necessary that he should create souls daily but conserve the order appointed as he doth about the Heavens The Answer is easie therefore do the words relate to the Creation at first with the conservation of them because new Heavens and new earths are not every day made but both they and we do acknowledge new souls are every day produced as often as a man is born and God at first making Adam's soul by breathing into it the same order is still to be conserved This Text thus cleared we may adde as proofs also of the like kind Isa 42. 5. Though Austin thought by spirit there might be meant the sanctifying Spirit of God But that hath no probability Psal 33. 15. the Psalmist saith God hath fashioned the hearts of men alike or wholly throughout By which is meant the soul of a man in all its thoughts and workings because the soul puts forth its vital actions in the heart That also is remarkable which yet I find not mentioned by any in this Controversie Jer. 38. 16. where Zedekiah maketh an oath to Jeremiah that he will not kill him after this manner Thus saith the Lord who made us this soul not this body but this soul he putteth that into the oath intimating what an heavy sinne it would be to kill a man that is innocent seeing he hath his soul from God I shall mention but one Text more and that is in the New Testament which seemeth clearly to demonstrate the creation of the soul Heb. 12 9. We have had fathers of our flesh that corrected us c. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of Spirits I think this Text may put us out of all doubt God is opposed as a Father to our natural parents God is called a Father of Spirits natural parents father of our flesh Now if our souls did come from our parents they might be called fathers of our spirits as well as of our flesh The Apostles Argument would have no force if the Creation of the soul by God alone and the generation of the flesh only by natural parents be not asserted Thus Numb 16. 20. as also Chap. 27. 16. God is there styled The God of the spirit of all flesh in a peculiar manner It may be wondered that though Austin busied himself so much in finding out of this Truth diligently attending to the Scripture yet he never mentioned this place Certainly this Text might have removed his doubt and made him wholly positive in affirming the creation of the soul That which I find later Writers reply to it is That God is called the Father of Spirits in respect of Regeneration because he sanctifieth and maketh holy But the opposition to our fathers of the flesh evidently confuteth this and withall they can never shew that God is called a Father of Spirits or a God of Spirits but in respect of Creation not Regeneration It is true the word spirit may sometimes be used for a man as regenerate as flesh is for a man wholly corrupt but they can never shew that the word spirits in the plural number is taken for men regenerate Vse Of Exhortation To quicken up your attention to this Truth do not think this is unprofitable and uselesse that this Question is like those of which Paul complaineth some doted foolish and endlesse No it is very profitable for in knowing the original of thy soul how it cometh even from God himself may it not shame thee to make thy self like a beast as if thou hadst no better soul then they have Prophanenesse and sottish ignorance do greatly oppose the nature of thy soul Why do men say in effect Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die but as if they and beasts were all alike And why is it that you see so many have no understanding but that they are like the horse and the mule Why doth the Scripture compare wicked men to so many kind of beasts but because they live as if God had put no rational soul into them That though in the making of their bodies they differ from beasts yet in their souls they do greatly agree SECT III. THus you see we are examining Whether that Doctrine of the Propagation of souls from parents be a sure foundation to build upon in clearing the conveyance of original sinne to Adam's posterity And we have evidently proved That the soul hath its immediate creation from God So that to runne to the Sanctuary of the Souls Traduction would be to implore a dangerous errour to assist the Truth As God needeth not a lie so neither doth his Truth any error And indeed Although I shall not call the Doctrine of the Creation of the soul an article of faith because so many learned men have hesitated therein So that it would be an high breach of charity to commaculate such with the note of heresie yet we may with Hierom call it Ecclesiasticum dogma a Doctrine that the most Orthodox have alwayes received So that the contrary opinion seemeth to be absurd as Whitaker well saith Although Vorstius would make this dispute to be meerly philosophical in his Antibellarm Having therefore laid down those Texts which are a sure pillar of this Truth we shall adde some further reasons and then make use of this point which is very fruitfull SECT IV. Arguments from Scripture to prove the Souls Creation THe first Reason which may appear in the defence of the Souls immediate Creation from God is From the historical Narration which Moses makes of the beginning and original of Adam 's soul For as God when he was to create man did it in a more transcendent and glorious way then when he made beasts or the other creatures For then he said Let there be light and Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creatures that have life Gen. 1. 20. And so Let the earth bring forth the living creatures the beasts after their kind But when he comes to make man then the expression is altered Let us make man in our Image and Gen. 2. 7. where we have the manner of the execution of this counsel it is said He formed the body of Adam out of the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life No such thing was done to other creatures So that you see Adam's soul was from God immediately though his body was from the earth This breathing of life into Adam was infusing of the rational soul Some Ancients thought that it was the bestowing of the holy Ghost upon Adam and that he had his rational soul before They compare it with Christs breathing on his Disciples whereby was communicated the holy Ghost Now it is plain they had their rational souls before This is vain because by the breathing of this life it 's said Adam became a living soul so that he was but a dead lump of earth as it were before And indeed this Text is so clear that I know
thee than a child new born yet that is a child of wrath till cleansed Oh then be 〈◊〉 of thy condition SECT V. Objections against this natural Uncleanness answered THe Doctrine of our natural uncleanness and sinfulness by traduction from Adam being established out of these words we come to answer some Objections That as the shaking of the Tree makes it root faster and deeper so doubts about it when cleared may the more confirm us The first Objection which I shall bring seemeth in express terms to deny any such uncleanness at least to Infants of bellevers So that it should seem Because believers are clean Therefore their children are brought clean out of them The place that gives fuel to this Argument is known being much vexed and discussed in these dayes especially in the controversie about Poedobaptism it is 1 Cor. 7. 14. Else were your children unclean but now are they holy where it is positively said That the children though but of one believing Parent are not unclean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that answereth the Hebrew word in the Text yea the contrary to this is affirmed That they are holy I shall not range into all the controversal Disputes about this point only in the general we may say That this place doth not at all contradict my Text for Job saith That by nature none can bring a clean thing out of an unclean but if God by grace doth it that doth not oppose Job yea we told you some render the later clause interrogatively Art not thou he alone viz. that can bring a clean thing out of an unclean Certainly though no humane or Angelical power can thus sanctifie yet God can For what do all those glorified Saints in Heaven made perfectly holy but proclaim this for they were once unclean and impure but now God hath made them fully clean without the least spot or blemish Thus there is no contrariety between these two Texts for one speaketh of what we are in a natural way the other what some are by a gracious and supernatural way But yet in the second place It 's good to have a more thorow discussion of these words though not so amply as polemical Divines have enlarged it and the rather because the Lutheran Divines do boldly and peremptorily charge it upon the Calvinists as if they denied original sinne in all the children of believers And although they cannot be ignorant in what sense the Calvinists do explain this holiness of believers children yet they constantly calumniate in this point as if something would stick upon them howsoever Therefore in the third place there are three or four Interpretations that are competitors about this Text. The first is of those who by uncleanness do mean a spurious bastard-brood and by holy a civil sanctity as it were that is true and legitimate as if the Apostles meaning was in answering the doubt of a believer Whether they might continue in marriage with unbelievers for in Ezra's time all the Jews that had so married were commanded to put away their wives did inform them that their marriage would be lawful otherwise their children would be bastards but they were legitimate Thus the Lutherans generally some of the Ancients are alledged also and Musculus upon second thoughts cometh off to this Interpretation confessing he had formerly abused it against Anabaptists But this might easily be rejected if it were our business in hand For 1. Marriage even among Heathens is true lawfull marriage and their children are legitimate for although their very marriage as all things else are unclean to them in a sanctified sense because they are impure yet marriage in it self is a lawfull thing to them so that it is not to be judged fornication And 2. The Apostles argument would not conclude for those that doubted whether their marriage was lawful would also have doubted whether their children were legitimate and therefore this could not be an argument to prove their marriage lawfull In the second place There are some who understand this holiness of inward true inherent purity so that their judgement is that the Apostle saith all godly parents have holy children and if it fall out otherwise in some cases they say it 's an indefinite not an universal proposition which if it be true for the most part it is enough but experience seemeth to confute this Neither is believer here taken strictly for one who did in a saving way believe but largely for one that did profess faith in Christ and therefore is opposite to an Infidel Now all that were not Infidels were not presently truly godly though they did believe as some are said Joh. 2. To whom yet Christ would not commit himself 3. Therefore there are those who understand this of Heathenish uncleanness and Idolatry and so they say One born of believing Parents is free from that especially if we do regard the hopes that are in his education Therefore some expound this holiness only in respect of the designing and dedicating of such unto real holiness Hence Estius he understands this De filiis adultu of children grown up For it may be supposed That if the unbelieving husband will not leave his wife but abide with her that therefore he will yeeld to her and let her educate her children in the faith of Christ and be no enemy or opposet thereunto and 1 Pet. 1. 3. is brought to expound this place so that they make this holiness to be only quoad spem and disciplinam For the believer may by an holy godly life gain both the unbeliever and the children and thus Hierom is said to answer a Question proposed by Paulinus concerning this place Lapide consents to this and opposeth Calvin and Beza concerning this foederal holiness as also Tirinus on the place because the Church is not like a civil Commonwealth but is a supernatural Society saith Lapide This is no Reason for though it be a supernatural Society yet God may give what spiritual priviledges he pleaseth to them and theirs and therefore Salmeron he understands this holiness of a Church-holiness that they are esteemed children of that And in his Comment on that place brings that Promise which the Calvinists use to do I will be thy God and the God of thy seed Hence the fourth and last Interpretation which is justly deemed most genuine and orthodox is to expound this holiness of a Covenant and foederal holiness of a Church-priviledge That being born though but of one believing parent yet they are not unclean as Heathens and their children who have no right or claim to any Church-Ordinance but are holy by the gracious favour and Covenant of God who taketh in believers and their seed When parents are taken into the Church their children also or Infants are received in with them not that all are made internally holy only they have a right to Church-membership and therefore the initial sign ought not to be denied to them So that the hope of godly
Behold and take heed of it for you see even David betrayed by it the holiest man that liveth may quickly and suddenly fall into the most enormous sins because of it In the next place we have the thing it self confessed and that is in two things He was shapen in iniquity that is the first The word is many times applied to the bringing forth of a child and doth properly signifie to bring forth with sorrow and pain Hence some render it I was born in iniquity and so it may very well be translated but if we render it shapen or formed then this sheweth That in the forming of the parts of the body and disposing of it for animation even then sinne is there initially so that before we are born as soon as that mass is enlivened and animated so soon is original sinne in a man The other expression is That in sinne did his mother conceive him The Hebrew word is Did warm him or nourish him So that this doth not so much relate to the actual conception as to that whole time his mother did bear him in the womb all that while this pollution was in him Hence Aquila renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which though happily some might think it a fault in writing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet there are those who make that word emphatical and say it 's a metaphor from the fowl that is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pica the Pie that while building of her nest is with great vehemency and violence compiling of it breaking off the tops of twigs and flying from place to place as if some inward heat did transport her Others make it to signifie a multiform appetite from the colour of that Bird. Well howsoever it be the word from the Hebrew is to be extended to that whole time the child is carried in the mothers womb being warmed and nourished there So that not only as Ambrose of old we may say Hominis ortus in vitio est a mans birth is in sinne but as soon as ever that mass of flesh in the womb is informed and animated so soon it becomes sinfull It is true indeed the parts of the body are along while in forming before the soul be inspired and sinne is not properly till the soul be united to the body yet because that is part of man and tends to it we may say sinne is there inchoatively and imperfectly because it is in tendency to make up man and therefore it was that Christ being to be man yet without sin was to be conceived by the holy Ghost The very corpulent substance of the Virgin Mary from which his body was made to be purified and sanctified by the holy Ghost In the last place we are to take notice in what he is thus formed and born and that is also in two words Gnanon and Cheteh both which signifie that which is truly and properly a sin So that it 's plain when David could have no actual will or consent of his own yet then sin and iniquity was truly in him This place therefore is very evident and unanswerable to prove this That all by nature are born in sin The Fathers of old before Pelagius arose did expound it so and generally after Austin's time The Popish Interpreters also grant it a clear place to prove this truth yea the Rabbins they from hence also prove original sinne and say it hath seven names in the Old Testament whereof two that they mention viz. The fore-skin of the heart and an heart of stone are without all doubt applicable unto it Insomuch that they who deny this Doctrine in these dayes must needs wilfully put a veil before their eyes It is true Clemens Alexandrinus hath a passage which would seem to enervate the force of this place which the late Writer Vnum Necessar pag. 395. maketh use of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. Stromat 3. sub finem But how much his Authority herein is to be regarded appeareth in that he maketh the mother here spoken of to be Eve he calleth his mother Eve prophetically saith he though happily that doth hint something of original sinne else why should he name Eve Besides this Clemens doth a little before speak strangely which passage is taken notice of by the same Author as speaking home to the point 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let them tell us Where an Infant did fornicate Or how he who had done nothing could fall under the curse of Adam Bellarmine thinketh these words to be the objection of Hereticks and truly those books do well deserve their name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for there is so much confusion we can hardly tell when the Author himself speaketh Some would interpret him of actual sins but the learned Vossius Histor Pelag. l. 2. pars 1. pag. 160. saith Clemens did not fully understand the Doctrine of original sinne And Coccius Tom. 2. Artic. 2. the Catholick-Treasurer from this very passage saith Clemens parum novisse de peccato originali videtur SECT II. Objections against this Ineerpretation answered BUt let us hear what is objected by the Adversaries to this clear Text And First It 's said by some That David doth not here bewail his own sins but his parents in begetting of him as if it was their sinne he acknowledged and not his own This is a miserable shift for First David was not begotten in adultery neither were his parents unlawfully joyned together therefore in begetting of him they did not sinne for Marriage is honourable if the bed be not defiled with adultery or fornication Therefore if Adam had stood in the state of integrity there would have been procreation of children so that his parents did no more sinne in this than in eating and drinking or any other lawfull act God hath appointed either for the propagating of the species or conservation of the individuums Secondly This Interpretation is against the scope of David in this Psalm which is to debase himself to humble himself from what is in him not what is in others I will acknowledge my sinne and my iniquity is alwayes before me and so proceedeth to bewail this original or birth-sinne Thirdly If his intent were to confess his parents sins why doth he instance in his mother only In sinne did my mother conceive me he saith Why did he not rather bewail the sinne of his father who begat him who would have been a greater sinner than his mother in that matter if it had been a sinne at all Lastly It 's good to take notice of what Bellarmine in the Exposition of this place though a Papist saith It may be to prevent such calumnies that future Hereticks would raise the holy Ghost in this Text would use no word that did properly and directly relate either to the fathers begetting or the mothers immediately conceiving thereupon for this might seem to attribute sinne to
