called Christians but be so for not to be called but to be so brings us to felicity that is since the life of a Christian is the life of Repentance whose work it is for ever to contend against sin for ever to strive to please God a dying to sin a living to Christ he that thinks his Repentance can have another definition or is compleated in any other or in fewer parts must be of another Religion then is taught by Christ and his holy Apostles This is the Faith of the Son of God this is that state of excellent things which he purchased with his blood and as there is no other Name under heaven so there is no other Faith no other Repentance whereby we can be saved Upon this Article it is usual to discourse of Sorrow and Contrition of Confession of sins of making amends of self-affliction and some other particulars but because they are not parts but actions fruits and significations of Repentance I have reserved them for their proper place Now I am to apply this general Doctrine to particular states of sin and sinners in the following Chapters §. 3. Descriptions of Repentance taken from the holy Scriptures ¶ WHen heaven is shut up 1 Kings 8.35 36. and there is no rain because they have sinned against thee if they pray towards this place and confess thy name and turn from their sin when thou afflictest them * Then hear thou in heaven and forgive the sin of thy servants and of thy people Israel that thou teach them the good way wherein they should walk and give rain upon thy land which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance ¶ And the Redeemer shall come to Zion Isa 59.20 21. and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob saith the Lord. * As for me this is my Covenant with them saith the Lord My Spirit that is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy seed nor out of the mouth of thy seeds seed saith the Lord from henceforth and for ever Again when I say unto the wicked Ezek. 33.14 15 16. Thou shalt surely die if he turn from his sin and do that which is lawfull and right * If the wicked restore the pledge give again that he had rebbed walk in the statutes of life without committing iniquity he shall even live he shall not die * None of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him he hath done that which is lawful and right he shall surely live Knowing this Rom. 6.6 11 12 13 18 19. that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin * Likewise reckon ye also your selves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. * Let not sin therefore reign in your mortall body that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof * Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin but yield your selves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God * Being then made free from sin ye became the servants of righteousness * I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness Wherefore my brethren Rom. 7.4 5 6. ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ that ye should be married to another even to him who is raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God * For when we were in the flesh the motions of sins which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death * But now we are delivered from the law that being dead wherein we were held that we should serve in the newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter And that Rom. 13.11 12 13. knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep for now is our salvation nearer then when we believed * The night is farre spent the day is at hand let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armour of light * Let us walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in strife and envying * But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof Having therefore these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh 2 Cor. 7.1 10 11. and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God * For godly sorrow worketh Repentance to salvation not to be repented of but the sorrow of the world worketh death * For behold this self same thing that ye sorrowed after a godly sort what carefulness it wrought in you yea what clearing of your selves yea what indignation yea what fear yea what vehement desire yea what zeal yea what revenge in all things ye have approved your selves to be clear in this matter For the love of Christ constraineth us 2 Cor. 5.15 17. because we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead * Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature old things are past away behold all things are become new That ye put off Ephes 4.22 23 24. concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts * And be renewed in the spirit of your minde * And that ye put on that new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Let no man deceive you with vain words Eph. 5.6 7 8 9 10 11 15 16 17. for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience * Be not ye therefore partakers with them * For ye were sometimes darkness but now are ye light in the Lord walk as children of light * For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth * Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord * And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove them * See then that ye walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise * Redeeming the time because the dayes are evil * Wherefore be ye not unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is If ye then be risen with Christ Col 31 2 3 5 8 9 10. seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God * Set your affection on things above not on things on the earth * For ye are dead and your life is hidden with Christ in God * Mortifie therefore your members which are upon the
