prophane man see whether they will bear the Touchstone or no Doth thy conscience tell thee such wayes are lawfull Art thou out of faith thus perswaded to do Look over all thy thoughts all thy words thy actions and weigh them in the balance of the Sanctuary See whether they be chaff or wheat Judge them before God cometh to judge them As our Actions so our Persons and the frame and constitution of our souls and here conscience is more unable to do its work then in the former For actions at least many of them may be condemned by the light of nature but when thou comest to search thy heart to judge that here is much heavenly skill and prudence required Did the hypocrite judge himself Did the civil pharisaical man rightly judge himself what a mighty change would you quickly see on those who now blesse themselves in their good condition Had Judas judged himself Did hypocrites judge themselves Oh the amazement and astonishment they would be in to see themselves so soul and rotten in the bottom when they were perswaded all had been well and happy with them Let conscience therefore set up her tribunal in thy heart often call thy self before thy self thy guilty sell before thy condemning self thy sinfull self before thy judging self for by reason of conscience a man cometh to have two selves God hath placed it in man as an Umpire or an Arbitrator to judge the matter impartially between God and thy own soul so that it may say that which Christ denied of himself God hath made me a Judge and a divider to give to man what belongs to him to God what belongs to God but conscience being polluted is not able to discharge this office Hence it is that this Court ceaseth conscience doth not keep any Assize at all There is no judgement executed within this spiritual society Therefore let us groan under the weight of original sinne in this respect also Fifthly Herein conscience is greatly defiled by original sinne That it is afraid of light it is not willing to come to the Word to be convinced but desireth rather to be in darkness that so a man may sinne the more quietly and never be disquieted John 3. 19. Christ saith This is the condemnation that light is come into the World and men love darknesse rather then light As it is with the wicked man He hateth the light as our Saviour John 3. 20. because his works are evil Truly thus it is conscience being naught and rotten therefore it is unwilling to be brought to the light Hence John 16. 7. It is the work of Gods spirit to convince the world of sinne but this is that the natural conscience cannot abide it is unwilling to be searched and tried to be ransacked This is the reason why men are most pleased with a formal drousie flattering Ministry they rage at that which is powerfull particular heart-searching preaching They do not love conscience should be touched upon to have that say Thou arr the man and all is because conscience is afraid of any light or conviction to come upon it for if that be enlightned then thou canst not with that delight and security commit thy sinnes as thou wouldst do Conscience then would belike Michaiah to Ahab Thou wilt not abide it because it alwayes prophesieth evil to thee and therefore this one thing may discover the vilenesse of every natural mans conscience in that it desireth to be in the dark and that which the Church saith to Christ Awake not my Beloved till he please They say to their conscience Let not that be awakened it will take away my comfort it will make me despair and thus because they wilfully keep a veil over their conscience it is no wonder if they die in their sins Sixthly Herein conscience is naturally defiled That it is subject to many multiforme shapes and disguises it doth appear under so many vizours that it is hard to know when it is conscience or when it is something else farre enough from conscience yet such is the guile and hypocrisie herein that a man doth easily flatter himself with the name of conscience when indeed it is corruption in him It is good to discover that which is a counterfeit conscience that which appeareth to be Samuel and in Samuel's cloaths but is indeed a Devil SECT V. A Discovery of a counterfeit Conscience FIrst It may not be conscientia but cupiditas not conscience but even a sinfull lust may put thee upon many things yet thou flatterest thy self with the scared title of conscience saying it 's thy conscience when if thou didst examine thy self it would appear to be some corruption A sad mistake and delusion it is to have conscience and so God himself abused but yet it is very often so We see it in Saul when he sacrificed and so was guilty of rebellion against God yet he pretended conscience that he had done well and all was to serve God thereby Absolom when he was contriving that unnatural rebellion against his Father he pretendeth a vow he had made and so he must out of conscience perform that Judas when he repined at the ointment poured out on Christs body pretended conscience and charity but it was lust and covetousnesse moved him Oh then take heed of treachery herein lest thou pretending conscience it appear to be thy lust only Secondly It may be thy Fancy and Imagination which perswadeth thee and not thy conscience man consisting of a body as well as a soul his imagination and phantasie hath great influence upon him especially