is commanded to forsake For it is not ordinarily possible that so perfect a conviction as such men may have of the excellency of religion should be in all instances and periods totally ineffective Something they will give to reputation something to fancy something to fame something to peace something to their own deception that by quitting one or two lusts they may have some kinde of peace in all the rest and think all is well These men sometimes would fain obey the law but they will not crucify the flesh any thing that does not smart Their temper and constitution will allow them easily to quit such superinduc'd follies which out of a gay or an impertinent spirit they have contracted or which came to them by company or by chance or confidence or violence but if they must mortify the flesh to quit a lust that 's too hard and beyond their powers which are in captivity to the law of sin * Some men will commute a duty and if you will allow them covetousness they will quit their lust or their intemperance according as it happens Herod did many things at the preaching of John the Baptist and heard him gladly Balaum did some things handsomely though he was covetous and ambitious yet he had a limit he would obey the voyce of the Angel and could not be tempted to speak a curse when God spake a blessing Ahab was an imperfect penitent he did some things but not enough And if there be any root of bitterness there is no regeneration Colloquintida and Death is in the pot 5. An unregenerate man may leave some sins not onely for temporal interest but out of reverence of the Divine law out of fear and reverence Under the law there were many such and there is no peradventure but that many men who like Felix have trembled at a Sermon have with such a shaking fit left off something that was fit to be laid aside To leave a sin out of fear of the Divine judgement is not sinful or totally unacceptable All that lest sin in obedience and reverence to the law did it in fear of punishment because fear was the sanction of the law and even under the Gospel to obey out of fear of punishment though it be less perfect yet it is not criminal nay rather on the other side The worse that men are so much the less they are afraid of the Divine anger judgements To abstain out of fear is to abstain out of a very proper motive and God when he sends a judgement with a design of emendation or threatens a criminal or denounces woes and cursings intends that fear should be the beginning of wisdome Knowing therefore the terrors of the Lord 2 Cor. 5.11 we perswade men saith S. Paul And the whole design of delivering criminals over to Satan was but a pursuance of this argument of fear that by feeling something they might fear a worse and for the present be affrighted from their sin And this was no other then the argument which our blessed Saviour used to the poor Paralytick Goe and sin no more lest a worse thing happen to thee But besides that this good fear may work much in an unregenerate person or a man under the law such a person may doe some things in obedience to God or thankfulness and perfect meer choice So Jehu obeyed God a great way but there was a turning and a high stile beyond which he would not goe and his principles could not carry him through Few women can accuse themselves of adultery in the great lines of chastity they choose to obey God and the voyce of honour but can they say that their eye is not wanton that they do not spend great portions of their time in vanity that they are not idle and useless or busy-bodies that they doe not make it much of their imployment to talk of fashions and trifles or that they do make it their business to practise religion to hear and attend to severe and sober counsels If they be under the conduct of the Spirit he hath certainly carried them into all the regions of duty But to goe a great way and not to nnish the journey is the imperfection of the unregenerate For in some persons fear
is not yet alive But when he prevails regularly and daily over his sin then he is in a state of regeneration but let him take heed for every voluntary or chosen sin is a mortal wound But because no man in this world hath so conquer'd but he may be smitten and is sometimes struck at and most good men have cause to complain of their calamity that in their understandings there are doubtings and strange mistakes which because after a great confidence they are sometimes discovered there is cause to suspect there are some there still which are not discovered that there are in the will evil inclinations to forbidden instances that in the appetite there are carnal desires that in their natural actions there are sometimes too sensual applications that in their good actions there are mighty imperfections it will be of use that we separate the certain from the uncertain security from danger the apology from the accusation and the excuse from the crime by describing what are and what are not sins of Infirmity For most men are pleased to call their debaucheries sins of infirmity if they be done against their reason and the actual murmur of their consciences and against their trifling resolutions and ineffective purposes to the contrary Now although all sins are the effects of infirmity Natural or Moral yet because I am to cure a popular mistake I am also to understand the word as men doe commonly and by sins of Infirmity to mean Such sins which in the whole and upon the matter are unavoidable and therefore excusable Such which can consist with the state of grace that is such which have so much irregularity in them as to be sins and yet so much excuse and pity as that by the Covenant and Mercies of the Gospel they shall not be exacted in the worst of punishments or punished with eternal pains because they cannot with the greatest moral diligence wholly be avoided Concerning these so described we are to take accounts by the following measures 1. Natural imperfections and evil inclinations when they are not consented to or delighted in either are no sins at all or if they be they are but sins