VINDICIAE FVNDAMENTI Or a threefold defence of the DOCTRINE OF Original Sin Together with some other fundamentals of Salvation The first against the exceptions of Mr. Robert Everard in his book entituled The Creation and the Fall of man The second against the Examiners of the late Assemblies Confession of Faith The third against the Allegations of Dr. Jeremy Taylor in his Unum Necessarium and two lesser Treatises of his By NATHANIEL STEPHENS Minister of Fenny-Drayton in Leicestershire LONDON Printed by T. R. and E. M. for Edmund Paxton in Pauls Chain right over against the Castle-Tavern near Doctors Commons 1658. THE PREFACE TO THE Reader Shewing the Reasons of publishing the present Treatise in these times ALthough we are fallen into an age where books of all sorts do abound yet in two cases as long as the Lord hath a Church upon the earth there will be still need of writing more The first when many divine mysteries do remain still inclosed and sealed up in the Scriptures no man will doubt upon such a supposal but it is the duty of those that read according to ability to bring the truth to light I did in order to this publish a Tract concerning the Beast his name mark and the number of his name c. Here if any will say shall we be wiser than our fore-fathers to endeavour the discovery of that which they could never finde out The answer is cleare truth is the Daughter of Time A Pigmy upon a Gyants shoulder may see farther than the Gyant himself Even so we standing upon the shoulders and enjoying the labours of those that have gone before may see as farre as they did and by wading into further depths may go further than they Upon this account it doth more peculiarly belong to us to continue the 〈◊〉 where they left it to adde to the stock of knowledge to be clear where 〈◊〉 were confused to turne into the way where they went 〈◊〉 and to bring those things to light that have been either totally or in part obscured from them Some are of the judgment that we are come to the very Zenith and top of all kinde of learning and that we know already all that we need know But an hundred and a thousand ensamples may be shewed to the contrary We are dark in many of those things that are reserved for the industry and diligence of the latter times If men would convert the course of their studies this way as they would make a better return of their labours so they would be lesse prejudicial to the writings of former times At least all must acknowledge that there will be just occasion of printing 〈◊〉 books as long as new matter remains to be published to the world A second case of new writing is when the plain fundamenal common truths of God are made dark by the new fangled opinious and brangling queres of each age In such a case a necessity doth lie upon us and woe is unto us if we do not plead for the truth when it is notably and eminently endangered by others In the present case I have not to do so much with that which is darke and abstruse in its own nature but with that which is made so by the devises and subtilties of men The doctrine of original sin and the natural servitude of the will at least to any spiritual good is plainly enough set forth in the Scriptures yet there are more than too many in these times who endeavour with all their might to draw a cloud over this cleerenesse I cannot see but as a Minister is to preach and to live according to the truth so it is his office and duty also to clear the same truth from the errours and intanglements of his own age As evil manners occasion good Laws so evil opinions and evil interpretations of Scripture specially where gain-saying spirits do endeavour to puddle the stream should make us more skilfull in the mystery of salvation Whatsoever the reason is many of the friends and followers of the separation with us do not rest satisfi'd with the denyal of Infant Baptism but they proceed also to deny al infants to be born in original sin The confession of the faith of the thirty separate Congregations hath not as farre as I can perceive any one word of the sin of the nature Some do more apparently deny the thing and others are more close in what they hold But Master Everard in his Book entituled the Creation and the fall of man containes the substance of all their arguments Which Tract of his seeing it is spread farre and neare to the deceiving of many poore soules and to the troubling of others I have thought it necessary to examine all the material passages and to detect the subtilties and fallacies thereof The chief points he doth insist on are these whether had Adam the Spirit or was he a spiritual man before his fall Secondly how farre do obedient actions proceed from the operation of the Spirit and how farre are they a mans own act Thirdly he treats concerning the contrariety of the two wills the secret and the revealed will of God Lastly he cometh to the maine point to assert the innocency and the purity of the natural birth And for this he seemes to himselfe and others of that way to have some coulourable reassons When I had done with him there came to my hand the Examen of the late Assemblies Confession of Faith I am uncertain whether one or more are the Authours Some circumstances do not obscurely insinuate it to be the act of more than one man and therefore in the ensuing Discourse I do speak of them in the plural number Because in the points of free will and original sinne they do concord with Master Everard and the Antipedobaptists of our Vicinity I have taken them into the Company to which they do belong Now this last year considering the State of our Affairs when certain friends of mine Ministers as well as others did desire me to publish what I had written At the same time did Doctor Jeremy Taylor set forth his Vnum Necessarium In that Book of his Chap. six as also in two other small Treatises the answer to the Bishops letter and The Further Explication doth the Authour fall upon our differences alleadging the same things in effect which our Antagonists for certaine yeares past have alleadged against us Onely this difference is to be made he doth ascribe much to the Testimonies of the Fathers and other Ancient Authours They do slight all such kindes of authority He doth owne for ought as I could ever hear the Baptisme of infants They more securely to deny infant Baptisme do seeme also upon the same reason to deny all Infants to be borne in original sinne His Writings are like to have a free passage in all the parts of the Land Theirs for ought as I can heare are received more chiefly in their own society His
And for infants though we hold them guilty of sinne by the disobedience of the first man what detriment or dammage is this to them as long as mercy is extended through the obedience of the second man By all that I can understand these men are afraid of nothing more than that Christ should have too much honour given to him in releeving the miserable lost sonnes of men otherwise they would never stand so much as they do upon the purity of the natural birth SECT 2. NOW let us heare what answers they return to our arguments And here I say they are extreamely fallacious for as they do not produce some of our arguments which have most cogent proof so they do mention others which are of small moment which is scarce honest dealing But for the places which they do alledge there are four in number which do carry some weight with them First from that place Gen. 8.21 for the imagination of mans heart is evil from his youth they gather thus much Even as Esau or Edom though he had a birth-right yet sold it in his youth to satisfie some strong desires kindled in him so men though created innocent do in the time of temptation and tryall too often and too soon yield unto the temptation and sell or forfeit that their innocency and birth-right and so their imaginations become evil from their youth but are not so from their birth unlesse you here understand a spiritual conception or birth in sinne by our personal fall page 71. In this I do agree with them that men in time of their tempration too often and too easily fall