earth fornication uncleanness inordinate affection evil concupiscence and covetousness which is idolatry * But now you also put off all these anger wrath malice blasphemy filthy communication out of your mouth * Lie not one to another seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds * And have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him For the grace of God that bringeth salvation Tit. 2.11 12 13 14. hath appeared to all men * Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world * Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ * Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses Heb. 12.1 2 14 15. let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us * Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God * Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord * Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth Jam. 1.18 21 22. that we should be a kinde of first fruits of his creatures * Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness and receive with meekness the ingraffed word which is able to save your souls * But be ye doers of the word and not hearers onely deceiving your own selves Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises 2 Pet. 1.4 5 6 7 8 9. that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust * And besides this giving all diligence adde to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge * And to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness * And to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity * For if these things be in you and abound they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ * But he that lacketh these things is blinde and cannot see farre off and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins Wherefore gird up the loins of your minde 1 Pet. 1.13 14 15 16. be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ * As obedient children not fashioning your selves according to the former lusts in your ignorance * But as he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation * Because it is written Be ye holy for I am holy Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sins 1 Pet. 2.24 should live unto righteousness by whose stripes ye were healed The indispensable necessity of a good life represented in the following Scriptures WHosoever breaketh one of these least Commandements Mat. 5.19 and shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdome of heaven but whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the Kingdome of heaven And why call ye me Lord Luk. 6.46 Lord and do not the things which I say Ye are my friends Joh. 15.14 if ye do whatsoever I command you I beseech you therefore Rom. 12.1 2. brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service * And be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your minde that ye may prove what is that good that acceptable and perfect will of God Who will render to every man according to his deeds Rom. 2.6 7 8 9 10. * To them who by patient continuance in well doing seck for glory and honour and immortality eternal life * But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath * Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil of the Jew first and also of the Gentile * But glory honour and peace to every man that worketh good to the Jew first and also to the Gentile Circumcision is nothing 1 Cor. 7.19 and uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the Commandements of God Therefore my beloved brethren 1 Cor. 18.58 be ye stedfast unmoveable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. For in Christ Jesus Gal. 6.15 neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature For in Jesus Christ Gal. 5.6 neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but faith which worketh by love For we are his workmanship Eph. 2.10 created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them And this I pray Phil. 1.9 10 11. that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgement * That ye may approve things that are excellent that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ * Being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God Furthermore then we beseech you brethren 1 Thess 4.1 2 3. and exhort you by the Lord Jesus that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God so ye would abound more and more * For ye know what Commandements we gave by the Lord Jesus * For this is the will of God even your sanctification As you know how we exhorted and comforted 1 Thess 2.11 12 13. and charged every one of you as a Father doth his children * That ye should walk worthy of God who hath called you unto his Kingdome and glory * For this cause also thank we God without ceasing because when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us ye received it not as the word of men but as it is in truth the word of God which effectually worketh also in you that believe How much more shall the blood of Christ Heb. 9.4 5 9. who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God And having an High Priest over the house of God Heb. 10.21 22 23
this be expounded to be a permission to commit single acts Gal. 5.21 S. Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians affixes the same penalty to the actions as to the habits 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 5.21 they that doe such things that is the actions of those sins are damnable and exclusive from heaven as verily as the habits And however in moral accounts or in Aristotles Ethicks a man is not called by the name of a single action yet in all laws both of God and man he is He that steals once is a thief in the Courts of God and the King and one act of adultery makes a man an adulterer so that by this measure they that are such and they that doe such things means the same and the effect of both is exclusion from the Kingdome of heaven 4. Single actions in Scripture are called works of darkness deeds of the body works of the flesh Ephes 8. Rom. 8.13 and though they do not reign yet if they enter they disturb the rest and possession of the spirit of grace and therefore are in their several measures against the holiness of the Gospel of Christ All sins are single in their acting and a sinful habit differs from a sinful act but as many differ from one or as a year from an hour a vicious habit is but one sin continued or repeated for as a sin grows from little to great so it passes from act to habit a sin is greater because it is complicated externally or internally no other way in the world it is made up of more kinds or more degrees of choice and when two or three crimes are mixt in one action then the sin is loud and clamorous