of infirmity That in some things our nature is cross to the divine Commandement is not always imputable to us because our natures were before the Commandement and God hath therefore commanded us to doe violence to our nature that by such preternatural contentions we should offer to God a service that costs us something But that in some things we are inclin'd otherwise then we are suffered to act is so far from offending God that it is that opportunity of serving him by which we can most endear him To be inclined to that whither nature bends is of it self indifferent but to love to entertain to act our inclinations when the Commandement is put between that is the sin and therefore if we resist them and master them that is our obedience For it is equally certain no man can be esteemed spiritual for his good wishes and desires of holiness but for his actual and habitual obedience so no man is to be esteemed carnal or criminal for his natural inclinations to what is forbidden But that good men complain of their strange propensities to sin it is a declaration of their fears of their natural weakness of the needs of grace and the aids of Gods Spirit But because these desires even when they are much restrained doe yet sometimes insensibly go too far therefore it is that such are sins of infirmity because they are almost unavoidable This remain is like the image of the ape which Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria left after the breaking of the other idols a testimony of their folly but as that was left for no other purpose but to reprove them so is this to humble us that we may not rely upon flesh and blood but make God to be our confidence 2. Sins of infirmity are rather observed in the imperfection of our duty then in the commission of any criminal action For in this it was that our blessed Saviour instanc'd these words Mat. 26.21 The spirit truly is willing but the flesh is weak The body is weary the eies heavy the fancy restless diversions many businesses perpetually intervene and all the powers of discourse and observation cannot hinder our minde from wandring in our prayers Odi artus fragilémque hunc corporis usum Desertorem animi But this being in the whole unavoidable is therefore in many of its parts and instances very excusable if we doe not indulge to it if we pray and strive against it that is so long as it is a natural infirmity For although we cannot avoid wandring thoughts yet we can avoid delighting in them or a careless and negligent increasing them For if they once seise upon the will they are sins of choice and malice and not of infirmity So that the great scene of sins of infirmity is in omission of degrees and portions of that excellency of duty which is required of us We are imperfect and we do imperfectly and if we strive towards perfection God will pity our imperfection There is no other help for us but blessed be God that is sufficient for our need and proportionable to our present state 3. But in actions and matters of commission the case is different For though a man may forget himself against his will or sleep or fall yet without his will he cannot throw himself down or rise again Every action is more or less voluntary but every omission is not A thing may be let alone upon a dead stock or a negative principle or an unavoidable defect but an action cannot be done without some command or action of the will therefore although sins of defect are in many cases pitied and not exacted yet sinful actions have not so easy a sentence but they also have some abatements Therefore 4. Imperfect actions such which are incomplete in their whole capacity are sins of infirmity and ready and prepar'd for pity of this sort are rash or ignorant actions done by surprise by inconsideration and inadvertency by a sudden and great fear in which the reason is in very many degrees made useless and the action cannot be considered duly In these there is some little mixture of choice so much as to make the action imputable if God should deal severely with us but yet so little that it shall not be imputed under the mercies of the Gospel although the man that does them cannot pretend he is innocent yet he can pretend that he does stand fair in the eye of mercy A good man may sometimes be unwary or he may speak or be put to it to resolve or doe before he can well consider If he does a thing rashly when he can consider and deliberate he is not excused but if he does it indiscreetly when he must doe it suddenly it is his infirmity and he shall be relieved at the Chancery of
men flatter themselves into hell by a pretence of sins of infirmity they are as unreasonable as they are dangerous and they are easily reproved upon the stock of the former truths Therefore 6. Although our meer natural inclination to things forbidden be of it self a natural and unavoidable infirmity and such which cannot be cured by all the precepts and endevours of perfection yet this very inclination if it be heightned by carelesness or evil customes is not a sin of infirmity Tiberius the Emperour being troubled with a fellow that wittily and boldly pretended himself to be a Prince at last when he could not by questions he discovered him to be a mean person by the rusticity and hardness of his body not by a callousness of his feet or a wart upon a finger but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his whole body was hard and servile and so he was discovered The natural superfluities and accrescencies that inevitably adhere to our natures are not sufficient indications of a servile person or a slave to sin but when our natures are abused by choice and custome when the callousness is spread by evil and hard usages when the arms are brawny by the services of Egypt then it is no longer infirmity but a superinduc'd viciousness and a direct hostility When nature rules grace does not When the flesh is in power the spirit is not Therefore it matters not from what corner the blasting winde does come from whence soever it is it is deadly Most of our sins are from natural inclinations