from God thorough their own actual disobedience This is a part but it is not the whole truth for if they had compared the text as they should have done with Gen. 6. ver 3.4 5. they would finde that both Scriptures speak of the sinne of the nature First the Lord saith my Spirit shall not alway strive with man for that he also is flesh ver 3. As who would say in plainer times because his nature is defiled I will destroy him from the earth Secondly the whole nature must needs be depraved because the principles and lively fountaines are corrupt every imagination of the thoughts of his heart are evil Thirdly the universality of the depravation it is not spoken of this or that particular imagination but every imagination of his heart is evil and that which is more it is onely evil without the combination connexion and commixture of any good Fourthly the perpetuity of the time in the one text it is said the thoughts of his heart are onely evil continually and in the other the imagination of mans heart is evil from his childhood If we put altogether we may plainly see that there is a depravation of nature that this depravation is generally in all parts and in all times from the very birth and conception And for that example of Esau which they alledge that he sold his birth-right that primogeniture was a special priviledge in the family of the Patriarchs but what is this to every mans natural birth-right can he forfeit that natural innocency which he never had Again Esau did sell his birth-right at a certain time of his age by a deliberate and a free choyce when Jacob and he were come near to mans estate and therefore the Apostle saith Let there be no profane person among you as Esau who for one morsel of meat sold his birth right Heb. 12.16 Now it is otherwise with the the words of the text there it is expressed that the thoughts of the imaginations of his heart are evil from his childhood As much in sense as that the whole nature is depraved and that depravation doth beginne from the very birth Secondly for the texts cited out of Job I do agree with the Examiners in the general that those wise men speaking of the purity of God in relation to the imperfection of the creature do oftentimes use an hyperbolical way of expression As in that passage of Eliphaz behold he putteth no trust in his Saints yea the heavens are not clear in his sight Job 15.15 I do agree also that men do voluntarily corrupt themselves how much more abominable and filthy is man who drinketh iniquity like water ver 16. Though these things be true yet they do not contain the whole truth nor the Emphasis of that Scripture for the words immediately going before are concerning the natural generation of man what is man that he should be clean and he that is born of a woman that he should be righteous ver 14. The same in substance is spoken by Job himself touching the natural birth who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one Chap. 14 4. Both Scriptures do plainly shew that the nature is defiled because it doth proceed from so unclean a fountain And this doth agree with the doctrine of our Saviour when he presseth a necessity of regeneration that which is born of flesh is flesh therfore there is a necessity that man should be born again The whole force of the argument is thus much in effect from the greater to the lesse If the heavens and the Saints which are the more perfect creatures are not pure in the sight of God what righteousnesse is in man who is defiled with original sinne even from the very birth This is the natural sense of the words of Eliphas Thirdly to that place Psal 51.5 behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sinne did my mother conceive me they answer We would say they First gladly know of you whether it be not Davids scope in this confession to aggravate his sinne But if he here pleadeth the inevitable corruption of nature which you hold forth his words will be found a meere extenuation of his offences if not a throwing off all or most of the blame upon God who had brought him forth so corrupt and averse to all good and so propense to all evil and that without hope of an absolute cure while he was in this world page 75. Where is the honesty and conscience of these men when they patch that upon others which is none of their doctrine For where can they shew that either the Assembly of Divines or any other serious Authors did ever teach that the nature of man is corrupt and propense to evil without any hope of cure while he is in this world and that in this case man doth lie under an inevitable necessity Do not the Assembly of Divines and all other Authors almost speak of the Covenant of grace after they have shewed the misery of nature For though the nature of man is wholly defiled yet from Christ there is hope to have the nature cleansed Though David was born in original sinne yet he was not destitute of a remedy he beleeved the grace of God made known in the promise and therefore prayeth create in me a clean heart renew in me a right
they so continue they are in the way to damnation yet we cannot absolutely pronounce concerning the persons themselves it belongeth onely to God to judge of their final and eternal condition And for that place which you alledg that God sweareth that he desireth not the death of him that dyeth I pray you now tel us the particular man in our method and way of teaching hat is not a capable hearer of this doctrine Whatsoever God doth intend in his secret Decrees concerning the eternal state of men what is that to us We must make the tenders proposals and offers of grace according to the termes set down in the Gospel Indeed as men do submit to the promise and do take Christ for their Head so God doth bring about that which he hath determined in his secret will And therefore when you speak concerning this sort of people That they should not beleeve his revealed will at all if they hold his secret will to be the Superiour what good reason can you shew for that for though the secret will of God touching the salvation of his elect be the Superiour yet all the tenders of grace all faith in the promises are but the ordinary way to bring us to salvation Here is no contrariety of will against will but an excellent subordination Because the Lord had many people in the City of Corinth that did belong to him in the determination of his secret will therefore the Apostle had a command to preach the Gospel in that City and he did continue there the space of a year and six moneths Acts 18. ver 10 11. But if it be further objected how can you pray for the salvation of all seeing that the Lord doth determine to passe by a great number of men I answer though it be so we are to do the duty Paul did know that a greater part of the Jewes should be hardened and that a remnant onely should be saved yet for all this he did preach the Gospel and use all means that he might save some of them Rom. 11.7 8 9 10. Augustine one of the greatest assertors of the prerogative of free-grace in his book de correptione gratiâ hath these words We not knowing who belong to the number of the predestinate and who not ought so to be moved with the affection of charity that we should will all men to be saved And so far as it doth appertain to us who are not able to distinguish the predestinate from them who are not predestinate for this very thing because we ought to will all men to be saved we must medicinally use sharp reproof to all men to save them from perishing Dr. Twisse also hath these words moreover of those who are now alive though the greater part of them should be reprobated seeing this is not known to us there is nothing doth hinder but we may make supplications for all Vindic. grat lib. 2. Crimin 4. Sect. 9 Page 91. Many more testimonies I might bring of that kind of people as you call them who maintain the secret will of God to be the more prevailing yet in order to our understanding they shew that we are to look onely unto that which is revealed They do with one heart and with one mouth declare that you must begin at the lower end of the ladder