instead of all their posterity before they had issue and the Covenant being made with them as publick persons not for themselves onely but for their Posterity who were to stand or fall with them they being left to the freedom of their own wills in transgressing the commandment of God by eating the forbidden fruit through the temptation of Satan have made us and all mankind descending from them by ordinary generation as guilty of their sin as any heir is liable to his fathers debt Their act being ours as the act of a Knight or Burgess in the Parliament House is the act of the whole County in whose name and room they sit and whom they represent by which means our Nature is so corrupted that we are utterly indisposed and made opposite unto all that is spiritually good and wholly inclined to all evil and that continually and have also lost our communion with God incurred his displeasure and curse so as we are justly liable to all punishments both in this life and in the life to come Now for the fuller confirming and amplifying of what hath been said touching Original sin take only these ensuing Scriptures and Auhorisms without any needless connexion that I may be so much the briefer Sect. X. Amongst many others the most pregnant Scriptures for the confirming of this point I hold to be these The fathâ—rs have eaten sowre grapes and the childrens teeth are set on edge Jer. 31.29 was a true proverb though by them abused By one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men in whom all have sinned Rom. 5.12 to 21. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one Job 14.4 See Chap. 15.14 15 16. We are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags Isa. 64 6. By the works of the Law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight Rom. 3.20 There is no difference for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God Rom. 3.21 22 23. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually And it repented the Lord that he had made man Gen. 6 5 6. Both Iews and Gentiles are all under sin As it is written there is none righteous no not one There is none that understandeth there is none that seeketh after God They are all gone on t of the way they are altogether become unprofitable there is none that doeth good no not one Their throat is an open sepulchre the poyson of Asps is under their lips there is no fear of God before their eyes Rom. 3.9 to 20. Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts murthers adulteries fornications thefts false witness blasphemies Mat. 15.19 See Gal. 5.19 20 21. Whence come wars and sightings amongst you come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members James 4.1 Unto them that are unbelieving is nothing pure but even their minde and conscience is defiled Tit. 1.15 I see another Law in my members warring against the Law of my minde and bringing me into captivity to the Law of sin which is in my members O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death c Rom. 7.14 to 25. where the Apostle speaks all this and a great deal more of himself see Ephes. 2.2 3. Gal. 3.10 Yet how many that grieve for their other sins which are never troubled for their Original corruption which should above all be bewailed even as the mother and nurse of all the rest and thought worthy not of our sighs alone but of our tears For this is the great wheel of the Clock that sets all the other wheels a moving while it seems to move slowest And never did any truly and orderly repent that began not here esteeming it the most foul and hatefull of all as David Psal. 51.5 And Paul crying out of it as the most secret deceitfull and powerfull evil Rom. 7.23 24. And indeed if we but clearly saw the foulness and deceitfulness of it we would not suffer our eyes to sleep nor our eye-lids to slumber until a happy change had wrought these hearts of ours which by nature are no better then so many styes of unclean Devils to become habitations for the God of Iacob Sect. XI We are the cursed seed of rebellious parents neither need we anymore to condemn us then what we brought into the world with us In Adam the root of all we all so sinned that if we had no inherent sin of our own this imputed sin of his were enough to damn us 〈…〉 Utter the branches cannot be better They were the fountain we the springs if the fountain be filthy so must the springs VVhence it is that holy David cries out Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me Psal. 51.5 Tantillus puer tantus peccator saith St Austin when a little childe I was a great sinner As in the little and tender bud is infolded the leaf the blossom and the fruit so even in the heart of a young child there is a bundle and pack of folly laid up as Solomon affirms Pro. 22.15 And as Moses Speaks The thoughts of mans heart are evil even from his childhood Gen. 6.5 8.21 VVe brought a world of sin into the world with us and were condemned so soon as conceived we were adjudged to eternal death before we lived a temporal life As admit thou hadst never offended in the least thought word or deed all thy life yea admit thou couldest now keep all the commandments actually and spiritually yet all this were nothing it could not keep thee out of Hell since that Original sin which we drew from the loins of our first Parents is enough to damn us Sin and corruption are the riches that we bequeath to our children rebellion the inheritance that we have purchased for them death the wages that we have procured them God made us after his own image but by sin we have turned the image of God into the image of Satan Yea like Satan we can do nothing else but sin and make others sin too who would not so sin but for us As a furnace continually sparkles as the raging Sea foams and casts up mire and dirt and as a filthy dunghil does continually reak forth and evaporate odious odors so do our hearts naturally stream forth unsavory eructations unholy lusts and motions even continually As O the infinitely intricate windings and turnings of the dark labyrinths of mans heart who findes not in himself an indisposition of minde to all good and an inclination to all evil O the strange monsters the ugly odious hideous fiends the swarms litters legions of noisom lusts that are coâ—ched in the stinking styes of every one of our deceitfull hearts insomuch that if all our thoughts did but break forth into action