and if these still grow more numerous and not interrupted and disjoyned by a speedy repentance then it becomes a habit As the continuation of an instant or its perpetual fluxe makes time and proper succession so does the reacting or the continuing in any one or more sins make a habitual sinner So that in this Question the answer for one will serve for the other where ever the habit is forbidden there also the act is criminal and against God damnable by the laws of God and actually damning without repentance Between sins great and little actual and habitual there is no difference of nature or formality but onely of degrees 5. And therefore the words that represent the state of sin are used indifferently both for acts and habits 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to doe single acts and by aggravation onely can signify an habitual sinner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that commits sin is of the Devil so S. 1 Joh. 3.8 John by which although he means especially him that commits sin frequently or habitually for where there is greater reason there is the stronger affirmative yet that he must also mean it of single sins is evident not onely by the nature of the thing some single acts in some instances being as mischievous and malicious as a habit in others but by the words of our blessed Saviour that the Devil is the Father of lies and therefore every one that tels a lie is of the Devil eátenus To which adde also the words of S. John explicating his whole design in these and all his other words These things I write unto you that ye might not sin that is that ye might not doe sinful actions for it cannot be supposed that he did not as verily intend to prevent every sin as any sin or that he would onely have men to beware of habitual sins and not of actual single sins without which caution he could never have prevented the habitual To doe sin is to do one or to do many and are both forbidden under the same danger The same manner of expression in a differing matter hath a different signification To doe sin is to doe any one act of it but to doe righteousness is to doe it habitually He that doeth sin that is one act of sin is of the Devil But he that doth righteousness viz. habitually he onely is righteous The reason of the difference is this because one sin can destroy a man but one act of vertue cannot make him alive As a phial is broken though but a piece of its lip be cut away but it is not whole unless it be intire and unbroken in every part Dionys de Divin Nomin Bonum ex integrâ causâ malum ex qualibet particulari And therefore since he that does righteousness in S. Johns phrase is righteous and yet no man is righteous for doing one act of righteousness it follows that by doing righteousness he must mean doing it habitually But because one blow can kill a man or wound him desperately therefore when S. John speaks of doing sin he means doing any sin any way or in any degree of act or habit For this is that we are commanded by the Spirit of Christ we must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 walk exactly not having spot or wrinkle Eph. 5.15.27 or any thing of that nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holy and unblameable so must the Church be that is so must be all the faithful or the men and women of the Christian Church for the Church is nothing but a congregation or collective body of believing persons Christ therefore intending to represent the Church to God without spot or wrinkle or fault Caesar Arelat hom 16. intends that all his servants should be so For let no man deceive himself Omnis homo qui post baptismum mortalia crimina commiserit hoc est homicidium adulterium furtum falsum testimonium vel reliqua crimina perpetravit unde per legem mundanam mori poterat si poenitentiam non egerit eleemosynam justam non fecerit nunquam habebit vitam aeternam sed cum Diabolo descendet ad inferna Every man who after his baptism hath committed mortal or killing sins that is to say murder adultery theft false witness or any other crimes which are capital by humane laws if he does not repent if he does not give just measures of alms he shall not have eternal life but with the Devil he shall descend into hell This is the sad sentence against all single acts of sin in the capital or greater instances But upon this account who can be justified who can hope for heaven since even the most righteous man that is sinneth and by single acts of unworthiness interrupts his course of piety and pollutes his spirit If a single act of these great or mortal sins can stand with the state of grace then not acts of these but habits are forbidden and these onely shut a man from heaven But if one single act destroys the state of grace and puts a man out of Gods favour then no man abides in it long and what shall be at the end of these things To this I answer that single acts are continually forbidden and in every period of their
it then this For every one that breaks a Commandement let the instance be what it will is a transgressor of the same bond by which he was bound to all Non quòd omnia legis praecepta violârit sed quòd legis Authorem contempserit eóque proemio meritò careat quod legis cultoribus propositum est saith venerable Bede He did not violate all the Commandements but he offended him who is the giver of all the Commandements It is like letting one Bead fall from a Rosary or Coronet of Bugles This or that or a third makes no difference the string is as much broken if he lets one to slide as if he dropp'd twenty It was not an ill conceit of Menedemus the Eretrian that there was but one vertue which had divers names Aristo Chius express'd the same conceit with a little difference affirming all vertues to be the same in reality and nature but to have a certain diversification or rational difference by relation to their objects As if one should call the sight when it looks upon a Crow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if upon a Swan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so is vertue When it moderates the affections it is Temperance when it ballances contracts it is Justice when it considers what is and what is not to be done it is Prudence