is flesh as well as spirit in the best performances This close subtil insinuating nature of original sinne is the cause why a godly man can never know the bottom of his heart This makes so many hypocrites and apostates This is it that makes a man so uncertain about himself for when he hath done all that we would think there were no danger yet some embers or other may lie as it were under the ashes and set all on flame Lastly When it saith Evil is present with us that denoteth the molesting and retarding nature of it stopping us in all the good we would do This is that especially for which Paul makes this sad complaint so that he cannot step one step but sinne puls him back again This is the milstone about the neck This is the clog and burden upon every man Oh Lord I would even flie up into heaven but this burden doth press me down When we would runne our spiritual race this makes us halt Vse Of Instruction to abhorre all such Doctrines as teach a perfection that holdeth We may attain to be without sin in this life Some Anabaptists and Papists though so extreamly contrary yet have understood that place Ephes 5. 27. Not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing to be fulfilled in this life forgetting the words before that he might present it to himself a glorious Church so that till this be done it is not without spot And near to these are such who though sinne be every way present in them yet because of their pharisaical and doubled minds as Paul once was they do not discover or feel any such thing But let the tender enlightned heart go into Gods presence and sadly bewail himself saying O Lord How ill is it with me What shall I think or say of my self How unspeakable is my misery I might have thought all sin within me even dead and buried But oh how it stirreth Oh how ready is it to put forth it self Lord I know not how to live with this burden and yet I cannot live without it I should utterly faint but that thy grace is sufficient for me CHAP. V. Of that Name The Sinne that doth so easily beset us given to Original Sinne. SECT I. HEB. 12. 1. And the Sinne which doth so easily beset us THe Apostle from those several Examples of many Worthies recorded in the former Chapter which he cals A Cloud of Witnesses partly for the multitude of them and partly for Direction As the Israelites had a Cloud to guide them in the wilderderness doth inferre a conclusion by way of Incouragement to go on constantly in the way of Christianity which he doth here as in other places compare to a running in the race This similitude sheweth the Difficulty in the race the Earnestness the Fortitude and Patience that ought to be in such who will be saved What an antidote should the meditation of this expression be against all dulness slothfulness and negligence whose life is like a running in a race to Heaven Now the Apostle following this Metaphor exhorts to lay aside all those burdens that may hinder us in this work It would be 〈◊〉 in him who is to runne a race to put burdens upon his back and lay as many heavy weights upon himself as he can No lesse absurd are they who give way to sinne in the lusts thereof and yet hope to arrive at Heaven Now the burden we are to lay aside is expressed in two words 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 weight by this is meant all actual sinne especially love and cares about the world for the earth is an element that descends downward and so he who hath an earthly heart cannot but have his soul presse downward 2. There is the Root and cause of this expressed in that phrase The sinne that doth so easily beset us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word is but once used and that in this place it 's a two fold compound and so the more emphatical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much here as easie and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that it is a sinne which besetteth and compasseth us about and that very easily it finds no resistance neither have we any power to withstand it Some understand this of actual sinnes but not only Protestant Interpreters but even some Papists also Ribera and others understand it of Concupiscence within us The word is made a Metaphor several wayes Erasmus renders it Tenaciter adhaerentem That sinne which doth so tenaciously adhere to us making it an Allâ—sion to Ezekiel Chap. 24. where there is a Pot set on the fire yet all the fire and burning cannot get off the rust and filth that cleaveth to it Gretius makes it to respect Lament 1. 14. where there are yokes and bands mentioned about the neck which are impediments to the beast in his going Others they make the Metaphor from a Wall or an hedge that stops the passenger in his way Yea Lapide following others makes it to be the outward temptations or the dangers that are in the way by enemies and adversaries to the Truth but the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not well agree to that Hesichius rendereth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Varinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If we compare this expression with what Paul saith of himself Rom. 7 concerning original sinne keeping and pressing him down we may well with Beza put a procul dubto upon that exposition which doth apply it to original sinne for that indeed is the onely weight that doth constantly and perpetually beset us and hinder us in our way to Heaven and that with all ease and facility Observe then That original sinne is the sinne which doth so easily beset us That doth circumcingere as Beza saith bind us up strait and close that our limbs are not expedite and free to runne our holy race So that it is with us as a racer that hath his arms or legs bound his garments so strait-laced to him that he cannot have that liberty and freedom to runne as he doth desire Some consider the word as it did allude to a milstone about the neck plunging us down into the Sea SECT II. What is implied in that Expression So easily beset us LEt us take notice What is contained in this excellent and emphatical word And First There is implied our utmost impotency and inability to shake off the power of it For although the Apostle exhorteth us to lay it aside yet that must be understood as a duty alwayes in doing that we are neverable to compleatfully and perfectly You see though they are godly to whom he writeth and they are already in the race yet it is their work daily to be unburdenning of themselves When therefore it 's called The sinne so easily besetting us hereby is taught us our inability and insufficiency to withstand it Insomuch that all those Doctrines which teach Free-will and a power to do what is good are justly to be
abandoned John 15. when separated from Christ we cannot do any thing and therefore are said to be not asleep but even dead in sinne so that no Infant new born is more unable to help it self than we are to promote the good of our own souls This therefore must be laid as a foundation without this our humiliation doth not goe deep enough We are to lie bemoaning our selves as that poor Cripple which had no power to put himself into the water And indeed till we be sensible of this impotency we cannot expect that Christ will help us When that Cripple said He had no man than our Saviour relieved him Oh then bewail the strait and misery thou art in If it were a temporal calamity thou wert in and such as neither thou thy self or any man in the world could help thee How greatly would it afflict thee But now though neither men or Angels can deliver thee out of this spiritual evil yet thou doest not lay it to heart Secondly As it densteth that our power to good is lost by this original sinne So also our will and desire For why should it be said to beset us so easily But because we have neither power or will against it so that till the principle of Regeneration be infused into us sinne hath defiled our will as well as our power as we cannot so neither we will not gain say the lusts thereof We must not then conceive of man as indeed miserably polluted and such as cannot help himself but is very willing and heartily desireth to be freed from this bondage but his will is as grosly polluted as any thing He willeth not the things of God he loveth not yea he hateth every thing that is spiritual and holy Insomuch that we may truly say That the actual wickednesse in mens lives doth not onely arise from weaknesse and impotency to what is holy but from an unwillingnesse and an aversnesse to it Though they be allured with the glorious promises of Gods favour and eternal glory Though the terrors of God and the everlasting flames of hell be set before them yet they will not Though their consciences be convicted though the word of God be plain against their lusts so that they cannot tell what to say yet they will not So that herein lieth the sad and dreadfull efficacy of original sinne that it hath corrupted the will all over so that whereas we will the lusts of the flesh the pleasures of sinne the comforts of the world we have no will to what is good If then the will which is the appetitus universalis and like the primum mobile that doth carry all the inferiour orbs with it be thus infected with sinne no wonder if we be easily beset by it This is to bribe the Commander in Chief that ruleth all and so it is no wonder if all be at last betrayed into the hands of sinne and Satan Thirdly When original sinne is said thus to beset us and compasse us about hereby is denoted What an impediment and hinderance it is to us in our way to Heaven that were it not for this clog upon us we should with all chearfulness and alacrity runne the way of Gods Commandments It is this that makes the Chariot-wheels of the soul move so slowly It is this that stops us in the way that makes us draw back SECT III. How many wayes Original Sinne is a Burden and an Hinderance unto us NOw because this property is chiefly aimed at by the Apostle in this expression viz. that it is a burden an hinderance a stop to us while we are in our race Let us consider How many wayes original sinne is a burden and hinderance so that if this were removed there would be no complaints of the difficulty that we find to what is good yea the more perfect and spiritual any duty is the more pleasing and acceptable it would be to an heart eased of this burden And First Original sinne is a burden incurvando By bowing down and pressing to the soul to these creatures here below So that now by nature the creature with the comforts thereof is the center of a mans heart is the ultimate object his soul is placed upon God indeed made man after his own image and then his heart his affections they did all ascend upwards to God then he could not satiate or fully delight himself in any thing but God but through this original sinne a man is habitually averse to God and converted to the creatures So that God is not in all his thoughts yea Ephes 2. 2. they are said to be without God in the world Even as the body of a man when deprived of its sense falleth prostrate presently upon the ground so when that original righteousness was removed which was the soul of the soul presently we fall downwards to the creatures knowing no better good nor desiring any better comforts but what are in them No marvel then if this make the godly go stooping and bowing down because it depresseth and leaneth to the creature leaving God That as you see the body is a burden to the soul especially if diseased which made Plato say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very grave and sepulchre of the soul Thus original sin is a spiritual burden to it that there cannot be those ascensions and elevations of the mind to God as ought to be Secondly It 's an impediment in our race Obnitendo by a plain opposing and contrary thwarting of any good that the Spirit of God either externally offers or internally operates Thus this native sinne doth with all violence oppose and thwart whatsoever is spiritual Therefore you see the Apostle expressing this resistance by military words that it doth warre against him and sometimes lead him into captivity Thus even a Paul is like a poor captive or prisoner carried up and down whether he would not Now this obnitency and reluctancy of original sinne is seen two wayes against what is good 1. There is a good published and tendered by the preaching of the Gospel God doth by that proffer unto us everlasting and eternal life but this original sinne stirreth up a man to reject it and to refuse it it 's no sutable or acceptable offer to our natures no more than pearls or sweet flowers are to the beastly Swine Indeed when a people have lived long under the preaching of the Gospel yet do reject it and oppose it loving darkness rather than light these have a double blindness and hardness upon them The natural one by original sinne and the habitual contracted one which they are justly delivered up into by God for the contempt of the light they do enjoy but I speak here only of the natural blindness and natural hardness upon our hearts So that upon the very first offers and tenders of grace the first Sermon that ever we hear the first time that the Gospel doth sound in our ears we
whereas the reason they give why by flesh cannot be meant wholly sinfull Because say they then in the opposition by Spirit would be meant wholly spirituall whereas the Orthodox do acknowledge a conflict with the Spirit and the flesh abiding in every regenerate man But to this the Answer is That the abstract is put for the concrete spirit for spiritual so that the Subject in the Proposition Born of the Spirit Spirit is the holy Spirit of God and the Predicate is made spirit Spirit is to be understood of that spiritual and heavenly nature wrought in us by him And although he who is made thus spiritual is not purely and absolutely so yet the Spirit will in time subdue and wholly conquer the flesh in which sense Gal. 5. They that are Christs are said to have crucified the flesh with the lusts thereof Although there be the reliques and remainders of it still in the most holy The Text then being thus vindicated the Observation is That all men born in a natural way are not only without the Image of God but thereby also are positively polluted and made all over flesh and sinfull SECT II. Of the use of the word Flesh in Scripture And why Original Corruption is called by that name TO discover this in the first place It is good to take notice of the use of the word Flesh in Scripture for the mis-understanding or mis-applying of it hath brought in a world of mischief The Papists by Flesh I mean some of them understanding only the bruitish and sensitive part as if sinne were onely resident there and the rational part were free and pure but this is a very great errour For besides the general use of the word Flesh in the Scripture there is two more pertinent to our purpose 1. Flesh is sometimes taken for that which is weak and frail Isa 31. Their horses are flesh and not spirit Psal 78. He remembred they were but flesh And 2. It is often taken for sinfulness and corruption Thus Gal. 5. The works of the flesh are opposite to the works of the Spirit and men who are in the Flesh Rom. 8. cannot please God Gal. 3. Who having begun in the Spirit will ye end in the flesh To be in the flesh and in the Spirit are made two opposite beings by the Apostle Insomuch that we may make it a sure Rule That wheresoever flesh is opposed to the Spirit of God or its spiritual operations that then flesh is used for that which is evil and sinfull and thus it is in the Text. The true notion therefore of the word Flesh being retained Let us consider Why original sinne is thus called Flesh And First It is called so Because of its opposition to what is spiritual Whatsoever the Spirit of God revealeth to be believed or commands to be obeyed it is wholly contradicted by man while abiding in the flesh Thus the Apostle Rom. 8. The wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God You see here is not only a meer privation of what is spiritual but a positive enmity and frowardness against God and therefore we do not speak enough to describe the fulness of our natural evil when we say that we came naked into the world without the Image of God and his Spirit for original sinne hath a contrariety in it against God it puts a man upon hatred of whatsoever is holy therefore the Apostle addeth Rom. 8. 