and the negative precept of God are for the most part restraints upon them Therefore to pretend nature when our selves have spoil'd it is no excuse but that state of evil from whence the Spirit of God is to rescue and redeem us 7. Yea but although it be thus in nature yet it is hop'd by too many that it shall be allowed to be infirmity when the violence of our passions or desires overcomes our resolutions Against this I oppose this proposition When violence of desire or passion engages us in a sin whither we see and observe our selves entring that violence or transportation is not our excuse but our disease and that resolution is not accepted for innocence or repentance but the not performing what we did resolve is our sin and the violence of passion was the accursed principle For to resolve is a relative and imperfect duty in order to something else It had not been necessary to resolve if it had not been necessary to doe it and if it be necessary to doe it it is not sufficient to resolve it And for the understanding of this the better we must observe that to resolve and to endevour are several things To resolve is to purpose to doe what we may if we will some way or other the thing is in our power either we are able of our selves or we are help'd No man resolves to carry an Elephant or to be as wise as Solomon or to destroy a vast Army with his own hands He may endevour this for To endevour sometimes supposes a state of excellency beyond our power but not beyond our aymes Thus we must endevour to avoid all sin and to master all our infirmities because to doe so is the nobleness of a Christian courage and that designe which is the proper effect of Charity which is the best of Christian graces But we cannot resolve to doe it because it is beyond all our powers but may endevour it and resolve to endevour it but that 's all we can doe But if to resolve be a duty then to perform it is a greater and if a man cannot be the childe of God without resolving against all the habits of sin then neither can he be his childe unless he actually quit them all But then if from acting our resolution we be hindred by passion and violent desires we are plainly in the state of immortification Passion is the Ruler and as the first step of victory is to keep those passions and appetites from doing any Criminal action abroad so the worst they can doe is to engage and force the man to sin and that against his will even whether he list or no. But concerning this Article we are intirely determin'd by the words of S. Paul Gal. 5.24 He that is in Christ hath crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts that is the passions and desires of the flesh are mortified in all the regenerate and therefore a state of passion is a state of death But whatever the principle be yet we must be infinitely careful we doe not mistake a broken resolution for an intire piety He that perpetually resolves and yet perpetually breaks his resolution does all the way sin against his conscience and against his reason against his experience and against his observation and it will be a strange offer at an excuse for a man to hope for or to pretend to pardon because he sinned against his Conscience There is in this Article some little difference in the case of young persons the violence of whose passions as it transports them infallibly to evil so it helps to excuse some of it but this is upon a double account 1. Because part of it is natural naturale vitium aetatis the defect and inherent inclinations of their age 2. And because their passions being ever strongest when their reason is weakest the actions of young men are imperfect and incompleat For deliberation being nothing else but an alternate succession of appetites it is an unequal entercourse that a possessing natural promoted passion should contest against a weak overborn beginning unexperienc'd uninstructed reason this alternation of appetites is like the dust of a ballance weighing against a rock the deliberation it self must needs be imperfect because there is no equality And therefore the Roman Lawyers did not easily upon a man under twenty five years of age inflict punishment at least not extreme They are the words of Tryphonius L. Auxil §. in delictis ff de minoribus In delictis autem minor annis xxv non meretur in integrum restitutionem utique atrocioribus nisi quatenus interdum miseratio aetatis ad mediocrem poenam judicem produxerit This I say is onely a lessening of their fault not imputing it God is ready to pity every thing that is pityable and therefore is apt to instruct them more and to forbear them longer and to expect and to assist their return and strikes them not so soon nor so severely but what other degrees of pardon God will allow to their insirmities L. Unicâ Cod. si adversus delictum he hath no where told us For as to the whole it is true in all laws Divine and Humane In criminibus quidem aetatis suffragio minores non juvantur etenim malorum mores infirmitas animi non excusat Infirmity of mind does not excuse evil manners and therefore in criminal actions yong persons are not
Ep. 16. Et te defendat Regulus ipse licèt Non potes absolvi That is your cause is lost you are inexcusable there is no apology no pleading for you and that the same is here meant we understand by those parallel words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is left no sacrifice for him alluding to Moses law in which for them that sin'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a high hand Heb. 10.26 for them that despised Moses law there was no sacrifice appointed which Ben Maimon expounds saying that for Apostates there was no sacrifice in the law So that it is impossible to renew such means that it is ordinarily impossible we have in the discipline of the Church no door of reconciliation If he repents of this he is not the same man but if he remains so the Church hath no promise to be heard if she prays for him which is the last thing that the Church can doe To absolve him is to warrant him that in this case is absolutely