when the body may be distempered as you see in melancholly persons when humbled for sinnes and greatly afflicted it is hard to discern when it is their fancy and when it is conscience that worketh in them It is true the prophasie ones of the world they judge all the trouble and wounds of conscience for sinne to be nothing but melancholly and a meer fancy because they never found the word of God kindly working upon them therefore they think there is no such thing in the world as a wounded spirit but such will one day find that troubles of conscience are more then melancholly that it is a worme alwayes gnawing yea that this is indeed hell for it is because of a tormented conscience that hell is so terrible yet though this be so it cannot be denied but that sometimes in humbled persons there may be conscience and melacholly working together for the Devil he loveth to move in troubled waters and melancholly is called Balneum Diaboli but this may be cured and removed by medicinal helps whereas conscience is only pacified and quieted by the blood of Christ Thirdly Custome education and prepossessed principles these may work upon a man as if they were conscience Many men are affected in religious things not out of any conscience but meerly by custome They have been used to such things brought up in such a way of serving of
some would absurdly question it That without the knowledge of Christ and faith in him none can be saved And that none by nature can come to this knowledge then it followeth undeniably that damnable ignorance doth cover the face of our souls as darkness did the deep at first That there is a very Chaos in our souls Oh then that we had knowledge to know our ignorance Oh that the dark dungeon we are shut up in might not be so pleasing to us In that the Gospel is called a mystery In that flesh and blood doth not reveal the things of Christ to us this sheweth our wretched estate in sin Adam had knowledge about the meanes rending to everlasting happiness otherwise God would have made him imperfect but now we are ignorant of Christ the way All that live in the Church had it not been for revealed light would have groped in darkness as we see all Heathens and Pagans do If therefore you would see what our natures are of themselves consider the Sanages the Indians the Pagans of the world who as to any right knowledge of God have little more then bruit beasts we cannot so well see what mans nature is of it self who live in the Church because there is the light of the Gospel and many times godly education and Christian institution of us while young doth restrain sinne otherwise if there were not this planting and watering of us we should not know any more about Christ then the most rude Barbarian that is Take off then those ornaments those supernaturall additaments that God hath put upon us who live under the Gospel and then our nakedness and deformity will plainly appear Fifthly The wofull captivity and bondage we are in to Satan by nature doth also manifest our originall defilement For were we not cast off by God did not sinne make us like hell why could so many legious of Devils dwell in us Eph 2 The prince of darkness the god of this world is said to rule in the hearts of the disobedient and such we are all by nature yea we are till regenerated in the snares of the Devil and taken captive at his will Therefore when Christ sent his Disciples to preach he said He saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven Thus the Devil hath his throne in all mens hearts till Christ who is stronger cast him out It is trne by wicked and ungodly customes in sinne The Devil taketh further possession as we see in Ananias and in Judas The Devil is said to enter into him after the eating of the sop not but that he was before in him only he had more power and strength over him Thus he doth possess the souls of all that are born till regenerated and by frequent actings of sinne he setleth his kingdome more firmely Lastly This may fully discover our originall pollution In that even in respect of naturall things we are much weakened and debilitated our understandings are not able to find out even naturall truths Insomuch that there was a famous sect of the Academicks who held That nihil scitur we know nothing at all Even Aristotle who is prophanely made to be by some the same in naturalls which Christ was in supernaturall yea Scaliger calls him Vltimus Musarum conatus as if nature her self could not send forth a greater Artist yet his known saying That our understandings in respect of the celestiall bodies especially are but noctuae ad solem owles to the Sunne makes it appear that we are ignorant of more things then we know yea and which is greatly to be bewailed The more learning and parts men have had they have been more mischiefed by them insomuch that meer Ideots and naturall fooles have been less wicked then they so that humane abilities when polished by arts have been like wine to a feavourish man like a sword in a mad mans hand neither did God ever choose many of the wise men of the world Austin being filled with humane eloquence this was a great prejudice to him in imbracing Christianity he contemned the simplicity of the Scripture dedignabar esse parvulus as he confessed And Scotus who for his acute understanding was called Doctor subtilis yet the great Historian Jovius giveth this censure of him That he was ad ludibrium Theologiae natus born to make Religion a scorn and a reproach because he could dispute every point probably on all sides And memorable is that of profound Bradwardine who before he was cordially affected with the grace of God confesseth That when he heard Paul's Epistles read he did dispise them because Paul had not metaphisicum ingenium a metaphysicall head Thus you see that even those poor abilities that with much labour are attained make us the worse for them CHAP. XXII A Comparison and Opposition between the first and second Adam as introductory to this Question How this Corruption is propagated SECT I. 1 COR. 15. 