5. It is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be Oh then that God would make our hearts more of flesh in the Prophet Ezekiels sense viz. tender and melting under considerations of how much flesh is in both mind and heart in the Apostles sense Would thy self-righteousness thy self-love thy self-fulness continue any longer if thou didst thus judge and believe concerning thy self Oh what a noisom carkass what a loathsom monster wouldst thou be in thy own eyes if thou didst consider the positive frowardness and opposition which is in thee to what is holy And therefore even in the regenerate Gal. 5. 17. The Flesh is said to lust against the spirit Search then into thy heart and say From whence doth arise these gainsayings and oppositions which are in me to what is holy Why should not heavenly and spiritual things be as welcome pleasing and delightfull to me as sinfull and wordly objects Is not all this because thou art Flesh Certainly there is a thousand times more reason for thee to imbrace spiritual objects than earthly They have more real excellent and enduring good in them then all the pleasures of sinne if put together but it is because thou art flesh that thy heart is naturally so full of enmity against whatsoever is spiritual And although this natural enmity be encreased in thee by voluntary wickedness yet that which cleaveth to thee as soon as thou hast a being is enough to make thee refuse the word of God the Ministry inviting of thee and to slight every Sermon thou hearest or every affliction God layeth upon thee for thy sinne mourn then under this enmity this Law of sinne that rebelleth against the Spirit of God This may sensibly and evidently teach thee that thy natural corruption is more than a meer want of the Image of God Secondly In that original corruption is called flesh is manifested That even the whole intellectual and sublimer parts of a man are become sinfull We see our Saviour saith That which is born of flesh is flesh nothing is excepted so that whereas some would have it the rational part The mind and understanding not to be comprehended under this flesh we say the contrary according to Scripture That in the soul and faculties thereof there is originally sinne chiefly seated There is the spring and fountain from whence issue all the streams of sinne into the lower parts of the soul Thus when the Apostle reckons up the works of the flesh Gal. 5. 19 20. There are Idolatry and Heresies numbered with the rest which must needs be sins of the mind How often doth the Scripture speak of darkness ignorance folly and blindness in the minds of all men by nature Col. 2. 18. There it 's called a fleshly mind and certainly if the mind must be renewed as the Scripture speaks Rom. 12. 2. Col. 3. Eph. 4. 23. it necessarily followeth that it is fleshly and sinfull Behold then what a fountain of evil and misery springs out from us in this respect which may overwhelm us For though the inferior parts of the soul had been throughly infected with this Leprosie yet if the superiour and chief parts had not been contaminated there would have been hopes that those Sun-beams would have dispelled such misty clouds but seeing that the eye is become dark How great is our darkness and salt it self having lost its seasoning all must become loathsom and unprofitable Not only thy eyes thy ears not only thy affections and passions of love fear anger c. which are the
further actings of original sinne in the mind and spirit of man And The second in order is That incapacity which is in every mans understanding about holy things Divine and supernatural things are no more received by him then a Beast doth apprehend the things of reason We have this fully affirmed 1 Cor. 2. 14. But the natural man receiveth not the things of God neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned you see there is no habitude or proportion between the understannding of a natural man and spiritual things no more then is between the bodily eie and a spiritual 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is one that doth excolere animam such as labour to adorne and perfect the soul with the most intellectual and moral indowments that are a Tully a Plato an Aristotle these if brought to Gospel-truth are not so much as noctuae ad solem Owles to the Sunne-beames To this purpose also Rom. 8. 7 we have not only this truth asserted but also aggravated where the carnal mind is said To be enmity against God and it is not subject to the Law of God neither can it be By which places of Scripture it is evident That the mind of man hath an utter incapacity as to any divine things Indeed there is a passive capacity as some express it and so the mind of man is susceptible of holy truth and such a capacity is not in a beast as that is not capable of sinne so neither of regeneration But then there is an active capacity when the soul by some ability and power of its own is able to move to these supernatural objects and thus the understanding of the most learned in the world cannot of it self receive it and therefore faith is said To be the gift of God so that we may justly abhorre the Arminians Probitas animi and Pia doxilitas which they make preparatory or main part to conversion Now there is a twofold receiving of divine Truths 1. Speculatively by a bare dogmatical assent and even thus none by nature can receive the Truths of God for the Pharisees though they heard Christ preached and saw the miracles he did yet they did not believe with so much as a dogmatical faith 2. There is a practical and experimental receiving of holy Truths in the power of them which is here called the knowing of Truths as they are in Jesus and this much less are we able to receive To the former is required the common grace of God To this a more special one Wonder not then if you see men even the most learned naturally so brutish so ignorant about divine things That they have no more understanding and apprehension about heavenly things Oh bewail original corruption which maketh thee so unteachable so untractable Why doth not every Scripture-truth every powerfull Sermon have its full and powerfull operation upon thee but because it doth not me et with a preparedand fitted subject Thirdly Adam's actual sinne which is our original imputed one was partly this They desired to be as gods to know good and evil which hath left its impression upon all Like the Bethshemite we desire to be looking into the Ark. The Apostle 1 Cor. 4. 6 as he would not have the Corinthians think of men above that which is written so much less of God contrary to that which is revealed This is a great evil upon the understandings of men by original sinne that now the mind is not contented with the rule God hath given it They think it a small and contemptible matter to know no more then what may be known by the Scripture but they affect extraordinary things This curiosity is that which filled the Church once with so many Schoolemen and their Questions as Aegypt was once with Caterpillars It is true School-divinity hath its use and so farre as they deal solidly and improve natural reason in any point they are very admirable but when once they fall into their useless unprofitable and sublime Questions where neither the Word of God or sure reason can conduct them then they vanish like smoak in the air how rash are they in their Disputes about Angels With what nice conceits have they obscured the Doctrine of the Trinity Insomuch that we may see much of original sinne in them inclining and hurrying of them to a bold and venturous determination of such things which God hath not manifested so that none of their seraphical sublime or angelical Doctors could begin their Disputations as John his Epistle That which we have seen we have heard and our hands have handled 1 Joh 1. 1. Though therefore the Schoolemen have in somethings their great use yet in their difficult niceties which are but as so many cob-webs there they are as much to be slighted as one king did a man who boasted he could stand at a distance and throw a grain of corn through the eie of a needle Again this original curiosity of the mind venteth it self in all those Magick Arts and Witchcrafts which have abounded in the world as also in judiciary Astrology and such deceitful impostures men affecting as Adam did to be like God to be able to declare the things that are to come Act. 19 19. They are called curious arts Furthermore this curiosity of the mind is seen in nauseating and disdaining known things and what are already discovered and ambitiously thirsting to find out some Veritas incognita as others have done Terra incognita To bring such new things to the world that were never knowen or heard before It 's from this sinful curiosity that men forsake the good Truths of God and runne after heresies errors and whatsoever hath novellisme in it so that he who would examine himself about his regeneration must look to the renovation of his mind in this particular as well as any other Fourthly Original sinne discovereth it self in our minds by the vanity that they are filled with 1 Cor. 3 20 The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise that they are vain If the thoughts of wise men without the Scripture be vain how much more of men who have no more then natural ability And certainly this must needs be a very heavy censure upon man that he who hath the best parts the greatest understanding yet till grace sanctify he is but a vain man His mind is a vain mind his understanding is a vain understanding many waies the vanity of it might be discovered as thus The understanding of man is naturally more affected with pleasing things then with solid and sound Truths it is more affected with words language jests and merry tales then with that matter which tendeth to spiritual edification Is not this a great instance of the vanity upon our minds to regard leaves more then fruit chaff more then good seed pictures and shews more then substances whence ariseth that delight in embroydered language in playes and Comedies and in Romances and such bubles and empty vapours but from
This is the cabinet and choice closet of thy soul If a man should take his cabinet that was for jewels and precious stones and fill it only with mud and dirt would it not be exceeding great folly No lesse is it when thy memory is full of stories and merry tales and in the mean while rememberest not what God saith in his Word which would be so usefull to thee for thy souls good acknowledge then the goodnesse of God to thee in providing the Scriptures as an help to thy memory and withall know that seeing the Spirit thought it necessary to commit them to writing hereby is fully declared the pollution and sinfulnesse of thy memory For in Heaven when the memory will be fully sanctified and perfected then there will be no more use of the Bible we shall not then need to read the Scriptures to quicken up our minds for all imperfection will then be done away Thirdly The sinfulnesse and weaknesse of the memory is manifested not only by the end of the Scriptures in general but also several parts of the word of God are peculiarly so ordered that they might be the more easily conserved in our memory Thus when any great deliverances were vouchsafed to the Church those mercies were made into Psalms and Songs that for the meters sake and the pleasantness of the matter all might have them in remembrance This method did signifie how dull and stupid our memories are and how apt to forget the benefits and mercies of God and therefore our memories are to be helped therein Thus the 119th Psalm is put into an alphabetical order thereby to further our memory about it yea there are two Psalms Psal 8. 1. and Psal 70. 1. which have this Title To bring to remembrance And the matter of those two Psalms containeth a complaint under afflictions and earnest importunity with God for deliverance The Spirit of God by instruments made them to be composed for this end that afflicted and troubled soules should have them in remembrance and indeed we may say of every Chapter as well as of those Psalmes A Chapter to bring to remembrance yea of many Verses A Verse to bring to remembrance And because the memory is so slow and dull about holy things you may read of a peculiar command to the Jews in this case and although the same obligation doth not belong to us yet it teacheth us all what forgetfullness and oblivion is ready to seize upon us about holy things Numb 15. 39 40. God doth there command Moses to speak to the children of Israel that they make fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations It was a perpetual Ordinance And why must this be done To remember all the Commandments of God This was Gods special command The Church under the Gospel may not in imitation hereof prescribe Ceremonies or appoint Images to stirre up the dull memory of man The Popish-Church commendeth their Crucifixes and their Images upon this account because so helpfull to the memory being the Lay-mens Books But though the memory be greatly polluted yet it belongs not to man but to God as part of his regality to appoint what he pleaseth to stirre up and excite the memory in holy things God hath appointed other things the Word and Ministery and Sacraments for our memory as is to be shewed and therefore this is a devotion which God will reject because not having his superscription upon it Fourthly That the memory of man is naturally polluted is plain By the Ministry appointed in the Church of God by Christ himself for one end of that is to bring us to remembrance Thus you heard the Apostle Peter speaking he thought it meet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 just and righteous while he was in the flesh to put them alwayes in remembrance of these things so Jude also Thus Paul injoyneth Timothy 2 Tim. 2. 14. Of these things put them in remembrance so 1 Tim. 4. 6. If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things thou shalt be a good Minister of Jesus Christ He is not a good or faithfull Minister of Christ tha is not diligent to put you in mind of Scripture-things The Ministery is not only to instruct the ignorant to convert the prophane but also to put in t mind those that do know and are converted They are like Peter's Cock upon his crowing Peter was brought to remembrance and he went out and wept bitterly Every Sermon we preach should bring thy sinnes and thy duties to remembrance The Spirit of God you heard had this office to bring things to your remembrance and the Ministery is the instrument by which he doth it Alexander would have a monitor to be alwayes prompting this mementote esse hominem And the Romans when riding in glorious triumph would have some to remember them of their mortality But Christ hath provided a more constant help for thee to have spiritual watchmen and remembrancers who are never to cease minding of thee Say not then what should I go to hear a Sermon for I know already as much as can be said For though that be false yet if it were granted you must know the Ministery is for your memory as well as judgement and who needeth not to have that often quickned to its duty Fifthly In that Christ hath appointed Sacraments in the Church which among other ends are to quicken up and excite our memory it is plain that they are polluted that we are prone to forget all the benefits of God though never so precious Sacraments have for their generical nature a sign They are signs and that not only obsignatives and in some sense exhibitive but also commemorative hence in the very Institution of the Lords-Supper we have this injunction Do this in remembrance of me 1 Cor. 11. 24. Not that the commemoration of Christs death with thankfullness and joy is the total and adequate end of the Lords-Supper as the Socinians affirme making us to receive no new special influences of Gods grace thereby upon our soules or any renewed exhibitive Communion of Christ with his benefits to us but meerly a commemoration of what benefit is past As say they the Israelites when they celebrated that publick mercy of deliverance out of Egypt had not thereby a new deliverance but only there was a celebration of the old Thus they would have it in the Sacrament of the Lords-Supper But the principall and chief end of the Lords-Supper is to conveigh further degrees of grace and comfort to the true receivers yet we acknowledge it also a speciall and great end in the Sacrament to be commemorative and that Christ hereby would have our memories quickned about that infinite love shewed to us in dying for us Now what can be more demonstrating the naughtiness and sinfullness of the memory then this very thing For who would not think that Christs voluntary giving up of himself to such an accursed and ignominious death for us would