before you can come to the top As for the secret and the revealed will of God though this seem to us to be contradictory there is no contradiction The river that in appearance seemeth to go another way if you follow it by divers mazes turnings it will bring you to the Sea at last But if you further urge how can the sending of Christ into the world to dy for the lost sonnes of men stand with the Decree of election where some onely are chosen to salvation Answ This point is solidly handled by Dr. Davenant in his answer to that book that bears the title Gods love to mankind and in another Treatise of the death of Christ The scope and tenor of the whole discourse is to shew that the non-elect may be partakers of many fruits of the death of Christ though they are not partakers of that grace which will certainly and infallibly bring them to salvation ☞ and so he doth concord the general attonement with the peculiar Decree of election But because this point is exceedingly controverted in these times and is as it were the very rock of offence I will particularly shew how farre I can go along with you First I do agree that by his death the Son hath removed the bar out of the way that hinders the salvation of man For God having once made a Law in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death according to the rigour of the Covenant of works and the strictnesse of divine justice there was no possibility for any mans salvation But the Lord Christ having once satisfied the justice of God and removed the barre there is now a possibility for all the lost sonnes of men to be saved they are brought into a savable condition notwithstanding all the strict demands of satisfaction according to the first Covenant And this I take to be the natural sense of that place which you and others stand so much upon Who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransome for all to be testified in due time 1 Tim. 2.4 5 6. The scope of which words is briefly this that seeing the Lord Jesus Christ did give himself as a ransome for all men there is a possibility of salvation forall upon termes of repentance and faith Secondly I do agree with you that by the death of Christ the Lord doth shew patience and long-suffering to the rebellious to invite them to repentance Rom. 2.4 And though since the fall of man the thoughts of his heart were evil from his child-hood yet respect being had to the Mediators blood typed in the sacrifice of Noah the promise to the whole world was that the Lord would no more curse the ground for mans sake but seed time and harvest winter and summer day and night should continue to the worlds end Thirdly I do also agree with you in this that the Lord Jesus by the shedding of his blood hath not onely procured a possibility for the lost sonnes of men but also at seasons he doth give them some portions of spirit enabling them to judge themselves And for temporary believers they go so far in the participation of the fruits of the death of the Son as to tast the good Word of God and the powers of the life to come Heb. 6.5 These are the general fruits of the death of Christ and in this sense we may say that he tasted death for every man In what sense then doth Christ dye for the elect
founded upon expresse Apostolical practise and implicite Apostolical precept which we are sufficiently able to prove and evince by the collation of foure Scriptures if we were put upon that argument But this would be too larg a digression from the matter in hand Next you come to shew the sense of the commination And here you tell us that Adam did not dye the same day if the day be taken for the space of twelve or twenty four houres This is in plain termes to contradict the scope and sense of the text For there it is expressely said in the very same moment and instant of time in which our first parents did eat the forbidden fruit their eyes were opened and they saw that they were naked Gen. 3.7 If you take this for the eyes of their mind it is most clear that their eyes were opened not onely to see their inward nakednesse in the losse of the image of God but also to feel the guilt of sinne as the just fruit of their disobedience If the opening of the eyes be taken for the eyes of the body then their eyes were opened to see that which they did not nor could see before Their nakednesse before was a nakednesse of honour innocency and righteousnesse but their nakednesse after was a nakednesse of dishonour of misery of sinne of provocation to sin And for the particular time it is expressed in the Comination in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death And accordingly in the same instant of time when they had eaten the forbidden fruit the eys of them both were opened they knew that they were naked Therefore death misery did seize upon them the same day according to the Commination But because you are so peremptory in it that Adam did not dye the same day if the day be taken for an ordinary day of twelve houres long For the clearing of this I would intreat you to answer me this question why did God appear to Adam in the evening in the cool of the day If you shall say it was to call the man and his wife to account for their disobedience I grant this to be true but it doth not satisfie the question for the particular time He might have called him to account at any other time and what necessity was there that it should be left upon record that he came to judgment the very same day The Lord had said in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death and the same day that the forbidden fruit was eaten at evening in the cool or wind of the day as the Hebrew hath it the Lord came to inquire after the fact to give sentence and to execute judgment In Scripture where promises or threats are declared to be fulfilled in such a particular time there the Holy Ghost is punctuall in the observation of the time The children of Israel should be in bondage soure hundred years according to the promise Gen 15.13 14. And when that time was fulfilled the very same day they came out of the land of Egypt with their Armies Exod. 12. 41 42. So our Lord and Saviour did signifie to his Disciples that he should be crucified and slain and the third day rise again Mat. 16.24 And how careful are all the Evangelists to repeat the time of the resurrection that it was on the first day of the week the third day after his passion And so in the present case when it is said in the day that thou eatest thereof shalt thou dye the death to the fulfilling of this the eyes of our first parents were opened the very first day And the Lord came to execute judgment upon them for their disobedience the evening of the same day After all this let us now hear what exposition you do give of the text Though Adam say you did not dye the same day as he did eat of the forbidden fruit yet he forfeited his life to the Lord of the great Charter of the world he was then in a capacity to dye he did then fall under the expectation of death As in the English such a man is a dead man because he is condemned by the sentence of the Law That which you say is true and it is in effect that which I teach but according to your sense it is not the whole truth For when the Lord saith in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death he doth not speak this onely of a capacity of dying but of an actual seizing of death for he was struck with spiritual death the very same day he sinned And for a temporal death likewise though there was not a present dissolution of the soul from the body yet presently he fell under the curse to conflict with Armies of diseases which should never leave him till they had brought him to his grave In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread untill thou return unto the ground for out of it was thou taken for dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return Chap. 3. ver 19. But now you further adde If Adam had dyed the same day he could not have tilled the ground he could not have lived so long as to see a son of his own To all this I agree if you take death in the