49. And as we have born the Image of the earthy we shall also bear the Image of the heavenly THe Apostles chief scope in this Chapter is to corroborate and establish one main Fundamental Article and Principle in Religion which is the Resurrection of the dead This Truth as it is Fiducia Christianorum the very confidence and life of believers so it hath been opposed and denied by many as most absurd and fabulous Insomuch that what Tertullian said concerning Christ who is God becoming man and crucified for us Prorsus credibile quia impossibile the same may be applied to this Truth Therefore it is the Object of Faith because reason cannot comprehend it Now among many other Arguments by which the Apostle statuminateth this Doctrine Christ's Resurrection is most palmarious For although to Heathens this Argument would not be valid yet to the Corinthians who either doubted of or denied the Resurrection but did not wholly abandon the Christian Faith this reason would be very cogent So that the Corinthians either doubt or infidelity in this Point hath made this Doctrine the more unquestionably true so that doubts and heresies have been over-ruled by God to make Truth more orient like the file to rusty iron and like the shaking of the Tree which maketh the root faster and deeper But whereas the Doubt may be Wherein lieth the strength of this Argument Christ is risen therefore his members or all that are his shall rise For you must know the Apostle's Arguments doe principally prove the blessed and happy Resurrection of the Just the Wicked they shall rise but by the power of Christ as a Judge not as members united to him their Head At the twentieth verse he giveth us a two-fold reason of that connexion First Christ is the first-fruits now the first fruits sanctified the whole crop of Corn and although they were taken before the rest yet this did assure that all would be taken in its time Thus Christ being the first fruits did sanctifie all his people and his Resurrection was an assured
as easie to understand Epicurus his Atoms Pythagoras his numbers Plato's Aristotle's Entelechias as Illirieus his Homo theologicus in the way he layeth it down denying all along that original sinne is an accident This opinion made a great rent among the Lutherans whereof some were called Substantiarii others Accidentarii as Coceius the Papist relateth Coccius Thes de peccato but this is to be refused with great indignation Original sinne is most intimately cleaving to us inseparably joyned to the nature of man yet it is not the nature of man for then Christ could not have taken our nature without sin Though therefore it be seated in the soul and that most tenaciously yet it is not the essence of a man But of this more in its time Secondly It is also a great Dispute among the Schoolmen Whether original sinne be immediately and proximely seated in the essence of the soul or in the powers of it Whether because it is first in the essence of the soul therefore the understanding and will are corrupted Or Whether these powers are first polluted and infected by it But this is founded upon a philosophical Dispute Whether the soul and the faculties thereof are distinguished And therefore I shall not trouble you with it Thirdly Some Papists have limited original sinne onely to the affections to the inferiour and sensitive part of a man as if sinne were not in the understanding and reason at all but in the affections and fleshly part onely But the more learned of the Papists gainsay this and do acknowledge that the mind as well as other parts is polluted with this leprosie SECT IV. Wherein Original Sinne hath infected the minds of all men THese things premised Let us consider Wherein original sinne hath infected the minds of all men so that in respect thereof that is to be renewed And First Horrible ignorance of God and the things of salvation doth cover the soul of every man by nature even as darknesse was upon the face of the deep Thus Rom. 3. you heard the Apostle pronounceth generally There is Rome that understandeth or seeketh after God No not one Hence also Ephes 5. 