God implying That the Sunne and the night can no more stand together then the remembring of God and carnal confidence can the ambitious man the voluptuous man remembring God would find it to be like thunder and lightning upon the soul This would immediately stop him in his waies of iniquities Thus 2 Sam. 14 11. that suborned woman of Tekoah in her disguised Parable to David complaining of some that would rise up against her to destroy her sonne she desireth the King to stop the revengers wrath by this Argument Let the King remember the Lord thy God Thus when thou art sollicited inticed to any evil way Remember thou God the infinite God the just God the omniscient God the dreadfull and terrible God in all his wayes of anger Nehemiah also maketh use of this Argument to quicken up the Jews against sinfull fear and cowardise in Gods work Nehem. 4. 14. 1 said to the Nobles and Rulers of the people be ye not afraid of them but remember the Lord which is great and terrible This God complaineth of Isa 57. 11. Thou hast not remembred me nor laid it to thy heart and therefore were they so propense to all their abominations These Texts may suffice to inform that our memories ought constantly to be fixed upon God and no sooner do we let him out of our mind but immediately some sinne or other is committed But how unspeakably is the memory of every man naturally polluted herein When is God in their thoughts Amongst those millions and millions of objects which thou dost remember when is the great God the just God the holy God thought on May you not see it by the bold impiety and undaunted wickednesse of all unregenerate men that they remember not God Yea the godly themselves finde in part this pollution upon their memory Whence arise those carnal feares those dejected thoughts Is it not because you forget the greatnesse and goodnesse of God Bewail thy memory-sinfulnesse as well as other sins 2. As the Scripture prescribes the object of our memory viz God himself so it doth instance in one time more then at another Though at all times God is to be remembred yet in one time of our age though there be greatest cause yet our lusts and desire after other things do greatly hebetate our memory We have the injunction from Solomon himself Eccl 12. 1. Remember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth Here you see who is to be remembred when he is to be remembred God is to be remembred and that in the time of our youth But do not the strong effects of original sin heightned also by actual sins discover herein most palpable impiety in young persons they remember their lusts their pleasures in the dayes of their youth and God is never in all their thoughts Oh where may we find a young Timothy that was acquainted with the Scripturee from his infancy Where an Obadiah That feared God from the youth Do not most young persons live so negligently about holy things as if they were allowed to be dissolute as if the things of Heaven and eternity did not belong to them as if Solomon had said the contrary Do not remember God in the dayes of thy youth be not so strict and precise but follow thy pastimes and pleasures Thus the very memory of God and holy things is a burden to young persons They think Solimon spake farre better Chap. 11. 9. when he saith Rejoyce O young man in thy youth let thy heart cheer thee and walk in the wayes of thy heart remove sorrow and evil away They like this well This is good but there is a sting in that which followeth Know thou that for all these things God will bring thee to judgement This will quickly damp all thy youthfull jollities Let then young persons especially bewail the sinfulnesse and forgetfulnesse of their memory herein This is the best and most flourishing time for your memory now it is put upon to learn either Mechanical Trades or the Liberal Arts your memories are most drawn out in inferiour things but take the advantage to imploy it more about holy things You hear old persons complain they have lost their memory they grow forgetfull therefore fix your memories upon good things while you may 3. The Scripture commends the Word of God likewise as the object of our memory Timothy had learnt the Scripture from his Infancy The word of God was for this end amongst others as you heard committed to writing that so we might the more readily have it in our memories Mal. 4. 4. the Prophet commands them to remember the Law of Moses with the statutes and judgments yea they were to have such a ready and familiar knowledge of the Word of God that when they were rising or walking they were to be speaking of them Deut. 6. 7 8 9. we may there see what care is taken that the Law of God should be alwayes in their mind but do we not evidently behold the cursed and wretched pollution of mans memory in this particular Why is it that little children will remember any Songs sooner then the principles of Religion Why is it that many persons who are not able to remember any thing of the Scripture or the Sermons they have heard yet can remember Ballads and Songs they can remember their youthfull pranks and talk of them with delight but they cannot give any account of the good truths that in their younger years were preached to them When do ye hear such say Such a Sermon wounded me at heart it sticketh still upon me I shall never forget it Now is not the sinfulnesse of the memory greatly to be bewailed in this particular If it were holy and sanctified it would take more delight and joy to remember Scripture-truths then any thing else whereas now thy memory is like a sieve that lets the corn and weighty grain fall through but the light refuse stuff that it retaineth Thus what is solid and would do thy soul good that quickly passeth away Oh that we could not fay our Sermons passe away as a tale that is told for those you do remember and you will carry a long while in your mind empty frothy things those abide long with you Would you not judge it madnesse in the Husbandman if he should pluck up and hinder the growth of his corn and let cockle and tare with other weeds flourish Thus thou dost about thy memory throw away the flours and keep the weeds whereas thy memory should be like the holiest of holies nothing but what is select and sanctified should enter therein 4. That I may not be too long in these instances The works of God whether in his mercy or in his wrath they are to be the object of our memory Thus the Scripture speaketh often of remembring his marvellous works Matth. 16. 19. Christ reproveth his Disciples because they did not remember the miracle of the loaves All the great
that is the cause of all thy bad fruit A regenerated will a sanctified will would make thee prepared for every good work It is for want of this that all preaching is in vain all Gods mercies and all judgements are in vain Why should not the hammer of Gods word break it Why should not the fire of it melt it but because the stubbornness of the will is so great that it will not receive any impression 't is called therefore a stony heart not an iron heart for iron by the fire may be mollified and put into any shape but a stone will never melt it will sooner break into many pieces and flie in the face Thus the will of a man hath naturally that horrible hardness and refractoriness that in stead of loving and imbracing the holy things of God it doth rather rage and hate with all abomination such things ¶ 7. The Enmity and Contrariety of the Will to Gods Will. IN the second place That imbred sinfull propriety of the will which accompanieth it as heat doth fire is The enmity and contrariety of the will to Gods will There is not onely a privative incapacity but a positive contrariety even as between fire and water Gods will is an holy will thine is unholy Gods will is pure thine is impure Gods will is carried out to will his own glory honour and greatness thine is carried out to will the dishonour and reproach of God Thus as Gods will is infinitely good and the cause of all good so in some sense thy will is infinitely evil and the cause of all that evil thou art plunged into Therefore when the Apostle saith That the carnal mind is enmity against God Rom. 8. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comprehends the actings of the will and the affections as well as of the mind It is enmity in the very abstract so that it is neither subject to God nor can be Oh that God would set this truth more powerfully upon our hearts for what tongue can express the misery of this that thy will should naturally have such irreconcilable opposition and implacable enmity to the Law of God that it should be diametrially opposite to Gods will which at first was made so amicable and compliant with Gods will that there was the Idem velle and Idem nolle Besides many other considerations there are two especially that may break and exceedingly humble our souls herein For 1. Gods will and his law which is his will objectively taken are absolutely in themselvs very good and therefore the proper object of thy will So that if thy will be carried out to any thing in the world it should be carried out to Gods Law above any thing This is to be willed above any created good what soever How is it that thou canst will pleasures profits and such created good things and art not more ravished and drawn out in thy desires after the chiefest good but to be in a state of opposition to this chiefest good to contradict and withstand it this is the hainous aggravation Could there be a Summum malum it would be in the will because of its direct opposition to the Summum bonum Herein mans will and the Devils will do both agree that they are with hatred and contrariety carried out against Gods will If therefore thou wert to live a thousand and thousands of years upon the earth and thou hadst no other work to do but to consider and meditate about the sinfulness and wretchedness of the will in this particular thou wouldst even then take up but drops in respect of the Ocean and little crums in respect of the sand upon the sea-shore But Secondly This contrariety of thy will is not only against that which absolutely in it self is the chiefest good but relatively it would be so to thee and therefore thy contrariety to it is the more unjustifiable What to be carried out with unspeakable hatred to that which would be thy blessedness and happiness who can bewail this enough To have a delight and a connaturality with those things that will be thy eternal damnation with much readiness and joy to will them and then to be horrible averse and contrapugnant to those things which if willed and imbraced would make thee happy to all eternity Oh miserable and wretched man thy condition is farre more lamentable then that of the beasts for they have a natural instinct to preserve themselves and to desire such things as are wholsom to them but thou art naturally inclining to will and imbrace all those things which will be thy eternal woe and misery What is the cause that thy will cannot imbrace the Law of God Why art thou so contrary to it Alas there is no just reason can be given but original sinne is like an occult quality in thy will making an Antipathy in it against the same so that thou doest not love what is holy neither art thou able to say Why only thou dost not love it yea there is the greatest reason in the world and all the word of God requireth it likewise that thy will should be subordinate and commensurated unto it but there is no other cause of this evil will then the evil of it It is evil and therefore cannot abide that which is good ¶ 8. The Rebellion of the Will against the light of the mind and 〈◊〉 slavery of it to the sensitive part in a man THirdly The original pollution of the will is seen in the rebellion of it against the light of the mind and the slavery of it to the sensitive part in a man to the carnal and sinfull affections therein Both which do sadly proclaim how the will is by nature out of all holy order and fallen from its primitive integrity For in the former respect therefore did God give us reason that by the light and guidance thereof the will should proceed to its operations So that for the will to move it self before it hath direction from the mind is like the servant that would set upon business before his master commands him like an unnatured dog that runneth before his master do set him on To will a thing first and afterwards to exercise the mind about it is to set the earth where Heaven should be But oh the unspeakable desolation that is brought upon the soul in this very particular The will staieth for no guidance expecteth no direction but willeth because it will what is suteable and agreeable to the corrupt nature thereof that it imbraceth be it never so destructive and damning God made the mind at first that it could say like the Centurion I bid the will go and it goeth the affections move and they move but now the inferior souldier biddeth the Centurion go and he goeth This then is the great condemnation of the will that though light come in upon it yet it loveth not the light but rebelleth against it and this sinfulness of the will is more palpably
have no more proportion or sutablenesse with spiritual and supernatural objects then the eye hath with immaterial substances so that as the eye cannot see a spirit neither can material affections terminate upon immaterial objects But the Answer is That the affections being implanted in us as hand maids to the rational parts and subjected to them by an essential subordination therefore it is when those superiour parts of the soul do strongly imbrace any spiritual good the affections also by way of concomitancy are stirred up therein onely as it is with the will though that be made to follow the understanding and as some say doth necessarily yeeld to the ultimate and practical Dictate thereof yet the will doth need a peculiar sanctification of its own nature neither is the illumination of the mind all the grace the will wanteth So it is with these affections although they be appointed to follow the directions and commands of the mind and will yet they must be sanctified and enlivened by the peculiar grace of God else they move no more than a stone Now this necessity of enlivening and quickning grace upon the affections the godly are experimentally convinced of How often doe they complain they know Christ is the chiefest good they know eternal glory is an infinite treasure Oh but how barren are their hearts no affections no cordial stirrings of their soul when they think of these things Doe the children of God complain of any thing more than their want of affections in holy things They have them as hot as fire for the things of the world but are clods of earth in spiritual duties This maketh them cry so often with the Church Draw us and we will runne after thee This maketh them pray Arise O Southwind and blow O North upon the garden of my soul that the flowers thereof may send forth a sweet fragrancy Thus that saying is true Citò prevolat intellectus tardus sequitur affectus If therefore there were no other pollution upon the affections then their dulnesse and senslesnesse as to holy things This may make the godly go bowed down all their life time Their affections are green wood much fire and frequent blowing will hardly inflame them and hence it is that the godly are so well satisfied and do so thankfully acknowledge the goodnesse of God to them when they find their affections stirring in any holy thing Insomuch that they judge that duty not worth the name of a duty which is not an affectionate duty That prayer not worthy the name of prayer which is not an affectionate prayer But how dull and heavy are these till sanctified as to any holy object Yea such is the perverse contrariety that is now come upon the superiour and inferiour parts of the soul that when the more noble parts are intensively carried out to any object the inferiour are thereby debilitated and wholly weakned so that many times the more light the lesse heat the more intellectual and rational the lesse affectionate Now this is contrary to our primitive creation for then the more knowledge of heavenly things the more affections also to them did immediately succeed But now experience doth confirme That those men whose understandings are most deeply ingaged in finding out of truths their affections are at the same time like a barren wildernesse Hence you may often find a poor inconsiderable believer more affectionately transported in love to Christ and holy things than many a great and learned Scholar That as natural fools have a greater stomack to meat and can digest better than wise men whose animal spirits are much tired and wearied out So it is here the lesse disputative the lesse head-work a godly man hath many times he hath the better heart-work Oh then bewail this in thy self as a most degenerating thing from primitive rectitude when thou findest thy knowledge thy controversal Disputes dry up thy affections So that truth is indeed earnestly sought after but the goodnesse of it doth not draw out thy affections When David commended the word of God above the honey and the honey-comb it was evident he found much experimental sweetnesse of the power of it upon his affections SECT XIII The Affections being drawn out to holy Duties from corrupt Motives shews the Pollution of them THirdly Herein also is apparent the original pollution of our affections That when they are moved and stirred up in any holy duties yet it is not a spiritual motive that draweth them out but some corrupt or unlawfull respect Thus there is a world of guile and hypocrisie in our affections we think it is the love of God that affecteth us when it is love to our selves to our own glory to accomplish our own ends Thus in our sorrow we think it is for sinne that we grieve when it is because of temporal evil or some outward calamity Insomuch that this very consideration of the hypocrisie and deceitfulnesse of our affections may be like an Abysse or deep to swallow us up when the heart is said to be so desperately wicked and that none can know it but God by that is meant in a great part our affections none knoweth the depths of his love of his fear of his sorrow How often doth he blesse himself when he finds these things moving in him especially in holy duties Whereas alas it is not any consideration from God any heavenly respect moveth him but some earthly consideration or other You may observe this in Jehu what ardent and burning affections did he shew in the cause of God destroying Idolatry and executing the judgements of God upon his enemies But what moved his affections all this while It was not the glory of God but self-respects self-advancement Oh this is the treacherous deceitfulnesse of our affections we may find them very strong in preaching in publick prayer with others and the fire to them be onely vain-glory Yea our affections may be blown up with our own expressions and delight in them so that as it is a long while ere thou canst get thy affections up to any holy duty so it is as difficult to search out What is the cause of them Why they rise up Those in Mat. 7. 21. that would cry Lord Lord did by the ingemination of the word demonstrate lively affections yet they were such whom God would bid depart as not knowing of them Here therefore is the misery of man that as all the speculative knowledge in the world unlesse it be also accompained with an affectionate frame doth not at all commend us to God so all hot and strong affections do not presently suppose the truth of grace within Experience doth sadly confirm this that many who have had great affections and workings of heart in the profession of godlinesse have yet desperately apostatized and become at last a senslesse and as stupid about heavenly things as any prophane ones are The Jews are said for a while to rejoyce in Johns light Joh. 5. 35.