of water and yet a river would not have satisfied him for if his desire had bâ—en granted in the first he would have required more and then more to that never ceasing to ask never having enough nor being the better when he had it so it fares with the covetous man his abundance no more quencheth his lust than fuell does the flame For as oyle kindleth the fire which it seemes to quench so riches come as though they would make him contented but they make him more covetous And is not this thy very case that art covetous No man more happy in respect of outward things then thy self couldest thou but see it thou hast all things that heart can wish and shouldest thou but come to want what thou now injoyest and thinkest not worth thanks when it were past thou wouldest say thou wast most happy and after a little misse wish withall thine heart thou hadest the same again yea a world for such a condition and content withall Onely the devill by Gods just permission bewitches thee to think that thou hast not enough when thou hast too much and more than thou needest or knowest what to do withall Nor is it possible for a worldling to be contented for whereas naturall desires are soon satisfied those that are unnaturall are infinite Hunger is soon apeased with meat and thirst allayed with drink but in burning Feavers quo plâ—â— sunt potae plus 〈◊〉 aqua they still love amere conâ—â—â—scentia never amore complacentiae If covetous or ambitious men ever feel content in these transitory things it is no otherwise then as itching soars do in clawing and scratching fingers And indeed how should intemperate desires be satisfied with increase according as they are replemished when these appetites are not capable of satiety Men in this case are like poysoned Rats which when they have tasted of their bane cannot rest untill they drink and then can much â—eâ—s rest till they drink again swell and burst Covetousness is like the disease called the Woolf which is alwayes eating and yet keeps the body lean A moderate water makes the Mill goe merrily but too much will not suffer it to go at all Secondly another reason is Nothing can fill the heart of man but he that made it The heart shall be satisfied with gold when the body shall be contented with winde The whole world is circular the heart of man is triangular and we know a circle cannot fill a triangle Yea if it be not filled with the three persons in Trinity it will be filled with the world the flesh and the devil The heart is the seat or receptacle of spiritual things and the things of the world are corporal and carnal Now carnal and corporal things can no more fill our hearts then spiritual things can fill our Coffers Visible light will not cleer the invisible understanding nor will corporal food feed the soul. Blessed are they sayes our Saviour who thirst after righteousness for they shall be satisfied Mat. 5.6 not they that thirst after riches or honor or pleasure for instead of being satisfied they thirst more Yea these Mammonists are so infinite in desiring that could such a one swallow the whole earth that swallows all and will swallow him ere long it might choak him but not satisfie him as abundance of examples that I could give you sufficiently prove namely Alexander and Crassus and Lieâ—nius and Marcus Crassus and Ahab and Haman c. But CHAP. VIII THirdly to this is added as a further judgement that as the more he hath the more he coveteth so the neerer he is to his journeys end the more provision he makes for it Other vices are weakned with age and continuance onely covetousness and that odious sin of drunkenness grows stronger As the covetous wretch increaseth in yeers so he increaseth in covetousness What Pline writes of the Crocodile is fitly appliable to the miserly muckworm other creatures grow up to their height and then decay and dye onely the Crocodile grows to her last day The aged worldling though he have one foot in the grave yet his appetite to and persute of gain are but new born Yea though he hath out-lived all the teeth in his gums that hairs of his head the sight of his eyes the tast of his palate have he never so much yet he hath not enough and therefore would live to get more and covets as if he had a thousand generationâ— to provide for He so lives as if he were never to dye and so dyes as if he were never to live again He fears all things like a mortal man sayes Seneca but he desires all things as if he were immortal Had it not been for sin death had never entered into the world and were it not for death sin especially the Misers sin would never go out of the world Lusâ— is commonly the disease of youth ambition of middle age covetousness of old age And Plautus maketh it a wonder to see an old man beneficent But what faith Byas covetousness in old men is most monstrous for what can be more foolish and ridiculous then to provide more mony and victuals for our journey when we are almost at our journyes end Wherefore remember thou O old man yea O remember that your Spring is past your Summer over-past and you are arrived at the fall of the leaf yea winter colours have already stained your head with gray and hoary hairs Remember also that if God in justice did not leave you and the Prince of darkness did not blinde you and your own heart did not grosly deceive you you could not possible be so senceless as you are in these three last mentioned miseries Thus three of the covetous mans woes are past but behold more are coming for God inflicts more plagues upon him then ever he did upon Pharaoh I 'le acquaint you only with seven more CHAP. IX FOurthly his thoughts are so taken up with what he wants or rather desires for he wants nothing but wit and a good heart that he not once mindes or cares for what he hath as you may see in Abab 1 Kings 21.4 and Haman Hester 5.13 and Micha Judges 18. â—4 What the covetons man hath he sees not his eyes are so taken up with what he wants yea the very desire of what he cannot get torments him and it is an heart-breaking to him not to add every day somewhat to his estate besides not to improve it so many hundreds every yeer will disparage his wisdom more to the world then any thing else he can do as I have heard such an one allege when I have told him my thoughts about perplexing himself But see the difference between him and one that hath either wit or grace whose manner it is even in case of the greatest losses to look both to what he hath lost and to what he hath left and instead of repining to be thankfull that he hath lost no more having so