That which they call Vertue if we call it the Grace of God or Obedience it is very true which they say For the same spirit the same grace of obedience is Chastity or Temperance or Justice according as is the subject matter The love of God if it be in us is productive of all worthiness and this is it which S. John said This is love that we keep his Commandements The love of God constraineth us It worketh all the works of God in us It is the fulfilling of the Commandements For this is a Catholicon an Universal Grace Charity gives being to all vertues it is the life and spirit of all holy actions Abstinence from feasts and inordination mingled with Charity is Temperance And Justice is Charity and Chastity is Charity and Humility is still but an instance of Charity This is that Transcendent that gives life and vertue to Alms to Preaching to Faith to Miracles it does all obedience to God all good offices to our Neighbours which in effect is nothing but the sentence of Menedemus and Aristo that there is an Universal Vertue that is there is one soul and essence of all vertue They call it Vertue S. Paul calls it Charity and this is that one thing which is necessary that one thing which every man that sins does violate He that is guilty of all is but guilty of that one and therefore he that is guilty of that one of the breach of Charity is guilty of all And upon this account it is that no one sin can stand with the state of grace because he that sins in one instance sins against all goodness not against all instances of duty but against that which is the life of all against Charity and Obedience A Prayer to be said in the dayes of Repentance for the commission of any great Crime O Most glorious God I tremble to come into thy presence so polluted and dishonoured as I am by my foul stain of sin which I have contracted but I must come or I perish O my God I cannot help it now Miserable man that I am to reduce my self to so sad a state of things that I neither am worthy to come unto thee nor dare I stay from thee Miserable man that I am who lost that portion of innocence which if I should pay my life in price I cannot now recover O dear God I have offended thee my gracious Father my Lord my Patron my Judge my Advocate and my Redeemer Shame and sorrow is upon me for so offending thee my gracious Saviour But glory be to thee O Lord who art such to me who have offended thee It aggravates my sin that I have sinned against thee who art so excellent in thy self who art so good to me But if thou wert not so good to me though my sin would be less yet my misery would be greater The greatness of my Crime brings me to my Remedy and now I humbly pray thee to be merciful to my sin for it is very great II. O My God pity me and relieve my sad condition which is so extremely evil that I have no comfort but from that which is indeed my misery My baseness is increased by my hopes for it is thy grace and thy goodness which I have so provoked Thou O God didst give me thy grace and assist me by thy holy Spirit and call by thy Word and instruct me by thy Wisdome and didst work in me to will and to do according to thy good pleasure I knew my sin and I saw my danger and I was not ignorant and I was not surpris'd but wilfully knowingly basely and sensually I gave thee away for the pleasure of a minute for the purchase of vanity nay I exchanged thee for shame and sorrow and having justly forfeited thy love am plac'd I know not where nor in what degree of thy anger nor in what neighbourhood of damnation III. O God my God what have I done whither am I fallen I was well and blessed circled with thy Graces conducted by thy Spirit sealed up to the day of Redemption in a hopefull way towards thee and now I have listned to the whispers of a tempting Spirit and for that which hath in it no good no reason no satisfaction for that which is not I have forfeited those excellencies for the recovery of which my life is too cheap a price I am ashamed O God I am ashamed I put my mouth in the dust and my face in darkness and hate my self for my sin which I am sure thou hatest But give thy servant leave to hope that I shall feel the gracious effluxes of thy love I know thou art angry with me I have deserved it But if thou hadst not lov'd me and pitied me thou mightest have stricken me in the act of my shame I know the design of thy mercy and loving kindness is to bring me to repentance and pardon to life and grace I obey thee O God I humbly obey thy gracious purposes Receive O Lord a returning sinner a poor wounded person smitten by my enemies broken by my sin weary and heavy laden ease me of my burthen and strengthen me by a mighty grace that hereafter I may watch more carefully resist more pertinaciously walk more circumspectly and serve thee without the interruptions of duty by the intervening of a sin O let me rather die then choose to sin against thee any more Onely try me this once and bear me in thy arms and fortifie my holy purposes and conduct me with thy grace that thou mayest delight to pardon me and to save me through Jesus Christ my Lord and dearest Saviour Amen I
hates as to condemne the innocent He will by no means acquit the guilty It was part of his Name which he caused to be proclaimed in the Camp of Israel And if this could be otherwise a man might be in the state of sin and the state of grace at the same time which hitherto all Theology hath believ'd to be impossible 7. This whole Question is clear'd by a large discourse of S. Paul For having under the person of an unregenerate man complain'd of the habitual state of prevailing sin of one who is a slave to sin Rom. 7.14 sold under sin captive under a law of sin that is under vile inclinations and high pronenesses and necessities of sinning so that when he is convinc'd that he ought not to doe it yet he cannot help it though he fain would have it help'd 19 c. yet he cannot obey his own will but his accursed superinduc'd necessities and his sin within him was the ruler that and not his own better choyce was the principle of his actions which is the perfect character of an habitual sinner he inquires after a remedy for all this which remedy he cals a being delivered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the