estate now in being consistent thus of a body he doth partake with beasts and agreeth with them But the other part of man is spiritual immaterial and immortal substance breathed at first into Adam by God himself and herein he doth agree with Angels According to these two constituent principles a man doth act either according to the soul or the body In the state of integrity his soul was predominant he was like an Angel in this particular but now since man is fallen his body is principal and chief and thereupon is become like the bruit beaâ—â— living and walking according to the inclinations and temptations of the body This the Psalmist observed Psal 49. 12. Man being in honour abideth not he is like the beasts that perish And vers 20 man that is in honour and understandeth not is like the beasts that perish Here you see that though a man be exalted to never so much glory and dignity in the world yet if he understand not if he doth not live according to the true principles of reason and grace he is but like a beast not only in that he perisheth like a beast but also in that he liveth and walketh like one Hence it is that the Scripture doth so often compare wicked men to beasts to the Ass to the Wolf to the Dog and Swina because they fall from the principles of a rational soul and become like them in their operations Thus evil men are said 2 Tim. 2. 26. To be taken captive by the Devil at his will or as in the Greek taken alive As the hunter doth drive wild beasts into his nets and so taketh them alive Thus are wicked men brought as it were willingly into the Devils hands and are tame under him and if so be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his will be referred to the Devil as some do then it sheweth in what willing subjection they are in to Satans lusts but because it 's not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it therefore relateth rather to the remote antecedent which is God implying that it is by Gods just judgement that man is thus become a miserable slave and doth the Devils drudgery even as we make beasts do our work And thus it is with all men since the fall they are not worthly the name of a man therfore the whole body of wicked men are compared to the Serpents seed as if they were the off-spring of such a poisonous creature rather then of man yea doth not experience confirme this take men without the work of grace either internally sanctifying of them or externally restraining of them take them as left to their own natural principles and having no more to walk by what do you perceive in them more then a beast Indeed their body is still upright and so they differ from them but in their life and manners they are conformable unto them Oh that men would consider and lay this to heart to be affected with this original sinne that hath thus degraded us even from the honour as it were of a man There doth not appear in us the actings and workings of a rational soul we are as our body and the inclinations thereof do carry us away ¶ 4. The Body by original Sinne is made a Tempter and a Seducer FOurthly The body by original sinne is made a tempter and a seducer it doth administer daily matter and occasion to sinne As the Devil is a tempter without so the body is the tempter within we are incited and drawne away to many bodily sinnes from the temptations thereof hence we read in the Scripture that the word flesh is so often put for the sinful part of a man and spirit for the regenerate part and why is it called flesh but because it is so intimately adhering to the body and by the body so much iniquity and sinfulness is expressed Thus sinne is called our flesh as if it were no longer a quality polluting of us but our very bones and corporeal substance There are several bodily sinnes which are bred as it were in this noisome pudddle of the body as drunkenness this is a bodily sinne and where this vice is accustomed unto how greatly doth the body crave and importune for the accomplishing of it this maketh repentance of it and a through reformation so difficult because it is now soaked as it were in the body that as you see it is with the food we eat while in the mouth or stomack it is with some ease exonerated but when digested and by nourishment turned into the very parts of the body then it cannot be separated Thus when sinnes come to be incorporated into thee when thy body is habituated to any vice it requireth much prayer and agony much humiliation and supplication ere such a lust can be disposessed Oh then bewail thy body that is thus become an enemy to the soul that is like a furnace sending forth continual sparks of fire That as the tree by the moisture and softness thereof doth cause wormes to breed in it which do at last destroy it Thus out of thy body arise such lusts that will at last be thy eternal perdition As drunkenness so uncleanness this is also a lust of the body this sinne ariseth from it and although that be very true which the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 6. 18. That fornication and such uncleanness they are against the body because the body is to be kept holy and pure it being the temple of the Holy Ghost where a man is sanctified yet take it as corrupted and polluted so these lusts are very sutable and consonant to it who can think then that the body is such as at first Creation such a ready instrument to much bodily wickedness yea a tempter and a seducer This is the Dalilah that doth so often plunge us into soul sinnes there was no root of bitterness in mans body at first but as it was with the ground when cursed for mans sinne then it did naturally and of it self bring forth weeds and thorns so doth the body thus defiled it is now the continual nourisher and fomenter of vice we damn our souls to please our bodies we are become slaves to our bodily pleasures and delights though we know they are to the eternal perdition both of soul and body at last nourish it we must provide for it we must yet we cannot nourish that but sinne also is thereby strengthned Hence you have that holy Apostle himself much afraid of his body that it may not rise up in rebellion against the work of grace 1 Cor. 9. 27. he useth two emphatical words to this purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I keep under my body an allusion to those who did fight for masteries by way of exercise so that when one did beat the other black and blue about the face 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the countenance and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are those marks upon the face Hence
grace to sanctifie them and prepare them for any heavenly duty Prov. 20. 12. The hearing ear and seeing eye the Lord hath made even both of them Let the Use be even to amaze and astonish thee with the thoughts of this universal pollution upon thee the soul in all the parts thereof the body in all the members thereof Nothing clean and pure but all over leprous and ulcerous How canst thou any longer delight and put confidence in thy self Why doest thou not with Job sit abhorring of thy self and his indeed were ulcers of the body only and they were a disease but not sinne whereas thou art all over in soul and body thus defiled and that in a proper sinfull way Oh that the Spirit of God would convince all of this sinne The Prophet Isaiah was to cry All flesh is grasse and the floâ—rer thereof fadeth away to prepare for Christ but in that was chiefly comprehended All flesh is sinne and the fruit thereof damnation What though this be harsh and unpleasing to flesh and bloud What though many erroneous spirits deny it or extenuate it yet seeing the Scripture is so clear and evident with which every man that hath experience of his own heart doth also willingly concurre Believe it seriously and humble your selves deeply think not transient and superficial thoughts will prevail as the weighnness of the matter doth require If ever thy heart can be broken and softned let it be discovered here rise with the thoughts of it walk with the thoughts of it and leave it not till thou find the belief thereof drive thee out of thy self with fear and trembling finding no rest till thou art interessed in Christ CHAP. VIII Of the Subject of Predication Shewing that every one of Mankinde Christ onely excepted is involved in this common sinne and misery SECT I. The Text opened and vindicated LUKE 1. 35. Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Sonne of God WE have at large though not according to the desert thereof described and amplified the subject of original sinne wherein it is seated By which it appeareth that man all over is become corrupted both the totus homo and the totum hominus the whole man and the whole of man The next thing to be considered is the omnis homo or the Subject of predication as Divines call it The former being called the Subject of Inhesion Our work then is to shew That Christ onely excepted every one of mankind is involved in this common sinne and misery there is none that can plead any exemption from it For seeing it is made the peculiar priviledge of Christ to be so born because conceived after a miraculous manner it therefore necessarily followeth that all others are comprehended under this guilt Though you may see some men from the youth up lesse vicious then others more ingenuous and civil then others yet even these are by nature all over sinfull so that there is no such thing as a natural probity and goodness of which the Socinians dispute as in time is to be shewed That it is the prerogative of Christ only to be freed not only from all actual sinne but also original and birth-sinne is evident by this Text which containeth an answer of the Angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary who with some trouble and amazement had questioned how she should conceive a Sonne who knew not a man The Angels answer consisteth in the information of the manner how it shall be and the consequent issue and event thereof The Manner is expressed in the efficient cause and his efficacy The Efficient cause is said to be the holy Ghost and the power of the Highest A person not the vertue only of God as the Socinians blaspheme as appeareth â—n that we are baptized into the name of the holy Ghost who is reckoned one of the three with the Father and Sonne as also by the personal operations and characters attributed to him which cannot be cluded with the figure of a Proso 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some endeavour It is true The works of God ad extra are common to all the three Persons yet there is a peculiar order and appropriation and therefore the preparing and forming of Christs body out of the Virgin Mary is peculiarly ascribed unto the holy Ghost The Efficacy is set down in two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is to be understood of the operation of the holy Ghost not his essence for that is every where The like expression though to another purpose is Acts 1. 8. The second word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning which there is more difficulty The word in the New Testament is applied to a Cloud covering a man with a Dative Case though Favorinus and Stephanus make it to have usually an Accusative Matth. 17. 5. Mark 9. 7. and Acts 5. 15. such an overshadowing as they expected virtue and efficacy thereby So Heysichius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Old Testament by the Septnagint it is often rendreed for defence and protection because in these hot Countreys the shadows of trees were a great preservation against the extream scorchings of heat And in this sense rather then in any other we take the word in the Text that the holy Ghost should protect and defend her not only in the inabling of her against nature to conceive without a man but also against all accusations and dangers she was to be exposed unto by this means Thus Virgil used the word Et magnum Reginae nomen obumbrat Others which may be additional to the former render it The holy Ghost shall fill her with glory therefore she is said to be highly favoured And thus also among Poets the word is said to be used Olympiacis umbratur tempora ramis Stat. Some make it to be as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if the meaning were the holy Ghost should as it were pourtray and draw the lineaments of the body Others make it an allusion to the hen which by covering her egg doth by the heat thereof produce a live young one to which also the Scripture is said to allude Genes 1. 2. when it is said The Spirit moved or was incumbent as the water Thus by the power of the holy Ghost in an unspeakable manner the body of Christ was formed of the mass and fleshly substance administred by the Virgin Mary But this we are to take heed of lest the mind of man should apprehend any indecent thing in this great mystery Therefore Smalcius the Socinian his assertion is to be rejected with great abomination that feared not to affirm That by this expression is secretly and modestly implied the work of the holy Ghost as supplying the place of a man his blasphemous and abominable expressions I shall not relate Smal. refut Smigl cap. 17 18 19. We shall then keep to the first interpretation understanding it of Help and Protection in this wonderfull work The
there must necessarily be some reason either expresly or tacitly implied for God is here declaring his purpose to take a more gracious and mercifull way now that he had given such a dreadfull demonstration of his justice and anger against sinne already Some then make the reason to be ab incommdo that if God should destroy the world because of mans original corruption breaking forth daily there would never be an end we should have flouds upon flouds Therefore as the Psalmist saith He remembreth that we are but dust he knoweth our frame Psal 103. 14. therefore he will not alwayes pour cut his wrath Thus say they it is here and this is probable Others make it an Argument ab aeqno to which Pererius inclineth as if God did hereby declare That being man is thus originally polluted and incurably sinfull as to his own power therefore God would pity him so that though formerly God looked upon it as the matter of his wrath now as the matter of pity being sinne maketh us miserable so some think David Psal 51. urgeth his natural corruption as an Argument to move God to pity him but this is not so probable because this doth directly contradict Gods former proceedings when his wrath was poured out on the world because of this sinne breaking forth into actual rebellions I rather therefore go with those that take the particle Ci adversatively Although God would not again destroy the world although mankind was of such a corrupt frame and thus it is to be taken in many places the neglect whereof hath caused many Disputes about some Texts of Scripture whereas the rendring of this particle adversatively would easily have cleared it as might be shewed if it were to my purpose Vide Tarn Exerc. In the next place we are to consider the words absolutely and they are very emphatical the Heart the Imagination and is evil In the former place Chap. 6. 5. there is a greater aggravation Every Imagination and only evil and all the day long but one supposeth the other here in this Text in stead of continually or every day as in the Original we have From the youth and therefore doth more palpably demonstrate the original filth or all men by nature Neither can the Adversaries to this Doctrine of original sinne put in the exception to this place as they did to the former for there they would evade by saying it was spoken of those evil and wicked men who had in a more notorious manner corrupted all their doings But how can they open their mouth against this place for God speaketh this as true at that present of all mankind by nature when yet the great prophane ones were destroyed and Noah with his family was preserved So that this is a perpetual and inseparable qualification from the nature of man more than actual death For Enoch and Elijah did not actually die yet they were born with original sinne As for some Expositors who would limit to the time of youth when a man is past his Infantia and Pueritia his infancy and childhood arrived at his Adolescentia his youth that is not to be admitted for the word is to be applied to his whole time since he was born The word Nagnar doth signifie one cast or shut out and properly belongeth to a new born Infant and so doth signifie the tender Infancy of a child although we grant that it is sometimes extended to the youth as Genes 37. Joseph is called Nagnar a youth when he was seventeen years old feeding the flock So 1 Kings 3. sometimes it 's applied to a Disciple or Servant because they were ordinarily young 2 King 9. Isa 37. which the Septuagint render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it is applied to Christ and therefore whereas Acts 4. 