most strict sense for the actual dissolution of the soul from the body but what ground have we so to limit the words of the text I have said before that God did smite him the same day with spiritual death and for a temporal death he came under the dominion and reign of it In that famous place when the Apostle saith by one man sinne entred into the world and death by sinne and death hath passed over all men to condemnation Rom. 5.12 He doth here speak of the immediate reign of death Death reigned from Adam to Moses over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression ver 14. And in the close of all as sinne hath reigned to death so might grace reign thorough righteousnesseunto eternal life v. 21. Therfore the same day that Adam sinned though he lived to till the ground and to beget children after his own image yet he and all his fell immediately under the reign of death so that all who are now born into the world infants as well as others are under the reigne of death by the disobedience of the first man Having given the true sense of the Scripture we will take a view of your interpretation And here you say ☞ that Adam did dye the same day though he lived nine hundred thirty nine yeares after And to make good this strange glosse of yours you tell us that God did not prescribe any quantity of houres but hath declared that a thousand yeares are as one day in his account page 118. I must indeed acknowledge that a day is taken sometimes for a year sometimes for a greater revolution of time as may be seen
second man is the Lord from heaven So though Adam was the first man a living man yet it was not a living soul that proveth that Adam had a quickned Spirit page 12◠But in this you do miserably soobisticate For though the Apostle doth draw a parallel between both the Adams If you do well ponder the Scripture you shall finde that the parallel doth not stand so much between Adam before his fall as between the first Adam the second after the fall 2ly upon good consideration you shall finde that the Apostle in this Scripture doth not speak so much concerning the Spirit of God in the soules of the Saints as concerning the spirituality of their bodies that shall be at the resurrection It is sown in corruption it is raised in incorruption it is sown in dishonour it is raised in glory it is sown a natural body it is raised a spiritual body There is a natural body and there is aspiritual body 1 Cor. 15.43 44. If then you will needs conclude Adam to be a carnal man before his fall because his body was not made a spiritual body by the same reason you must conclude all the Saints that have ever been since the creation of the world to be carnal men and absolutely destitute of the work of the Spirit For the bodies of the Saints are yet carnal and must abide in their incarnality till the resurrection of the dead But whereas you build so strongly upon that expression the first man Adam was made a living soul the last man Adam was made a quickning Spirit verse 45. This doth not prove the first man to have been meerely carnal or absolutely void of the Spirit before his fall For it is not the scope of the Apostle in this Scripture to speak of the excellency of man made after the image of God but onely of the corruptible state of the body as it standeth in immediate relation to that immortal condition which it shall have at the resurrection of the dead And whereas it is said the second man was a quickning Spirit this is meant principally of the divinity of Christ by and thorough which he will raise the dead So then if you will build upon this ground and argue from hence that the first man was a meere carnal man because he was not a quickning Spirit by the same principle you must conclude that all the Saints living are carnal men For of what one of them may it be affirmed that he is a quickning Spirit who by his power and divinity is able to raise the dead But if you will make a right analogy let us compare the things that ought to be compared First let us consider what the first man was before his fall and what the Saints are as renewed by grace Secondly let us compare what the first man might have been if he had eaten of the tree of life and what the Saints shall be at the resurrection of the dead For the first of these if you speak of the Saints as renewed by grace though their bodies be natural they are spiritual in respect of the inward man The same may be said of Adam before his fall though his body was made of the dust yet by grace and special favour he did carry the image of God For the second if you shall affirme that all the bodies of the Saints shall be made immortal and spiritual at the resurrection consider what the body of Adam might have been if he had continued in his obedience and eaten of the tree of life If you would make a right collation between state and stat ethe parallel should runne in these termes But because you stand so strongly upon this expression that the first man is of the earth earthy the second man is the Lord from heaven seeing you will have all this to be applied to Adam before his fall I pray you resolve me this question seeing the Apostle saith as we have born the image of the earthy so shall we bear the image of the heavenly Who are they that bear the image of Adam before his fall I think if you were put to it you could not produce any one instance in all Europe Asia Africa or America that ever stood up after this similitude The scope of the text is onely concerning man after the fall and how the resurrection of the dead doth take away that death which is brought in by the fall In the close of the Chapter you propound this question whether was not Adam to have dyed an eternal death for eating of the forbidden fruit For the clearing of the question let us distinctly set down how the three kinds of death did seize upon Adam and how they come upon all his branches First for spiritual death it is evident that he died this death as soon as he did eat of the forbidden fruit For the temporal death he fell under the reign of it the same day he sinned And for eternal death though according to the truth of the commination Adam and his posterity should have dyed the Lord Christ stepping in did set a stop to the sentence And therefore for the cause of the condemnation of man it is now principally and immediately for the neglect of the grace of God that should lead him to repentance But you adde further I can safely say that if Adam was to have dyed an eternal death and that by the appointment of God then Christ neither would nor could have stept in nay he could not have lifted up his little finger to have helped Adam or his posterity page 125. I answer If God had decreed in his secret purpose that Adam and all his posterity should have dyed the death in such a case Christ neither would nor could have stept in to cross the Decree of God but Sir who is the man that doth maintain that position For my part I take the Decree of God to be one thing and the outward denunciation of judgment to be another For the Decree that cannot be changed but the sentence may recieve alteration according to divers outward circumstances and conditions that may occurre Besides if you should build never so strongly upon the letter of the text we can easily reconcile the truth of the commination in saying that Adam might dy the death the same day he sinned ☞ though the Lord was not pleased presently to inflict death in all its kinds From all which we do conclude if the Lord Christ came to free men from the reign of death Heb. 2.14 15. We may easily gather that Adam brought himself and all his posterity under the dominion of that syrant and so he and all his should have dyed that kind of death if the Lord Christ had not stepped in But you go about to deface this speech in the end of the Chapter for if in case that Christ had not stepped in there had been no recovery this were to exclude all other means and to limit