body of this death The remedy is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the grace of God through Jesus Christ for by Christ alone we can be delivered But what is to be done the extermination of this dominion and Empire of concupiscence the breaking of the kingdome of sin That being the evil he complains of and of which he seeks remedy that is to be remov'd But that we may well understand to what sense and in what degree this is to be done in the next periods he describes the contrary state of deliverance by the parts and characters of an habit or state of holiness which he cals a walking after the Spirit Rom. 8.1 c. opposed to a walking after the flesh It was a law in his members a law of sin and death Now he is to be made free by a contrary law the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus That is as sin before gave him law so now must the Spirit of God whereas before he minded the things of the flesh now he minds the things of the spirit that is the carnal-mindedness is gone and a spiritual-mindedness is the principle and ruler of his actions This is the deliverance from habitual sins even no other then by habitual graces wrought in us by the spirit of life by the grace of our Lord Jesus And this whole affair is rarely well summ'd up by the same Apostle Rom. 6.19 As ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness If ye were servants before so ye must be now it is but justice and reason that at least as much be done for God as for the Devil It is not enough morally to revoke what is past by a wishing it had not been done but you must oppose a state to a state a habit to a habit And the Author of the Book of Baruch presses it further yet Baruch 4.28 As it was your minde to go astray from God so being returned seek him ten times more It ought not to be less it must be as S. Chrysostome expresses it In Act. 4. hom 10 A custome against a custome a habit opposed to a habit that the evil may be driven out by the good as one nail is by another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vandalic â—1 said Procopius In those things where you have sinned to profit and to increase and improve to their contraries that is the more comely way to pardon 8. Either a habit of vertue is a necessary disposition to the pardon of a habit of vice or else the doctrine of mortification of the lusts of the flesh of all the lusts of all the members of the old man is nothing but a counsel and a caution of prudence but it contains no essential and indispensable duty For mortification is a long contention and a course of difficulty it is to be done by many arts and much caution and a long patience and a diligent observation by watchfulness and labour the work of every day the employment of all the prudence and all the advices of good men and the whole grace of God It is like the curing of a Hectick feaver which one potion will not doe Origen does excellently describe it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When a word is strengthened and nourished by care and assiduity and confirmed by opinions and wise sentences or near to confirmation it masters all oppositions and breaks in pieces the concupiscence This is the manner of mortification there must be resolutions and discourses assiduity and diligence auxiliaries from reason and wise sentences and advices of the prudent and all these must operate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto a confirmation or near it and by these the concupiscence can be master'd But this must be a work of time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Menander To dissolve a long custome in a short time is a work indeed but very hard if not impossible to be done by any man A man did not suddenly come to the state of evil from whence he is to arise Nemo repentè fuit turpissimus S. Basil homil 9. But as a man coming into a pestilential air does not suck in death at every motion of his lungs but by little and little the spirits are poysoned and at last enter into their portion of death so it is in a vicious custome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stob. The evil is not felt instantly it begins from little things and is the production of time and frequent actions And therefore much less can it be supposed that we can overcome our filthy habits and master our fortified corruptions by a sudden dash of piety and the ex tempore gleams of repentance Concerning this S. In regul fusiùs disput q. 6. 55. Basil discourses excellently Sicut enim morbi corporis inveterati c. For as the old diseases of the body are not healed without a long and painful attendance so must old sins be cured by a long patience a daily prayer and the sharpest contention of the spirit That which is died with many dippings is in grain and can very hardly be washed out Sic anima sanie peccatorum suppurata in habitu constituta malitiae vix ac multo negotio â—â—ui potest So is the soul when it is corrupted with the poyson of sin and hath contracted a malicious habit it can scarce but not without much labour be made clean Now since we say our nature is inclined to sin and we feel it to be so in many instances and yet that it needs time and progression to get a habit of that whither we too naturally tend we have reason to
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