27. it is rendred Thy holy child Jesus Some think it better according to the use of the word by the Septuagint Thy holy servant for so Christ is sometimes in respect of his Mediatory Office called the servant of God But it is plain that children are capable of sinne before their youth and therefore we are not to limit it but to expound if of their very first being in original sinne which doth vent it self actually in after years Some make the Plural number to be observable they render it à pueritiis as containing the whole age of a man from his tender years till he be grown up Hence Grotius will extend it to the very time from the womb but then runneth to his Socinian Hyperbole which hath been sufficiently confuted To determine the time indeed when Infants begin to be capable of actual sinnes is very difficult but that is not my work here Now though it is said to be evil from the youth yet that is some limitation It is not evil from Gods first creation of mans heart not from its original being and therefore the essence of a man is not evil So that it is an horrible calumny of Tirinus the Jesuite upon this place to say That from this Text Luther and Calvin do inferre That the heart of a man is essentially evil Illyricus his dotage is sufficiently disowned by them As then the Leprosie got into the wals of the house and that could not be scraped off there was no way to get it out but by demolishing the wall yet was not to be attributed to the Artificer that made the wall but to some other supervenient cause So likewise neither is original sinne though now so closely adhering to mans nature to be attributed to God who first created mankind but to Adam's voluntary Apostasie from God The Text thus explained there are two Doctrines contained in it First Original sinne is an heavy and grievous sinne Secondly That there is a particular original sinne in every one which breaketh out into its actings betimes From which we shall take occasion to discourse of the equality and inequality of original sinne in every man Let us begin with the first Original sinne is a most grievous and heavy sinne In the Text is put an Although upon it God will not destroy the world although this sinne be in man implying the infinite mercy of God that is not provoked by this utterly to cut of mankind Hic est insiguis locus de peccato originali c. saith Luther on the place This is a famous place concerning original sinne which whosoever extenuateth saith he like blind men in the Sunne they do truly erre and do not see what they daily doe and may have experience of It is from our senslesnesse and stupidity or rather from our self-love and pharisaical disposition that we do not more afflict our selves under the apprehension of it for this is the highest offence the like whereof said Luther unless in the Devils cannot be found SECT II. The Aggravaiions of Original Sinne. ¶ 1. Of Adam's Actual Transgression NOw for the aggravation of original sinne we may speak either of Adams actual iransgression which is our
at the beginning endeavoured to clear himself and to charge his sinne upon God The woman thou gavest me And happily some even in the primitive times by mis-understanding some places of Scripture wherein God is said to give men up to their lusts to harden and blind men in their sinnes might occasion such a detestable Position And although the Papists do ordinarily charge this damnable Doctrine upon the Calvinists yet there needeth no more to justifie Calvin in this particular then what he doth most excellently and solidly deliver upon this very Text. The truth is our learned men shew expressions from the Papists yea from Bellarmine himself more harsh and incommodious then I believe can be found in any Protestant Writer But this by the way The Apostle being to inform us of the true cause of all the sinne we do commit and that not God no nor Devils or wicked men are to be blamed comparatively but our own selves sheweth that all this evil cometh from that concupiscential frame of heart we have within us And as for God the Apostle expresly instanceth concerning him prohibiting any one to think or say it is from God that they do sinne Let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God and he giveth two reasons whereof one is the cause of the other If you ask How is it that God is said to tempt no man seeing he tempted Abraham and the Israelites Austin's distinction is made use of that there is a temptation probationis and seductionis of probation or tryal or of deceiving and enticing to sin God indeed doth often tempt his people the former way not but that he knoweth what is in the heart of every man but that hereby a godly mans graces may be the more quickned as also a man have more experimental knowledge of himself As for the other temptation of seduction God doth not thus tempt that is he doth not encline or enrice to sinne It is true we read the Prophet Jeremiah saying O Lord I am deceived and thou hast deceived me Jer. 20. 7. But that is spoken unadvisedly and rashly by the Prophet who thought because what he had prophesied was not as yet fulfilled and therefore his adversaries derided and scorned him that therefore it would not at all be fulfilled and so by consequence that God had deceived him Secondly Divines distinguish temptation into external and internal External are afflictions and troubles called often so in Scripture and these temptations are from God 2. Internal which do immediately incline to sinne and with these God doth not tempt Now although the Apostle had in the former part spoken of external temptations yet now he speaks of internal ones though some think he continueth his discourse of externals because these many times draw out hearts to sinne but this ariseth not from God The reason why God cannot tempt to sinne is from the infinite perfection of holiness which is in God he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He cannot be tempted by evil It is true men are said to tempt God many times and so ex parte hominu there is done what man could do even to make God deviate from his own holy nature and Law but the Apostle meaneth ex parte Dei that God is of such absolute purity and transcendent holiness that there cannot arise any motion in his nature to make him sinne For so we expound the Greek word in a passive sense Estius himself granting that the use of it in an active signification can hardly be found though Popish Interpreters plead for the active sense but then there would be no distinction of this from the following words Neither tempteth he any man The original word is used only here in the New Testament The strength then of the Argument lieth in this God doth not tempt any man to sin because he hath no inward temptation or motion in his own nature to sin for that is the reason why the Devil is so impetuous and forward in tempting us to sin because his nature is first carried out to all evil so there is no man that doth draw on another to sin but because he in his own heart is drawn aside with it before The Apostle having thus justified God and removed all cause of evil from him In my Text he directeth us to the true internal and proper cause of all the sinne that we do commit and therein doth most excellently shew the several steps and degrees of sinne whereby of an Embryo as it were at first it cometh to be a compleated and perfected sinne This Text is much vexed by Bellarmine and Popish Authors to establish their distinction of a venial and mortal sinne though they cannot find any true aid from the Text. Let us consider the particulars of this noble Text The Cause of a mans sinne is said to be lust 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is the same with original sinne the corruption of all the powers of the soul whereby it is inordinately carried out to all things Of which more in the Doctrine This is described from the note of propriety 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His own lust This expression is used that we may not lay all upon the Devil or other men for this is ordinarily brought by men to excuse themselves It is true I was in such a fault I have sinned but the Devil moved me or such wicked companions they enticed me or I did it because men compelled me and terrified me all this will not serve thy turn It is thy own lust within not men without that hath made thee thus to sinne And this sheweth That every man hath his own proper original sinne by way of a lust within him 3. This is further amplified from the Vniversality of the Subject wherein this lust is seated Every man so that no man but Christ who was God and man is freed from this incentive to evil 4. There is the Manner How this lust doth tempt us to sinne and that is expressed in two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Drawn away that is as some from God from heavenly objects because in all sinne there is an aversion from God and a conversion to the creature or else as others Drawn aside form the consideration of hell of the wrath of God of eternal death and damnation For we sinne continually as Eve did at first The Devil perswaded her she should not die and then when this fear was removed she presently falleth into the transgression and thus before men fall into the pit of any sinne they are drawn aside from those serious thoughts This will offend God this will damn me The other word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Metaphor either from birds or fishes which have baits to allure them and thereby are destroyed Thus lust appeareth with a bait but the hook doth not appear In the next place This original sinne is illustrated in the issue of it the Apostle sheweth how sinne Ã
many do consent to sinne within their heart which yet do not consent to the outward acting of it sometimes because of the shame that it will bring sometimes because of the punishment that it doth deserve or for some unworthy respect or other not because they fear and love God not because they desire a pure holy heart as well as an unspotted life And truly this is a good discovery of uprightnesse of our hearts when we dare not own sin in our thoughts when the we dare not respect iniquity in our hearts when we labour to keep a pure soul as well as a pure body ¶ 3. More Propositions concerning evil Thoughts and Motions that arise continually from the heart as the Immediate Effect of Original Sinne Shewing how many wayes the Soul may become guilty of sinne about them WE are now to finish this Discourse about that Immediate Effect of original sinne in causing evil thoughts and motions to arise continually from the heart as vapours do constantly from the earth and as they in their first ascension are imperceptible till they come to be congealed into clouds which are plainly visible Thus all sinne while it is but in these motions and stirrings of the heart is difficulty discerned but when it cometh to be formed by express consent and accomplished in outward practice then it is grosse and palpable But to proceed in more Propositions First These motions and stirrings of heart they are either sudden and transitory 〈◊〉 abiding and mansory in the soul Sometimes these sinfull stirrings of the heart are like a sudden whirlwind in the soul that presently vanisheth though they be very troublesom for the time or they come like a flash of lightning and thunder which though terrible yet is but of short continuance now although they make no longer abode in our soul yet they pollute and defile it We are not to give place to them no not for an hour as Paul would not to the false brethren Gal. 2. 5. but we are with holy zeal and indignation to thrust them out and bolt the doors upon them as they did to Thamar Thus in the very twinkling of an eye if we do not watchfully attend thereunto we may destroy our own souls over and over again That is a prophane speech to say Thoughts are free no God hath laid an holy command upon our very thoughts and the first motions and stirrings of our hearts that nothing should arise there but what is agreeable to Gods holy Word When water is in a pure glass though it be moved and shaken often yet no noisom thing ariseth thereby but if in a soul one then the more it is stirred the more filthy are the bubbles thereof Thus in man while enjoying the Image of God whatsoever did move or stir his heart it was altogether holy and pure but since man is thus corrupted there cannot be any motions of his soul but they are wholly defiled and sinfull one way or other Secondly These mansory thoughts which the Schoolmen call morosae because they do morari abide some time in the soul they are likewise divided for they are so continning in us either morâ temporis or morâ consensus as they expresse it Gerson Compend Theol. The continuance of time is when they may for a long while infect sollicit and annoy us but yet we strive and gainsay We do by no means give our consent thereunto as Joseph's Mistress did often importune him yet all that while he kept up the fear of God and would not sinne in that way against him So that although the people of God may be followed from week to week with loathsom and perplexing thoughts yet because they cry unto God they go and pray to him as Hezekiah did upon Rabshakeh's railing and blaspheming of God they are not to be discouraged Thou hast not betrayed thy strength to these Dalilahs all the while Yea from these spiritual exercises and conflicts thou wilt increase thy glory Hereby thou hast an opportunity to discover thy faith thy self emptiness and to get heavenly skill and compassion whereby thou art able to succour those that are in the like manner tempted But then 2. There are thoughts that are continuing morâ consensus and these are farre more dangerous and damnable then the former for if sinfull thoughts and motions arise in thy soul though they are but for a very short time yet if thou hast yeelded to them then thy soul hath committed fornication Consensisti said Austin concubuisti in corde tuo so that the consent to them is farre more dangerous then the length of time they may afflict thee in Any sinfull motion consented unto though it be but for a moment is more destructive then such as follow thee from day to day yea it may be from year to year but thou givest no entertainment to them This is good for the practical Christian to observe it is the long time that troubleth them Oh say they ever since God hath first wrought upon my soul I have been exercised with these thoughts such dreadfull suggestions and to this day I am not yet delivered from them Be of good comfort though it be grievous to thee to feel such things in thy soul yet because withstood they shall not be imputed to thee Those that have the like temptations but for an hour and imbracing of them have more offended God and endangered their own souls Propos 3. It is good to take notice how many wayes the soul may become guilty of sinne about these thoughts and motions within us A truth â—â—â—deed it is that no natural man no civil or formal man doth understand or can be affected with Can a blind man that doth not behold the Sunne see the atoms in the Sun-beams They who are not affected or grieved about great and actual sins will they find these inward motions to be burden If they can swallow a Camel will they not a mote 1. Therefore we come to sinne by these motions and thoughts of soul by the very being of them there The very having of them there is contrary to the Image of God we were first created in As in Heaven there is no unclean thing that can enter so where the Image of God is full and compleat the least vain thought the least sinfull stirring can no more consist with it then darkness with light or as at the first creation we could not have found one weed or thistle on the ground but these came by the curse for sinne so at first in mans soul there would not have appeared the least irregular and inordinate motion of the heart not one thought would have been out of its place Adam was Gods book coming immediately from him wherein no errata could be found but now in stead of wheat come up cockles Now what ever we think we imagine we move to all doth become sinne unto us Oh then let the godly soul mourn and humble it self because such motions are