natural say you were to have acted such actions as might have testified to the world that they had been lovers of God because those actions were wanting they are said to be unnatural So it may appear that nature was not improved to those ends to which God assigned it page 146. It is true that in these Scriptures the word nature is taken in the better sense yet not in such a sense as will furnish your intention First I do acknowledge that God hath left reliques or remainders of his Law in the hearts of the Gentiles This is commonly called the Law of nature and by this men know that God ought to be worshipped that parents ought to be honoured and that every man is to have his own c. Secondly I yield also that they who go against this Law may rightly be called unnatural because they go against the dictates or principles of of nature Thirdly they who do thus deviate from natural principles do not improve nature to those ends which God hath made it All these things I do allow so far I wil go along with you But how do you prove from hence the purity of nature and that a meer natural man as such is able to understand the things of the Spirit of God You do in the next page distinguish natural men into two kinds these are your words Who requireth no other way to be glorified but by those principles that he had furnished them withal And because they opposed their own nature resusing the counsel of God they are called unnatural because they imployed their nature wholly to satisfie their lusts Such natural men percieve not the things of God The same matter in substance is spoken by the Examiners in the Chapter of free will for the Synod having rightly determined according to the Scriptures that a natural man being altogether averse from that good and dead in sinne he is not able by his own strength to convert himself or prepare himself thereunto Against this passage the men take great offence and as their manner is accuse the Synod for their defects and falshoods For their defects they blame them because they do not distinguish the several kinds of natural men and for their falshoods they accuse them for saying that the fallen man hath lost all ability to spiritual good They distinguish also several kinds of will and tell us in the third place as the will of our first parents so of all men else doth stand in a kind of aequilibrium pag. 128.129 130. Now to take off these several Objections I would entreat both you and them to consider these two points First if you look to the better sort of natural men to those who are no Backbiters no Covenant-breakers c. Whether may not many of these in the most essential vital and spiritual parts of the Law be great enemies against God and be lovers of themselves more than lovers of God If the most refined natural men may be secret enemies why do you and they speak of pure nature and of the improvement of natural abilities when it is certain that men can do no good without the help of the Spirit Natural men may be distinguished into a thousand kinds according to the different circumstances of time and place yet all of them do agree in this that they are natural and without the help of the Spirit they are not able to judge of the things of God Secondly when the Apostle speaketh of the Gentiles who having no Law do by nature the things contained in the Law their thoughts in the mean while accusing or else excusing one another Romans 2.14 When the Gentiles do make use of the Law written in their heart as they do at certain seasons to judge themselves doth not this proceed from the general convictions and workings of the Spirit If the act of self-judging be from the conviction of the Spirit this is no praise to natural abilities but the glory belongs to the grace of God And the words of the Confession are very sound that a natural man cannot convert himself or prepare himself thereunto In which words they do distinguish between conversion it self and the antecedaneous works before conversion In neither of these they say that a natural man is able to do any thing of himself but all his ability is from the help of the Spirit I wonder then what reason the Examiners had given them to cavil at such an innocent expression But if you shall stand upon the letter of the text that the Gentiles do by nature the things contained in the Law Here you may observe that the Apostle doth onely oppose the natural Law to the Law written in tables of stone and communicated to the Church by revelation He never meant that any of the Gentiles meerly by their own strength were able to keep that Law which was made known to them Only at seasons the Spirit did excite and stirre up strong convictions in their consciences to apply those principles and dictates which they had by the light of nature The most common and universal maxime of all men in the world is this that there is a God Why then doth the consideration of the Godhead so forcibly and powerfully awake at some intervals of time more than at others We can give no other reason but this that the truth in the hearts of the Gentiles is like a cinder in the Smiths forge which by the operations and stirrings of the Spirit is enlivened and being once enlivened men have more power to judge themselves and to look after God in those seasons than at others And from hence also we might take occasion to answer that great difficulty in the Epistle to the Romans The Apostle in the first Chapter speaking of the knowledge of the Gentiles and how naturally they hold the truth in unrighteousnesse and that for this cause the Lord doth give them up to a reprobate sense yet in the next Chapter he doth shew that the Gentiles do by nature the things contained in the Law and do shew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the work of the Law written in their hearts when their thoughts do at sundry times accuse or excuse one another To the resolution of the difficulty we say that the Gentiles so farre forth as they are principled by the corruption of nature are prone to no other but to imprison the light but as they are under and do submit unto the convictions of the Spirit they are helped sometimes to go so farre as to judge themselves and to cry out in their misery O being of beings have mercy upon us The main drift of the Apostle is to shew that Jewes and Gentiles are both under sinne and how by the sight of the misery of nature such of them as are saved come to be saved onely by looking after the grace and the free-mercy of God If this be the meaning of the Spirit what shall we think of pure nature or
powers they cannot without a new grace and favour go to heaven But then it cannot presently be inferred that therefore they go to hell but this ought to be inferred which indeed was the real consequent of it therefore it is necessary that Gods grace should supply this defect if God intends heaven to them at all and because nature cannot God sent a Saviour by whom it was effected so far he pag. 15. Now I leave it to any man to judge whither the same mutatis mutandis may not be said of our opinion though infants are borne in Original sin and are by nature the children of wrath yet they may be saved by grace By all this it is evident that we are as faire for the salvation of infants as he is and by the same doore as he goes out we will go out at the same And for the sayings of our writers I have three things to answer First some speak more mildly in the point rather inclining to the salvation than the damnation of infants Junius in his collation de naturâ gratiâ hath these words Nemo nostrum it a fuerit aut furere compertus est c. There is none of ours that is so mad or was ever found so void of reason who would simply affirme infants to be damned They which teach otherwise let themselves look to it by what right they moy do it and by what authority it may be done For although in respect of their own selves and that common nature of ours they may be in a state lyable to damnation it follows not that we should passe the sentence of damnation upon them c. In the processe of his discourse he giveth sundry reasons First the promise of God to believers and their natural seed Secondly his mercy to thousands and that through many descents where the Ancestors have sometimes