8. unconverted persons are said to be darknesse in the very abstract and that both because of their original and acquired blindness of mind upon them What could the wisest and most learned of the world do in respect of any knowledge of Christ if this were not revealed for this cause it is called the Ministery and the Gospel is constantly compared to light and all the world is said To sit in darkness till this doth arise so that our minds are by nature wholly ignorant about our selves about God and Christ which made our Saviour say to Peter upon his confession That flesh and blend had not revealed this to him whereas then in the state of integrity our minds were as gloriously filled with all perfections and abilities as the firmament with slarres there was sapience in respect of God science in respect of all natural things to be known and prudence in respect of all things to be done now our eie is put out and like Sampson the Philistims can do what they please with us for this respect it is that every creature is better then man they have a natural instinct whereby they know what is proper for them Opera natura sunt opera artis or intelligeniae They have as much knowledge sensitive I mean as they were made with at first even the least creatures and most despicable yea God is maximus in minimus most wonder full in the least things which made Austin preferre Fly before the Sunne and that he did more admire Opera Formicarum then Onera Camelorum the wise workes of the Ant before the heavy burdens of Camels Thus all creatures have a suteable knowledge for their end in their way only man is in horrible darkness and is absolutely ignorant about God or his own happiness Therefore those opinions of some who attribute a possibility of salvation to Heathens by the natural knowledge they have do in effect make void Christ and the Gospel Secondly Original sinne doth not only deprive us of all knowledge of God in a saving way but also filleth us with error and positive mistakes whereby we have not only unbelief but misbelief our condition were not so universally miserable if so be our mindes were only in a not knowing or meer privative ignorance about God but oh the gross soul and absurd perswasions men have naturally about God! The Atheisme naturally that is in us either denying or doubting about God but especially the false and absurd representations of God to us It is from the error in mans mind that Polytheisme hath so abounded perswading themselves of many gods yea the idolatry that hath filled the pagarish world and under subtile distractions hath invaded the Church also doth abundantly proclaim original ignorance and error in us about divine things yea the wiser men as the Apostle observeth Rom. 1. They became the more foolish in their imaginations turning the image of God into the likeness of the vilest creatures But before we proceed we must answer an Objection that may be made to the Doctrine delivered for it will easily be said That the corruption hitherto mentioned in the understanding is actual sinne rather then original Ignorance Atheisme I dolatrical thoughts of God these must necessarily be judged actual and if it be so Why do we ascribe this to original And indeed this Objection is commonly made by Papists against the Positions and Confessions which the Protestants have made about original sinne for when they discribe the nature of it they usually instance in particulars as horrible ignorance Atheism and dissidence in the mind c. To this the Papists reply saying We confound actual and original sinne yea when we bring that famous place Gen. 5. 6. The imaginations of the thoughts of the heart are onely evil and that continually to prove original sinne they reply the same thing to that Text also Therefore to clear this we are to know that it is true Atheisme ignorance these are actual sinnes as they are put in exercise but yet when we ascribe them to original sinne we do not so much mean the actual exercise of these evils as the Proneness and propensity of the heart to them So that our meaning is The heart of it self is prone to all these actual wickednesses Therefore though we name these as actual yet you must understand them habitually and seminally there being an inclination to all that impiety Only the reason why we describe original sinne thus as if it were actual pollution it is Because that it is a principle alwaies acting it never ceaseth the sparkes of this lust are like those of hell which never go out as the heart of a man naturally never ceaseth its motion so neither doth the evil heart of a man This difficulty being removed let us proceed to discover
immutabilis constituti And indeed if death were not the effect of sinne but consequent of mans nature it would be no evil whereas the Scripture accounteth it of that nature as Deut. 30. 15. See I have set before thee this day life and good and death and evil SECT IV. Arguments brought to prove that Adam was made mortal answered THe next work to be done is to consider those Arguments which they bring to prove that Adam was made mortal and so had a proxim principle of death in him which would have taken effect if God did not provide some way against it and that which is used by all Adversaries to this truth is Because Adam was created in such a condition that be must necessarily eat and drink yea and was also to propagate children all which actions do contradict immortality For he that eateth and drinketh must by degrees have a decay in nature and our Saviour seemeth to prove immortality from this argument Luk. 20. 