be an occasion to â—ull men a sleep in their lazinesse that hereby they do not content themselves with incompleat and sluggish wishes in the wayes of holinesse If any do abuse this Doctrine to lukewarmness or indulgence in sinfull wayes saying their estate is like Paul's the evil they would not do they do This is not the fault of the Doctrine but either of the Minister who doth not wisely dispense it or of the hearer who doth wilfully suck poison out of the sweet herb Even as the whole Doctrine of the Gospel and Gods grace may be abused to licentiousness It is true that the proper character of Christianity is That it is an acknowledgement of the truth which is after godlinesse Tit. 1. 1. And certainly there is no point may more quicken up to godliness sâ—ur on the most holy to greater growth in piety then this truth about the imperfection of the graces that are in the best and also that we have a treacherous enemy within us the reliques of original sinne which without daily watching and praying will quickly plunge us into confusion Now the Minister of Christ will so handle this Exposition though of a regenerate person very profitably and advantagiously to the increase of godliness if he adde these qualifications to his Interpretation 1. That the evil which this person is said to do is not to be understood of grosse and enormieus crimes but partly of the very motions to sinne within us and sometimes a consent thereunto and it may fall out so as to be an acting of them in our lives but this is not of grosse sinnes or if of a foul sinne yet not continued in but with repentance and greater hatred recovered out of it Unlesse the Preacher do thus limit his Exposition he leaveth the battlements without rails he doth not fence against the pit wherein some may fall Let no man therefore think that this passage of Pauls is to be extended to grosse sinnes as if many prophane sinners who sinne and their consciences check them and then they sinne again and have remorse again could take any comfort from these places as if they might say with Paul It is not I but sinne that dwelleth in me The evil that I would not that I grieve for in the temptation I do Oh take heed of abusing the holy Word of God to such corrupt ends Austin some where speaketh to this occasion when this part of Paul's Epistle was read I fear saith he left this may be ill understood but let none think as if Paul 's meaning was he would be chaste but he was an adulterer he would be mercifull but he was cruel c. Thus it would be very dangerous to interpret this passage of grosse sinnes and yet it cannot be denied but that men who sinne grosly yet with some remorse and grief of conscience are apt to cover themselves with these fig-leaves and think this is sanctuary safe enough to runne unto that though they do sinne yet it is not with full consent and delight Arminius affirmeth in cap. 7. ad Rom. pag. 753. as he saith Verè sanctè That he had sometimes the experience of this that when some have been admonished that they would take heed of committing such a sin which they knew was forbidden by the Law They would answer with the Apostle To will was present with them but they knew not how to perform what they willed Yea he addeth He had this answer from one not when the sinne was committed but when he was forewarned that he should not commit it But the same Author goeth on and saith he knew both men and women young and old who when he had explained this Chapter in the sense he defendeth did plainly confess to him that they hitherto had been in this opinion that if they committed any sinne with reluctancy of their mind or omitted any duty the same regreeting of them they were not greatly to trouble themselves or grieve in this matter seeing they thought themselves like Paul therein and therefore gave him hearty thanks that he delivered him from that errour by his interpretation But what needeth all this if any read Calvins or other Expositions upon this place might they not have been fully satisfied that such persons offending in that manner viz. sinning having only terrour and contradiction from their conscience against the sinne they commit but their hearts otherwise carry them out to it do no wayes agree with the person here described whose heare and will is said to be against sinne as well as his mind and conscience We must not therefore understand it of gross sins especially of a continual custom therein No doubt but David did commit the adultery and murder he would not have done No doubt when Peter denied Christ he could say the evil that he would not do that he did but this was in suddain temptations This was not often or customary therefore they did recover out of them with bitter tears and sorrow We must therefore understand it chiefly of the motions and lustings of the heart to sinne and oftentimes a consenting thereunto yea and in lesser sinnes an acting thereupon so that it is no more in sense then what the Apostle Jam's saith In many things we offend all Chap. 3. 2. So that howsoever the Jesuites and Arminians would make Austins and the later Expositions to differ as if Austins were more innocent because he understood it only of motions to sinne which the godly man did suffer against his will within him but the later apply it even to actions yet who so diligently compareth them together cannot find any real difference for the summe of their Exposition is That the Law requiring such a perfect and pure holiness that is doth not allow of the least spot or blemish the most godly do find themselves so depressed and weighed down with that remainder of corruption that is within them that they come exceeding short of that excellent and perfect holiness and therefore do abhorre and loath themselves and judge themselves miserable while they carry about with them such a body of sinne Secondly and lastly This Exposition will be advantagiously managed for godliness 〈…〉 also inform That Paul doth not here speak of every particular temptation as if in every conflict he had the worse and the flesh had the better but he speaks of good and evil in the general and that in the whole course of his conversation In the general his heart was set upon the good commanded and against the evil forbidden but yet he could never attain to his fulness of desire though in several combars the spirit might and did conquer the flesh And certainly the Arminians who will hold us to the rigid letter as if this person never had he better no not at any time in any sinne must take heed of that fault they charge upon us viz. that they be not injurious to the grace of God even according to their own
and yet give no discovery that he doth not mean it of himself especially when the Adversaries to this Exposition say That to understand it of Paul is so contumelious to the Spirit of God and so destructive to all godliness Certainly if so the Apostle would have manifested something to remove this stumbling block Although I may adde that even that very Text I have in a figure transferred to my self and Apollo c. doth not necessarily allude to that mention made of thâ—â— 1 Cor. 2. 12. where speaking of their factions some said they were of Paul others of Apollo as if the Apostle did by figure use their names intending thereby the false Apostles for say they The Corinthians made their divisions by occasion of the false Apostles glorying in them and exalting them against those that were faithfull But if so what argument could there be in Paul's words Was Paul crucified for you Were you baptized in the name of Paul If he did mean false Apostles and not himself why should he thank God that he had baptized so few Therefore Pareus acknowledgeth that the common Interpretation of that Text as if Paul by a figure use his name and Apollo for the false Apostles is no wayes agreeable with the scope of the place For how could that be an example to teach them humility as he there enlargeth himself Heinsius also doth not like the translation of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for such a transmutation of names and persons but maketh it the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but enough of this 2. A second Argument is In that this person is said to hate evil not to will what is evil not to know or approve of it and then he is said to will that which is good Now this is the Description of godliness to love good and to hate evil It is true that in convinced men who yet retain their lusts as also in legal men they would not do the evil that they do but yet they cannot be said to hate it No they love their lusts therefore when any fear doth abate they presently fall unto those sinnes again but this man doth hate sinne So that in this property two things discover a regenerate person 1. That not only his conscience and his judgement is against sinne but his will his heart and affections also whereas in all unregenerate men their judgements and their consciences being enlightned and terrified maketh them afraid to commit sinne but their will then affections 〈◊〉 not against it And then secondly The Apostle speaketh generally of evil and good he doth not say I do this evil I would not or I do not this good that I would but evil and good indefinitely and this is only proper to the regenerate he only hateth all evil be only loveth all good whereas the unregenerate person doth hate only some evil and it is some good only that he would do though if a man truly hate any sinne he hateth all sin because odium is circa genus Thirdly This person must be a regenerate person because there are two distinct principles in him Sinne and He are made two different things vers 17. It is no more I that do it but sinne that dwelleth in me And ver 18. I know that in me that is my flesh dwelleth no good thing Here then are as it were two distinct persons this person hath two selfs which doth necessarily demonstrate that this is a sanctified person For can a man under legal convictions say It is not I but sinne within me Can he that hath only errors upon his soul say It is not I but sinne within me How absurd and false were that for their hearts are set upon evil only the terrours of the Law restrain them Now a man is what his heart is not what his conviction is It is true the Libertines did abuse this Doctrine and would thereby acquit themselves it was not they but the flesh Yea some blasphemously would attribute it to God himself but till a man be regenerated he hath but one self and that is the flesh But saith Arminius those legal preparatory workings by the Law are the good gift of God and are to be reckoned among the works of the Spirit and therefore the Apostle may oppose them and sinne together To this it is answered Though those legal operations are from Gods Spirit yet because the person is not regenerated he is still in the state of the flesh he is still without Christ and therefore cannot distinguish himself from the flesh within him As long as those good gifts of God are not in a subject regenerated the same person and the flesh are all one Yea though those good effects come from Gods Spirit and so are in themselves spiritual yet as they are in a person unregenerated they are improved carnally they are managed only to self-respects and thus temporary believers though they do enjoy the good and common gifts of Gods Spirit yet as they are in them they are carnally improved spiritual things being prostituted to temporal ends It is plain then that onely a godly man may say It is not I but sinne in me and thus Aquinas on the place saith it may be easily understood of a man in the state of grace and of a sinner it can be only interpreted extortè by violence His reason he goeth upon is because that a man is said to do which his reason doth not which his sensitive appetite inclineth unto because homo est id quod est secundum rationem By reason we must understand sanctified reason otherwise a mans reason is corrupted as well as his sensual part Besides there is a further Argument used by the Apostle in this distinction he maketh It is no more I that do it No more that implieth once it was he that did it formerly he could not make such a distinction as now he doth Fourthly The person here spoken of must needs be a regenerate person Because it is said He delighteth in the Law of God after the inward man ver 22. This is one of the places that compelled Austin to change his former opinion Certainly to delight in the Law of God is an inseparable property of a regenerate person David expresseth his holy and heavenly heart thereby yea the Greek word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I delight with Arminius doth well observe the emphasis of the word for he maketh the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not redundant but significant So that the meaning is he delighteth in the Law of God that is he delighteth in Gods Law and Gods Law delighteth in him there is a mutual sympathy and delight as it were which maketh the reason the stronger for a regenerate person For can any but he delight in Gods Law and Gods Law as it were delight in him again It is true it is 〈◊〉 in the inward man but that is not a diminution but a specification of the cause
whereby he doth delight in Gods Law I will not say that the inward man doth alwayes signifie the regenerate man and so is the same with a new-creature For although some understand that place so 2 Cor. 4. 16. The outward man perisheth but the inward man is renewed daily yet happily the context may enforce it another way yet here it must be understood of the mind as regenerated because it is opposite to the flesh and so signifieth the same with the hidden man of the heart in which sense a Jew is called one inwardly because of the work of grace upon his soul Fifthly The sad complaint he maketh concerning his thraldom doth evidently shew that it is a regenerate person O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death If we take body for the material body which is mortal and so sinfull or else for that body of sinne which abideth in the godly it cometh much to one point It argueth that the person here spoken of feeling this weight this burden upon him is in sad agonies of soul judgeth himself miserable and wretched in this respect and thereupon doth earnestly groan for a total redemption he longs to be in heaven where no longer will evil be present with him where he shall do all the good and as perfectly as he would It is true a godly man cannot absolutely be called a wretched and miserable man but respectively quoad hoc and comparatively to that perfect holiness we shall have hereafter So we may justly account our selves miserable not so much from external evils as from the motions and stirrings of sinne within us that do press us down and thereby make our lives more disconsolate Hence it is that Austin calleth this Gemitum saactorum c. the sighs and groans of holy persons fighting against concupiscence within them Sixthly The affectionate rejoycing and assured confidence that he hath about the full deliverance of him from this bondage expressed in those words I thank God through Jesus Christ doth greatly establish this exposition also of a regenerate ate person It is true there is variety about reading of this passage however this plainly cometh from an heart affected with assurance of Gods grace to give him a full redemption though for the present he lie in sad conflicts and agonies This is so palpable a conviction that some of the Dissentients will make Paul here to speak in his own person as if he did give God thanks for that freedome which the person spoken before had not obtained Neither is it any wonder to see such a sudden change in Paul from groaning under misery presently to break forth into thanks and praises of God For we may often observe such ebbings and flowings in David's Psalms that we would hardly think the same Psalm made by the same man at the same time one verse speaking dejection and disconsolateness the next it may be strong confidence and rejoycing in God Lastly The conclusion which Paul maketh from this excellent experimental Discourse is fully to our purpose So then I my self serve the Law of God but with the flesh the law of sin To serve God and to serve the Law of God is all one and this none but a godly man doth Yea to serve him with the mind and the spirit is a choice expression of our grace But because this is not perfect and compleat he addeth He serveth also the flesh and the law of sin It is true None can serve God and mammon Christ and sin but yet where there is not a perfect freedom from thraldom to sin there though in the principal and chief manner we are carried out to serve God yet the flesh retardeth and so snatcheth to it some service you heard contraries might be together while they are in fight Neither is our redemption from sin full and total It is to be done successively and by degrees that so we may be the more humbled and grace exalted Besides that expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is emphatical this is used when Paul expresseth himself in some remarkable manner I the same and no other man as it is used in other places 2 Cor. 10. 