thinkest that vices are born with us No they are superinduc'd and come in upon us afterwards And by this we may the better understand the following words I will not again curse the ground any more for mans sake Gen. 8.21 for the imagination of mans heart is evil from his youth Concerning which note that these words are not two sentences For this is not the reason why God gave over smiting because man was corrupt from his youth For if this had been the reason it would have come to pass that the same cause which moved God to smite would also move him to forbear which were a strange Oeconomy The words therefore are not a reason of his forbearing but an aggravation of his kindness as if he had said Though man be continually evil yet I will not for all that any more drown the world for mans being so evil and so the Hebrews note that the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 somtimes signifies although But the great outcry in this Question is upon confidence of the words of David Behold Psal 51.5 I was shapen in wickedness and in sin hath my mother conceived me To which I answer that the words are an Hebraism and signify nothing but an aggrandation of his sinfulness and are intended for an high expression meaning that I am wholly and intirely wicked For the verification of which exposition there are divers parallel places in the holy Scriptures Thou wert my hope when I hanged yet upon my mothers breasts and The ungodly are froward even from their mothers womb as soon as they be born they goe astray and speak lies which because it cannot be true in the letter must be an idiotism or propriety of phrase apt to explicate the other and signifying onely a ready a prompt a great and universal wickedness The like to this is that saying of the Pharises Joh. 5.34 Thou wert altogether born in sin and doest thou teach us which phrase and manner of speaking being plainly a reproach of the poor blinde man and a disparagement of him did mean onely to call him a very wicked person but not that he had derived his sin originally and from his birth for that had been their own case as much as his and therefore S. Chrysostome explaining this phrase says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is as if they should say Thou hast been a sinner all thy life time * To the same sense are those words of Job Job 31.18 I have guided her the widow from my mothers womb And in this expression and severity of hyperbole it is Isa 48.8 that God aggravated the sins of his people Thou wast called a transgressor from the womb And this way of expressing a great state of misery we finde us'd among the Heathen Writers for so Seneca brings in Oedipus complaining Infanti quoque decreta mors est Thebaid Fata quis tam tristia sortitus unquam Videram nondum diem jam tenebar Mors me antecessit aliquis intra viscera Materna lethum praecocis fati tulit Sed numquid peccavit Something like S. Bernards Damnatus antequam natus I was condemn'd before I was born dead before I was alive and death seised upon me in my mothers womb Some body brought in a hasty and a too forward death but did he sin also An expression not unlike to this we have in Lucian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pardon me that I was not born wicked or born to be wicked 2. If David had meant it literally it had not signified that himself was born in original sin but that his father and mother sinn'd when they begat him which the eldest son that he begat of Bathsheba for ought I know might have said truer then he in this sense Lib. 3. Strom. extrem And this is the exposition of Clemens Alexandrinus save onely that by my mother he understands Eva 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Though he was conceived in sin yet he was not in the sin peccatrix concepit sed non peccatorem she sinn'd in the conception not David And in the following words he speaks home to the main article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let them tell us where an infant did fornicate or how he who had done nothing could fall under the curse of Adam meaning so as to deserve the same evil that he did 3. If it did relate to his own person he might mean that he was begotten with that sanguine disposition and libidinous temper that was the original of his vile adultery and then though David said this truly of himself yet it is not true of all not of those whose temper is phlegmatick and unactive 4. If David had meant this of himself and that in regard of original sin this had been so far from being a penitential expression or a confessing of his sin that it had been a plain accusation of God and an excusing of himself As if he had said O Lord I confess I have sinn'd in this horrible murder and adultery but thou O God knowest how it comes to pass even by that fatal punishment which thou didst for the sin of Adam inflict on me and all mankinde above 3000. years before I was born thereby making me to fall into so horrible corruption of nature that unless thou didst irresistibly force me from it I cannot abstain from any sin being most naturally inclin'd to all In this sinfulness hath my mother conceived me and that hath produc'd in me this sad effect Who would suppose David to make such a confession or in his sorrow to hope for pardon for upbraiding not his own folly but the decrees of God 5. But that David thought nothing of this or any thing like it we may understand by the preceding words which are as a preface to these in the objection Against thee onely have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight that thou mightest be justified in thy saying and clear when thou art judged He that thus acquits God cannot easily be supposed in the very next breath so fiercely to accuse him 6. To which also adde the following words which are a sufficient reproof of all strange senses in the other In sin hath my mother conceived me But loe thou requirest truth in the inward parts as if he had said Though I am so wicked yet thy laws are good and I therefore so much the worse because I am contrary to thy laws They require truth and sincerity in the soul but I am false and perfidious But if this had been natural for him so to be and unavoidable God who knew it perfectly well would have expected nothing else of him For he will not require of a stone to speak nor of fire to be cold unless himself be pleased to work a miracle to have them so But S. Paul affirms Ephes 2.2 3. that by nature we were the children of wrath True we were so when we were dead in sins and before we were
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