belonged to the Covenant Thirdly The judgement of charity seeing it is the Lords pleasure to take them away in their infancy we may presume that by that fatherly act of his he intends to receive them to mercy Other testimonies may be brought of such that have gone in the milder way but these shall suffice A second sort of our Expositiors there are that do pitch more hard They say that some infants may go to hell yet they moderate their sentence as Chamier Non abhorret a verisimilitudine paenas eorum esse mitissimas It is very probable their punishments are most mild A third sort leave the matter wholly in suspence they think it sufficient to believe that all infants are borne in a state lyable to damnation they have in them the seeds of all evil yet for all this they conceive that God may shew mercy in and through Christ specially to the infants of such that do belong to the Covenant specially where conscience is made to enter them into the outward visible Church by baptisme And this is all that we will say of this question Leaving this businesse of the state of infants and reserving to God the secrets of election or non-election we will come to the point that is more useful and more easie to be understood And here he questions whether Adam did debauch our nature and corrupt our will and manner by his fall And if he did it he further enquires after the manner how it was done First whether it was done by a natural or physical efficiency of sin it selfe Secondly whether was it because we are all in the loynes of Adam or Thirdly whether was the sentence and the decree of God the cause thereof he hath foure arguments against a physical efficiency which we have in part handled already and shall have occasion to speak afterwards And therefore to avoid repetition we will come to the second branch whether Adam did debauch our nature because we are all in his loynes Against this he hath sundry reasons that follow in order By the same reason saith he we are guilty of all the sins that he committed while we were in his loynes there being no imaginable reason why the first should be propagated and not the rest Answ As I have formerly shewed so I declare againe the pollution of nature can only be propagated from the first sin because in that only Adam did act as a publick man in which sence the Apostle calls him the figure of him that is to come But of this I have spoken already Secondly upon this account saith he all the sins of all our progenitours will be imputed to us because we were in their loynes when they sinn'd them Answ Not so neither for though we were in their loynes when they sinned yet in a strict sence they are only vehicula so many conduit pipes of the conveyances of the nature from the first root To speak properly there are only two roots of the nature Adam the root of corruption to all his branches Christ the root of grace and spiritual life to all his branches If any question be made of the truth of this there is every where in the doctrine of St. Paul an antithesis between the flesh and the spirit between the old man and the new betwixt generation and regeneration betwixt Adam and Christ Between these two there is a plaine opposition in three things in point of justification Secondly in point of sanctification Thirdly in point of the resurrection from the dead And therefore whereas the first man by his act brings us under the guilt of sin the second washes away the guilt of sin by his blood and whereas the first man pollutes our nature and is the root of the corruption of nature the second man sanctifies our nature and is the root of a new nature to all his branches And whereas the first man did bring in death and all the miseries of nature upon our bodies that lead to death the second man frees us from all these by the resurrection from the dead But he further alledgeth Thirdly Sin saith he is seated in the will it is an action and so transient and when it dwels or abides it abides no where but in the will by approbation and love to which is naturally consequent a readinesse in the inferiour faculties to obey and act accordingly and therefore sin doth not infect our meer natural faculties but the will only and not that in the natural capacity but in its moral only Answ Though it be true that sin is principally seated in the will yet we shall finde all along that the Scriptures do lay great weight upon the blindnesse and the perversity of the judgement and as in the old creation so it is in the new The first work that is done is the creation of light Besides the Christ-like disposition is begun and carried on by degrees and all this by the renovation of light The understanding is first enlightned and then the will comes to choose the things of God Further let it be supposed that sin is only seated in the will
only 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 To all which we reply the Pharisees might think him or his Parents to be some great sinners because he was borne blind for the disciples themselves did put such a kinde of question to our Saviour himselfe did this man or his parents sin that he was borne blinde verse the second Further suppose that the Pharisees had been of the judgement that it had been this mans peculiar infelicity and that it was not the common misery of man to be borne in original sin must their errour be a prejudice to the truth Nicodemus himselfe was darke in the point of regeneration must his ignorance be a rule to us Secondly saith he if David had meant it literally it had not signified that himselfe was borne in original sin but his Father and his Mother sinn'd when they begot him Reply It s very rational to conceive that his Father that went for an old man in the dayes of Saul and his Mother that bare him specially he being the youngest were both dead at the time of the making of the Psalm To what purpose should he confesse the sinne of the dead and pray for the dead But suppose he did confesse the sin of his Parents he must needs look upon them as the conduit-pipes and the conveyances of the corruption of the nature from the first root This doth strengthen the truth of our interpretation and therefore he doth devoutly and pathetically pray Create in me a cleane heart renew within me a right spirit wash me with hysop and I shall be cleane Thirdly saith he if it did relate to his own person he might meane 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 truely of himselfe it is not true of all nor of those whose temper is flegmatick and unactive Reply By this rule we may gather that the phlegmatick and unactive whatsoever the sanguine be are free from original sinne and that it doth not belong so much to Divines as to Physicians to judge of the sin of the nature But in this he is greatly deceived David doth not confesse the sinne of adultery alone but the sin of murther deliver me from blood-guiltinesse thou God of my righteousnesse verse the sixteenth Nay that which did principally affect him was his unbeliefe unthankfulnesse neglect and contempt of the goodnesse and mercy of God and his making the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme And therefore he saith Against thee thee only have I sinned verse the sixth Though he had sinned against Vriah against himselfe and against the Church yet the most aggravating circumstance was that he had sinned against God This we may see in the parable of Nathan who thereupon did argue with him upon the considerations of mercies received so then when the Psalmist saith I was borne in iniquity he hath not respect only to the libidinous temper but also to a sinful temper of a more general nature Fourthly saith he if David had meant this of himselfe and that in regard of original sin this had been so far from being a penitential expression or a confessing of his sinne that it had been a plaine accusation of God and an excusing of himselfe As if he had said O Lord I confesse I have sinned in this horrible murther and adultery but thou O Lord knowest how it comes to passe even by that fatal punishment which thou didst for the sin of Adam inflict on me