impossible but to pray for him is to put him into some hopes and for that she hath in this case no commission For this is the sin unto death of which S. John speaks and gives no incouragement to pray So that impossible does signify in sensu forensi a state of sin which is sentenc'd by the law to be capital and damning but here it signifies the highest degree of that deadliness and impossibility as there are degrees of malignity and desperation in mortal diseases for of all evils this state here described is the worst And therefore here is an impossibility But besides all other senses of this word it is certain by the whole frame of the place and the very analogy of the Gospel that this impossibility here mentioned is not an impossibility of the thing but onely relative to the person It is impossible to restore him whose state of evil is contrary to pardon and restitution as being a renouncing the Gospel that is the whole Covenant of pardon and repentance Such is that parallel expression used by S. John 1 Joh. 3.9 He that is born of God sinneth not neither indeed can he that is it is impossible he cannot sin for the seed of God remaineth in him Now this does not signify that a good man cannot possibly sin if he would that is it does not signify a natural or an absolute impossibility but such as relates to the present state and condition of the person being contrary to sin the same with that of S. Paul Be ye led by the spirit Gal. 5.17 for the spirit lusteth against the flesh so that ye cannot doe the things which ye would viz. which the flesh would fain tempt you to A good man cannot sin that is very hardly can he be brought to choose or to delight in it he cannot sin without a horrible trouble and uneasiness to himself so on the other side such Apostates as the Apostle speaks of cannot be renewed that is without extreme difficulty and a perfect contradiction to that state in which they are for the present lost But if this man will repent with a repentance proportion'd to that evil which he hath committed that he ought not to despair of pardon in the Court of Heaven we have the affirmation of Justin Martyr Dial. cont Tryph. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They that confess and acknowledge him to be Christ and for whatsoever cause goe from him to the secular conversation viz. to Heathenism or Judaism c. denying that he is Christ and not confessing him again before their death they can never be saved So that this impossibility concerns not those that return and doe confess him but those that wilfully and maliciously reject this onely way of salvation as false and deceitful and never return to the confession of it again which is the greatest sin against the Holy Ghost of which I am in the next place to give a more particular account §. 5. HE that speaketh against the Holy Ghost Matth. 12.32 it shall never be forgiven him in this world nor in the world to come so said our blessed Saviour Origen and the Novatians after him when the Scholars of Novatus to justify their Masters Schism from the Church had chang'd the good old discipline into a new and evil doctrine said that all the sins of Christians committed after Baptism are sins against the Holy Ghost by whom in Baptism they have been illuminated and by him they were taught in the Gospel and by him they were consign'd in confirmation and promoted in all the assistances and Conduct of grace and they gave this reason for it Because the Father is in all Creatures the Son only in the Reasonable and the Holy Spirit in Christians against which if they prevaricate they shall not be pardon'd while the sins of Heathens as being onely against the Son are easily pardon'd in baptism I shall not need to refute this fond opinion as being already done by S. Athanasius in a Book purposely written on this subject and it fals alone for that to sin against the Holy Ghost is not proper to Christians appears in this that Christ charg'd it upon the Pharisees and that every sin of Christians is not this sin against the Holy Ghost appears because Christians are perpetually called upon to repent for to what purpose should any man be called from his sin if by returning he shall not escape damnation or if he shall then that sin is not against the Holy Ghost or if it be that sin is not unpardonable either of which destroys their fond affirmative S. Austin makes final impenitence to be it against which opinion though many things may be oppos'd yet it is openly confuted in being charged upon the Pharisees who were not then guilty of final impenitence But the instance clears the article The Pharisees saw the light of Gods Spirit manifestly shining in the miracles which Christ did and they did not onely despise his Person and persecute it which is speaking against the Son of Man that is sinning against him for speaking against is sinning or doing against it in the Jews manner of expression but they also spightfully and maliciously blasphemed that Spirit and that power of God by which they were convinc'd and by which such Miracles were done Vers 36. And this was that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that idle and unprofitable word spoken of in the following verses by which Christ said they should be judged at the last day such which whosoever should speak he should give account thereof in that day Now this was ever esteemed a high and an intolerable Crime for it was not new but an old Crime onely it was manifested by an appellative relating to a power and a name now more used then formerly This was the sin for which Corah and his Company died who did despise and reproach the works of God his power and the mightiness of his hand manifested in