is against Nature For if it be immortal it can never die in its noblest faculty But if the will be destroyed that is disabled from choosing which is all the work the will hath to do then it is dead For to live and to be able to operate in Philosophy is all one If the will therefore cannot operate how is it immortal And we may as well suppose an understanding that can never understand and passions that can never desire or refuse and a memory that can never remember as a will that cannot choose Indeed all the faculties of the soul that operate by way of nature can be hindred in individuals but in the whole species never But the will is not impedible it cannot be restrain'd at all if there be any acts of life and when all the other faculties are weakest the will is strongest and does not at all depend upon the body Indeed it often follows the inclination and affections of the body but it can choose against them and it can work without them And indeed since sin is the action of a free faculty it can no more take away the freedome of that faculty then vertue can for that also is the action of the same free faculty If sin be considered in its formality as it is an inordination or irregularity so it is contrary to vertue but if you consider it as an effect or action of the will it is not at all contrary to the will and therefore it is impossible it should be destructive of that faculty from whence it comes Now to say that the will is not dead because it can choose sin but not vertue is an escape too slight For besides that it is against an infinite experience it is also contrary to the very being and manner of a man and his whole Oeconomy in this world For men indeed sometimes by evil habits and by choosing vile things for a long time together make it morally impossible to choose and to love that good in particular which is contrary to their evil customes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stob. Custome is the Devil that brings in new natures upon us Senec. ep 94. for nature is innocent in this particular Nulli nos vitio natura conciliat nos illa integros ac liberos genuit Nature does not ingage us upon a vice She made us intire she left us free but we make our selves prisoners and slaves by vicious habits or as S. Cyril expresses it Catech. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We came into the world without sin meaning without sin properly so called but now we sin by choyce and by election bring a kinde of necessity upon us But this is not so in all men and scarcely in any man in all instances and as it is it is but an approach to that state in which men shall work by will without choice or by choice without contrariety of objects In heaven and hell men will doe so The Saints love God so fully that they cannot hate him nor desire to displease him And in hell the accursed spirits so perfectly hate him that they can never love him But in this life which is status viae a middle condition between both and a passage to one of the other it cannot be suppos'd to be so unless here also a man be already sav'd or damn'd But then I consider this also that since it is almost by all men acknowledg'd to be unjust that infants should be eternally tormented in the flames of Hell for Original sin yet we do not say that it is unjust that men of age and reason should so perish if they be vicious and disobedient Which difference can have no ground but this That infants could not choose at all much less that which not they but their Father did long before they were born But men can choose and doe what they are commanded and abstain from what is forbidden For if they could not they ought no more to perish for this then infants for that And this is so necessary a truth that it is one of the great grounds and necessities of obedience and holy living and if after the fall of Adam it be not by God permitted to us to choose or refuse there is nothing left whereby man can serve God or offer him a sacrifice It is no service it is not rewardable if it could not be avoided nor the omission punishable if it could not be done All things else are determin'd and fix'd by the Divine providence even all the actions of men But the inward act of the will is left under the command of laws onely and under the arrest of threatnings and the invitation of promises And that this is left for man can no ways impede any of the Divine decrees because the outward act being overruled by the Divine providence it is strange if the Schools will leave nothing to man whereby he can glorify God I have now said something to all that I know objected and more then is necessary to the Question if the impertinencies of some Schools and their trifling arrests had not so needlesly disturb'd this article There is nothing which from so slight grounds hath got so great and till of late so unquestion'd footing in the perswasions of men Contra Celsum lib. 4. Origen said enough to be mistaken in the Question 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Adams curse is common to all And there is not a woman on earth to whom may not be said those things which were spoken to this woman Eve Him S. Ambrose did mistake and followed the error about explicating the nature of Original sin and set it something forward But S. Austin gave it complement and authority by his fierce disputing against the Pelagians whom he would overthrow by all means Indeed their capital error was a great one and such against which all men while there was need ought to have contended earnestly but this might and ought to have been done by truth For error is no good confuter of error as it is no good conversion that reforms one vice with another But his zeal against a certain error made him take in auxiliaries from an uncertain or less discerned one and caused him to say many things which all antiquity before him disavowed and which the following ages took up upon his acount * And if such a weak principle as his saying could make an error spread over so many Churches for so many ages we may easily imagine that so many greater causes as I before reckon'd might infect whole Nations and consequently mankinde without crucifying our Patriarch or first Parent and declaiming against him poor man as the Author of all our evil Truth is we intend by laying load upon him to excuse our selves and which is worse to entertain our sins infallibly and never to part with them upon pretence that they are natural and irresistible §. 6. The practical Question ANd now if it be inquired whether we