and all mankind above three thousand years before I was borne Thereby making me to fall into so horrible corruption of nature that unlesse thou didst unresistibly force me from it I cannot abstaine from my sin being most naturally enclined to evil Reply To all which we rejoyne though there was a necessity laid upon David as upon other men to be borne in original sinne and this three thousand years before he was borne yet neverthelesse it will be no plea to excuse his murther and adultery For howsoever he was borne in sinne his murther and adultery were his own voluntary acts Ordinary experience shewetn by the common assistance of God that men have a power to avoid many outward evils to which their natures are enclined Further for the inward lust though it was inflicted as a punishment upon him as upon all mankind this can be no charge upon God seeing he hath provided a remedy to help men out of their misery David had rather cause to accuse himselfe for fulfilling the lusts of his nature and for the neglecting of that grace that was promised to him and to other believers in the Jewish Church to cleanse out the sin of the nature I will circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy seed that thou mightest love the Lord thy God Deut. 30.6 So then though David was born in original sin the fruits of that sinne were his own voluntary acts and the living in that sinne also was his own free choise Bernard in his Homily 81. on the Canticles hath an excellent passage to this purpose Homo interveniente peccato patitur quandam vincet ipse c. Man by the intervening of sin he himselfe doth suffer a kinde of necessity from his will not from nature that so truely he may not be deprived of his inbred liberty For that the soul cannot rise of her selfe the will is the cause who languishing and laying prostrate with the vitiated and vicious love of a corrupted body doth not withal admit the love of righteousnesse It is so I know not by what wounderful meane the will being made worse she her selfe doth make a necessity to her selfe That the necessity while its voluntary may not be able to excuse the will Neither the will while t is drawn may have power to shake off the necessity for truely after a sort this is a voluntary necessity In these words of his he doth elegantly set forth the truth of the thing and therein he doth liken the soul to a man grovelling upon the earth he cannot rise because he will not He will not rise because his nature doth encline him to lye down under the power of his lusts And this was Davids very case he was born in iniquity and he did freely and voluntarily bring forth the fruits that were the very product and result of a sinful nature he did too much neglect the grace by which he might be cured and though his necessity was natural respecting the inclinations that came from his birth yet also it was a voluntary necessity All natural men do account the liberty of lusts to be the greatest freedome and therefore they be not captives so much against as with their wills The first step therefore to salvation is as to understand the guilt of sinne so also the spiritual captivity and
nature Infants are born in a sinful nature and do need the sanctification of the Spirit But he hath a passage out of Suidas when the Apostle saith you were by nature the 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 To which we rejoyn In men of ripe years it is both their fault that they do abide in the sinne of the nature and it is also the fault of Adam that did vitiate and deprave the nature at his fall That men do fulfill the lusts of the flesh and mind is their own voluntary act And though indeed and in truth it is not their personal fault that men are born in original sinne yet it is their fault that they fulfill the lusts of their nature and continue in that state at least that they do not use and hearken to those precursory motions and previous workings of the Spirit which the Lord doth administer to them at some seasons at least The end of all which is to bring them out of the evil of that state The first workes of the Spirit are to reprove to convince to accuse to terrifie men to humble them for their evil deeds that so they may come to Christ for pardon of their sin and for the healing of their nature But here they wilfully shut out the light will not see what they may and this will be the great condemnation Joh. 3.18 19 and 20 verses He goes on By nature the Apostle saith he means not by birth natural extraction or any other original derivation from Adam Rep. By the same reason he might argue that the Ephesians when they were quickned had not a new life by regeneration or spiritual extraction out of the second Adam which is immediatly opposed to the other as the counterpane or the other part of a deed In seeking to deny the misery by the first he must take away the happinesse grace and life that comes in by the second man But he gives his reason The Ephesians were no more guilty than every one else and no more before their conversion than after We say the same in effect and it is the force of our argument because all need a new life a new birth a new extraction out of the second Adam as well as the Ephesians therefore all are equally by nature the children of wrath and do partake of the sinne of the nature as well as they But whereas he addes that the Ephesians were no more guilty of this sinne before conversion than they were after in this he is monstrous absurd For after conversion the guilt of that sinne was done away and the power of it was broken by the inward work of the Spirit now he cannot say that this was done before their conversion He further addeth By nature the children of wrath must be expounded as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 really and truly the children of wrath it is agreeable to the usuage of the same phrase Galatians 4.8 Ye did service to them that by nature were no gods that is which really are none Repl. We may understand the meaning of the Apostle in this Scripture by comparing it with others God that made the world and all that is therein dwelleth not in Temples made with hands Acts 17.24 The invisible things of him are clearly seen from the creation of the world even his eternal power and Godhead Rom 1.20 So in the present case when the Galatians did service to those that by nature were not gods his meaning is no other but this they did service to them that had not the essence and the being of the Godhead As in a little case the nature of Birds Beasts and Fishes is taken for the essence and the being it self As in the expression of Saint James every kinde of Birds that is every nature of Birds Beasts and Fishes is tamed and hath been tamed by mankind or according to the original by the nature of man So in the present case when the Apostle saith that the Ephesians were by nature the children of wrath he doth not say onely that they were really and truly the children of wrath For so they might be by ill-custome when their nature was good as the water is really and truely hot though it be not naturally hot But his meaning is this that their very essence and being was sinful and that their corruption was in the very nature it self as they did derive out of Adam a common root The scope of the text doth plainly shew that this is the meaning the sinfulnesse of nature immediately opposed to that life spiritualnesse and new nature they had from the second Adam And whereas he saith as these Ephesians were before their conversion so were the Israclites in the dayes of their rebellion a wicked stubborne people insomuch that they are by the Prophet called children of transgression a seed of falshood All this doth confirme the truth of our interpretation he calleth them a seed of evil doers meaning that they were not onely sinners by custome and evil ensample but by propagation of the kind Let him grant this in the case of the Ephesians and the question is at an end This is all that he hath in his Vnum Necessarium Now let us consider what further he saith to this Scripture in his answer to the Bishops