since the Spirit hath prevailed upon the flesh in its strengths and hath crucified it there is no question but it can also prevail upon all its weaknesses For we must be curious to avoid a mistake here The dominion of the Spirit and the remains of the flesh may consist together in the regenerate as some remains of cold with the prevailing heat but the dominion of one and the other are in every degree inconsistent as both cold and heat cannot in any sense be both said to be the prevailing ingredient A man cannot be said to be both free from sin and a slave to sin If he hath prevailed in any degree upon sin then he is not at all a servant of that portion from whence he is set free but if he be a captive of any one sin or regular degree of it he is not Gods freed man for the Spirit prevails upon all as well as upon one and that is not an infinite power that cannot redeem us from all our slavery But to be a slave of sin and at the same time to be a servant of righteousness is not onely against the analogy of Scripture and the express signification of so many excellent periods but against common sense it is as if one should say that a man hath more heat then cold in his hand and yet that the cold should prevail upon and be stronger then the heat that is that the weaker should overcome the stronger and the less should be greater then that which is bigger then it But as the choice of vertue is abated and as the temptation grows more violent and urges more vehemently is made less pleasant in the regenerate person so is the choice of vice in the Moral or Animal man The contention abates the pleasure in both their choices but in the one it ends in sin in the other it ends in victory So that there is an unwillingness to sin in all but in the impious and profane person in the far distant stranger But the unwillingness to sin that is in the Animal or Moral man is nothing else but a serving sin like a grumbling servant or like the younger son of the Farmer in the Gospel he said he would not but did it for all his angry words And therefore that the unregerate man acts the sin against his minde and after a long contention against it does not in all cases lessen it Caus 24. q. 1. C. Schisma but sometimes increases it Nec leviat crimen corum magis verò auget quòd eos diùrestitisse dixistis said Pope Pelagius To resist long and then to consent hath in it some aggravations of the crime as being a conviction of the mans baseness a violence to reason a breach of former resolutions a recession from fair beginnings and wholly without excuse * But if ever it comes to pass that in the contention of flesh and spirit the regenerate man does sin he does it unwillingly that is by ignorance or inadvertency The unregenerate sins unwillingly too but it is by reason of the dominion and rule that sin bears over him but still this difference distinguishes them in the event of things that when it comes to the question whether sin shall be done or no the one wills and the other wills not though it may happen that the consent or dissent respectively may be with the same unwillingness by reason of the contention and strife from the adverse though weaker party The unregenerate man may be unwilling to obey sin but he obeys it for all that and the unwillingness is a sign of the greater slavery but there can be no sign of his regeneration but by not obeying the sin in the day of its own power and temptation A servant is still a servant whether he obeys with or against his will His servants we are to whom we obey saith S. Paul all therefore that is to be considered in the Question of regeneration is whether the man obeys or not obeys for whether he be willing or unwilling is not here considerable Let no man therefore flatter himself that he is a regenerate person because though he is a servant to sin and acts at the command of his lust and cannot resist in the evil day or stand the shock of a temptation yet he finds an unwillingness within him and a strife against sin Hugo de S. Victore or else S. Austin in the Book de continentiâ gave beginning or countenance to this error Hanc pugnam non experiuntur in semetipsis nisi bellatores virtutum debellatorésque vitiorum This fight none finde in themselves but they that fight on vertues side and destroy vice Which words though something crudely set down and so not true yet are explicable by the following period Non expugnat concupiscentiae malum nisi continentiae bonum onely holy and continent persons doe overcome their concupiscence and in that sense it is true Onely the regenerate feel this fight which ends in victory But he whose contention ends in sin and after a brave onset yeelds basely frequently I mean or habitually every such person is a servant of sin and therefore not a servant of the spirit but free from that is not rul'd by the law of righteousness And this is so certain that this unwillingness to sin which ends in obeying it is so far from being a note of a regenerate person that it is evidently true that no man can come from the servitude or slavery of sin but the first step of his going from it is the sense and hatred of his fetters and then his desire of being freed but therefore he is not free because he complains of his bands and finds them heavy and intolerable and therefore seeks for remedy For if an unregenerate person did always sin willingly that is without this reluctancy and strife within and the regenerate did sin as infallibly but yet sore against his will then the regenerate person were the verier slave of the two for he that obeys willingly is less a slave then he that obeys in spight of his heart Libertatis servaveris umbram Si quicquid jubeare velis He that delights in his fetters hath at least the shadow and some of the pleasure of liberty but he hath nothing of it who is kept fast and groans because his feet are hurt in the stocks and the iron entreth into his soul It was the sad state and complaint of the Romans when by the iniquity of war and the evil success of their armies they were forc'd to entertain their bondage tot rebus iniquis Paruimus victi venia est haec sola pudoris DegenerÃsque metus nil jam potuisse negari It was a conquest that gave them laws and their ineffective strugling and daily murmurs were but ill arguments of their liberty which were so great demonstrations of their servitude 3. An unregenerate man may not onely will and desire to doe Natural or Moral good things but even