meet withall We trust it too much and know it too little as it fared with Leah Gen. 30.18 and Hazael 2 Kings 8.12 13. and Peter Mat. 26.33 Luke 22.32 Mark 14.29 And those Iews Acts 2.36 And all this they will acknowledge in the end yea prove by experience that Heaven is full of good works Hell of good wishes and that the fetters which sin makes it must wear Sect. XXIII Thirdly touching their repentance my answer is True repentance for sin is a turning from every sin to the contrary good In all true repentance is a change both in the judgement from error to truth and in the will from evil to good and in the affections from loving evil and hating good to love good and hate evil in the whole man from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God VVithout which change no repentance no being saved The two main and essential parts of repentance are contrition or humiliation and conversion or reformation It is not true repentance except humiliation and reformation go both together for either of these single make but a half or halting repentance An unreformed sorrow is but deformed and a sorrowless reformation is but a very sorry one Humiliation without reformation is a foundation without a building and reformation without humiliation is a building without a foundation Iudas was grieved for murthering Christ yet no change followed he fell to murthering of himself It is not possible a man should truly grieve and be displeased for his sins and yet continue in them without a change Sect. XXIV Fourthly as for their assurance of salvation it is upon as good ground as all the rest for they slumber and suppose themselves good Christians their faith is but a dream their hope but a dream their charity but a dream their obedience but a dream their whole religion but a dream and so their assurance of salvation is but a dream they have regeneration in conceit repentance and righteousness in conceit they serve God well in conceit do the works of justice and piety in conceit and they shall go to heaven onely in conceit or in a dream and never awake until they feel themselves in the flames of hell Every drunken beast and blasphemer thinks to go to heaven though none shall come there nor once see God without holiness which they abhor One mindes nothing but his cups another nothing but his coyn a third onely his Curtizan yet all these point to meet in heaven but this is not the way thither The lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life 1. Ioh. 2.16 is a broad way but not to heaven Micha when he had a Levite in his house thought that God loved him Iudg. 17.13 It is usual with formalists when they have the Sacrament in their belly to think that all is well as the Iews thought we may put away our wives we may swear we may hate our enemies we may kill the Prophets subject the Word of God to our traditions and follow our own wayes Why Abraham is our father Ioh. 8.39 But by their leave Christ calls them bastards and finds out another father for them ver 44. Ye are of your father the Devil and the lusts of your father ye will do Profane Libertines such as account not themselves well but when they are doing ill yea the most covetous oppressors who may say as Pope Leo did I can have no place in heaven because I have so often sold it upon earth every man of them hopes I confess with more confidence then judgment to have benefit by the Gospel when they will not be tyed to the least tittle of the Law But if Christ be not our King to govern us he will neither be our Prophet to fore-warn nor our Priest to expiate Except we forsake our sins God will never forgive them yea he hath sworn by an oath that whomsoever he redeemeth out of the hands of their spiritual enemies shall serve him in holiness and righteousness all the dayes of their lives Neither can it consist with his justice to pardon such as continue in an evil course of life If Christ hath freed us from the damnation of sin he hath also freed us from the dominion of sin If with his blood he hath quenched the fire of hell for us he hath also quenched the fire of lust in us Christs justifying blood is given us by his sanctifying Spirit He being consecrated was made the author of eternal salvation unto all them and them onely that obey him Heb. 5.9 Of whomsoever a man is overcome even unto the same he is in bondage 2 Pet. 2.19 Have ye then no goverment of your passions no conscience of your actions no care of your lives false hypocrites ye do but abuse and profane that name which ye unjustly arrogate Sect. XXV But yet more to convince you you go to heaven when in sundry particulars you fall short of many wicked reprobates recorded in Scripture as do but deal impartially with thy self and tell me thou civil Iusticiary whether thou ever hadst the heart upon hearing the threatnings of the Word to relent and humble thy self with Ahab to confess thy sins and desire the people of God to pray for thee with Pharoah to be affected with joy in hearing the Word and practice many things with Herod to be zealous against sin with Iehu willingly to part with a good part of thy goods with Ananias to forsake the world and all thy hopes in it to follow poor Christ as Demas and others to venture thy life with Alexander the Copper-smith in cleaving to the truth yea it is said of Iudas himself that he repented there is contrition he saith I have sinned there is confession and he restored the money again there is satisfaction which is all the Papists repentance and yet he is Iudas the son of perdition still Now tell me doest thou not come short of these many such as these be wicked reprobates and yet wilt thou please thy self in a false conceit of thine own happiness who comest further behind them then they do behind true Christians If some that have journied in the wilderness to Kadesh-barnea shall yet never enter into Gods rest shall those that never left Egypt Is the stony ground reprobate and can the high-way ground be good There are three sorts of ground mentioned Mark 4.4 5 6 7. and the very worst of them receives the seed yet all damned whither then shall the tempest of Gods wrath drive them that would never yet give the Gospel a religious ear But vicious men think God is all mercy as foggie air useth to represent every object far bigger than it is when the VVord tells us that he is a consuming fire and a jealous God Deut. 4.24 Heb. 12.29 and when we shall find in Deut. 28. thrice as many curses as blessings Doest thou expect to have him mercifull to thee that art unmercifull cruel and