1. Now I Paul my self beseech you c. 2 Cor. 12. 13. except it was because I my self was not burdensom to you Rom. 9. 3. I could wish that myself were accursed c. which is enough to convince such as are not refractory ¶ 3. Objections Answered I Shall now consider what is objected against this Interpretation and shall not attend to the general objections such as that That who are Christs and regenerated have higher things attributed to them They have crucified the flesh they have mortifiedeth old man c. As also this seemeth to be injurious to Gods grace it will encourage men in slothfulness and negligence c. for these shall be answered in the general I shall therefore only pitch upon two objections which the Adversaries insist upon The first is That this person here spoken of is said to be once without the Law which say they is the description of a Gentile in Paul 's language therefore he assumeth some other person then his own for Paul alwayes lived under the Law Austin indeed expounds it thus I did live once without the Law that is saith he when he was a child before he had the use of reason This is too harsh Therefore it is better answered The person here spoken of is not said to be without the Law which is indeed the description of a Gentile but that he was alive without the Law once that is he as all the Pharisees understood the Law of God as forbidding only external sins and Paul living unblameably as to that respect thought to have life and righteousness by the Law but when the commandment came in power to him and he was convinced that it did prohibit not only outward sins but inward lustings of heart then he began to find himself a greater sinner than he was aware of then he found the Law to be death to him so that he lived without the Law because he was not affected with the full and exact obligation therof The second thing much insisted upon is That the person here spoken of is said to be carnal and sold under sinne which they say is made by the Scripture a certain property of a wickedman Thus it is said of Ahab Thou hast sold thy self to do wickedly 1 Kin. 21. 10. yea of all the children of Israel 2 Kin. 17. 13. They caused their children to pass through the fire and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord. But first Calvin doth grant that this is spoken of Paul while unregenerate and therefore beginneth his Exposition at the 15th verse of a sanctified person yet that cannot well be because there the Apostle beginneth to alter the tense There he saith I am carnal I am sold under sinne whereas before he had used the
depriving us of all spiritual sense and feeling So that by it we are put into this sad perpiexity for none need or are bound more to bewail this sinne than an unregenerate man and yet he cannot send forth the least sigh and groan because of it So that hereby we have contracted such an unavoidable exigency upon us that we cannot turn our selves any way mourn and cry we must for this pollution yet mourn and cry we cannot because this is one inseparable effect of it to take away all tendernesse and mourning Hence the stony heart mentioned by Ezekiel Chap. 11. 18. is in a great measure original sinne Till therefore we are regenerated as we see in David Job and Paul we cannot truly mourn under it Lastly This is a work to do as long as we live Because it 's inseparable from our natures while we live in this world God indeed could in our life time wholly free us from it as well as at death but he lets these reliques continue that our tryumph at the Day of Judgement may be the greater Vivum captivum reservantur ad tryumphum Captives are preserved alive for the greater trymph And the rather God doth this that so even his very Pauls his most eminent and choicest servants may have matter of debasement within themselves and more earnestly groan for a day of Redemption A TREATISE OF Original Sin The Second Part. SHEWING VVhat ORIGINAL SINNE is AND How it is Communicated By Anthony Burgess ANCHORA SPEI LONDON Printed in the Year 1658. A TREATISE OF Original Sinne. PART II. CHAP. I. Of the Name Old-man given to Original Sinne SECT I. ROM 6. 6. Knowing this that our Old-man is crucified with Christ c. IN the beginning of the Chapter the Apostle informeth us That no Gospel priviledges or Evangelical grace amplified to the highest may encourage to sinne for the Apostle maketh an Objection himself from the Doctrine he delivered If grace abound where sinne doth abound then why may not we sinne more that grace may abound more Thus there have alwayes been some who have turned bread into stones and fish into serpents making the grace of God to exclude our duty and a tender care against sinne But the Apostle as if blasphemy were in this Objection tryeth out God forbid You see with what indignation and detestation we should look upon all those Doctrines which under pretence of advancing Grace do cry down Duties and an holy life making it a legal and a servile thing Now the Apostle bringeth an Argument against indulgence in sinne notwithstanding Gods grace Because we are dead to it and then how can we live to it Would it not be a monstrous and an afrighting sight to see dead men come out of their graves to live and walk amongst us Thus also it ought to be no less wonderfull yea terrible to see a Christian give himself to any evil way And that we are dead to sinne he proveth by our Baptism concerning which he speaks admirable and sublime matter So that if we consider what great things are here spoken of it we may wonder to see how cold and rare our meditations are about it for he makes it to be that Sacrament in the right use whereof we put on Christ yea that thereby we are ingraffed and implanted into him Hence ver 5. he useth that word of being planted into him a metaphor from the Husbandman who by planting his Science into another stock doth thereby make it partake of the life or death of the Tree if the Tree liveth that liveth if the Tree dieth that dieth so it is with us and Christ By the phrase then is intended no more than our communion with and interest in Christ and that both in his death and his resurrection For you must know that the Scripture doth not only make Christs death and resurrection to be the cause of the death of our sins and of our spiritual resurrection to holiness but also makes them types and resemblances of such things in us That as Christ died in his passible body so we should die to sinne and as Christ after his death did rise again to glory and immortality thus we should rise out of sinne to walk in newness of life and both these are signified in Baptism 1. Our Communion with Christ in the efficacy of his death and resurrection 2. The Representation of this that what was corporally done to Christ should be spiritually fulfilled in us and therefore some think that the Apostle doth allude to that primitive Rite and Custom which was in baptizing when the baptized party was first put under the water for a little season which represented Christs burial and our death to sinne 2. There was the emersion or rising again out of the waters which signified Christs Resurrection and also our rising again to holiness and godliness This is the Summe of the Apostles discourse concerning Baptism in its sacramental signification which he amplifieth further in my Text and that as a reason why we should not live to sinne who were baptized into Christ viz. Because our Old man is crucified with Christ Both because Christ in being crucified did subdue thereby the dominion of sinne and also we are to do to the body of sinne within us what was done to Christs body to crucifie it and thereby to destroy it There is nothing more to be enquired into in the Text but what is meant by our Oldman They limit it too much that understand it only of the habit or acquired custom of sinne which we live in before Regeneration as Grotius seemeth to understand But we are to take it as both Popish and Protestant Commentators do interpret it for that vicious and corrupt nature which we all derive from Adam putting it self forth into several lusts and ungodly actions wherby there is an habituated inveterated custom at last in sin so that although we may understand lusts and actual impieties with long custom therin under the phrase of the Old man yet principally and chiefly we are to interpret it of that polluted nature we have from Adam and this will easily appear to be so if you consider the other two places where this expression is used Ephes 4. 22. That ye put off the Old man c. and that ye put on the New man Col. 3. 9 10. Ye have put off the Old man with his deeds and have put on the New man Where 1. You see the Old man is distinguished from the effects and deeds of it which are actual sins And then 2. Old man and New man are made two immediate opposites now the New man is plainly expressed by the Apostle what it is viz. not so much actual holiness as the Image of God repaired in us so that as the New man is the Image of God and that holy nature repaired in us so the Old man is the contrary to this viz. a deprivation of that Image of God and and an universal
pollution of all the whole man So that whereas sometimes the word Old is used absolutely as the old Serpent there is no new Serpent which is the Devil So here it s used comparatively and called Old in respect of the New man the work of grace succeeding therein SECT II. HAving therefore hitherto shewed the Quod sit of original sinne That there is such a thing maugre all adversaries and that by the mouth of two witnesses out of the New Testament and two out of the Old not but that there are many more only I shall God willing treat on them upon some different notions I now come to inform you of the Quid sit What it is for here is much opposition likewise And because in knowing what a thing is there is the Quid nominis and Quid rei what the name is and what the thing is I shall first beginne with what the Name is for that way Socrates did use to commend from the name to go to the nature of a thing And whereas this native-pollution hath Scripture names Ecclesiastical used by the Fathers and Scholastical used by the Schoolmen yea the Rabbins say it hath seven names in the Old Testament I shall only pitch on the Bible names and that not universally but upon some eminent and chief ones which it hath in the Scripture from which alone we shall be best able to discern the nature of it The first whereof is here in the Text wherein it is called the Old man From whence observe That the natural or birth-pollution we are barn in is called by the Scripture The Old man that is in us Several names indeed the Scripture giveth it and some are applied to it by Divines of which yet some question may be made as when Christ is said to be the Lamb that takes away the sinne of the world John 1. 29. By that they say is meant original sinne for that is not so much my sinne or thy sinne as the sinne of the world and therefore he speaketh in the singular number The sinne not the sins of the world but this is not so probable for Christ came into the world to take away not only original sinne as some Papists have thought but actual also Others apply that of Heb. 10. to it The sinne that doth so easily beset us And indeed that is a very proper word to explain original sinne but whether the Apostles scope be so immediately to point at that may be further enquired into I shall therefore take only some few clear and undoubted Titles that the Scripture giveth to it of which this in the Text is a notable one The old man And before we inform you how comprehensive this is let us remove a twofold mistake or erroneous apprehension that may be about it SECT III. Two Mistakes removed THe first is that of Flaccius Illyricus who because the Scripture useth such concrete and substantive terms about original sinne calling it a man a body therefore he erred in a contrary extremity to the Pelagians and some Pontificians making original sinne not to be an accident but the essence and substance of the soul but of this more when we come to search out the nature of it only you must know that original sinne is not the substance of a man but an universal disease adhering to it as the Leprosie in a Leper it 's not his body it 's not his corpulent essence the body is one thing the Leprosie is another thing and thus in man his soul and body are one thing his original corruption is another thing Though as in an universal Leprosie you cannot touch one part of the body but it is infected so neither can we name one part of the soul but it is polluted we must therefore distinguish between nature and sinne to avoid Flaccianism yet we must not separate or divide one from the other to avoid Pelagianism but of this more in its time Secondly We must not conceive that it 's called the Old man because of any impotency or weakness as if it were not able to put forth into vigorous acts and lively lustings of sinne as old men have all their natural strength and vigour decaying No though it be called the Old man in us yet it 's constantly working drawing aside captivating and enflaming of us yea making warre daily against any thing of God within us These things premised let us consider why the Scripture giveth it such a name for it might seem a very harsh exposition to call that which is an accident or a quality in a man by the name of an Old man SECT IV. Why Original Sinne is called Man THerefore let us see the reason why it 's called Man and then the Old man original sinne may be called a Man First Because that so farre as we are men quanti sumus we are all over polluted So that the old man is the whole man polluted in this sinne before he be regenerated Insomuch that this phrase may sadly and deeply humble us that the Scripture gives the name of man to sinne as if that were all we are Hence as you have heard to walk as a man to speak as a man is to do a thing sinfully as farre as thy humanity reacheth so farre thy pollution reacheth So that the very calling of thee a man may greatly debase thee for though thou art a rich man a great man yet this Old man doth infect thee Secondly In that original sinne is called a Man there is implied the Subject of it to be every man as well as every part of man Totus homo and totum hominis yea ad omnis homo not one exempted that is by natural propagation So that every little Infant hath this Man in it Every one that needeth a Christ that wanteth a Saviour hath this Old man abiding in him Thirdly It 's called Man Because of the heap or collection of all sinne that is in it For as a man is not one part of the body the finger the eye or the hand but the whole Compages and Fabrick of all the parts united together Thus original sinne is not one particular sinne but the mass or spawn of all It 's not a stream but the ocean and therefore this sheweth the horridness also of it that it is the womb wherein all sinne is conceived Let a man be totally cleansed from this as the glorified Saints in Heaven are and then no actual sin can come from him Lastly It 's called a Man Because of the intimate and tenacious adhesion of it to the whole man there being no way to sever our Natures and that while we abide in these mortal bodies So that it supposeth sinne to be in us as fire in the iron when it is red hot though there is some dissimilitude also that we cannot see the colour and substance of the iron for the fire nothing appeareth but fire Iron though of it self black and cold yet by the fire in