or love of God is not of it self strong enough to weigh down the scales but there must be thrown in something from without some generosity of spirit or revenge or gloriousness and bravery or natural pity or interest and so far as these or any of them go along with the better principle this will prevail but when it must goe alone it is not strong enough But this is a great way off from the state of sanctification or a new birth 6. An unregenerate man besides the abstinence from much evil may also do many good things for heaven and yet never come thither He may be sensible of his danger and sad condition and pray to be delivered from it and his prayers shall not be heard because he does not reduce his prayers to action and endevour to be what he desires to be Almost every man desires to be sav'd but this desire is not with every one of that perswasion and effect as to make them willing to want the pleasures of the world for it or to perform the labours of charity repentance A man may strive and contend in or towards the ways of godliness and yet fall short Many men pray often fast much and pay tithes do justice and keep the Commandements of the second Table with great integrity and so are good moral men as the word is used in opposition to or rather in destrution of religion Some are religious and not just some want sincerity in both and of this the Pharisees were a great example But the words of our blessed Saviour are the greatest testimony in this article Many shall strive to enter and shall not be able Luke 13.14 Either they shall contend too late like the five foolish Virgins and as they whom S. Paul by way of caution likens to Esau or else they contend with incompetent and insufficient strengths they strive but put not force enough to the work An unregenerate man hath not strengths enough that is he wants the spirit and activity and perfectness of resolution Not that he wants such aids as are necessary and sufficient but that himself hath not purposes pertinacious and resolutions strong enough All that is necessary to his assistance from without all that he hath or may have but that which is necessary on his own part he hath not but that 's his own fault that he might also have and it is in his duty and therefore certainly in his power to have it For a man is not capable of a law which he hath not powers sufficient to obey he must be free and quit from all its contraries from the power and dominion of them or at least must be so free that he may be quit of them if he please For there can be no liberty but where all the impediments are remov'd or may be if the man will 7. An unregenerate man may have received the Spirit of God and yet be in a state of distance from God For to have received the holy Ghost is not an inseparable propriety of the regenerate The Spirit of God is an internal agent that is the effects and graces of the Spirit by which we are assisted are within us before they operate For although all assistances from without are graces of God the effects of Christs passion purchased for us by his bloud and by his intercesson and all good company wise counsels apt notices prevailing arguments moving objects and opportunities and endearments of vertue are from above from the Father of lights yet the Spirit of God does also work more inwardly and creates in us aptnesses and inclinations consentings and the acts of conviction and adherence working in us to will and to doe according to our desire or according to Gods good pleasure yet this holy Spirit is oftentimes grieved sometimes provoked and at last extinguish'd which because it is done onely by them who are enemies of the Spirit and not the servants of God it follows that the Spirit of God by his aids and assistances is in them that are not so with a design to make them so and if the holy Spirit were not in any degree or sense in the unregenerate how could a man be born again by the Spirit for since no man can be regenerate by his own strengths his new birth must be wrought by the Spirit of God and especially in the beginnings of our conversion is his assistance necessary which assistance because it works within as well and rather then without must needs be in a man before he operates within And therefore to have received the holy Spirit is not the propriety of the regenerate but to be led by him to be conducted by the Spirit in all our wayes and counsels to obey his motions to entertain his doctrine to do his pleasure This is that which gives the distinction and the denomination Rom. 8.9 And this is called by S. Paul the inhabitation of the Spirit of God in us in opposition to the inhabitans peccatum the sin that dwelleth in the unregenerate The Spirit may be in us calling and urging us to holiness but unless the Spirit of God dwell in us and abide in us and love to doe so and rule and give us laws and be not griev'd and cast out but entertain'd and cherish'd and obey'd unless I say the Spirit of God be thus in us Christ is not in us and if Christ be not in us we are none of his § 6. The Character of the Regenerate estate or person FRom hence it is not hard to describe what are the proper indications of the Regenerate 1. A regenerate person is convinc'd of the goodness of the law and meditates in it day and night Psal 1.2 Psal 119.77 103. His delight is in Gods law not onely with his minde approving but with his will choosing the duties and significations of the law 2. The Regenerate not onely wishes that the good were done which God commands but heartily sets about the doing of it 3. He sometimes feels the rebellions of the flesh but he fights against them alwayes and if he receive a fall he rises instantly and fights the more fiercely and watches the more cautelously and prays the more passionately and arms himself more strongly and prevails more prosperously In a regenerate person there is flesh and Spirit but the Spirit onely rules There is an outward and an inward man but both of them are subject to the Spirit There was a law of the members but it is abrogated and cancell'd the law is repeal'd and does not any more inslave him to the law of sin Aug. l. de Contin c. 2. Nunc quamdiu concupiscit caro adversus spiritum spiritus adversus carnem sat est nobis non consentire malis quae sentimus in nobis Every good man shall alwayes feel the flesh lusting against the Spirit that contention he shall never be quit of but it is enough for us if we never consent