letter Here he tells us that these words do not at all relate to the matter of original but to the state of Heathens sinnes habitual Idolatries and impurities in which the world was dead before the great Reformation by Christ page 74. Repl. By this account when the Ephesians had a new life infused this was onely to cure them of their heathenish Idolatries and superstitions In which sense the Jewes free from such Idolatries needed no new life at all Besides how is it possible that the words are to be understood onely of heathenish Idolatries and impurities when the Apostle himself expressely saith among whom we all had our conversation Did he live in heathenish Idolatries before his conversion or was he an Idolater before his calling But seeing our Authour tells us how the Bishop did admonish him to remember how often the Apostle calleth concupiscence sinne we will urge the text a little more closely and consider what is the value of his answers To ground the businesse we argue thus If the Ephesians were accounted the children of wrath because they had their conversation in the lusts of the flesh by this reason then the flesh must needs be evil because it was evil to converse in those lusts Further to come to the point If the lusts of the flesh be evil it must be true in a sense that the flesh it self must be more evil because it is the very fountain from which the lusts do streame When he hath said all that he can when he hath accused the Ephesians of an evil
doubt but in this list or catalogue he hath respect as well to things that belong to the irascible as to the concupiscible faculty yet all is contained under the notion and name of concupiscence For in the verses immediately going before he exhorteth walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh According to the original it is ye shall not accomplish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the concupiscence of the flesh In the present case then when the Galathians did live in malice envy hateful and hating one another they did fulfill the concupiscence of the flesh And so by this account the lusts both of the concupiscible and the irascible faculty are comprehended more generally under one name and title of concupiscence And all his contrary reasoning is just nothing at all Now let us come to his last Scripture The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God because they are foolishnesse to him 1 Cor. 2.14 Here he bestows much paines to weaken the force of the text An animal man saith he that is a Philosopher or a rational man such as were the Greeke and Roman Philosophers upon the stock and account of the learning of all the Schooles could not discern the excellency of the Gospel-mysteries as of God incarnate Christ dying the resurrection of the body and the like Rep. It s true that the Philosophers aforementioned were such natural or animal men but it is not the whole truth For they that come to Church and publickly professe may be animal men also and in their animality may be far from receiving the things of the Spirit A schoole-boy that is able some way to make a Gramatical construction of the Greek of Euclide and Ptolomy is not presently capable of the mysteries of Geometry and Astronomy That requireth the skill of an Artist as well as of a Gramarian And if the laws of the land were translated into English I think we should not be all Lawyers out of hand So in the present case though all may outwardly own and some may preach the Doctrine and mysteries of salvation this doth not presently entitle them to that kinde of learning that comes only by the teaching of the Spirit Many may speak much of the love of Christ that never had the feeling of it in their hearts Moses tells the people in his time ye have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive and eyes to see and eares to heare unto this day Deut. 29.24 They did see and they did not see they did outwardly see the works but they did not inwardly believe the truth wisedome goodnesse and power of God For had they seen these things as they ought they could not but have loved the Lord their God and have lived in obedience to his laws So then not only the Greek Philosophers but many Christians also may be called natural or animal men He further sheweth what animality is Animality which is a reliance upon natural principles without revelation is a state privatively opposed to the Spirit and a man in that state cannot be saved because he wants a vital part he wants the Spirit Rep. What he saith here and in the words immediately following is the same in substance that we speak and is extreamly contrary to the designe that he derives at For if in the state of animality a man cannot be saved because he wants the Spirit the chief vital of salvation Why doth he to make religion intelligible deny original sin plead for the freedome of the will and establish the purity of the natural birth We say because a man is borne in original sin and dead in trespasses and sinnes therefore he cannot be saved without the infusion of a new life He saith that a man in his animality cannot go to heaven without the Spirit the chiefe vital of salvation Let a wise man now judge where we and he do differ But to blind the businesse he hath a subtle distinction between carnality and animality Carnality saith he or the state of being in the flesh is not only privatively opposed but contrarily also to the spiritual staee of grace Rep. This expression of his might passe well enough were it not for that which followeth First speaking of the state of animality and then of carnality afterwards he hath these words The first is only an imperfection and a want of supernatural aides the other is indeed a direct state of sin and hated by God but superinduced by choice and not discending naturally Rep. In this expression of his there are two things that need a better enquiry First how doth he prove that the state of animality is only a state of meer imperfection and no more St. James tells us the wisdome from beneath is earthly sensual devilish or according to the original earthly animal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 devilish I think none will say that the animality of this wisdome is a bare imperfection and no more It s positively opposed to the wisdome that is above and can there be a greater enemy to the wisedome above then that which is beneath The Apostle St. Jude also saith that Mockers should come walking after their ungodly lusts These are they that separate themselves sensual not having the Spirit ver 18 19. the word is they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 animal not having the Spirit Now in this case will any man be so void of understanding to affirme that these in their animality were meerly defective and that they were not in a direct state of enmity against God I think none will easily assert it Sure I am many ensamples may be brought to prove the distinction between animality and carnality to be a meer non-ens or nullity Secondly we agree that the state of carnality is a state of sin and hated of God but whereas he saith that it is only superinduced by choice as also that it doth not naturally descend Herein we crave liberty to depart from him The Scriptures all along specially the writings of St. Paul speak of the flesh in opposition to the Spirit Now will he or any man else assert that this is a state meerly superinduced and that men come to be flesh purely by the choice of their own will If this be so how do all come to agree in one and the same choice All do not agree to be Souldiers to be Scholars to be Merchants to be Mariners yet all are flesh before they come to be sanctified by the Spirit Seeing he will not have this state naturally to descend let him assigne some general cause how all do agree to be carnal Necessarily some general cause must lye at the bottome but he further saith Adam did leave us all in an animal state but this is not a state of anmity of direct opposition to God but a state insufficient and imperfect Rep. This state of meer imperfection which he speaks so