35 36. because in heaven they shall not marry so that to procreate children is not consistent with such a blessed estate But these Objections are easily answered if we remember the distinction at first given in this point that there is an immortality absolute and immutable or conditional and changeable upon supposition Now it 's true neither eating or marrying can consist with unchangeable mortality with immortality of glory But it may very well consist with conditional immortality that is in tendency to that which is absolute Eating and drinking in the state of integrity was a means subserving to keep up the state of immortality so farre was it from repugning of it This therefore is the root of his errour that men apprehend no other immortality but what is compleat that unless Adam had been made in the same estate that the glorified Saints are put into he could not be said to be immortal Secondly They say Adam is said to be earthly and of the earth to have a natural body and so opposite to that immortal body we shall have in heaven 1 Cor. 15. 47. But first when the Apostle giveth those names to our bodies of vile corruptible and to be in dishonour this is to be understood of our bodies after the fall they are made so through sinne It would be derogatory to God to say they were made such at first It is true the first man is said to be earthy but that expression denoteth only the original of his body whence it was first made not the state he was created in as appeareth by the opposite the second man is said to be the Lord from Heaven It is one thing then to speak of Adam's body in respect of its original and another to speak of the whole person in respect of his condition Thirdly They say All the internal causes of death were in Adam while standing as well as fallen and therefore he was mortal as well as we To this we answer there were indeed the causes of death in him materially but not formally for the bodily humours were not peccant either in quality or quantity the natural heat would not have consumed the radical moisture so that in that estate there would never have been formally existent the proxim causes of death besides the adequate and principal causes of death are the Devils suggestions and mans transgression as you heard Fourthly They ask If man were not made mortal why should immortality be promised as a reward if he had it already Why should it be promised him upon his obedience The answer is easie Adam 's immortality was inchoate onely the consummation of it was promised as a reward to his obedience Lastly They object If death be the punishment of sinne then Christ hath freed believers from this death which is against experience But 1. The Socinians grant That a necessity of death is the fruit of sinne yet Christ hath not freed us from the necessity of it no more than the naturality of it 2. We must distinguish between an actual abolition of death and the right to do it Christ hath purchased for us a right to immortality yet the actual investing of us into it is to be done in its time Death will be swallowed up in victory and for the present the nature of death is changed as to a godly man it 's no more a curse to him the sting of death is taken away as when a Serpent or Wasp have lost their sting they can do no more hurt Thus to the godly it cannot do any hurt It is like Elijah's fiery chariot to carry them to Heaven It 's like passing through the red Sea into the Land of Canaan thus as the cloud was full of darkness to the Aegyptian but light to the Israelite so is death full of terrour and of curses to an ungodly man but pleasant and lovely to a godly man it is his gain to die To live in this world is his losse and disadvantage SECT V. Q. Whether Adam's sinne was only an occasion of Gods punishing all mankind resolved against D. J. T. I Shall conclude this Text with answering a two-fold Question The full discussing whereof may inform us about the most secret and mysterious truths that are in this point And First It may be demanded That suppose it be granted that by Adam we die may not this be understood any more than occasionally God was so displeased with Adam for his transgression that thereupon he insticts the curse threatned to him upon his posterity Even as we read often in Scripture that God for Magistrates sins or for parents sins doth take an occasion to punish a people or children for their own sinnes Thus it may be thought that God by occasion from Adam's transgression did impose on us for our sinnes the same curse that was denounced to Adam not that we were sinners in him not that we come into the world with any inherent sinne but because of our actual impieties God punisheth us with Adam's curse In this manner the late adversary to original sinne doth explicate himself An Answer to a Letter pag. 30 31 32. as if this were all the evil by Adam that for his sake our sinnes inherit the curse Insomuch saith he that it is not so properly to be called original sinne as an original curse upon our sinne That we may not be deceived in his meaning though it is very difficult to reconcile himself with himself For at another time he saith The dissolution of the soul and holy should have been if Adam had not sinned for the world would have been too little to have entertained the â—yriads of men which would have been born An Answer to a Letter p. 86 87 Now how Adam's sinne should bring in the sentence of death as he saith in another place Vnum Necessar cap. 6. sect 1. pag. 367. and yet he have died though he had not sinned is impossible to reconcile He giveth us two similitudes or parallel expressions which may